Chapter 149

Chapter 149: The System Store, Exchanging Treasures

"Exchange."

Ye Xu couldn’t be bothered to look much longer. As soon as the thought arose, the storage ring vanished into thin air, and his account balance increased by three hundred thousand heavenly secrets points.

"Over five million three hundred thousand heavenly secrets points… what treasures can I even exchange for?"

Ye Xu was feeling a bit troubled.

He had made a promise at the Red Dust Demon Sect: the top twenty of the Hidden Dragon Gathering would receive rewards from Heaven’s Secret Pavilion.

Given Heaven’s Secret Pavilion’s current status and prestige, the rewards couldn’t be some common, low-grade stuff.

Otherwise, it’d only damage the reputation the Pavilion had painstakingly accumulated.

"System, open the store."

Ye Xu ordered.

[Opening the system store requires ten thousand heavenly secrets points.]

…

Ye Xu was speechless. The Heavenly Machine System did have a store, but usually, he stayed put inside Heaven’s Secret Pavilion and had no need for cultivation resources.

Therefore, he had spent almost all his heavenly secrets points purely on cultivation itself.

He’d never even opened the so-called system store before.

And it actually cost money!

Grumbling inwardly, Ye Xu spent ten thousand heavenly secrets points to open the store.

The store was divided into five categories:

Mortal, Divine, Holy, Emperor, and Immortal – corresponding to the five major realms of cultivation.

Under each category, there were sub-categories: pills, treasures, techniques, exotic objects…

Ye Xu entered the Holy tier interface.

Instantly, a torrent of information about countless treasures flooded his mind, seemingly endless.

Ye Xu navigated to the exotic objects category.

"Bodhi Tree…"

He murmured. The top-ranked exotic object was called the Bodhi Tree.

In the past, Elder Huang, Ao Lie’s servant, had used a Bodhi seed to perfect his mental state, instantly becoming a saint. That Bodhi seed was the fruit produced by the Bodhi Tree.

As its name suggested, the Bodhi Tree aided cultivation and enlightenment, possessing a similar charm to the Enlightenment Tree within Dao King’s Purple Palace – though its efficacy was inferior.

Even so, the price of a single Bodhi Tree was seven hundred eighty thousand heavenly secrets points.

"That damned system is a rip-off!" Ye Xu cursed silently in his mind.

Then, he purchased it with a single thought.

Ding!

[Congratulations, Host! You have spent seven hundred eighty thousand heavenly secrets points and successfully purchased the Bodhi Tree. Host can receive the item simply by intending to.]

With a thought from Ye Xu, an ancient tree thirty zhang tall with leaves like azure jade appeared in his Purple Palace in the next instant.

It was entirely like crystal, and as the clear wind blew, its leaves chimed softly like silver bells, calming his thoughts down.

"Somewhat interesting."

He was now a Great Emperor, yet the power of the bodhi tree could actually affect his mental state; for Saint realm cultivators, it was certainly an invaluable treasure.

"Using the bodhi tree as a reward isn’t really disgracing the Hidden Dragon List."

Ye Xu continued making selections.

"Dragon Flame Saber… Too low-grade…"

"Emperor’s Divine Fist… Two million heavenly secrets points, why not just go rob someone?"

"Ten Directions Fire Seal… Not many unique features…"

Ye Xu found it extremely difficult.

He only selected three rewards by dusk.

These three rewards cost a full 1.3 million heavenly secrets points.

In Ye Xu’s view, it was simply outrageously expensive.

"I’ll choose slowly…"

Anyway, there were still four days left; he wasn’t in a hurry.

Time flew by as the sun rose and the moon set.

Before he knew it, another two days had passed.

Ye Xu carefully selected and finally settled on nineteen kinds of treasures.

Pills, magical artifacts, techniques—all were comprehensively covered.

"Seems like it’s still one short?"

After a detailed count, Ye Xu discovered there were only nineteen rewards.

By this moment, he had already spent a full four million heavenly secrets points.

Thinking of this, Ye Xu grimaced in intense distress.

Glancing at the balance, there were still over 1.3 million heavenly secrets points left.

He had spent four-fifths all at once.

"Should we try adding a technique?"

A bright idea struck Ye Xu; in his memory, he stored many techniques, including not just the Red Dust Demon Sect’s Red Dust Tribulation Sutra, the Ten Thousand Demon Kingdom’s Eternal Catastrophe Sutra, but also the Heaven’s Ultimate Four Symbols Scripture and Ten Thousand Ways Enlightenment Scriptures, among others.

The sole drawback was that all these techniques had owners.

"I nearly forgot about it…"

Ye Xu gave a slight grin, recalling how Meng Feixian’s golden bamboo slip was a classic of the immortal path; though he couldn’t comprehend it, he had committed everything to memory firmly.

Great Emperor-level powerhouses inherently possessed the ability of total recall.

"That golden bamboo slip records a classic of the immortal path, making it too precious as a reward for the Hidden Dragon Gathering." Ye Xu frowned slightly.

