Five minutes later, Zhao Xuan slowly opened his eyes.
A quick glance at his attribute panel made his expression brighten instantly.
Fifty points.
Yes — in just five minutes, without lifting a finger, simply by eating one petal of the cactus flower, his Armament Haki proficiency had risen by 50 points.
It felt like picking up free money.
And that wasn't all.
Zhao Xuan could clearly sense the lingering effects still working through his body. His Armament Haki continued to move on its own, lively and active — without requiring any effort or stamina from him.
"Judging by how slowly it's fading… it should last for a full day."
A treasure. An absolute treasure.
This cactus flower's effect had completely surpassed his expectations.
After staring at the remaining seven petals for a while, Zhao Xuan carefully stored them away.
Then, he pulled out a Monkey King Fruit and ate it in big bites.
Worth every coin.
A cool sensation rushed straight to his mind, clearing away his fatigue. Zhao Xuan quickly entered meditation, drawing the fruit's medicinal power into his spiritual sea.
Half an hour later, he opened his eyes.
Ding-dong.
"You have meditated seriously in a special environment. Your mental energy has increased.
Mental Power +1."
"Hiss— it directly boosted my mental power by one point!"
Zhao Xuan's excitement surged again.
"This is worth it. Completely worth it. If I could eat Monkey King Fruits like twenty-thousand-yuan Spirit-Nourishing Fruits… why would I ever worry about weak mental power again? Eating one hundred a day — wouldn't that be an easy hundred points gained daily?"
What was he thinking?
Eating a hundred a day?
Did he think he wasn't broke enough already?
Shaking his head vigorously, Zhao Xuan dispelled the unrealistic fantasy.
He stayed awake the entire night.
At dawn, he headed out immediately.
But he didn't rush toward the Lingyin Mountain Range just yet. Instead, he went first to the Ability User Guild and carefully selected five bounty missions involving fifth-rank land kings.
These missions varied in difficulty — two low-grade, two mid-grade, and one high-grade — but they all had one thing in common:
All of the targets were high-offense, low-defense beasts.
The deposit for each fifth-rank mission was steep: fifty thousand per mission, totaling two hundred and fifty thousand.
But for Zhao Xuan, who had just acquired more than two hundred million, the amount was laughable.
Where did the money come from?
Half of it came from selling the fourth-rank land king crystals he got from the sand statues last night — thirty-nine of them at three hundred thousand each, totaling eleven point seven million.
The other hundred million came from selling the corpses of the sand statues.
Yes — their stone bodies were valuable. Despite being stone, they were as hard as high-grade fourth-rank blue bricks.
When he learned this from the guild staff, he was ecstatic.
He immediately rushed back into the relic space.
One corpse after another after another…
He carried them all out.
With his ten-thousand-point physical strength in dragon-man form, lifting twenty-ton stone giants was easy.
After hauling them back and forth for more than an hour, Zhao Xuan finally sold the bulk of the stone bodies.
Of course, he didn't touch the ones used to build his base.
He wasn't about to tear down his own home for cash.
With more than two hundred million in hand, Zhao Xuan felt unstoppable.
He waved his hand and bought fifty Monkey King Fruits.
"If I feel like it, I'll eat one."
Leaving the guild, he headed toward the north gate, passed through the city walls, and rushed toward the Lingyin Mountain Range.
Not long after he left, a five-man squad slipped out of Hang City.
One sixth-rank grandmaster.
Four fifth-rank experts.
One of them pulled out a familiar burlap pouch after leaving the city's security boundary. He activated his beast-type Fruit ability — his nose elongating and blackening like a hound's.
He sniffed the pouch, then immediately sprinted toward the mountain range.
The others followed closely.
Had Zhao Xuan been present, he would've recognized it at once — the pouch containing land king crystals, the one that should've been in the guild's possession.
…
Zhao Xuan moved swiftly.
Upon entering the mountain range, he immediately activated the Azure Dragon Fruit and entered his mini-dragon form.
Five times his attributes, combined with Shave and Moonwalk, allowed him to dash through the forest like a gust of wind.
Very soon, he reached the middle zone — home to fifth-rank land kings.
He instantly canceled his fruit ability, returning to his "harmless" human state.
He traveled through the woods quietly until reaching the location of his first target — the easiest of his missions.
A fifth-rank jackal.
After arriving, Zhao Xuan retrieved a fresh fourth-rank beast corpse and began slicing it open.
Blood poured out, its scent spreading across the forest.
Wolves — especially fifth-rank beasts — had extremely keen senses.
