Over the next few days, Jiangli City was swept up in continuous banquets.
Every member of the Sparkle Legion was welcome to participate, eating and drinking for free and even collecting daily Fortune Gold Coins. Laughter and rowdy cheers never ceased.
Glass in hand, Yu Xian mingled freely with everyone. Whenever he drank too much, he would collapse into a deep slumber, only to wake up and resume drinking contests, roughhousing, and party games.
At one point, having lost a wager, he accepted defeat gracefully, marched up to the battlements, and took a leak right toward Fathe'aim.
Though none of it actually splashed onto Fathe'aim, the knight was nearly driven mad with fury, while the city's mischief-makers roared with gleeful laughter.
Later, a crew of brawny men led by the instigators climbed the wall in a pack and unleashed their so-called "Water Style: Giant Waterfall Technique."
In the end, while Fathe'aim maintained his blockade of the city gates, he was forced to retreat several hundred meters. He gnashed his teeth so hard they felt ready to shatter, reduced to nothing more than impotent rage.
Several days later.
Yu Xian groggily awoke to find himself hanging from a streetlamp.
He scratched the back of his head and casually snapped the rope around his neck. It was utterly laughable—a Level 80 class-holder could never be hanged to death.
Dropping to the ground, he let out a beer burp and circulated the Power of Change within his body, instantly banishing all lingering traces of his hangover.
In truth, once a class-holder surpassed Level 30, the energy coursing through them rendered them immune to most conventional forms of harm. A fall from seven or eight stories high would not kill them.
Hanging could not kill them either.
Their internal energy circulated automatically, bolstering the skin's capacity to respire.
Drinking, too, did no lasting damage to the body. Even whether one became drunk was entirely under one's own control; ordinary alcohol posed no real threat to a class-holder.
After climbing down from the lamppost, Yu Xian glanced over and spotted Zhang Shou hanging from an adjacent pole. A bit farther off were Jin Sheng and Cheng Pi. Farther still was a rather eye-scorching sight: Ximen Wangcai and Situ Xingye had been strung up together, leaving them instinctively clutching one another in their sleep.
"Morning," Nora called out, walking over from the direction of the inn.
"Morning," Yu Xian replied with a ready grin.
Nora stepped forward and tidied his collar. "Last night, the sweep team bought up some Secret Realm Teleportation Talismans. They managed to snatch twenty in total."
"Not bad. Keep snapping them up. Once we gather a hundred, we'll head into secret realms to grind mobs and level up," Yu Xian said with a chuckle.
At present, the Sparkle Legion was in no way strapped for cash. The food Little Nora listed on the auction house every day brought in vast sums of wealth. The more fundamental a resource was to everyday survival, the less it lacked eager buyers.
No matter how much food Little Nora put up, it all sold out completely.
Naturally, wealth poured in like a deluge, leaving them with far more Fortune Gold Coins than they could ever spend.
The Sparkle Legion had already become the largest buyer and seller in the auction house, sweeping up goods on a daily basis, all while the major factions across the Zhen Realm remained entirely oblivious to their identities.
After lingering affectionately for a moment, the two went together to find Little Nora.
Little Nora had no fondness for alcohol, but he adored food. With stats surpassing Level 70, he had no biological need for sleep, so the little guy was currently devouring treats while running a livestream.
He loved chatting with viewers while snacking—a habit cultivated over more than a decade. When he first arrived in the Zhen Realm, he had felt out of his element, but he had finally settled back into his comfortable routine.
"Big Brother, people are saying Fukang City is blockaded too. Is that true?" Little Nora asked the moment he saw Yu Xian approach.
Yu Xian sat beside Little Nora, picked up a bottle of soda, gulped it down, and nodded. "Yeah, that's real. The one blockading Fukang City is Lauked-Hades, Level 198. His class seems to be Flame Dragon War God."
He maintained constant communication with his summoned beasts, so he had known about Lauked-Hades's surprise attack on Fukang City since the previous night. Even so, he had paid it no mind, eating and drinking as usual.
"Then what about the Xia Hai Legion?" Little Nora asked worriedly.
With both cities blockaded, the various strongholds under the Xia Hai Legion could wipe out the surrounding monsters and earn themselves breathing room.
If that happened, wouldn't it derail their plan to dismantle the Xia Hai Legion?
"Don't worry, it's no big deal," Yu Xian said with a calm smile.
Seeing Yu Xian look so thoroughly composed, the viewers in the livestream grew curious and began asking what backup plan he had up his sleeve. Yu Xian merely smiled without answering.
Why would he ever reveal his trump cards to these people?
Besides, he was entirely certain that the second he voiced the answer in the stream, it would land right in front of Xia Hai.
"By the way, I still have quite a few Talent Trait Enhancement Stones on hand. Anyone want them? If you do, you can trade for them," Yu Xian said, taking a bite of an apple as he addressed the stream audience.
[Potter: I have five Enhancement Lucky Talismans. Five charms for five stones.]
Yu Xian's sharp eyes caught the message amid the flood of comments. Sending a private message, he chuckled and replied, "At most one stone. Take it or leave it. High-level secret realms drop Enhancement Lucky Talismans, but Talent Trait Enhancement Stones only drop from events. Nobody knows when the next event will even begin."
[Potter: Deal. How do we trade?]
Yu Xian replied, "We'll trade in Torch Dragon City. I'll send someone over."
[Potter: Works for me. Set a time, and I'll see you then.]
Yu Xian smiled. "Pleasure doing business!"
With that, he promptly deleted the contact.
Trade, my ass.
Though he did not know who this 'Potter' was, offering five Enhancement Lucky Talismans for a single Talent Trait Enhancement Stone was pure nonsense to begin with.
Three was the absolute limit; offering any more meant the person on the other end was a moron.
Besides, Yu Xian had dealt with plenty of class-holders over the past few days. Most of them were merely looking to take advantage of his predicament, with no intention of making a fair trade.
Someone agreeing so easily was guaranteed to have a sinister motive.
On the other end of the livestream, Bei Zhelong gently tapped his chair, producing a steady clacking rhythm.
A pity.
Yu Xian was far too cautious.
Had Yu Xian dared to show up in Torch Dragon City in person, his head would have been as good as taken.
Since Yu Xian was only sending a subordinate, there was no longer any point to the exchange.
Bei Zhelong deleted his throwaway account, logged back into his main profile, and resumed watching Little Nora's stream. The mountain of food piled behind Little Nora grated on his nerves.
Originally, he harbored no grudge against Yu Xian or his companions. But once he astutely noticed that Little Nora seemed capable of summoning food, he immediately connected it to the auction house and his own culinary empire.
Because of the endless influx of cheap sustenance, his ingredient empire had been forced to retreat from the digital exchange to physical storefronts, selling ingredients to class-holders below Level 50. This caused operational costs to skyrocket, cutting his profits by nearly seventy percent.
He laid the blame for all of this squarely at the feet of the Sparkle Legion. Given the opportunity, he would not hesitate to slaughter Yu Xian and obliterate the legion.
Yet with Yu Xian refusing to take the bait, Bei Zhelong had no choice but to bide his time, quietly watching and waiting for his chance.
Chapter 529