Chapter 910
Chapter 910 - 896
1,627 words
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9 min read
Life is life, work is work... even though we say that, in reality, the people who can truly separate the two entirely are few and far between.
Especially for professionals with a noose around their necks, even when they really give themselves a day off, their subconscious is constantly reminding them that they should use the day to better themselves.
In the week that Lu Ping’an returned, which was nominally a vacation week, people continuously sought him out, and a mishmash of issues never ceased.
Resources and dividends had already been distributed, but due to the delay in income, it was in fact more about the rewards from the Abyss Journey and the new dividends from the Green Planet Company.
These included but were not limited to a batch of Divine Bones powder (the academic name for the Divine Bones’s original owner), a batch of precious ores native to that planet (which was actually the planet’s main produce), as well as a batch of not-so-important credit-coins (which were all exchanged for raw materials at Lu Ping’an’s request).
"Trading Land is open every day recently; anyone in need can stake out the Market. Of course, the Black Market at the steam factory seems to be open again, too. I went to take a look, and the goods aren’t bad—probably because several Churches are selling at the same time. But be careful not to be followed by those mice, it’s been a bit chaotic there lately."
Lu Ping’an was undoubtedly a generous boss, taking into account the market’s current bizarre situation where credit-coins couldn’t buy you good goods, he directly distributed the hard assets from "minerals" and "alien resources" to others, letting them trade for the resources they urgently needed on the Market themselves.
𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂
At the same time, he had a list, probably detailing the combat power situation of his core members, as well as their recent advancements... Little troubles were left unreported; only significant developments like Advancement or qualitative ability changes were recorded.
"... Er, this time, I really didn’t want to record it."
The one making the latest updates to the data, with a face filled with helplessness, was the Panda-man in front of him.
"’Heavenly Stems Kid,’ what a cursed-sounding Profession name, it sounds like it spells doom..."
Lu Ping’an sighed. No matter what, the Panda-man before him was already a Decree-level professional, and a "genius" in his early twenties at that—he deserved some basic respect.
Of course, due to the presence of Lu Ping’an’s Courtyard, "growth potential" and "daring to fight" essentially became reciprocal trades—the growth rate of many talented individuals had surpassed what was once considered a genius seen only once in ten years... In some assessments, this was actually more valuable to the overall development of the Ancient City than a Rule-level figure.
Even the Captain of the Special Service Team came by to hint that Lu Ping’an should "keep the Trading Land open (for trade) a few more days" to allow more professionals to turn their resources into growth.
Lu Ping’an’s Courtyard still maintained a "VIP tier system," granting higher permissions to those inclined towards the Official side, such as access to third-tier Professions and Knowledge exchanges in the Library, and high-level Beastmen bloodline gambling rewards... In some ways, he was borrowing from some "sophisticated business tactics" that had appeared in the past or would emerge in the future.
Believe it or not, this tactic really worked. Complete openness, without taking any position or bias, would face opposition from all quarters.
But this sort of staged, selective opening, while taking a clear stance, gained a loyal following.
The reason for such active reporting from the team was also because their improvement here was indeed much faster than Cultivation alone; Lu Ping’an’s presence, in some sense, devalued "natural talent" and made "hard work" and "desperation" more cost-effective.
Of course, this wasn’t exclusive to Lu Ping’an—many high-level professionals and geniuses of the Rule System had this trait; the Intelligence Agent was one of the perks of being an Official professional.
However, it was rare to the point of absurdity for someone like Lu Ping’an to openly establish a "Dragon Ground" where everyone could pay to seek the Dao together.
Without going too far, just the Captain-level members of the Ancient City’s Special Service Team transitioning from an average of 2-point-something tiers to over 3-point tiers was astonishing news... it signaled that the mainstay Captain-level defenders of the homeland were astonishingly becoming common at Decree-level.
As the Great Gate to the New Era opened, the devaluation of Decree was inevitable. But because of Lu Ping’an’s emergence, it came much faster than usual, and it was more Official-oriented... suppressing the wicked, setting the tone for society’s atmosphere, things would be much smoother afterward.
