Who Let Him Cultivate?! (WX)-Chapter 691: Accepting Bribes

It was Dai Bufan’s first time hearing about a diabolic creed voluntarily offering benefits. Do the diabolic creeds treat you two as their protective umbrellas or something? How come I fight diabolic creeds every day but never see them begging for mercy or trying to bribe me?

“That can’t be called a bribe. It’s just that they insist on giving it to us, and we’re too thin-skinned to refuse,” Meng Jingzhou corrected. “Moreover, the crime of bribery applies to imperial court officials. Old Lu and I are legitimate civilians.”

Lu Yang concurred. “We are enduring humiliation as part of our mission to infiltrate the enemy and are forced to accept the gifts.”

Dai Bufan gave up. “Fine, fine. Here is all the intelligence on the Radiant Sun Creed. You two study it.” He shoved a large stack of documents to the two, telling them to read them here and return them when finished.

I’ll just treat it as grooming the future hall leader and vice hall leader in advance.

He still had a pile of matters to attend to himself. In a few months, it would be the Dao-Seeking Sect’s new recruitment cycle. Due to the lack of preparation last time, it resulted in recruiting good juniors like Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou who kept him on edge daily, while promising seedlings like Bai Ming and Lan Ting were recruited early by other sects.

This time, Dai Bufan was determined to identify a few candidates with excellent character, temperament, and talent in advance. His current task was to find these individuals from the vast sea of intelligence.

~~~

Much information about the Radiant Sun Creed couldn’t be concealed—for example, periodically sending a couple of Fusion cultivators to die on the sun, their desire for everyone to worship the sun, their treatment of the Moon Laurel Immortal Palace as a hypothetical enemy, and so on.

The Radiant Sun was founded sixty thousand years ago and had been researching the sun all these years. One could imagine the profound depth of their research into cultivation techniques based on solar power.

However, no matter how profound, it definitely couldn’t compare to what Lu Yang knew. The Everlasting Immortal Fairy’s study, which they had recently acquired, clearly contained the Nine-Layer Immortal’s understanding of the power of lunar yin and solar yang. Regardless of how powerful the Radiant Sun Creed was, could they possibly surpass the Nine-Layers Immortal, who possessed the Yin-Yang Dao Fruit?

After studying for three full days, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou finally grasped all the intelligence on the Radiant Sun Creed.

“Finished reading?” Dai Bufan raised an eyebrow. With a thought, the Radiant Sun Creed files automatically returned to their original positions.

“More or less.”

“How many elders do you need to accompany you?” Dai Bufan certainly wouldn’t let two Nascent Soul cultivators meet a diabolic creed leader alone; it was too dangerous.

“Four elders.”

“Alright, wait here, I’ll help you contact them.” Dai Bufan stood up and left the Great Mission Hall to visit the various mountain peaks and request the elders’ assistance.

~~~

Upon hearing there was another opportunity to serve as heavenly king protectors, the elders’ enthusiasm was overwhelming to the point a fight nearly broke out. Fortunately, under Dai Bufan’s persuasion, they agreed to settle it by drawing lots.

In the end, Grandpa Ba, Third Elder, Fourth Elder, and Seventh Elder were selected to accompany Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou.

~~~

Meanwhile, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou took out their respective tokens to notify the two creed leaders and promptly selected a restaurant for the meeting scheduled two days later.

Regarding meeting gifts, the Heavenly Court Creed held the initiative.

The two creed leaders quickly responded, assuring they would attend.

~~~

Two days later, they had the entire restaurant reserved, and the three creeds gathered once more.

Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou sat in the main central seats, with four heavenly king protectors standing behind them like iron towers. The heavenly king protectors’ tiger-like eyes were wide and round, naturally imposing and exuding a subtle pressure.

Neither Mu Baiyi nor Creed Leader Chi had expected to see one another here, leading to a moment of awkwardness.

Creed Leader Chi also hadn’t anticipated that Young Creed Leader Lu would be present. Didn’t they say Young Creed Leader Lu and Holy Son Long have friction between them? Why is Young Creed Leader Lu tagging along when I’m trying to give gifts specifically to Holy Son Long? Could some unknown change have occurred during this time?

“It has been many days since we last met. Both of you remain as impressive as ever, hahahaha.” Creed Leader Chi cupped his hands and greeted them as peers, breaking the awkwardness first.

Behind Creed Leader Chi stood two young delicate-looking female attendants, their skin so tender that one could almost pinch water from it.

