A World Worth Protecting

Wang Baole narrowed his eyes, and an icy glint glimmered in his eyes. As he raced forward, he contemplated the possibility of any ulterior motives hidden behind this matter.

There’s no loss in being more careful. If this is something that can be resolved with compensation, I don’t mind losing a few battle credits. Wang Baole’s most recent trip would likely gain him a few hundred thousand battle credits. He wasn’t bothered about having to offer compensation.

They can’t blame me for what I’m going to do if this turns out to be a setup! An icy glint flashed across Wang Baole’s eyes. He activated his voice transmission ring and contacted Xie Haiyang. This time, he didn’t ask about what the donkey had done but about the extent of damages Elder Sun Hai had suffered!

Xie Haiyang made use of his connections and was able to find out all the details about the damages very quickly.

“The alchemical cauldron isn’t cheap at all, Baole. It’s worth fifty thousand battle credits!” Xie Haiyang clearly had no idea how filthy rich Wang Baole was. He sighed when he mentioned the amount.

Fifty thousand credits… Wang Baole nodded, gave his thanks, and ended the voice transmission. Fifty thousand battle credits might not be a small sum to him, but it wasn’t that huge a figure either. Mentally prepared, Wang Baole increased his speed and charged ahead, dashing across the heavens. He finally saw the Vast Expanse Dao Palace appear in the distance on the dawn of the next day!

He had exchanged multiple voice transmissions with Xie Haiyang and Sect Lord Xu and received assurance of the donkey’s safety. Everything contributed to his growing suspicion, that the entire matter… was a setup targeting him!

Interesting. A violent aura oozed out from Wang Baole’s person but was quickly concealed. His face remained expressionless as he raced through the skies and approached the Vast Expanse Dao Palace. The first person he saw upon his approach was Sect Lord Xu, who had arrived earlier and had been waiting for him.

“Follow me!” Sect Lord Xu said immediately when he saw Wang Baole. He walked ahead. Wang Baole nodded and silently followed Sect Lord Xu as they raced towards an outer island not far away.

In the Vast Expanse Dao Palace, Every Nascent Soul realm cultivator had his own island. Their islands were typically large and infused with strong Spirit Qi. The islands were their personal property. Many of their disciples and followers resided on these islands.

That was true of Sun Hai’s island. It might not be one of the better islands owned by a Nascent Soul realm cultivator, but it still trumped Wang Baole’s Green Fire Island. It was leagues above in terms of location, Spirit Qi, and price.

“That is Sun Hai’s Holy Air Island. Baole, listen to me, don’t act rashly. Follow the plan. It’s best if we can resolve this with battle credits. I managed to gather some credits myself. It should be enough!” As they approached the island, Sect Lord Xu reminded Wang Baole again. There was anxiety hidden deep in his eyes.

They could see trails of black smoke rising from Sun Hai’s island. Thunderous booms erupted from the public square in the middle of the island and echoed in the air.

That would have been fine if that were the end of that. As they approached, Wang Baole could hear faint cries coming from the same place where the black smoke was rising.

The screams belonged to his donkey!

His eyes turned cold. With a sudden burst of speed, he raced ahead. Sect Lord Xu sighed and followed behind. Both of them entered the Holy Air Island!

The island shook as soon as they approached. A wall of light appeared around the island, forming an array formation that prevented outsiders from stepping inside. However, just as the array formation came into contact with Wang Baole, Wang Baole activated his cultivation and took a violent step forward. There was a loud explosion. He had forced his way into the array formation.

The forced entry distorted the array formation. Numerous bright lights appeared and surrounded them. It also caught the attention of every cultivator on the island. They lifted their heads skyward and saw Wang Baole hovering in mid-air above the public square!

He lowered his head. There was an alchemical cauldron hundreds of feet tall in the middle of the public square. Dozens of Core Formation realm cultivators sat around the cauldron. They were using their cultivation to summon flames for the cauldron. The flames heated the alchemical cauldron while the donkey’s faint cries rang out from inside the cauldron.

They were clearly trying to use the donkey for refinement. An elder stood before the Core Formation realm cultivators. He had an ethereal air to him—save his eyes, which were sunken in and had an extraordinary color. They glowed red. The elder lifted his head as soon as Wang Baole arrived and stared at Wang Baole icily.

