Book 11 Chapter 1

The meaning behind the egg

A room in the back of the official residence of the Heavenly Academy.

In a room that feels more austere than opulent, two giants in white robes are now standing in front of the

They sat across from each other. One of the men was none other than the great master of the Hundred Dao Martial Alliance's Pure Sky Sect.

I was the Hundred Soul Sword God.

The Martial Saint Nie Bai Tian was already 130 years old, and his martial arts had reached the peak of harmony, so even though he was well over 100 years old, he didn't feel old at all. On the contrary, the years of experience he has accumulated exude an immense presence. Now, whether he was standing, sitting, or lying down, his mere presence at any time and in any place exuded immense majesty.

There weren't many people in the current Martial Realm who could sit alongside such a martial master and not be intimidated by him, and one of them was Guanzhou Iron Fist Majin, one of the two centers of the Hundred Islands.

The two men were now sitting across from each other at an antique rosewood table. Both of their expressions were pensive. The first to break the silence was Martial Saint Nie Bai Tian.

"This is going to be the toughest Volcano Covenant meeting yet, don't you think?"

"It's just the way it is."

After Mazin Ga replied in a sullen voice, Nie Bai Tian stared into thin air for a moment and muttered.

"I can't imagine what he's thinking, so I want……."

Who in the world could be called 'him' by Nao Bai Tian, the pinnacle of the Hundred Swords?

"For now, all I can do is trust Him, Master."

Bai Xiaochun sighed and said with an expression of frustration.

"Isn't this competition entirely based on his input?"

"Yes, it is, but that doesn't make the worry go away, does it?"

"Unfortunately."

"Yes, unfortunately."

A deep silence flowed like a river between the two of them for a moment. After remaining silent for a while, Bai Xiaochun looked around as if he had remembered something and said with a faint expression.

"Hey, horseman!"

When Nabaxian called out, Mazin Ga listened with bated breath.

"Yes, my lord."

"I love hard-boiled eggs. Although I love all the other things you can do with eggs."

At the mention of the egg, Mazinga was momentarily stunned, but didn't hesitate to respond.

"Me too. Eggs are a great food ingredient."

"Then do you know why there is one hard-boiled egg in the dinner of the Guandos?"

"……? "

What kind of ghostly forgetfulness is this, a blush in the middle of the night, and a virgin pregnant? Mazinger couldn't figure out the intent of the question at first glance. The content of Nabechuan's question was outrageous and ridiculous. He was careful not to embarrass himself by appearing to know something he didn't. Honesty was the best policy. Ma Jing'er shook his head in silence.

"I, a mere mortal, have been appointed to the position of Master of the Heavenly Academy, but I cannot fathom why. Please teach me."

"Heh, heh, heh, teaching. It's not a big deal, really. It's just the way the budget is set up. There's as much money budgeted for dinner as there is for a hard-boiled egg for each of the guards."

I'm exaggerating a little bit, but it was like a light bulb went off in my head and I was illuminated.

"Oh, I see, heh, heh, heh, I guess that's why you're looking at it from that perspective. That's an interesting opinion."

"But it's also very realistic."

Bai Xiaochun paused for a moment and took a sip of the longjing tea in front of him.

"This fine Yongzheng tea is also the embodiment of a budget for entertaining dignitaries. Hey, coachman, what do you think of money?"

Na Baiqian asked. It was a blatantly direct question, but it was also a very real one.

"That's a good thing."

"……."

Mazinger replied with an expressionless face. It was a blatant answer to a blatant question. It was a blessing in disguise that there wasn't a single person around to hear their conversation.

At Mazinger's answer, Naback Chen laughed out loud.

"Heh, heh, heh, that's a great answer. I've been around for almost a hundred years, but you're right. Reality is too harsh and unfavorable to those without money."

"And it is very favorable and generous to those who have money."

When Mazin Ga cautiously interjected, Nabechuan smiled and said what he wanted to say.

"I know. Money, or rather, budgets, are the embodiment of a constant headache, especially for people like you and me who lead large organizations."

"It's a real headache."

Having a budget is the number one priority for running and maintaining an organization. Without a budget, it's all for naught, because the organization can't exist.

