66: Chapter 66 I trust my wife's intuition more than my mother-in-law's.
Before he knew the secret of the incense burner, Yun Zhuo used to just leave it lying around anywhere.
Now that he knew, he had to keep it with him inside his storage bracelet.
There were also the funeral portraits of his parents; after wiping them clean, he had to put those away as well.
“Give them to me. You've been wiping them for ages. If you keep going, the photos of your parents-in-law are going to lose their color.”
Yun Zhuo reached out with a smile.
Teacher Su gave him a sidelong glance. “Nonsense. How could they lose color inside the frames?
By the way, I’ve been meaning to tell you, when I first saw your mother's photo, I thought she looked familiar. Do you know who she looks like?”
“Who?”
“Aunt Qiu.”
Yun Zhuo was stunned for a moment. “Then do you know what my mother's name was?”
“What?”
“Qiu Jie.”
“Your mother’s surname was also Qiu?”
“Yeah. So, do you know what the most poisonous curse in this world is?”
“What?”
“May all the lovers in the world turn out to be long-lost siblings.”
“Ah!” Teacher Su turned pale with fright instantly, but she quickly reacted: “Impossible, impossible. We can't be siblings.
Your mother just looks like Aunt Qiu, she isn't Aunt Qiu herself. I can at least distinguish that much. Also, Aunt Qiu isn't named Qiu Jie; she's Qiu Min.”
“Then is it possible we're cousins?”
Teacher Su abruptly raised three fingers and said, “I guarantee that Aunt Qiu is definitely not my mother; she's just a doctor at the Sanatorium.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely and definitely!”
“That’s good then. You really scared the life out of me just now.”
Teacher Su gave him a playful punch as if acting spoiled and said coquettishly, “I was scared to death too, okay?”
After packing up their things, Yun Zhuo planned to go to Pingfeng Plain to collect some money.
Although the System balance still had over twenty billion, that damn System was like a Pixiu—it only took in and never let out. Once you deposited money, you couldn't withdraw it.
As a result, he didn't even have the money now to buy Teacher Su a larger storage bracelet to hold the corrosion crystals.
After leaving the residential area, the two of them settled breakfast and lunch together at a fast-food restaurant right by the entrance.
When it was almost time to pay the bill, Teacher Su finally seemed to have made a decision. She pulled Yun Zhuo and said:
“By the way, Xiao Zhuo, my mother also gave me a Rune. She said if I inlay it on myself, it can mask our information and prevent others from spying on us.
Look at this Rune. Should we use it?”
Yun Zhuo took the Rune and examined it. “You don't trust your mother?”
Teacher Su thought for a moment and then nodded.
Yun Zhuo laughed bitterly. “The relationship between you two is really quite poor.”
“I... I don't know why, but after seeing her this time, I feel like she’s become even more of a stranger. It’s like... like I'm not even her biological daughter.”
Yun Zhuo comforted her, “Don't overthink it. They say daughters take after their mothers, and I think you look a lot like your mother, especially your eyebrows and nose.
Besides, don't you have an older sister?
If you really doubt your origins, you could ask her. She wouldn't lie to you, right?”
Teacher Su sighed in her heart and said, “My sister is only older than me by a few minutes. What could she possibly know?”
Forget it, she didn't want to trouble Yun Zhuo with this matter, so she changed the subject: “So, about this Rune, do we use it or not?”
Yun Zhuo smiled. “Let's go to the Guild first and see if we can trade this for a large storage bracelet for you.”
“Ah? You want to sell it? If my mother asks, what do you plan to say?”
“Let’s get one thing straight: it's not that I don't trust your mother, it's just that I trust my wife's intuition more.
As for if your mother asks later, we'll just say we were poor and pawned it for resources.
Besides, she's clearly so rich, yet she didn't give us any cultivation resources, not even money. We had no choice but to pawn the Rune she gave us.
Look at us, a couple so poor we even had to pawn the things the Mother-in-law gave us.”
Teacher Su burst into laughter. “You little rascal, you always have so many devious ideas.”
