Chapter 23

After Little Tiger admitted defeat, the two of them got down from the stage.

A group of people immediately surrounded Lu Yuan.

“Brother Yuan, you are too strong!”

“That’s right, Brother Yuan! With your strength, most probably only Brother Ming can win against you for sure.”

“Hahaha, Brother Ming is in for a great shock when he returns and sees Brother Yuan’s current strength!”

“Brother Yuan, when are you going to challenge Brother Ming?”

“That’s right Brother Yuan, when are you going to challenge Brother Ming?”

Lu Yuan laughed. “My current strength is still far from being able to compare with Brother Ming’s strength. I’ll train more first before I challenge him.”

Actually, Lu Yuan felt that he wouldn’t need too long to surpass Fu Langming.

After all, Fu Langming was only a gene fighter that had just broken through to the tier-1 stage.

Given Fu Langming’s talent, since he had just broken through now, the gene he had engraved and recorded back when he was at the probationary level should be just a common-grade one.

Such strength couldn’t be considered strong, right?

Given the elite-grade gene Lu Yuan had engraved and recorded, once the refinement was complete, it shouldn’t be too difficult for him to defeat Fu Langming.

However, Lu Yuan didn’t want to overperform. It was good enough to appear as someone quite powerful.

Now, he didn’t have a backer. In a dark place like the slums, showing off one’s brilliance might not be a good thing.

He should pursue stability and try to develop himself first.

(I, Lu Yuan, am after all a mature and low-profile man.)

(In me, the tiger sniffs the rose!)*

(Mn, as expected of me!)

After freeing himself from the ‘entanglement’ of everyone, Lu Yuan continued practicing the Military Fist and Military Swordplay.

Time flowed by and it was night time, but Fu Langming hadn’t returned yet.

Hence, Lu Yuan left the Daming Dojo.

The slums at night were much more chaotic compared to the day. Only a very few people were on the streets.

The majority of these people were those working the night shifts.

After passing by a street, Lu Yuan heard intense gunshots coming from an alley not far away.

Hearing this, the surrounding passersby quickened their footsteps as they left with lowered heads.

However, the beautifully dolled-up young ladies standing at the street’s side seemed to be used to this. They lowered their heads and cursed their bad luck before hurriedly changing to another location to try and solicit customers.

Lu Yuan cast a glance in the direction of the alley and didn’t bother with it. He followed the other passersby and quickly left the area with the sounds of gunshots.

He kept a low profile and returned to his house. But at this moment, Lu Yuan saw a familiar silhouette on the pathway leading to his house.

He lifted his brows and hasted his footsteps as he walked over.

“Elder Sister Qinghe?”

The figure ahead turned her head. It was precisely none other than Li Qinghe.

Her face was filled with fatigue, and there was a cigarette in her hand.

After seeing Lu Yuan, she puffed out a mouthful of smoke as her tired face broke into a smile.

“Younger Brother Lu Yuan, why are you still outside at such late hours?”

Lu Yuan smiled. “I just returned from Daming Dojo.”

“Hehe, Younger Brother Yuan is truly working hard.”

“That’s a necessity. Only with hard work can I improve and earn money to leave the slums.”

“How’s your cultivation going? Didn’t you say that you’ve entered the Land of Origins?”

Upon hearing this question, Lu Yuan’s eyes brightened as he laughed.

“I have a huge improvement. My gains in the Land of Origins yesterday weren’t bad either, I managed to earn over $10,000!”

“Oh? So much?”

Li Qinghe’s eyes narrowed as she revealed an astonished expression.

(Materials from a low-grade ferocious beast only cost $100 or $200. Since he made $10,000, doesn’t that mean that he killed close to 100 ferocious beasts?! This little brat…it seems that I have still underestimated him.)

Li Qinghe was truly frightened.

It wasn’t due to the number of gains he had obtained.

Li Qinghe had seen plenty of people with many gains despite it being their first time entering the Land of Origins.

For example, when she had entered the Land of Origins, she had completely cleaned a region of all the elite-grade ferocious beasts.

However, given her identity and talent, this couldn’t be used as a point of reference.

Lu Yuan’s gains were relatively not weaker than any geniuses out there, and the majority of these geniuses were supported by their clans.

