“This plan is feasible. I’ve been wanting to go to the intermediate plane for a long time. Let’s find a mission in the intermediate plane right away,” Xiang Yu suggested.
Hao Jiu decisively rejected the idea, "Ba Wang, don't be silly. The missions in the intermediate planes are quite difficult. Let's accumulate some more experience before taking them on. I have a feeling that the system god will definitely try to trick us again. Look at the kind of opponents we've been fighting in the missions in the lower planes. Even if we're going to the intermediate planes, we shouldn't go to those mission planes. It's best to scout out the enemy situation first to be on the safe side."
"What does the God of Wine mean?" Xiang Yu didn't care, as long as he could go to the intermediate plane. He suggested taking on the mission because he thought he could do it at the same time. After all, according to Hao Jiu's usual style of doing things, time travel was not cheap.
“Don’t we have a ready-made intermediate plane? I’ll send Wu Ning, that free-range hunter, to scout out the situation in that plane. We don’t need to conquer that plane right now; we just need to place the array disk there. And with the Eternal Night Defense, we’re not afraid they’ll discover the spacetime tunnel and run to the Chu-Han plane through it,” Hao Jiu said, revealing his plan.
Xiang Yu nodded slightly. "It is indeed a safe method. As long as we are careful enough, we should be able to place the array plate in that plane without anyone noticing."
"Of course, but we must find a good place first. The cultivation world is extraordinary, and we must not let it be discovered and damaged by a master. I will go and talk to him now."
As Hao Jiu spoke, he turned his attention to Wu Ning. Watching the scene was rather troublesome, requiring full concentration, which was not only mentally taxing but also energy-consuming.
But communicating with just your voice is much easier and doesn't consume energy. You can fill in the visuals with your mind by hearing the sounds. The Shadow System's ears aren't particularly sensitive, but they're sufficient.
"The God of Wine is right." Xiang Yu had heard Hao Jiu talk about how powerful the cultivators were, and how many magical restrictive formations they possessed. Although the array plate wasn't large, the spacetime portal was quite big. It definitely wouldn't work to just dig a cave like in the Chu-Han plane and put it inside.
"Okay, then I'll buy two array plates first. Overlord can handle the setup, that'll save some time." Hao Jiu waved his hand as he spoke, and two array plates appeared in Xiang Yu's hands. "Huh? There's a voice, what's this..."
At this moment, in a room in Wu Ning's dimension, a series of suggestive sounds were emanating intermittently.
"Xiaoli, don't go...do it again...mwah...hehehe..."
Hao Jiu immediately perked up his ears, feeling an urge to open the screen—goodness gracious!
Wow, this is a cultivation world, so open-minded! Wu Ning is only sixteen, right? He's already got a girlfriend, and... you know? But that name sounds a bit like a stage name. Could it be the kind where you pay for it...?
Wu Ning has become corrupt far too quickly. Can we still use someone like him? He seems rather unreliable!
But it's okay, there's a backup plan. Wu Ning isn't the only shadow system in the intermediate plane!
Chapter 346 Wu Ning
At this moment, in a room in the cultivation world where Wu Ning was located, the sound of snoring was loud and intermittent.
"Hoo, hoo... Mmm, Xiaoli, don't go... One more time... Mwah... Hehehe..."
In his sleep, Wu Ning's roommate, Haozi, grabbed Wu Ning's feet and started nibbling on them.
Mwah mwah...
Hmm~ It's all wet and has a rather strong flavor.
Wu Ning glanced at it and then offered his other foot as well. Helping others is the source of happiness, and besides, it would be a bit strange to have only one clean foot, right?
"I'm in a good mood, so I'll give you a good dream tonight. We'll go our separate ways as soon as it's light tomorrow. I'm not learning this medical skill anymore. What a load of crap, an apprenticeship where all you do is chores and gather herbs. You can learn it yourself."
After venturing out of the mountains, Wu Ning tried both kinds of goods in that strange mall.
Last time, he got carried away and helped someone in need, but he got injured. He wanted to use the cheaper blue pills to stop the bleeding, but the situation was critical, and he didn't have time to crush them. Taking them orally was... well, let's not talk about it!
