Chapter 259: Maya Hee
Ju Shoufen's Residence
Cao Mao and Ju Shoufen were alone as they had been discussing their future plans.
The battle was over, and everyone in the city was busy cleaning up after the messes.
The previous explosions and shockwaves depleted 80% of the arrays' power. Ju Shoufen had to replace the essence cores, which had been used up to fuel the arrays.
Then, it came with a piece of bad news. Ju Shoufen ran out of essence cores to use as array batteries. She reached out for Cao Mao, asking him to share some of his resources to cover the city maintenance.
Cao Mao, who had just lent the soul sword to Jia Shan, had been expecting this type of development. He smiled and asked the Ju Shoufen directly.
"How many essence cores do you need to maintain the arrays for a year or two?"
Ju Shoufen counted her fingers, "Five arrays are active right now. The concealment array for the entire city consumes 300 cores a year, and the array for the water source takes 10 cores a year. The city blockade array consumes 50. The defensive barrier can be turned on and off, but it consumes the most during battles. We've spent 500 cores just to protect the city against two or three shots from that stupid orc. The killing array takes 100 cores for standby mode, but it can take up to 2,000 cores if someone attacks the barrier directly… And the Qi filter array takes 300 cores."
300 + 10 + 50 + 500 + 100 + 300 + variables.
At the minimum, they would need 1,260 cores a year to maintain all arrays, assuming that no one would attack the city. However, that was not an ideal amount as the protection array would require more cores to upkeep during wartime. Cao Mao believed that they might even need more than 100,000 cores to defend the city against a large-scale invasion.
Managing a territory could be costly, but it was necessary for his future preparations. After all, he might have to fight against several villainous organizations and protagonists at the same time since they might want to steal the precious pylon tower and the city.
Reluctantly, Cao Mao allocated 1,000,000 essence cores to an empty ring and passed it to Ju Shoufen.
The loli grandma took the ring and sighed. She didn't expect a lot of essence cores, but she didn't bother scanning the ring's content.
"I know that it's hard for you, but we need every help we can get. I know that you need cultivation resources to cultivate, but we need to scrap everything we can get to maintain the basic arrays. Oh, don't worry, though. You don't need to give me everything. Just 10 or 20 essence cores will do. Maybe, we can disable some of our arrays to lower the upkeep. We might have to turn off the Qi filter array after the tower is completed. And-"
Cao Mao pointed at his ring, "Before you make the conclusion, check the content in the ring first. Do you think I'm that poor?"
"Huh?"
Ju Shoufen raised her eyebrows. Then, she scanned the ring with her Qi sense.
1,000,000 white orbs piled into a mountain within the ring's space.
Sensing a large number of valuable cores, Ju Shoufen's brain stopped working for a moment.
Ju Shoufen stiffly looked at Cao Mao. Her eyes turned into small dots and her mouth became a straight line.
"How many cores are in there?"
"Not much. A hundred thousand, maybe?"
"…"
Ju Shoufen blinked twice and looked at the ring again. Upon scanning the ring for the second time, she found a strange box on top of the pile of essence cores.
"Oh, I almost forgot. Sun Crow gave me some gifts, but I can't use them. Since only his vessels can use his items, I put them in the ring. If you have time, you should check if you can use them."
"…"
Ju Shoufen ejected the box out of the ring. Then, she inspected the items.
Upon seeing the restricted items, her pokerface mouth twitched. She slowly turned to Cao Mao, "How did you get your hands on this?"
"Your dao god gave it to me."
"… What about the essence cores? Were you always this rich?"
"I can't say much, but I'm rich now."
"…"
Ju Shoufen's face remained expressionless. Her trembling hands took out her J-phone and called Jia Wenhe to come over.
When Jia Wenhe arrived at Ju Shoufen's house, the loli grandma pointed her finger at her son-in-law.
"Wenhe."
"Yeah?"
Ju Shoufen then pointed her finger at Cao Mao's face.