Li Qinghe couldn’t be clearer regarding Lu Yuan’s family background. Hence, she knew it was truly not easy for him to reach such a stage.

Lu Yuan treated Li Qinghe as an elder sister who cared about him, so when he saw her shock, he revealed a smile and was a little proud of himself.

“It is a pity that the money I earned this time around has to be spent on some adventuring necessities. There won’t be much money remaining. When I enter the Land of Origins the next time, I should be able to earn enough money. At that time, I will bring you with me when I leave here.”

Li Qinghe giggled and looked at Lu Yuan.

“Since you have the heart to do so, your elder sister is already very happy. Let’s wait until you earn enough money before we talk about this again.”

“Oh right, Elder Sister Qinghe. You didn’t return this morning? Did you just come back now?”

Lu Yuan asked as he saw the fatigue on Li Qinghe’s face.

“Mn, I just returned.”

Li Qinghe took a puff and displayed her voluptuous figure as she smiled.

“Why are you so late today?” asked Lu Yuan.

A strange smile appeared on Li Qinghe’s face. She surveyed Lu Yuan and spoke in a teasing tone.

“No one wants to bed your elder sister.”

“Eh…”

For a time, Lu Yuan was speechless.

He opened and closed his mouth, having no idea what to say. Hence, he could only change the topic.

“Elder Sister Qinghe, it looks like you are very tired. Let us head back first so you can have a good rest.”

Li Qinghe cast a glance at Lu Yuan as a naughty smile appeared on her face.

“Hehe, Younger Brother Lu Yuan is an adult now, right? Why are you so shy? Do you want elder sister to help you out? Don’t worry, I won’t charge you any money.”

Lu Yuan’s steps halted as he seriously regarded Li Qinghe.

“Elder Sister Qinghe, in the past it has always been you helping me and I wasn’t capable enough to help you out at all. But now that I’m capable of doing so, I won’t let you continue doing this. I will let you have the life of an ordinary woman, with your own job, your own relationships, and your own life.”

Li Qinghe didn’t expect Lu Yuan to say something like this, so she was stunned for a moment.

She surveyed the serious Lu Yuan before taking a puff on her cigarette and laughing lightly.

“Younger brother is so sensible now. Elder sister is a little touched, but… let’s talk about this next time. I have to bid farewell to my customers first. After all, they have taken ‘care’ of me for over a year now. Without them, elder sister might not be here now.”

As she spoke, a trace of cold light flashed in Li Qinghe’s eyes.

Lu Yuan pondered a little, feeling that maybe Li Qinghe was referring to Fu Langming and the rest?

Actually, after he got to know more about Fu Langming, Lu Yuan realized that the latter treated the people in his circle pretty well.

Maybe Fu Langming had shown plenty of care to Elder Sister Qinghe before, so he didn’t think too deeply about this and nodded.

“Alright then.”

“Haha let’s go back! Elder sister is a little hungry now. Since Younger Brother Lu Yuan has earned some money, are you willing to treat your elder sister to something good?”

“Don’t worry. Elder Sister Qinghe, what do you want to eat? Just feel free to say it.”

“Hehe, I won’t stand on ceremony then! Alright, speaking of which, you really don’t need this elder sister to help you enter the world of adults?”

“…Elder Sister Qinghe, please don’t joke.”

“Hahahaha!”

The two of them bantered and their silhouettes vanished into the darkness.

They went for supper before returning to their own room.

When Li Qinghe arrived at her room, she lay on her bed and glanced at the white ceiling before narrowing her eyes.

A moment later, her lips curled as she revealed a smile.

“…That smelly brat…if he saw my real appearance, I don’t believe he would reject me. Hmph!”

After that, she retracted her smile.

“That thing has begun again…however, with me here, you won’t be able to escape.”

…

Lu Yuan returned to his place. After turning his lousy computer on, he logged in to the battleweb as he surfed it habitually to see if any new forum posts appeared.

This was a habit Lu Yuan had nurtured during these few days.

Many posts on the battleweb would provide great help to him.

Sadly, some needed the viewers to pay money and even required them to be of a certain battleweb level before they could gain access.

