Chapter 92: Wang Lu Made A Difficult Decision (2/2)

Before he could finish, w.a.n.g Lu’s incredulous voice has interrupted him. “Several hundred thousand spirit stones!?”

“Em, yeah.”

“... Aren’t you just bragging now?”

The dirty old man shook his head. “Definitely not! If you don’t believe me, you can go and check it out yourself! It’s not only us Seven Stars Sect who could do this. If others Sects can occupy a prefectural capital, they can also fish out several hundred thousand spirit stones. If it’s even a higher level of government office, even one million spirit stones is possible!”

Seeing that the dirty old man was very serious, w.a.n.g Lu frowned. “Strange, how could a bunch of ordinary mortals come up with so many spirit stones?”

The dirty old man continued to explain, “Certainly by gathering them bit by bit. In the Nine Regions, the spirit stones come in two ways. The first one is in the form spirit stone ore that appears in the spot where the surrounding spiritual energy had been converging for ever and ever. Not only it has abundant reserves, but as long as it is mined moderately, the reserve would never exhaust. Another one is the scattered spirit stones that accidentally born in various ways all over the regions. Nowadays, the rich spirit stone ore reserves are mostly in the possession of the top rate sects. Those ores are easy to mine, and the yield is huge. However, if we count the total numbers, those scattered spirit stones are no less than those spirit stone ores. It’s just that it’s not easy to acquire them, and the cost of doing so is too high… However, the mortal worlds have hundreds of thousands of willing people; if they gather them bit by bit, the total amount is extremely amazing… With how big the Nine Regions are, any sect could only occupy an insignificant little s.p.a.ce.”

w.a.n.g Lu nodded his head in agreement. “That’s reasonable. It’s wrong to ignore the power of the people, but… I never thought there’s actually hundreds of thousand spirit stones in a prefectural capital.”

The dirty old man smiled. “Yeah, that’s because big sects like yours never expect we can get rich in place other than theirs. Moreover, spirit stones are not the most important thing for us. Occupying a prefectural capital has countless benefits.”

“Such as?”

“This…” The dirty old man thought for a moment. “For example, a year of tax in a prefectural capital is about several millions tael of silver, however, in a year, we can ama.s.s wealth ten times more than that!”

“I’ll be d.a.m.ned! Ten times more than the income from tax? This is absolutely the Great Leap Forward [1]!”

The dirty old man laughed. “But this is the truth. A state tax will usually not burden the people too much because they don’t want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. If the tax is too heavy, people will have no means to make a living—that will not benefit anyone. However, Seven Stars Sect is different. In order to seek Immortality, those ignorant mortals who believe they can become Immortal Cultivators would not hesitate to sacrifice everything they had, wouldn’t they? They can even sell their wives and kids just so that they can get a pack of Spirit Root Development Pill! With such fools, how could we worry about money?”

Without waiting for w.a.n.g Lu to reply, the angry voice of the Lady Boss came from behind them. “Can you still fall asleep at night after getting this ill-gotten gain!?”

Upon hearing Lady Boss’s castigating voice, the dirty old man trembled in fear. Compared to w.a.n.g Lu, a disciple from one of the top sects, he was actually more afraid towards this cultivation-less, yet can punch his layer upon layer of defenses, flat chested girl—who was a real monster.

Thus, the dirty old man immediately explained, “This can’t be blamed on us. Those bereaved crazy followers, in most cases, bring it upon themselves. We just made exaggerated claims about our product, but we never force them to pay the high price tag that we put on it… Even some conscientious people from the sect, upon seeing that those people were bereaved, persuaded them to a.s.sess their capability and act accordingly. However, this thing doesn’t work on those crazy followers. The more we persuade them, the more they suspect that we are being partial! In order to achieve Immortality, they can do anything. For example, in the w.a.n.g Family Village, two days ago, I got news that there are several families, for fear that they will lose the Seven Stars Sect favor, plan to… claim underserved credits by taking your family hostage.”

Upon hearing the last few words, the Lady Boss was slightly surprised. She quickly turned around to see w.a.n.g Lu, only to discover that the later has an indifferent look.

“Ai, sometime, I think maybe this is a human nature. For a bottle of Spirit Root Development Pill, many people do not hesitate to commit murder and arson!”

Lady Boss couldn’t help but ask, “But… for mere mortals, even if they are crazy, those Spirit Root Development Pills couldn’t possibly have any effect, right? Why is it that they don’t come to their senses then?”

The dirty old man said, “No, the effect is certainly there. After all, this was a groundbreaking invention from the Shengjing Sect Patriarch, Patriarch Liu He… No matter how low someone’s qualification is, no matter how far someone’s affinity with the Immortal Path is, as long as that someone keeps taking the pills, their cultivation will improve. And with just this insignificant improvement, it could attract even more of them. Heh, no matter what, I am a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, not just in name only, but also in reality. Yet, I never thought that Immortal Cultivation could have such a big attraction!”

This time, w.a.n.g Lu also helped him explained, “Sister Ling, right now, in the Immortal Cultivation World, except for the ancient sects, the man-made spirit roots have been basically proliferated. Basically, as long as someone is wealthy enough, that someone can cultivate. Even if that someone is as imbecile and as fat as Wen Bao, as long as that someone took the Spirit Root Development Pills and so on everyday, in a few years, that someone would definitely reach the Qi Cultivating Stage.”

