Archfiend

Chapter 104: Signing with the Featherwood Guard (2)

Translator: XTB

Yes, any industry required the stimulation of an idol. When it was time to work, the fastest to promote was an idol. In sports, gold medal winners were idols. In video games, e-sport pros were idols. However, as the gains of this idol wholly surpassed the expected, everyone in front of their computers went absolutely hysterical!

“Ten tons... ten tons...” In Mingshui Province, a group of middle-aged men huddling around a computer instantly blacked out because of this word! It was always friggin’ heard that pieces were used in calculation! Why were tons used as a measurement?! Wasn’t this a damn rule violation?!

“A ton... is about 1,700 spirit stones. Ten tons... 17,000 spirit stones?! How could he be valued at such a high price?!” In a villa, a youth jumped up like he had been pricked by a needle, pointing at his computer and screeching, “An inside scoop?! This isn’t any fuckin’ inside story I’ve ever seen! Is he the bastard son of a Dao Master?!”

“Ten tons... My god...”

“This... Tons haven’t been used as a measure since Sunnihilator! Fuck! Is this real life?!”

Inside a room with a tiger’s head at the entrance, in a suburban villa in Panshan City, there were four middle-aged men looking at each other dismay.

“T-Ten tons...” They looked at the widescreen ahead, an aching flavor leaving between the gaps of their teeth. In their hearts, there existed all kinds of grievances!

“We... only earn 5,000 spirit stones in a year of hard work...” The man on the left suddenly began to laugh bitterly, “Although it’s said our Tiger King Legion is a C-rank legion and our expenses aren’t great, accepted mission rewards aren’t high... This...”

Xu Yangyi’s induction as an agent was equal to over three years of their turnover, a legion of dozens of personnel! And this profit was still given to the Featherwood Guard! It was a clean profit! As for a clean profit, it was considered pretty good of them to be able to deposit 2,000 spirit stones in a year! But this was still hoping that Heavens Law’s technologies didn’t upgrade and change too quickly! Otherwise, their legion would be faced with the danger of bankruptcy at any time! They could only then list themselves on the market and wait to be bought out!

If their luck was good, someone would be willing to take over their legion and free them from debt. If their luck was bad... Hehehe... One would have to strive their hardest for a lifetime to settle the debt, no? Debt evasion? Sorry, under the supervision of the Cultivation Court, you can’t leave the province.

Still wanna run away from debt?

Presently, Xu Yangyi’s sign-on bonus... was ten tons! Ton, ton, ton, ton, ton... This really was a cruel hit of a ton of friggin’ damage! It even brought oneself to bleed!

“C-Commander!” On a mountain, there was a small building in a flower garden. A graceful long-haired man was basking in the sun on a reclining chair and leisurely reading a newspaper. Suddenly, a carpet lifted upwards, and a tunnel entrance appeared. A man in a heavy sweat ran over in a flurry. “Big news! Really big news!”

“What news?” The long-haired man questioned indifferently, “How many times have I said it? Initial-stage Foundation Establishment is still pretty fickle. How is it acceptable? Later on, I’ll make ten more copies of our Buried Flower Legion’s rules.”

“Commander, it really is major news!” The man was stunned, but was soon red-faced and said, “T-There’s a new A-rank legion that’s been established!

“A new A-rank?” The hand which the commander had just lifted his teacup with paused, and he furrowed his brows. “Three years ago, Chu Zhaonan’s Hidden Dragon Legion was formed. He was a Heavens Law provincial paragon, Deputy Minister Chu’s grandson. This is a natural matter of course, but there’s no Heavens Law graduation this time, right? How surprising...”

“It’s a paragon! Also the paragon from three years ago!” The man shouted excitedly.

“It’s not that the paragon from three years ago had their glory robbed, yeah? Their contract’s come to term?” The commander muttered to himself for a brief moment, “What else has happened?”

“That’s not important! Commaaander!” The man said, his eyes glowing with light. “Take a guess, sir. How much is their starting capital?! Ten tons! Ten tons! Over 17,000 spirit stones. Get the fuck out of here!”

“Over 17,000 spirit stones?!” This time, the commander’s eyes saucered wide open, and he immediately stood up. “Are you sure?!”

“Of course! It’s being live broadcasted!”

The commander breathed in deeply a few times. “Take me there!”

17,000 spirit stones... was already equal to half a year of the Buried Flower Legion’s remunerations! What was important, though... was that they were a provincial-level A-rank legion! They just happened to be in the middle of assailing the qualifications for the national-level rating! But more importantly... what on earth was Mingshui Province doing in granting such great assistance at the beginning? How deserving was this legion of their nurture?!

The front of every computer had already become a cacophony of howls! This was a tremendous spending of wealth, truly a great fiscal expense! Yet their excitement didn’t end here.

“Talismans...”

“What?! There’s more?!”

“Has the Featherwood Guard gone crazy?! Talismans and pill elixirs, can’t these crafts not be calculated together?! Aren't they actually separately calculated?!”

