Chapter 2043, Token Translator: Silavin & Ashish Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys When Yang Kai returned to Maplewood City, the sky was already dark. He walked into the city with ease and went straight to his secluded home. He opened the secluded home barrier and walked right in. Before he could take two steps though, he heard a cheerful voice call out, “Sir, you’re back!” Yang Kai couldn’t help but freeze in shock for a moment, but after turning to see who it was, he finally remembered that another person was living here now: The little girl from the Zhang Family, Zhang Ruo Xi! Yang Kai had spent most of his life travelling alone, so now that someone was suddenly accompanying him, he was having a hard time adapting. Furthermore, he had been busy with Liu Yan these few days, so he had almost forgotten about Zhang Ruo Xi. After regaining his wits, Yang Kai gently nodded to her. “Sir has been working hard these days,” Zhang Ruo Xi lowered her head and said in a low voice. Her voice was so small that, had the secluded home not been extremely quiet, Yang Kai might not have heard her. Yang Kai took a careful look at her and discovered that she looked a little nervous, her two hands pinching her clothes as she fidgeted slightly. “Master, who is this little girl? She seems to be afraid of you,” Liu Yan’s voice rang in Yang Kai’s head as she continued in a teasing tone, “Her strength doesn’t seem too high... Master wouldn’t happen to have kidnapped her, would you? But... en, this little girl is pretty good, she has quite a nice figure for her age, tsk tsk...” Before Liu Yan could continue any further, Yang Kai directly threw her into the Sealed World Bead and cut off contact with her. Inside the Small Sealed World, Liu Yan stood stunned for a moment before snorting, “A guilty conscience makes a man become a coward!” After having said this, she searched for the location of the Sun’s True Essence before transforming into her Firebird form and flying over to it, preparing to absorb more of its Sun’s True Fire to strengthen herself. Inside the secluded home, Yang Kai looked at Zhang Ruo Xi nervously fidgetting and asked, “Have you been waiting here?” Had she not been waiting here, it would have been impossible for her to appear the moment he entered the secluded home. “No! Ruo Xi just happened to be walking nearby,” Zhang Ruo Xi replied, lowering her head. Obviously, Yang Kai didn’t believe her, but looking around and seeing that the secluded home had been cleaned up spotlessly, he couldn’t help smiling and saying, “Sit down, I have something to tell you.” Zhang Ruo Xi hurriedly waved her hands and respectfully rejected, “No need Sir, Ruo Xi will continue standing.” Yang Kai heaved a sigh, reached out, and pulled her stiff body over to a chair before pushing her into it, making her sit, and only then walking around the table to sit on the opposite side. After sorting out his thoughts, Yang Kai spoke, “Ruo Xi... I can call you Ruo Xi, right?” Zhang Ruo Xi slowly nodded her head without speaking a word. Yang Kai smiled and tried to speak in as gentle a tone as possible, “If you don’t want to speak, that’s fine. It’s like this, I brought you out of the Zhang Family not to make you repay me, nor because I want you to serve me. The connection between the Zhang Family and myself was all because of the agreement I made with your great grandfather, Zhang Gao Xuan. So, now that that agreement has been fulfilled, neither the Zhang Family nor I owe each other anything.” “Ruo Xi will always remember the great benevolence Sir has shown to the Zhang Family and will surely repay Sir in this life!” Zhang Ruo Xi stated in a soft voice, but firm, unyielding tone. Yang Kai nodded and said, “If that is what you wish. En, now I want to tell you the reason I brought you out from the Zhang Family is that I might need your help with something in the future.” Zhang Ruo Xi still had her head lowered as she stated, “Ruo Xi will surely work hard to fulfil Sir’s orders and expectations. Since Sir has brought me out of the Zhang Family, I am no longer a member of the Zhang Family, so whatever Sir needs of me, I will do it, as long as it makes Sir happy.” Yang Kai rubbed his forehead, feeling like he was talking to a brick wall, making him extremely helpless. In the end, he could only say, “I don’t know how else to explain this to you. In any case, you don’t need to address me as Sir, nor do you need to think of yourself as a servant or maid. I’m not much older than you, so just call me Big Brother Yang from now on.” “How could that be acceptable!” Zhan Ruo Xi raised her head and waved her hands frantically. When she found that Yang Kai was looking at her though, she quickly lowered her head and said, “That is absolutely impossible, Ruo Xi cannot be so rude to Sir!” “You blockhead...” Yang Kai was exasperated. Zhang Ruo Xi appeared to be in a state of nervous panic, thinking that Yang Kai was angry with her, so she quickly got up in order to kneel down. Yang Kai saw her intent and swiftly reached out to make her sit back down. “Forget it, I won’t pester you about these things; however, now that you will be staying by my side and I will be in need of your help in the future, I will not treat you badly. First, take this.” Saying so, Yang Kai took out a jade bottle from his Space Ring, opened it, and took out a single pill with Pill Veins. “What’s this?” Zhang Ruo Xi curiously gazed at the pill. “Poison! Do you dare to take it?” Yang Kai said in a serious manner. Once he spoke those words though, he realized he had suddenly reverted to some bad habits he’d picked up over the years and felt somewhat disgusted with himself. Zhang Ruo Xi, on the other hand, just stated with a smile on her face, “Sir is lying to me.” Yang Kai looked a little embarrassed but didn’t try to justify himself, instead just saying, “Take this thing and go find yourself a room to cultivate in. I’m going out for a few days, so just stay here obediently and don’t go running around.” “Is Sir going out again?” Zhang Ruo raised her head, looking at Yang Kai as she pursed her