"We're not open. So we're always separated from money, even if we want to be. It's a tough worldly thing."

"It's also the scariest thing ever."

Majinga's answer was the truth.

"Yes, it is. The most terrifying, the most annoying. And to add insult to injury, it's the perfect thing to gossip about. As you know, the entire budget for the year is based on estimating how many children the Mundos will have in the coming year. And of course, how many people will die, whether it's natural, accidental, war, overwork, or martyrdom, all of which must be calculated and extrapolated, and that's the monster that is the budget."

Mazinga appropriately added a footnote to Naback Chen's comment.

"And that's not all: when a child is born, you have to give a congratulatory gift, and when a person dies, you have to give a condolence gift."

"Yeah, right. It's a dirty place, the world of budgets. It's funny how many things come out of it. The old man's had enough of people opening their hands here and there. Shouldn't I be over a hundred years old, tapping away at an abacus, in a yard that hasn't even been rooted out by the forces of evil yet, and they treat me like a vault or a battlefield?"

Apparently, Nie Baiqian needed a comrade in arms to argue the case rather than solve it, and there was no one better suited for the job than the Heavenly Martial Master Mazhijin. Bai Xiaochun's choice was an excellent one.

"Yeah. I've been there and done that. Last time, there was a fight over budget allocations between the B'yingak and the Heavenly Martial Arts, and since the B'yingak has covert and secret missions, it costs more than other departments……. It was a real headache because they didn't understand."

"Dirty, messy work usually costs a lot of money. It's a harsh world, and why it's so repulsive to penniless beggars………."

"You're absolutely right. I couldn't agree more with your point."

He nodded his head in agreement, which made Nabechuan smile. After discussing the difficulties of the budget for a while, Nabechuan and Mazinger suddenly straightened their clothes and straightened their posture.

"Now that the whining and complaining is over, let's get down to business."

"Sure."

Mazinger replied nonchalantly. This was just practice, and now was the real thing. The two hit it off as if they'd made a pact.

"Nobu has been puzzled by the events of the Phantom Town. In fact, it's something he's been thinking about for the past eighty years, but he hasn't solved it yet."

"What is it?"

Majin's face turned serious as he asked. It was easy to tell from Bai Chen's expression that he had something important to say.

"How much do you think the salt thunderbolt used in the Hwanmadong incident is worth?"

"What?"

Nabechuan's off-the-cuff question was met with a puzzled look from Mazinger, but instead of chastising him for the absurdity of his question (as he was fully entitled to do), he quickly set to work to find an answer. Such was Mazinger's sincerity.

"You'd probably have to pay at least five gold coins for an item of such high scarcity, so difficult to craft, so powerful, and so hard to come by."

That was the bare minimum. Depending on the situation, it could be more than double. Because anything illegal is always worth more than its face value according to the laws of supply and demand.

Bai Xiaochun nodded slowly.

"Of course. That means it's a very expensive thing. Five gold coins……. That's enough to feed three bunta of the Open for a year."

"They could live off of that for 10 years."

With a wry smile, Mazinger replied.

"Well, then. There's no way he could have made just one or two of those things… and where does such a huge amount of money come from, does it just fall out of the sky?"

"……! "

Only then did he realize what Nie Baiqian was trying to say, and he suddenly wanted to slap him on the back of the head.

"You're an idiot, you didn't think of that!" he exclaimed.

Bai Chen continued.

"I can't say that it's a successor to the Heavenly Frightening Spirit, which has been extinct since the last Heavenly Frightening Blood Tax, but where is the money coming from to run the Heavenly Frightening Feather, a sort of forward secret base of operations? Besides, the Tendrils are literally just a feather in the cap, and if they're behind a larger body, they're going to need even more money to maintain that body. You know full well that the more secretive an organization is, the more expensive it is to maintain. Because there's nothing in the world like keeping a secret."

"So you're telling me that they have an enabler somewhere, a source of money that pays them vast amounts of gold."

Bai Xiaochun nodded slowly.

"Exactly. It's clear that they have someone very wealthy backing them. It's probably an organization we're familiar with, but the problem is that we only know the name of the mask they're wearing, not the substance. The question is, which organization or sect is the right one, because the Middle Realm is not really a place where our powers are satisfactory."

