Chapter 155
Cang Jiu quietly gazed at the Seed of Fertility before him.
Lu Chuan hadn’t taken it. That meant he had already guessed what Cang Jiu intended and was, to some degree, angry.
Cang Jiu extended his hand. As if reaching into a sack, he easily pierced the barrier of the incubation chamber and touched the infant within.
The infant opened its eyes ever so slightly, and the instant Cang Jiu touched it, it transformed into a dazzling cluster of radiant light, as if ready to merge into Cang Jiu’s body the very next moment.
As the God of Desire, Cang Jiu was well aware of the Seed’s power.
It was originally a seed belonging to the Mother of Fertility, whose authority brimmed with vigorous vitality. That kind of life force and restorative energy was a priceless boon to any god in the midst of revival. With just one Seed of Fertility, decades—or even centuries—of arduous recovery could be skipped. It was for this very seed that the [Mother of Fertility] had hidden in the dungeon all this time; if Lilus hadn’t lured her out, she would have kept hiding.
If he devoured it, Cang Jiu’s revival would leap forward by at least ten years!
As long as he was willing, he only had to fuse this radiance into his spirit, and the nourishment would be complete.
So this was Lu Chuan’s answer?
Even with the [Mother of Fertility] dead, Lu Chuan had still not claimed the Seed.
Cang Jiu let out a sigh.
Humans were truly indescribable beings. No wonder the Main God System lingered in this universe, unwilling to leave. Clearly, it could destroy humanity with ease, and yet it still chose to give them chance after chance, just to witness their endless possibilities.
For gods, profit was everything.
They lacked human emotions and so-called private feelings.
Their thoughts were simple—to grow stronger.
They devoured each other, fought for authority, died and revived—all for the sake of strength.
Countless gods had fought to the death over overlapping domains of power.
For most gods, humans were nothing more than consumables—livestock to be slaughtered at will. Yet sometimes, rare human beings would emerge who could rival the gods.
At that moment, both Cang Jiu’s avatar and his true body fell into a contemplative pause.
He gently brushed the ingot belonging to Lu Chuan that hung on his sword hilt.
Perhaps it was an illusion, but its glow seemed less radiant than before.
Cang Jiu had thought Lu Chuan was a qualified candidate for godhood, but now he wasn’t so sure.
If Lu Chuan were truly like a god, he wouldn’t have left the Seed untouched.
But if he were purely human, why would he ally himself with a god in revival like Cang Jiu?
The Seed still pulsed with life.
Cang Jiu immediately suppressed its fluctuations, grasped it firmly in his palm, and flew off.
Meanwhile, Lu Chuan waited for Cynthia and Lilus to recover.
Even though #888 kept urging him to hurry and seize the Seed, Lu Chuan wasn’t the least bit anxious.
[Host, there’s only one hour left! If we don’t get the Seed, isn’t this all for nothing?] #888 was baffled—why had Lu Chuan suddenly lost all interest? The Seed was right there, within reach.
“Mm, not interested.” Lu Chuan propped his chin on one hand. “Anyway, even if I don’t take it, the Seed will end up in my hands—if Cang Jiu realizes he made a mistake.”
888 was utterly confused.
[Host, what are you talking about? He’s obviously been using you! Why would he ever apologize? And besides, he’s still in revival—of course he’d want the Seed for himself!]
“But relationships always begin with mutual use.” Lu Chuan thought #888 was too black-and-white. After all, #888 wasn’t human—it didn’t understand the subtleties. “I don’t mind that he uses me. On the contrary, if I had nothing worth his scheming, coveting, or exploiting, he probably would’ve killed me the moment we first met. Likewise, if I hadn’t needed something from him, I could’ve reported him right after Xi Jiangyuan’s dream ended. Compared to me—a not-yet-deified nobody—the God of Desire is a much bigger target for the Main God System.”
That way, the pressure on Lu Chuan would lessen.
But Lu Chuan hadn’t done that. Because between the Main God System and Cang Jiu, he trusted Cang Jiu more.
Besides, this dungeon did contain things Lu Chuan could use. If the two of them started as partners, it could very well be a win-win.
Of course, Cang Jiu had made it clear from the start that he wanted cooperation—he’d just taken advantage of Lu Chuan and his teammates a little in the process.
Sound familiar?
Of course.
Because that was exactly how Lu Chuan had played dungeons before.
