Chapter 120: Losing Face for Grandma

“Grow!”

At Little Fatty Gu’s command, the five two-meter-tall statues standing at the five points of his private estate suddenly blazed with silver radiance. Under the gaze of countless onlookers, they shot upward, rising more than thirty meters in an instant.

No matter where they stood within the estate, every cultivator could see the five statues of Lord Xiu presiding over their respective positions simply by lifting their heads. They were conspicuous to an almost absurd degree.

Meng Jieli, Kong Jie, and the others from the Misty Sect could not help smiling with delight, each of them taking immense pride in having such a Young Sect Master.

Who else throughout the Southern Region would dare to beat more than a hundred famous disciples of the Asura Residence, from its youngest heirs to its long-renowned elders, with such complete impunity—and remain righteous from beginning to end, handling the aftermath without leaving himself the slightest cause for concern?

Every spectator from the various factions was inwardly shaken. This was nothing less than a blatant slap in the face of the Asura Residence—a direct attack on their very dignity.

What a brilliant use of their own spear against their own shield.

Without exception, everyone immediately produced a communication jade slip and sent word back to their respective factions, reporting the battle and Little Fatty Gu’s shamelessly ingenious maneuver.

The Asura Residence disciples who had been thoroughly beaten, along with Elder Xiu Qun, were all so cowed by Little Fatty Gu’s action that they dared not utter a word.

Yet in their hearts, they cursed him for his shamelessness. Although he had been the one to act—and had done so in full view of the public—the force that had actually battered their bodies had undeniably come from the statue artifacts of their own lord. In a sense, it was their own lord who had struck them.

Who would dare resist?

If they resisted again and provoked that troublesome brat into using their own lord’s statues to beat them a second time, who would they even be able to complain to?

“I, Gu Changqing, may be young and of little influence, but I absolutely will not permit anyone to slander Lord Xiu!”

“Lord Xiu is the lord of the entire Southern Region, not merely the lord of you people!”

“How dare you invoke the name of the senior we all revere while behaving with such contempt for everyone else? Your shamelessness is truly beyond compare!”

“If you had done this elsewhere, perhaps I would not have seen it. But today, before the eyes of the entire world, you have sullied the senior’s name and ruined his reputation. If there is ever a next time, I will pursue you no matter how far away you flee!”

After delivering that righteous speech, Little Fatty Gu had practically transformed into a divine preacher. His expression and tone were so impeccable that no one could find the slightest fault with them. Even he himself nearly believed what he was saying.

Among the countless spectators, only a few were familiar with his shameless nature. Thus, the vast majority truly took his eloquent performance at face value.

Until—

Countless people suddenly widened their eyes and dropped their jaws. They saw that Young Sect Master Gu, apparently exhausted from speaking, sweep up Elder Xiu Qun’s storage pouch and those belonging to more than a hundred Asura Residence disciples as swiftly as a gale scattering fallen leaves.

His eyes gleamed with avarice as he began counting the money right there in public.

He even declared, with a perfectly straight face, that if the immensely revered Lord Xiu himself had been present, he would certainly have ordered the troublemakers under his command to compensate Little Fatty Gu several times over for the losses they had caused.

Several breaths later, under the gaze of everyone present, Little Fatty Gu reluctantly and painfully handed the goods from one of the storage pouches to Meng Jieli, stating that it was compensation for the restaurant’s losses.

As for the enormous quantities of resources inside all the remaining storage pouches, he transferred every last one of them into his own possession.

Everyone stared in stunned admiration as he spread his little mouth into a crescent-shaped grin and candidly announced that these were the Asura Residence’s compensation for his mental anguish.

He then pretended to be magnanimous and returned more than a hundred storage pouches that had been completely emptied to the Asura Residence.

“Everyone, if you have nothing better to do, you are all welcome to come to my Misty Restaurant for a drink.”

“Today, Manager Meng is treating everyone. All guests receive twenty percent off their bill.”

“And Elder Xiu, please do me the honor of bringing these outstanding young talents from your esteemed residence inside for a meal. Out of respect for the noble virtue of your senior lord, I will give you fifty percent off.”