This made Lu Yuan lose the joy of free-surfing.

Fortunately, Lu Yuan didn’t really need to view these posts which required money and a certain level of authority to access right now.

In the future, so be it even if he couldn’t free-surf. (At that time, this bro would already be rich!)

Lu Yuan browsed through the forums and soon saw a post.

(Human nature is ugly! There’s actually someone doing something like this in the Graystone Forest!)

Graystone Forest?

Lu Yuan frowned. Wasn’t that the place he was currently in?

What had happened exactly?

Lu Yuan clicked into the forum post with some curiosity.

“Today, I want to talk about an infuriating matter to everyone!”

“This is what happened…my team and I were hunting graystone beetles in the Graystone Forest. After that, we discovered a very powerful light from flames in a certain region. With the thought of adventuring and discovering treasures, we headed to that place for a look. In the end, we saw two crazed black-runed graystone beetles there! It was unknown what happened to the two black-runed graystone beetles. They immediately lunged over and frenziedly attacked when they saw us. Luckily, our team was in an alliance with an elf party and a kobold party. Our three parties only managed to kill the two black-runed graystone beetles after much effort and even two of my companions died!

“This isn’t the most infuriating part. What’s most infuriating was that we discovered the two black-runed graystone beetles were actually guarding a wooden treasure chest. However, when we discovered the treasure chest, it was already emptied! Someone must have taken the treasure in advance and left the two black-runed graystone beetles behind to specifically swindle people like us who arrived later!

“I just want to ask a question. Does the person who did this have a conscience or not?! How terrible! The ugly side of human nature! A depraved personality! A lack of morals and integrity! Forum browsers, please share your opinions and judge who is right or wrong!”

Lu Yuan: “…”

His expression was somewhat strange after he finished reading the post.

Light from flames, two black-rune graystone beetles, and an empty wooden treasure chest.

Why did this sound so familiar?

Could it be the treasure he opened?

His entire person immediately felt unwell.

He felt extremely wronged!

If he could kill those two black-rune graystone beetles, why would he leave them alive?

He would definitely kill them. Who knows, he might even be able to get a battle soul to drop from them.

Clearly, they were only alive because he couldn’t kill them, alright?

He didn’t expect that someone would say that his personality was depraved, lacking in morals and integrity.

Lu Yuan immediately grew depressed.

There were several hundreds of replies to this forum post. Lu Yuan clicked into them to read the comments.

“Wow, that person is so black-hearted. He doesn’t seem like a good guy.”

“Heh…the thread starter is really weak. For such trashy ferocious beasts like black-rune graystone beetles, wouldn’t one be able to kill them easily? The thread starter said that three parties had ganged up on two black-rune graystone beetles, yet two of their companions died? How truly laughable.”

“The above poster, you can’t put it this way. Who among us didn’t start from being weak? Black-rune graystone beetles are definitely a killer creature for newbies.”

“However, since someone could open the wooden treasure chest without killing the guardian beasts, that person should be a major character. Right? If not, how could they open the treasure chest while the guardian beasts were still alive?”

“I also feel it should be a major character. Are the powerful experts now so playful with a bad taste in pranks? Do they specially target newbies for pranks?”

“…”

Lu Yuan immediately grew unhappy when he saw the replies.

(These people actually still have some judgment ability?)

(They actually know that I, Lu, am a major character.)

Lu Yuan’s mood was instantly restored.

At this moment, he closed the forum post and went to check out the other posts.

Lu Yuan only closed the battleweb after browsing through it for a while.

His consciousness then entered the gene battle tattoo.

A moment later, in the white mist inside his consciousness, the door of light appeared.

The door of light was a little dim. This was because of the mental power expended when Lu Yuan entered the Land of Origins.

However, such dimness would soon be recovered. He would be able to enter the Land of Origins not too long from now.

It was good that he exited alive. If he exited via death, his mental state would be damaged and it would be much more difficult to recover. If he wanted to enter again, he would need a much longer time compared to those who exited the Land of Origins alive.

Lu Yuan waited a few minutes until the door of light completely regained its brightness. He then entered the Land of Origins again.

[1] reference to a poem – https://allpoetry.com/In-Me,-Past,-Present,-Future-meet