Soaring the Heavens

There was no need to say anything further. After both of them finished negotiating the details of the agreement, each of them took out a jade archive and sealed it with their insignia before exchanging the jade archive with each other to seal it with their insignia once more.

The Square Sky Decorated Halberd was surrendered to Hong Changhai. If Miao Yi broke the agreement, then the disciples from School of Blue Jade were free to withdraw from East Arrival Cave through the Commandment of Conformity. In addition, this first grade transcendent artifact would be confiscated as the penalty fee. On the other hand, if Miao Yi honored the promise, then the first grade transcendent artifact would need to be returned to Miao Yi.

‘Should the School of Blue Jade violate the agreement…’ Miao Yi gazed at the third grade transcendent artifacts in Hong Changhai’s hands, and requested him to write it in as the a.s.surance in the Commandment of Conformity.

After accepting the transcendent artifact along with a copy of the agreement, Hong Changhai reached his hand out to Miao Yi and said, "Please step back and wait for a moment. Allow me to make the selection, I will quickly give the men to you in a moment."

"Go ahead!" Miao Yi cupped his hands with glee. He wasn’t afraid of the other party going back on their words after signing the Commandment of Conformity. He rode Charcoal and bounced back to Qin Weiwei and the rest.

On seeing that the b.a.s.t.a.r.d had came back, Qin Weiwei only glanced at him before eventually turning her head around. She didn’t look at him anymore.

On the other hand, Gongsun Yu welcomed him back. Seeing that he had returned on his own, he couldn’t resist the urge to ask, "Cave Master Miao, could it be that Hong Changhai didn’t agree?"

"He wouldn’t dare to disagree!" Miao Yi drew out a jade archive as he gloated, "He has already signed the Commandment of Conformity. How would he dare to back out?"

"..." Gongsun Yu was momentarily rendered speechless before again asking with curiosity. "How many men did he agree to give you?"

Miao Yi held up two fingers.

Gongsun Yu exclaimed in surprise, "Only two?"

"Cave Master Gongsun, you’re too small-minded! There are countless cultivators out there in the world who would want to enter the system. Are only two men worthwhile for me to personally go and recruit?" Miao Yi wiggled the two fingers as he gleefully exclaimed, "Twenty!"

"..." Everyone was dumbstruck. f.u.c.k, a mere East Arrival Cave dared to recruit twenty men?

Qin Weiwei also wasn’t sure whether this brat was speaking the truth or not. She silently bit her lips with her pearly whites, turning to look back once more. Currently, there were only about twenty men in the entire Mount Calming Sea, and now his abode could be compared to Mount Calming Sea.

How could she, the Mountain Chieftain, endured this?

Gongsun Yu fell silent for awhile before asking again, "What cultivations do the men he gave you hold?"

"Two Blue Lotus First Grade, two White Lotus Ninth Grade, two White Lotus Eight Grade..." The great Cave Master Miao continued to report the men he was going to receive later without trying to cover up the truth. He wouldn’t be able to conceal the fact from them anyway. Later on, when he reported it to Qin Weiwei, he would need to clarify as well.

The entire group was struck dumb completely. Now, even in the entirety of Mount Calming Sea, there was no cultivator at the Blue Lotus realm. What was this brat trying to do? If that was true, then he really didn’t give an ounce of regard to the Mountain Chieftain at all!

Qin Weiwei didn’t want to bother with Miao Yi anymore, but on listening to this point, even she couldn’t restrain herself anymore. She became angered once more. "Miao Yi, what are you planning? Don’t you forget what I have said before! If you want to get it past me, my Mount Calming Sea will never accept any additional demands from them! You, Miao Yi, also have no authority to represent Mount Calming Sea in accepting any of their demands!"

She didn’t believe that the School of Blue Jade would be so kind. They must have brought up some demands; otherwise, why would they gift so many of their elites to serve in a mere East Arrival Cave?

Miao Yi immediately cursed her silently. As expected, this b.i.t.c.h couldn’t bear to see him doing well. He had spent his own capital from his blood and sweat to support the troops, and she had the nerve to object to it?

"Don’t you worry. I did not represent Mount Calming Sea to accept any of their demands. I will also not deduct any tributes to Mount Calming Sea. I wouldn’t dare to pull off something like that with Mountain Chieftain checking on me. I am only representing East Arrival Cave to recruit the troops for it!" Miao Yi chucked the jade archive towards her.

