Chapter 129
With the stone lions’ “indulgence,” Lu Chuan successfully left the City of Immortality.
“You can bring at most one extra person at a time,” the stone lion warned him. “Any more, and the god will notice. Before entering, we’ll hide that person in our mouths and send them in.”
The lion worried that Lu Chuan’s greed would get out of hand and immediately draw the god’s attention.
Of course, the god was all-knowing, but He had priorities.
In the City of Immortality, people were constantly making exchanges with Him. With the dungeon system’s restrictions, He couldn’t focus too much attention outside the city.
That gave Lu Chuan the chance to exploit a loophole.
Though of course, it was mainly thanks to the lions’ help.
“Relax. I’m not the type to kill the chicken for its eggs,” Lu Chuan nodded, reassuring the lions. He wanted long-term business. At least in the early stages of the dungeon, he would behave himself.
But when it came close to leaving? If he didn’t grab one last huge profit, it wouldn’t be Lu Chuan’s style.
[Congratulations, player [Arrival of the God of Wealth], for obtaining the hidden achievement Leaving the City of Immortality. System reward: game points have been issued.]
As soon as the system prompt fell, #888 was howling in joy.
[Perfect! Just when I’d spent all our points on upgrading skills. Host, you’ve got to rack up more points!]
The poor thing was practically penniless. The higher the upgrades, the more points it needed.
And the costs were mounting. It had to upgrade Lu Chuan’s God of Wealth skills while also upgrading its own language system. There wasn’t enough to go around.
“Got it,” Lu Chuan replied simply, focusing on his business.
Outside the City of Immortality, plenty of people were waiting.
Lu Chuan’s expression lit up as if he’d spotted mountains of gold and silver. Compared to the folks inside the city, these outsiders were the truly wealthy ones.
Dukes, marquises, heirs to mines—how could he not extort them properly after going to all this effort?
[Host, how will you choose your clients?] #888 asked knowingly.
The best way would be to sign contracts with them before entry, seizing their soul-value directly for maximum profit.
But Lu Chuan probably wouldn’t do that.
The soul-value inside the City of Immortality couldn’t be taken out of the dungeon, making it meaningless for him. The money on these outsiders, though—that was real, tangible wealth. Exactly the sort of “useless” thing to gods, but precious to Lu Chuan.
“Of course I’ll pick whoever offers the most money, whoever’s the greediest and least compassionate,” Lu Chuan rubbed his hands gleefully. “If they want eternal life, these worldly possessions won’t matter. Better they pass them on to someone like me who actually needs them.”
Everyone who came here was rich, but once inside, money was useless. Meaning their wealth became ownerless. What a waste!
Lu Chuan hated waste. So he would nobly accept it.
#888 glanced skyward. It seemed losing half his soul hadn’t affected the host at all.
So as long as his sanity value was low enough, as long as he didn’t lose money, it didn’t matter what else he lost?
Lu Chuan scanned the crowd outside, already making his calculations.
To gain the most wealth, he needed them to respect him and believe in him first.
With that thought, he opened his system space, rummaging through piles of low-level items (all obtained at public expense from the Star Guild warehouse), until he finally found what he needed.
With it, he could stage a great performance.
The next day, chaos broke out at the harbor entrance to the City of Immortality.
“Catch that old man!”
“Quick, don’t let him escape!”
A group of young, strong men in lavish clothes were searching frantically.
Many aristocrats and wealthy merchants at the port frowned in displeasure. This was a place for people of status, seekers of immortality. How could such a commotion happen here?
But since it didn’t concern them, they quietly stepped aside, leaving a clear path for the pursuers to drag the old man away, eager not to let anything disturb their own dreams.
“Please, save me! I have the Elixir of Immortality—truly! My ancestors were from the City of Immortality. If you save me, I’ll tell you how to enter!” The old man suddenly clutched at the sleeve of the most finely dressed noble and begged.
“What kind of trash dares grab this duke’s clothes?” the noble scoffed, flinging the man’s hand away. “We’ve seen scams like yours countless times. If your ancestors really had the elixir, why didn’t they drink it themselves?”
Clearly a swindler, trying to use them as a shield.
“This lord is wise,” one of the pursuers said respectfully, adding, “This old man has been deceiving people everywhere, even tricked our master, so we’ve come to capture him. Please forgive the disturbance—we’ll take him away at once and not trouble you further.”
With that, they pounced like wolves, grabbing the old man’s limbs and trying to drag him off.
The old man struggled desperately, kicking one of them between the legs, and barely broke free.
But in an instant, he was surrounded again. Escape was nearly impossible.
“You force me like this? Fine! Then none of you will ever have the Elixir of Immortality!” the old man snarled. He pulled a pendant from his neck and smashed it onto the ground.
The pendant shattered, releasing a misty vapor. The mist seemed to have eyes, streaming straight into the old man’s seven orifices.
In the next moment, the old man slowly transformed into a young man.
“I… I’m young again?” he touched his face and hands in disbelief, joy flooding his features. “So drinking the potion directly was wrong. This is the true way to use the Elixir of Immortality! Hahahaha!”
Overjoyed, he dashed away with astonishing speed while his pursuers stood frozen in shock. In a blink, he vanished into the crowd without a trace.
The high-ranking officials and wealthy tycoons nearby, who had watched everything from start to finish and still hadn’t come back to their senses, were all stunned.
No—impossible!
Could something like this really exist in the world?
Once they understood, they scrambled to grab hold of those young men, bombarding them with questions.
“What on earth was going on with that old man?”
“Who are you people, and why were you chasing him? And that elixir of immortality—is it real?”
“Where did the elixir come from?”
“Be honest with us—you can’t afford to offend people like us.”
Surrounded by so many, the young men knew they couldn’t escape. Since their mission had failed, they had no choice but to explain, though clearly unwilling.