Soon…
Rustle… rustle…
A faint sound came from the distant underbrush.
A pair of glowing green eyes stared at him from the shadows.
"Hooked."
Zhao Xuan released his aura — not dragon aura, but raw human strength at full output.
It was bait.
If he hid his presence too much, a cautious wolf might suspect a trap and retreat.
So he did the opposite: he made himself appear confident but not overwhelmingly threatening.
The jackal's eyes showed disdain.
A moment later, it charged.
Five meters.
Four.
Three.
Two—
One—
Just as its claws were about to tear Zhao Xuan apart…
A chilling sense of danger shot through its body.
But it was too late.
BOOM!
A terrifying force burst forth.
Zhao Xuan, in full dragon-man form, smashed a lightning-wrapped fist upward into the jackal's jaw.
The wolf's skull crumpled.
Its jaws snapped shut, biting off its own tongue.
Before it could recover—
BOOM!
Zhao Xuan hammered its skull into the ground.
Then came the storm.
One punch.
Another.
Another.
Dozens of blows in seconds.
Its howls weakened… faded… then ceased.
Zhao Xuan finally exhaled.
But the instant relief washed over him—
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Five crystal-energy shells rained from above.
"Not good!"
Zhao Xuan instantly opened his relic space and threw himself inside.
He barely made it in.
Because the next moment—
BOOOOM!!!
A colossal explosion tore the entire hill to shreds.
Shockwaves flattened everything within sight.
Below the mountain, the five assassins watched with narrowed eyes.
"One fifth-rank shell and four fourth-rank shells… the brat should be dead now, right?"
"Don't get careless," the sixth-rank leader said coldly. "Use another fifth-rank round."
"What!? Another one? Boss, that costs nine million!"
"Use it. If we kill him, we'll be swimming in money soon. According to the guild steward, the boy likely has a space-type relic core. That's worth tens of billions."
Greed flared in everyone's eyes.
With trembling excitement, the fifth-rank man loaded another fifth-rank crystal shell and fired.
BOOOOM—
The mountain was nearly leveled.
"Now he's dead, right?"
"Even if not dead, he should be crippled."
"No way a fourth-rank kid survives that."
After confirming there was no movement, the four fifth-ranks hurried up the ruined summit.
Thick smoke and dust filled the air. Visibility was almost zero.
They searched eagerly — for the corpse, for loot, for the relic core.
But they found nothing.
Then—
One of them suddenly froze.
A spatial crack had appeared where he had just passed.
A relic entrance.
He was ecstatic.
"So that's why we couldn't find him! He hid inside the relic! And if he can open it anywhere… he really DOES have a space-type relic core!"
He was just about to shout for the others—
When a blood-soaked figure stumbled out of the entrance.
Zhao Xuan.
Covered in wounds, scorched, looking barely alive.
Their eyes met.
Zhao Xuan's expression hardened.
He instantly retreated back into the relic.
The fifth-rank assassin trembled with excitement.
"He's hurt! Badly! He must have been hit by the blast! Even if he can beat a fifth-rank at peak condition, right now he's—"
Greed drowned out reason.
He clenched his fists, said nothing… and charged into the relic.
The moment he stepped inside—
He didn't even have time to look around.
A force like a thunderstorm slammed into him.
"Bad—!"
He managed to raise his arms and coat them with Armament Haki—
But the difference in power was absolute.
CRACK! CRACK!
His arms shattered instantly.
A second punch smashed half his face flat.
His scream tore through the air—
Only to be cut short by a lightning-infused tempest kick crashing into his chest, launching him dozens of meters across the sand.
Before he could crawl away, Zhao Xuan appeared above him.
One stomp.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Limbs snapped like twigs.
Finally, Zhao Xuan lifted him by the collar, his voice icy:
"How many are you?"
He didn't bother asking who they were.
Anyone who used crystal bombs on him was an enemy — simple as that.
"F-Five… five… with me… five total… boss is… sixth-rank… we're… we're all fifth-rank…"
"And why did you ambush me?"
"W-We… heard from Steward Sun… at the guild… th-that you… might have… a space-type… relic core…"
Zhao Xuan's eyes turned cold.
He twisted the man's neck.
Click.
"So they're not demon cultists. Just greedy scavengers."
He tossed the corpse aside, gulped down a bottle of mid-grade energy fluid, then stepped out of the relic space.
A chilling smile appeared on his face.
"A man dies for wealth, a bird dies for food.
Since you dared to covet my treasure… I hope you're prepared to be hunted."
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