Please, Young Master, Slay the Demon!
Chapter 229 - 22 How to live on? [Thanks to the Alliance Hierarch "Wen12Double" for the reward]_1

Chapter 229: Chapter 22 How to live on? [Thanks to the Alliance Hierarch "Wen12Double" for the reward]_1

Seven days passed in a flash.

Red Cotton Peak was teeming with people, and most of the Mountain God Sacrifice Teams had arrived. Over the past few days, they had bought a great deal of berries from Chu Liang. Now, having assembled the Five-Element Talismans, they were drawn here to unveil the clues’ answers.

The sight of a young man, whose face wore a harmless smile, stepping slowly onto the stage aroused a complex mix of emotions in the crowd below.

Many harbored a mixture of love and hate for Chu Liang.

When the Silver Sword team first sold the clues, they did so privately, giving rise to an informational imbalance. By the time some realized they could resell the answers for profit, nearly everyone had already made purchases.

There was no room left for them to profit from reselling.

When Chu Liang planned to sell the clues’ answers for the second time, some wised up, hoping to purchase early and then resell at a lower price, at the very least to cover their costs.

Others had strategically decided to freely share the answers, not allowing the profiteers to make any money.

But they were taken by surprise when Chu Liang abruptly changed tactics.

The requirement of collecting the Five-Element Talismans before exchanging for the answer’s clues left everyone uncertain if they could acquire the answer, yet it enticed everyone to give it a try.

Unknowingly, they had all fallen into the trap.

With a price of only one Sword Coin per box for the official answer and the inclusion of Gold Pattern Berries worth two Sword Coins... It was practically a giveaway.

Moreover, the alluring design of the Five-Element Talismans implied that buying five boxes might suffice to complete the collection...

In theory, a group of people collaborating could easily gather all the clues. But the reality differed greatly as the addiction to collecting took over. Many even forgot why they first started as they ended up purchasing the Earth Talisman at exuberant prices during the competition’s late stage.

In the last two days, the initially rare Earth Talismans began to appear in great quantities within the sold berry boxes. This allowed most to collect all the Five-Element Talismans.

This validated Chu Liang’s assertion that the Five-Element Talismans were distributed evenly. It was just that the Earth Talismans indeed appeared late in the process... a minor delay that possibly caused berries sales to surge multiple folds.

This roundabout left virtually no room for those wishing to profit from reselling the answers to the clues.

Only Chu Liang was making money.

It was rather inevitable for this to stir envy among the spectators.

Still, irritated as they may be, they stayed rooted, since only he held the answer to the second stage.

In fact, it was quite normal for the first stage to remain unsolved at this point each year, so people didn’t need to worry about not solving the second stage clues immediately.

Those with firm determination could naturally choose to continue pondering at their own pace.

However, since Chu Liang had solved it and put it up for sale, if you didn’t buy it and others did, there would be no significance even if you found the solution later.

Hence, they could only join in the fray reluctantly.

"Fellow Daoists!"

Chu Liang’s smile was as warm as a spring breeze.

"After seven days of effort, everyone here has assembled the Five-Element Talismans. And as promised, I will now share the answer to the second stage clue with you all."

After saying this, he took the four paintings and erected them like a lantern, surrounding a lit candle he placed in the middle.

"This is how it is!"

As they were outdoors where the sun shone brightly, it was naturally impossible for shadows to be cast.

But the disciples of Shu Mountain were no fools. With just one setup, they instantly grasped the trick within.

"So the four paintings aren’t meant to be pieced together on a flat surface, but erected! No wonder they wouldn’t connect!"

"Those overlapped scenes must be projected to be seen clearly!"

"..."

Everyone suddenly saw the light, cries of realization echoed endlessly.

Immediately, some hastily flew back to try their hand at the method. In no time, the once bustling crowd on Red Cotton Peak had scattered.

Only the members of the Silver Sword team remained.

Lin Bei asked his bookkeeping henchman A, "How much have we earned in these few days?"

Henchman A simply replied with three words: "We’re raking it in."

...

Chu Liang did not directly reveal the location indicated by the second clue but merely demonstrated the method to solve it.

So, the members of other teams returned home to give it a try, only then realizing it was the pit valley of Pagoda Peak that the clue pointed to.

This distinctive landmark was immediately recognized by most people as soon as they saw it. Even for a few who were initially unable to identify it, the information was not hard to come by.

Because there was already a swarm of people heading in that direction.