Smart people often thought alike. Only fools had “sudden flashes of inspiration.”
[Then why do I feel like you’re a bit angry, Host?] #888 pressed, more confused than ever. If it was just mutual use, shouldn’t Lu Chuan be grabbing the Seed right away to maximize his benefit?
“Because I have emotions. Any relationship built purely on profit can be disrupted once emotions get involved—it clouds judgment.” Lu Chuan’s tone was calm. “I thought we were good friends. So I’m waiting for his final move.”
Cang Jiu would definitely realize Lu Chuan hadn’t taken the Seed.
If he kept it for himself, then Lu Chuan would cut off all personal feelings in the future and treat their relationship as nothing but mutual exploitation.
But if Cang Jiu truly saw him as a friend, then Lu Chuan was willing to give him a chance to make amends.
From their first meeting until now, he and Cang Jiu had known each other for quite a while. They’d cleared nearly as many dungeons together as Shen Li and the others.
Most importantly, Lu Chuan could never reveal his identity as a God of Wealth candidate to Shen Li and the rest, nor tell them that the Main God System might target them because of him.
But Cang Jiu knew all of that.
And in the Main God’s eyes, Cang Jiu was probably an even bigger thorn than he was.
One was a candidate for godhood, the other a reviving god. Their standings weren’t that far apart, and they could continue helping each other.
Although Lu Chuan loved money, when it wasn’t about money, he valued relationships more.
[Host, you’re overthinking this.] #888 was indignant. [Gods and humans are completely different. The God of Desire even more so—his very domain is desire, which means he values it above all else. Just like you love money, he craves desire. He’s still reviving, so there’s no way he’ll reject a Seed you leave behind. Honestly, even if you took it, I’d worry he’d try to steal it from you!]
And now Lu Chuan wasn’t even taking it.
Leaving the Seed unattended meant it was ownerless.
How could the [God of Desire] possibly resist such a prize?
Even among humans, the closest ties—between mother and child, between spouses—were often broken by profit. How much more so for gods, who had no such emotions?
And this was a god who had already been killed once. In the revival stage, gods would do anything to recover.
That was precisely why they were easiest to deal with in this period.
A god in their prime might have many personalities, but in revival, there was always just one goal:
Revival.
“What if, though?” Lu Chuan said casually. “Even if he really doesn’t come, and I don’t get the Seed, I can always find another. If the [Mother of Fertility] could do it, why couldn’t I? Sometimes, I just want to take a gamble.”
Lu Chuan believed Cang Jiu would come.
Even if the other side was the [God of Desire], Lu Chuan trusted his own instincts more.
888 immediately shut itself down, too angry to speak to its host.
It was going to go on a unilateral cold war with its host for three minutes—no, five minutes.
Because in five minutes, the dungeon would officially close.
Cynthia, Lilus, and Shen Li were all quietly waiting for the closure.
Although they too wanted to explore further, the dungeon was now flooded with the divine power scattered during the battle between the [Mother of Fertility] and the [Black Swan]. Strange anomalies filled every corner of the place, and sweeping the area now would be far too dangerous.
On top of that, Cynthia and Lilus—one from overusing amplification, the other from being subjected to it—were both in a state of complete exhaustion. Lu Chuan and Shen Li could not possibly abandon them, so of course they stayed at their side.
After resting for a long while, Lilus finally had the strength to speak. “Hah! The [Mother of Fertility] has been killed again. If she wants to revive, it’ll be decades before she can. Feels good—this guy has been eyeing me and my sister for ages. Such a pest.”
“Oh?” Shen Li grew curious. “She often harasses you two?”
“Of course!” Lilus said angrily. “From the very first day my sister and I became players, she kept sending her followers after us. We ran into them multiple times in dungeons. Later, when we teamed up with Lu Chuan and met many other deities, she realized she couldn’t beat us, so she stopped bothering us. If we hadn’t killed her this time, once she revived, my sister and I would never have had a moment’s peace.”
Lilus and Cynthia, being the only known human–NPC hybrids, were essentially the ultimate products of Mother of Fertility.
If one could devour them and unravel their secrets, it might be possible to advance further. Even better, if beings like them could be mass-produced and made into players, that would mean creating a powerful army capable of resisting the Main God itself. Just imagining the benefits showed why the [Mother of Fertility] had never let them go.
