Intelligence is money.
The moment Wang Quan uttered the name of the organization behind the Owl Talisman, Su Qing’s first reaction—whether she knew the name or not—was: Jackpot.
Only after thinking it over did she realize the name actually sounded very familiar.
Heavenly Secret Alliance. The Heaven-Stealer.
The wooden fish in the Dragon Boat Secret Realm had been one of their calling cards.
This bunch left convenient “thief tunnels” in every major secret realm so they could loot heavenly treasures whenever they pleased, basically a professional tomb-robbing syndicate. Fine. But to think they also dabbled in body-seizure theft… That was straight-up spine-chilling.
Wang Quan’s expression only flickered for an instant before returning to its usual unruffled calm. Since he had openly named the organization, it meant he judged this information safe for Su Qing to know.
So she pressed, “What exactly does this organization do? Why do their fingerprints keep showing up in both the Dragon Boat Secret Realm and the Yinlan City beast tide?”
At this point she was even wondering whether Blood Thornflower and the other evil cultivators back then had been their pawns.
Wang Quan regained his leisurely, all-knowing look, shook his head, and smiled. “Someone right beside you knows far more than I do. Instead of asking them, you come to me. Isn’t that putting the cart before the horse?”
Someone beside her. Su Qing understood instantly: Tian Ning.
“Very well.” Wang Quan set down his teacup, suddenly serious. “Knowing too much is the fastest way to die. Regarding the Heavenly Secret Alliance, the only thing you need to do is: stop prying, stop thinking. The less you know, the safer you are. Of course, once your cultivation reaches the higher realms, if you still want answers, no one will stop you.”
Su Qing nodded, then asked hesitantly, “Um… can I at least exchange this for contribution points? Look, there are at least two Ancient Divine Script characters in there. If we decipher them we’ll be rich!”
The Heavenly Secret Alliance barely fazed Wang Quan, but this sentence made him stare at her like she’d grown a second head. He actually stopped fanning himself.
Su Qing just stared back expectantly. The silence stretched… and became awkward.
Finally, Wang Quan answered coldly and mercilessly: “No. That’s not how the accounting works. I saw the Owl Talisman ages ago. Besides, you only knew the symbol and not the Heavenly Secret Alliance behind it—so let’s say I just sold you that piece of intelligence instead. Fair?”
Not fair at all. Su Qing shook her head on reflex.
As expected, the Owl Talisman was a secret to her, but to people at the top it was old news. Plan A failed.
Plan B—the intelligence about True Person Taihe’s attempted body-seizure—Wang Quan did buy, but only for a measly one thousand contribution points.
Fine.
Something was better than nothing.
She had seen stingy people before, but never this stingy.
Su Qing inwardly cursed him while maintaining a perfectly polite face.
Wang Quan didn’t even need to guess what she was thinking. He raised an eyebrow. “Scolding me in your head?”
“Absolutely not.”
“You say that like I’m some kind of villain.” He gave a long, theatrical sigh. “Go check your Spirit Connect.”
The next second, the world spun. Su Qing found herself outside the door again, staring into the beast-head knocker’s big bronze eyes.
Probably because her expression was thunderous, the knocker winked frantically and shushed her, urging her to swallow whatever she wanted to say.
Su Qing obediently found an empty corner, opened her Spirit Connect, and looked at her contribution points.
Her eyes went round.
30,000 points had appeared out of nowhere.
Plus the one thousand from the intelligence sale, total: 31,000.
Su Qing froze for two seconds, then gritted her teeth. “I knew he had a hand in dragging me into the Eternal Night Forest.”
She had almost died there.
Thirty thousand to shut her up? Dream on.
Would she be grateful? Yes! But it was also money she damn well deserved.
Wang Quan had to give her another ten percent of the herb supply chain and send something nice to Ye Mingshi too!
She spun on her heel and charged back toward Clear Spring Pavilion, only to find the gate sealed tight, not even a crack.
The beast-head knocker saw her returning and frantically explained, “The sect leader went into seclusion!”
Su Qing didn’t buy it. “I literally just left and he’s already in seclusion?”
The knocker didn’t buy it either. “That’s what the sect leader said, okay!”
It reminded her again, “Whatever you’re planning to say that you shouldn’t, don’t say it in front of me. I’m in a very difficult position here. Getting this job wasn’t easy.”
Su Qing was shocked. “You’re a magical artifact. Magical artifacts have to clock in for work?”
Damn it, every species in this world had to become a wage s*ave!
“What’s wrong with magical artifacts?” The knocker felt she was making a fuss. “If I don’t want to be locked away in storage I have to earn spirit stones for expenses! Don’t let my current circumstances fool you; back in the day I was Orange King’s colleague. High status!”
Su Qing fell into philosophical confusion: So Orange King’s professional begging counted as employment?
But the truly horrifying part was: “Back in the day? You mean even after death you still have to work?”
Was there anything scarier in this world?
While she was having her existential crisis, something flashed in mid-air.
