Chapter 90 - Jin Jiao

In the grand hall, Gu Hai and his party's mind were clouded by suspicion as they read that letter.

"My Lord, don't worry, we will spare no effort in searching the Golden Tong!" Gao Xianzhi said in a deep voice.

Gu Hai nodded his acknowledgement as he stored the letter with a wave of his hand, before looking at Li Wei.

"Let's go back. Also, copy the tattoo on Li Wei's head for me!" Gu Hai ordered Shangguan Hen.

"Yes, my Lord!" Shangguan Hen respectfully obliged.

Having said that, Gu Hai made his way out of the hall. Everyone followed suit and left the hall with him.

An anxious crowd of cultivators was waiting outside the grand hall. Seeing Gu Hai and his team come out, everyone grew excited at once.

"Greetings, my Lord!" the crowd of ex-convicts shouted to Gu Hai, their voices echoing in every corner of the inner section.

Gu Hai nodded in return as he gazed at the men standing in the square.

Everyone immediately quieted down.

"My dear friends, if you follow me, a countless number of dangers are awaiting you, so dangerous that you will be lingering on the edges of life and death!" Gu Hai stated in a heavy voice.

The waiting men grew serious upon hearing this.

"However, I want you to know, if there is danger, then there are huge profits as well! All the spirit stones that we have acquired by raiding the Golden Tong are all here to be shared with you!" Gu Hai shouted.

"Thank you, my Lord!" everyone cried out happily.

"Today, this spirit pool is the strongest array that I have ever arranged, and has consumed all the spirit stones. Presumably, it can only support us for one day or so. Tomorrow, we will begin operating the Colosseum, you should be prepared to deal with foreign invaders!" Gu Hai said in a deep voice.

Just a day?

All the criminals who were unusually excited earlier had a change in expression upon hearing this. Previously, they had heard Chen Tianshan say that an artificial spirit pool's consumption of spirit stones was rather huge, but none had expected it to be this much!

There were hundreds of thousands of spirit stones in the pool, thousands of which were high-grade spirit stones. So many spirit stones could give them just a day?

It had far surpa.s.sed the meaning of extravagance! Of course, no one would shrug it off...

"Yes, my Lord!" all the men shouted their grat.i.tude excitedly.

"Enter the pool with me in accordance with your ranks!" Gu Hai ordered calmly.

Done speaking, Gu Hai made his way towards the spirit pool, closely followed by the captains, then the lieutenants, and then the sergeants; one after another, the freed men entered the spirit pool in succession.

Swirling ma.s.ses of Spirit Qi immediately emerged from the pool, drilling into the pores of everyone's bodies. A gust of euphoria suddenly fill them as a gratifying look took over everyone's faces.

Suddenly, a ripple spread out from the body of one of the men; apparently, he was having a breakthrough already!

"Awesome!" that man cried in excitement at once.

With just a day of this ahead of them, how would the others have the time to pay attention? All of them were eagerly enjoying the gentle Spirit Qi.

Gu Hai, sitting on a huge boulder in the pool, was absorbing the purple Spirit Source Qi around him. Suddenly, a purple-colored small dragon apparently started cruising around Gu Hai, sucking in the billowing Spirit Source Qi.

Ripple after ripples coursed through the pool and the air as the individuals in the pool broke through in succession. The amount of Spirit Qi was naturally far more violent than what Gu Hai had arranged. No one wanted to waste even a second.

------

In the western Nine-Five Island's region...

The sky was covered in thick, dark clouds that rumbled ceaselessly as a heavy rain kept pouring down.

The giant sea beast Bixi slowly continued on its way towards the inland, flooding everything in its wake. While the Bixi slowly moved through this shallow flood of water, its three thousand underlings paved a way before it.

Along the way, more and more cultivators continued to gather, gazing at the Bixi’s horde from afar, but none dared to approach them.

As the Bixi raised its head towards the sky and let out a thunderous roar, the lightning and thunder in the sky grew denser along with it.

"Why on earth is sea beast Bixi coming ash.o.r.e?" one of the faraway cultivators could not help but wonder, furrowing his brow.

"Just how many more mortals won't be able to escape and drown in this flood!"

"Is some kind of treasure about to be born?"

"It's quite possible, the Divine Battalion's Commander is also here!"

"Where? How come I don't see him?"

"In the sky, that flying s.h.i.+p!"...

The discussing audience raised their heads to look at the sky.

