153: Chapter 153: Thank you so much for this opportunity, my friend! Five stars! *kiss*
"Rumble—!"
Under the relentless, no-cost-spared bombardment of the Seven Great Sects, that white jade gate, sealed for tens of thousands of years, slowly creaked open amidst an earth-shaking tremor.
A vast, ancient aura rushed out to meet them, yet strangely, this aura lacked the expected fluctuations of spiritual energy.
But at this moment, the sect bigwigs, their eyes bloodshot from the slaughter, hardly cared about such trivial details.
"It's open! The gate is open!"
"Charge in! First come, first served!"
There was no need for mobilization or tactics. The moment the gate opened, the so-called alliance instantly disintegrated.
Sect Master Li Qingyun took the lead, burning his essential blood to transform into a blur as he rushed inside.
"You old thief, Li! You have no honor!"
Great Elder Zhou Tong roared, brandishing the broken half of his iron staff as he followed closely behind.
The other elders and disciples scrambled forward, terrified that being a step late would mean they wouldn't even get a sip of broth. Some even started fighting right at the entrance to secure their position.
"Get lost! This was discovered by my Medicine God Valley!"
"Bullshit! This was clearly smashed open by my Vajra Sect!"
Amidst this chaos and frenzy, only the few "undercover agents" like Gou Dan and Long Aotian, while appearing to charge along with the rest, kept their feet greased, always maintaining a safe position that was "neither falling behind nor rushing to the front."
They exchanged glances, their eyes hiding a trace of mockery as they prepared to watch the show.
Sect Master Li Qingyun, charging at the very front, was the first to cross the threshold and dash into the main hall.
He threw his arms wide, a look of ecstatic joy on his face, and shouted, "The divine inheritance! It's mine! Hahahaha... eh?"
Like a rooster crowing that had suddenly been choked by the neck, his laughter came to an abrupt halt. The Great Elder Zhou Tong, Gu He, and the others who rushed in right after him were all left stunned.
The scenes they had envisioned—golden and magnificent, soaring with treasure light, mountains of immortal artifacts—did not appear.
What greeted them was... an extremely clean plaza.
Yes, clean. So clean it made people want to cry.
This grand main hall, capable of holding ten thousand people, looked as if it had been licked clean by countless dog tongues. On the surrounding walls, the niches that should have been embedded with night-luminescent pearls and gemstones were now empty, leaving behind only pitch-black holes.
The dozens of coiled-dragon gold pillars supporting the hall had their gold foil scraped off completely, revealing the dull, gray stone underneath. Even worse was the floor.
The floor, which should have been paved with top-grade spirit jade, had been pried up until not a single piece remained, leaving only a pitted and uneven dirt floor, with fresh shovel marks still visible.
Forget about divinity, forget about immortal artifacts. In this vast hall, they hadn't even left a single meditation cushion!
"This... this..." Sect Master Li Qingyun trembled as he reached out, pointing at the empty hall, his lips quivering. "Where are the things? Where are the treasures? Where is the divinity?!"
"Impossible! This is absolutely impossible!"
Great Elder Zhou Tong's eyes were bulging as he madly rushed to a corner, frantically digging at the ground with his staff. "Even a broken sword would have been fine! How could there be nothing at all?!"
Gu He, the Valley Master of Medicine God Valley, collapsed onto the ground, his eyes unfocused. For this expedition, he had brought the last of Medicine God Valley's life-saving pills, and now... all his efforts had come to nothing?
"Wait! There's something there!"
An sharp-eyed disciple pointed to the center of the main hall, at the tall altar that should have enshrined a divine statue. The statue was long gone, leaving only a bare pedestal. But in the very center of that pedestal, a single sheet of white paper sat alone.
That sheet of white paper looked so glaring, so eerie, in the empty hall.
"Is that... a divine oracle?!"
Sect Master Li Qingyun, as if grabbing onto a last straw, scrambled up the altar and snatched the paper. "It must be a test left by the divinity! Or a clue to a treasure map!"
Everyone crowded around, stretching their necks, holding their breath, staring intently at the paper. Sect Master Li Qingyun trembled as he unfolded the note.
He saw that there were no obscure ancient divine scripts or mysterious formation diagrams. Instead, written in an incredibly arrogant, sweeping, modern simplified Chinese font, was a line of large characters:
[Dear suckers:]
[By the time you read this letter, I've already taken the goods home to sleep.]
[Thanks for drawing the fire of that silly dog (crossed out) divine beast at the entrance. I've recorded your heroic poses on surveillance.]
[To commend your fearless spirit of dedication, I've decided... to give you a five-star review!]
[PS: Don't bother looking. I even pulled out the steel bars from the load-bearing walls. Don't come so late next time; you'll miss out on the fresh stuff.]
[Signed: A helpful citizen passing by, Mr. Ye. Mwah~ (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧]
In the bottom right corner of the note, there was even a crudely drawn but incredibly mocking chibi ghost face.
"Pfft—!"
After reading the last word, Sect Master Li Qingyun sprayed a mouthful of old blood directly onto the note.
"Ye! Liangchen!!!"
He roared toward the sky, his voice as shrill and sorrowful as a cuckoo crying blood, filled with endless hatred and despair.
At this moment, he finally understood. All the talk of divine miracles, ancestral manifestations, and defying fate—from beginning to end, it was a complete and utter scam!
That damn Ye Liangchen had long since emptied the place! And they were like a group of fools who were sold and still helped count the money, working themselves to death here, only to end up with a piece of paper that was too rough even to wipe their asses with!
"This is too much! This is just too much!!!"
Great Elder Zhou Tong was also trembling with rage and smashed his staff against the altar. But because he used too much force, and the altar had already been hollowed out and was structurally unstable, with a "crack," the altar collapsed, burying him inside.
"I don't believe it! I'm going to kill him! I'm going to kill my way back to Demon City!"
Gu He, his hair disheveled and acting like a madman, screamed, "Return my pills! They're mine! They're all mine!"
Watching these scenes of collapse, Gou Dan and Long Aotian, standing at the back of the crowd, exchanged glances and tried hard to hold back their laughter.
They forced themselves to put on expressions of "extreme grief" and shouted along, "Sect Master, take care of your health!", "That Ye Liangchen is simply not human!", "We'll fight him to the death!"
However, although they shouted loudly, no one actually moved. Because everyone knew, fight? With what? The Seven Great Sects had suffered heavy casualties, their foundations were exhausted, they were up to their ears in debt, and their mental states had completely collapsed. And what about the other side? Not only was he unscathed, but armed with the resources he'd snatched from here, his strength would likely double again. This was no longer a battle of the same magnitude.
...
Ghost Tower,
"Boss, those old guys seem to have gone crazy with anger."
Luo Li watched the surveillance footage of the sect bigwigs rolling on the floor, vomiting blood, and cursing in the main hall, and said with some sympathy, "Sect Master Li Qingyun seems to have had a stroke."
"It's good that they've gone crazy with anger."
Ye Liangchen picked up a night-luminescent pearl he'd pried from the ruins and tossed it in his hand. "You have to break it to build it."
"Once they've vented and realized the reality, they will understand that in this era, if they want to survive, they have no choice but to work for me."
He walked to the huge floor-to-ceiling window and looked at the bustling night view of Demon City outside.
"Luo Li, draft a new contract."