lips and asked, “Should Rou Xi accompany you?” “No need, just take care of yourself,” Yang Kai got up and smiled before heading straight to the room he usually cultivated in. After Yang Kai left, Zhang Ruo Xi checked the pill again, but even after examining it for a while, she was still unable to find anything special about it. Bringing it close, she sniffed it lightly, only to have her nose filled with a rich fragrance that caused her beautiful eyes to brighten. Heaven knows what crossed her mind at that moment, but after her face turned slightly red, she popped the pill into her mouth and swallowed. Just as the pill entered her stomach, it immediately melted into a stream of heat that rushed out towards every nook and corner of her body. Zhang Ruo Xi’s expression changed when she felt this and, not daring to act careless, she hurriedly rushed toward the smallest bedroom in the secluded home, sat down cross-legged, and started circulating her Secret Art. Naturally, the pill she had taken was the Marrow Washing Pill that Yang Kai had spent several hundred thousand Source Crystals to buy. With the help of this pill, Zhang Ruo Xi’s aptitude would fully blossom and the time she required to cultivate to the Origin King Realm would be greatly reduced. She was quite young, but she still had some worldly knowledge, so she understood that a pill with Pill Veins was unimaginably valuable. Perhaps the Zhang Family couldn’t even buy such a pill if they sold out all of its assets. Naturally, she was very grateful for Yang Kai’s generosity. Inside Yang Kai’s room, after he confirmed that Zhang Ruo Xi had taken the Marrow Washing Pill and entered a meditative state, he activated all the barriers in his room to seal it off. Next, he took out nearly ten Space Rings and began to sort out his harvest. After half an hour, Yang Kai happily looked at the haul lying in front of him. From these ten Space Rings, he had acquired over 8 million Source Crystals alone, almost 6 million of which had belonged to Han Leng. After giving it a thought, Yang Kai didn’t find this surprising. At the auction, Han Leng had bid about 6 million when he was competing with Ning Yuan Cheng for Liu Yan, so him not having this many Source Crystals would have been more surprising. Yang Kai was simply ecstatic after obtaining so many Source Crystals. He had toiled so hard yet he could only gather a million Source Crystals over the past few months, and during the auction, he had spent a couple hundred thousand to buy that Washing Marrow Pill. Now though, he actually had over 8 million. By the looks of it, Yang Kai wouldn’t need to worry about Source Crystals for a long time. Naturally, there were many pills as well, but these pills were of no use to Yang Kai. As an Alchemist, he didn’t even put these low-grade pills in his eyes. At best, they could be sold for some Source Crystals. There were many artifacts as well. Besides the flying ship that was lying in his Sealed World Bead, Yang Kai had harvested three other Dao Source Grade artifacts. One of them was the long sword that Han Leng had used before, and even though it was just Dao Source Grade Low-Rank, it still satisfied Yang Kai greatly. The other one was an Artifact Armour that Ning Yuan Cheng possessed, refined from some material Yang Kai couldn’t identify. This was similarly a Dao Source Grade Low-Rank artifact, but because it was a defensive artifact, its value was naturally much higher than the long sword. The third and final artifact was, naturally, the Black Jade Furnace which had just been bought by Han Leng at the auction, a genuine Dao Source Grade Mid-Rank Alchemy Furnace. It had many interesting functions and Han Leng had spent a huge sum to win it, but it had now landed in Yang Kai’s hands basically for free. Besides these three Dao Source Grade artifacts, there was also an assortment of Origin King Grade artifacts. Finally, there were some materials such as herbs for Alchemy and ores for Artifact Refining that Yang Kai neatly sorted. What caught Yang Kai’s attention the most out of everything though was a small token. [If I remember it correctly, this should have come from Han Leng’s Space Ring.] The token wasn’t very big, only about the size of a palm, and seemed to be made of some kind of golden metal. Engraved on the front side of this token was a distinct and lifelike True Dragon while on its back was the ancient character for ‘Dragon’, engraved in majestic and imposing calligraphy. Yang Kai released his Divine Sense and also used his Qi power to carefully inspect this token, but soon realized he couldn’t distinguish what material it was refined from. Searching through the information he possessed, he also couldn’t recall anything about such a token. However, since it was kept inside the Space Ring of a master like Han Leng, the origin of this token was probably quite extraordinary. Yang Kai decisively threw it into the Sealed World Bead and decided to study it slowly in the future. After storing away the pills and artifacts, Yang Kai released his Divine Sense to check up on Zhang Ruo Xi who was using the Marrow Washing Pill to improve her physique. After confirming that everything was proceeding smoothly, he slowly stood up. After half a day, in the black market of Maplewood City, Yang Kai managed to clean out his inventory. The black market of Maplewood City was never short of items of less than reputable origin, and buyers here never asked any questions, so although he needed to sell them cheaper than he would in official stores, Yang Kai also didn’t need to worry about security or secrecy. Yang Kai also didn’t sell everything in just one store, but went around to several different locations to launder his goods. During the entire process, he had disguised himself and used his Divine Sense to shield his appearance, so presumably, with the level of cultivators in Maplewood City, no one was able to see his true appearance. After Yang Kai returned from the black market, the number of Source Crystals in his hand had already crossed the ten million mark, making him suddenly feel like a rich man.