Chapter 133 - 132: [Yang, Do You Like to Eat Fish?]

Chapter 133: Chapter 132: [Yang, Do You Like to Eat Fish?]

Daoxuan turned away. He already knew what his master had done.

He was stammering now simply because he was afraid He Xiaotian would angrily pull out his hammer, pound him flat as a pancake, and offer him up on the altar of The Three Pristine Ones.

"X, that price list I showed you last time... I accidentally gave you the wrong one. The prices aren’t actually that outrageous. I trust you can forgive this old Daoist’s tiny little mistake, right?" Shouyangzi said fawningly after composing himself.

He brought it up now, while He Xiaotian was in high spirits after earning five hundred Spiritual Energy Crystals.

Perhaps the man wouldn’t hold it against him.

"?!"

He Xiaotian stared at Shouyangzi, who had transformed from a venerable, otherworldly Daoist into a loyal bootlicker in the blink of an eye, and couldn’t process it for a moment.

"Ahem, this is the newly revised price list. Please, have a look."

He took it, and his eyes flew wide open.

’What the...’

[Protective Talisman - Alert, Price: 1 Spiritual Energy Crystal.]

[Protective Talisman - Defense, Price: 2 Spiritual Energy Crystals.]

[Protective Talisman - Attack, Price: 3 Spiritual Energy Crystals.]

[Protective Talisman - Ultimate Form, Price: 5 Spiritual Energy Crystals.]

[Summoning God - Six Ding and Six Jia, Price: 10 Spiritual Energy Crystals.]

[Summoning God - Sixty Yuan Chen, Price: 30 Spiritual Energy Crystals.]

[Summoning God - The Four Great Dharma Protector Marshals:

Marshal Ma, the Spirit Official, Price: 50 Spiritual Energy Crystals.

Marshal Zhao of the Black Tiger Altar, Price: 50 Spiritual Energy Crystals.

Marshal Wen, the Earthly General, Price: 50 Spiritual Energy Crystals.

Holy Emperor Guan, Demon-Subduer of the Three Realms, Price: 50 Spiritual Energy Crystals.]

The prices for the Protective Talismans had been slashed several times over, and the prices for the god summonings were missing a zero at the end.

’So you were planning to rip me off for a huge sum from the very beginning, you bastard?’

’The stuff I bought last time only adds up to 265 Spiritual Energy Crystals?’

’But you, with your black heart, jacked the price up to over 2,500?’

’Holy shit!!’ ℯ𝓵.

"This old Daoist has one more thing to say."

He Xiaotian calmly pulled out his Big Hammer, his eyes starting to look dangerous.

Shouyangzi sucked in a sharp breath. ’He’s going to kill me!’

"Calm down! You must calm down! A crime of passion isn’t worth it!"

"Speak."

"Those daggers of yours, after appraisal, turned out to be quite valuable. They’re worth at least three hundred crystals, maybe more. So, in a way, you don’t owe this old Daoist any money at all. Here’s the IOU, take it back."

Shouyangzi took the IOU from his robes, wishing he could slap himself twice right now.

’If I’d known, I wouldn’t have impulsively reported him!’

’If I hadn’t, I’d have a huge pile of Spiritual Energy Crystals today!’

’But who would have thought that X would actually be true to his word and show up a few days later with a case full of Spiritual Energy Crystals to pay me back?’

A loss. A devastating loss.

It was a loss so great it made him want to vomit blood!!

He Xiaotian circulated his power, and an intense heat flared, instantly incinerating the IOU Shouyangzi handed him.

"Yang, what you did wasn’t very honest. Of course, I was also wrong to write you an IOU. So I ask you, can you forgive me?"

The old Daoist looked at the Big Hammer swinging back and forth in his hand and thought, ’Do I dare *not* forgive you?’

"Forgiven! Of course, you’re forgiven! Actually, this was mainly my fault. If I hadn’t deliberately raised the prices, you wouldn’t have had to write me an IOU in the first place," Shouyangzi said, trying to curry favor and taking all the blame on himself.

"Good. Then you won’t have any objections when I hold you accountable, right?"

