Archfiend

Chapter 104: Signing with the Featherwood Guard (2)

Yes, any industry required the stimulation of an idol. When it was time to work, the fastest in promotion was an idol. In sports, gold medal winners were idols. In video games, e-sports pros were idols. However, as the gains of this idol wholly surpassed the expected, everyone in front of their computers went absolutely hysterical!

“Ten tons… ten tons…”In Mingshui Province, a group of middle-aged men, packed around a computer, were instantly floored into unconsciousness by this word! It was always friggin’ heard that pieces were used! Why were tons used as a measurement?! Wasn’t this a damn violation of the rules?!

“A ton… is approximately 1,700 spirit stones. Ten tons… 17,000 spirit stones?! How could he be valued at such a high price?!” In a villa, a youth jumped up like he had been pricked by a needle, pointing at the computer and screeching: “An inside scoop?! This isn’t any fuckin’ inside story I’ve seen! Is this the illegitimate son of a Core Formation master?!”

“Ten tons… My god…” 

“This… Since Sunnihilator, tons have never been used as a measure! Fuck! Is this for real?!”

Inside a room with a tiger’s head at the entrance in a suburban villa in Panshan City, there were four middle-aged men, looking at each other dismay.

“T-ten tons…” They looked at the widescreen ahead, an aching flavor leaving between the gaps of their teeth. In their hearts, there existed all kinds of grievances!

“We… only earn five thousand spirit stones in a year of hard work…” The man on the left suddenly began to laugh bitterly: “Although it’s said our Tiger King Legion is a C-rank legion and our expenses aren’t great, the rewards of received missions aren’t high… This…”

Xu Yangyi’s induction as an agent was equivalent to over three years of their turnover, a legion of severals tens of personnel! And this was still given to the Featherwood Guard! It was a clean profit! As for a clean profit, it was considered pretty good of them to be able to deposit two thousand spirit stones in a year! But this was still hoping that Heavens Law’s technologies didn’t upgrade and change too quickly! Otherwise, their legion would be faced with the danger of bankruptcy at any time! Only then would they be obliged to list themselves on the market and wait to be bought out!

If their luck was good, someone would be willing to take over their legion, freeing themselves from debt. If their luck was bad… Hehehe… One would have to strive their hardest for a lifetime to settle the debt, no? Debt evasion? Sorry, under the supervision of the Cultivation Court, you can’t leave the province. Still want to run away from debt?

Presently, the other’s sign-on bonus… was ten tons! Ton, ton, ton, ton, ton… This really was a cruel strike of a ton of friggin’ damage! It even brought oneself to shed blood!

“C-Commander!” On a mountain, there was a small building situated in a flower garden. A graceful long-haired man was basking in the sun on a reclining chair, leisurely reading a newspaper. Suddenly, a carpet lifted upwards, and a tunnel entrance appeared. A man in a heavy sweat ran over in a flurry: “Big news! Really big news!”

“What news?” The long-haired man questioned indifferently: “How many times have I said it? Initial-stage Foundation Establishment is still rather fickle. How is it acceptable? Later on, I’ll make ten more copies of our Buried Flower Legion’s rules.”

“Commander, it really is major news!” The man was stunned, but was soon after red-faced and said: “T-there’s a new A-rank legion that’s been established! 

“A new A-rank?” The hand that the commander just lifted his teacup with stopped, and he furrowed his brows: “Three years ago, Chu Zhaonan’s Hidden Dragon Legion was formed. He was a provincial paragon of Heavens Law, the grandson of Deputy Minister Chu. This is but a natural matter of course, yet there’s been no Heavens Law graduation this time, yes? How surprising…”

“It’s a paragon! Also the paragon of three years ago!” The man shouted excitedly.

“It isn’t that the paragon of three years ago had their glory robbed, no? Their contract come to term?” The commander muttered to himself for a brief moment: “What else has happened?”

“That’s not important! Commaaander!” The man said, his eyes glowing light: “Take a guess, sir. How much is their starting capital?! Ten tons! Ten tons! Over 17,000 spirit stones. Get the fuck out of here!” [1]

“Over 17,000 spirit stones?!” This time, the commander’s eyes suddenly saucered, and he immediately stood up: “Are you certain?!”

“Of course! It’s being live broadcasted!”

The commander breathed in deeply a few times: “Take me there!”

Seventeen thousand spirit stones… was already equivalent to half a year of the Buried Flower Legion’s remunerations! What was crucial though… was that they were a provincial-level A-rank legion! They just happened to be in the middle of assailing the qualifications for the national-level rating! Yet what was even further key… was what on earth was Mingshui Province doing in granting such great assisting force at the beginning? How deserving was this legion of their nurture?!

The front of every computer had already become a cacophony of bluster! This was a tremendous spending of wealth, truly a great fiscal expense! Yet their excitement didn’t end here.

“Talismans…”

“What?! There’s more?!”

“Has the Featherwood Guard gone crazy?! Talismans and pill elixirs, can’t these crafts NOT be calculated together?! Isn’t it actually separately computed?!”