"That's true."

Merchants were a nuisance to the Mu people, but they couldn't pretend to be ignorant of them. All the daily necessities of life, such as eating and sleeping, were delivered to the martial artists through the hands of their merchants. Nor could they be looked down upon because they were merchants. The latent power of the merchants, who were directly or indirectly connected to many of the Martial Sect's branches, including the government, was too great for even the Spiritual Blind to touch.

"Let's not forget that the Heavenly Spirit swept through the Great Lakes with blood and barely touched the battlefields or the commerce of the land or the catering industry! Shouldn't they be able to eat and live as humans, unless they were digging for gold and it spontaneously poured out of the ground? A man cannot live by the sword alone. Without money, organization and power are useless. As I complained to you a little while ago, you know that the time of year when the old man gets the most headaches is the time of year when the budget is distributed."

"I can understand the struggle, because everybody around me has their hands open like a monkfish."

"It's hard enough to distribute a budget, but it's even harder to put together a year's budget to run an organization of this size. I wouldn't be surprised if it's a hundred times harder, though a giant like us has a lot of branches already growing and bearing fruit."

"So you're saying we're not the only ones with that branch?"

Bai Xiaochun nodded slowly.

"I am not inclined to believe the absurd joke that they have survived a hundred years without a budget, that is, without a single dollar. Sadly, almost everything of value in the world is almost all convertible into money, and that's the price you have to pay for it, so it makes no sense that they would have gone a hundred years without money, when a person's life is also convertible into money. It's unlikely that they've been hiding underground for a hundred years, digging up the earth and using the money to run their organization. There must be a mercantile organization backing them, and only by finding it can we locate them, the five-eyed thundercloud."

Bai Xiaochun's eyes were filled with conviction. They were so full of life that it was impossible to tell that they were the eyes of an old man over a hundred years old.

"That's quite a gamble, as far as the enabler is concerned……. I've never heard of anyone in the mercantile world recklessly venturing into something so unprofitable."

"There are a lot of people who think they've hit the jackpot and then get screwed. A little loyalty, a little fear, and a lot of reward, like a monopoly on the powerhouse trade. It's not that hard once you've whetted the appetite for such huge gains. Wars naturally require vast quantities of goods, and those vast quantities don't fall from the sky like meteors, and there are always profiteers, whether blood forms the sea or not. If the Celestial Spirit returns, this fight will not be called a fight, but a war. It will be on that scale, and there will be those who will stand their ground in the bloodshed!"

Nabaxian paused for a moment to collect his thoughts, then opened his mouth again.

"They support it because there is a tangible benefit. Why else would so many hide and follow the shadow of a celestial spirit when there is no benefit to be gained, for there is something diabolical about the shadow of darkness."

"It could be fear."

Mazinger pointed out.

"That can't be ruled out, of course, but Nobu thinks it's for the greater good. People with ambition sometimes do the wrong things. They think differently. Merchants will follow a profit to the ends of the earth. A risky venture like this is a worthy investment for them."

"But who has their backs?"

"I'm afraid we've got a man on the loose to scrutinize, but we haven't caught a tail yet. They're clever."

"If we catch that tail……."

Mazinger muttered to himself.

"Then we'll be able to wipe out the remnants of the Thousand Terror that have plagued us for decades and eradicate the Thousand Terror once and for all. Unless we run into one exceptional circumstance."

"That exceptional circumstance is……?"

A brilliance flashed in Nie Bai Tian's eyes. It was an eerily sharp glow.

"That is, of course, if 'he' is alive."

"He!"

In an instant, Majinga's complexion darkened. It was like a dark cloud before a rain shower in a clear sky. If such a thing actually happened, it would be the worst thing ever. He didn't know if Jiang Hao, who had been living in such breathtaking peace, would be able to handle such an unprecedented event.

"It's a what if. I can only hope it's not the worst, the most hopeless. I don't want to see that sea of blood again. I'm too old for that."

"I agree."

"No, you wouldn't know. It's a horrible memory that only those who have lived through it know. If I were given the choice of removing any part of my memory, I'd wipe the memory of that day a hundred years ago from my mind in a heartbeat. It would make it so much easier to sleep at night. And I wouldn't have nightmares about him anymore. I still dream about him from time to time. The field was red as a sea of blood……."

