Lord Xue Ying

Book 8: Chapter 1 – Tight Budget

By himself, Xue Ying killed his way into the minor Transcendent Worlds and eradicated a total of three demon bases. The other two bases could only watch it happen as they made their escape!

At that very moment, the state of the war was truly shifted in the entire Xia World!

Before that, large amounts of demons would conceal themselves in various places, filled with confidence! They could do so because the Demonic Avatars of the rank five demons could at any time be casually called for help. And since they were ultimately just avatars, they could continue their wanton slaughter without having to worry about them being killed by the Demigods of the Xia Clan. At worst, they would need to wait two to three years before making a full recovery!

But right now, things had changed!

They had lost their helpers! Even if they reported to the top, would the Demon Generals come to their aid? They wouldn’t dare!

In the end, the weak little rank one and two demons were the most abundant, so they made up the main force in charge of discovering the Transcendents of the Xia Clan! But now that they couldn’t get help anymore, their combat powers were not enough to simply kill the Transcendents within a breath’s worth of time! After all, with the exception of several new Transcendents, even the weakest Transcendents of the Xia Clan were at the peak of the Sky realm. When also taking their Transcendent weapons into account, they would be almost certain to last a breath of time against a rank two demon. Some of those with deeper comprehensions might even retaliate and kill their assailants!

……

“Haha, the five Demon Generals must be so angry they want nothing more than to instantly kill you!” Inside the Infernal Palace, Palace Head Chen was currently walking alongside Xue Ying.

Three days had passed since the battle.

“If they’re capable enough, then by all means, they should.” Xue Ying smiled. Only one who was strong enough could be so confident! The outside world knew that he grasped hold of a grade two True Meaning. But in reality, he had three of them. On top of that, now that he had grasped hold of the True Meaning of Mirage, it had become truly difficult to kill him. Xue Ying could enter the mirage with a single thought.

“Haha, that’s right. One should have this much spirit,” praised Palace Head Chen. “Xue Ying, ah, you truly helped me solve a big problem. I’ve been feeling anxious these previous few years, seeing the Xia Clan’s Transcendents dying one after another! But now, with the destruction of those demon bases, you have truly eliminated the biggest threat to our Xia Clan. Even if the war still continues for a long time, you have already diminished the threat to us by a lot!”

“Mn.” Xue Ying nodded.

“The reason I have decided to look for you this time is that I must tell you a few things. With you having grasped hold of a grade two True Meaning, your status within my Xia Clan has greatly increased. Although you’re not an elder, there isn’t much of a difference between you and them,” Palace Head Chen said as he extended an arm and took out a gold leaf book, which he then passed over to Xue Ying. “This book keeps records of many secrets regarding my Xia Clan.”

“Oh?” Xue Ying’s eyes brightened. He immediately began to read it thoroughly.

So formidable!

The Xia Clan could only tower over the mortal world as the sole overlord because of its extremely deep foundation and the many secrets it held… secrets that neither Sky realm Transcendents nor Saints were qualified to know! Not even the Demigods of the Temple of the Earth God or the Bloodshed Tavern were qualified to know them.

Although Xue Ying was still at the Saint realm, his grade two True Meaning made it so that nobody saw treated him as such. Demigods would usually view him as an equal.

“So that’s the case.” The more Xue Ying read, the brighter his eyes became. “I didn’t think that my Xia Clan could communicate with the many ancestors still.”

“If the Demon Gods could send down their World Projections, then my Xia Clan’s ancestors, who are powerful Deities can do so as well.” Palace Head Chen sighed in sorrow. “These ancestors hold their homeworld deep in their hearts. They truly don’t care for the price or that we reciprocate their actions. They have done so much for us, and whenever my Xia Clan experienced various difficulties, they would always be thinking of ways to help us get through.”

“Mn.” Xue Ying nodded.

After finishing the book, he somewhat understood how deep of a foundation the Xia Clan had. In fact, there were several clan protection treasures that Xue Ying had read about in the bibliographies of Demigods, albeit just as passing statements…

“You can consider this to be about 90% of the secrets which I had been forbidden from telling you before. Maybe you might have even known about some of them from other sources?” Palace Head Chen laughed. “There is another secret which only palace heads are qualified to know of, in order to prevent it from being leaked! Only this way can the Demonic Faction be prevented from breaking into our clan!”

