Chapter 203: You teased me, I teased you
The plump youth rubbed his chin while walking to the table before Yi Yun. He sat down, but his men did not sit. They stood apart on all four corners, like door-gods.
This attracted the attention of many as people looked over. Some recognized who the plump youth was.
“Isn’t he the Hongdao Association’s president, Li Hong?”
“He stays in the central divine tower, why would he come to a low-class cook house?”
The Hongdao Association was one of the organizations many people paid close attention to amongst the recruits in the Tai Ah Divine City. Li Hong was considered as an influential person in the Tai Ah Divine City.
To be recognized by so many the moment he sat down, Li Hong felt very satisfied.
“You are Yi Yun, right?”
Li Hong looked at Yi Yun and used a nod as a greeting. “It’s you who... picked the primordial herb?”
Many people knew that someone had picked a primordial herb and had been summoned by the Divine City’s Elder. But they did not know that it was Yi Yun, who was currently eating his meal at a low-class cook house.
Upon hearing Li Hong’s words, they became shocked. Soon, more and more people started paying attention to what was happened at the table.
One was an influential person in the Tai Ah Divine City, the other was a recruit who many followed with interest for having picked a primordial herb.
What were they going to talk about?
Yi Yun wiped his mouth and glanced at Li Hong. Li Hong was smiling affably. With his eyes squinting, it made him look like Maitreya Buddha.
Yi Yun had heard a bit about the Hongdao Association. It was one of the most influential organizations among the recruits. Many recruits wanted to board this cruise liner, hoping that when the Hongdao Association developed itself into one of the strongest factions in the Tai Ah Divine City in a few years, it would also inflate their own status.
Li Hong was strong, but he was not at some fate-defying level. The Hongdao Association set up by him, had a certain limit to its abilities.
It was not easy to prop up this organization.
“It’s me, ” Yi Yun nodded his head.
Li Hong said, “Let me introduce myself. I am Li Hong, the President of the Hongdao Association. I will just cut to the chase. I wish to take you into the Hongdao Association. I have prepared the position of Chief for you!”
When Li Hong said those words, many people who were paying attention to the ongoings were surprised.
Chief?
In the Hongdao Association, besides the President and Vice-President, there was the position of Chief. A Chief was a relatively senior position.
Yi Yun looked at Li Hong with a surprise. He had indeed become famous in the past few days, but it was not earned through his strength. It was earned through picking a primordial herb.
His cultivation level was only in the mid-stages in the Purple Blood. It was very common, and he was just a first-year recruit, yet Li Hong wanted to make him a Chief? How would the men under him be convinced?
“I heard that you encountered a primordial herb while it was experiencing a calamity, and that it happened to experience failure. That was how you picked the herb?” Li Hong poured a glass of water for himself while speaking in a nonchalant manner.
For a Purple Blood realm warrior to capture a primordial herb, it was like a fantasy. But Li Hong had obtained detailed information and knew that Yi Yun was just lucky to encounter the Heaven Purple Yang Ginseng that had failed a calamity. As such, it was not surprising for him to capture the Heaven Purple Yang Ginseng.
This luck was very enviable.
But good luck was useless. Li Hong knew that Yi Yun was only at the mid-stages of Purple Blood. His cultivation talent was just average. It was very difficult for such a person to stand out in the Tai Ah Divine City.
Yi Yun did not respond to Li Hong’s question, but it was considered a tacit affirmation. It was best if people thought it was due to his good luck that he picked the primordial herb. It saved him trouble from explaining.
“Brother Yi, I heard you aren’t from an affluent family? Your cultivation talent is also not at the top?”
Li Hong suddenly changed the topic and began asking about Yi Yun’s background.
Yi Yun gave Li Hong an unexpected glance, “What’s the matter?”
“Ha! Brother Yi, this old brother didn’t mean to look down on you. You were born from the Cloud Wilderness, but to come this far, you must have had some spectacular adventures. Your cultivation level is at the mid-stages of Purple Blood, right? If I must say, what you should be concerned with is to purchase large amounts of resources to increase your cultivation level.”
Li Hong patted Yi Yun on the shoulder, with a look that seemed to understand Yi Yun well. Actually, much of the information on Yi Yun was provided to him by Zhou Kui.
“Oh... And then?” Yi Yun suddenly realized that there was something in between the lines of Li Hong’s words.
“Ha! By handing in the primordial herb, you must have gotten a few glory points? The main purpose of those glory points is to buy the most luxurious cultivation resources in the Divine City. But to use it as a mid-stage Purple Blood, it will be quite a waste. What you should be buying is high grade desolate bone relics and cultivation time in the Wilderness Divine Hall. And these things require a massive amount of dragon scale runes!”
“So... this old brother recommends you to exchange the glory points for dragon scale runes. That would be for the best!” Li Hong spoke in earnest, as if he was full of consideration for Yi Yun.
“Oh?” Yi Yun suddenly laughed, “I see, then how can I exchange them for dragon scale runes?”
“You can leave this to me. In the future, when you become a Chief of the Hongdao Association, you can easily exchange for dragon scale runes. Actually, I can exchange it for you. As you, my brother, are a recruit, it will not be easy in the beginning. How about this, I have 30,000 dragon scale runes here. You can use this first!”
Li Hong waved his fat hand, appearing extremely forthright.
