170: Chapter 169 is unacceptable.

Just as Sun Po was about to speak, Coachman Ranger Xuanyuan said lazily from the side, "Big sis, don't just use junk to make up the numbers—"

[Zhuque] Jiang Yan let out a cold snort and said, "I'll settle accounts with you during this year's year-end meeting."

With that, she waved her hand, and the entire grand hall instantly blazed with light, piercing Sun Po's eyes so he couldn't open them.

After a long while, Sun Po finally adapted to the sudden glare.

At this moment, what Sun Po saw was a brilliant orb of light about one meter in diameter floating in the center of the grand hall.

That orb of light was like a miniature sun, with golden flames floating on its surface, scorching and dazzling, emitting a surging heat.

Then he heard Coachman Ranger Xuanyuan let out an exclamation and say, "No way, Big Sis, an egg of the Three-Legged Golden Crow?!"

[Zhuque] Jiang Yan let out a cold snort and said, "It's just a dead egg."

Coachman Ranger Xuanyuan stopped drinking his wine, stepped forward, and walked in circles staring at the egg-sized orb of light,

as if he had never seen it before.

He clicked his tongue in praise, saying, "Although it's a bit useless, it's still a rare item."

As he spoke, he turned his head to look at Sun Po and said, "Kid, you owe me another favor now. When the time comes to choose a teacher, you must give me priority."

Sun Po hurriedly cupped his fists and said, "Definitely, definitely."

Being chased by a Titled Card Maker to be one's teacher really took some getting used to.

However, after all, this person was his savior and had helped him repeatedly on multiple occasions.

Compared to the inscrutable Zhuang Zhou and the wealthy Taotie, the unconstrained and casual Coachman Ranger Xuanyuan indeed won more of Sun Po's favor.

At the same time, Sun Po also heard the conversation between the two. It seemed that without Coachman Ranger Xuanyuan here,

this [Zhuque] Jiang Yan might not have given him a hard time over the Flame Demon, but taking out this Three-Legged Golden Crow's dead egg would have been out of the question.

In this matter, Sun Po indeed owed Coachman Ranger Xuanyuan a debt of gratitude, but what shocked Sun Po even more was the brilliant orb of light floating in mid-air.

Sun Po's heart pounded wildly, feeling somewhat excited. After all, that was the Three-Legged Golden Crow!! The legendary incarnation of the sun!!

Even if it was just a dead egg, its value was definitely extraordinary. Compared to some Flame Demon, it truly lowered the status of the Three-Legged Golden Crow.

[Zhuque] naturally also knew that the value of this dead egg of the Three-Legged Golden Crow was definitely above that of the Flame Demon, but the circle of Titled Card Makers was only so big.

If she casually gave this kid some benefits today, given Ranger Xuanyuan's casual temperament and loose lips in the future, it would inevitably spread rumors of her forcefully seizing things and bullying a junior.

Especially since this junior was very young and had attracted enough attention at the same time,

whether it was that old fellow Zhuang Zhou, Champion Marquis Huo Wuji, Taotie Mancang, or Coachman Ranger Xuanyuan, these people all already knew of Sun Po's existence.

Sun Po's special blank destiny and the Qingdi's maxim gave Sun Po a certain degree of renown within the circles of these big shots, plus Coachman happened to be present.

For the sake of saving face, she couldn't casually manipulate him either. After all, whether it was her identity as a Titled Card Maker or her identity as part of the Jiang Family, she needed to maintain some dignity.

In fact, as a Titled Card Maker, even if it was an arrangement from many years ago, being stumbled upon and having her harvest plucked by a mere high school student and low-level Card Maker was already a very undignified matter.

If other Titled Card Makers found out about this, they would inevitably crack a few jokes and taunt her. Otherwise, Coachman Ranger Xuanyuan wouldn't have been holding back his laughter over there.

[Zhuque] Jiang Yan was also very helpless at this moment. She captured the Flame Demon mainly because of her exclusive talent—[Flame Witch].

[Zhuque] Jiang Yan's exclusive talent was a bloodline, and its description was: A powerful bloodline born from the fusion of the Flame Emperor's bloodline and the Great Witch's bloodline,

this bloodline naturally possessed extreme affinity for fire and witchcraft, and the stronger the flames she refined herself, the stronger the power of her witchcraft would be.

[Flame Wizard] was a highly specialized exclusive talent. It could be said that ever since [Zhuque] Jiang Yan awakened this exclusive talent,

her path had basically been determined: dual-cultivating fire and witchcraft. For so many years, she had always done so.

Although the inheritance of witchcraft was scarce, being in one of the oldest and most powerful families in the Yanhuang Ancient Country, Jiang Yan still learned various legendary witchcrafts.

