"Lord Newton, could it be that you are actually a prince of the Great Ben Empire?"
While everyone else sat in stunned silence, Sif could not help but ask as she stared at Yu Xian's massive bull head.
At the very least, a tycoon who had started out selling barbecue skewers couldn't possibly amass such colossal wealth in a short time, so the Great Ben Empire was the first thing that came to Sif's mind.
The Great Ben Empire was an ancient minotaur kingdom.
Because generations of them had fertilized the fields with their droppings, coupled with the minotaurs' natural physical strength and knack for farming, the Great Ben Empire exported massive quantities of grain, fruits, and melons to other nations every year, amassing inexhaustible riches.
Accumulated over generation after generation, the royal family of the Great Ben Empire was extraordinarily wealthy—whenever money was mentioned, the first thing anyone thought of was the Great Ben royal family.
However, affected by the Demonic Dragon, the Great Ben Empire wasn't having an easy time right now either; after all, it was a major agricultural nation.
Thus, in Sif's estimation, the Great Ben Empire had both the motive and the capability to subjugate the Demonic Dragon, and Yu Xian was very likely one of their people. After all, everything about Yu Xian fit the impression the Great Ben Empire gave to outsiders.
"A prince of the Great Ben Empire?"
Yu Xian blinked, taken aback by Sif's question, then shook his head. "No, I'm just an ordinary upstart with a modest bit of family wealth."
"..."
An upstart could never be that rich!
Every single member of the Hero Party roared internally.
However, since Yu Xian was unwilling to admit it, none of them could force him to confess. Still, in their hearts, they had all implicitly agreed: Yu Xian was a prince of the Great Ben Empire.
"Lord Newton—Your Highness Newton, the steaks are done. Here is your frying pan back," Carmen spoke up at this moment.
Trembling, she returned the frying pan to Yu Xian. Yu Xian couldn't help but grumble, "It's forged from dark gold. What are you so afraid of?"
With that, he took the frying pan and smashed it hard against a nearby rock. That strike felt as though it slammed directly against everyone's hearts, making their chests twitch violently in shock.
Afterward, they panted in huge gasps, and only when they looked at the rock shattered by the frying pan did they finally heave sighs of relief.
"Feel free to use it, it won't break!"
Yu Xian set the frying pan over the campfire, smiling as he spoke.
To the others, gold was a rare and precious commodity, but to him, he could have as much gold as he wanted.
And with enough gold, acquiring dark gold was simple. After entering this world, with just a stray thought, gold was automatically transmuted into dark gold by his power of Chaos and Myriad Phenomena.
Since he was here for kicks, he hadn't planned on bringing out items that exceeded this world's limits.
Whether it was the Cheering Robot or the frying pan, they were entirely made of substances native to this world and could indeed be manufactured within it.
Granted, the cost might be absurdly steep, with the returns far outweighed by the expense.
Under normal circumstances, no one would use so much dark gold to forge a frying pan, nor would anyone pay such an exorbitant price to build a Cheering Robot.
With that kind of money, wouldn't it be better to directly hire more than a dozen legendary mages?
Speaking of which, the Transcendents of this world were truly bastards—the stronger they were, the bigger bastards they proved to be.
Because the Calamity Demonic Dragon's influence was practically negligible—or rather, entirely non-existent—to mages powerful enough to reach the legendary rank, these legendary Transcendents had no intention whatsoever of stepping up to confront the Demonic Dragon.
Of course, another reason was that they couldn't reach an agreement among themselves.
The legendary figures were hardly a united front. Going alone to subjugate the Demonic Dragon carried immense risk, but they couldn't gather a unified force either, so the outcome was that nobody went.
Besides, whenever the world fell into turmoil and a great crisis erupted, a Hero was always born.
All they had to do was wait for the Hero to resolve the crisis.
As for the common folk?
If they starved to death, they starved. What did that have to do with them?
Some necromancers would even seize the opportunity to reap souls or mass-produce skeleton armies.
...
The next day.
The group set out on the road once more.
However, their paths parted again. Yu Xian was heading to the labyrinth to find the catgirl, while the Hero Party had the Holy Dragon Gabriel acting as their guide, so they obviously wouldn't wander off to the dungeon and run into her.
This catgirl's backstory was truly miserable.
Her parents were slaughtered by minions of the Demonic Dragon, and she was rescued by a passing "kind soul," who turned out to be a slave trader. Thus, she was sold as a slave to a fat, pig-headed noble.
Fortunately, just as she was on the verge of being violated by the noble, Luo Wei happened to draw the holy sword. The tremendous burst of holy light possessed the power to cleanse the human heart.
The fat noble was instantly influenced by the holy light; all wicked thoughts vanished from his mind, and he even unlocked the catgirl's shackles, allowing her to seize the chance to flee.
The holy light's cleansing effect on the heart was only temporary, so before long, the noble regretted his actions and dispatched soldiers to hunt her down.
After a harrowing, near-death escape, the catgirl temporarily hid in the dungeon, training her skills while lying low from her pursuers.
According to her original destiny, even after joining Luo Wei's party, she would still be tracked down by her pursuers. The Hero Party would clash directly with them, and in the end, Luo Wei would comprehend the ultimate skill "Righteous Wrath," channeling the holy sword's power of holy light to eliminate the pursuers.
This revelation made the catgirl realize that the holy light that had saved her before was caused by Luo Wei, winning her heart and turning her into one of the romance candidates that readers in a light novel would buy "stocks" in.
Yu Xian knew very well that without Luo Wei and the others this time, if he didn't go to the dungeon, the catgirl would likely be captured by the soldiers sent by the noble and ultimately reduced to his plaything.
He was someone who sought amusement, true, but his goal was to bring joy to people; a tragedy like that naturally could not be allowed to happen.
The sun reached the zenith of the sky.
The forest outside the dungeon was sweltering, the air radiating a scorching heat.
Yu Xian, bearing his massive bull head, finally arrived at the entrance of the dungeon, two huge nostrils puffing out twin plumes of white steam.
The catgirl was hiding inside on the second floor, slaying skeleton monsters.
After a brief thought, Yu Xian walked straight into the dungeon. Due to the aura of the undead, the dungeon was especially chilly and shaded. Finding it quite comfortable, he couldn't help whistling a tune.
However, because he was currently a minotaur, his whistle turned directly into the deep rumble of a saxophone.
The dungeon's first floor housed no undead creatures, only monsters like bats, rats, and snakes. Yu Xian's whistling soon attracted a giant serpent.
It possessed a degree of intelligence and lay in ambush around a corner. The moment Yu Xian appeared, it instantly opened its bloody maw, lunging to strike at Yu Xian's neck.
Yet all that greeted it was Yu Xian's fist.
A single punch.
The giant serpent's body detonated section by section, ultimately bursting into a spray of bloody mist.
Yu Xian continued forward, his whistling never faltering. Meanwhile, hanging from the dungeon ceiling, a bat's pupils contracted as it watched the scene in utter shock.
Killing a snake wasn't hard.
But blowing an entire serpent to pieces with a single punch required an appalling amount of strength.
This bat was the catgirl's familiar. According to the original trajectory of fate, it was precisely this bat tracking Luo Wei and his companions that had enabled the catgirl to arrive in time and rescue them.
Now, however, after witnessing Yu Xian's terrifying strength, both the bat and the catgirl had only a single thought: This guy is too dangerous. We must stay away from him!
Chapter 672