Chapter 360: Gains and Losses
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In the Witchcraft’s Gate of Death, it was extremely scarce for those who did not become elite disciples and received full support from the sect to become a Grand Wizard from the Resurrection stage, so scarce that perhaps only one in a million could do it. Even though the black-clothed old man seemed to be reprimanding him coldly, he was actually advising Zhang Lisheng out of kindness.
After all, the fact that a witchcraft outer disciple could reach this ‘Transformation’ stage at such a young age meant that he must have undergone plenty of hards.h.i.+ps. Not only that, he must also have some luck with him so it would be a pity if his ignorance ruined his entire future.
Min Lan by the side also whispered to Zhang Lisheng. “Lisheng, even though the Three Gates of Witchcraft of Life, Death and Sacrifice are closely related to each other like a family, the disciples are in separate disciplines so it’s better if you just focus on one.”
Both of them meant good intentions but unfortunately, they did not understand that to Zhang Lisheng, let alone elite disciples, even if it was the position of elder, grand supreme, or even the sect leader, all of them meant nothing to him. After being stunned for a while, the young man pretended to hesitate. “I don’t care. Since the old Zhang Family will have lost its yin energy, without the complete secret method set of the Three Gates of Witchcraft Life, Death and Sacrifice, how is my descendant going to make a breakthrough if they turn out to be unsuitable to cultivate the Gate of Death and could only rely on those incomplete cultivation methods that is pa.s.sed down from the family? I-I can’t become the sinner of my family and let Zhang Family’s inheritance that is as long as 1000 years be destroyed in my hands.”
Upon hearing Zhang Lisheng saying so, the black-clothed old man disdainfully remarked, “How pedantic…” and no longer said anything. Min Lan was also rendered speechless and merely sighed.
The young leader, on the other hand, burst out laughing at once. “Master Chen, Min Lan. Everyone has their own ambitions so we can’t force them. Mr. Zhang, I can agree to half of your conditions. I can give you the secret cultivation method of the Witchcraft’s Gate of Death up to the Shed and Restore stage but I don’t have a complete cultivation method set of both the Gate of Sacrifice and Life so I can only get other people to gather them for me. I think I’d probably be able to give you up to Rank-12 Wizard stage only. This is my biggest sincerity.”
After saying so, his hawk-like gaze stared at Zhang Lisheng and slowly, he asked, “What do you think?”
The cultivation method of the Gate of Life was a bonus that did not have much use while the six stages of the secret cultivation method of the Witchcraft’s Gate of Death, from Rank-12 Wizard to the Shed and Restore stage, and the cultivation method of the Witchcraft’s Gate of Sacrifice from Rank-1 Wizard to Rank-12 Wizard were very useful to Zhang Lisheng. Even if he returned to the US right away after obtaining it, it would still be considered as a great achievement.
Zhang Lisheng was beside himself with joy. After deliberately pondering for a while, he nodded with a wry smile. “Okay, it’s a deal!”
“Great!” the young man shouted in joy. “It’s impossible for me to always carry those cultivation methods on me all the time so I’ll give you after we go back to the Mountain Gate. Let us sign the contract first.”
“Go back to the Mountain Gate?” Zhang Lisheng asked in astonishment.
“Of course, if you’re not returning to the Gate of Witchcraft from your outer disciple ident.i.ty, how am I going to use so many cultivation methods in exchange for your house then? Let’s stop talking and sign the contract first.”
It was apparent that this sentence uttered by the young man was unreasonable. Zhang Lisheng’s face turned cold as he shook his head and said, “Okay, I can join the Gate of Witchcraft but let us carry our transaction simultaneously.”
“Are you trying to say that I, Su Deli, will take advantage of you?” The young man’s expression also turned grave at once.
This was a crucial moment for fundamental interests so certainly, Zhang Lisheng would not give in. He lowered his head to avoid looking into Su Deli’s sharp gaze and muttered, “Mr. Su, it’s not that I don’t believe in you but I-I just want a form of fair trade. No matter what, I still want a simultaneous transaction. I can’t really become the sinner of Guawo Village’s Zhang Family…”
“Y-You… You, you…” The young man pointed at Zhang Lisheng and uttered three ‘you’s. Suddenly a nonchalant face flashed across his mind and made him become silent for a while. Changing his anger into smile, he said in a retroflex manner, “If you want a fair trade, I’ll give you a fair trade then. Let’s go, I’ll bring you back to the Mountain Gate.”
Zhang Lisheng’s body froze. Dumbfounded, his mouth gaped open and was stunned for a while before finally nodding his head. “Deal, I’ll try and see whether I can open up a new road or not. I’ll follow you back to the Mountain Gate!”
With two strides, he unlocked the latch and opened the wooden door.
Outside the door, the two police officers, who looked for Zhang Lisheng to interrogate him in the morning, were currently smoking on the mountain road. When the old house door suddenly opened, they were shocked when they saw the young man walked out.
At this time, Su Deli and the other three also walked out of the old house. The seven of them stared at each other without saying a word and only after Zhang Lisheng had locked the wooden door did they silently walk out of the village.
“Captain Han, see? I told you there’s nothing but you kept saying that there is! Look now! They’ve become friends and are even walking together now!” On the way, the young police officer whispered to the old police officer and complained. “Look at us instead, we were squatting outside of his door trying to hear them talking but in the end, we didn’t hear anything and was caught red-handed by them, not to mention that we even walked out of the mountain with them. How awkward was that?”