It turned out what the old man said was true: their ancestors had once been priests serving a deity. The elixir of immortality and the pass to enter the City of Immortality were both gifts from that god. But the priest had been so devout that, when the deity departed, he took his own life to follow. The elixir remained, though in very small quantity—and anyone who drank it straight would die from their body exploding.
The old man couldn’t figure out how to use the elixir, nor could he find the road to the City of Immortality. So he tricked their master, saying he was willing to give up the elixir if only he could be taken to the city. But once they reached the harbor, they learned the city only opened once every five years; they would have to wait. The old man went back on his word and tried to raise the price, angering their master—leading to the earlier scene.
“What god was that priest’s ancestor devoted to?” someone asked, still skeptical.
“They say it was the Mother of Fertility.”
“Ah, I know that god—apparently fell a few years back.”
“Right, and a number of powerful archbishops, together with some strong adventurers, joined forces to destroy Its avatar.”
“No wonder. The Mother of Fertility was said to favor the young, and all Its followers were youthful. It makes sense It might have had an elixir of immortality.”
These officials and merchants weren’t fools; they didn’t believe too quickly. They pressed on:
“And who is your master?”
“Our master is the First General under the King of Blood,” the young men said proudly. “His strength is unparalleled. He only sought the elixir to advance further in martial arts.”
“Hmph, the King of Blood is powerful—why would he even bother with a mere elixir of immortality?”
The crowd murmured back and forth, growing more and more convinced.
After all, they had witnessed the old man transform from aged to youthful with their own eyes. And the young men’s story—about the old man’s background and their own—was perfectly clear. Even if it were a fabrication, how could anyone invent such specific details about the King of Blood and the Mother of Fertility?
Some people at the harbor didn’t even know how formidable those names were—if this were a lie, why pick those two?
“The elixir is gone now. We can’t face our master anymore,” the youths said, dejected. “Don’t get your hopes up—if there had been more, we wouldn’t have chased him all the way here.”
The crowd’s faces showed open regret. That elixir had been right in front of them, and they’d dismissed it as fake. Now they wanted it, only to learn it was the last one.
That kind of missed opportunity left them sick with remorse.
The harbor buzzed with a new topic: everyone was discussing the old man and the elixir of immortality. It seemed they were all disappointed, but in truth—who with real skill or means would easily give up the hope of eternal life?
“You’ve tailed me long enough—how did you find me?” A cloaked young man, cornered with nowhere to run, turned helplessly to face the people behind him.
“Since we dared come to the City of Immortality, naturally we have our ways. Now tell us—do you have any more elixir? Can you take us inside?” A group of high-level NPCs surrounded him, cutting off escape.
Who else could that be but Lu Chuan?
All it took was a low-grade disguise item to perform a “grand transformation” before their eyes—it couldn’t be easier.
From here, everything was simple.
Lu Chuan just had to pretend to run.
Those desperate for immortality would naturally give chase.
Humans, after all, are like that: what comes freely they doubt, but what they labor for—they never suspect to be a scam.
The harder Lu Chuan fled, the more convinced they’d be.
Only the cleverest—and the greediest—could track him down.
“See, Little System? They’re hooked already,” Lu Chuan said smugly. “They’ll even thank me, because I really can get them into the City of Immortality.”
What happened to them after entering—whether they’d be beasts of burden or something worse—well, that wasn’t Lu Chuan’s problem.
His job was only to bring them in, not to handle after-sales service.
[Yes, Host. They’ll thank you while you count the money you made selling them out.] #888 said sincerely. [Greed really is humanity’s incurable flaw.]
“You can’t put it like that—I’m greedy too,” Lu Chuan said cheerfully. “I just don’t let my greed overrun all my reason.”
Right. Half of it already has, #888 thought.
“I don’t have any more elixir—that really was the last,” Lu Chuan said, raising his hands with apparent sincerity. “The elixir was left by my ancestors. If I’d had more, I’d have taken it out long ago—why wait until now? But my ancestors did leave me one thing: a pass to enter the City of Immortality.”
Here Lu Chuan hesitated, glancing at those around him.
“I already possess immortality; I don’t need to enter the city. I just want to live my life happily. So if you want the pass I hold, you must give me wealth and glory enough.”
“I’ll come back at this time tomorrow,” Lu Chuan said when he saw their interest, smiling as he moved forward. “I won’t run—you caught me once, you can catch me again. And I’ll only tell you this: the taste of immortality is too sweet. I need enough money to leave here and survive, so as long as you offer the right price, I’ll sell. Don’t be stingy—once you enter the city and gain eternal life, what won’t you have?”
Lu Chuan walked away, and the high-level NPCs didn’t stop him. Clearly, they were pondering his words.
If entry to the City of Immortality could be bought, so much the better. But how much should they offer? And what would the others bid?
That was the real question.
[Host, if you sell to the highest bidder, won’t you only make one deal?] #888 worried—it didn’t seem like Lu Chuan’s style.
So many fat sheep—would Lu Chuan slaughter just one?
“Of course not, Little System. You’re starting to understand me.” Lu Chuan’s smile turned sly. “Who says I’ll sell only once? I’ll sell many times—as long as they each think they’re the only buyer.”
That constant rush of profit—truly the happiest thing in the world.
A harbor city full of wealthy people—their money was practically his for the taking.
Just as #888 was about to speak, it noticed the remaining half of Lu Chuan’s soul slowly regenerating. The growth was tiny, but real.
Huh?
888 nearly crashed.
“His soul is full of the scent of money—worthy of a future God of Wealth,” Cang Jiu remarked, eyeing the ingot missing half its body on his sword hilt as it slowly repaired itself. His brow lifted slightly.
Self-repair—the mark of a god. Deathless, indestructible.