"None, why would I... Wait! Hold me accountable? What do you mean?" Shouyangzi kept nodding along with He Xiaotian’s words, only realizing halfway through what he’d said. ’You’re going to hold me accountable?’

"Of course. You, a black-hearted swindler, tricked me into foolishly writing an IOU. Don’t you need to take responsibility for that?" He Xiaotian said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and banged his hammers together.

"CLANG!!"

Although the old Daoist really wanted to retort, ’I didn’t trick you into writing an IOU, you were the one who insisted on writing it for me,’ he could only yield to the intimidating might of the hammer.

"Now, I ask, you answer. If your gaze wavers even for a second, I’ll bring this hammer down."

"GULP!"

Shouyangzi wanted to refuse, but the situation didn’t allow for it.

"I’ll try, I’ll try."

"Not ’try.’ You ’must.’ How many people have you swindled?"

At this question, Shouyangzi held up both hands.

"Ten?"

He Xiaotian narrowed his eyes. ’This guy really is ruthless, scamming so many people.’

But to his surprise, Shouyangzi shook his head and said with an embarrassed expression, "I can’t even count them on ten fingers."

"..."

’You know, talking like that is just asking for a beating, right?’

"You’re pretty bold. Anyone who can afford Spiritual Energy Crystals can’t be some pushover. What if you run into a real hard case and they just kill you?"

"I’m a member of the Daoist Alliance. Besides, the authorities are very strict about conflicts between gifted individuals these days. The moment a fight breaks out, they arrest you first and ask questions later. And when I ripped them off, the prices weren’t as outrageous as they were for you. Even if they found out, they wouldn’t be that angry. At most, they’d just beat me up and be done with it."

Shouyangzi explained that normally, he used the Daoist Alliance’s name as a shield, and no one would question his prices.

Who would have thought that he’d run into He Xiaotian and get ’counter-killed’ by him.

The man had even pulled off a slick move like the IOU.

It was truly a case of meeting one’s match.

What was even more unexpected was that He Xiaotian had shown no fear of the Daoist Alliance from start to finish.

In reality, this was all Captain Su’s fault for telling him that the organization’s power was inferior to the authorities’.

And the impression Lei Yang and the others had left on He Xiaotian was that none of them could fight, but they were all experts at slacking off.

"Honestly, I didn’t want to do it either, but this place, Shanghai, is such a ripoff. I thought that by occupying Snake Mountain, an Otherworldly Fissure would appear, which I could use for cultivation and to initiate my disciple, Daoxuan."

"But this old Daoist waited for half a year, and there’s nothing here but tourists! With the tiny commission I make from selling Protective Talismans and summoning services, when in the hell would I ever be able to initiate Daoxuan? So, my brain short-circuited, and I came up with this scheme."

As it turned out, after I changed the prices, even though I made a lot, business got worse day by day.

Seeing Daoxuan getting older and older, I knew that any more delays would ruin my disciple’s entire life. So, I, Shouyangzi, decided to go all in and drastically raised the prices.

"Cultivation? You can cultivate at an Otherworldly Fissure?"

"???" The old Daoist looked completely baffled. ’You don’t even know something this basic? What backwater mountain did you crawl out from? No wonder you dare to ignore the Daoist Alliance and made me write you a receipt.’ "Free-roaming energy, or what you’d call Spiritual Qi, is formed from the mixing of the aura of the Otherworld and the aura of the mortal world. Is it so strange that one can cultivate next to an Otherworldly Fissure?"

He Xiaotian frowned and asked again, "Then what does that have to do with Snake Mountain?"

"Sigh! According to some intel, fissures are more likely to open up on famous mountains. Of course, it’s not a hard and fast rule. The Medical University, for example, is an exception. But it’s been half a year, and this old Daoist has waited so long the flowers have withered, and still nothing."

"In a little while, I was going to have to shamelessly go to the Daoist Alliance headquarters, borrow some Spiritual Energy Crystals from my senior and junior brothers, and write an IOU to initiate Daoxuan."

"?!"

’So what I did actually gave you the idea!’ ℴ

"Mm, let’s not talk about that for now. Yang, let me just ask you one thing: do you eat fish?"