“I understand.” Xue Ying nodded.

Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated.

If their enemies would learn all of the secretive methods of the Xia Clan, then exterminating them would be much easier! Thus, it was necessary to keep secrets.

“In regards to your effort in eradicating the three demon bases,” Palace Head Chen began, “since you killed 9 rank five demons as well as many other rank four and three demons, I shall award you one million contribution points.”

The reward for killing a rank five demon was 100,000 contribution points!

“You have also eradicated the greatest threat to our Xia Clan, so I’ll add onto that another million contribution points. How is that?” asked Palace Head Chen.

Even if he had not killed a single demon…

As long as he could force a retreat from the five demon bases, the threat would end up disappearing. That was a huge contribution in and of itself. It was impossible to even calculate a price for it. Not even ten million contribution points would be too much! After all, the lives of half of the Transcendents in the Xia Clan were at stake! Previously, during the mission when several Qi and Magic Avatars were sent out with several Demigod grade scrolls and treasures, the total price of their items had already been one million contribution points, and that had merely been a probe!

“That is too many,” replied Xue Ying. Usually, only those among the top ten in the Demigod rankings would receive this many points.

“It’s not too many. Honestly, it could still be considered too few.” Palace Head Chen then suddenly asked with a bit of hesitation, “Xue Ying, I don’t think you would want to exchange all of these points for Origin Stones, right? Still, If you do want to exchange them, even for two million kilograms of Origin Stones… my Xia Clan may help you do so!”

“No need, no need,” Xue Ying added.

That would be too extravagant.

According to the regulations imposed by the Xia Clan, when a Demigod exchanged for Origin Stones, the maximum amount was a million kilograms! What if they wanted more? They would either have to buy them from other Demigods, or visit the minor and major Transcendent Worlds and dig the stones out themselves! Either way, the Xia Clan could not provide that many Origin Stones.

And that was because they also had a limited amount of Origin Stones.

If they were to give away their Origin Stones to any single Demigod, then the others would no longer have enough to use! Nevertheless, most of the Demigods were quite lacking in points, so they would rather spend their time slowly cultivating and absorbing the energy of the world to raise their realms.

One cultivated their physique the same way.

To get from the peak of the Sky Realm to the early Saint realm, one needed 50,000 kilograms of Origin Stones! Xue Ying had already raised his physical body to the early Saint realm.

In order to further improve it to the middle stage, one required a terrifying two million kilograms of Origin Stones!

Getting it from the middle to the peak Saint realm? The amount of Origin Stones needed was so large that even if one dug out every Origin Stone in all of the Transcendent Worlds around the Xia World, it would still not be sufficient! That was a message passed down from the Deity World! Therefore, the supposed requirement of attaining a second awakening of the primordial bloodline upon reaching the peak stage of the Saint Realm was nothing more than a wistful dream for mortals. It could only become reality in the Deity World or in the Dark Abyss!

The total amount of Origin Stones the Xia Clan had accumulated was truly not very large!

Exchanging contribution points for weapons? For treasures? Mage Equipment? Or Refiner Organisms? All of these were matters the Xia Clan could agree upon. But if one wished to exchange for Origin Stones… the Xia Clan would have to limit the amount.

“The others may not, but you can!” said Palace Head Chen. “The contribution that you have brought, as well as your grade two True Meaning make it worth it for my Xia Clan to break the rules! That way, your body can reach the middle stage of the Saint realm, and thus increase your chances at a second awakening. By then, your combat power will have become even more formidable!”

“No need. There’s truly no need for this,” Xue Ying continued declining.

He had already prepared himself to enter the Black Wind Deity Palace!

Breaking through the Black Wind Deity Palace meant he could sweep through the major Transcendent World it was connected to! A major Transcendent World truly was a huge treasure cove. If he needed more Origin Stones, he could just go and dig them out himself; why ask the Xia Clan for two million kilograms considering their already limited amount? Xue Ying understood from the hesitation Palace Head Chen had shown when asking that he would truly have a heartache if the transaction went through.

Being the head was truly not easy!