“So what? Caution is the parent of safety! Who knows, perhaps we’re able to stop a vicious accident or an ardent crime from happening just by spying for 30 minutes to 1 hour. It’s worth it you know. Oh kid, once you’ve understood the knack for these, you’ll be able to master it and serve out of your apprentices.h.i.+p. By that time, you’d become a real criminal police officer!” The old police officer taught his ‘apprentice’ in a whisper and soon, both of them came to the village entrance and got into a seemingly old Santana police car before riding away.
“The two policemen are quite responsible.” Watching the police car disappearing on the road, Su Deli smiled as he remarked. He pointed to a black Mercedes-Benz SUV parked on the side of the road and said, “Mr. Zhang, there are six of us including the driver so I guess, we’d have no choice but to cramp a little.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Noticing that Su Deli had some moody temperament that would alternate between joy and anger, and that he hated other people raising dissent to his words, Zhang Lisheng made up his mind to not go against this powerful person in the Witchcraft’s Gate of Death when it came to unimportant small matters. Flas.h.i.+ng a smile, he answered.
The five of them got into the car and the black-clothed old man sat in front. Zhang Lisheng, on the other hand, sat at the back seat, beside Min Lan while Su Deli was sandwiched between the two girls. Then, Su Deli told the driver, “Old Song, let us go back to the Gate.”
“Yes, Young Master!” the skinny and short driver, who was in his prime age, answered and started the car silently, driving towards the county seat of Qu County.
In Zhang Lisheng’s opinion, the so-called ‘Mountain Gate’ mentioned by Su Deli must be the wizards from the G.o.d who used to rule the primitive tribes in China last time. After they were ousted by humans and the Taoists and had undergone thousands of years of natural evolution, they slowly created a place of inheritance and gathering, of which such place should undoubtedly be mysterious and spa.r.s.ely populated.
To his surprise, after the SUV drove out of Damu Town, it actually drove along the main road to the ring road, and all the way to the highway. After speeding for several hours, it finally exited the highway at Bajiang City that was less than 50 kilometers away from Chongqing, which was the only munic.i.p.ality directly under the central government in Western China. Then, it proceeded to speed on the provincial road for more than ten minutes and turned into a bustling town.
It was already midnight. The town was brightly lit with Sichuan-style stalls, restaurants, foot spa centers, budget hotels, internet cafes, KTV and all sorts of services.
The car slowly drove on the street that was filled with an endless stream of people. Without any need to honk, most of the pedestrians would rush to make way for them. It was apparent that they were familiar with the car plate number and the owner of the Mercedes Benz.
Looking through the window, Zhang Lisheng could see that the car would reach the end of the road in about 100 meters . Astonished, he could not help but ask, “Mr. Su, could be that this town is the Mountain Gate of the Witchcraft’s Gate of Death?”
“This is not only the Mountain Gate for Witchcraft’s Gate of Death. The Mountain Gates for both Life and Sacrifice are here as well,” Su Deli said with pride. It was obvious that he was proud of being influential in this town. As he was replying, the car slowly stopped in front of a three-story, antique public bathhouse.
“Mr. Zhang, please get off the car and follow me.” Su Deli opened the door and brought Zhang Lisheng, who felt nothing but peculiarity, into the bathhouse that had a neon light written with the words ‘w.a.n.g Family Bathhouse’ on it on the red wall on the second floor.
The facade of the bathhouse did not look very big but the area of the hall was not small. Stepping into it gave one a feeling that something huge and mysterious was hidden inside.
Inside the hall, the ceiling was fully installed with bright ceiling lamps, the floor was covered with large white tiles, and the walls were covered with pale yellow wallpaper. Everything appeared to be simple and lively. There was a row of long counters on the wall facing opposite the door. A few workers wearing white uniforms were busy collecting money and selling tickets to the queued guests.
Upon seeing Su Deli striding towards them, the workers’ hearts shuddered and stopped their work right away. With a smile, they said, “a.s.sistant Su, you’re back!”
“Yes I’m back. You guys have worked hard!” Su Deli smiled pretentiously and waved. “I need to ask a few more favors from you guys. Let us line up at the back first and we’ll talk about it later.”
At this time, some of the guests, who were lining up, had already made way for them, either willing or unwilling. When they heard his words, they proceeded to say one another, “a.s.sistant Su, your time is precious. You can go ahead and settle your matter first.”
“Oh I can’t! Queuing is always on a first-come-first-serve basis, but indeed, my matter this time is a little urgent… Ah forget it, problems can come in relative importance and urgency. If none of you have anything urgent, I’ll cut the queue first then.” Su Deli repeated this several times and just like this, he slowly overtook the crowd and headed to the counter. Randomly finding one worker, he said, “I’ve brought a ‘wandering guest’ who has never entered the ‘pond’ before with me. Give him a formal ‘members.h.i.+p card’ first.”
“a.s.sistant Su, you should also know that there are too many ‘wandering guests’ lately so the town has jointly issued an order that we can no longer randomly give out a ‘members.h.i.+p card’. If we directly issue a formal card for him, I’m afraid…” upon hearing Su Deli’s words, the worker picked by him groaned inwardly and braced himself to say so.
“Oh I’m sorry, I wasn’t clear enough. This ‘wandering guest’ has done a huge favor to Master Ouyang, Master Zheng and even all of the ‘town mayors’ here before. Min Lan right here can testify for that. Even so, you can’t even issue a formal ‘members.h.i.+p card’?” Su Deli interrupted the worker’s words and asked with a smile.
“T-This should be no problem!” The worker stuttered. Under Su Deli’s sharp gaze, he agreed to it with a pale face. Under the looks of pity from his colleagues, he handed Zhang Lisheng a tablet computer and let him place his fingerprint on it as well as fill in a few very simple details to complete the registration.