“What’re they thinking...?”

If said that everyone had lost themselves to excitement last time, this time, they were screaming themselves insane! There was surprisingly more!

“This doesn’t make sense! The Featherwood Guard’s starting funds have always been granted jointly! I’ve never heard of spirit stones first and then talismans after!” In a bar, the door tightly closed, there were ten-odd rogue cultivators gathered inside. At this moment, their cries were falling and rising in succession. They were brimming with anger and excitement, but even more with envy!

On top of envy, this signing now made the entire nation’s Qi Condensation cultivators envious, jealous, and hateful. It caused those who were paid attention to by Foundation Establishment Seniors ponder “how was it not them”?! That wasn’t to believe that Foundation Establishment seniors didn’t care about Qi Condensation cultivators. In the End of Days, weren’t Gu-rearing methods and the rest of the cultivation Dao legacies extinct in practice?

Time had changed, so people had to change. There was never someone who changed the environment. Only the environment changed people.

“There’s an inside story! There’s definitely an inside story!!!” There was a youth in a villa, his eyes flushed red as he grabbed onto his iPad, not letting it go. “Yeah... I really want to be in the loop!”

Despite envy, despite jealousy, and despite hate... a kind of feeling of “Get him off now! Let me up!”, at this instant, deeply stirred everyone’s hearts, rousing their eyes! Our aspirations approach the clouds and our heroism soars to the heavens! We cultivators ought to be like this!

If not to seek great freedom and cast away the impure world, then why was there a need to cultivate? If not for the reverence of all men, why put on airs?...No, then why cultivate?! Such naked ostentatiousness caused all viewers to band together and gnash their teeth in rage. Amidst this grinding of molars, they continued to spectate. They sat and watched Xu Yangyi rise above. They sat and looked at... the pitiful spirit stones in their own pockets. They were simply of mind to live off a woman!

“As for talismans, there are a total of fifteen kinds of daily talismans on the level of Spirit Traveling Talismans, Cleansing Talismans, and Tracer Talismans. There are 300 of each kind.”

“There are a total of five kinds of offensive talismans on the level of the Fireball Technique and Wind Edge Technique. There are a hundred of each kind.”

“There are a total of five kinds of defensive talismans on the level of the Earth Shield Technique. There are fifty of each kind.”

As he finished reading aloud, Chinacultivation had already become a boiling cauldron of voices!

A hundred low-grade spirit stones for Yangyu’s address! I’m going to give birth to a monkey for him!

A 110 low-grade spirit stones for Yangyu’s contact details! Strong men! Will seek to provide for a mistress!

Naive girl, you think he only likes women? I... Who fucking locked my post!

A strong man, huh... Right now, his legion is just him alone; at most a personal adjutant... That’s pretty brave!

However, a new, more popular forum post emerged all of a sudden. It caused everyone to stare in a daze. Immortal Visitor Amidst Clouds. Chinacultivation.com’s head forum-moderator, titled as “One who has Lost Morality”. It was said that the five major ranks of Chinacultivation.com, “Morality Lord”, “Morality Gap”, “Shattered Morality”, “Down to Earth”, and “One who has Lost Morality”, were devised by a Foundation Establishment senior....Of course, there were many people who didn’t believe in this. After all, how could a Foundation Establishment cultivator be so free with their time?

Everyone, have you calculated the price that the Featherwood Guard has presently taken out?

17,000 low-grade spirit stones. Based on the range of each low-grade spirit stone from 20,000 to 25,000 RMB, even if we go by the lowest conversion rate. Has everyone calculated how much this is?

A verse woke the people up from their reverie!

“340 million?!” It was simple arithmetic. Just as someone calculated the sum, their teeth chattered so hard that they nearly fell out!

The signing bonus converted into spirit stones was 17,000 low-grade spirit stones. However, exchanged for Chinese dollars, it was a 340 million!!! And this was nothing more than just the damn “signing” part of the word!

This still isn’t considering the following put-forth talismans. Based on my rough calculations, these talismans are approximately valued at tens of millions of Chinese dollars. Immortal Visitor Amidst Cloud’s post was bustling with incredible enthusiasm. In an instant a long queue was arranged. Moreover, I suspect it’s not even done yet.

It still wasn’t over? These words almost caused everyone who posted below to go mad in jealousy! 340 million was scrounged together... but the signing still wasn’t completed?! Was this the value of a true genius’s status? The Featherwood Guard’s answer was evident—it was!

The later video of Vermilion Snow’s blood sacrifice of the Heavens Law branch on that day had been whisked away by Floatingcloud, but the first part was reported to the Featherwood Guard for observation! They understood very well how many people could write out this price on the spot!

Was this price high? It absolutely wasn’t! A peak moneybags like the Bountiful Treasures Pavilion could approach this figure with a smashed-up ore vein! Everyone reckoned that just the value of four kinds of accompanying metals would reach close to a hundred million Chinese dollars! In addition, that wasn’t even mentioning the worth of a minor spirit-vein!

