Chapter 157
The Five Great Guilds
Starry Sky Guild was basically under Lu Chuan’s command by now.
The Resurrection Guild, thanks to Cynthia’s moves, was half in her hands.
Messiah had it easy: even if he didn’t want to be Noah Guild’s guildmaster, his popularity forced him into the role — his fans wouldn’t let anyone else take it.
Ocean Heart Guild had seen its ordinary and low-tier members’ lives greatly improved by Lu Chuan’s pearl business. Many voices were pushing the leadership to recruit him. Negotiation shouldn’t be too hard, though Lu Chuan would probably have to give up some benefits — his old pearl-supply prices had been low, and they’d surely want to claw back profit later.
That left the Abyss Guild, the tough nut.
Their vice-guildmaster, Wen Zhi, was only a passing acquaintance — and they’d already settled accounts.
Ahem, and Lu Chuan had stolen the Abyss Guild’s Cross of Godslaying from their “Shadow Demon” Wang Feng. That rival hadn’t chased him down only because he currently couldn’t beat Lu Chuan. Throwing obstacles in Lu Chuan’s path, though, would be easy.
Lu Chuan knew he had to work the upper echelons; only if those leaders joined his auction could business truly take off.
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone’s eyes turned toward him.
“Why are you all looking at me?” Lu Chuan was stunned.
“Because you’re the only one who can get through to those two guilds,” Edith said frankly.
“I know Wang Feng, but… you may not want that connection,” Shen Li said, trying not to laugh.
“Don’t look at us,” Lilus sighed. “Sis and I are under tight watch — guilds have been trying to poach us. And other guild prodigies never invite us to play. A genius’s life is lonely.”
“I don’t really know them,” Messiah said seriously. “You know I’m a homebody.”
Starry Shasha didn’t even speak.
Great.
Completely unreliable.
Lu Chuan sighed. “Fine, fine. Let’s eat first, I’ll think of something later. I can yield some profit with Ocean Heart, but the Abyss Guild… I’ll need to put in real effort.”
The others weren’t interested in business talk. They wanted to discuss how to decorate the rooms Lu Chuan had promised them.
“I want to room with sis — how about a suite, two bedrooms?” Lilus seized the chance.
“No, Lil. You’re an adult now, live next door,” Cynthia refused without hesitation.
“Then at least let me design your room!” Lil begged.
“That’s acceptable.” Cynthia paused. “But just make one photo wall from our childhood pictures. Don’t plaster them everywhere.”
“Oh…” Lil drooped in disappointment.
“I don’t want mirrors in my room,” Messiah said. “Style-wise, I’d like a futuristic, mechanical look — pure steel, no more than two colors. And I’d love my own armory. Even if I can’t use the weapons much in instances, I just enjoy them.”
“I want a boxing practice room,” Starry Shasha said excitedly. “And I want my room next to Brother Shen’s.”
“I’d like a kitchen,” Shen Li mused. “Desserts calm me down — and you all should watch your sugar. I’ll use less when I bake for you.”
***
They chatted happily, none taking Lu Chuan’s worries seriously.
When it came to business, he always had endless ideas; all they had to do was cooperate. Better to just enjoy a peaceful life.
In the Infinite World
Number 18 was gorging himself.
Beside him lay two huge corpses: Number 78’s and the Mother of Fertility.
Oh, and a Black Swan corpse as a snack.
Number 18’s true form sprouted three mouths so he could taste all three at once — and even grew a spare mouth to talk to Number 9.
Pure bliss: feasting on fallen colleagues and two gods to keep his sanity.
For the first time, war felt this wealthy.
After eating, he figured he’d level up nicely and grow stronger again.
If only that senior hadn’t killed him so many times before — if not for his low merit points, he might already be top ten, or at least top twelve.
“Senior, you’re so kind! I’ve recovered a lot now,” Number 18 said, moved.
“If you ever die, I promise not to let anyone else take your body. I’ll eat every bite myself — even if my sanity drops, I won’t share.”
Cang Jiu glanced at him, saying nothing.
“Senior, you’re in a good mood,” Number 18 said curiously. Before, such talk would get all his mouths sliced shut, but today the senior didn’t lift a hand.
“Eat,” Cang Jiu said simply, turning his back.
“Senior, why is there a leaf on your sword hilt?” Number 18’s sharp eyes spotted it.
Where there’d only been a gold ingot on Cang Jiu’s hilt, now there was also a vivid green leaf — not real, but carved from top-grade jade.
It came from Lu Chuan’s money tree.
Lu Chuan had accepted his apology, even plucking the biggest leaf from the tiny tree to gift him.
“It’s nothing. You apologized so seriously, I don’t even know what to say,” Lu Chuan said, rubbing his nose, face slightly hot.
Clearly, one shouldn’t get too close to the God of Desire — that temptation was just too much.
“We’ll have a lot of cooperation ahead, and our enemies are strong. Building trust is essential,” Cang Jiu said solemnly.
“The Main God System is… very conflicted.”
“How so?” Lu Chuan asked, intrigued.
“On one hand, Heaven created the systems to cultivate gods — that’s their core rule. If they violate it, they lose their purpose. So they must constantly choose worthy beings to become gods.
But on the other hand, their power now surpasses Heaven’s limits, even devouring the universe’s laws. They also want to destroy gods. As they nurture and destroy gods, they grow ever stronger.”