Fury rose inside Wang Baole when he saw the refinement his donkey was being subjected to. He noticed that the refinement would require a long time to complete. As long as help came in time, the donkey would suffer only a bit of pain. There would not be any lasting damage. That was why he pushed down his anger and looked the elder in the eyes.

“Wang Baole greets Elder Sun.”

“This humble old man can hardly accept the greetings of the esteemed personal disciple from the Federation,” Sun Hai said coolly, with a superficial smile on his face and an extremely hostile tone.

Wang Baole frowned slightly. He almost lost his temper. It was then that Sect Lord Xu smiled beside him and led Wang Baole to land before Sun Hai. The Sect Lord cupped his fists in greeting. He tried to ease the tension with his friendliness.

“Elder Sun, it’s all been a terrible misunderstanding. We’ve come bearing tokens of our sincerity.”

Sun Hai recalled the monthly gifts he had been receiving from Sect Lord Xu and looked slightly less hostile. He glanced sideways at Wang Baole with disdain. He had witnessed Wang Baole’s battle during the trial and knew how strong the latter was, but he was confident that he could beat Wang Baole.

That was why he wasn’t really bothered about the fact that Wang Baole had just returned from the Worship Palace Pavilion. This was the Vast Expanse Dao Palace, not the Federation. Sun Hai snorted and asked, “Tokens of sincerity?”

Wang Baole had quite a temper, but he also had to consider the possibility of Sect Lord Xu being right in saying that there was something wrong going on here. The Sect Lord was doing his best to help. It wouldn’t be appropriate for Wang Baole to hijack his efforts. He took a deep breath, shoved down his annoyance, stared at Sun Hai, and said slowly, “I’m willing to fork out sixty thousand battle credits as compensation for your losses. The first fifty thousand is for the damages to the alchemical cauldron, and the remaining ten thousand for the inconvenience caused!”

“Sixty thousand?” Even though Sun Hai was a Nascent Soul realm cultivator, he was shaken by the figure. Sixty thousand was no mere sum to anyone in the Dao Palace.

However, there were times when one’s evil character determined their approach to handling matters. When faced with such a person, the more you compromised and showed weakness, the higher the chance of you not achieving any resolution and instead encountering increased bullying!

Sun Hai was one such person. His resolve was shaken, allowing greed to overtake his thoughts. Sect Lord Xu had thought too much about this matter. There weren’t any ulterior motives or plans, it had been purely a coincidence. However, Sun Hai saw weakness in his opponents. He narrowed his eyes, studied Wang Baole for a moment, then laughed.

“The fifty thousand battle credits must be paid, of course, but this wretched beast was too brazen. I have to teach it a lesson and make sure it knows that the Vast Expanse Dao Palace is no place for it to run wild!” Sun Hai repeatedly talked about beasts, seemingly referring to the donkey. It was clear he was referring to Wang Baole.

Wang Baole could hardly keep a lid on his temper. His eyes began to glimmer with a cold light. He glared at Sun Hai and asked slowly, “Oh? What do you plan to do?”

Next to him, Sect Lord Xu’s brow started to crease as well. From the way he saw it, Sun Hai was either receiving instructions from someone or was one really stupid man.

“I’m going to turn this beast into a Blood Pill. If you want the pill, I can consider selling it to you at fifty thousand battle credits.” Sun Hai narrowed his eyes as he tried to hide the greed in them. Wang Baole would likely raise the figure next, and he would continue to hold his ground. Perhaps Sect Lord Xu would talk them both down, and they’d finally agree to settle the matter with a hundred and fifty thousand credits.

Sun Hai had everything all planned out in his head. However, reality didn’t unfold in the same way… Wang Baole laughed after hearing what Sun Hai had said.

It was laughter devoid of warmth, cold to the extreme. Wang Baole gave Sect Lord Xu a look. The latter had a dark expression on his face.

“Fellow Daoist Xu, I’ve tried it your way, but it didn’t work. Since that’s the case… I have no choice but to do it my way,” Wang Baole said. His cultivation erupted suddenly. The clouds shifted in the skies, fierce winds rolled in suddenly, and a terrifying aura rose to the heavens!

Wang Baole didn’t speak another word. As his aura erupted, he left his avatar in his original spot as a precautionary measure, then charged towards the shocked Sun Hai!