Catching it with her hand, Qin Weiwei put on a cold front as she imbued her transcendence energy to examine the contents of the agreement. The more she read, the more speechless she became.

He really hadn’t deducted any tributes to Mount Calming Sea. He was planning to use his own cultivation resources to support them for the sake of serving Mount Calming Sea, and did not inconvenient Mount Calming Sea in any way. East Arrival Cave was still the East Arrival Cave belonging to Mount Calming Sea. If she still continued to object, then that was indeed inexcusable.

What’s more, there were no rules of the sort that restricted subordinates from recruiting men with high cultivations, or disallowing them from having more than ten men. There were some men with power who also acted as such, in order to foster their own heirs in the system.

However, the more definite the matter become, the more upset Qing Weiwei felt. It was pretty obvious that this b.a.s.t.a.r.d had indeed struck gold after going on a journey to the Sea of Constellations, and was more wealthy and imposing than a Mountain Chieftain like her. From the start, he didn’t even need to rely on her, the Mountain Chieftain at all.

Qin Weiwei chucked the jade archive back to him; she had nothing else to say.

As for the others, upon seeing that there were no objections from the Mountain Chieftain, they were instantly inspired. All of their gazes were directed at the disciples from the School of Blue Jade, each of them roughly intent on mimicking Miao Yi’s actions.

Gongsun Yu cupped his hands and politely requested to take the jade archive off Miao Yi’s hands to examine. If it was possible, he also wanted to recruit some men over from the School of Blue Jade.

Yet after seeing the price he was paying, Gongsun Yu’s expression froze. He pa.s.sed the agreement to the next person in line who wanted to look as well. n.o.body wanted to become a lone Cave Master.

The expressions of every subsequent person to read the contents of the agreement were either distorted, or they were shut up completely—immediately shaking of the thought. They honestly couldn’t afford it. Even if they had the mind to, they didn’t have the ability to either.

Everybody finally understood how the Cave Master Miao was able to recruit those men from School of Blue Jade. He was using his cultivation resources to obtain them. No other abodes would be able to fork out an annual worth of one hundred and fifty-thousand Gold Crystals and, one hundred and thirty low-grade Orbs of Will.

With this many troops under employ, not even the Mountain Chieftain Qin Weiwei would be able to support them, let alone the other small Cave Master.

Everybody was rather dubious as to whether or not Miao Yi could fork out so much cultivation resources. But after seeing how Miao Yi’s hands bore six storage rings, and thinking about the body of transcendent artifacts he had, they couldn’t help but quietly sigh. They didn’t know where this brat had gotten them from, but once there was an opportunity, they needed to get closer to Cave Master Miao and see whether they could get any information out of him.

The more Gongsun Yu glanced at the six storage rings on Miao Yi’s hands, the more helpless he appeared—with thoughts of admiration, jealousy, as well as hatred plaguing his mind. He shook his head, thinking that this kid really didn’t know how to be modest. He had worn six storage rings all at once; even his dragon steed was equipped with a body of transcendent artifacts. He was being incredibly flashy and high-profile as though he was afraid that n.o.body would notice that he’d hit the jackpot. Wasn’t he a little afraid that someone would steal from him?

They couldn’t possibly imagine that Miao Yi didn’t wish to be so high-profile as well. It was just that he had too many storage rings, so wearing a few more truly wasn’t overdoing it for him. On his waist, he had a string with two hundred more storage rings that he was quite embarra.s.sed to reveal to the others. He truly believed that he was being quite discreet already.

The most crucial point was that these storage rings were organized by categories, filled with items that he didn’t feel safe putting anywhere else. So wearing them on his fingers felt much safer when he could actually see them. At least if they were to go missing, he would know immediately when he wanted to retrieve something. It was also convenient not hiding them in his clothes, since every time that he wanted to retrieve them, he would have to fish them out of his clothes. Wasn’t the purpose of the storage rings to retrieve items easily?

As for the ridiculously tyrannical armor on Charcoal’s body, he hadn’t wanted it to be that flashy either—he hadn’t even wanted to refine in the first place, but Yao Ruoxian insisted on doing it, so what choice did he have? He couldn’t beat that bully Yao Ruoxian, so he couldn’t reject it at all.

