Chapter 174 - 173: Freeloaders, Please Gouge Out Your Eyeballs

Seeing her hesitation, the old man grew anxious and shot her a series of meaningful glances.

Chu Liangyu saw him loud and clear but still had no intention of getting involved.

The old man coughed. He knew he couldn’t persuade her to do hard labor for free. He nudged Elder Yu with his elbow and said jokingly, "You old coot, don’t tell me you expect this girl to work for nothing. Are you really trying to get a free ride?"

"What are you talking about? How could I ask the girl to work for free?" Elder Yu chuckled awkwardly before adding, "If she’s willing, I can offer one thousand Origin Beads, plus access to my world. You can take away anything you lay your eyes on."

Chu Liangyu’s brow furrowed. ’That’s one thousand Origin Beads.’

Under normal circumstances, producing just one Origin Pearl every ten years was already considered excellent. And Elder Yu was offering a thousand.

On top of that, he was willing to grant her, the successor to another world, free entry and allow her to take whatever she wanted.

This wasn’t just a matter of profit; it also represented a great deal of trust in Chu Liangyu.

After all, the Cultivation World was a much higher-level world than their Beast World, and it was filled with countless Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures.

Moreover, judging by what Elder Yu had just said, there was no limit on how much she could take.

The reward was undeniably generous. To her shame, Chu Liangyu was tempted.

"Alright, I agree."

Chu Liangyu accepted Elder Yu’s offer without a moment’s hesitation.

"Now that’s more like it. You’re in dire need of Origin Beads right now; you can’t do without them."

Chu Liangyu understood what he meant. The World Origin was in trouble, and the fastest way to remedy the situation was to replenish it with Origin Beads.

"However... Elder Yu, would it be possible for you to wait until after I’ve secured the position of Beast God? I can help you then."

Elder Yu hesitated for a moment. "Well, that’s fine, but the flow of time is different between our two worlds."

"The sooner you go, the greater the chance of success."

Chu Liangyu had already suspected as much. Time in Elder Yu’s world flowed faster than in hers. All Chu Liangyu could do was hurry.

"Okay, I’ll be as quick as I can."

With matters more or less settled, Elder Yu prepared to leave. "Alright, that’s all I wanted to say. I know you two are probably very busy today, so I won’t keep you."

"Leaving already? Aren’t you going to check if any souls have snuck over here from your world?"

The old man clicked his tongue, not about to let him leave so easily, and posed the question.

Elder Yu was so exasperated by the old man’s money-grubbing attitude that he laughed. "You..." he chided. "Just go mind your own business and stop thinking about my Origin Beads."

"Don’t you know who I am? Those two brats wouldn’t dare to pull a stunt like that on my watch, not even if you gave them ten times the nerve."

But the old man said meaningfully, "Are you sure?"

Elder Yu heard something off in his tone. His confident expression faltered, and his eyes narrowed slightly. "What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing much. I just want to make a bet. If there are any, you give me two hundred Origin Beads. If not, I’ll sell myself to you."

The old man showed not a hint of embarrassment as he said this.

Elder Yu snorted. "That’s not a very sincere wager. You’re just a bag of old bones. I wouldn’t take you even if you were free."

"Weren’t you the one just swearing up and down that it was impossible? Don’t tell me you’re getting scared now."

"If you’re too proud to check, that’s on you. But if there’s one left over at the end and no one claims it, I’ll just have the girl here eliminate it. As for the consequences..."

Hearing this, Elder Yu’s expression changed. On the principle of ’better safe than sorry’, he said, "Fine, let me see them. If there is one, I’ll give you fifty Origin Beads at most."

Fifty was a far cry from two hundred, but the old man didn’t argue. Instead, he turned to Chu Liangyu. "Girl, release those souls so he can have a look."

In truth, while Chu Liangyu had been busy collecting souls, he had already followed the clues and discovered their origins.

He was also thankful that he had listened to Chu Liangyu’s advice at the time, because these were the very souls that Yu and Lai San had smuggled over from the Otherworld.

If he had impulsively killed those souls, not only Chu Liangyu but he himself would have been burdened with negative karma.

As the Beast God, he would have been finished, and Chu Liangyu, his successor, even more so. The future of the Beast World would have plunged into endless darkness.

Of course, things might have been better if Jiang Li had become the Beast God at that time.

But the problem was, since Yu and Lai San had planned all of this so meticulously, why would they have allowed Jiang Li, a potential Beast God, to live?

"There are fifty in total. They’re all here."

The newly released souls were still dazed and confused, but upon seeing Chu Liangyu, they all tried to flee in unison.

However, Chu Liangyu had anticipated this and had already placed a Barrier around them.

Elder Yu’s eyes scanned the souls one by one. After a moment, his gaze locked onto one of the men.

He raised his hand, and the man was held fast. He had indeed found one, but he couldn’t feel happy about it in the slightest.

"I never expected this. I underestimated them."

Chu Liangyu recognized the man with a single glance. It was the Otherworldly Soul that had possessed Hua Yao.

’He knew how to draw talismans, so I suspected he was from the Cultivation World. I can’t believe I was actually right.’

"See? I was right, wasn’t I? Good thing I had you take a look, or this could have turned into a major disaster."

"Indeed." Elder Yu was a man of action. He had said he’d give fifty Origin Beads, and the moment he found the soul, he handed them all to the old man.

"I have to deal with those two brats properly over this. I won’t keep you any longer." Elder Yu was in a hurry to leave, but at the last moment, he remembered his purpose for being there and urged Chu Liangyu, "Be as quick as you can. When everything is ready, have this old money-grubber notify me."

The "money-grubber" he was referring to was, of course, the old Beast God. Chu Liangyu understood perfectly.

"Don’t worry, Elder Yu. I’ll handle things as quickly as I can."

After Elder Yu left, only Chu Liangyu and the old Beast God remained. The old man directly tore open a rift in space, revealing the location of the World Origin on the other side.

He unceremoniously dumped all fifty Origin Beads inside.

Afterward, he muttered, "It’s no good. This still isn’t enough."

The rift healed quickly, and Chu Liangyu only managed to catch a glimpse of pale gray.

Yet, based on that glimpse alone, combined with what the old man had said, Chu Liangyu realized the severity of the situation.

The joy from receiving the fifty Origin Beads faded, replaced by an exceptionally grave expression on Chu Liangyu’s face. "Sometime ago, I noticed some anomalies in the natural order—winter arriving early, torrential downpours... Is that also because the World Origin is in trouble?"