The middle-aged man was already numb. He said robotically, “In order to express the Featherwood Guard’s support towards a new A-rank legion, Fellow Daoist Xu’s legion, he will be provided with all pill elixirs from Qi Condensation to the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, directly allocated by the Featherwood Guard’s headquarters...” The present scene was already completely quiet. Even Immortal Visitor Amidst Clouds didn’t post a message. This condition caused him to understand a matter.

Isn’t your damned last talisman condition just to prevent us from catching our breaths? Isn’t it?! This fucking airhead was still behind! From Qi Condensation to Foundation Establishment, the cost of pill elixirs for a cultivator was a sky-high price! Even without the 10,000-plus spirit stones, you still have the nerve to put this down? This was the damn yearly output of a minor spirit-vein! A pill elixir to make a breakthrough to Foundation Establishment went for 50,000 to 60,000 spirit stones! Even now, no one was willing to convert how much money this was in Chinese dollars... To think about this was to bruise the ego.

“Fuck me...” A cultivator took a long sigh and suddenly slapped a table. “Cultivation, cultivation! It really friggin’ is... a competition between people that just makes a guy blow their top off!”

“This condition... even Foundation Establishment cultivators would be moved!”

“At the minimum, this is a sign-on bonus of over 20,000 spirit stones! A billion in Chinese dollars! My heart... My heart’s gonna break!”

All parts of the nation rang out with screams. A single year of their hard work would only yield a thousand spirit stones. In comparison to Xu Yangyi’s signing bonus of a million spirit stones—a billion in Chinese dollars—such a disparity... gave people no time at all to be envious. Jealousy? The disparity was too great, the starting point was completely different! Xu Yangyi was starting off at the end point!

It was only after no less than ten-odd minutes of reading did the man finish. All that remained on his face was a robotic smile.

I really want to... REALLY want to rob him... However, it appeared to be a question of what he would do if he wasn’t a match for Xu Yangyi... It was also unknown if the other needed a gigolo... In this day and age, there was gay marriage, and while he would take a loss instead of getting paid... there seemed to be a justification in saying this as well...

“Everyone might be doubting.” Thousandedge finally stood up and laughed, “On why young friend Xu’s signing bonus was so high?”

Yes! What’s the reason! Everyone looked at their screens again like they were pumped on chicken blood! If I don’t know I won’t be able to sleep!

“I assure everyone, there weren’t any shenanigans in these proceedings.” Thousandedge wordlessly swept an eye over Xu Yangyi and squeezed out a faint smile. “This is because young friend Xu supplemented some essentials concerning the Vermilion Snow Incident. In addition, it is the recognition of a genius cultivator formally treading into the cultivation world.”

For a God Ming successor to be slain, demons and humans would never be at peace. Nonetheless, it was necessary to be a bit tactful in publicly declaring this.

“Then there shouldn’t be so much, right?!” A reporter couldn’t help but to mutter. Tens of thousands of spirit stones... A billion in Chinese dollars... This was a bit too damn exaggerated!

Thousandedge nodded, and with his next words, all were directly silenced. “Because based on young friend Xu’s exam a few days ago, he has unleashed his neurons.”

“The strength reaches S-rank.”

1. 斯巴达 - means Sparta. However, I want to note that Chinese net slang uses this word to describe “crazy/insane/hysterical”, mainly the fact that I translated this as hysterical.

2. “Get the fuck out of here” - is actually another slang that literally translates to “I f*ck your grandfather”. From what I have learned, it is supposed to be kinda used in a context of super surprise/shock.

3. 蛊 - Gu. Gu is thought to be some legendary poisonous insect. Other accounts reveal that a bunch of poisonous creatures would be put in a jar to fight, and the one who survived at the end would create a unique poison (having fought and received the poisons of other creatures) known as “Gu”.

4. “Our aspirations approach the clouds and our heroism soars to the heavens!” Is a line used by Tang Poet Libai. Literally it’s more like “The world and wind begets us”.

5. “Live off a woman” - literally “eat soft meat”. If you read a lot of these CN novels, depending on/living off a woman is considered shameful.

6. “I’m going to give birth to a monkey for him” More Chinese net slang, used in a funny manner. In Chinese, monkey is pronounced “Hóuzi” and child is pronounced “Háizi”. It is supposed to be a play on words.

7. “In this day in age, there was gay marriage”. I am actually super unsure of this phrasing that the author uses. The author might be hinting at a more liberal society because the raw is literally “get married to a dog”, but then again, I’m following the context of this guy thinking to himself that he could be Xu Yangyi’s gigolo and contemplating the pros and cons of such. I'm also unsure if this is an internet slang of some sort to get past censors.

8. “Pumped on chicken blood”. I think I actually might have explained this in the past, but I will do so again. In traditional Chinese medicine, chicken blood is considered somewhat of a powerful folk cure. An injection of chicken blood can revitalize the self and promote health.

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