Indeed, there was an enormous flying s.h.i.+p high up, near the dense thunderclouds. A huge flag fluttered on the flying s.h.i.+p, spelling out Divine Battalion in large characters.

The flying s.h.i.+p was enveloped in arrays. Not a single drop of the rain fell on the flying s.h.i.+p.

Wearing his golden armor while his hands held the railing, Li Haoran, the commander of the Divine Battalion, stood at the bow, looking down at the enormous Bixi.

"Commander, what is this Bixi sensing for it to be moving so unrelentingly?" one of his subordinates asked, curious.

Li Haoran narrowed his eyes. "We have searched in accordance with the maps, but we didn't find anything. However, there must be something very good on this island, since even this filthy beast can sense it!"

"Yes, Commander. Comparing with the maps, the Bixi is apparently moving towards the Golden Tong!" that subordinate replied.

"The Golden Tong?"

"The Golden Tong is one of the weakest sects among the five major sects of Nine-Five Island. The Golden Tong is a huge gambling house, and its boss Li Wei's cultivation is very weak. He is just an early stage Nascent Soul Stage cultivator. However, it's apparently a puppet of Ascendant Hall’s Fire Throne! They have to offer the spirit stones they earn to the Fire Throne master!" that subordinate respectfully elucidated.

"The Golden Tong is just an ordinary sect; that's all!" Li Haoran didn't take it seriously.

"By the way, Commander, the weakest of the three thousand subordinates following Bixi is still at the Golden Core Stage. They are hugely nutritious ingredients...!" that subordinate said in a beseeching tone.

"When I have found what I want, not just those shrimp soldiers and crab generals, I will even give you the Bixi to eat!" Li Haoran said confidently.

"Yes, Sir!" the a.s.sembly of Divine Battalion disciples answered eagerly.

---

Spirit pool, the inner section of the Golden Tong...

As Gu Hai absorbed the purple-colored Spirit Source Qi aggressively, the spirit stones underneath him started to fade at an astonis.h.i.+ng rate.

At the sight of this, Shangguan Hen, who was not too far away from Gu Hai looked at Gu Hai, surprised.

"Spirit Source Qi? How is this possible? Why is my Lord only absorbing the Spirit Source Qi?" Shangguan Hen's eyes started twitching rapidly.

Ordinary men might not understand how precious the Spirit Source Qi was, but Shangguan Hen, on the other hand, had a pretty good idea. If the Spirit Qi was regarded as food, then everyone was just eating bread and water, whereas what Gu Hai was eating was dragon livers and phoenix hearts!

A thunderous bang rippled around Gu Hai, propagating a wave in all directions.

"Seventh level of the Xiantian Stage?" Gu Hai suddenly opened his eyes and took a deep breath.

However, such shockwaves were everywhere inside the spirit pool. The commotion caused by Gu Hai was not that apparent.

When the last wisp of Spirit Qi was consumed, hundreds of thousands of spirit stones immediately broke apart, one after another, turning into dust.

Whereupon, the bathing men opened their eyes in succession and looked down at the spirit pool reluctantly.

Just one day!

"I have broken through, I have reached Golden Core Stage!"

"f.u.c.k, all my internal injuries have been completely healed! The current me can beat five of my past self!"

"Same here, my hidden ailments are also healed! The spirit pool sure is extraordinary, not to mention, it also has such healing effects!"

"What a pity, if it could remain for another day, it would have been a lot better!"...

All the criminals broke into a discussion at once. Each and every one of them was incomparably excited.

On another side, Chen Tianshan's eyes were apparently filled with regret. Chen Tianshan didn't even dare to think of spending so many spirit stones in one day, but Gu Hai had spent them so casually.

Slowly, Gu Hai stood up from the pool.

The air of the spirit pool suddenly turned calm. Everyone had stopped talking and were looking at Gu Hai together.

Gu Hai slowly walked up to the edge of the pool. All along the way, the criminals gave way one after another, their eyes filled with a deep respect as they watched him.

"Very well, now that everyone has soaked in the spirit pool, get to work!"

"Yes, my Lord!" the men responded immediately, excited and respectful.

One after another, the former convicts walked out of the spirit pool, refreshed.

---

The Earth Company, lead by Chen Tianshan, made their way out of the Sky Sabers Life and Death Board and opened the Colosseum once more. While they were at it, they were paying attention to everyone around.

The rest of the three companies started searching every nook and corner of the inner section of the Golden Tong, even digging deep into the earth.