“At first we thought that once we became players ranked on the master-rank Leaderboard, our hunt target would definitely be the [Mother of Fertility],” Lilus rolled his eyes. “If it had been her, my sister and I would absolutely count this time as a successful hunt—our powers and ranking would have shot up immediately.”
“At her level? She got wiped out by just a few of us in one dungeon. The Main God System must have judged that she wasn’t qualified to be a master-rank hunting target. If she were, it would honestly be an insult to our strength as siblings,” Cynthia added coldly.
For someone so young, Cynthia could be downright venomous in her words.
“Exactly.” Lilus always agreed with his sister. “Sigh, Lu Chuan, did you get anything good? Shen Li said your friend promised you five hundred catties of gold? Is that for real? I still haven’t seen him. Don’t tell me he ran off because he couldn’t afford it.”
“He shouldn’t,” Lu Chuan frowned. “Even if he doesn’t apologize, he can’t go back on the promised gold. That’s not right.”
“Tch, what’s ‘not right’ about it? You probably asked too much. At this rate, gold’s going to go extinct because of you. You…” Lilus didn’t finish his words before suddenly collapsing.
Cynthia and Shen Li also fell unconscious.
Ah.
Such a familiar feeling.
Lu Chuan turned his head and saw Cang Jiu.
Golden hair and golden eyes, and that familiar face one couldn’t bear to look away from.
“Why did you suddenly come in your true form?” Lu Chuan felt that this was cheating.
Hadn’t he been using the body of a divine servant before? Why switch to his real body now?
“Because the divine power here is in chaos. With the [Mother of Fertility]’s death, this dungeon will be permanently closed. For me, as an Executor, to come and inspect is perfectly reasonable.” For once, Cang Jiu spoke at length.
“Oh? And then?” Lu Chuan asked.
“This is the gold I promised you.” Cang Jiu tossed him a key. His eyes lowered slightly, his voice tinged with quiet delight. “This is the key to a small dungeon called The Land of Gold. It was once the territory of a Golden Dragon. After the dragon died, its body transformed into countless treasures of gold and silver, while its soul drew countless people to it. I cleared the dungeon. Now it’s yours.”
Lu Chuan sucked in a sharp breath.
He frantically harassed #888, begging it to reboot, stop playing dead.
“Quick, system, scan this key’s dungeon world! Is it really like what Cang Jiu said?” Lu Chuan was trembling with excitement, almost fainting.
If not for Cang Jiu still looking like he had more to say, Lu Chuan would have forgiven him on the spot.
What could he do? The gift was too great.
Never in his life had Lu Chuan imagined that an apology gift could be an entire world of gold.
Could he actually build himself a golden skyscraper inside this dungeon?
Was this really something he could own?
Not even in his wildest dreams had Lu Chuan dared to think like this.
888 was forced open.
Before it could even react, it instinctively followed Lu Chuan’s demand and scanned the key.
[H…hos…host—holy crap, it is a Golden Dragon! That’s one of the incarnations of the God of Wealth’s Seed, the one that loves gold the most!]
888 was shocked. It had long suspected Lu Chuan might somehow be related to a Golden Dragon—otherwise why was he so obsessed with money?
And the greatest trait of Golden Dragons was their love for anything that glittered.
Their lairs and territories were piled with mountains of ingots.
Because of this, they became incarnations of the God of Wealth’s Seed and even made wishes to the God of Wealth.
After death, their corpses also turned into gold, guarding their lairs forever.
But because of that, they were hunted and despised by countless people. Across infinite parallel worlds, Golden Dragons symbolized wealth.
Who could have thought that Cang Jiu would casually hand over a Golden Dragon dungeon—an unclaimed world of a dead Golden Dragon?
#888 thought, It’s over.
With just this golden world, Cang Jiu’s status in Lu Chuan’s heart would skyrocket. The host would never remember a loyal little system like it ever again.
Lu Chuan clutched his chest, afraid his heart would beat its way out.
“System, how much is this worth?” he couldn’t help but ask.
[…Impossible to estimate,] #888 said in despair. [I can’t determine all the gold veins inside the world. But host, this world is infused with vast divine power from the God of Wealth’s authority. If you obtain it, it’s even more useful than the Seed of Mother of Fertility.]
With so much divine power to absorb, who needed a Mother of Fertility Seed?
Lu Chuan could condense his own Seed of Wealth.
Even #888 had to admit, this so-called [God of Desire] really did have something.
