In the training hall of his villa in Fu Family Bay, Fu Qingyang, drenched head to toe, gripped his sword in both hands and swung, cut after cut after cut. The edge of the blade sliced through the air with such speed that it gave off a heavy shriek.
Ten thousand swings a day was the target he'd set himself. Short of entering a dungeon, nothing was allowed to stop him practicing his swing.
Fu Qingyang had no shortage of helpers. The small stuff, such as food and clothes and where he slept, were handled by a crowd of bunny girls. For the major responsibilities, such as running the companies under his name, keeping the White Tiger Guard operating and the like, he had a professional management team and a think tank to deal with them.
Fu Qingyang spent his own energy on only two things. One was Five Elements Alliance business, and the other was honing his skills.
He didn't dare waste too much of himself anywhere else. He knew his talent fell short of the very top prodigies, and only by training himself ten times or even a hundred times more could he hold down the people who called themselves geniuses.
To date, the only genius Fu Qingyang had failed to suppress was the Female Marshal. Everyone else, even Jiang Ju, offspring of the current Flame Emperor, was ranked a notch below him.
He was already two thousand swings in, yet for some reason he still couldn't slip into the zone. Something restless kept churning under his ribs.
Just then, the training hall door was pushed open. Ling Jun sauntered in wearing baggy shorts and flip flops, hair in a tangle, phone in hand, and leaned on the frame.
Fu Qingyang didn't look at him and kept swinging, yet his brow furrowed faintly and his face went cold, as if Ling Jun barging in bothered him no end.
"You had better have a good reason for interrupting my training," he said coldly.
Ling Jun grinned. "Heh. Your sycophant is out of his dungeon."
Fu Qingyang's swing stuttered. He held still for a few seconds, then found his rhythm again.
"Noted," he said flatly.
His tone was emotionless, as though the information was some unimportant trifle. However, the anger from a moment ago was gone from his face. The sword flowed through the air easily as his mind became one with the blade.
Ling Jun lounged against the doorframe with no notion of leaving. Instead, he broached the topic and chatted away, thoroughly enjoying himself.
"How should I put it? There's a flavor of the unexpected to it, yet it's also rather expected. I told you once that Yuanshi Tianzun was strange. Remember that? After meeting him, I'll admit he's got talent, but my gut told me there was no reason he could measure up to freaks like Demon Lord and the Female Marshal. And yet time and again, he racks up achievements that are comparable to theirs."
"I always assumed your gut told you one thing: that you'd definitely run into a like-minded woman the moment you stepped out the door," Fu Qingyang said mildly.
"Ah, so you're mocking a playboy for pretending he knows anything about genius? You, a cold, aloof, stone-faced grouch who loves showing off, and has a venomous tongue to boot."
"What I'd love more is to beat you."
At that, Ling Jun's expression turned serious. "I've still got to report this up to Elder Teddy for you and clear up the rumors on the forum while I'm at it. Keep swinging your sword. I'm off~"
***
【#Demon Lord struggled, and the Taiyi Sect Master shook his head. How is Yuanshi Tianzun going to get through this one#】
【#Songhai Branch says Yuanshi Tianzun went into an A-rank dungeon. Can we trust that#】
【#If Yuanshi Tianzun dies in the dungeon, it's a PR crisis for the officials#】
【#Debunked: Taiyi Sect states the Sect Master never said any such thing#】
【#Some Taiyi Sect people are disgusting, gloating over it on their own forum#】
【#For Demon Lord and the Taiyi Sect Master to rate it like that, what kind of dungeon is Mute Village?#】
Fed and sated, Zhang Yuanqing returned to his bedroom, lay on the bed, and scrolled through the forum threads.
Half an hour in, he'd scrolled past a dozen-odd threads all arguing over "Yuanshi Tianzun and the dungeon." Official Walkers from every major branch had thrown themselves into the debate.
Aside from a small crowd of the mean-spirited quietly gloating, most people were genuinely worried about Yuanshi Tianzun's safety, and those people were split into two camps.
One camp figured a dungeon that earned that kind of reputation from both Demon Lord and the Taiyi Sect Master had to hold dangers that were off the charts, so the odds were grim for Yuanshi Tianzun. Alas, it was a pity for this latest genius.
The other camp figured Yuanshi Tianzun had cleared S-rank dungeons before, so this one would be no problem. Demon Lord could actually have been worse than Yuanshi Tianzun at clearing dungeons, after all.
Both sides debated furiously, rattling off data, making charts, offering points to consider, and generally bickering.
Zhang Yuanqing came away with a sharper sense of just how famous he'd gotten. I didn't expect things to heat up this much...
Times had changed. Now, his every move drew eyes. His fellow Walkers were watching him, and the evil organizations as well, as though he was some hot young star. Fame brought standing, but it warranted caution as well. It always brought trouble.
The most immediate symptom was becoming a target of envy and resentment. Inside the Five Elements Alliance, there were no small number of people who eyed him with hostility and jealousy, and there were even more within the Taiyi Sect.
His popularity with the rank-and-file members of the Taiyi Sect especially had plunged significantly after he'd taken home the Transcendent crown in the tournament.
This time, for instance, he'd come across a thread ripping into a gloating Taiyi Sect Nocturnal Specter. The poster had screenshotted some of the comments off the Taiyi Sect's official forum and tacked them onto the thread.
"Our Sect Master never said that anyone who entered that dungeon was guaranteed to die. If he's really in there, how could Yuanshi Tianzun still be alive? The Five Elements Alliance had better set the funeral table early."
"Even Demon Lord said he nearly died in there, and survived on luck alone. Yuanshi Tianzun's probably toast. Luck isn't something you can make up for with brains."