“What’re they thinking…”

If it was said that they had lost themselves to excitement last time, this time, they were howling to the extent of insanity! There was surprisingly more!

“This doesn’t make sense! The Featherwood Guard’s starting funds has always been granted jointly! I’ve never heard of spirit stones first and then talismans issued after!” In a bar, the door tightly closed, there were ten-odd rogue cultivators gathered here within. At this moment, their cries were falling and rising in succession. They brimmed with anger and excitement, but even more with envy!

On top of the envy, it now made the entire nation’s Qi Condensation cultivators envious, jealous, and hateful. It caused those who were paid attention to by Foundation Establishment seniors to ponder how was it not them?! That wasn’t to believe Foundation Establishment seniors were unconcerned about Qi Condensation cultivators. In the End of Days, wasn’t even the methods of raising Gu and the rest of the cultivation Dao legacies extinct in practice? [2]

Time had changed, so people had to change. There had never been a person who changed the environment. Only the environment changed people.

“There’s an inside story! There’s definitely an inside story!!!” There was a youth in the villa, his eyes flushed red, grabbing on to his iPad, not letting it go: “Yeah… I frickin’ want to be a person in the know!”

Envy was just envy, jealousy was just jealousy, and hate was just hate… but a kind of feeling of “Get him off now! Let me up!”, at this instant, deeply stirred everyone’s hearts, rousing their eyes! Our aspirations approach the clouds and our heroism soars to the heavens! We cultivators ought to be like this! [3]

If not to seek great freedom and cast away the impure world, then why was there a need to cultivate? If not for the reverence of all men, why put on airs? ...No, then why cultivate?! Such naked ostentatiousness caused all viewers to band together and gnash their teeth in rage. Amidst this molar-grinding, they continued to spectate. They sat and watched Xu Yangyi rise above. They sat and watched… the pitiful spirit stone in their own pockets. They were simply of mind to live off a woman! [4]

“As for talismans, there are a total of fifteen kinds of day-to-day talismans on the level of Spirit Traveling Talismans, Cleansing Talismans, and Tracer Talismans. There are three hundred of each kind.”

“There are altogether five kinds of offensive talismans on the level of the Fireball Technique and Wind Edge Technique. There are a hundred of each kind.”

“There are altogether five kinds of defensive talismans on the level of the Earth Shield Technique. There are fifty of each kind.”

As he finished reading aloud, Chinacultivation had already become a boiling cauldron of voices!

“A hundred low-grade spirit stones for Yangyu’s address! I’m going to give birth to a monkey for him!” [5]

“A hundred and ten low-grade spirit stones for Yangyu’s contact details! Strong men! Will seek to provide for a mistress!” 

“Naive girl, you think he only likes women? I… Who fucking locked my post!” 

“A strong man, huh… Right now, his legion is just him alone; at most a personal adjutant… This is really valiant!” 

However, a new, more popular forum post emerged all of a sudden. It caused everyone to stare in a daze. Immortal Visitor Amidst Clouds. Chinacultivation.com’s head forum moderator, appelated as “One who has Lost Morality”. It was said that the five major ranks of Chinacultivation.com, “Morality Lord”, “Morality Gap”, “Shattered Morality”, “Down to Earth”, and “One who has Lost Morality”, were devised by a Foundation Establishment senior. ...Of course, there were many people who didn’t believe in this. After all, how could a Foundation Establishment cultivator possibly be so idle?

“Everyone, have you computed the price that the Featherwood Guard has presently taken out?”

“Seventeen thousand low-grade spirit stones. According to the range of each low-grade spirit stone from twenty thousand to twenty-five thousand, even if we go by the lowest conversion rate. Has everyone calculated how much it is?”

A verse woke the people up from their reverie!

“T-three hundred forty million?!” It was simple arithmetic. Just as someone calculated the sum, their teeth chattered so hard that they nearly fell out!

The signing bonus converted to spirit stones was 17,000 low-grade spirit stones. However, exchanged for Chinese currency, it was a 340 million!!! And this was nothing more than just the damn “signing” part of the word!

“This still isn’t considering the following put-forth talismans. Based on my rough calculations, these talismans are approximately valued at several tens of millions of Chinese currency.” Immortal Visitor Amidst Cloud’s post was bustling with incredible enthusiasm. In an instant a long queue was arranged: “Moreover, I suspect this isn’t even finished yet.”

It still wasn’t over? These words almost caused everyone who posted below to go mad in jealousy! Three hundred forty million was mucked up… but it still wasn’t completed?! Was this the value of a true genius’s status? The Featherwood Guard’s answer was evident—it was!

The later video of Vermilion Snow’s blood sacrifice of the Heavens Law branch on that day had been whisked away by Floatingcloud, but the first part was reported to the Featherwood Guard for viewing! They rather understood how many people could write out this price on the spot!