An unclaimed world of the God of Wealth’s incarnation—gods must have been fighting tooth and nail over it. And yet it ended up in his hands, and he resisted devouring it?
“Because in this universe there is no God of Wealth. There shouldn’t have been a Golden Dragon either. The Golden Dragon was taken from another world by the Main God System. Originally, one of the bargaining chips between the [God of Exchange] and the Main God System was this dragon.” Cang Jiu answered calmly. “Back then, I was still alive, and I too had my eyes on it.”
When this universe had no God of Wealth, the [God of Exchange] wanted to seize that authority. The [God of Desire] was also capable of doing so. The three authorities could fuse.
Thus, the Golden Dragon became one of the triggers that ignited the conflict between the [God of Desire], the [God of Exchange], and the Main God System.
After Cang Jiu killed the dragon, he thought it was over. Who knew the Main God would repurpose it into a dungeon?
But the dungeon only attracted those tied to the God of Wealth’s authority—such as the [God of Exchange]’s followers, candidates for the God of Wealth, or the [God of Desire]’s believers.
After Cang Jiu became the Executor, by a twist of fate, he stumbled upon it again. Never did he expect that in this thoroughly ruined universe, a new candidate for the God of Wealth would appear.
Logically, all possible candidates should have been exterminated by the Main God.
By gifting this dungeon to Lu Chuan, Cang Jiu had made his stance clear.
The [God of Desire] would no longer overlap with the authority of the God of Wealth, withdrawing completely from that competition.
For a god, this was already the highest form of concession.
But before #888 could explain this profound meaning to Lu Chuan, Lu Chuan had already stepped forward and clasped Cang Jiu’s hand.
“Honestly, I wasn’t that angry. Using me a little is normal. You were killed so thoroughly, with so many gods impersonating your name and causing chaos—you had to be cautious. Next time just give me a heads-up. I already consider you a friend, really.” Lu Chuan’s face bloomed with joy.
Whatever anger he had completely vanished.
Tell me—if you quarreled with a friend, went cold for a while, and then that friend turned around and gave you a mansion, a luxury car, and enough money for ten lifetimes as an apology—would you still stay mad?
The attitude was there, the sincerity was there. Who could guarantee never to make mistakes in their life?
Lu Chuan had already come up with countless excuses for Cang Jiu.
For example—life wasn’t easy for him either, and he was just trying to revive himself.
Besides, he hadn’t really taken advantage of him, had he? All he did was leave a little mark, so what? Back then, Lu Chuan had even taken the initiative to ask Cang Jiu to leave a mark on him. If used at a critical moment, that mark might even save his life.
That was something others begged for but couldn’t get. To fuss about it now would just be petty and immature.
Cang Jiu didn’t understand why, the moment he saw the Seed of Fertility, he instantly realized Lu Chuan was angry. But he quickly made a decision.
He returned in his true form—because he knew that apologizing in person, in his true body, would have double the effect.
He was well aware of the irresistible pull he held over creatures of the universe.
“It’s fine, even if you do this a few more times, I’ll still forgive you,” Lu Chuan said cheerfully. “I—huh? What did you just slip into my hand?”
He broke off mid-sentence when he noticed that, while holding Cang Jiu’s hand, Cang Jiu had secretly slipped him something.
Opening his palm, he found a cluster of shimmering, iridescent light.
Beautiful and dazzling.
Like human desire—ever-shifting, yet always radiating a fatal allure.
And as Cang Jiu let go, the flowing light gradually solidified in Lu Chuan’s hand.
It became a small potted plant, about the size of a succulent.
On top of the pot sat a tiny money tree, no bigger than a pinky finger.
Its trunk was gold.
Its branches were gold.
But its leaves were fine jade.
A golden trunk with jade leaves—materialized right before Lu Chuan’s eyes.
[It’s a money tree! A money tree, Host!] #888 was hit with shock after shock, to the point it felt like robbing the rich, [As expected of the God of Desire, his wealth is overflowing. He even gave you the Seed of Fertility.]
“This… you’re giving this to me too?” Lu Chuan was stunned.
“Mhm.” Cang Jiu nodded.
“Actually, just one thing would’ve been enough.” For once, Lu Chuan felt a little guilty even holding it.
“There is only one golden dragon in this universe. And I only have this one Seed of Fertility.” Cang Jiu looked at him quietly.
So—I only have this one chance to apologize.
