In the end, Jiang Ke’er still didn’t do something so utterly insane.
Randomly attaching a stick would lead to trouble.
She was just indulging a twisted sense of humor with a very cold joke.
Although she had always deeply resented the stick she had lost, constantly fantasizing in her head about one day growing a massive spiritual root to knock Qiao Xiaoxian to the ground, even if it was just a phantom limb…
Her conscience ultimately prevailed, and she didn’t proceed with reckless actions.
“So, who will be the lucky one to lose their stick…”
Jiang Ke’er hesitated for a long time but still couldn’t make a decision.
Part of her wanted to sacrifice A Miao, after all, Jie Shui was the lucky guy who had received the little girl’s confession, carrying the happiness of the latter half of that girl’s life.
But imagine if the connection was wrong, and this wasn’t Jie Shui’s original stick…
Many years later, Jie Shui takes his child for a paternity test, and the results show A Miao’s soul descendant component.
That would be awkward.
Jiang Ke’er wore a troubled expression, silently cursing herself for being careless, to have lost something so important.
But, she had clearly searched for souls very meticulously. In theory, there shouldn’t have been any stray fragments left behind.
Making a low-level mistake like losing a stick… it didn’t seem like something she would do!
“Ah, wait a minute!”
She suddenly realized.
She seemed to have been tricked by a mental trap again.
A Miao’s race was the Zerg. The Zerg were different from mammalian creatures with clear gender distinctions.
Many Zerg had bizarre characteristics!
As for planarians, if she remembered correctly…
Weren’t they hermaphrodites?!
Because she had always viewed A Miao as a boy, and A Miao always went to the men’s restroom with Jie Shui, arm in arm, she had naturally assumed A Miao was a normal boy.
But in reality, A Miao’s stick grew directly towards the reproductive cavity and wasn’t externally visible.
Emmm… strange knowledge has increased!
Now that she had figured out the problem, Jiang Ke’er quickly took advantage of the medicine’s lingering effect to piece together the souls of Gan Ruanruan, Jie Shui, and A Miao, then used the strange power of her Houtu Divine Sense to help nourish and repair them.
It wouldn’t be long before they regained consciousness, bouncing around and complaining, their souls even stronger than before.
It’s just… having no physical bodies would indeed be troublesome.
Even cloning technology would probably struggle to replicate the powerful and complex bodies of cultivators, especially since this was a Xuanhuan World.
In that case, why not let them become Ghost Cultivators?
Powerful Ghost Cultivators were not inferior to Human Clan Cultivators.
Before Underworld Province shattered, Ghost Cultivators were even considered superior to ordinary cultivators.
All things in the Nine Provinces could not escape the cycle of Reincarnation, and Ghost Cultivators lived in the Underworld Province, serving as its officials who helped maintain the operation of reincarnation, wielding the power of life and death!
Of course, the prerequisite was that she could rebuild the Underworld Province.
Jiang Ke’er had many, many plans for the future. But before starting these plans, she had some minor matters to attend to.
“Do you have something to do?” Jiang Ke’er asked Qiao Xiaoxian.
Qiao Xiaoxian shook her head. “I plan to return to Beiju Luzhou once I reach the Seven Luminaries Peak… but not now. I don’t have anything pressing at the moment.”
Beiju Luzhou…
Jiang Ke’er’s feelings were complicated. She had always wanted to see the place where Qiao Xiaoxian grew up with her own eyes.
She wanted to understand Qiao Xiaoxian. She didn’t know when it started… she felt an extreme curiosity about Qiao Xiaoxian, craving to understand her completely and thoroughly.
Perhaps it was to dispel the doubts in her heart, to allow herself to hate her steadfastly, to confirm that her own actions weren’t wrong, to confirm that Qiao Xiaoxian was indeed using her… that way, she could completely shatter all her fantasies of something beautiful.
“Beiju Luzhou… I might go there too,” Jiang Ke’er said somewhat awkwardly.
