Chapter 767: The Successful Underdog (2 in 1)

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

“Hurry up and tell me more. Let me know what else there is to admire!” Sharmie couldn’t wait to hear more about the team.

Wang Zhong looked at his Skylink. Napier and Mo Ling still hadn’t replied to him, so it seemed unlikely that they would come. While ordering their meal, he introduced some basic information about the team.

“This team is quite interesting. It’s very suitable for us newcomers. We get to enjoy freedom and benefits!” The more Sharmie listened, the happier she was. She didn’t think that such an exploration team existed in the Holy Land. What a generous team!

“I’ve heard of the guy Oscar before. He used to be in Imperial Court, and he was a squad captain there. He earned quite a fair bit there, but he got into a conflict with the higher-ups of Imperial Court, so he withdrew from that team and created his own.” Laura was a walking encyclopedia of things related to the Holy City now. Of course, now that she was exposed to more stuff, it was natural for her to have a better knowledge of what was happening.

“Imperial Court? The team that ranked second on the exploration-team ranking chart?” Sharmie’s eyes turned as round as saucers. Anyone who had ties to the top 10 exploration teams was extraordinary, and furthermore, this guy was related to the team that was second in rank. She felt like she had been dreaming the whole day; this was so unrealistic. How could such a strong team only have nine people? The team captain went solo despite having the chance to be a squad captain in one of the top 10 exploration teams? What’s more amazing was that he could still survive there after offending the higher-ups of Imperial Court. “I can’t wait to see our team captain!”

“He’s a handsome bald guy.”

“…Have the trends changed now? Bald guys are handsome?” Sharmie was not impressed. She looked at the table full of dishes she couldn’t recognize. “Well, I was worried that you couldn’t pay for this previously, but since you seem to be doing well, it should be no problem for you. I heard that you have to pay in Holy Coins here, so I guess this table would probably cost 20 or 30 Holy Coins!”

Wang Zhong didn’t order anything expensive since he was still far from being rich. However, this ordinary spread of delicacies was enough to satisfy everyone. Although these dishes were fairly common, the ingredients used were different, and the food combinations were specially formulated by the gourmets. The taste and feeling were so good that they felt recharged.

Nonetheless, Sharmie clearly underestimated the price of the dishes here. To newcomers, Holy Coins were incredibly hard to earn, and it was hard to believe that they would use it on food. Everyone knew that Wang Zhong took up a taste-testing job, and though it paid well, it was at the expense of his health.

It cost a hefty sum to dine there, and Laura had earned quite a bit from going on two missions with her brother’s exploration team, so she found an excuse to sneak out and pay the bill secretly. However, though Laura was considered fairly rich, she was taken aback once she saw the bill. This meal cost 433 Holy Coins, a far cry from the 40 or 50 Holy Coins she thought it would cost.

Merely one meal was so expensive; this was crazy! Laura flipped through the menu and went back to the booth with a pale face. She didn’t have so much money at hand. She stared at Wang Zhong with doubtful eyes.

Wang Zhong wouldn’t come here without knowing how much the meal would cost. This meal cost more than 400 Holy Coins, he couldn’t possibly earn so much from being a taste-tester…

Laura was only relieved upon seeing Wang Zhong’s calm face when he paid the bill. This guy clearly didn’t lack money. Previously, she heard that he earned money from an exploration team mission. Based on the rumors these past few days of how the Wanderlust Team managed to conquer an S-rank secret realm, the mission reward should include a large sum of Holy Coins. She thought that Wang Zhong wouldn’t be able to receive a share of the rewards since he was a newcomer, but it seemed that what he said earlier was true. The Wanderlust Team didn’t have any policies that discriminated against newcomers.

It was just that… This was too luxurious! How much money did the Wanderlust Team earn from this mission? This made Laura a little envious even.

Sharmie and the others had no trouble joining the Wanderlust Team since Wang Zhong had consulted Oscar beforehand. Oscar and the others even organized a welcome party specifically for the three newcomers, which of course resulted in the three of them getting too drunk to go home by themselves, Grai especially. Nevertheless, they were very satisfied as the Wanderlust Team was becoming more famous in the Holy City. This led Sharmie to be extremely thrilled.

Conquering an S-rank secret realm was a hot potato that even the top 10 exploration teams wouldn’t dare to accept easily. Any S-rank related stuff was basically out of the Holy Disciples’ league. After a secret realm was confirmed to be S rank, it would be dealt with personally by teachers or even Great Teachers in the Holy City. After all, S rank meant that there were Heavenly Soul experts. A Dimensional Exploration team could gather as many people as they wanted, but it would make no difference in front of a Heavenly Soul expert.