"Go greet your father-in-law. He's your daddy now."
"…"
Now, Jia Wenhe had a pokerface. He stared at Ju Shoufen's expressionless face for a moment. Then, he looked at Cao Mao.
"What did you do to her?"
"I gave her essence cores to maintain the city. Oh, here's for you," Cao Mao scratched his head in embarrassment. Then, he gave Jia Wenhe another spatial ring, which contained 500,000 essence cores.
"Senior, I know it's late, but please accept this. We haven't talked about Ju Chen's official wedding, dowry gifts, or the loss of opportunities, so let's settle with this as compensation for everything."
Jia Wenhe paused for a moment. Then, he looked at Ju Shoufen again.
Ju Shoufen didn't say anything, but she waved her new spatial ring, "I got a million cores! My pussy is now officially his!"
"…"
Jia Wenhe took a deep breath as he understood everything. Without hesitation, he cupped his fist and bowed to Cao Mao, "Jia Wenhe greets father-in-law!"
Cao Mao was taken aback, "Err, excuse me, what the fuck!? I meant-The dowry is for Ju Chen, not your mother. Also, I can explain-"
"That's not a problem! Since money is king, the richest person in this city is also king! Please take care of my mother-in-law! We'll be in your care."
Jia Wenhe raised his head and showed his sparkling eyes as if he was looking at a walking ATM machine.
"… Oh, boy."
Sometimes, being rich could simply solve trivial problems, especially family issues.
…
[Mai-a Hee ~ ~ Mai-a Hu ~ ~ Mai-a Ha ~ ~ Mai-a Haha.]
After absorbing Raiden's Lightning, the glutton katana loitered on top of the pylon tower, humming a song that she had learned from Cao Mao's memory in a good mood.
These days, Cao Mao's old memory was like a YouTube clip for her. Everything was so entertaining and educational. Some songs were also catchy that she couldn't stop singing them for hours to the point that Cao Mao had to temporarily chase her away in annoyance.
KQ used to sing the coconut song for days. Now, she sang another legendary song.
As Killer Queen had been enjoying singing, she saw two cultivators coming toward the city. Both of them stopped in front of the north city wall and dropped off hundreds of orc heads.
Curious, Killer Queen flew closer, but she stayed at the edge of the concealment array, hiding her presence and her appearance from plain sight.
In front of the north city gate, Li Jue and Niu Fu returned to present their works.
"Senior! We have killed several 6th-stage orc warriors. We would like to enter the city!"
Killer Queen turned around, looking around if Ma Ping and others were nearby. Unfortunately, they were busy talking to Zhao Bao, asking the latter for cultivation advice.
Since Jia Shan and Ma Ping never received a guideline on how they could advance to the 8th-stage, they consulted with Zhao Bao for a reference. Thus, they had been having a long discussion.
Since the elders were busy, Killer Queen decided to take this matter into her own hands. She transformed into a human. Then, she coughed and talked to Li Jue with the most dignified voice.
She hadn't realized that her voice was that of a little girl.
"You have done well. However, the seniors are busy at the moment. You must wait until the seniors return."
Niu Fu and Li Jue's ears perked. As soon as they had heard the girly voice, their blood gathered in their crotches.
Niu Fu immediately stepped forward and bowed toward the gate, pretending to be a gentleman.
"Fair lady, my name is Niu Fu from Red Sun City! My master and I are traveling the land to exchange our sect's techniques with other cultivators. We hope that we could enter the city and share our cultivation techniques with you."
"Oh, I see…"
Killer Queen paused for a moment, unable to decide.
"Could you let us in, so we can share our techniques? We don't need anything in return, but we will give you our technique books for free."
The offer was tempting at glance. Still, as KQ had peaked into Cao Mao's memory for a long time, she had learned about how cliché people could trick innocent people.
She had a bad feeling about these people, and she didn't want to continue conversing with them.
But Niu Fu was persistent, "Fair lady, may I know your name?"
