24: Chapter 24 Return and Harvest

Sun Po and the other two had already run to the entrance of the rift, about to make a narrow escape.

But he didn't hesitate at all, pushing Yang Xinyue and Liu Jianren out with a single palm strike.

Immediately afterward, he turned around and ran towards the [Double-Pupil Warrior].

At this moment, the mystic realm had completely collapsed,

with fragments of shattered land floating and sinking within a black-and-white ink-wash painting-like scroll.

The Black Water River and the blood-colored Wu River had turned into two heavily inked strokes.

One black and one red, winding across the entire picture.

Countless Yin Soldier remains and materials also drifted weightlessly among them like tiny embellishments in the painting.

From time to time, wisps of black wind swept past, turning everything along the way into ink dregs.

Sun Po looked around, only to find that the [Double-Pupil Warrior] had completely vanished without a trace.

Beside him, only [Changyou] lay to the side with its eyes tightly shut, holding a glowing, vibrant bead in its hand at some point.

Suddenly, a cold male voice echoed in Sun Po's mind.

"Thank you for not abandoning me, My Lord, but the heaven and earth here have collapsed, and the turbulent void currents are running rampant."

"This general fears he cannot ensure your safety, My Lord, so please leave quickly."

Hearing this, Sun Po asked back,

"What about you?"

"This general has recovered some memories and needs to retrieve his origin here."

"The day the task is completed, I will definitely seek out My Lord at the first opportunity."

With that, a tear suddenly ripped open in the void, and a huge eye gazed down from above.

Inside that eye were actually a full nine pupils, rotating irregularly without pause.

It looked majestic yet tinged with a hint of madness.

A thunder-like voice came from outside the tear.

"Yang Xi!! How dare you deceive Us!!!"

The voice in Sun Po's mind instantly grew anxious.

"My Lord, leave quickly!!"

Just as those pupils were about to look towards Sun Po's direction,

a blur flashed before Sun Po's eyes, and he had actually arrived at the entrance of the mystic realm.

At his feet was the glowing, vibrant bead that [Changyou] had been holding in its hand.

And for some reason, [Changyou] was already fast asleep within Sun Po's spiritual space.

Sun Po picked up the bead, intending to question it once [Changyou] woke up.

Not far away, Yang Xinyue and Liu Jianren were waiting in place with anxious expressions.

Liu Jianren was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, spinning around and muttering incessantly,

"It's over, it's over, it's over!! The mystic realm entrance has disappeared!! We're completely done for this time!!"

Annoyed by the noise, Yang Xinyue snapped irritably,

"Can you stop spinning? You're making me dizzy!!"

"Wait another five minutes. If they still haven't come out,"

"we'll just have to report it to the Card Association and see if we can apply for rescue."

But Yang Xinyue herself knew very well that the Card Association was a huge and bloated organization.

By the time the procedures went through, it would take at least a week.

Moreover, this kind of mystic realm collapse was an extremely rare event, and the requirements for rescue personnel were extremely high.

I'm afraid it would take even longer.

By that time, Sun Po's ashes would probably have been scattered to the winds.

Yang Xinyue gritted her teeth and cursed in a low voice,

"Damn that thousand-times-dead Sun Po, playing the hero! If you die,"

"the money I lent out will become a bad debt!!!"

"If I knew earlier, I wouldn't have come out~"

A familiar voice sounded, and Yang Xinyue turned back in disbelief,

only to see Sun Po standing alive and well right behind them.

Liu Jianren rushed over with a surprised look,

"Brother Po?! You came out? This... I'm not hallucinating, right? That's great!!"

As he spoke, he pinched himself on the left and looked at Sun Po on the right, then flopped down onto the grass, panting as he said,

"You scared me to death..."

Yang Xinyue didn't speak at this moment. Her eyes first lit up with sparkling joy,

and then her charming eyes narrowed slightly as she put down the bulging material backpack on her back.

