Chapter 236 (I): Hard Quota

Elder Teddy repeated the line, as though he hadn't caught it the first time.

—You need me to come in person?

He didn't believe a Transcendent-tier dungeon guide warranted dragging him out, not even an S-rank one.

Fu Qingyang's tone was grave. "Yes!"

At that, Elder Teddy gave a dignified grunt and hung up. His opinion hadn't changed, but knowing Fu Qingyang the way he did, he decided to make the trip anyway.

Fu Qingyang set down the receiver and went back to the reception sofa.

Li Dongze was stroking the ghost doll, marveling under his breath, saying it over and over, "Oh my god. Oh my god. It's actually a rule-type item. So it's true. Only A-rank dungeons and higher drop rule-type items. This is the second time I've handled one with my own hands."

Seeing Fu Qingyang return, Li Dongze raised a hand to his mouth, coughed once, and recovered his poise.

Fu Qingyang's eyes, dark and shining like black gemstones, turned to Zhang Yuanqing. "Tell me about the dangers inside."

As he spoke, his gaze flicked to the three items.

Zhang Yuanqing pointed at them. "These are the biggest dangers in the dungeon. Well, if you leave out the final boss."

Guan Ya looked at the exquisitely-carved Yin Jade Doll. "That one's the most dangerous, surely."

It was a rule-type item, after all.

To her surprise, Zhang Yuanqing shook his head. "No. It's the least dangerous. Crack its rule, and the threat disappears. But the other two..."

He remembered the terror of facing the paper figure, and his expression immediately turned sour.

The three Scouts read his expression and caught the lingering dread in Yuanshi Tianzun's face. Clearly, the dungeon had left a lingering scar on him. That insight gave them a deeper, clearer sense of just how dangerous Mute Village was.

The rule-type item was the simplest one. The other two dangers were either way beyond the ceiling of any Transcendent-tier Walker, or had no solution at all.

Ling Jun picked up a thin slice of instant ham, chewing as he asked, "What sort of entity is the final boss of Mute Village?"

"A Ming dynasty commandery princess," Zhang Yuanqing said.

Ling Jun's eyes lit up. "Is she pretty?"

Zhang Yuanqing's eyes lit up too. "Gorgeous. And what's more..."

"What's more, what?" Guan Ya cut in with a smile that never reached her eyes.

And what's more, I suspect Demon Lord had his way with her. That bastard really wasn't human—

Zhang Yuanqing nearly blurted out the secret that he was Demon Lord's successor, and hurriedly switched tracks. "And what's more, she has eyes like yours, Sis Guan Ya. Brilliant and perceptive, like the most dazzling gems in the world."

He said the last half of the sentence while looking straight into Guan Ya's eyes.

Ling Jun nodded, feeling accomplished. His mentoring had paid off.

"Ahem." Fu Qingyang cleared his throat, his expression unreadable.

Guan Ya was pleased, but the little brother-in-law clearly wasn't.

Just then, two knocks sounded against the brown double doors.

Fu Qingyang glanced over. "Come in."

A bunny girl pushed the door open and stood in the doorway, gaze angled down at forty-five degrees, gesturing for someone to enter.

A curly-haired poodle padded in along the red carpet, walking with a steady, unhurried gait.

Everyone in the room rose at once and greeted him respectfully.

"Elder Teddy!"

Elder Teddy dipped his head slightly, his black button eyes sweeping across the room. They paused as they fell on the three items on the coffee table, then moved on.

He looked at Yuanshi Tianzun and laughed warmly. "I told them before. A conundrum Demon Lord couldn't get past might be, for you, a question you could crack without breaking a sweat."

Guan Ya and the others all wore the same transparent expression: you never said that, but I don't dare argue.

Zhang Yuanqing immediately offered a bow. "Thank you for thinking so highly of me, Elder. Thank you for grooming me into the man I am today!"

Ling Jun quietly turned his face away. What a bootlicker.