KQ didn't want to reveal her true name. Thus, she mimicked an old meme, "Mai-a Hee."
Niu Fu wasn't familiar with the name, "Pardon?"
"Mai-a Hee."
"Ma-ya, who?"
"Mai-a Ha."
"???"
"Mai-a Haha."
"…"
Killer Queen released some of her thunder Qi to simulate instrument music. Then, she began singing.
"Mai-a Hee ~ ~ Mai-a Hu ~ ~ Mai-a Ha ~ ~ Mai-a Haha!"
Niu Fu & Li Jue: "…"
The master and disciple duo couldn't see inside the city. They didn't see how Killer Queen started dancing, raising and pumping her arms to the sky in rhythm.
Unfortunately for her, she couldn't play around for long. Ma Ping and others had a strong hearing sense, and they came to see what the sentient weapon was doing.
Then, they found Niu Fu and Li Jue. Ma Ping immediately flew outside the city. As for other elders, they hid behind the concealment array.
Upon seeing the face of Ma Ping, Li Jue and Niu Fu beamed him with a bright smile, "Greetings, senior. As you have instructed, we have killed several orcs to prove ourselves. Could you let us inside the city?"
Ma Ping looked around, checking the heads of the 6th-stage orcs with his eyes.
Seeing that these suspicious people had completed his mission, Ma Ping hesitated if he should keep his promise and let them in. After all, he was looking for potential subordinates, not guests.
Thus, Ma Ping forced them to make a crucial decision.
"You've passed the first test. Now, for the second test, you two must swear allegiance to me with your dao heart that you will serve me as a subordinate of my clan, and you shall not harm my family members, friends, and my liege."
Niu Fu and Li Jue frowned. The second test was something that they couldn't do as they didn't want to become Ma Ping's slave.
Li Jue shook his head and bowed, "Then, we will have to decline. We cannot swear allegiance to you since we are currently serving the emperor…"
"Serving Liu Bian or the ill emperor?" Ma Ping sneered, "Either who, I cannot let you enter this city. You should leave."
Ma Ping didn't tell them that the Liu Clan was his sworn enemy as he wanted to keep his motive a secret.
The perverted duo sighed as they were disappointed by the test. Still, they had an idea how they could defeat Ma Ping and other 7th-stage cultivators inside the city.
"Then, we shall take our leave."
Surprisingly, the master and disciple duo obediently withdrew. For now, they decided to retreat. They would come back later when they had completed all preparations.
Their motive might be hidden, but their killing intent could be seen in their eyes. Ma Ping didn't miss the hint.
'Should I kill these fools now? But if I do, their backers will probably know about my return. I don't want their masters to know about my strength.'
Ma Ping was wary of the potential life brands in their bodies. Although he wanted to end the potential threat, he didn't want Poison Pavilion to know that he had recovered his strength.
Regrettably, he let them go.
"Mai-a Hee ~ ~ Mai-a Hu ~ ~ Mai-a Ha ~ ~ Mai-a Haha!"
Meanwhile, the obnoxious voice of Killer Queen and the weird song plagued everyone's ears. Now, none of them would be able to get this song out of their heads for a long time.
…
Not far from the north gate, a group of invisible women was trekking closer to Siren City, hoping to seek refuge there as Xuan City had been destroyed.
Then, they heard the iconic song.
"Mai-a Hee ~ ~ Mai-a Hu ~ ~ Mai-a Ha ~ ~ Mai-a Haha!"
Some of the women in the group also enjoyed singing. They hummed and started mimicking the song.
The leader of the group glared at her sisters, "Hey, shut it! Do you want those red orcs to catch you!?"
"… Sorry. But the song is so catchy."
"You can sing to your heart's content later. For now, we need to leave."
"Aw," the other invisible girls sulked, "If only those orcs were wood orcs, we could have gotten good seeds from them."
The invisible girls' faces gloomed. They stopped talking and sneaked around Siren City, heading toward the west wall, where the nearest beach was located. They planned to slip into the city with their specialties.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