In a magnificent temple built out of black and white jade, a one-horned beast gently snored. A snot bubble grew out of its nostril, enlarging and shrinking with its breathing. Two crane wings, far too small for its size, wrapped around its torso and arms, covering basically nothing. Despite towering over three meters high while laying on its side, no one would feel threatened by its size or presence.
“That’s just a panda with a horn and wings,” Tianyi said.
Daoyi stood by his side, and they were accompanied by three servants. The group of five stood in the most sacred hall of the Empyrean Wealth Temple. It was the most guarded location of the most powerful force in the middle-rank Cai Realm, the forbidden area of the Bountiful Coin Consortium.
In a world where swords and fists ruled, the Bountiful Coin Consortium could become the strongest force in the Cai Realm because of its ingenuity and wealth. The consortium had three major branches: the Pill Enterprise, Artifact Enterprise, and Formation Enterprise. These three branches controlled all the resources of the Cai Realm. Even if a supreme expert appeared, they would bury him under a mountain of pills, artifacts, and formations.
The source of all this was the sleeping beast.
“Grand Elder,” one of the servants, the guide to the Cai Realm, hesitated, but still decided to speak out. “This beast is not a panda, but the auspicious beast, pixiu.”
Tianyi nodded. He knew what a pixiu was. According to legend, pixius were felicitous beasts that protected the souls of the departed, and natural nodes of geomancy. Were it not for their gentle nature, they would have been classified as demons instead of spiritual beasts, even without monsters. The males had one horn and were called tianlu, while the females had two and were called bixie. Obviously, the pixiu sleeping in front of the group was a male, but that wasn’t Tianyi’s problem with it.
His problem was that it looked like a panda and not like a lion, like the legends said.
Daoyi walked towards and started to rub its cheeks. “It’s really soft.”
“Well, I’ll just treat it like visiting a zoo,” Tianyi muttered. He walked toward the mutated panda. He refused to call it a pixiu.
The panda grunted as Tianyi practically slapped it.
“Be gentler,” Daoyi said.
Tianyi shrugged. “Alright.”
However, the panda growled and opened its eyes. When he saw the unfamiliar figure in its hall, it let out a warning growl. When Tianyi and Daoyi only continued to stroke its fur, it started exerting pressure, and a stifling air pervaded the sacred hall.
The panda’s mere existence brought fortune to the Bountiful Coin Consortium. Not only did it transform the land beneath it into a top-tier spiritual vein, but all kinds of miraculous materials and herbs grew near it. The Bountiful Coin Consortium just needed to feed it and keep the panda happy for continuous prosperity.
Because of enriched spiritual qi, the number of experts in the Bountiful Coin Consortium increased at an astonishing rate. The tolerance of the Cai Realm also increased from the Nascent Soul Realm to the Unity Realm. As a result, Bountiful Coin Consortium’s strength increased, separating itself from the other forces even more.
With their current strength, they had absolute confidence to protect the panda. Still, incursions from external enemies had penetrated into the Empyrean Wealth Temple before, attempting to kill or take away the Bountiful Coin Consortium’s source of prosperity, but they all failed. Not because they couldn’t defeat the consortium’s experts, but because of the panda itself.
As a spiritual beast, it held an innate advantage over human cultivators in both qi reservoir and pure physical might. In the Nascent Soul Realm equivalent, the panda could rival unity venerables. And in this enriched environment comparable to a high-rank realm, the panda would rival saints or even true immortals.
Still, the disciple-servants only grunted as they withstood the panda’s pressure, while Daoyi and Tianyi completely ignored it. Tianyi’s current conduit rivaled that of an immortal monarch, and Daoyi was an immortal lord, so the panda’s show of force was like a weak breeze to the two.
“Stop acting up and lay back down,” Tianyi said. He grabbed a handful of fur from the cheek and pulled down, causing the panda to slam onto the ground with a heavy thud.
The panda released a whine that reverberated in the halls. Tianyi frowned, and just as he was about to discipline the panda, the doors to the hall opened and two nascent soul grandmasters rushed in. “Oh, Sacred Beast, has anything displeased you?”
The panda growled and whined, gesturing toward Tianyi. His eyes held a hint of triumph, as if saying, “you’re in for it now.” However, Tianyi only looked at it like an idiot.
Contrary to the panda’s expectations, the two grandmasters only looked around in confusion. In his eyes, he couldn’t see Tianyi, Daoyi, or the three servant-disciples. After a moment, he gingerly asked, “Sacred Beast, are you hungry?”
The panda just blinked. It whined and gestured toward Tianyi again, but the two grandmasters still couldn’t see Tianyi. In the end, they saluted the panda and said, “Oh, Sacred Beast, we will immediately return with your meal.”
The two grandmasters retreated, not forgetting to close the gates. The panda became slacked-jawed at what happened. It stared at Tianyi, then Daoyi and the servant-disciples. It rubbed its eyes to make sure it wasn’t hallucinating. When it still saw Tianyi, it raised its paw and slapped at him.
Tianyi just backhanded the panda, causing a clear smack to resound. The panda started rolling on the ground while cradling the paw Tianyi slapped, with tears pooling in its eyes. It annoyed Tianyi.
“What’s with that look? Didn’t you attack me first, why are you crying wolf?” Tianyi asked as he walked closer.
The panda shrunk away. All the hairs on its body had stiffened, and it looked like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. Despite instinctively knowing it was futile, the panda still made itself appear bigger to scare Tianyi.
Tianyi ignored it and walked closer. He was really looking forward to seeing what a legendary pixiu looked like, but all he got was disappointment. He wanted to vent a little, but before he could, Daoyi stopped him.
