Ding

[That was a fluke. You didn’t even foresee this. Anyone can bribe Sun Jing if they are as rich as you.]

‘I know. That’s why I’m a genius!’

[Kunwu and Tilted Hongjun find the improvisation funny.]

[OG-Buddha dislikes your dishonesty, but he approves of the result.]

[The Sun Crow and five anonymous viewers are impressed by your wits.]

[An Anonymous Viewer has donated 100 essence cores.]

[An Anonymous Viewer has donated 300 essence cores.]

[An Anonymous Viewer has donated 200 essence cores.]

[A dao god, Sun Wu has subscribed to your channel for 1 month as tier 3 VIP!]

[You have received 10,000 essence cores from the subscription.]

[Sun Wu hopes that you and the Sun Clan can become friends.]

Le wild dao god appeared, and his name reminded Miaomiao of a legendary figure in the ancient period that all military strategists worshiped.

He was the author of the famous Art of War, known as…

Sun Tzu

Ding

[A tier 3 VIP subscriber, Sun Wu, would like to have a private conversation with you. Would you approve?]

“…”

Not only this dao god supported Sun Wentai, his clan, and his sect, but he also wanted to have a word with Miaomiao.

Also, this was Miaomiao’s first time having a tier 3 subscriber.

Miaomiao had checked Sun Crow, OG-Buddha, and other SIMP gods before. They were merely tier 1 subs, and they had minimal perks. Only Macho Joshua and the Devil had a special status, which wasn’t listed as an obtainable tier in his streaming channel.

Since this was a rare chance to talk to a dao god stranger from a higher realm, Miaomiao permitted it.

‘As long as he can’t use any trick on me, let him through.’

[Affirmative. Unlocking the chatbox for Sun Wu.]

It only took Dion a few seconds to establish a connection between realms, which surprised Miaomiao. Sometimes, he doubted how strong Dion or the maker of this system was.

[“Ahem. Hello, junior.”]

A hoarse voice of a senior old man got through, and Miaomiao could hear the voice in his mind.

‘Yes, hello senior. What can I do for you?’

[“Nothing much. I just want to inform you something regarding my descendants and my troublesome vessel.”]

‘Of course. I have no intention to harm your family or your descendants. As the matter of fact, I should start calling you my ancestor or great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather-in-law now.’

[“Hahaha! Then, that makes thing simple.”]

Sun Wu’s voice changed as if he stressed the seriousness of his request.

[“I seem to have a unique vessel that I don’t know… well, I don’t know how to explain it since he’s not actually my vessel of this realm whatsoever, but I want you to work with him.”]

“…”

Miaomiao squinted his eyes since Sun Wu’s words sounded suspicious.

This guy was hiding something.

[“I’ll give you a quest and a proper reward. I see that you are collecting the original murals of time and space. Recently, I kinda kicked Liu Wudi’s ass and stole a bunch of his treasures. Coincidentally, one of them is the original mural that you’re looking for. I’ll give it to you if you can work with Zhou Gongjin and kill Ling Tianlong for me, what do you say?”]

Ding

[Sun Wu has offered you a protagonist hunting collaboration quest. Would you like to accept it?]

…

Protagonist Hunting Collaboration Quest – Target: Ling Tianlong

Overview

Sun Wu, the ancestor of the Sun Clan, is concerned about the fates of his descendants as Zhou Gongjin has unveiled an odd intel to Sun Bofu – Within a decade, the Sun Clan and the Jiangdong White Tiger Sect will be destroyed by Ling Tianlong and the treacherous cultivators from the Yuan Clan and Mount Hua Sect.

Sun Wu doesn’t believe in this nonsense, but it doesn’t hurt to take a precaution. He wants you to help Zhou Gongjin kill Ling Tianlong and form an alliance with the Sun Clan.

Also, Sun Wu is aware of the protagonist hunt quest offers. He wishes to collaborate and help you finish this quest, but you must prove your sincerity by forming an official alliance with the Sun Clan and the Jiangdong White Tiger Sect first.

Quest Objectives:

Form an official alliance with the Sun Clan.

Kill Ling Tianlong, the suspected source of trouble.

Secondary Objectives (Optional):

Kill Yuan Shaoqing

Destroy the Yuan Clan

Kill Yuan Shaoqing’s supporters.

Failure Conditions:

Sun Wentai, Sun Bofu, or Zhou Gongjin is dead.