So he gritted his teeth and bought a healing potion that cost fifty energy points each, then swallowed it in one gulp. His injuries healed instantly, and he successfully escaped.
The problem is that the energy value is increasing too slowly. He tried everything but couldn't speed it up. It seems to be a fixed five points a day, and he can only buy one healing potion every ten days. What else can he use it for besides saving his life? Sell it?
If you sell too little, you feel like you're losing money; if you sell too much, who will buy?
Demonstrating the medicine's miraculous healing effect on the spot could prove its value, but he's just a small-time hunter. What if someone covets the elixir and arrests him to interrogate him about its origin? People outside the mountains can be quite cunning.
Even if he could claim that he was the only one who could refine the divine medicine and get away with it, he would probably only be able to eke out a living by providing divine medicine to others, like a hen that lays eggs.
So Wu Ning's first thought was to practice medicine. What if he could save a big shot with his miraculous medicine one day? Wouldn't that make him rich and famous?
But he only knows a few simple herbs, so who would dare to seek his medical help?
So Wu Ning went to the clinic in the city to learn medicine and became an apprentice. His roommate, Haozi, had arrived two months earlier and called himself his senior, but Wu Ning didn't take it personally.
Anyway, Wu Ning only wanted to learn the basics, and then he became famous overnight with his healing medicine, becoming a miraculous doctor who could bring the dead back to life.
However, he found that he had oversimplified things. Medical skills could not be mastered in a short time, and he also realized that his talent for medicine was not very high, and his ambition did not lie in this.
Wu Ning felt that he was more suited to a life of danger and bloodshed, such as joining a martial arts sect or becoming a soldier. With healing medicine, he was not afraid of not getting ahead.
Of course, Wu Ning's greatest desire was to join a cultivation sect. However, along his journey, he learned about many cultivation sects recruiting disciples, but without exception, they were all scams. People outside the mountains were very bad.
Wu Ning originally planned to save up some energy before setting off, enough to buy more healing medicines to save his life if he encountered danger. But in the past two days, something wonderful happened that he had only dreamed of.
His energy level didn't just increase by five points a day, it increased by thirty points a day!
Moreover, based on his observation, the time has been consistently 30 PM for the past two days, which is very stable and unlikely to revert to 5 PM. So what are we waiting for? Let's go out and have some fun!
"I can't wander around aimlessly on my own this time. I need to become the leader of a martial arts sect first. Once I'm in a higher position, it'll be much easier to find a cultivation sect later. Sigh, I should probably get some travel expenses first. What's the point of being a sect leader if I don't have money? If only those energy points could be exchanged for silver, one point would definitely be worth a lot, right?"
Wu Ning sighed. He had already paid the registration fee with his own money. If he had the money, he might not have come to the clinic to become an apprentice.
Just then, Wu Ning suddenly noticed that a new item had appeared on the shop interface: a gold ingot priced at 0.1 energy.
"The God of Wine?!" Wu Ning exclaimed, almost waking the mouse from its sweet dream. Luckily, he covered his mouth in time.
This god of wine is truly elusive. He was only asked a few questions before being tricked into seeking immortality and asking questions, with the promise of success. He was lured out of the mountains, but all he got was being deceived. He didn't even see a trace of an immortal cultivation sect.
After that, the mysterious god of wine ignored him completely. Wu Ning even thought that the god was disappointed in him, which was why he was ignoring him.
In reality, Hao Jiu had no time to care about him. Back then, he had many shadow systems, so he casually threw one into a random spacetime portal, and it automatically found a host and bound itself to this little hunter in the mountains.
The key issue is that Wu Ning's qualifications aren't particularly outstanding, and his mentality doesn't quite resemble that of a protagonist. His only advantage is his luck, which allows him to be bound to the Shadow System.
In addition, if Hao Jiu sends out so many shadow systems and keeps the communication voice on all the time, wouldn't that cause a huge commotion?
