Chapter 209 Sweet & Sour Pork with Pineapple (a)
Translated by Gumihou
Edited by Gumihou
The third day.
By now, everyone knew that a competitor had appeared. Which was not good news for them. The Champions all sat together to properly talk about the steps they should take to deal with the matter.
Dong-Fang Zhen was there too. Although his arm was still bandaged up, his complexion has improved a lot. Right now, he was leaning lazily against Xuan Yin, the self-satisfied expression on his face really made their fingers itched to punch him.
“I don’t believe we could stop these people from doing whatever they want,” said Shiyu. “From the way things kept happening one after another, I have a feeling that the Imperial Capital is going to see some big changes very soon. In fact, the appearance of One Ear is probably part of their plan.
If One Ear manages to kill Dong-Fang, the Empire will fall into chaos. Even if Dong-Fang is not killed we could all be badly injured. [1] We can’t afford to retreat into close Cultivation because that meant the enemy will use that opportunity to gain market share and divert the flow of silver into the pockets.
Also, I think their goal is more than just money. It seems weird to risk offending His Majesty the Emperor over mere silver. To dare risk His Majesty’s wrath… could it be, they have some other goal in mind?”
Shiyu paused, then looked at the lounging Dong-Fang-Zhen, “Right now, you are His Majesty’s only son?”
Dong-Fang Zhen sat up properly. A self-deprecating smile on his face, “Yes, all of my brothers are dead and my father can’t have anymore children. I am probably his only seedling left. If I die…” the smile deepened meaningfully. “I expect some people would become so ecstatic they can’t sleep at night.”
“Then, this matter must be connected to the internal politics of the Eastern Empire. I think… if you have not gotten close to the Imperial College, these people might have remained hidden. However, with the Palace openly working with the College and you gaining fame as an individual must have caused them to ‘Jump the Wall like Panicked Dogs’ [2]. Coupled with the realisation of how much money is being raked into the Imperial Family’s pockets, I guess they could no longer sit still.
We’ve already calculated how money could be made, even after deducting the cost, revenue could be about 10 million taels a day. 10 days of tournaments meant 100 million taels! Moreover, if they worked with other countries and started similar tournaments there, who knows how much more money could be made?
The Imperial Capital is just one of the largest cities in the Eastern Empire. Imagine if even half of those other cities organise tournaments like this? Can you imagine the profits they make just from taking commission money for the rights? I believe everyone should understand how significant this is. With large sums of money, they could easily raise private armies and perhaps even shift the emperor off his seat.
Well, I think that sums up the situation we’re in. Dong-Fang, I’m afraid your position as Crown Prince isn’t stable. Is there something you’d like to say?”
Shiyu took a sip of water. After all that talking, her throat was a bit dry.
“The Crown Prince’s position is connected to my life. So, how can I not be concerned about it? Of course, if Xuan Yin is willing to shelter me, I could still force myself to accept a position as a male pet concubine and strive to be her favourite…” Dong-Fang Zhen’s entire demeanour suddenly softened as he batted affectionate eyes at a stoic Xuan Yin.
Everyone threw their corn cobs at his face in disgust.
[3] How dare you show off your relationship to us single dogs, ah, ah, ah!Eventually, Feng Luo brought the conversation back on track, “Is there a way to solve this?”
“Yes,” Shiyu paused. “First, Dong-Fang Zhen’s father could just kill off the heads of the people behind this.”
“Impossible,” said Dong-Fang Zhen immediately. “Imperial Father might be the emperor with the backing of several Divine Transformation experts, but there are many powerful clans in the Eastern Empire connected to some mysterious organisation. We know very little about them aside from the fact that they have invited a Divine Transformation as their consultant. If the two sides clash directly, not only would both sides take heavy losses, but the common people caught between would suffer too.”
“A mysterious force?” Shiyu thought of the organisation called the Enforcers that Elder Gu had mentioned before… could the problem they’re facing now be brought on by these people?
“The second way is for the emperor to recruit stronger people. It’s always good to have more Divine Transformation experts on your side after all.”
[4] “That would be difficult too,” said Qing Chen. [4] “People that powerful knew they are sought after and who’s to say they can’t be hired away?” Feng Luo agreed.“The third way is to stabilise our own position. Let the public recognise us as the only worthy Champions and only come to witness our fights. That way, we can maintain our fans and though we cannot monopolize the market, we can get the lion’s share back,” after all, blocking the other side from making money also meant hindering their plans.