Coupled with the fact that Jiang Yan had also crafted [Zhuque], one of the Four Symbols of Heaven, she had also mastered the legendary Southern Separation Bright Fire,

and because of this, she was granted the title [Zhuque].

Along with others like bone-reaching cold flame, fallen heart flame, and so on, Jiang Yan had refined over a hundred kinds of flames for herself.

The [Demon Flame] possessed by this Flame Demon was precisely a kind of flame she had always wanted to refine, except that the region she guarded did not have monsters like the Flame Demon.

Later, she accidentally heard that the Flame Demon clan loved to eat various [fire seeds] and could smell the scent of [fire seeds] across space.

Moreover, these guys liked to bully the weak and lacked the courage to face strong enemies. If she went herself, across the spatial rifts, they would be able to smell her scent.

Therefore, she added a triggered trap witchcraft into the [boiling fire] she had refined, and placed it into the internal secret realm closest to where the Flame Demon haunted outside the territory—[Chibi Purgatory].

This [Chibi Purgatory] had been carefully selected by her back then. First of all, outside the boundary wall of [Chibi Purgatory] was the region where the Flame Demons frequently haunted outside the territory.

Secondly, the [boiling fire] was originally born from the [Chibi Purgatory] secret realm. With this flame appearing here, even a Flame Demon, which was exceptionally sensitive to fire by nature, was guaranteed not to find the slightest flaw.

Furthermore, [Chibi Purgatory] itself was already a fully explored public secret realm, in which there were no overly powerful monsters.

Monsters like Zhou Yu, Zhuge Liang, and Cao Cao had never appeared at all; perhaps their true spirits were still drifting in the river of destiny.

Even monsters like Huang Gai and Cai Mao had long been carved up by various worlds and killed during the land reclamation.

Later on, generally only civilian Card Makers not exceeding the middle rank would enter. These people absolutely lacked the ability to break through beneath the river water. As for those Boiling Fire Nether Soldiers, they were born from the boiling fire in the first place and would only be the protectors of the boiling fire seed.

[Zhuque] Jiang Yan was even afraid that the Flame Demons couldn't get in, so she specially burned a boundary wall of the [Chibi Purgatory] secret realm to be a bit weaker, making it reach the extent that the demon flame could just barely burn through it.

Such behavior actually violated the Management Law of Internal Secret Realms. If Taotie Mancang knew about her operation like this, although he wouldn't do anything to her, he would definitely harbor many criticisms against her in his heart.

Therefore, Zhuque didn't want this matter to attract too much attention in the first place, and even if someone noticed it, seeing the familiar flame aura, they would most likely tacitly ignore it.

But she really didn't expect that Sun Po, such a freak, would suddenly pop up, able to possess power breaking through the internal realm limit at the low-level Card Maker stage, and still holding an ancient deity card like the quasi-vortex water god [Wuzhiqi] in his hand.

Gold!! Gold card!! Since when were gold cards so worthless?!

Even if civilian low-level Card Makers didn't use the Three Houses' cards of white clouds and green waters, orange at the absolute most, right?

Even a civilian Card Maker as brilliantly talented back then as Champion Marquis Huo Wuji had main battle cards that were only orange,

and now Champion Marquis Huo Wuji was already the number one person among the five Titled Card Makers, a formidable expert counted even outside the territory.

If this kid kept growing all the way, where would his destination be? What level would he reach?

Threefold Heavens? Ninefold Heavens? Or was it possible to reach that only-rumored Thirty-Threefold Heavens?

Zhuque immediately denied her own thought, smiling self-deprecatingly in her heart: "I must be muddled. Since ancient times, there have been countless brilliantly talented people. No matter how powerful this kid is,

compared to Zhuang Zhou, compared to the Five Emperors, compared to existences like Zeus and Odin, the path he had to walk was still too long."

As a Titled Card Maker, Zhuque's broad horizons were naturally incomparable to ordinary mortals.

At this moment, she didn't even notice that in her heart she only felt Sun Po still had a long way to walk,

without subconsciously feeling that it was impossible for Sun Po. Actually, this was already a very terrifying thing.

Moreover, in her heart, she had completely acknowledged that Sun Po was the strongest civilian Card Maker in history during the high school stage.

For such a proud son of heaven with a promising future, paying with a dead egg of the Three-Legged Golden Crow to build a good relationship seemed not bad either.

Especially since she had already mastered the Golden Crow Sun Flame. Precious as the dead egg of the Three-Legged Golden Crow was, its spirituality had basically completely dissipated.

To [Zhuque] Jiang Yan, it only had some collection value; giving it to this kid in exchange for a living Flame Demon was not considered a loss.

But in this matter, she had one major doubt.

To this day, she still couldn't figure out where the aura of the wind seed in that place came from.