Therefore, even Yu Ji's side wouldn't be constantly listening, but Yu Ji has unlimited calling rights, while others can only call in life-or-death situations.
What does "a matter of life and death" mean?
A life-or-death situation can be solved by buying a healing pill; it has to be a truly critical situation. Otherwise, Hao Jiu will go berserk, raising prices or even taking the product off the shelves. There are many ways to punish the host.
Wu Ning had never encountered this situation before, so he didn't dare to use the emergency call function.
But now, the mall has clearly heard his request and immediately listed a gold ingot at such a low price. Dionysus had explained to him that 0.1 means one-tenth of a ten, which is quite cheap.
In the Yue Kingdom, one tael of gold could be exchanged for ten taels of silver, which was equivalent to ten strings of copper coins or ten thousand copper coins. A gold ingot weighed at least one tael, but there were also ingots weighing two, five, or ten taels. I heard that there were even super-large gold ingots weighing fifty or even one hundred taels.
With Wu Ning's current wealth, becoming incredibly rich is no problem. What is money anyway? He earns at least three hundred taels of gold a day!
Hao Jiu had no idea what Wu Ning was thinking. He had just misunderstood Wu Ning, mistaking the strange sound made by others for Wu Ning's. He also heard that Wu Ning was planning to embark on a journey to seek immortality but lacked travel expenses, so he simply added another item to his list of goods.
If Hao Jiu didn't actually have much gold, he would have used this method of accumulating wealth long ago. You can never have too much energy; gold is truly an external thing, and only the mortal world uses this kind of currency.
"Is the god of wine here?" Wu Ning tried buying a gold ingot, and when he weighed it, it really did weigh about an ounce.
“Not bad. Wu Ning, I have a task for you.” Hao Jiu didn’t waste any time and went straight to the point.
“God of Wine, please speak. Wu Ning will do his utmost to complete it,” Wu Ning said earnestly.
"Gather intelligence, find a secluded and forbidden place, preferably a place where even cultivators cannot go. If we can find out who the strongest person in the world is and what their cultivation level is, that would be even better." Hao Jiu's words were astonishing.
Wu Ning blinked. "Hey, God of Wine, this mission is way too difficult! I haven't even seen a glimpse of a celestial being yet. How about you take a look at my mountain? It might not be a dead end, but I know a few hidden spots."
Hao Jiu blushed. "I didn't say I wanted it today. Just follow your plan. Go become the sect leader tomorrow, then annex a few more sects. You'll naturally have the opportunity to come into contact with cultivators. Whether you bribe them with a lot of money or interrogate them, you can get some information."
Wu Ning's lips twitched violently. "Does the God of Wine think I can interrogate a cultivator?"
"Of course! Check out the system shop, there are new items available. After buying them, cultivators below the Foundation Establishment realm will be no match for you. Take action, young man! Completing tasks will bring generous rewards, and dominating the world will be just around the corner!"
Chapter 347 Wenjing Plane
High in the sky, a flash of white light disappeared in an instant.
In the green alternate dimension, Xiang Yu rode his black horse and looked down at the land below. "That's the great river, those are the five lakes, we are indeed in Jiangdong."
"Jiangdong? How did I end up here?" Hao Jiu asked, puzzled. He had chosen Guanzhong as his location because it was the Wenjing world, and the host was most likely either Emperor Wen or Emperor Jing of Han. Of course, he had to investigate Chang'an first.
After assigning Wu Ning his tasks, Hao Jiu and Xiang Yu began their journey through time, clearing out missions in lower-level planes.
Hao Jiu immediately spotted the annihilation system mission from the Wenjing era. The reigns of Wenjing and Emperor Wen were quite famous in history, and it happened to be during the later period of Empress Lü's rule, so he decided to come here first, since he was going to do it anyway.
"The smell of incense is so strong." Xiang Yu twitched his nostrils.
"There are so many people burning incense and making offerings down here. It's truly a peaceful and prosperous time. With so many people burning incense, are there any temples here? Buddhism doesn't seem to have spread to the Central Plains yet, does it? And Taoism doesn't seem to have flourished either..." Hao Jiu was a little confused.