The more they analyse the situation, the more complicated it seemed. Shiyu felt as though she was wading through a muddy pond for clues. The more she group the bottom for hints, the more difficult it was to see through the water.
The only thing she could say with some confidence was that the current emperor appeared to be a fairly competent ruler. Previously, when she travelled from Qing Shan City to the Imperial Capital, she came across quite a few small hamlets and villages where the people’s livelihood depended upon hard work and luck. Still, it was rare to find whole villages of people who could not at least feed or cloth themselves.
She had no idea what the next emperor would be like. However, to protect your own rights, you must have absolute strength. The current royal family was a bit lacking in terms of power. If their enemies sought foreign aid, the royal family may not be able to withstand the assault.
“Well, I’m done talking, what do you think?” asked Shiyu.
“We can only try our best to protect Dong-Fang. However…” Feng Luo crossed his arms and looked down on Dong-Fang, “Won’t you blush under the protection of several young lords?”
“Why should I blush? It’s not like I’m Long Yang [6],” said Dong-Fang Zhen straightforwardly.
“Enough about that,” Lin Fan cut in suddenly. “Let’s return to the topic. As Shiyu said, we only have control over the third option. Unfortunately, it’s too much for us to defeat a team of seven Core Condensation 8 experts. Especially since we have Xuan Yin who hasn’t even reach Core Condensation realm yet…”
“Give me three days,” Xuan Yin spoke up suddenly, breaking her silence. “In three days, I will break into Core Condensation Realm.”
Lin Fan paused. However, he nodded and said, “Very well, however, even once you’ve reached Core Condensation realm, we still have a long way to go to match them in terms of strength. Unless we have a way to boost everyone to Core Condensation 6 in a short amount of time…”
Core Condensation 6.
Right now only Shiyu and Qing Chen were at this level or above. Lin Fan and Feng Luo had just broken through to Core Condensation 5 not too long ago and could probably crest that peak if they work hard. As for the rest…
The Ninth Realm’s Spiritual energy was too thin to properly collect energy in the air for a quick and sudden breakthrough.
Shiyu suddenly thought of the Nascent Formation Beast in her space ring…
If she could achieve a vision in her cooking, wouldn’t it improve everyone’s Cultivation? However, her Nascent Formation Beast meat was limited, not to mention the very, very limited Nascent Formation Leopard beast core.
Now that she thought about it, it’s time to polish her cooking skills again.
“Lin Fan, go and inform the Dean we need a few more days to Cultivate!” announced Shiyu. “I may have a way to greatly increase everyone’s strength.”
[Gumihou: I think… it’s interesting to see LF totally trust what Shiyu has to say and more or less follows her instructions blindly. Then again, she is the only one who had started out at rock bottom as a ‘Cultivation dunce’ and had surpassed the College prodigy in Cultivation. So, it made sense to trust her claims for having a ‘secret shortcut technique’]
Gumihou is keeping track so that you don’t have to ~
| 凝氣 | Condensation Stage | Stage 1 |
| 化丹 | Core Transformation | Stage 2 |
| 凝丹(46) | Core Condensation | Stage 3 |
| 化神(52) | Divine Transformation | Stage 4 |
| 成嬰 | Nascent Formation | Stage 5 |
| 合體 | Unification | Stage 6 |
| 返墟 | Revert Decay | Stage 7 |
| 歸真 | Original Purity | Stage 8 |
| 成仙 | Become immortal | Stage 9 |
[1] Smoothing out Complicated Dialogue [2] Chinese Idiom – Jump the Wall like Panicked Dogs: Panicked to the point they did something desperate. More emphasis on ‘desperation’ [3] Added Detail for Transitional Purpose: Might as well expand the ‘throw corn cob’ scene a little [4] Added Details for Transitional Purpose: Majority of the dialogues might as well be Shiyu talking to herself. Put in comments from other people. [5] Additional Details: Shiyu seemed to have forgotten she used to be one of those ‘who could barely feed or cloth themselves’.
Patched.
[6] Chinese Idiom – Long Yang’s Affection: Is a famous idiom for same-sex love, hehe. They have others too, like ‘Leftover Peach Affection’ and, of course, ‘Cut-sleeve’ which is more of a euphemism.https://www.theworldofchinese.com/2019/06/gay-emperors-in-chinese-history/
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