Chapter 46: Silly Girl

“What did you say? You got Scarlet Punishment again?”

Night Demon’s voice was extremely shrill, as if his throat had been pinched by a door..

A gaze filled with anger and confusion was directed at Su Chen from underneath a black veil. His voice was rough, “What did you do?”

“It was nothing, really. I just beat Su Qian a little.”

“Was it severe?”

Su Chen tilted his head and thought for a moment, then replied, “It wasn’t really that bad. I just broke the bridge of his nose, knocked out two of his teeth, ripped his left ear into shreds, poked his eyes so that they swell - he won’t be able to see for about three days - and then I broke his right shoulder...... I was very proper with my actions. They are all things that are easy to take care of.”

Night Demon inhaled sharply. She [1. Okay, so this probably deserves an explanation. As some of you might have guessed already, Night Demon is a girl. I don’t know why the author decided to suddenly reveal this here, but her name is probably more accurately translated as Night Charm (but I felt it would give it away too much). In any case, I don’t think a strong female character is a bad thing. In any case, I’ve translated everything up until this point as “he”, but from here on out Night Demon is a GIRL.] could imagine Su Qian’s appearance and the Su Clan members’ anger.

Of course, they all swallowed their anger in astonishment when they heard Su Chen say “I choose the Scarlet Punishment.”

On that day, everyone in the Su Clan looked at Su Chen as if they were looking at a crazy man.

They had no way of imagining it, nor did they understand it.

“Why did you do this?” Night Demon asked.

“Because I want to break through. I want to get the Cloud Bat Bloodline, I want to become stronger, and I wanted to unrestrainedly beat the people I want to beat,” Su Chen replied.

In some sense, the words that he spoke were all genuine.

Night Demon was left speechless.

After a moment, she said with some difficulty, “For you to return from the Scarlet Mountain Range once does not mean that you will be able to return twice. Do you know what kind of people die the fastest in the Scarlet Mountain Range?”

“Weak people?” Su Chen asked.

“No,” Night Demon shook her head. “Weak people know that they are weak. Thus, they never do things that they feel uncomfortable doing. They act carefully, and treat survival as their number one goal, and they will not go to dangerous areas easily. The people that die the fastest are those who have a certain amount of strength and who have a certain level of experience surviving in the mountain range. Having successfully exited the Scarlet Mountain Range before, they feel as if they are already used to the dangers hidden in that place. In addition, because they are stronger than before, they believe that they can go to more dangerous areas. Because they have more confidence, they look down on the danger hidden in those mountains...... The moment that they let down their guard is the moment when their death is imminent.”

Su Chen shivered.

Night Demon could be pretty silly sometimes, but her words just then were very accurate.

Su Chen was exactly the type of person she had described. After experiencing Scarlet Punishment once and safely returning, he had instinctively underestimated the dangers of the Scarlet Mountain Range. He had already decided that this time he would go deeper into the mountain range and encounter even more Vicious Beasts, saving himself even more time.

This was a very frightening and life-threatening way of thinking. It indicated that he might run into even greater danger.

Perhaps he could escape time after time from many dangers, but as long as he failed once...... there would not be any more attempts in the future!

Upon thinking to this point, Su Chen bowed respectfully to Night Demon. “You’re right to rebuke me. I looked down on the dangers of the Scarlet Mountain Range and overestimated my own abilities.”

Night Demon obviously did not expect Su Chen to listen so carefully to her. She felt pleased with herself. “You’re not too bad; at least you are teachable.”

She was clearly very proud of her wisdom.

Su Chen secretly laughed.

Night Demon said, “Since it’s like this, you don’t need to go anymore, right?”

Su Chen shook his head. “I still need to go. After all, I already beat the person, so I can't back down anyways. What I meant was that my attitude has been adjusted. I will need to prepare myself more and be more careful and prudent, but that doesn’t mean that I will give up so easily. Originally, I was only intending on borrowing the Black Streak Battle Blade and the Amethyst Battle Armor, but now it seems that I should still borrow all four of them. Also, you should probably give me more medicines and a few more Cracked Soul Magic Pearls.

Night Demon angrily huffed, “I said so much out of compassion just to change your mind so you’d extort us a little more?”

“Hey, what do you mean, extort, that sounds so ugly. Let’s call it mutually benefiting. After all, I am not just taking your items without giving them back; didn’t I return everything to you last time?” Su Chen playfully defended himself.

“You haven’t returned the consumables yet.”