Creed Leader Chi gave a signal with his eyes. The two young female attendants obediently walked over to Meng Jingzhou’s side and were completely docile, causing Meng Jingzhou’s eyelid to twitch.

“Creed Leader Chi, what is the meaning of this?”

“A small token of goodwill. Since we both cultivate pure-yang-type cultivation techniques, we ought to vent the fire periodically. Consider these two lasses a meeting gift. Please accept them, Holy Son Long.” Creed Leader Chi felt that offering just cultivating techniques might not be enough to move Holy Son Long, so he decided to increase the stakes.

Meng Jingzhou naturally wouldn’t accept them and feigned anger. “Are you using this as a pretext to plant two spies by my side?!”

Creed Leader Chi hurriedly replied, “Please quell your anger, Holy Son Long. I absolutely have no such intention.”

No matter how Creed Leader Chi tried to persuade him, Meng Jingzhou remained vigilant and refused to accept the two female attendants.

Seeing Holy Son Long’s firm stance, Creed Leader Chi had no choice but to relent and recall the two female attendants.

Meng Jingzhou narrowed his eyes. “Creed Leader Chi, do you really have a method to enhance the absorption of the sun’s power?”

Creed Leader Chi hadn’t expected his previous action to create a rift with Holy Son Long, which went against his original intention.

Lu Yang laughed heartily and patted Meng Jingzhou’s shoulder. “You’re overthinking it. How would Creed Leader Chi dare to scheme against us? That can’t be.”

Seeing Lu Yang smoothing things over for him, Creed Leader Chi looked at him with a hint of gratitude, then took out a wooden box with seals on its surface. He opened the seals. Inside the wooden box were several books—the cultivation techniques for utilizing solar power.

Fourth Elder stepped forward and browsed the cultivation manuals before respectfully turning to Meng Jingzhou. “Holy Son, these are indeed cultivation techniques for utilizing solar power. They can be used for reference.”

Meng Jingzhou casually replied, “Mmm, then accept them,” and waved his hand impatiently.

Creed Leader Chi hadn’t prepared a gift for Lu Yang and could only hastily take out precious natural treasures from his storage ring at the last minute. “Please kindly accept this, Young Creed Leader Lu.”

Lu Yang swept a glance over them. Recognizing their origin, he smiled. “Hundred Herb Pill, True Dragon Molted Exuvia, Ginseng King Beard... Creed Leader Chi, you’ve put thought into this. I won’t stand on ceremony then.”

Seventh Elder stepped forward from the side and accepted these treasures on Lu Yang’s behalf.

Seeing the effort Creed Leader Chi was putting in, Mu Baiyi knew that if his offerings were inferior, it would easily leave a bad impression on the Heavenly Court Creed. I’m afraid this is the reason the Heavenly Court Creed gathered both creeds together.

With his heart aching, Mu Baiyi retrieved his treasured items from his storage ring and presented them to Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou, who accepted them all.

After the two creed leaders had handed over their gifts, they suddenly spoke simultaneously. “I have a matter I’d like to consult.”

The two glared at each other.

Lu Yang chuckled and raised his hand, gesturing for them not to be anxious. “There’s still plenty of time. One at a time.

“How about this? Since Creed Leader Chi spoke first last time, let Creed Leader Mu speak first this time. What do you both think?”

Creed Leader Chi had no choice but to agree.

Mu Baiyi asked, “Our barbeque business is booming, raking in mountains of gold daily. It’s just that the imperial court’s taxes are too high. I wonder if you have any solutions, Young Creed Leader Lu?” He first pulled Lu Yang into the same camp.

The four heavenly king protectors frowned inwardly. This is an unexpected question. How should we respond?

Lu Yang smiled but did not answer. Instead, he turned to Creed Leader Chi. “And you?”

“It’s like this, Young Creed Leader Lu. As you know, our Radiant Sun Creed has been researching solar power all this time to make the world worship the sun. Recently, our multiple attempts to land on the sun have failed. I wonder if you have any solutions, Young Creed Leader Lu?” Creed Leader Chi was anxious. If the sun-landing attempts fail again, I’ll have to evade taxes and get locked up in prison for decades to seek refuge.

The four heavenly king protectors frowned inwardly again. What solutions can there be? The sun is the embodiment of extreme yang; whoever touches it dies. Does the Radiant Sun Creed want Yun Zhi to intervene?

Hearing this, Lu Yang interlaced his fingers and placed them on his chest as he leaned back slightly against the chair.

“The problems faced by both your creeds can actually be solved with a single method.

“Creed Leader Chi, have you heard of solar energy?”