She held her hand in front of Tianyi, and then walked toward the panda, regardless of its growls. She placed her hand on the injured palm, and a green light covered it. Soon, the panda was looking at its healed paw. Then, it brought its face closer to Daoyi.
Daoyi reached out and started to stroke it. “There, there, did the big, scary guy hurt you? Don’t worry, with me here, he won’t be able to hurt you.”
The panda blinked and then looked at Tianyi. Its eyes flashed with provocation and it released a few growls.
Tianyi’s lips twitched. ‘Did I just become the bad cop? Daoyi must have waited for the perfect moment.’
He shrugged. ‘Forget it. I prefer smaller and cuter animals.’
Upon thinking that, Tianyi couldn’t help but remember Dandan, the pill that transformed into a pill qilin after absorbing his qi and blood. ‘Nah, forget it. It’s kinda cute, but not huggable at all. Not to mention it’s accompanying Donghai Longzi.’
Recalling Donghai Longzi, Tianyi couldn’t help but recall the Immortal Court’s plan to conquer the Divine Beast Pseudo System. Of course, it could only carry out the plans after the Huang Realm fully upgraded. While Daoyi played with the stupid panda, Tianyi focused on the Huang Realm’s ascension.
Although his comprehension of the myriad worldly laws have progressed, he hadn’t actually developed a technique to best utilize his comprehension. While Daoyi played with the panda, Tianyi started to develop techniques.
After a while, the gate opened, and the two grandmasters carried in a large chest. They were confused by the panda’s strange pose, since they couldn’t see Daoyi, but they didn’t dig into it. They opened the chest in front of the panda and poured out its content. A waterfall of gold and silver coins, trinkets, and treasures hit the floor until it formed a small pile.
Tianyi opened one eye and scanned the pile of treasures. The panda growled defensively and hid the treasure with its body, causing Tianyi to snort. ‘Stupid thing. Everything there is just common gold and silver. Maybe there is a sprinkle of spirit gold or serene silver in there, but that’s all. You’re being raised like a pet and used for all your worth, but you don’t even know it.’
He closed his eyes and returned to cultivating, while Daoyi played with the panda.
An hour later, Tianyi and Daoyi walked out of the sacred hall. None of the guards or members of the Bountiful Coin Consortium noticed them, even as they spoke. “If you liked the stupid panda so much, why don’t you bring it back?”
“It’s only good for now. If I bring it back, I’ll get bored really quickly. And,” a spider-like animal with an abdomen that resembled a crystal crawled out of Daoyi’s robes and onto her shoulder. “Shuijing is just so much more cuter.”
Daoyi as she used a finger to scrub the bottom of Shuijing’s jaws, causing Tianyi to inch away. “And I don’t want to cause havoc in the Cai Realm if their guardian beast suddenly disappears.”
“Eh,” Tianyi shrugged. “The Bountiful Coin Consortium isn’t really a benevolent organization. If it is destroyed, it might be better. Well, not that it would matter after it merged into the Huang Realm. Soon, they’ll discover that they aren’t the top dogs anymore.”
“How’d you know? Did you scan the Cai Realm with your immortal sense?” Daoyi asked.
“Didn’t you?” Tianyi asked.
“No. I don’t want to ruin my vacation. I want to enjoy it, remember?”
“Yeah, maybe I should try that,” Tianyi said.
The two walked out of the forbidden area of the Bountiful Harvest Consortium and into the inner city. The headquarters of the Bountiful Coin Consortium was the Affluence City, and it was divided into three areas: the core city, inner city, and outer city.
Only members of the consortium were allowed to enter the inner city, only the high echelon could touch the core city. Outsiders were only allowed in the outer city, which was the largest district of Affluence City. Contrary to most forces, the Bountiful Coin Consortium allowed other forces to enter their headquarters and set up shop. This only went to display their confidence and dominance of their power.
Tianyi and Daoyi entered the outer city and made a beeline for the marketplace.
“Look, isn’t this so cute?” Daoyi asked, holding a charm of the panda in a regal pose.
“Nah,” Tianyi said. “It should be cuddling a ball, then it would be much cuter.”
Daoyi thought about it and nodded in agreement. She placed the charm back onto the stand and walked away with Tianyi, much to the hawker’s disappointment. Still, the hawker’s eyes followed Tianyi and Daoyi’s back as they left. Were it not for the three servants behind them exuding an oppressive aura, the hawker would have pitched a sale.
Not just him, Tianyi and Daoyi’s appearance attracted everyone’s gaze. The two were already very good looking, and their clothing spoke volumes of their status. However, the most obvious indicator were the three powerful servants following behind them. Because this was the outer city and only in a common marketplace, most people could only sense that the three servants possessed the power of a core formation master.
Tianyi paused. He looked in a certain direction and blinked, eliciting Daoyi to ask, “What’s wrong?”
“No, it’s nothing,” Tianyi said. “It probably isn’t important.”
He looked away and continued to tour the marketplace with Daoyi. He purchased a few swords that caught his eyes, while Daoyi bought any jewelry or musical instrument that she fancied. When the duo stored their purchases in their spatial rings, it only confirmed the bystander’s conjecture that the two weren’t ordinary, perhaps children of high-level members of the consortium.
Along the way, Tianyi heard of an auction that started up. His eyes lit up with interest and brought Daoyi to the auction house. There, he used spirit stones to purchase a private box. The highest level could only be obtained with connections, but he didn’t worry about it.
“Oh, this feels familiar,” Tianyi said as he saw one of the items being auctioned, a Foundation Establishment Pill.
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