Gu Hai, on the other hand, went into the Dragon Turtle Palace, where numerous Golden Tong records were placed before him.

The Golden Tong’s heritage wasn't that deep. At least starting from the Bosses, none of them were the kind who were far above the ma.s.ses. Because of this, there weren’t many records, most of them were just accounts of the major events occurring in the Golden Tong over the past few decades.

Gu Hai went through them word by word, no matter whether it was trivial or important.

Outside, owing to their recent breakthroughs, the men were over the moon, and as such, they were extra rigorous in implementing Gu Hai's commands.

------

Outside, when the Colosseum was opened once more...

"The criminals are opening the Colosseum again? Is that true?"

"Let's go take a look!"

"What goes around comes around!"...

One after another, as the cultivators stepped into the Colosseum, they only peeked a glance at the crying and shouting Golden Tong disciples in the Colosseum before turning their gazes at the freed men, like they were keeping a watch on them, and trying to find out what was so different about them.

"Well, all of the ten Golden Tong disciples who were fighting timidly earlier have died completely. Now, we are finally left with two daring fighters. It’s time to place your bets!" a loud voice resounded in the Colosseum.

However, the gamblers who had placed the bets were few in number. Everyone's eyelids just madly twitched, watching the proceedings of the Colosseum.

Next to the Colosseum, Meng Tai, standing in a corner with Feng Ling in his embrace, was watching the surroundings with eyes narrowed.

"What in the b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l did they go through in the last three days? Why has everyone's essence, vigor, and spirit undergone such tremendous changes? Has Gu Hai found that place? Impossible...!" Meng Tai's face turned gloomy as he mumbled to himself, worried now.

Feng Ling, on the other hand, remained completely silent, as if she was disinterested in everything.

At this moment, a middle-aged man wearing golden robes slowly walked over.

"Mister Meng!" the middle-aged man greeted him with a smile.

"So it's Boss Jin Jiao!" Meng Tai said, smiling slightly.

"As per Mister Meng's instructions, my younger brother Yin Jiao and I have already organized about ten thousand cultivators. Everyone has sworn an oath that whoever among the team that partic.i.p.ates in breaking through the array gets the Hundred Years Longevity Peaches first, it's his. We are not going to kill each other. Everything will depend on everyone's chances," Boss Jin Jia said as a smile crept up on his lips.

"You are really fast!" Meng Tai said, pursing his lips into a slight smile.

"My younger brother and I are in the Nascent Soul Stage, we just arrived here the day before yesterday and were almost ready to charge into the array. Had it not been for Mister Meng's guidance, we would have followed Li Wei's road as well! As per Mister Meng's guidance, we have gathered all the foreign cultivators in the Golden Tong. Everyone hit it off instantly. They are willing to attack the grand array with us together to catch Gu Hai and grab the golden Saturn peaches!" Jin Jiao stated, breaking into laughter.

"Each takes what he needs! Everyone believes that you brothers will surely become Gu Hai's main target of the attack, and they can fish in troubled waters. But they don't know that everyone who is partic.i.p.ating is there for diverting Gu Hai's attention so that you two have the chance to capture Gu Hai!" Meng Tai said, laughing.

"Yes, each takes what they need! But I believe we brothers will be the first ones to catch Gu Hai! Who would have thought that I would have such a huge harvest just after arriving at the Nine-Five Island, hahaha!" Jin Jiao broke into an excited laugh as he finished.

"When are you attacking the array?" Meng Tai asked, curious.

"Now there are ten thousand of us, but I will try again. I have heard that this Gu Hai is extremely smart. I was thinking of waiting for two more days, until we have organized twenty thousand people! Then we will start!" Jin Jiao took a deep breath and answered.

"You want to wait?" Meng Tai knit his brow, as if it was a bit urgent.

"Mister Meng, I am curious, why are you helping me? Don't you and Gu Hai both work for Ascendant Hall? Moreover, hasn't Gu Hai just saved you?" Jin Jiao asked, curious.

"No reason! I have something to attend to, excuse me." Meng Tai shook his head.

With Feng Ling in his embrace, Meng Tai parted from Jin Jiao because some of the criminals in the vicinity were watching the two of them.

Looking at Meng Tai's back, a bewildered look appeared on Jin Jiao's face. "What a strange man!"

Translator’s Note:

[1] Jin Jiao and Yin Jiao can be translated into Golden Horn and Silver Horn