Chapter 180: Chapter 180

Ao Lie took Sha Chen’s hand, his eyes brimming with unshed tears.

"Brother, you’ve really been having a rough time lately, hardly getting enough to eat. I’m afraid your cultivation has fallen far behind mine."

"Use these resources for now. When your little brother returns, I’ll fetch some more to share with you. I definitely won’t let you suffer here."

Ao Lie spoke with passionate emotion, unable to bear the thought of Sha Chen’s suffering.

Sha Chen was also somewhat moved. This kid is too easy to deceive.

However, he wouldn’t just freeload off Ao Lie’s resources. The True Dragon Body Forging Technique alone was enough to benefit Ao Lie for a lifetime.

"By the way, Brother, I have a sister, Ao Mengmeng. Has she been here?" Ao Lie suddenly brought up his sister, the Dragon Girl Ao Mengmeng.

Sha Chen said, "She has been here, and we got along very well."

Ao Lie was stunned, then said in astonishment, "Brother, you got along well with her? She’s just a mischievous girl, even more unbearable than I am, and extremely arrogant. How could you stand her?"

Sha Chen nodded and said, "It was okay. At first, she was indeed quite arrogant, but later on, we got along very well."

Ao Lie naturally believed him. After all, if he, being so troublesome, could get along so well with Sha Chen, then it was expected that his sister Ao Mengmeng could too. Although also willful, she wasn’t malicious.

But still, he was concerned and said, "Brother, my sister didn’t cause you any trouble, did she?"

But Sha Chen just laughed and said, "Far from it; she has actually been a great help to me."

He had now arranged for her to sell elixirs, which was naturally a great help. He had told her not to cause trouble, and so far, there had been none. She was doing much better than Tianpeng.

Sha Chen was very satisfied.

"She really didn’t cause trouble but helped instead?" Ao Lie said. "Impossible! She is trouble incarnate."

No sooner had he spoken than a knock came from outside.

Sha Chen frowned. It hadn’t been long since Ao Lie arrived, and already another visitor was here.

He scanned with his divine sight, and his expression turned strange.

He laughed and said, "Speak of the devil! Your sister Ao Mengmeng is outside. It seems she has made some gains over the years."

Ao Lie, however, wasn’t surprised. Instead, he frowned and asked, "Who is Cao Cao?"

Sha Chen said, "Never mind that detail."

Then he went to inquire personally. After making sure it was indeed the Dragon Girl Ao Mengmeng herself outside and that there were no strangers, he let her in.

The Dragon Girl still looked as valiant as ever, and she seemed even more confident than before, her aura considerably stronger.

"General, it’s so good to see you again!" she exclaimed, throwing herself into Sha Chen’s arms after coming in. "I thought I might never see you again in this lifetime!"

Ao Lie watched from the side, utterly horrified. HISS.

Is this still my domineering, haughty cousin Ao Mengmeng!? She flung herself into Sha Chen’s arms like a little bird clinging to a person, just like a damsel!

Sha Chen pushed the Dragon Girl away. "Why have you come back?" he asked. "And your aura is unstable. Are you injured?"

Tears instantly streamed down the Dragon Girl’s face like a kite with a broken string. "General, I am indeed injured," she said, "I’m sorry for worrying you."

Sha Chen was suspicious. "I sent you to sell elixirs, not to perform on stage," he said. "How did you get injured?"

Then, concerned, he asked, "Could it be that the elixirs were stolen?"

"No," the Dragon Girl said, shaking her head. "While the Dragon Clan is weak, we’re not so insignificant that just anyone can provoke us."

Sha Chen nodded. That was a relief.

The Dragon Girl said, "It’s because I was selling Immortal Pills along the way. Some people were interested and even haggled, which I agreed to. But then they reneged, tried to haggle even more, or just didn’t appreciate what they were being offered and refused to buy, so I took action."

Sha Chen’s face twitched. That’s basically strong-arming the sale, yet she speaks as if she’s the aggrieved party! Googlᴇ search Nove1Fire.net

"I couldn’t indulge such people," the Dragon Girl continued, "so I made them pay up and buy the Immortal Pills. But they were dissatisfied with the price and refused outright, so I fought them."

Sha Chen held his forehead. I regret praising her in front of Ao Lie. She really doesn’t take praise well. I had just said she was sensible and better than Tianpeng, but it turns out she’s even more whimsical and more of a troublemaker than Tianpeng. Strong-arming a sale is one thing, but to then resort to violence over price dissatisfaction...

"Fighting is one thing," Sha Chen said, "but why didn’t you run away? Why come back here?"

"I fought and killed them, then came back here to take refuge," the Dragon Girl said. "General, I paid my rent, and I hadn’t used it all up."

Sha Chen’s face twitched. She still has the cheek to argue semantics. Can overdue rent still count? No. That’s not the point. The point is that she killed them, which means she’s bringing trouble my way!

"It’s one thing if they don’t buy, especially if there’s no prior enmity," Sha Chen said. "I sent you to sell Immortal Pills honestly. Why did you kill anyone?"

"General, you’re misunderstanding me," the Dragon Girl said. "I didn’t kill people; I killed monsters. Humans can’t even afford Immortal Pills."

Sha Chen sighed deeply. The point isn’t whether they were humans or monsters, okay!? It’s that you killed them, which has caused me trouble!

Sha Chen was weary and didn’t want to dwell on it. "Alright, what’s done is done. You killed them. And since you were injured in the fight and wiped them out, at least there’s no lingering threat from them."

Only then did the Dragon Girl look somewhat embarrassed. "General," she said, "there is still a lingering threat. The ones I fought and killed were from minor powers, but they have backers. It was one of their backers who injured me."