Now that the items had been refined, why wouldn’t he utilize it when fighting for his life in the war? He would be insane not to. No matter how discreet he wanted to be, it wasn’t as important as fighting for his life.

Seeing that everyone was stunned by the agreement, Qin Weiwei suddenly felt incredibly wronged without reason. On the surface, she stiffly warned Miao Yi, "Watch over your East Arrival Cave. Should the items that East Arrival Cave is meant to hand over be any less, don’t blame me for not going easy on you!"

This was to warn Miao Yi not to claim any extra resources from East Arrival Cave. She then turned to the others and shouted, "Let’s move!"

Just like that, she sped along and left with the entire group in tow.

Miao Yi had been about to reach out with his hand to prevent her from leaving without first accepting his register, but upon looking back to glance at the situation on Hong Changhai’s side, he didn’t know how long he had to wait still. A mere Cave Master like himself had no right to request the Mountain Chieftain to obediently stay and wait for him, so it was best for him to banish the thought.

Next to him, Yan Xiu let out a deep sigh, feeling that the Cave Master had aggravated matters way too much. He reminded, "Cave Master, It wasn’t easy for you to save Mountain Chieftain’s life. I think you should seize the opportunity to better your relationship."

"You think I don’t want to? You’ve seen how she acted. She didn’t say a single good word about me from beginning to end, and has written me off as a complete eyesore. Is this the way to treat your saviour? To put it bluntly, this b.i.t.c.h is a thankless wretch. If I had known earlier, I would have left her to die, and that would’ve been the end of it!" Miao Yi coldly laughed.

On Hong Changhai’s side, once he had selected twenty men, he pulled two of his own immediate disciples to the side and whispered to them. One of them was called Yuan Fang, while the other one was called Lai Yuhan.

"Yuan Fang. Yuhan. You’ve seen master’s current predicament!" sighed Hong Changhai.

The two disciples nodded their heads silently, knowing that their master had made a big mess of the situation, and caused the entire School of Blue Jade’s plan to implode. Returning now, would only provoke a towering rage from the Sect Master.

"Initially when I brought you two along, I wanted to help both of you fight for a Mountain Chieftain position, but who knew… sigh! It’s really condescending of you two to serve a minor East Arrival Cave!" Hong Changhai sighed once more.

The two disciples were no longer youths, but immediately cupped their hands in reply. "It’s not! Master has been thinking of us and the School of Blue Jade, which causes this mishap to happen."

"There’s no need to be polite." Hong Changhai waved his hands and said, "There is a reason for me to make both of you stay instead of asking the other Blue Lotus disciples. Firstly, it is unlikely for the other Blue Lotus disciples to willingly stay behind, and I didn’t want the both of you to come back with me to get implicated and criticized by the rest. It’s better to shelter at East Arrival Cave and lie low until the fuss dies down. Secondly, I’m the one who caused this, so I have to save myself. We have information from an earlier cla.s.sified report that indicates Miao Yi is actually not on good terms with Yang Qing, and may turn against Yang Qing one day. Yet, he’s admired by him and became Yang Qing’s trusted aide. Should there be a time when the post of a Mountain Chieftain is inevitably his, then it just so happens that our School of Blue Jade can make use of it. Letting the both of you stay by his side, is to request the two of you to help him succeed that position. When this man has ama.s.sed enough power, you must think of a way to incite him to revolt against Yang Qing. We, the School of Blue Jade, can then once again seize the chance to intervene in South Edict Manor!"

Stunned, Yuan Fang asked, "Then wouldn’t he turn into a second Yang Qing?"

Hong Changhai nodded in reply, "It’s precisely so that he will become a second Yang Qing, to make it easier for us to control him. Both of you must be attentive in gathering information that proves to be harmful to him. Once he succeeds, we can use it to threaten him and force him to submit. Back then we were lacking in information to strongarm Yang Qing. There’s one more thing, this guy is only a mere Cave Master of East Arrival Cave, yet he dared to actually be this garish. His financial resources are absolutely not what a Cave Master should have. Whilst you are at his side, you have to figure out the source of it. This is extremely important. If his source can be utilized by the School of Blue Jade, then the both of you would have done a great service for School of Blue Jade. This is the main reason why I have planted you by his side. With this plan in motion, I won’t be reporting back to the Sect Master empty-handed. Do you understand the painstaking efforts I have put into this?"