Yi Yun stroked his chin and squinted, “What you mean is that you want to use 30,000 dragon scale runes to exchange for my one glory point?”
“Haha, you are regarding me as an outsider. In the future when you enter my Hongdao Association, you will be a brother. There’s no need to be petty among brothers. You have use for dragon scale runes now. Just take it and use it. As for glory points, I happen to be missing a glory point for an item I want. When you need to use glory points in the future, I’ll give it to you!”
Li Hong said with a confident expression.
Yi Yun gave a flattering smile, but all he was thinking was, “go f**k yourself”.
He was originally curious, why would Li Hong suddenly come here to make him a Chief? It was to cheat him of his glory points!
To exchange 30,000 dragon scale runes for a glory point, he sure did his calculations!
The Tai Ah Divine City did not restrict the betting or trade of glory points, but in fact, no one would ever exchange glory points for dragon scale runes. Even 100,000 dragon scale runes would not be enough!
This was because whoever had the ability to earn glory points had no shortage of dragon scale runes. For a recruit like Yi Yun, he was an exception, having earned 3 glory points without many dragon scale runes accumulated.
This was why Li Hong was eyeing Yi Yun.
He had treated Yi Yun as a clueless rookie. He thought with the title of Chief, Yi Yun would be so overjoyed that he would just follow him as one of his men.
But it had to be said, any typical twelve-year-old child might be cheated by Li Hong’s promise of the Hongdao Association’s title of Chief.
The Chief of the Hongdao Association was an impressive title to many children!
If Yi Yun were to nod to the deal, and be cheated by Li Hong, the Divine City would not do anything even if he tried to redress the situation.
The Tai Ah Divine City rationale was that trades were done voluntary. If one was cheated, they had to swallow their loss.
This was the cruel world of warriors.
By accepting these group of youths, the Tai Ah Divine City not only taught them cultivation techniques and battle skills, it also taught them about life.
In the Tai Ah Divine City, everyone was battling for resources. They were rivals to each other. There would always be some form of deception, flattery and backstabbing!
Those with one-track minds would only hurt themselves in the Tai Ah Divine City.
If the Divine City were to redress the situation, those who had suffered would not mature. In the future when they entered the real vast wilderness world, entering mystic realms, what they would be cheated would not only be some dragon scale runes, it might even be their lives.
One needed to know how to live before one could become a warrior.
This was something taught to the recruits by the Tai Ah Divine City in an intangible manner.
“How is it? Brother Yi?” Li Hong kept seeing Yi Yun laughing sillily, but he did not know what this rookie was thinking.
“I see, so when I become a Chief, how many men will be under me?” Yi Yun gave a look of anticipation. At the same time, he took a big piece of meat and began chewing.
“Hahaha! Easy.” Seeing Yi Yun ‘hooked’, Li Hong began to ease, “I will especially set up a hall for you, giving you a dozen brothers that would listen to your command! Hey, you few... why don’t you follow Brother Yi in the future!”
Li Hong said while looking at his men behind him.
These men began laughing, “Sure. In the future Brother Yi is our hall Chief, we will all obey Brother Yi!”
These people had deep smiles on their faces. But these smiles appeared like they were laughing at a retard in Yi Yun’s eyes.
On the sidelines, Zhou Kui was full of envy upon hearing this.
How could the gap between people be this large? Yi Yun was just a recruit like him a few days ago. But in a few days, he was the Chief of the Hongdao Association.
This was the Hongdao Association, a huge organization that would skyrocket in the future. Now, Yi Yun had a dozen men, and some of them were even second year soldiers. In the future, he could obtain a hundred responses to a single call!
Zhou Kui felt that Yi Yun was very inspiring.
But...
Why was Yi Yun eating again. He was still eating meat while having an important discussion... This made him really speechless...
“How about it?” Li Hong ‘untiringly’ spoke to Yi Yun in a guiding manner. Seeing Yi Yun chewing, he slightly frowned. This kid sure does not know how to appreciate things, eating when I’m speaking to him.
Or, he was just a glutton and an idiot that did not understand any basic etiquette.
Yi Yun smiled brightly. As he chewed on his meat, he mumbled with a mouth full of food, “About being Chief...”
“Right, or else what do you think I’m talking about?” Li Hong began to believe that Yi Yun was really an idiot. Not only did he not understand etiquette, his response was also slow.
“For that... I’ll give you two words.”
“What?” Li Hong asked. The men behind him also stretched their neck, waiting to hear it.
Yi Yun chewed a few more times before swallowing the meat in his mouth with difficulty, “The two words are... go f**k yourself! Oh... Sorry, that was three words.”
As Yi Yun spoke, bits of meat flew, and a few meat pieces unfortunately sprayed on Li Hong’s face.
Li Hong froze. Yet after a second, his face turned black!
His slightly plump face turned extremely grim.
As for Zhou Kui who was behind Li Hong, he was totally dumbfounded. A goose egg could easily stuff his agape mouth.
What was Yi Yun doing!?
“Kid, are you teasing me!?”
Li Hong erupted! The cups and flasks on the table crashed to the ground from his tremors.
Everyone in the cook house was attracted by what happened. They were flabbergasted by Yi Yun.
Yi Yun wiped the oil off his hands in an unfazed manner, “You’re right that I’m teasing you, but... You teased me, I teased you. It’s tit-for-tat. Now we don’t owe each other!”