Now, the superpowered crime rate in the Ancient City was already the lowest in Changping State—not solely due to the advantages brought by the strength of the Law Enforcers, but also because when you are powerful, Cultists, criminals, and mercenaries naturally seek out areas with weaker defenses, just as floodwaters flow to lower ground.
"... My family was a bit surprised at my progress; they thought it would take me until my thirties at the earliest to enter this domain."
Xue En, too, rarely displayed a young man’s vitality and happiness—it was a rare pleasure for him to see his family happily surprised.
"So why don’t you take a few more days off? It’s a rare visit home." Lu Ping’an feigned concern.
"...It’s not possible, in our family there are rules, Decree-level and above can only stay at home for a maximum of one week at a time, and if there are three Decree-level members at home, they immediately have to leave, or it will bring trouble to us and our neighbors. As soon as I return, I make my uncle move out, even though it’s not easy for him to come back and gather with us. As I’m all alone, there’s no need to disturb anyone else’s family reunion." And Xue En, as always, pretended he hadn’t seen through (the other’s expectation for him to come back a few days later).
Upon hearing this, Lu Ping’an fell silent. Should he feel sorry for the unfortunate guy in front of him, or for his family’s neighbors? Probably the neighbors.
"...The most important thing is, they actually still have neighbors?" Even Big Cat was quite interested in the ecosystem of the Xue Family.
"Er, indeed, maybe we should ask..."
After a bit of casual chat and confirming that both were free, since they were both in good spirits and wanted to earn some extra money, they naturally ended up working together.
Lu Ping’an was originally going alone, but he was interested in seeing the combat power of this ’Heavenly Stems Kid’, so the two of them simply made a trip to the previous war zone Secret Realm to test their skills.
The result? There wasn’t much result, at least not a good one...
"You’ve triggered the Stone Dragon again?! Damn it, why twins?!"
"The monsters have gone berserk? Where’s the Stationed Person?"
"What happened, why is there an earthquake... The passageways to the upper and lower levels have collapsed?!."
"Oh my god, how can we be so unlucky, the Supply Warehouse got buried in the earthquake...."
In short, it was a journey that felt strangely delicate.
Earthquakes, monster rampages, floor collapses, everything that should and shouldn’t have happened did.
From the perspective of a test run, the journey was clearly successful, forcing Lu Ping’an to go all out on home turf!
But as a result, it also came with an ’Entry Forbidden’ official document, which directly kicked someone out, and most likely, most of the low-level Secret Realms within the country would no longer be open to him... Lu Ping’an talked his way out of it, deflecting all blame, and managed not to get implicated himself.
Looking at the profits, the adventure did yield steady returns, at least the professionals Lu Ping’an had invested in experienced a lot that day and naturally gave Lu Ping’an a lot of their earnings.
With Lu Ping’an’s efforts, the whole affair finally concluded with a relatively perfect ending... But the most accurate decision he made was probably, when he sensed something was amiss, to kick a certain Panda out of the Secret Realm.
"...Er, everyone, unless you have extreme confidence in your personal strength, it’s probably better not to team up with that person for Secret Realm explorations."
After returning, Lu Ping’an casually mentioned this on the club channel, and many people took it to heart for many years.
But using this time for an intensive effort, Lu Ping’an also successfully completed another part-time job.
"I really didn’t expect the entrance Path to the circus would actually be ’Dancer’...."
The one speaking was Big Cat, looking astonished. In her memory, the way high-order professionals of the circus fought was completely different from the Dancer Path she remembered.
The materials Lu Ping’an had applied for had already arrived, bringing information, data, and knowledge from the first two tiers.
And as for the Professional Skill of Dancer... when Lu Ping’an used to mooch off Hua senior sister, he had already learned quite a bit.
He just needed to find a Secret Realm to complete the Advancement ritual, and successfully took on the sub-profession of ’Circus Affairs’ within the Dancer profession.
— End of Chapter 910 —