Rewards:

Upon forming an alliance with the Sun Clan, Sun Wu shall give you a piece of Time-and-Space Mural.

10 1st-grade soul stones or 10 million essence cores.

A divine-grade technique manual (Secondary Objective Reward)

Failure Penalty:

None

…

“…”

The overview of this quest was contradicted. It said that Sun Wu had been worrying about an issue, but the second paragraph said he didn’t believe it.

Indeed, Sun Wu seemed suspicious. This quest could even be a ploy since the Art of War author couldn’t be a simple person.

Still, Miaomiao needed the third piece of time-and-space mural, and killing Ling Tianlong wouldn’t be a bad idea either since he had that protagonist hunting quest.

Since their goal aligned, Miaomiao agreed to this dao god’s proposal.

‘Sure. I accept your offer. I need to establish an alliance with the Sun Clan anyway.’

[“Very good. I’ll be looking forward to seeing your cooperation with Sun Wentai and others in the future.”]

Ding

[The communication ends.]

[Sun Wu has donated 1,000,000 essence cores.]

[Sun Wu wants you to share 90% of the essence cores with Sun Wentai. The rest of them is the handling fee.]

“…”

This dao god seemed to have found an exploit in the live-streaming donation system.

Because dao gods could only send items to their vessels in mortal worlds by going through the custom and the inspection of various world guardians before their vessels could have it, the process usually took too long.

Using the donation system to smuggle common items, such as essence cores, was a viable option as the Sun Crow and other gods had done many times before. Now, Sun Wu found the loophole and attempted to use Miaomiao as a smuggling accomplice.

Miaomiao snickered as he had no problem with it. He could even claim the credit that the cash was from him, so Sun Wentai would owe him a favor.

‘Alright. Let’s see if that brute will bite my bait.’

Miaomiao stayed behind and continued chatting with Sun Jing’s wife, waiting for the feedback from Sun Jing’s work.

…

While Miaomiao and the outer disciples had been waiting in the banquet hall, Zhou Tai, who had returned to the rooftop of the building, stopped eavesdropping on the conversation.

As he turned around and was about the fly away, Gan Ning placed a sword on the former’s neck.

“Heya, fellow Daoist. Mind if you come with me?”

Zhou Tai, who was still wearing a ninja face mask and a black hood, glanced at Gan Ning, “Do I need to?”

“Yes, you do.”

“What if I say I refuse?”

“Then, you die here.”

Zhou Tai chuckled as he found Gan Ning stupid. The latter was merely a no-name essence gathering realm cultivator, but he dared to threaten a 5th-stage elite like him.

Moreover, Zhou Tai was a senior inner disciple! A junior inner disciple shouldn’t talk to their senior with that tone.

This insolent newcomer needed to be taught a lesson.

“I don’t think you’re that capable.”

As soon as Zhou Tai finished his words, a shadow clone of Zhou Tai appeared behind Gan Ning.

“WHAT-THE!?”

BOOM

A palm strike from the clone slammed the back of Gan Ning, sending the latter flying toward the real body.

Zhou Tai grabbed Gan Ning’s wrist and with his hand and sent an elbow to the latter’s abdomen. The clone dispersed into smoke a second later.

Being hit from the front and back in full force, Gan Ning’s world spun, but he didn’t feel any pain. He knelt down to rest as the dizziness rocked him.

Looking at his junior, Zhou Tai smirked. He kicked the rooftop and flew away, rushing back to Zhou Gongjin to report his finding.

Zhou Tai had obtained several pieces of good news. After all, Cao Mao came here to form an alliance with the Sun Clan, which was what Zhou Gongjin had been aiming to achieve.

A split second after Zhou Tai had departed, Gan Ning was recovered from the dizziness. His eyes were bloodshot as he glared at the black-clothed man.

“MOTHERFUCKER! I’LL KILL YOU!!”

Gan Ning leaped off the rooftop and pursued Zhou Tai. Unfortunately, as he couldn’t fly, he lost sight of the ninja.

“JUST YOU WAIT!! I’LL LEARN HOW TO FLY, AND I’LL KICK YOUR ASS!!”

…

The Sun Clan’s manor occupied one-fourth of Jianye City as the entire eastern district belonged to Sun Wentai’s family. Several four-story apartments, lining in order, had been built to house the clan’s servants.

Zhou Gongjin stood at the balcony of his apartment, gazing at the sect’s flying mountain island in the dark sky.