A small gold-and-silver porcelain jar fell straight into her hands. She popped the lid: inside was exactly half a jar of Dew of Spring Bloom.
Su Qing looked up and shouted at the door, “Not enough! Gimme more!”
The knocker opened its mouth, closed it, opened it again. The gate remained sealed, as if it had also plugged its ears and heard nothing.
Classic deadbeat behavior.
She had originally planned to split the 30,000 points three ways with Jiang Xiaocao and Ye Mingshi.
But Xiaocao told her Sword Sect had already given him 30,000 as well.
As a blade of grass, he had never seen so many zeros in his entire life, especially not in his own account. It was simply unheard of.
He’d thought the money would last forever.
Then he casually bought some refining materials and a few high-grade puppets to study… and suddenly every point was gone.
This shouldn’t be possible. Who stole his money?!
Even worse: he excitedly disassembled the puppets into spare parts and discovered he couldn’t put them back together.
He was currently locked in a life-and-death struggle with the pile of components.
Su Qing sighed, kept half for Ye Mingshi (Red Leaf Sect was technically an affiliate of Sword Sect, so she counted as half a Sword Sect student; the gentle resolution of the beast tide absolutely owed much to her efforts), and decided to exchange something useful for her in the sect later.
Of her remaining 16,000 points:
Total cost: 8,000 points.
Her teeth ached from the expense.
So expensive.
Raising a sword was terrifyingly costly.
But when she looked at Man Qing Sword standing innocently to the side, her waist stopped hurting, her legs stopped aching, and her heart filled with tender affection.
Tang Yueling couldn’t help asking, “If you’re capable of that kind of loving gaze, why can’t you notice when someone looks at you the same way?”
Su Qing: “?”
Tang Yueling turned away. “Forget I said anything.”
The remaining 8,000 points were spent on body-tempering medicinal bath ingredients, the complete sword manuals from the third floor of Wuya Pavilion, and various essential talismans and spells.
Of course she didn’t go through official channels; she traded in student group chats and got a bunch of nth-hand resources.
It saved a little money, but overall she still bled contribution points like a stuck pig.
The half-jar of Dew of Spring Bloom was naturally split with her roommates.
Only Tang Yueling had tier-5 spiritual spring water in her storage bag; they borrowed spirit flames from the Pill School students for a while (payment: one bowl of the finished tea each).
By the time the half-jar was drunk and most of the resources from Wuya Pavilion were also used up.
Su Qing reached Foundation Establishment layer seven, Tang Yueling hit layer nine, and Tian Ning’s cultivation… didn’t budge an inch.
But she never got around to her planned seclusion, because the midterm exam officially arrived.
This year’s midterm was unprecedented: All first-years were required to participate.
Second- and third-years could volunteer, and the sect would randomly select a portion of them.
Second- and third-years taking the same exam as first-years?
The realm difference was enormous. What on earth could they be testing? Were the upperclassmen just there to be proctors?
Didn’t seem like it.
The strangest part was how feverishly excited the upperclassmen were. They fought tooth and nail to sign up, desperate to join the fun.
Even in the cafeteria Su Qing overheard seniors flushed with glee:
“Finally our turn! When we were first-years we got absolutely destroyed by the seniors back then. I can’t imagine how good they felt!”
“Thirty years east, thirty years west! Gods above, I swear to eat meat and vegetables in balance and never skip a meal; please let the lottery pick me!”
Su Qing, chewing rice: So this is actually a time-honored tradition?
She ran into Senior Sister Zhu Xu on the road and asked about the exam content.
Zhu Xu had always been straightforward, but this time she mysteriously smiled and only said, “You’ll know when the time comes. It’s super fun. If I get picked, I won’t go easy on you!”
Su Qing left completely confused.
At the end of the path she predictably encountered Orange King again.
He was sprawled lazily across a bamboo stalk dozing, tail swishing comfortably.
The bamboo was originally thick and sturdy, but under his immovable tonnage it had been bent into an arch bridge shape, blocking most of the road.
All the passing students indulged him, ducking under the bamboo.
No one dared chase him away. (They literally couldn’t. They’d only earn feline vengeance and lose their pants and shoes.)
Su Qing stopped when she saw him. Even knowing he was an evil fat cat, her hands still itched.
“I met your coworker today,” she said. “The beast-head knocker on the sect leader’s door.”
Orange King’s half-lidded eyes snapped open. He gave a disdainful “meow.”
“A mere loser dares to be mentioned in the same breath as this king?”
He stretched, stood up, orange fur puffing out. An evil grin spread across his chubby face.
“This king will be participating in your midterm exam. Quick, come curry favor! Buy one hundred deluxe chicken legs as tribute! Otherwise this king will fail every last one of you!”
If You Notice any translation issues or inconsistency in names, genders, or POV etc? Let us know here in the comments or on our Discord server, and we’ll fix it in current and future chapters. Thanks for helping us to improve! 🙂