“But I’m going to kill people. If your clansmen are birds of a feather with that Demon Kingdom, I’ll cut them down too!”
“…”
Qiao Xiaoxian smiled and rubbed Jiang Ke’er’s head.
“Don’t celebrate too early. I didn’t say I’d definitely go.” Jiang Ke’er huffed and raised a paw to push Qiao Xiaoxian’s hand away.
“But anyway, you’re still far from the Seven Luminaries Realm… come eat with me first.”
“Eat?”
“Yeah! These days, living isn’t easy. A priestess can’t run on love alone, and besides, I’m so poor… gotta eat!” Jiang Ke’er transformed back into human form and put her hands on her hips.
“Poor…” Qiao Xiaoxian’s eye twitched. “Alright, how do we ‘eat’?”
“Listen to me… like this… whisper whisper whisper whisper…”
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Regarding the matter of borrowing money, Yu Wenhua Ji felt it was practically a sure thing.
However, when he arrived at the Nine Palaces Chamber of Commerce, he didn’t dare put on any airs of being the emperor—the Nine Palaces Chamber of Commerce was the real boss.
His own emperor position, lacking any foundation or heritage, could be revoked by them at any time if they wanted to interfere.
What right did he have to put on airs?
“The Demon Race is rampant, wreaking havoc in Shenzhou. At this critical juncture, we should naturally share a common hatred against the enemy,” the Dry Hall Master, an old man with a white beard, personally received Yu Wenhua Ji.
His words made Yu Wenhua Ji feel much more at ease…
Fortunately, the opponent was the Demon Race, and there was even a Fox Demon, which the Tribulation Immortal Hall particularly despised.
Otherwise, the negotiation probably wouldn’t have gone so smoothly.
“However, these are troubled times. Trade routes everywhere are blocked. The Chamber of Commerce is also having a hard time!” The Dry Hall Master let out a long sigh.
“How about this… a five-year term. Borrow one, repay two.”
Yu Wenhua Ji’s face stiffened.
Damn you, you black-hearted plutocrats! I, the emperor, am here to borrow money for the Great Industrial Era of the Human Clan, and you dare offer loan shark terms like ‘borrow one, repay two’?!
“This… the matter of interest, could we discuss it further?” Yu Wenhua Ji was drenched in cold sweat.
A usurious clause like ‘borrow one, repay two’ would be the death of him! Even if they repelled the Demon Race, within five years he would still be a pauper, and the economic situation of the Great Sima Nation wouldn’t change one bit!
“After all, we are fighting against the Demon Race. If the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold. If the Great Sima Nation is conquered by the Demon Race, the Nine Palaces Chamber of Commerce will also suffer huge losses. Moreover, the large amount of military supplies procured by the Great Sima Nation are all produced by the Nine Palaces Chamber of Commerce’s own affiliated sects… the Chamber of Commerce has already profited immensely from this!” Yu Wenhua Ji was still struggling.
“The Demon Race conquering the Great Sima Nation? Are you delirious from the epidemic poison?” The Dry Hall Master looked at Yu Wenhua Ji in astonishment.
“With the Demon Race’s meager strength… even if you gave them two hundred years, they couldn’t conquer one-third of the Great Sima Nation’s territory!
Whether you borrow money or not only determines how many commoners will die in the Great Sima Nation. But that’s your business, what does it have to do with me?
I’m not the emperor. Even if too many commoners die and there’s a rebellion, it’s you who gets replaced, not me. They’ll still have to come to me to borrow money then.”
Yu Wenhua Ji gritted his teeth in hatred.
That’s right. No matter how dynasties changed, the Nine Palaces Chamber of Commerce would never collapse.
With money, you have everything.
No dynasty or race can do without money… and what’s more, they possessed self-defense forces not inferior to the official forces of the Great Sima Nation.
Rooted in financial power, the Nine Palaces Chamber of Commerce existed eternally, and could keep operating for tens of thousands more years without issue!
Unless… the money was gone.
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.