She walked gracefully towards Sun Po,

"Hmm~, isn't this our great hero returning? Sacrificing yourself to save others, how noble..."

Clearly a very gentle tone, but Sun Po inexplicably sensed murderous intent.

He couldn't help taking a few steps back, waving his hand and saying,

"Sister Xinyue, it's not what you think! I'll explain when we get home!"

On the side, Liu Jianren just felt that he was living somewhat redundantly; perhaps he should have been the one to stay behind in that damn mystic realm.

He picked up the three backpacks on the ground and decisively went outside the dense forest to count the materials.

Immediately afterward, shrill screams from Sun Po rang out from the dense forest.

...

Ten minutes later, Sun Po walked out of the dense forest with bird's nest-like hair and a head full of bumps.

Liu Jianren laughed outright at the sight, but quickly wiped away his smile after being glared at by Sun Po.

"Brother Po, this time we harvested a total of 121 green materials and 896 white materials."

"There were too many gray materials, so I didn't finish counting them."

Hearing this, a smile bloomed on Sun Po's face.

Fortunately, although the mystic realm collapsed, they still harvested quite a lot of materials.

But when it came to how to divide them, the two of them tacitly remained silent.

This mystic realm exploration was initiated by Liu Jianren,

and Yang Xinyue, as a veteran intermediate Card Maker, had much richer experience in entering mystic realms.

But Sun Po's performance in the mystic realm was obvious to all; he could be said to be the one who contributed the most effort.

They were all waiting for Sun Po to speak first.

Sun Po didn't hesitate; he had already thought it through:

"We'll have to trouble Jianren to throw these materials into the material market for consignment."

"The money obtained can be divided equally among the three of us,"

"and just transfer my share directly to Teacher Yang."

Both Liu Jianren and Yang Xinyue raised their heads in surprise.

Liu Jianren asked,

"But Brother Po,"

"basically you and Teacher Yang put in all the effort in this mystic realm,"

"and my [Red Snake] didn't play much of a role at all."

Sun Po smiled.

"If it weren't for you, we wouldn't even have found the door to this mystic realm. You deserve this one-third."

Hearing this, Liu Jianren was moved in his heart.

You must know that the price of these three large bags of materials was at least three million or more.

Yet Sun Po was able to trust him and let him handle it directly without even opening them to take a look.

Coupled with the fact that Sun Po pushed them both out of the mystic realm, Liu Jianren's favorable impression of Sun Po skyrocketed.

But Sun Po knew that Liu Jianren had also played a huge role in this exploration.

When [Yang Wulang] brought down a staff technique from the sky to slaughter all directions, Liu Jianren was picking up materials.

When Sun Po was commanding the [Double-Pupil Warrior] to sweep through the mystic realm, Liu Jianren was still picking up materials.

It could be said that Liu Jianren made the greatest contribution in preserving so many materials.

Yang Xinyue, acting as their homeroom teacher on the side, didn't act coy either; she really had no money lately.

Her huge investment in Sun Po was no less than a venture capital investment.

Fortunately, she won the bet.

...

In the evening, Yang Xinyue finally drove Sun Po and Liu Jianren back to Gaoping City.

Just as Yang Xinyue said, all three large bags of materials went through security checks.

The three of them didn't hide anything and recounted the entire process after entering the mystic realm.

About twenty minutes later, a voice came through one of the staff's earpieces:

"The coordinates are correct, and there is indeed rift fluctuation present."

With that, the official staff finished their verification,

and even issued an exploration bonus of ten thousand yuan to each of them.

Thus, Sun Po and his companions' mystic realm exploration journey could be considered a perfect end.

When Sun Po returned to his room, it was already midnight.

[Changyou] was still fast asleep, and Sun Po could finally rest for a bit.

Suddenly, he thought of the bead in [Changyou]'s hand.

"I should take a look at the thing that [Changyou] wouldn't let go of even while unconscious."

...