It was the people from Pagoda Peak’s pit valley who discovered it first, about a dozen or so. They were the quickest to arrive at the location and quickly found the large rock.

Just as they were about to move the rock, they heard a sudden "raahh" sound! A streak of silver light darted over like lightning!

Thud——

The Baize cub was not as gentle towards others as it was to Chu Liang, especially since this was a task assigned to it by the Shu Mountain Upper Echelon, who allowed it to ram into people without punishment!

"Ah——" The nearest disciple was instantly launched into the sky like a star.

"It’s Little Baize!" someone exclaimed.

"Even the Zhenshan Guardian Divine Beast is guarding the checkpoint?"

"Don’t panic, Little Baize is not good at fighting, with so many of us, we can completely ... wait what?"

"What is that?!"

When the rush of the Baize cub ceased, and its figure revealed, those exclamation ceased as well.

Because this moment, it looks very different from usual.

On its body, in addition to its original scaled armor, it also wore a layer of silver chain mail which looked lightweight and robust, appearing to be a type of Defensive Artifact... Coiling around its horn were layers of gold talismans, they seemed to be high-level Giant Spirit Talismans, capable of greatly bolstering the strength of its attacks... Its hooves were wrapped with cloud aura, each adorned with a Whistling Wind Orb, specifically used to enhance a Spirit Beast’s speed ... Besides these, there were also some other less conspicuous magic artifacts.

Little Baize, fully armed!

Although the original it was gifted, equipped with the speed and power of the Fifth Realm in its youth, it was indeed not adept at combat, only knowing the head ramming technique.

Ordinary Shu Mountain Disciples, although they weren’t its match, with a group or two joining forces, they could chase it away.

Usually, at this stage, there would only be three to five teams left, thus their overall strength should be quite elite and they wouldn’t be held up by this checkpoint.

During the setting, they clearly wouldn’t have thought that nearly all the Mountain God Sacrifice Teams would get this clue, and now a flock of weaklings were rushing towards Pagoda Peak.

However, Little Baize, was super strengthened.

How are they going to pass now?

Looking at Little Baize now, equipped with all these magic artifacts, its pure speed and strength have gone up to another level, this is completely different. Any disciple of the Third Realm, even a swarm attack strategy would hardly harm it at all!

Thud, thud, thud, thud——

The muffled sound of headbutts hitting flesh came in waves. The first dozen disciples to arrive from Shu Mountain were like rainfall, pattering down into the distant jungle.

One of the plump junior disciples, upon landing, was not heavily injured, but couldn’t stand up for the time being.

At this time, a hand stretched out from the side, helping him up.

"Thank you." The plump junior immediately expressed his thanks.

"No problem. It’s normal for us to help each other out as fellow disciples," the other person said.

The plump junior raised his head and saw a face with bushy eyebrows, large eyes, and a slightly dark complexion, clearly full of vitality.

It was Lin Bei.

"Senior Brother... you look familiar?" the plump junior frowned.

"I’m from the Silver Sword Peak team. I’ve sold you the answer to the first clue before." Lin Bei laughed.

"Ah, I remember you!" The plump junior stood up, rubbing his sore butt, "I also got the answer to the second clue from you guys."

"You’ve already gotten the answer, why aren’t you going in?" Lin Bei asked.

"Didn’t you see? Little Baize is guarding it over there, not letting anyone approach!" the plump junior said, "It hurts to get rammed."

"It’s really annoying to have the last clue so close but unable to get it." Lin Bei sighed, "What should we do...huh? How about I distract Little Baize, and you take the opportunity to grab the third clue?"

"Huh?" The plump junior was taken aback, "This...can you do it? And even if you can, isn’t it a bit..."

"What’s wrong with that, we’re all buddies here." Lin Bei patted his chest, "How about thirty Sword Coins?"

"This..." The plump junior hesitated for a moment.

From the first clue, the second clue... until now, he had spent dozens of Sword Coins, and he always felt that the investment was a bit high. But the third clue was within reach, and if he took a risk and got lucky, he might be the champion of this year’s Mountain God Sacrifice.

The opportunity to gain fame was right in front of him!

After struggling for a while, he gritted his teeth and said: "Okay! Deal!"

Lin Bei immediately flew proudly and boldly towards the middle of the pit valley where Little Baize was rampaging, however, he looked full of confidence.

All the way straight to the large rock, right when Little Baize had just rammed away a new batch of exploring disciples, Lin Bei stepped forward and shouted:

"Hey! Check out my Magical Treasure!"