“Oh, and Manager Meng, remember that they may sign one promissory note.”

“This young master has other matters to attend to, so I shall take my leave first.”

……

The restaurant was packed to overflowing.

Little Fatty Gu slipped away.

The members of the Asura Residence clutched their heads, mechanically shoveling down a few bites of the dishes and wine before fleeing. They had lost every shred of dignity imaginable.

Before long, all of the Southern Region was talking about Little Fatty Gu’s remarkable feat.

The Asura Residence, having suffered in silence, made no sound at all. Lord Xiu was furious with humiliation, yet for a long time he could not bring himself to issue any order of retaliation.

As a result, anyone throughout the Southern Region who feared getting into one conflict or another with the Asura Residence began enshrining statues of Lord Xiu. Some were large, some small, and some were even carried on their persons.

After all, very few people throughout the Southern Region had truly seen Lord Xiu’s face. The various high-ranking figures, meanwhile, were too proud to do such a thing themselves. Consequently, countless cultivators flocked to Little Fatty Gu’s private estate.

They studied the appearance of the statue he had erected and copied it.

Some went even further. Numerous shops belonging to various factions offered exorbitant prices to hire Little Fatty Gu to personally refine statues for them.

For the next month, the Misty Sect’s Artifact Refining Pavilion gained a new and highly profitable business: refining artifacts for their Young Sect Master. Every item produced was a statue of Lord Xiu, with gold, wood, water, fire, and earth varieties all available.

However, this booming business lasted only a little over a month.

After that, the Asura Residence took over the trade and began refining and selling the statues themselves.

Meanwhile, within the Asura Residence—

The lord of the Asura Residence, Xiu Binggan, was in a furious rage. With a single command, he sent their External Affairs Elder, Xiu Qun, to the Forbidden Heaven Prison Grounds in the rear mountains to face the wall and reflect on his mistakes.

The more than one hundred disciples who had caused trouble were likewise punished by the enraged Lord Xiu. He ordered them to remain within the residence for half a year. During that period, any of them who failed to advance by at least one minor realm would spend the rest of their lives obediently awaiting old age within the residence.

The aloof Supreme Grand Elder Nangong Hongbo watched the entire affair unfold, his wrinkled old face filled with satisfaction.

He sighed inwardly for a long while.

How fortunate the Misty Sect was to have a child like this.

In the main peak’s council hall of the Misty Sect, Sect Master Nangong Kang received a message from the stationed elder, Kong Jie. He burst into loud laughter, repeatedly exclaiming how satisfying it was.

As the saying goes, good news stays inside the house, while bad news travels a thousand miles.

Over the following days, people with ulterior motives fanned the flames until the events of that day spread throughout the entire Wind God Continent.

The Asura Residence had lost face before the whole continent.

The name Gu Changqing once again entered the field of vision of the upper echelons of every major faction.

The people of the Heavenly Manor were all stirred to great excitement.

The Nascent Soul assassins of the Southern Region’s Killing Tower were all left with lingering fears.

As a result, Little Fatty Gu’s name was forcefully raised to fifth place on the Killing Tower’s assassination ranking, placing him alongside the names of Divine Transformation experts. The entire world was shaken.

At the same time, as the Puppet Sect’s branches in the various regions began dispatching large numbers of troops to the Southern Region, genuine high-level assassins from the Central Region also started moving south.

For someone so young to already possess the ability to stir the winds and clouds of the world, there was only Little Fatty Gu.

……

The Southern Region, having obtained the fewest land steles across the continent, was the first to initiate the Hundred Sects Disciple Tournament. The other regions would also begin similar large-scale evaluations within the coming month.

After returning to his residence for two days, Little Fatty Gu left with Bai Linger, both of them wearing masks.

Not far from his private estate stood more than a hundred land steles in dense ranks.

Countless young prodigies had gathered there—not only from the Southern Region, but also many who had come from other regions after hearing of the event.