[Zhuque] herself was not good at divination, so it was difficult to find the person who placed the wind seed, especially when questioning Sun Po earlier,

she knew that Sun Po went deep into the [Chibi Purgatory] secret realm because he was looking for Snow-Treading Wuzhui, and Snow-Treading Wuzhui had been swept into that secret realm by a gust of wind.

Jiang Yan instantly understood that she must have been set up by someone, and this kid named Sun Po was also used as a knife by someone.

Jiang Yan was already thinking about finding Professor Zhou Gongdan from the Central Laboratory later to cast a divination and see if she could find any clues.

But she suddenly heard a voice say, "Venerable [Zhuque], I cannot accept this dead egg of the Three-Legged Golden Crow."

[Zhuque] Jiang Yan almost thought she had misheard. Instantly, she felt a great aversion towards Sun Po in her heart, while also marveling at Sun Po's arrogance.

This kid had an insatiable greed like a snake trying to swallow an elephant. Could not even this dead egg of the Three-Legged Golden Crow fill his appetite?

To refute a Titled Card Maker's face like this, did he truly think that someone like herself who had refined over a hundred kinds of flames had a good temper?

Coachman also stopped speaking at this moment, just crossing his legs with keen interest on the side, drinking wine while watching Sun Po.

"Screech!!"

"Clatter!!"

The side door of the grand hall suddenly opened, accompanied by the sound of shattering porcelain.

A purple-robed figure stumbled in, letting out an exclamation of "Ouch," which instantly attracted the gazes of the three people in the room.

Li Tiance awkwardly dusted off his clothes, climbed up from the ground, and smiled at [Zhuque] Jiang Yan, saying, "Aunt Jiang,

it's my fault for being clumsy; the fine Pre-Qingming Longjing tea has all been ruined."

[Zhuque] Jiang Yan closed her eyes, her long, flame-like hair swaying slightly.

She laughed out of extreme anger and said, "Can the Li Family not even afford servants anymore? Does the young master of the Li Family need to serve tea and pour water?

And you didn't even dare to use the main entrance, needing to enter from the side door?"

Seeing this, Coachman Ranger Xuanyuan laughed and said, "Kid Tiance, you want to protect this friend of yours, but don't treat your Aunt Jiang like a fool, hahaha."

Li Tiance had been eavesdropping outside the door all along. Looking like he had committed a huge mistake at this moment, he hurriedly stepped forward and repeatedly admitted his fault.

Most of the scions of the Five Surnames and Seven Clans were well acquainted with each other. [Zhuque] Jiang Yan was a generation older than Li Tiance and watched Li Tiance grow up, so Li Tiance understood her very well.

Although he wasn't familiar with Coachman Ranger Xuanyuan, he could tell from his surname that he was also in the circle of these Five Surnames and Seven Clans.

Among the five official Titled Card Makers, except for the most mysterious River God and the most rigid and civilian-born Champion Marquis, the remaining three had a very good impression of Li Tiance.

Therefore, hearing the commotion inside from outside the door, Li Tiance hurriedly came in wanting to help Sun Po out of the siege.

He knew that this Aunt Jiang of his was really not an easy person to talk to. Sun Po was a commoner with no background,

and if Jiang Yan became unhappy and cast a spell on him, it would truly be impossible to guard against.

His appearance at this time was precisely to divert [Zhuque] Jiang Yan's attention and prevent Jiang Yan from dealing a heavy blow.

Sun Po could naturally read this intention, and his heart also grew a bit more grateful toward Li Tiance.

But him not wanting this dead egg of the Three-Legged Golden Crow wasn't because he was unsatisfied with it. On the contrary, he was more than satisfied with this thing.

Especially since Sun Po was currently lacking a powerful fire-attribute material to craft the flame dragon armor, and the golden flames and surging heat emerging on the surface of the Three-Legged Golden Crow dead egg all indicated without exception that

this was nine times out of ten an extremely powerful fire-attribute material. How could Sun Po not be satisfied with such a perfectly timed material?

It was just that he had already confirmed that the Flame Demon was originally prey that [Zhuque] Jiang Yan had spent several years capturing. He had reaped the fisherman's profit and had been cornered by the rightful owner, so how could he still ask for compensation from the other party?

The reason why [Zhuque] Jiang Yan made such compensation was, on one hand, because this female Titled Card Maker was indeed a person of dignity and face, but a large part of the reason was also because Coachman Ranger Xuanyuan was by her side.

If he accepted this dead egg of the Three-Legged Golden Crow at this time, he might gain temporary benefits, but it was very likely to make [Zhuque] loathe him in the future.

A matter that could be resolved by spending a bit more of his own spirituality was instead being achieved by forcibly seizing and nearly extorting assistance, while also incurring the aversion of a Titled Card Maker—this simply wasn't worth it.