A Higher-Up from the Association of God of Beauty

His friends list was overflowing with unread messages. Scanning through them, Zhang Yuanqing first tapped on the profile pictures of the two Heavenly Kings. Figures of Heavenly King caliber always inspired exceptional attention—and dread. [Fear Heavenly King: Very good. Congratulations on rising to the top of the Heavenly Roll. Once you advance to Dominator, I will dispatch Silver Moon Divine General to kill you. Looking forward to it?] *Think twice, Heavenly King!* Zhang Yuanqing thought. *Am I already first on the Saint-stage wanted list's Heavenly Roll? Being top of the Heavenly Roll is enough to warrant Dominators moving against me personally. Looks like I'll need to keep a low profile for a while.* Zhang Yuanqing typed a reply: "I'm quite looking forward to it—looking forward to sending Silver Moon back to the Spirit Realm." After sending it, he felt his phrasing was a bit too cocky. Fear wasn't Demon Eye; he wouldn't pamper him. What if he sent a Dominator over to camp his spawn point? One had to show basic respect to a demigod-level powerhouse... So Zhang Yuanqing quickly followed up with another text: "I enjoy chatting with you because I can voice my thoughts freely. If it were any other Dominator or demigod, I wouldn't have the freedom to speak like this with them." Sure enough, Fear Heavenly King was greatly pleased and texted back: [Fascinating!] Zhang Yuanqing let out a sigh of relief, then checked Demon Eye Heavenly King's messages: [Heh, your combat strength has progressed rapidly. I heard from Silver Moon about what you did in Bagui Province. You didn't disappoint me. One final piece of advice: don't rely too heavily on items.] Demon Eye Heavenly King also sent a Three-Eyed Boy sticker, its vertical eye shooting rainbow beams toward the screen. *I know, items are rare at the Dominator stage.* Zhang Yuanqing typed back: [I don't need your praise. I simply cannot tolerate the strong bullying the weak.] He seized the opportunity to farm some goodwill with Demon Eye. Then he tentatively messaged: [Heavenly King, if the evil faction hatches any plot to hunt me down, you must notify me in time.] Demon Eye Heavenly King replied with another sticker of the Three-Eyed Boy firing rainbow beams. Zhang Yuanqing had initially wanted to engage in a meme battle, but decided against it after some thought. Returning to his friends list, he opened the chat of Xiao Yuan's foolish son. Kou Beiyue had sent him a barrage of messages: [Kou Beiyue: I heard from Liangchen that you fought Heaven's Punishment in the Shiwan Dashan of Bagui Province? Why did you run off to the border? Well, that doesn't matter. What I wanted to say is that the Southern Sect held an emergency Saint-stage meeting this morning.] [Kou Beiyue: The Southern Sect's leadership ordered the Dream Masters to study your battle footage thoroughly, to learn your combat habits, items, and yin corpses. They want to dissect you inside and out to prepare for future hunts.] [Kou Beiyue: Are you an idiot? Fighting while letting someone film right next to you!] [Kou Beiyue: Ah, right, Yi Chuanmei was the Sixth Elder's student and his plaything in bed. He's very displeased with you.] He blabbered on and on. There wasn't a single word of concern in the entire text, yet every line urged him to stay safe. Zhang Yuanqing replied with a simple "Oh," then went through the remaining messages one by one. All of them were congratulations. Big shots like Xie Su and Tiaozhan Gaofeng offered reserved remarks like "congratulations" or "making a name for yourself." Senior Deacons like Natsuki's Love simply sent spam strings of "666." Meanwhile, friends he had met in the killing trial—like Niulanshan Little Fairy, Peony Fairy, and Baihu Wansui—showered him with utterly shameless flattery. Zhang Yuanqing answered them one by one. To the big shots, he replied, "I still have a lot of hard work to do." To those around his level, he wrote, "Looking forward to running trials together." To those with a wide gap in strength, he said, "Drop by Songhai when you're free, I'll take you out for some fun." *The boss hasn't messaged me, which means headquarters hasn't taken a stance yet. Annie hasn't contacted me either, so the Association of God of Beauty must still be deliberating. Hopefully Pluto's custody gets settled soon; I have to enter a solo trial in a few days...* Actually, Fu Qingyang had sent him messages, just not about Pluto. At six in the morning, Fu Qingyang had sent: "Xiahou Aotian wants to resign. Deal with it." At six-thirty, another message followed: "Resolved! Stop saying he screws bolts in the future." Presumably, seeing no reply, Fu Qingyang had been forced to placate Xiahou Aotian personally, so that second text carried a palpable edge of annoyance. *Resign? Wasn't Xiahou Aotian quite satisfied with his current life? Escorted by bodyguards wherever he went, addressed as 'leader' every day...