Elder Teddy smiled, clearly satisfied. "You retrieved all three of these items from inside the dungeon? Those are generous rewards. Right, there’s no time to waste, so tell me what's so strange about this dungeon that I had to come in person."

The moment he finished, the juniors in the room all looked at the items and said in the same breath, "See for yourself!"

Elder Teddy lifted a paw and made a light beckoning motion. The three items rose on their own and arranged themselves in a neat row before him.

He laid his paw on the Yin Jade Doll's head, and the others clearly saw a very human expression of astonishment cross the poodle's face.

Elder Teddy moved his paw quickly to the silver rouge box, a flicker of anticipation in his eyes. A few seconds later, having read the rouge box's information, he drew a deep breath and pressed his paw against the bronze mirror.

Once he'd read the descriptions of all three items, he brought his coal-black eyes up to meet Zhang Yuanqing's. "You brat... Every time you go into a dungeon, you have to kick up some fresh nonsense."

His tone was half fond appreciation, half helpless complaint.

Zhang Yuanqing, standing to the side, added at the right moment, "With my guide, anyone can clear Mute Village almost unscathed."

Elder Teddy exhaled slowly. "This one has to go up to headquarters."

***

Inside the pet shop, two cats were atop the cat tree, throwing wild slaps at each other, their bodies teetering on the high perch yet always keeping a delicate balance, like skilled acrobats.

Below the tree, a small bulldog snored thunderously away in a deep and lazy slumber.

Suddenly, from across the room, a black-and-white husky came barreling in and rammed the cat tree over. Chaos erupted, with cats and dogs all yowling at once.

Farther off by the food bowls, a border collie sat on its haunches, watching it all in silence, as though watching a pack of slow children.

Just then the poodle by the desk spoke, low and hard. "All of you, shut it!"

The noisy shop went quiet in an instant. Cats and dogs lay flat on the floor, not daring to act up, the husky included.

With order restored, Elder Teddy opened his contacts and dialed "Old Sun the Fool."

The line rang for a long while before it finally connected.

Elder Sun's voice came through the speaker.

—Have you settled on a price?

"Old Sun, there's a wrinkle with the Mute Village guide," Elder Teddy said. "It's not up to me to decide. I have to report it to headquarters."

There was silence on the other end for a few seconds, before Elder Sun asked a question.

—What's special about the Mute Village dungeon?

Elder Teddy told him about the rewards from clearing the dungeon, and how the difficulty differed with or without a detailed walkthrough.

He'd barely finished when he heard the breathing on the other side of the line quicken slightly.

***

Elder Sun sat bolt upright in his rocking chair under the scholar tree within his courtyard estate in the capital. The call had ended, but he still held the pose of a man who was listening intently.

His eyes seemed empty, fixed on a corner of the courtyard, yet they weren't unfocused. They burned.

He held that pose for a dozen-odd seconds, then tossed the phone to his middle-aged assistant. "Convene every elder in my name, right now, for a meeting at Wuliang Mountain."

"What do I tell the elders?" the assistant asked.

"Tell them the Mute Village guide may be the biggest opportunity since the Taiyi Sect was founded."

With that, he turned into a streak of golden light and vanished into the sky.

***

The curtains of the conference room were drawn tight so none of the outside leaked in. Soft light highlighted the brand new table. The room's furnishings looked high end, high-end enough to pass for a carefully built showroom. Everything from the fittings to the equipment was luxurious, yet it was spotless and orderly, as if it had been arranged and then never once used.

Beep beep.

On the ceiling, ten metal probes that looked straight out of a sci-fi movie flashed yellow at the same instant. They sent down light beams one after another which coalesced into figures, each one dignified and reserved. A handsome young man. A stunning woman. A weathered old man. An imposing middle-aged man.

And a non-human too. A curly-haired poodle, for one.

Seated at the head was a middle-aged man of around forty. His features were plain, unremarkable, yet he carried an air of nobility that was hard to put into words, like a steady, gentle sovereign. He wasn't tall or particularly muscular, but there was just an unusual solidity about him. Just sitting there, he gave off the impression of a vast and weighty mountain range.

