Chapter 135: Unexpected Benefits
"Brother Wei, why do we have to involve others?" A voice asked.
The voice was young and carried a heavy dose of dissatisfaction.
"Our border guard faction has enough people and doesn’t need others to deal with the Death Flower Ascension Front." Liang Xu continued.
Wei Ge sighed when he heard the complaint.
Liang Xu wasn’t much younger than himself, but he was new to the border guards.
He still took pride in things like having the largest force in the thousand herbs garden and being one of the leaders of the allied forces.
Unfortunately, he failed to understand that those things were inconsequential. The border guards still had to obey the general trend and couldn’t do whatever they wanted.
Most importantly, the upcoming battle would result in countless deaths.
As the young leader of the border guards, Wei Ge wasn’t willing to use his brothers and sisters as cannon fodder.
"The Death Flower Ascension Front is a problem for all cultivators in our Cangxing world. Our border guards are only a small part of the whole." This was the simpler explanation, but it wasn’t wrong.
The border guards couldn’t solve everything.
"If we do it this way, our benefits will be too little." Liang Xu wasn’t convinced.
The border guards was the largest group in the Cangxing world, and their consumption was naturally a lot.
Liang Xu heard that the map pointed to a wonderful treasure, and his thoughts had already moved.
If they could get the treasure, the cultivation resources of the border guard faction would naturally improve.
Unfortunately, the leaders had decided to involve other regions, which would naturally affect their benefits.
"Getting the map and treasure will depend on everyone’s ability." Wei Ge said, and his voice held a trace of annoyance.
If his border guard faction could swallow the entire treasure, he naturally wanted to take everything.
However, things were not so simple.
Not to mention the Death Flower Ascension Front, which was very active in the thousand herbs garden, he was also wary of the BlueStar Treasure pavilion.
Don’t look at how their two sides had formed an agreement; his faction was in an inferior position.
After all, the BlueStar Treasure pavilion found the map and searched for clues for a long time.
If Meng Zihua did not take the initiative to find him, he would not have known anything about the map until it was too late.
"Don’t mention this again, everything will go on as planned."
Laing Xu was dissatisfied, but what could he do?
He kept his mouth shut and planned to get out of the young leader’s tent before Wei Ge called him back.
"Have you felt something?" Wei Ge asked.
"Not yet, brother Wei." Liang Xu answered.
He closed his eyes, and his body shimmered with a green light. When the light dissipated, he confirmed his previous statement, "it’s still the same."
"Keep a look out and inform me as soon as something changes."
"Okay, brother Wei."
After Liang Xu left the tent, Wei Ge looked at the entrance with a thoughtful expression.
"Things are difficult this time." He muttered and then closed his eyes to cultivate.
.....
On the other side of the base, the members of the BlueStar Treasure pavilion were having a meeting.
"Junior sister Zihua, why did you agree to involve others?" Song Qiufeng asked, his voice filled with as much dissatisfaction as Liang Xu’s.
When she heard the address, Meng Zihua frowned.
She wasn’t so familiar with Song Qiufeng that they could use each other’s given names.
However, she chose not to dwell on the matter for the time being.
"The map and treasure can no longer be hidden." She said.
Initially, she thought her BlueStar Treasure pavilion could control the map and swallow the treasure.
Even if they divided a part to the border guards, the remaining portion would be enough to justify their efforts.
However, things had gotten out of control, and all the other forces found out about the map.
In this situation, she didn’t dare to be greedy.
Although her BlueStar Treasure pavilion was large, it couldn’t stand against a combined force of all the other regions. Rather than provoke this discord, Meng Zihua chose to take a step back.
By involving the other forces, her organisation would not gain further advantages, but it would retain the existing ones.
At this thought, a light flashed in her eyes but quickly dissipated.
"Senior Song should focus on getting ready for the battle." She said.
When he heard that, Song Qiufeng sneered.
"What’s there to worry about? They are just fake geniuses."
"They may be fake, but their strength is real." Meng Zihua frowned as she said that.
Since she fought against that person in the trade valley, she always felt she was missing something.
At this time, she remembered some of the words said by the person.
’Meng Zihua, you were born better, but you are no longer better than me.’ She recalled.
Something about the words felt familiar.
As if she had met someone who held such an attitude toward her.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t figure it out, no matter how she thought about it.
’There is no use to dwell on it. It will come to me at some point.’
She turned to Song Qiufeng, and her expression turned solemn, "don’t underestimate the Death Flower Ascension Front. No one will be able to save you if something goes wrong during the battle."
When he heard that, Song Qiufeng didn’t continue to argue.
Although his character was arrogant, he wasn’t stupid.
He knew the consequences of losing the battle and didn’t plan to make himself so miserable.
"Have we received any replies yet?" Meng Zihua changed the subject.
"The Thunder God temple will get involved, but there are conditions."
"That’s to be expected."
"The Tang clan and a few others also want to discuss conditions."
"We haven’t received a reply from the Sea Cloud sect, the Great Zhu empire, and the Beast region."
"There is still time before the fight, let’s wait a little longer."
"As you say. I will leave now."
"Good."
After Song Qiufeng left, Meng Zihua closed her eyes and began to cultivate.
.....
Five days after he entered seclusion, Yu Nianzhen encountered something strange.
Since he broke through to the origin forging realm, he frequently used his consciousness to examine his body every now and then.
On one hand, it was to assess his progress, and on the other, it was to make sure his body did not accumulate problems.
This time when he conducted the usual examination, he didn’t expect to find anything.
However, his expectation was vastly different from reality.
At first, he just felt his dantian was a little different, but since this difference was minute, he didn’t worry too much.
However, he kept the matter at the back of his mind and focused a little more on the dantian whenever he examined his body.
With the examinations, he noticed his dantian was enlarging, and the walls were getting thicker.
Although this was a good thing, Yu Nianzhen couldn’t help but worry. After all, he hadn’t done anything unusual to facilitate this change.
Without his control, his dantian continued to expand and eventually stopped when it was three times its original size.
After that, his meridians widened to double their original size while their walls thickened and became more elastic.
However, these were not the strangest changes.
The strangest thing was that his cultivation level fell from the peak of the ninth level of the origin forging realm to the mid-stage of the seventh level.
"What’s going on?" Jiang Yue asked when he saw the change.
Yu Nianzhen was also at a loss and couldn’t answer for a moment.
Instead, he used his consciousness to examine his body and realised his dantian was more than three-quarters empty.
When he saw that, he frowned but soon understood it was because his dantian had increased in size.
"Could this be related to the wine you drank back then?" Jiang Yue asked.
Although he didn’t witness it, he knew Yu Nianzhen’s cultivation had suddenly soared from the seventh level to the ninth level after taking a sip of mysterious wine. Since then, they regarded the incident as Yu Nianzhen’s fortuitous encounter.
They just didn’t expect that other changes would take place several months later.
"It’s likely to be related." Yu Nianzhen said and frowned.
"We should really find that black-clothed youth."
Although a larger dantian and wider meridians were beneficial, cultivation shouldn’t be so unstable.
Jiang Yue worried the wine would continue affecting the other in random ways.
Yu Nianzhen nodded and agreed with Jiang Yue.
After this incident, he had a vague feeling that everything was not over.
"I am so jealous." Jiang Yue said after a while.
His tone was aggrieved, and he looked at Yu Nianzhen like the other had wronged him for ten thousand lifetimes.
"How are you so lucky to get so many good things?" He asked.
"The black sword, the jade box with the tree of life, and now a mouthful of wine..."