Even numerous middle-aged cultivators, and even elders of the older generation, were moving busily from one land stele to the next.

Some were men, some women; some revealed their true faces, while others concealed themselves behind masks.

The principle that many hands make light work applied just as well in the cultivation world.

By then, more than thirty land steles had already been lit by one cultivator or another.

Whenever someone illuminated a land stele and its radiance flared into the sky, countless people would shower that person with admiration, surround them in conversation, and discuss them excitedly.

Who were they? Whose disciple were they? How old were they? Were they married? Could they be bribed into changing allegiance?

There was no end to such speculation.

Fortunately, the ancient cultivation inheritances within the land steles all came with restrictions. They could not be obtained through external means. Otherwise, no one would have been able to withstand the slaughter that would inevitably arise from killing others to seize their inheritances.

As the person who had once illuminated every land stele, Little Fatty Gu now relied on Old Man Qin’s power to conceal all of his aura. Bai Linger also did her best to obscure portions of his heavenly destiny. He did not want to cause unnecessary commotion and expose his identity the moment he arrived.

Besides, even if he himself was not particularly concerned about the techniques on the land steles, his Sister Linger needed them.

Once they arrived, the two separated and acted independently.

Before long, Bai Linger successfully gained the recognition of one land stele, and it lit up.

Amid the envy and excited discussion of countless people, Bai Linger immersed her mind within it and began committing the technique to memory and studying it.

As for Little Fatty Gu, he began with the nearest land stele, illuminating it and memorizing the technique within.

What good stuff, he secretly marveled.

Then, amid the astonishment of the surrounding crowd, he vanished in a flash. Moments later, he appeared before another land stele far away and illuminated it once more.

As he moved back and forth, his mask changed more than a dozen times. In order to keep the commotion to a minimum, he also changed his clothes repeatedly, appearing in blue, white, purple, and other colors.

By evening, Little Fatty Gu had obtained a total of twenty ancient cultivation techniques or battle arts.

He later tried imprinting them onto jade slips, but every attempt failed.

It seemed that only the person who obtained an inheritance was qualified to cultivate it. There was no way to pass it on to others.

After the two returned, Bai Linger hurried back to her room without delay.

Lost in thought, Little Fatty Gu returned to his own chamber. He was extremely curious about the origin of these land steles, what materials had been used to make them, and who had forged them.

Even Little Fatty Gu, who had mighty experts at his side, was repeatedly astonished by the techniques upon them.

Not one of the twenty techniques he had obtained was below the Heavenly Rank.

One had to understand that, in the present Wind God Continent, any faction capable of possessing even one or two Heavenly Rank techniques was among the very strongest forces on the continent.

For ordinary second- or third-rate factions, or even those beneath them, a single low-rank technique was enough to trigger a major war.

Spirit-Seeking Finger, Meridian-Seeking Formula, Five-Element Suppression Art, Chaos Body Tempering, Heaven-and-Earth Sensory Art, Illusory Promise Spatial Dao…

As a pure lover of wealth, Little Fatty Gu could not help lamenting what a pity it was.

They were all Heavenly Rank techniques. If only he could reproduce them for sale or auction, he would become richer than the entire continent.

Of course, it was precisely because this was nothing more than a fantasy that he found it so regretful and maddeningly wasteful.

Even Old Man Qin within the stone pendant could not help being shaken by the sheer extravagance of the land-stele inheritances.

Even if these techniques had appeared ten thousand years ago, in Old Man Qin’s own era, any one of them would have been enough to establish a sect and preserve its foundations for a thousand years.

And if several hundred or even a thousand techniques of such rank were gathered into a single collection…

Even Old Man Qin did not dare continue that line of thought.

It truly was an age of great turmoil. The inheritances of the land steles alone were enough to reveal the magnitude of the era in its entirety.

Putting away all his strange notions, Little Fatty Gu selectively sat down cross-legged and began cultivating with his eyes closed.

The first technique he chose was the Illusory Promise Spatial Dao.

It was an unparalleled cultivation art capable of completely transforming one’s understanding of the power of space.

…