The elders brought him back to his apartment and forced him to stay here. They also reprimanded him for being too greedy. Tomorrow, they would decide how they would punish him for violating the clan’s regulations.

Zhou Gongjin sighed. He kept thinking and simulating a hundred scenarios in his mind, trying to figure out how he could convince Sun Wentai and everyone to be wary of Mount Hua Sect and the Yuan Clan.

No matter how many plans he came up with to fight the invincible earth dragonewt Ling Tianlong, everything seemed impossible. After all, in the other timeline, this guy was immune to all physical attacks and elemental attacks. Even nascent soul cultivator’s domains couldn’t leave a scratch on Ling Tianlong’s dragon scale skin.

But there was a scenario that Zhou Gongjin was interested in. He had been wondering if he should let Ling Cao obtain the legacy of the dead beast near the Black Sheep River.

In another scenario, he wondered if he should take it for himself instead. Then, everything would be manageable as he might be able to negotiate with Ling Cao.

Also, Zhou Gongjin thought about talking with Mao Xueyan, the Queen of all beast tribes. However, he had never seen her, and he had no idea how to meet this beast queen.

Then, there was Ding Bu, who killed his father and Dong Zhongying in the other timeline. This man also fought against the Yuan Clan’s elite mercenaries, such as Guan Yunchang, Zhang Yide, and Liu Xuande. However, he went into hiding after the fight.

By the time that Zhou Gongjin left that world, Ding Bu was nowhere to be found. He hesitated whether he should add this person into his calculation or not.

“Haiz.”

The stressful thought gave him a headache. Sometimes, he wanted to give up on Sun Bofu and monopolize all goodies for himself. Afterward, he could live free or enjoy fame, wealth, and women.

Still, the Yuan Clan’s great plan woke him up from the delusion. Even if he could kill Ling Tianlong, the Yuan clan with their treacherous scheme of turning Heavenly Goose Planet into essence core farms and soul stone mines was unforgivable.

They needed to be purged!

Still, Zhou Gongjin was at a loss because of that hypocrite earth dragonewt’s existence.

“Should I befriend Ling Tianlong and manipulate the bastard to kill the Yuan Family? Oh wait, can I set up the Yuan Clan’s children to make them kill Ling Cao, so I can make them fight each other? But Ling Cao is a nascent soul realm expert and he is said to be on par with Ma Ping during his prime time. I doubt their silver pant young masters can do it… Unless I can manipulate the Yuan Clan’s mercenaries into killing Ling Cao…”

Zhou Gongjin caught onto something. He closed his eyes and simulated more scenarios in his mind, using the misconception and mislead ploy as a base.

BEEP

His phone in his hand vibrated. Someone had sent a text message.

Zhou Gongjin snapped back to his senses. He stopped thinking and looked at his phone, reading the message.

It was from Zhou Tai.

[Good news. Cao Mao comes here to form an alliance with our sect.]

The message was short, but this piece of news was huge.

Zhou Gongjin’s mouth curved up into a smile as he was pleased with the discovery. He texted back.

“How’s the talk?”

Zhou Tai didn’t read or reply to his text message.

Five minutes later, the ninja in questioned landed on the balcony. Zhou Tai cupped his fist, saluting to his lord even though he was his younger cousin.

“I’m back, master.”

Zhou Gongjin nodded, “Good work. How’s Cao Mao doing?”

“He can be very useful. As I texted you, he came here for a peace talk with the sect master.”

Zhou Tai told Gongjin everything he heard from the banquet. The Red Sun City incident, the Siren City’s precious elixir, Sun Yun’s whereabouts, Sun Jing’s reaction, Cao Mao’s stance in the banquet, everything had been recorded in his phone. Although he experienced a hiccup due to his greed, Zhou Tai managed to record the banquet talk with his phone.

Hearing the recorded conversation between Cao Mao and Sun Jing, Zhou Gongjin laughed.

“Alright! We have some rooms to work with! Now, can you bring me back to the sect? I need to talk with this Cao Mao personally!”

“Won’t it violate the rules? You already got reprimanded. If they find you again, they might put you in the sect’s dungeon.”

“Don’t let them find out, then! Come on, let’s hurry before daybreak.”

“…”

Zhou Tai disagreed with Zhou Gongjin’s reckless move, but he followed the order anyway. After all, this “Cao Mao” might be someone important to his boss.