* Zhang Yuanqing replied: "Understood, Boss. Thank you for your trouble, Boss." After answering all the texts, he checked his missed calls. Out of over a dozen, half were from his grandmother and half from Fu Xue. Unable to get through, his grandmother had sent a voice message: *Why is your phone off? Your mother is looking for you urgently. Call her back as soon as you see this.* Chen Shu ran a business overseas. Given that she had managed to procure little blue pills from Mr. Bill, she clearly interacted with Spirit Realm walkers quite often; she naturally knew of their existence. Ever since his conversation with the Palace Master about their parents' past, Zhang Yuanqing had been fully aware of this. And with the Palace Master's relationship with Chen Shu, she would certainly have told her that Yuanshi Tianzun was her son. *Hmph, now that I've crushed three of Heaven's Punishment's Saints, the news has surely spread abroad. Chen Shu really is a snobbish, pragmatic old woman. When her son was just an ordinary college student, she barely called once a year.* *Now that her son has made a name for himself and is rising meteorically through the ranks, she reaches out immediately.* *Too late. I refuse to forgive her.* Fu Xue was an equally snobbish mother-in-law. She had sent a string of voice notes, calling him "good son" with every breath, heaping on endless praise, and asking why Guan Ya wasn't picking up her phone. She claimed she was getting old, had no desire to date again, felt very lonely, and wanted to hold a grandchild. Lately, she had been working hard to find a Dominator-stage Knight. —Dominator-stage Knights could grant exemptions from oaths and revoke commandments! Guan Ya had been forced by her back then to swear an oath of contraception, and now the mother-in-law was tasting her own bitter medicine. Whether Guan Ya felt any sense of crisis was hard to say, but Fu Xue was consumed by it, terrified her daughter wouldn't be able to tie her boyfriend down and would lose him to some little vixen outside. Zhang Yuanqing only ever played along with his mother-in-law out of courtesy and didn't care much for her, so he left her messages unanswered. Having dealt with all his communications, Zhang Yuanqing opened the official forum. The forum was flooded with topics about "Yuanshi Tianzun single-handedly defeating Heaven's Punishment's three Saints." The hype was so immense it even eclipsed the time he wiped out the evil faction in the killing trial. Such was the true weight of a peak Saint. This battle had completely recalibrated both the Orderly and Evil factions' perception of Yuanshi Tianzun, giving major organizations and prominent clans a clear, direct understanding of his true combat strength. At the same time, it heralded the rise of an invincible figure in the Saint stage. When Fu Qingyang was at the peak of the Saint stage, even Dominators treated him with utmost respect, and he basked in boundless glory. Yet now, Yuanshi Tianzun had surpassed the Money Prince of back then. Zhang Yuanqing scrolled through posts and comments, secretly thrilled as he watched official walkers lavish him with praise. Occasionally, members of the Jianghuai Branch would pop up demanding that Yuanshi Tianzun return the Yin-Yang Turntable and begging headquarters to enforce justice. Beneath such comments, the replies were almost unanimously: "Don't say things that harm unity!" Under normal circumstances, the matter of the Yin-Yang Turntable might have caused controversy and drawn criticism. But right now, the grassroots personnel's fervent enthusiasm had yet to cool down, and Zhang Yuanqing's prestige was at its zenith. Forget holding onto the Yin-Yang Turntable—even if Yuanshi Tianzun were to take someone's virgin daughter, hordes of fanatical supporters would rush to defend him. After browsing for a while, Zhang Yuanqing soon grew weary of the relentless praise. Just as he was about to exit the forum, a new thread caught his eye: #Heaven's Punishment Is in a Panic!