"Watch your mouths, that sour reek is carrying all the way out to space. In the best case scenario, Yuanshi Tianzun comes back alive. Five Elements Alliance and Taiyi Sect are allies, and honestly, the biggest beneficiaries of the Mute Village guide are us, Taiyi Sect."
"We might go our whole lives without running into an A-rank dungeon. Besides, there are nine thousand nine hundred Transcendent-tier dungeons. One extra dungeon, Mute Village, more or less doesn't matter."
"Of course it matters! Who ever complained about having too many dungeon guides? Still nobody said we have to rely on Yuanshi Tianzun for it."
"The Five Elements Alliance is out here day and night hyping Yuanshi Tianzun as a dungeon clearing genius, building the persona, but now the whole thing's collapsed, hasn't it?"
Some of the comments under the thread from the Five Elements Alliance Walkers were measured.
? King With a Condition: This Taiyi Sect crowd, in the end, they're just jealous of Yuanshi Tianzun.
? Long Road Ahead: There's maybe some bitterness due to unrequited love in there too. Yuanshi Tianzun is the man they can't have, after all.
By comparison, the female members put it a lot more sharply.
? Call Me Queen: These sorry dogs. I didn't sleep a wink all night, and I have to wake up to their snide little digs.
? Princess Consort: They can't wait for Yuanshi Tianzun to die in the dungeon, is that it? I'm going to register an account on the Taiyi Sect forum and flame them to death.
? Passionate Jenny: Back when the Jinshui Amusement Park and Sheling Tunnel guides came out, the Taiyi Sect came around with their thick skins begging for them. Now they've got the nerve to say they don't have to rely on Yuanshi Tianzun for dungeon guides?
At that, Zhang Yuanqing backed out of the thread.
He started seriously weighing whether to turn in the Mute Village guide at all.
Going by the rewards he'd gotten, clearing Mute Village guaranteed single-use replicas of the three items, and completing the hidden mission tripled the number of uses for each item.
With a guide, the difficulty of Mute Village's clear would drop to B-rank, maybe even C-rank, while the rewards stayed frighteningly rich. Which meant that the moment that guide reached the Taiyi Sect, any Nocturnal Specter who went into Mute Village after that would vault straight into the top ranks of Transcendent-tier Walkers, even if it was only temporary.
If he ran into an enemy wielding those three items from Mute Village, he would be in grave danger. If the ones who got the three items bore him ill will, or were his outright enemies, then handing over the guide meant he'd just be arming the enemy.
He could never forget that while there were plenty of good people in the official ranks, there were also villains like Chi Yue'an.
Mute Village is a Nocturnal Specter-exclusive Spirit Realm. Five Elements Alliance Walkers can't get in. There won't be any short-term repercussions for handing over the guide, but a few years on, with more and more Nocturnal Specters having gone into Mute Village, and more and more replicas of the three items piling up, the Five Elements Alliance's Transcendent Walkers will be reduced to little brothers standing next to the Taiyi Sect...
Once his thoughts reached this point, Zhang Yuanqing made up his mind. He was not giving it up.
He refreshed the forum, and a pinned thread with a red flag yanked him away from his meandering thoughts.
【#Good news, just got word from the Songhai Branch, Yuanshi Tianzun has cleared Mute Village#】
He watched as the thread's view count and number of replies quickly rocketed up off the charts. There were an awful lot of people camped on the forum waiting for news.
? Days Gone By: Hahaha, I knew Yuanshi Tianzun wouldn't fail that easily. He's the genius who cleared two S-ranks.
? Jiang Yang: When it comes to clearing dungeons, Yuanshi Tianzun never lets you down, right? Just watch how he played the dungeon round during the tournament and you know this guy won't die easily.
? Call Me Queen: Ahhhhhh~
? Betel Nut and Cigarettes, Infinite Power: That said, a dungeon that had Demon Lord marveling that he'd only lived through it because of sheer luck... What on earth is it actually like? I'm dying of curiosity. Shame there's no guide in the database.
? Nan Aiding: Uh, it's probably just not written up yet. Give it a bit.
A few minutes later, Queen dropped another comment.
? Call Me Queen: That Taiyi Sect lot are over on their own forum asking about the guide. Pfft, they have no shame. But it's so satisfying, hahaha! (hands on hips, roaring emoji)
? Princess Consort: We're not giving it to them (angry emoji).
? King With a Condition: The guide has to be handed over, though. They're allies, so there's nothing to be done.
Whatever the rank and file said, none of it could sway the decisions from the top.
The same discussions were happening among the Nocturnal Specters.
***
In the pet shop, Elder Teddy crouched on the desktop, his black button eyes fixed on the screen of the phone in front of him.
The caller ID? Old Sun the Fool.
—Old dog, my assistant tells me Yuanshi Tianzun is out?
"Isn't that to be expected?" Elder Teddy replied smugly. "Yuanshi wasn't going to fold in some dinky A-rank dungeon. The only thing that can really temper him is an S-rank dungeon."
This was the tone a parent would use to brag about their elementary-school kid acing a test with a perfect score.
Elder Sun sniggered.
—That's not how you sounded yesterday. Your doggy face went white with fright.
“It would be more believable to say my fur went white rather than my face," Elder Teddy replied jovially. He was in high spirits, and forgave Old Sun’s jealous jab.
Elder Sun's tone turned sour.
—Enough chatter. Send me the guide and name your price.
Negotiating dungeon guides with the Taiyi Sect were Elder Sun's remit. That was why Fu Qingyang had gone straight to him previously.
"Hang on," Elder Teddy said, remembering that he hadn't actually checked if the guide had been published yet.
When he opened his computer and searched "Mute Village," he got a notification: No related content found.
"Yuanshi probably hasn't written the guide up yet," Elder Teddy said. "I'll have Qingyang ask him."