Was this price high? It was absolutely not high! A peak moneybags like the Bountiful Treasures Pavilion could approach this figure with a smashed up ore vein! They reckoned that merely the value of four kinds of accompanying metals would reach close to a hundred million Chinese currency! In addition, that wasn’t even mentioning the worth of a minor spirit vein!

The middle-aged man was already numbed. He raid robotically: “In order to express the Featherwood Guard’s support towards a new A-rank legion, Fellow Daoist Xu’s legion, he will be provided with all pill elixirs from Qi Condensation to the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, directly allocated by the Featherwood Guard’s headquarters…” The present scene was already completely quiet. Even Immortal Visitor Amidst Clouds didn’t post a message. This condition caused him to understand a matter.

Isn’t your damned last talisman condition just to prevent us from catching our breaths? Isn’t it?! This fucking airhead was still behind! From Qi Condensation to Foundation Establishment, the cost of pill elixirs for a cultivator was a sky-high price! Even without the over ten thousand spirit stones, you still have the nerve to put this down? This was the goddamn one-year output of a small spirit vein! A pill elixir to make a breakthrough to Foundation Establishment went for fifty-to-sixty thousand spirit stones! Even now, no one was willing to convert how much money this was in Chinese currency… To call it to mind was to bruise the ego.

“Fuck me…” A cultivator took a long sigh and suddenly slapped a table: “Cultivation, cultivation! It really friggin’ is… a competition between people that just makes a person blow their top off!”

“This condition… Even Foundation Establishment cultivators would be moved!” 

“At the minimum, this is a sign-on bonus of over twenty-thousand spirit stones! A billion in Chinese currency! My heart… My heart’s gonna break!”

All parts of the nation rang out with screams. A single year of their hard work would only yield a thousand spirit stones. In comparison to Xu Yangyi’s signing bonus of a million spirit stones—a billion in Chinese money—such a disparity… caused people simply no time to be envious. Jealousy? The disparity was too great, the starting point was completely different! The other had been born at the ending point!

It was only after no less than ten-odd minutes of reading aloud did the man finish. All that remained on his face was a robotic smile. I really want to… REALLY want to rob him… However, it appeared to be a question of what would he do if he was not a match against Xu Yangyi… It was also unknown if the other needed a gigolo or not… In this day and age, there was gay marriage, and while he would take a loss instead of making a gain… there seemed to be a justification in saying this, as well… [6]

“Everyone might be skeptical.” Thousandedge finally stood up and laughed: “On why young friend Xu’s signing bonus was so high?”

Yes! What’s the reason! Everyone looked at their screens again like they were pumped on chicken blood! If I don’t know, I won’t be able to sleep! [7]

“I assure everyone, there weren’t any shenanigans in these proceedings.” Thousandedge wordlessly swept an eye over Xu Yangyi and squeezed out the sliver of a smile: “This is because young friend Xu supplemented some essentials pertaining to the Vermilion Snow Incident. In addition, it is the recognition of a genius cultivator formally treading into the cultivation world.”

For a successor of God Ming to be slain, demons and humans would never be at peace. Nonetheless, it was necessary to be a bit tactful in publicly declaring this.

“Then there shouldn’t be so much, right?!” A reporter couldn’t help but to mutter. Several tens of thousands of spirit stones… A billion in Chinese currency… This was a tad too damn exaggerated!

Thousandedge nodded, and with his next words, all were directly silenced. “Because based on young friend Xu’s exam a few days ago, he has unleashed his neurons.”

“The strength reaches S-rank.”

[1] “Get the fuck out of here” - is actually another slang that literally translates to “I f*ck your grandfather”. From what I have learned, it is supposed to be kinda used in a context of super surprise/shock. 

[2] 蛊 - Gu. In Daoism, the Gu is thought to be some legendary poisonous insect. Other accounts reveal that a bunch of poisonous creatures would be put in a jar to fight, and the one who survived at the end would create a unique poison (having fought and received the poisons of other creatures) known as “Gu”. 

[3] “Our aspirations approach the clouds and our heroism soars to the heavens!” Is a line used by Tang Poet Libai. Literally it’s more like “The world and wind begets us”. 

[4] “Live off a woman” - literally “eat soft meat”. If you read a lot of these CN novels, depending on/living off a woman is considered shameful. 

[5] “I’m going to give birth to a monkey for him” More Chinese net slang, used in a funny manner. In Chinese, monkey is pronounced “Hóuzi” and child is pronounced “Háizi”. It is supposed to be a play on words. 

[6] “In this day in age, there was gay marriage”. I am actually super unsure of this phrasing that the author uses. The author might be hinting at a more liberal society because the raw is literally “get married to a dog”, but then again, I’m following the context of this guy thinking to himself that he could be Xu Yangyi’s gigolo and contemplating the pros and cons of such. I'm also unsure if this is an internet slang of some sort to get past censors. 

[7] “Pumped on chicken blood”. I think I actually might have explained this in the past, but I will do so again. In traditional Chinese medicine, chicken blood is considered somewhat of a powerful folk cure. An injection of chicken blood can revitalize the self and promote health.