Sha Chen fell silent. Then he said, "I think you’d be safer marrying Lord Wu Qu Xing. Go bother him, please, just leave me out of it."

The Dragon Girl seemed to realize she had caused trouble. "General, I’m sorry for worrying you," she said meekly. "I’ll return all the resources I took from them and ask for their forgiveness."

Sha Chen’s ears perked up. "What resources?" he asked.

The Dragon Girl brought out several Qiankun Bags. "I destroyed a few monster lairs and took their resources," she said. "I realized I had wronged them—they truly were poor and couldn’t afford our expensive Immortal Pills."

"But since it’s come to this, I’ve kept their resources with me for safekeeping. If you don’t want them, General, I’ll return them to their backers."

Sha Chen opened a bag and immediately gasped. HISS.

"This is even more than what Ao Lie sent! Are you sure you only raided a few monster lairs? Not dozens of them?"

Sha Chen’s eyes bulged. The haul Ao Mengmeng brought back was comparable to the resources he had consumed when he broke through to the Daluo Golden Immortal Realm.

Keep in mind, that was the accumulation of over a decade, plus the substantial resources Tianpeng had brought back. It could truly be described as a mountain of wealth. And the Dragon Girl has brought back just as much!

He immediately said, "Alright, since you’ve brought them back, why would we return them?"

Then he pocketed the goods. He then took one of the Qiankun Bags from the plunder and poured out half of its contents for himself. From the remaining plunder, he set aside a third, added several hundred stalks of Immortal Elixir to it, and reluctantly tossed this share to the Dragon Girl.

"You worked hard raiding those lairs," he said generously. "You deserve a share. These are for you."

"No need," the Dragon Girl replied. "I already kept half for myself."

Sha Chen paused for a moment before taking back the offered share, feeling somewhat less enthusiastic now.

Are wealthy, beautiful women all this shrewd and hard to deceive these days?

Ao Mengmeng then took out more bags. "General," she said, "these are the proceeds from selling the Immortal Pills. This is my share, already divided. And this is your share."

Sha Chen took them and, looking inside, was startled again.

It was three times the amount of resources she had just shown him from the raids, enough for his cultivation to reach the Middle Level of the Daluo Golden Immortal Realm and for his Da Luo Dharmakaya to advance further.

Sha Chen gasped. "I remember the Immortal Pills I gave you to sell weren’t worth even a tenth of this. How did you gain so much?"

"Oh, I sold them on battlefields," the Dragon Girl explained. "The greater and lesser monsters there were facing life-or-death situations. If they didn’t buy, they’d die, so they were willing to pay ten times the price."

Sha Chen was shocked. Selling elixirs on a battlefield is like selling weapons during a war—it’s bound to be incredibly profitable! I hadn’t expected the Dragon Girl to be so astute.

However, he was puzzled. Where were all these battlefields, and how did the Dragon Girl just happen to find them?

Looking carefully at the Dragon Girl, Something feels off.

The Dragon Girl cleared her throat. "General, don’t look at me like that," she said. "To be honest, I might have instigated some conflicts between lairs, getting them to fight and create chaos and casualties. Otherwise, how could I have sold anything?"

Makes sense. But that’s still despicable.

Sha Chen felt this should be condemned. "Don’t do that again," he said.

"Alright," the Dragon Girl answered nonchalantly.

Then Sha Chen remembered to ask, "By the way, who is the powerful backer of these monsters you’ve angered?"

"I heard people call him the Nine-spirit Yuan Saint," the Dragon Girl replied.

Sha Chen exclaimed, "You mean the Nine-spirit Yuan Saint? Are you sure it’s not the Nine-headed Saint from Luanshi Island?"

"Yes, it’s the Nine-spirit Yuan Saint," the Dragon Girl said earnestly. "He was apparently quite famous during the Divine Enthronement but later vanished from public sight."

Sha Chen’s cheeks twitched. He didn’t disappear; Lord Taichi Juku subdued him and turned him into a mount. The Nine-spirit Yuan Saint was already incredibly formidable. Having also expended his Divine Enthronement karma, he’s probably a Daluo Golden Immortal by now, and likely not a low-level one either. Provoking such a figure is indeed a massive problem.

"General, don’t worry," the Dragon Girl said. "He doesn’t know I came here."

Sha Chen chuckled. "I find that hard to believe. There’s no such thing as a perfect secret."

The Dragon Girl knew she had caused trouble and was somewhat afraid of being punished. She quickly tried to change the subject, looking around. Noticing someone else present, she was taken aback and became a bit wary.

It turned out that the stunned onlooker was her cousin, Ao Lie.

"Third Cousin Ao Lie, what are you doing here?" the Dragon Girl asked. "Shouldn’t you be dead in the abyss?"

Ao Lie’s face darkened. "Ao Mengmeng, watch your mouth!" he retorted. "We’re cousins; do you really wish I were dead that much?"

"We are cousins," the Dragon Girl chuckled. "Besides, you might even have been adopted."

Ao Lie’s face turned ashen. He stood up and said, "Brother, you still say she hasn’t caused you trouble? Isn’t she a huge problem right now?"

"Brother, I’ve wronged you," he added. "I originally thought that if she behaved, since the heavenly marriage was ruined anyway, I’d have her stay by your side to look after you. I would have been relieved then. But now it seems she’s unworthy."

The Dragon Girl’s face flushed. She hastily grabbed Ao Lie’s hand and cooed, "Third Brother, my dearest brother, I know I was wrong. Please don’t be angry."

Ao Lie shook off her hand. "Don’t touch me," he said. "We’re not full-blooded siblings."

"I heard my father say," the Dragon Girl countered, "that on a dark and stormy night, he found two children in the snow. He and his brother—your father, Ao Lie—each took one..."