The two of them arrived at the Guild. This Rune actually sold for over nine hundred thousand, which was just enough to exchange for a twenty-five cubic meter War Princess Bracelet—one that wouldn't disappear after transformation.
The remaining fifty thousand or so was all converted into cash and placed in her bracelet.
Leaving the city, the two headed straight for Pingfeng Plain.
When they arrived, they realized it was the same place where they had spent the night before.
Fortunately, the isolated peak they stayed on was far from the coordinates Wu Song had given; otherwise, Yun Zhuo would have suspected some sneaky bastard was listening in for entertainment last night.
Following the coordinates from Wu Song, the two arrived at the foot of a flat-topped peak.
After performing Body Integration with Teacher Su, they pushed aside a boulder weighing a hundred tons, revealing a natural cave entrance.
The shipping container they had carried away from the Temple of the God of Wealth was lying there all alone inside.
Looking at the corrosion crystals in the container, Yun Zhuo felt that Wu Song and his wife were being a bit too good to him.
They had only known each other for a few days, yet faced with so many corrosion crystals, they weren't tempted at all. They really only took the half they agreed upon and even risked their lives going into the city to notify him.
Yun Zhuo did a rough count; the remaining corrosion crystals were worth over five million. Because there were many small denominations, the newly bought bracelet couldn't fit them all.
There was no choice but to make two trips. Two million were placed in Teacher Su's bracelet for her daily self-defense.
Three million were stored in his own account.
This required four round trips. They thought the whole day would be wasted like this, but to their surprise, during the fourth trip, the two of them inexplicably leveled up.
“Xiao Zhuo, did you feel that? It seems we've leveled up.”
Yun Zhuo was also stunned for a moment. “Heh~ we are at the Imperial Rank, after all. Think about how much Corrosion Energy you can absorb now. If leveling up was still as troublesome as before, wouldn't those twenty billion have been spent in vain?”
“That’s true. But you, kid, you're not thinking of just coasting from now on, are you?”
“How could I? Did you forget the three-year agreement with my Mother-in-law? Our talent is fixed now, but the Corrosion Energy required for leveling up keeps increasing.
The further we go, the more Corrosion Energy we'll need to level up.
By the way, Teacher Su, do you know what the average level of freshmen at the Imperial Capital Martial Arts University is?”
Teacher Su thought for a bit and said, “I don't know. I went to a liberal arts university before. But you can use Chen Qi as a reference.
He was also a freshman at the Imperial Capital Martial Arts University, but he was suspended less than a month after school started. He’s currently level thirty.
I estimate that freshmen at the Imperial Capital Martial Arts University must be at least level twenty-five or higher.”
“Level thirty. We need to reach at least level thirty before school starts.”
“Wait, Xiao Zhuo, don't put too much pressure on yourself. There are less than two months until school starts. You should know that haste makes waste.”
Yun Zhuo wanted to coast too, but his Mother-in-law was going to get him into the Imperial Capital Martial Arts University through a recommendation. If that guy Chen Qi also takes the Freshman Placement Exam this year, they will definitely clash.
That guy is already level thirty now.
And according to Ling Lifeng, the assessment test at the martial arts university can actually involve killing.
The rules certainly don't allow it, but children of powerful clans like Chen Qi definitely have such privileges.
Sparring involves weapons which have no eyes. If they call a killing a 'mistake,' what can you do to them?
Lift a rock to smash the heavens? The heavens won't even acknowledge you.
“It’s fine. Don't we have money now? We'll buy potions. I want your parents to know that I am worthy of their daughter.”
But when the two of them arrived at the Guild, the reality of life gave him another blow.
Potions for leveling up were outrageously expensive. A single pair of level ten Energy Gathering Agents, with an effective duration of only two hours, actually cost twenty thousand.
Furthermore, starting from level eleven, the effectiveness would diminish, and it would become completely useless by level fifteen.
That was a minor issue; anyway, he wasn't short on money now. With his and Teacher Su's current talent, five million would be perfectly sufficient.
The shameful part was that the Federal Government prohibited commoners from purchasing cultivation resources above level twenty.
Once again, the path for the grassroots to rise was blocked off.