The people at the table looked at him and spoke as one. "Grand Elder!"

This was the Five Elements Alliance Grand Elder, Di Hong.

He was the son of the Central Court Alliance Chief, and Di Hong was the Spirit Realm ID that the master had personally chosen for him. He was a Level 9 Sovereign, one of the strongest below the Five Elements Alliance's five alliance chiefs.

This meeting had been called by Grand Elder Di Hong. Each of the five great organizations sent two elders, ten in total. Within the Five Elements Alliance, a gathering of this grade was called the Council of Ten Elders.

It was the highest-level meeting below that of a meeting of alliance chiefs. Only an alliance chief could summon every elder of the Five Elements Alliance.

The Council of Ten Elders was not convened lightly. When it was, something big was afoot. Big didn't always mean urgent or bad, but it was always an indication of a contentious mess that needed hashing out.

The elders were still turning over the purpose of that day's meeting when Grand Elder Di Hong spoke.

"Yuanshi Tianzun of the Songhai Branch has just returned from the Spirit Realm, and he is able to provide a guide to the Nocturnal Specter-exclusive Spirit Realm, Mute Village. A decision about this guide needs to be made during this meeting."

He paused, then said slowly, "The question is whether or not to sell that guide to the Taiyi Sect."

Yuanshi Tianzun of the Songhai Branch? The elders traded silent looks, glimmers of surprise in every pair of eyes.

Some of them had come to know Yuanshi Tianzun through the arena tournament, while others had only heard the name. Either way, none of them could work out how a Transcendent Nocturnal Specter could cause the Grand Elder to call a Council of Ten Elders. One of the highest-level assemblies in the whole Five Elements Alliance had been convened, and the reason was merely the sale of a Transcendent-tier dungeon guide?

Di Hong looked at the curly haired poodle and said gently, "Elder Teddy, explain it to them."

The elders turned their eyes to the only nonhuman present. Elder Teddy stayed in his seated crouch and spoke without hurry.

"You've all seen the rumors on the forums yesterday, no doubt. The dungeon Yuanshi Tianzun went into is called Mute Village, and it's a rather strange one."

"We know that garbage already. Get to the point," a red-haired fellow cut in impatiently.

Elder Teddy acted like he hadn't heard and kept his own rhythm. "By Yuanshi Tianzun's account, it's a bugged dungeon with a difficulty level that surpasses the Transcendent tier. An ordinary Nocturnal Specter who enters is dead without question. But with a detailed guide, the dungeon becomes very easy."

"That alone wouldn't warrant a meeting to discuss it though," an elder of the White Tiger Legion observed with a smile. "There must be a weightier reason."

Elder Teddy nodded in response. "The crux is the rewards. Follow the steps and finish the quests, and you walk out with three items, one rule-type item, and two with power levels at the Saint tier. A Nocturnal Specter dungeon, holding Saint-tier items! They're replicas, yes, but each one can be used three times."

When he finished speaking, the quiet conference room was filled with voices. Elders who a moment ago had been stern or disinterested now spoke their minds one after another.

"We can't sell the guide. It would shake our standing."

"Not many will enter an A-rank Spirit Realm, but in the long term, enough will pass through. A few years down the road, a dozen years, and the Taiyi Sect will have stockpiled a significant number of these replicas."

"If we sell this guide, their Transcendent-tier Nocturnal Specters will gain a crushing edge over Evil-class Walkers of the same tier. This could be the deciding factor that shifts the whole board. Ten years from now, the evil organizations' strength will diminish."

"Agreed. The rank and file are the largest group, and the bedrock every organization stands on. If we choke off the Evil-class Walkers at the Transcendent tier we can pluck out the organizations by their roots."

"But that allows the Taiyi Sect to strengthen, and when given the opportunity, they'll fight us for power for sure. Civilian organizations and the noble Spirit Realm families will all drift toward them, and even the government will lean harder into backing the Taiyi Sect."

"I say we can sell it... But we have to strategize the right way to do so..."