Bai Xiaochun's stiffened and frowning face was terrifying, as he was once again reminded of the day's events. It was a day he had consciously tried to forget as much as possible. Such a tragedy should never be repeated again. After a moment of silence, Bai Chen quickly regained his composure and resumed where he left off.

"The roots of the Heavenly Demon Spirit that have secretly infiltrated the current powerhouse are too deep. I can't see the end of it. I don't dare to weed it out. Mr. Nobu is too old now, and I'm afraid he'll break his back trying to weed it out."

Bai Chen seemed to have regained his composure.

"Hahaha, but I don't believe you're old yet, I think you've still got another 100 years of correction in you."

"Heh, heh, heh, then I'm so sorry to disappoint your expectations; it's so grumpy of a young man to put an old man to work weeding!"

"Hahaha, I'm already over sixty years old. It's time to get old."

The age of 60 is not a young age, and for most people, it would be considered a long life. However, it didn't seem to be the case for Nabaxian, who was a martial artist.

"Well, well, well. The people in my row write it as septuagenarian and read it as youth. A man in the prime of his life showing such weakness."

The octogenarian still looked like a young man in his eyes. In fact, even at his ripe old age, there wasn't a single gray hair on his head, and he hadn't dyed his hair black. And his facial skin still had enough elasticity and vitality to pass for 40. No one would look at him and expect to see an old man in his sixties.

"By the way, those kids are going to be very confused when they get to the volcano, aren't they?"

Nie Baiqian looked at Mazin Ga with a slightly grim smile.

"When people are presented with facts that are different from what they've always believed, they're going to panic at first, as they always do."

"By the way, I hope those kids realize the true meaning of the Volcano Covenant."

"I agree, I hope we don't get too caught up in the rising tide of blood. I hope we don't get too caught up in the fighting and the war and the non-fighting, because then we'll be blinded and we'll miss the essence of this competition."

"I hope you don't have an accident, it would be nice to arrive safely……."

But the problem is that they've been trying to do this for decades, and it's never worked.

"More than that, Guan Zhu, in fact, Nobu, has a bigger suspicion than this right now. It's heartbreaking."

"Please tell me."

In a nervous voice, Mazinger replied. Even he could feel Nie Bai Tian's agitation as he spoke. What on earth could possibly agitate this giant so much, much less find out who was behind the Heavenly Demon Spirit?

He was terrified of that fact. So much so that he didn't want to know.

"Guanzhou!"

When Bai Xiaochun opened his mouth, Mazinger hurriedly replied. Inwardly trembling with fear.

"Ma, speak!"

"You don't think that bastard did anything mean to our little Ye Lin while he was trapped inside the Patriarchal Pavilion, do you?"

"What?"

Despite thinking, "Oops, I shouldn't have done that," Mazinger failed to manage his facial expressions and ended up making a furious face.

"Well, what's that……?"

He didn't have the heart to follow up.

"It's just that his mood seems to have changed so much since he got out of there. It's not reassuring at all."

Hearing Nie Baiqian's solemn words, Mazin Ga hurriedly spoke up.

"Didn't you say that nothing happened then?"

"No, my intuition as a father who loves his daughter dearly is screaming, screaming, that something, anything, has happened!"

Bai Chen's expression was so serious that Mazin Ga didn't dare to argue.

"Maybe I'm being too neurotic? "

When it comes to your daughter, it's best to avoid arguing with Bai Xiaochun as much as possible. The giant, who is usually calm and cool-headed about everything, could easily lose his cool over his daughter. Moreover, he sympathized with her suspicions, which were well founded. How many times had something like that happened to Na Yerin in her life? How many times had she almost been caught in such an accident, and she had already given up counting? Bai Xiaochun's suspicions were not unreasonable.

"If I ever find out that he's laid a finger on my sweet Yerin, I'll have him hanged. He'd better be prepared to have his whole body torn to shreds if he even hinted at such a thing. Cancer! How could I let her be harmed by such a fungus after all the work I've put into her upbringing? If Yerin hadn't stopped him then, I'd have split his legs off……."

If I had done so, I wouldn't be here today.