“Hmph, is it not enough that I’ll use my own Origin Stones this time? Can’t you just calculate the cost of the medicines and Cracked Soul Magic Pearls and treat it as if I had bought them? Of course, they are all poor quality, so they should be cheaper. Last time, when I bought those techniques from you, no matter what I still helped you do business. Now, I really don’t have much money anymore.”

“This......” Night Demon rubbed her chin. “It’s not impossible, but I need to go back and ask first.”

The second night, Night Demon reappeared as usual.

She got straight to the point. “The leaders agreed to lend you the four Origin Tools after some discussion as well as give you the medicines and the Cracked Soul Magic Pearls for free. Don’t worry, this time they are all good medicines, and you don’t need to pay anything for them.”

“That good? This can’t be true.” Su Chen didn’t believe that meat pies would fall from the sky like that.

“It’s fine as long as you help us take care of something,” Night Demon said.

“What thing?”

“Was there a shipment of goods that came to the Su Clan a while ago via the Han River?”

Su Chen laughed, “Are you talking about the shipment of wood that the Shengxing Company just received? Yes, my third uncle Su Feihu was in charge of sending that shipment. What? Does your group have designs on this wood shipment?”

“Of course not, we just want you to help us smuggle some things.”

“Smuggle?” Su Chen somewhat understood. "Contraband items?”

“No, just some items we just don’t want a few of our opponents to know about.”

“If it doesn’t conflict with the interest of my uncle’s company, I can consider it. However, if the only benefits you have to offer me are some defective tools and medicines on the cheap, it is not enough to convince me.”

“What do you want?”

“When I purchased those techniques last time, I had borrowed money from the clan’s businesses. Although it wasn’t too much, I am still somewhat nervous about the turnover.”

“We’ll give you three hundred Origin Stones.”

“A thousand.”

“Hey, we’re only asking you to help us carry some things with you!” Night Demon’s eyes once again went wide.

Su Chen lazily said, “If you want to pull a clan’s Young Master over to your side, you’ll have to spend some capital.”

Night Demon was stunned for a moment before laughing mockingly, “So you saw through it.”

For them to ask Su Chen to carry some goods for no apparent reason, did it really have to be someone from the Su Clan who helped them?

Su Chen didn’t believe that.

Why was it that after he had experienced the Scarlet Mountain Range, this mysterious organization would still enthusiastically help him? And why were they willing to even sell an extremely rare Origin Skill like the Soul Eye to him at such a low price?

Obviously, it was to rope him to their side!

When he thought back to Lin Xie, who he had killed, he knew that this organization was roping in people from all over the place.

Some of these people could be Origin Qi Scholars with deep cultivation bases, others could be high-ranking officials, and of course still others could be the Young Masters of clans and sects.

If even Lin Xie, a minor relative of the Lin Clan, had enough value to be roped in, how could Su Chen not have even more value?

In addition, if they won him over, the chance of any information leaking would become lower.

Since someone knew about their secret, and they couldn’t kill that person without ruining their plans, then it was best to turn that person into one of their own.

This was also a pretty good path to take.

At the same time, Su Chen had no reason to refuse this kind of roping in.

As he gradually continued to cut ties with the Su Clan, he would temporarily be a youth who could not continue progressing on his own. He truly needed a new backer, even if that organization might potentially bring him problems in the future.

Thus, when he had initially proposed the matter of buying techniques, he had been giving the other party a way out. The other party had very clearly understood and accepted his intentions. Not only had they sent him many valuable techniques, but they had given him a very favorable price. Thus, they were able to continue doing business with each other.

And so, things had quickly progressed to the stage where they tested out the waters while winning him over.

Luring someone in was a step by step process, after all.

“If the bait is large enough, one would swallow it even knowing that it was bait,” Su Chen lazily said. His entire attitude was one of ‘I’m not worried about being bought out, I’m just worried about whether the price is large enough’.

“Okay then, a thousand Origin Stones. May our cooperation be fruitful!”

“May our cooperation be fruitful,” Su Chen similarly replied.

Then he said, “Since we’re already friends, you don’t have to change your voice when you speak. Let me hear what you normally sound like.”

“This......” Night Demon hesitated for a moment.

“Aren’t you a woman, was it worth hiding it until now?”

Night Demon opened her eyes wide. “You knew I was a woman?”

Su Chen’s reply made her angry.

“Only if you were a woman would anyone be able to tolerate such a stupid guest.”