How did that Wanderlust Team manage to conquer such an abnormally dangerous secret realm with merely nine people?

Frankly speaking, most people didn’t believe it when they heard it. They thought that the Wanderlust Team had falsely reported the rank of the secret realm, but this had been certified by the Dimensional Hostel, stunning everyone who was keeping tabs on this matter. They could only conclude that the Wanderlust Team had a stroke of luck and stole the credit from someone else. Perhaps when they went to that secret realm, it was already conquered by an unknown expert who didn’t belong to any Dimensional Exploration teams in the Holy City, so there was no record of it.

If that was the case, that was very fearless of them. It would be fine if the unknown expert didn’t belong to the Holy City, but if that secret realm was conquered by a Great Teacher, it would be a very serious matter to steal their credit.

For some time, many people ridiculed them and couldn’t wait to see how things would unfold. However, more than two weeks passed and no Great Teachers stood up and accused the Wanderlust Team of stealing their credit.

Thus, everyone slowly accepted this reality. While being jealous of the Wanderlust Team, they had to sigh in admiration too. Notwithstanding whether they conquered it on their own or stole another person’s credit, they couldn’t even conquer one if they wanted to. They would have gone weak at the knees upon hearing about the existence of an S-rank realm, and they wouldn’t have dared to enter it at all. At the end of the day, the Wanderlust Team only succeeded after paying such a huge price, as half of their people were injured or dead.

After that, there was another piece of breaking news. That good-for-nothing newcomer Wang Zhong, who got beaten up when he first arrived at the Holy City, suddenly became the vice-captain of the Wanderlust Team. Also, the Wanderlust Team recruited new people… a bunch of newcomer Holy Apprentices. Were they so desperate that they couldn’t recruit better people?

This was really…

It appeared that even if they were in luck, the team wouldn’t benefit much because of their headstrong leader Oscar. Most people would try to curry favor with the top exploration teams while they were still popular or at least recruit some experts; however, he willfully decided to recruit Holy Apprentices instead. What use was a Holy Apprentice?

Also, Wang Zhong was the underdog in the Holy Land, there was nothing much he could do!

Even if the underdog was successful, he would always be a dog!

Several people were waiting to witness the Wanderlust Team make a joke out of themselves and see how far this unconventional team would go. It was said that based on how they liked to partake in risky adventures, the whole team would eventually be annihilated.

……

Cultivation in the Holy City was considered to be boring and monotonous by most, especially first-year students. Newcomers spent most of their time in lessons and would go to the library occasionally. It was a very straightforward timetable which was also tedious and boring. However, Wang Zhong was an exception. Other than the Tempering lessons that he majored in, he rarely attended other lessons at the Tyrants. In addition, there were very few Tempering lessons, only about once or twice a week, mainly because there were only four newcomers who joined the Tempering Faculty. Nevertheless, there were benefits to having fewer people in the class. The main lecturer was Teacher Bobo, a middle-aged guy with glasses. When he was in a good mood, he would answer some questions from his four students, something that had never happened in other courses.

The Tempering Method and Cellular Cosmology were considered related to a certain extent. Although the overall concept of Tempering didn’t go as in-depth as Cellular Cosmology, both were about fulfilling your own potential in essence, so there were many identical concepts. The only regretful thing was that Teacher Bobo wouldn’t answer Wang Zhong’s questions. It was not that he had anything against Wang Zhong. On the contrary, Teacher Bobo was quite fond of Wang Zhong. Whenever he taught anything in lessons, Wang Zhong would always be the first to understand. He was a quick-thinker with fast reactions, and he had good comprehension skills too. But the issue was what this fella practiced…

Cellular Cosmology, the infamously useless book in the Tyrants.

Teacher Bobo had evidently read that book before, as almost everyone in the Tyrants read it before. Frankly speaking, even Sacred Teachers from the Tyrants who were proficient in anatomy could hardly pick out any theoretical mistakes in that book. It was feasible in theory but close to impossible in reality. The Micro Mirror was merely an insignificant start. If you cultivated according to this theoretically correct book, the resources required nearer to the end of the book were exceedingly hard to acquire; even Sacred Teachers might not be able to do so. It was also because of this that the creator of this book could only preach this in theory and use some supplementary means to prove some theoretical parts, but no one had ever cultivated successfully according to this.

The reason why it was placed in the Tyrants’ library free of charge was because it was more of a reference book with theoretical knowledge. At the same time, it taught its readers not to be over-ambitious.