“This… the price and the gain are completely disproportionate. No matter how hard these commoners try it, how much money can they actually come up to buy these cultivation elixirs? Even after several decades of losing their family’s fortune, I’m afraid they can’t even stabilize level nine Qi Cultivating Stage; in the end, what’s the point?”

The dirty old man was stunned for quite a while. “Actually, even I don’t know what’s the point of it, but… since they are willing to take a beating, then we’re certainly happy to hit them!”

w.a.n.g Lu shrugged. “Sister Ling, don’t try to understand these idiots’ thoughts. If they are willing to use their brain to think and willing to listen to reason, then I don’t have to come here to deal with this dirty old man.”

The dirty old man bitterly smiled a few times; he didn’t know how to answer to that.

However, he soon realized that he didn’t need to say anything.

Because w.a.n.g Lu then continued, “However, hearing his remarks just now, I suddenly have an idea.”

“... An idea?” the Lady Boss boringly asked as she leaned on the door frame of the door that led to the rear chamber.

She just a.s.sumed that he would say some method of persuasion for those villagers… Although the Lady Boss didn’t have much contact with the mortal world’s villagers, she knew that if persuasion were useful, the Seven Stars Sect wouldn’t grow so big.

However, this part of w.a.n.g Lu was rarely seen. In the Spirit Sword Mountain, he lived a carefree live; he never had any worries about mortal worlds… However, when the Spirit Sword Sect sent their disciples down the mountain, it was exactly for these mortal world’s worries. Severing the ties with the mortal world was a painful process, and perhaps w.a.n.g Lu had eaten some bitter hards.h.i.+ps?

Then he caught the sight of w.a.n.g Lu from her peripheral vision, only to see there was a faint smile hanging on his face. Immediately, she felt as if her head was splashed with cold water.

“Yes, just an idea.” w.a.n.g Lu’s voice was as soft as silk, but each word was unusually clear, as if it carried an amazing power.

The Lady Boss’s breathing slightly quickened. The silence in the room made her felt her own heartbeat seemed harsh. She had seen this kind of scene before… It was when a cultivator had a flash enlightenment.

Could it be, w.a.n.g Lu really thought of something?

Then, w.a.n.g Lu’s gentle voice tore the silence.

“Life is stupid.”

The Lady Boss was stunned. “Life is what…?”

“In this world, most people are stupid. Such stupidities originate from nature. Like the birds are born to fly, the fishes are born to swim, so the people in this world are born stupid… This is the law of the heaven, there’s no way to disobey it.”

“…”

“I once attempted to resist this heaven’s law in the w.a.n.g Family Village. I thought that being eloquent would make me win their hearts, but the result was, I lost to a small fry… It’s not because my eloquence degenerated, but because at that time, I went against the heaven. Therefore, I lost.”

“…”

“On the contrary, although the Seven Stars Sect is a despicable low-level sect in your view, but in this matter, they actually comply with the heaven’s will.”

The Lady Boss was about to go crazy. “This was your epiphany? Were you accidentally qi deviated?”

“They comply with the heaven’s will!? w.a.n.g Lu, what happened to you? Wake up, okay?”

w.a.n.g Lu laughed. “You are mistaken, Sister Ling, right now, I have never been this awake; my mind has never been this clearer. Think about it, what is the biggest rule in this world? It’s the winners survive, the losers perish; it’s a survival of the fittest! It’s the law of the jungle! You see, when a fox catches a rabbit, what did the rabbit do to deserve that? When the rabbit grazes, do those flowers and plants deserve to be eaten? The answer is, it is the law of the heaven. If you take sympathy to the flowers and plants, then that means you want the rabbit to starve to death. If you pity the rabbit, then the fox will starve… If this continues, the conclusion is, this world might as well not exist to avoid the sufferings of the living beings… However, this is obviously wrong.”

“...” This chain of reasoning completely confused the Lady Boss. The girl gently knocked the doorframe with her head, yet, even if the st.u.r.dy door frame completely cracked, everything was still unclear to her.

Although she didn’t seem to understand it, it still seemed pretty awesome.

w.a.n.g Lu continued, “Therefore, we need to cast aside our sympathy. We often said that the world is unkind, it considers all living beings as worthless as dogs and hay. If we have no way to free ourselves from the world of mortals, then there’s nothing more to say. But, since we have set foot on the path of Immortal Cultivation, we should see this from a higher perspective. The common people are fools, therefore, by the heaven’s law, they are destined to be bullied and exploited. If n.o.body is going to oppress them, it would be a waste instead. The Seven Stars Sect has done a good job; they have successfully played an important part in the ‘food chain’. In my opinion, the Seven Stars Sect and other similar sects are like a bunch of hard working reapers in the wheat field.”

“What the h.e.l.l! Hard working reapers!? You…” Upon hearing w.a.n.g Lu’s messy remark, the Lady Boss really wanted to slam the whole wall with her head!

“This is but the truth…” w.a.n.g Lu said, and then sighed. “The only problem is that, as a reaper, the Seven Stars Sect is too lame.”

Feeling as if her brain was still a ma.s.s of paste, the Lady Boss very depressedly nodded. “Since you criticized the Seven Stars Sect, we still at least have something in common.”

But the next moment, that something in common was also gone.

Because w.a.n.g Lu’s next words were, “Since the Seven Stars Sect is unreliable, then we might as well hand over this matter to a professional.”

“Professional…?”

w.a.n.g Lu pointed at himself. “This professional adventurer.”

“What the! … Are you kidding me!?”

[1] /wiki/Great_Leap_Forward