# Clicking on it, he discovered someone had leaked the video abroad. In the span of a single morning, the news of Osmond, Hoover, and Shatner being defeated by the Five Elements Alliance's Yuanshi Tianzun had spread like wildfire. True to their fine tradition of manipulating public opinion, Heaven's Punishment initially refused to acknowledge it. Their department handling intelligence and internet communications—ICIC—deleted the video from their internal forums and posted a clarification claiming the video was fake, arguing that Spirit Realm walkers from the Five Elements Alliance were merely dissatisfied with the strong showing of Osmond and the other two Saints at the exchange conference, and thus fabricated fake news and fake footage to deceive themselves. Following that, Heaven's Punishment's forums began enforcing strict controls, muting accounts that posted the video and deleting any threads discussing the topic. Consequently, people bypassed the firewall to cross over to the Five Elements Alliance's forums to fetch posts. The forums of major official organizations were semi-public; as official bodies, they needed a channel to release announcements, policies, and information, so anyone with an invitation code could log in. This was true for both the Five Elements Alliance and Heaven's Punishment. The moment Heaven's Punishment's grassroots members saw the news certified by the Five Elements Alliance, they immediately realized they had been lied to: the intelligence was real. Moreover, when members within Heaven's Punishment close to Osmond's trio called to inquire, Hoover and Osmond gave no clear answers, but Shatner admitted it. Knights could not lie. Fierce debates erupted across Heaven's Punishment's internal forums once more, moving faster than the moderators could delete them. Scholars from the Five Elements Alliance took the opportunity to screenshot numerous debate threads, carefully translated them into Chinese, and brought them back to the Alliance forum for everyone to enjoy. "My god, it's actually real? That kind of news clearly sounded fake at first!" "Is Yuanshi Tianzun that rookie genius? Didn't he just advance to Saint in June? Why did he suddenly become so powerful? Maybe a Dominator transformed into him. I know Illusionists over in China are incredible at shapeshifting." "If you really think that, then we're the ones deceiving ourselves." "Ah, thinking back on the fight in that video, he's so powerful. He defeated Osmond, Hoover, and Shatner without breaking a sweat. Do we have anyone that strong among Heaven's Punishment's Saints?" "Yuanshi Tianzun... I'll remember him." "He's a terrifying Night Wanderer." "He has so many items. Is he the illegitimate son of a demigod?" "Fuck, the three of them teamed up and still lost this badly! Osmond and Hoover should be nailed to the pillar of shame. They don't deserve to be second-class gold executives!" "Those bastards at ICIC keep deceiving us again and again, telling us the Five Elements Alliance has no experts and that Osmond and Hoover could sweep all their Saints. Not a single word out of their mouths is true!" "No, they did tell the truth—if you flip it backwards! That Yuanshi Tianzun can sweep all of our Saints!" "In fact, ICIC has never told the truth. They never broadcast information on Yuanshi Tianzun, telling everyone he's just a fairly decent Night Wanderer and that the Five Elements Alliance only hypes him up as someone with Alliance Leader potential. They claimed geniuses of that caliber are everywhere in Heaven's Punishment, while the Five Elements Alliance is suffering a drought of talent." "Yes, yes, I remember that! I really want to kick their asses with my boots! I swear I'm going to kick their asses!" Just as Zhang Yuanqing was thoroughly enjoying the spectacle, his phone rang. It was an incoming call from Annie. *The Association of God of Beauty responded?* Zhang Yuanqing answered at once. "Mr. Yuanshi, our Department Head has arrived and would like to meet you!" Annie's sweet, soft voice came through. *Department Head? The Head of the Foreign Affairs Department of the Association of God of Beauty? They actually dispatched a top executive over directly...* Zhang Yuanqing thought for a moment before saying, "Alright. I'll wait for her in Fu Qingyang's study." Annie hesitated, then whispered, "The Department Head wishes to meet you privately." *Meet me privately? How could that be allowed? What if she decides to play the eagle snatching the chick...* Zhang Yuanqing wasn't reckless enough to meet a higher-up of a foreign power in secret. He flatly refused: "No! I will only agree to meet at Fujia Bay." If the other party harbored ill intent, he might be sent straight back to the Spirit Realm on the spot. Even short of that, if an executive from the Association of God of Beauty wanted to control him, a single seductive glance or a sway of her hips might make Zhang Yuanqing drop his pants right there and turn into an emotionless piledriver. Never underestimate the allure of the Lust path. He couldn't even resist Annie's charm, let alone her department head's. Annie seemed to have anticipated his refusal and said, "What if the President of the Merchant Guild is present as well?"