"Then let's go down and take a look." Xiang Yu said, and rode his black horse down. Anyway, it was in another dimension, so he wasn't afraid of being seen.
The further down you go, the stronger the incense smoke becomes. On the high platform, two old men are devoutly burning incense.
"Your Majesty! God of the Azure Banner! Jiangdong is in grave danger. This humble general wishes to once again lead troops to resist the enemy and protect the peace of Jiangdong. I earnestly pray that Your Majesty's spirit in heaven will bless our army to achieve a resounding victory and drive out the barbarians!"
"Put on your armor!" Another old man raised his sword.
In the alternate dimension, Xiang Yu's eyes suddenly lit up, "It's Ji Bu and Ji Xin. Even though they are old, I can still recognize them."
Hao Jiu recognized the two people, but said, "No, the Xiongnu have never attacked Jiangdong in history. Even if the marriage alliance didn't work, the Xiongnu cavalry couldn't possibly have reached this area. Liu Heng isn't that incompetent."
"So that means the target system is with the Xiongnu?" Xiang Yu clenched his fist.
Hao Jiu snorted coldly, "It must be so. After the Xiongnu defeated Liu Ji's army and severely damaged the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty dared not fight the Xiongnu again and pinned its hopes on the policy of marriage alliance. But can the world be stabilized just by marrying princesses to the Xiongnu?"
If the two sides were evenly matched, it might have some effect; otherwise, why would the weaker side stop the stronger one from fighting? What's wrong with marrying off a daughter? Does he really dare to act like a father-in-law? If the Xiongnu had this much sense of propriety and shame, they wouldn't be the Xiongnu.
The so-called peace treaty was nothing more than a fig leaf, meaning "stop fighting, I'll give you whatever you want." Doesn't a princess have to bring a dowry when she marries? Grain, goods, weapons, even slaves and officials—whatever they wanted, they would give them. Only by satisfying the Xiongnu would they not launch a large-scale attack.
It's ridiculous that some people think the Xiongnu didn't know the princess they sent as a bride was a fake. Isn't that just self-deception? Besides, would the Xiongnu even care if the princess was a real princess? As long as she was beautiful and had a large dowry, that was enough.
Even the Han Dynasty itself dared not publicly declare that the fake princess was not the real one. At this point, the fake one became real. Does it really matter whether she has imperial blood or not? Even if she does, what's the use of threatening her with a princess? Besides, there's no need to threaten her; everything that was due has already been given.
Even threatening a real princess wouldn't have worked if the Han emperor didn't want to give. The relative importance of the empire versus family ties was already clear when the decision to form a marriage alliance was made. No matter how much was given to the Xiongnu, the emperor and his ministers would never lack food and clothing.
Therefore, the real beneficiaries of these marriage alliances were not the common people, but the ruling class. These alliances preserved the ruling class's status and comfortable lives; any talk of promoting ethnic integration was utter nonsense.
Xiang Yu snorted coldly, "The policy of marriage alliance is not advisable. Even if we were to make peace, it should be foreign countries that submit to our Central Plains and marry their princesses to us."
"Indeed, there was indeed a resolute emperor in later generations who said something similar and acted accordingly, but unfortunately his descendants were not up to par. Oh, the two old generals Ji are ready and about to set off, they are quite old." Hao Jiu sighed.
"Has Dionysus unlocked the dimensional lock?" Xiang Yu asked.
"It's being opened. This dimension isn't very big. By the time we find the host, it should be sealed off." Hao Jiu now has two dimension locks at his disposal, making things much easier.
"Very well, let's go and see the situation of the Xiongnu army." After saying that, Xiang Yu flew north. He had just spotted a large army preparing to cross the river from high above.
"Hopefully everything goes smoothly and we can find the target system soon. The Xiongnu Chanyu should be quite suspicious. It would be best to kill him with one blow before the dimensional blockade is completed."
Hao Jiu thought that whoever got the system must have already seized the position of Chanyu. After possessing heaven-defying abilities, who would be willing to be subordinate to someone else?