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nTranslator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

n“Greetings, young master,” both of them said at once.

nLu Xuan nodded and said, “Not bad. Decently talented. You can go into isolation in peace with the two of them taking your place. I’ll guide them a little while they serve under me. Level Five isn’t good enough, after all. They’ll only be of use when they are, at least, Level Six Martial Arts Legends.”

nAll three of them were very agitated when they heard what Lu Xuan said, especially Shi Danze and Ding Zhuxuan, whose agitation was written all over their faces. Unlike most people within the country, both of them had been in Southeast Asia, which had been rather tumultuous before. As such, they knew very well the gap between Martial Arts Legends and the usual Baodan Grandmasters.

nWhile Martial Arts Legends were definitely not National Guardians, they were still capable of solidifying a nation’s fate, and they were also far above the usual formidable ones.

nTheir clan had been such that just their master alone, as a Martial Arts Legend, had proven enough for them to be famous and stand their ground in Southeast Asia.

n“Thank you, Young Master!” Zhang Hongyang said.

nLu Xuan went on to brand their souls with his own mark without any problems. One thought from him would be all that was needed to kill both of them.

nHowever, both of them had apparently known of such a procedure from their master, Zhang Hongyang, and they both were there because they were willing to accept such an arrangement.

nLu Xuan began to seriously think of ways to enhance their powers after taking Zhang Hongyang’s disciples into his fold.

nZhang Hongyang was well-established, and his mental strength was already powerful enough. He only lacked a form of discipline to materialize said powers, which was why Zhang Hongyang had been able to make the breakthrough so easily.

nHis disciples, in contrast, were far below him. Making a breakthrough would be quite difficult in their case.

nThe simplest and most effective way to do it was through alkahestry—enhancing their powers through the use of pills. That was also the best way to boost Lu Xuan’s parents’ training as well.

nHe had no need to worry about adverse effects in the future after feeding them pills, as pills were just pills, and the thing that caused future instability would be the instability of the mind brought forth by the sudden enhancement of power, not the pill themselves.

nWhile Lu Xuan’s ability to craft such pills were limited at the moment, it was fortunate that Shi Danze, Ding Zhuxuan, as well as his own family members were all actually very weak at the moment, which meant that they had no need for pills that were especially high in quality.

n“Consolidation pills will do, then. Stuff for stabilizing the foundation and consolidating the basis. Nothing works better at foundational stages than consolidation pills.”

nLu Xuan came to a conclusion before long.

nIn an era where the existence of cultivators was not yet made public, buying cultivation treasure ingredients was not easy, unlike how one could easily order items online.

nHowever, Lu Xuan immediately thought of a place where he was able to make such purchases.

nThe dark web.

nUnlike the part of the internet known by the public, the dark web was a place that all manner of shady deals and happenings took place around the clock.

nIt was a place unknown to common people. Even if they heard of such a place now and then, they had no idea how to get to it, but none of that proved to be trouble for Lu Xuan.

nLu Xuan had gotten on the dark web more than once in his past life, after all.

nIt was a completely different world altogether.

nLu Xuan got into the dark web without trouble. To put it precisely, the login page of the dark web was a place that would send the user to different websites according to their unique needs.

nIn contrast to usual websites, the dark web was a place where all manner of information regarding assassination contracts was to be found. There was even a bounty for the president of the United States—which was currently the most powerful country in the world—listed on the hit lists.

nOther than that, there was also human trafficking information to be found, and there were all sorts of men and women being sold there.

nThe dark web was the cesspool of the world’s evils on the internet.

nLu Xuan did not bat an eye at any of this. His hands remained clicking quickly on his laptop.

nOther than those things, the dark web also held a wide variety of information. In contrast to all the cover-ups done of the outside world, the restoration of Spiritual Qi had long been public knowledge on the dark web.

nLu Xuan even saw information from an auction house, and the items being put on auction were none other than Awakened young people.

nAll sorts of things were found on the dark web.

nIt was still the era where the rich and powerful among the common folks ruled, and those people who were newly Awakened had no way of resisting government authorities, after all.

nThings were comparatively well-managed in a country like Huaxia, where law and order were well-maintained. In some places that were more chaotic, those newly Awakened ones were treated as little more than precious animals, taken and experimented on. It was even common for some to be turned into the playthings of warlords.

nOther than all of that, there was news regarding some ruins being discovered somewhere, some Spiritual Eye of yet another Spiritual Tide found somewhere, or some mutations of some trees taking place somewhere. The trees bore spiritual fruit and caused fighting to break out, resulting in a massive death count or something similar.

nMost of those happenings took place outside the country. The more lawless the place, the more common things like this happened, as there were no institutions or organizations powerful enough to put all those cultivators in their place.

nHowever, Lu Xuan knew that none of this would be news for long. One was unable to call things that were happening all over the world every day newsworthy, after all.

nLu Xuan then caught sight of some news related to Huaxia; it was the Falling Star in Mount Tai Incident. There seemed to have been spies from two countries lurking in Huaxia, taking the Heirloom Seal of the Realm away from the Special Task Force.

nBoth sides clashed in a huge battle, eventually resulting in the loss of Japanese and American agents, as well as several Martial Arts Legends and a National Guardian.

nThe article sang praises to the Special Task Force’s prowess, and Lu Xuan read something describing him at the end of the article.

nIt mentioned that the formidable fighters from both the United States and Japan eventually died at the hands of a mysterious master from Huaxia. That was all to it in the article. There were no specific details regarding Lu Xuan.

nHowever, the website was still based outside Huaxia, and the fact that it was capable of gathering that much information was a testament to the dark web’s permeability throughout the world. The intelligence-gathering abilities of the dark web were indeed very powerful.

nThe comments under the article were all praises to the Special Task Force’s ability, talking about how the country was still the forbidden land of dark forces.

nThere were also people asking about who the Chinese master that killed Aida Ryosuke was.

nLu Xuan even saw a bounty for his head, offering money to whoever was capable of providing information on his identity.

nThe bounty on his head was also huge; it was 100 million American dollars!

nOf course, no one knew that it was Lu Xuan who did it, so the bounty was for the mysterious master who killed Aida Ryosuke instead of Lu Xuan specifically.

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nWhile Lu Xuan had no idea who offered the prize, he was able, at least, to tell that it had to either be an American or a Japanese.

nHe ignored all this information and went to the pages listing items for sale, placing orders for herbs required for crafting consolidation pills.

nHe even bought an alkahest cauldron along the way. The total sum of purchases cost him hundreds of thousands of yuan.

nHowever, compared to the amount of money he had earned as of late, the price was hardly worth mentioning.

nThe dark web was frighteningly efficient. All the ingredients required for crafting the pills, as well as the cauldron, arrived by the third day.

nThere were also incoming funds from the sale of the wooden fish to the Southern Shaolin Temple from before.

nOne hundred million yuan was not a small sum. The temple was finally able to amass the sum after working on it for days, and they sent the money to Lu Xuan’s account.

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