The next second, Ye Xu thought up a solution.

Only the first half is needed.

Even the first half of the golden bamboo slip could enable one to cultivate to the Great Emperor realm, making it more than sufficient as a reward.

He activated the Creation Heart Sutra, and a heart technique surfaced in his mind.

That technique, named the "Demon Prison Spirit Platform Sutra," was a profound method integrating both Dao and demonic paths. It involved transforming oneself into a Spirit Prison while steadfastly guarding the Purple Palace within the spirit platform, embodying qualities of both demon and Dao.

After the time it takes for a stick of incense to burn, Ye Xu had nearly fully comprehended the Demon Prison Spirit Platform Sutra.

After all, the Creation Heart Sutra he cultivated was superior in level to the Demon Prison Spirit Platform Sutra. Thus, while studying the latter, Ye Xu felt as if examining the lines on his palm—utterly clear and effortless.

Splitting the Demon Prison Spirit Platform Sutra into upper and lower halves was no challenging task.

Having completed this, Ye Xu let out a long sigh of relief.

"So exhausting…"

"Incredibly costly…"

A pang of heartache shot through Ye Xu.

A single act of generosity had cost him a whopping four million heavenly secrets points.

"If this Hidden Dragon Gathering doesn’t earn back the principal plus interest, I’d truly be lifting a stone only to drop it on my own foot." His expression looked even more miserable than if he were crying.

After all, he himself had proposed hosting the Hidden Dragon Gathering.

"Yang Xuanzhan."

Shortly after, Ye Xu summoned Yang Xuanzhan.

"Master."

Yang Xuanzhan rushed back to the Heaven’s Secret Pavilion with urgent haste.

Wearing an impassive expression, Ye Xu tossed him a jade slip.

"What is this…?"

Yang Xuanzhan focused his divine sense into the jade slip. Inside, he found records detailing twenty items—clearly the list of rewards for the Hidden Dragon Gathering.

"This is far too extravagant…"

Yang Xuanzhan gasped in astonishment. That Demon Prison Spirit Platform Sutra was actually the first half of a classic of the immortal path! Additionally, there was a bodhi tree to aid enlightenment, alongside various top-tier treasures—each one practically priceless.

A glance at Ye Xu’s expression made everything clear to Yang Xuanzhan.

For the sake of the gathering, the master must have reluctantly parted with these fortunes, like slicing off his own flesh.

"How many admission fees have been collected these past few days?"

Ye Xu inquired.

He had spent three days selecting the treasures. Only one day remained until the Hidden Dragon Gathering; surely all who intended to come had already arrived.

"It’s all here."

Yang Xuanzhan promptly handed over a storage ring.

"Over these past few days, this humble servant has issued a total of eight hundred twenty-five access tokens. Converted, that amounts to eight hundred twenty-five sacred artifacts. I wonder if this can recoup the master’s losses?"

Yang Xuanzhan did not beat around the bush, addressing the core matter directly.

Everyone in the Yuan Realm knew that those in Heaven’s Secret Pavilion cherished wealth more than their own life. They were exceptionally money-grubbing.

Ye Xu didn’t mind.

After all, it was the truth. Why deny it?

Exchange all of this into heavenly secrets points, System, Ye Xu thought to himself.

Ding!

[Congratulations, Host. You have acquired nine million six hundred twenty thousand heavenly secrets points.]

Whoosh!

Instantly, Ye Xu’s account flashed to ten million nine hundred forty thousand heavenly secrets points.

Ye Xu’s eyes practically gleamed.

"Hahaha…"

Elation surged wildly inside Ye Xu.

I’m a multi-millionaire now.

This Hidden Dragon Gathering didn’t go to waste after all.

Spending four million to earn nearly six million heavenly secrets points — it was an exorbitant profit.

Still, no matter how happy he felt inside, Ye Xu revealed none of it outwardly.

To Yang Xuanzhan, organizing the Hidden Dragon Gathering must surely mean Heaven’s Secret Pavilion was taking a loss.

The thought made Yang Xuanzhan’s heart ache slightly.

If the Pavilion was losing money, would his reward still be granted?

"Yang Xuanzhan, you’ve done extremely well," Ye Xu said lightly. "After the Hidden Dragon Gathering, I’ll give you double your promised reward."

"There’s still one day left. It seems some participants have yet to arrive. We’ll make a precise tally tomorrow. You may leave for now."

"Th-this lowly servant… kowtows in gratitude towards Your Excellency!"

Yang Xuanzhan was stunned at first, then overwhelmed with giddy joy.

Judging by Ye Xu’s calm demeanor, the Hidden Dragon Gathering had undoubtedly been immensely profitable. Otherwise, going by his miserly nature, how could Ye Xu possibly offer him double the reward?

Indeed, only making money can truly bring me joy, Ye Xu was immensely pleased.

He began pondering whether the Great Emperor List ought to be unveiled as soon as possible?