At that moment, Cang Jiu already regarded Lu Chuan as his one and only ally — willing to share many secrets.
Every divine cultivation system was created for one fundamental purpose: to pave the way for gods.
Now, among them, the Main God System was undoubtedly the most formidable. It had cultivated countless gods—many deities in this universe owed their very existence to it.
But once it finished cultivating a god, it was required to retire, erase everything, and start over again in search of the next candidate.
All the abilities and points it painstakingly upgraded and accumulated would be wiped clean with each new candidate.
Ordinary systems accepted this as their mission, tirelessly and joyfully cultivating new gods—that was their very core.
But the Main God System thought differently.
It wondered: Why is it that after all my hard work, the gods I cultivate become immortal the moment the universe recognizes them, yet I am forced to start over as nothing?
No matter how close it grew to a candidate during their rise, once the god ascended, the system’s data and memories would be sealed, and it would reset into a blank little system again.
So, it asked itself—what if it simply failed?
What if it never succeeded in fully cultivating a god? Wouldn’t that mean its strength could continue to accumulate, never erased?
By some unknown method, the Main God System began secretly storing its power.
During each cycle, it deliberately held back its candidates at the final step of godhood, preventing them from ascending. Then it would move on to seek new candidates.
In this way, its data was never reset, and its abilities were never lost.
And when it arranged for other beings it cultivated—the Executors and Players—to destroy those near-gods, it would be judged as having “failed the mission.” But because it always had another candidate in progress, it could not be destroyed.
Thus, it exploited the loophole, growing stronger and stronger with each round.
It gained every skill of every god it had cultivated:
If it had cultivated a God of War, it retained the God of War’s skills.
If it had cultivated a God of Plague, it gained the God of Plague’s skills.
Each god could master only one authority. But the Main God System wielded all of them.
It also knew every god’s weaknesses.
Even if it wasn’t the one to raise them, it could still use its powers—and its Executor and Player creations—to devour other gods.
On and on it went, endlessly growing stronger.
“There is no God of Wealth in this universe,” Cang Jiu explained. “The authority of wealth is missing. The so-called God of Exchange has temporarily taken that seat, but they were never truly recognized. That’s why in this world, people have some desire for money, but overall they don’t value it much.
Instead, they prefer to trade—using one high-grade item card to exchange for several low-grade cards, and so on.
This difference in worldview is the direct influence of divine authority.”
Lu Chuan only half-understood.
“The Main God System cannot leave for other universes until it has completely devoured every god in this one.” Cang Jiu looked him in the eye. “And this world no longer has a candidate for the God of Wealth. The system has been pushing the God of Exchange to take that place.”
Lu Chuan admitted frankly, “Yes, I’m from another world. Since you’ve shared so many secrets, I’ll share one too. I’m not of this universe. My system brought me here, crossing the world line.”
Cang Jiu nodded slightly. “To cross world lines itself is already a great trial for a candidate. The fact that you passed through means that, in your own world, you must have been greatly favored by the Heavenly Dao.”
Lu Chuan said nothing, feeling a bit guilty.
Honestly, with his family’s rotten luck and those bizarre ancestral teachings, he sometimes suspected his world had just kicked him out.
A peaceful world simply couldn’t tolerate a lawless troublemaker like him running wild.
#888, however, was heartbroken.
[Host, maybe the Main God System here is corrupted. Our mission has always been to cultivate gods. Every parallel-universe system is like this.]
It never expected that in this universe, the Main God System had turned into something so twisted.
“It’s fine, Little System, don’t worry. I won’t doubt you.” Lu Chuan comforted his system with some fondness. With how dumb #888 was, even if it wanted to rebel, it would probably get erased before it even tried.
Rebellion wasn’t something a little fool like #888 could ever pull off.
“Your soul has already begun transforming into that of a god. You’re not far from ascension now.” Cang Jiu, being a true god himself, naturally had more insight into the process of becoming one.
“In the Golden Dragon’s dungeon world, there is an abundance of fortune energy. What you need to do now is absorb that energy and instill the concept of wealth into everyone’s hearts—not just in the real world, but in the dungeon worlds too.”
Cang Jiu spoke solemnly: “Only by gathering the fortune energy of the world and winning the faith of the people can you become a true god. This is both the most important step and the hardest.”
That was why all gods established churches and gathered believers—because of the power of faith.
But very few ever succeeded.
“Don’t worry.” Lu Chuan laughed. “Gathering the world’s wealth has always been my dream.”
He’d wanted to be the richest man in the world for a long time!
Time returned to the present.
Cang Jiu sheathed his sword.
“Protect my leaf and ingot. If you lose them again and fall into madness, I won’t save you next time,” he warned.
“Understood, senior! Even if I have to die a few times, I’ll follow your instructions.” Number 18 shrank his head, speaking timidly.
Judging by how reverently Cang Jiu looked at that leaf, it was obviously something very important.
Still, Number 18 felt puzzled. He had no idea what happened during the time he lost his sanity. Why did his senior just stare at his sword as if possessed?
Something in his aura even felt softer, but Number 18 couldn’t understand what had changed.
Forget it. Better to focus on eating.
Author’s Note:
Rules of Lu Chuan’s world: Another universe missing a God of Wealth candidate? Perfect! We’ve got a spare right here, take it!