In the beginning, Teacher Bobo tried to persuade Wang Zhong. There were only four students in this batch and he naturally wanted to see the most outstanding student advance on the right path. However, Wang Zhong completely ignored his feedback and didn’t even bother to give him any verbal promise. After a few times of the same thing happening, Teacher Bobo was not as passionate toward Wang Zhong as before. After all, rotten wood cannot be carved.

Wang Zhong continued doing things his own way. When there were Tempering lessons, he would attend to learn some fundamental knowledge, mainly to understand the human anatomy and the atomic structure of Soul Power. When he had no lessons, he was busy assembling the materials needed to make a Micro Mirror.

He originally thought that he could resolve this issue with a little money, but he was in big trouble now. He already obtained the other materials through various means. Oscar and Feng were a big help in this matter as they helped him obtain quite a few rare main materials. The problem now was the Glazed Crystal Glass. He had been asking around at alchemy stores since the first day he decided to assemble the materials, but until now, half a month had passed and no one had gotten back to him.

Wang Zhong had already taken the initiative to quote a higher price. The market price of a Glazed Crystal Glass was around 200 Holy Coins, so he offered 400 Holy Coins and still, no one took him up on his offer. The most helpful offer was from the alchemy store at the west end of the city. The owner put him at the top of the waiting list since he quoted such a high price, but Wang Zhong would still have to wait for around 3 to 4 months, which he couldn’t accept. The owner was rather helpless too. He could sense that this customer was very sincere, and he too wanted this business deal, but some things couldn’t be solved with just money in the Holy City. Two big shots had already made reservations, and the delivery time was fixed long ago. He wouldn’t dare to offend them.

There had to be another way!

If he couldn’t buy it, he could only make it himself. However, with Simba who only knew how to pay lip service, both of them failed miserably. One had high ambition but no real ability; the other was a complete novice. They were doing things the wrong way. The only thing they had in common was their confidence that came out of nowhere.

Wang Zhong was about to leave after purchasing the materials in the alchemy store when he suddenly heard a familiar voice in the hallway. “Boss, do you have a Reverie Bell?”

It was Napier’s voice. Wang Zhong turned to find Napier and Mo Ling there. Both of them looked more haggard compared to when they met at the Dimensional Hostel. Napier seemed rather sheepish when asking the question.

“700 Holy Coins, no negotiations.”

Napier and Mo Ling glanced at each other, the disappointment on their faces evident. Napier nodded. “Sorry for disturbing.”

The boss rolled his eyes at them. He had seen plenty of such people, Holy Apprentices who wanted to purchase such high-end materials. He could tell that they didn’t have the money from his sheepish voice. “Goodbye,” he said lazily.

The two of them came and left in a hurry, walking out of the store briskly.

Previously, Wang Zhong heard from Grai that Napier didn’t seem to be doing well recently. He was rather worried, but he was very busy during this period of time, and also, he couldn’t reach them via Skylink. Furthermore, Grai said that Napier and Mo Ling didn’t go to the Sparta Clan to attend lessons and that their whereabouts were unknown. This time, it was a coincidence that he saw them, and he was just about to say hello when both of them left. Wang Zhong hurried after them.

Napier and Mo Ling were having a pretty bad time recently, not entirely because of the Dimensional Hostel incident where they offended the vice-captain of the New Holy War Team for Wang Zhong, but also because these two were prideful people. Although the New Holy War Team offered decent benefits, they did not respect them at all. Exploration teams created by the 10 Great Families were all like that: there was a strict hierarchy, and everything was based on your rank. To put it simply, they had to suck up to their seniors, which clearly wasn’t their strength. They would offend people easily when they got serious sometimes. Without Mo Wen helping them, they didn’t have much of a future here.

However, their decision to withdraw from the team was still too hasty. They thought that they were the most important descendants of the Mo Family now, and there would be other arrangements for them even if they withdrew. They were just too naive to think so. In the Holy Land, there were talented people everywhere. The people here did not have any emotional ties to them, and there was only one way they dealt with those who didn’t listen to them, which was to oppress them.

The Reverie Bell that he wanted was a necessity for his soul cultivation journey. It served as an essential protection for when he wanted to break through to the Middle Phase Heroic Soul Stage. Before they came here, they had already inquired at other alchemy stores. Seven hundred Holy Coins was the lowest price they were offered, but even then, their combined assets were a far cry from that price.

Napier actually felt a tinge of regret, but it was not for himself. His breakthrough process wasn’t urgent and could wait. Anyway, second-class apprentices had a monthly income of 100 Holy Coins, so it would take at most half a year for him to save enough money. However, this would hinder Mo Ling. For Napier to make progress first, Mo Ling sacrificed himself and made no progress in his cultivation journey.