Chapter 51: The Price of Destiny and the Seed of Jealousy

Yan Wusheng’s fingertips tapped lightly on the counter, producing a crisp sound.

“Three hundred taels, not a single coin less.” Her tone was flat, as if commenting on the pleasant weather. “You’re buying the books, but receiving destiny as a gift. Esteemed guest, you share a profound connection with these particular books.”

Inside, Hu San cursed vehemently, yet forced a grimace uglier than a cry. As a smuggler who lived by the blade, he had no faith in such ethereal concepts as ‘destiny.’ Three hundred taels of silver—that was enough to enjoy a month of entertainment in Qingzhou’s finest pleasure houses!

Yet, the copy of *Strange Tales of Northern Mountains and Rivers* clutched in his arms felt like a searing branding iron, making his heart tremble.

He knew he had no choice but to pay those three hundred taels.

“The shopkeeper is truly… direct and efficient.” Hu San pulled a heavy coin purse from his robes and, with palpable reluctance, counted out thirty silver ingots, stacking them with a clinking sound on the counter. His eye twitched throughout the entire process. “Alright, consider Old Hu out of luck today. Who told me to have such a weakness, huh…”

Yan Wusheng didn’t even glance at the silver. With a mere flick of her delicate hand, she swept all the ingots into the money box beneath the counter.

She picked up her teacup once more, her gaze returning to the window. “Once books are sold, they are non-refundable and non-exchangeable.”

“Esteemed guest, do take care on your way.”

The order to leave was delivered without a hint of politeness.

Hu San felt as if he had received a grand pardon. Clutching those ‘priceless’ tattered books, he practically stumbled and crawled out of the Forget-Worry Bookstore.

It wasn’t until he burst out of the alley and felt the cool evening breeze from the river that Hu San’s heart, which had been pounding wildly with both ecstasy and anguish, finally began to calm.

Three hundred taels, in exchange for immense fortune!

It was worth it.

He shoved *Strange Tales of Northern Mountains and Rivers* deep into his innermost hidden pocket, patted it firmly, then pulled down his hat brim and, looking furtive, blended into the evening crowds of Qingzhou City.

He failed to notice that behind him, a crack opened in the second-floor window of the bookstore.

Yan Wusheng, holding her teacup, quietly watched his hurried retreat, as if observing a rat gleefully scurrying towards a trap with bait in its mouth.

The playful smile on her lips was even colder than the misty rain of Jiangnan.

“The bait has been cast. Now… we shall see if the fish are greedy enough.”

****

Three days later, in the Myriad Demon Kingdom’s imperial capital, Roaring Wind City.

Unlike the human imperial dynasties, with their carved beams, painted pillars, and refined elegance, the demon capital exuded a primal, rugged, and wild beauty. Gigantic beast bones formed the palace pillars, ferocious skulls adorned the eaves, and the air was thick with a unique blend of faint bloodlust and demonic energy.

Crown Prince Yuanchao’s ‘Raging Axe Palace’ pushed this style to its extreme.

At the palace gates, two colossal axes, ten zhang tall, stood crossed. Dark red bloodstains, remnants from human cultivators slain in the last war, still clung to their blades. Inside the hall, walls were covered with bizarre weapons and complete, flayed beast hides, each piece representing a bloody conquest.

At this moment, the master of the palace, Yuanchao, sat impatiently on a throne carved from the skull of a saber-toothed demonic tiger.

He was tall and burly, his black chainmail armor accentuating his explosive musculature. Unconcealed ambition and savagery burned in his golden vertical pupils.

“Useless! A bunch of good-for-nothings!”

He kicked over the bronze cauldron brimming with bloody meat in front of him. Scalding chunks of meat and broth splattered across the floor, terrifying the several rabbit-demon maids standing by, who dared not even breathe.

“Father Emperor is once again in seclusion, comprehending that nonsensical bloodline divine ability! And those old geezers at court constantly fawn over that little slut Yuange, prattling about her Golden Crow bloodline, the future hope of the Myriad Demon Kingdom… Hmph!”

Yuanchao grew increasingly furious with each word. He slammed his fist onto the armrest of the throne; the tiger bone armrest, hard as iron, shattered instantly into dust.

“I am the Crown Prince! I’ve shed more blood for the demon kingdom than she’s ever drunk water! Why?! Just because of that faint, almost imperceptible Golden Crow bloodline of hers?”

His voice echoed through the vast hall, filled with resentment and jealousy.

This jealousy had gnawed at his heart like a venomous snake since he could remember. No matter how valiant he proved himself, no matter how many military achievements he amassed, in the eyes of his Father Emperor and the old ministers, he always seemed to fall short of his sister, who merely indulged in ‘hunting games.’

Bloodline, bloodline! Always this cursed bloodline!

Just as Yuanchao’s rage was about to erupt completely, a personal guard stumbled in.

“Your Highness! Hu San… Hu San from Qingzhou City, has returned! He claims to have an urgent, world-shaking report!”

“Hu San?” Yuanchao frowned. His spy planted deep within human territory? Returning at this time, could something have gone wrong?

“Tell him to get in here!”

Soon, the travel-worn Hu San was led in. The moment he saw Yuanchao, he dropped to his knees with a thud, holding a tattered book high in his hands.

“Your Highness, I have not failed my mission. This humble one… this humble one has brought back a monumental opportunity for you!” Hu San’s voice was hoarse with excitement, his body trembling slightly.

“Opportunity?” Yuanchao scoffed disdainfully, not even glancing at the worn book. “What kind of opportunity could you bring back? Have you found a few more human beauties, or perhaps procured a few more jars of human strong liquor?”

“No! Not at all!” Hu San broke into a desperate sweat, hastily explaining, “Your Highness, it’s… it’s the Three Lives Stone! It’s the whereabouts of a fragment of the Three Lives Stone!”

“What did you say?!”

Yuanchao abruptly rose from his throne, his towering figure instantly casting a colossal shadow. A terrifying demonic pressure, like a collapsing mountain, bore down on Hu San.

“Say that again!”

Hu San was nearly suffocated by the pressure. He used all his strength to flip the book to the page where a map was tucked, and stammered, “Your Highness, please look! It’s the Ten Thousand Beast Spirit Mountain! The legendary other fragment of the demon race’s Three Lives Stone is located within the Earthfire Lava Cave of the Ten Thousand Beast Spirit Mountain!”

Yuanchao flashed, instantly appearing before Hu San, and snatched the book. Ancient demonic script, precise mountain ranges and ley lines, even the dwelling points of various fierce beasts were clearly marked.

This… this couldn’t be faked!

The Three Lives Stone.

That was an innate spiritual treasure comparable to a national treasure.

If… if he could obtain this fragment and refine it, what terrifying increase in power would he gain? By then, all that talk of the Golden Crow bloodline would be a joke in the face of his absolute strength.

His Father Emperor’s throne, the entire Myriad Demon Kingdom, would be his for the taking.

“Haha… Hahahahaha!”

Unrestrained, mad laughter erupted within the Raging Axe Palace, shaking the entire structure with its reverberations.

“Heaven helps me! Heaven truly helps me!” Yuanchao roared to the sky, greedy and mad light bursting from his golden vertical pupils.

He stared at the map, reading line by line. “Requires the heart blood of a ‘Purest Vitality Body’ as a guide.” Yuanchao paused, then a cruel sneer spread across his lips.

“Purest Vitality Body… heart blood…”

He remembered.

The intelligence that had come from the northern front recently—didn’t it say that that slut Yuange was confronting both immortal cultivators and mortal generals for an unknown human woman?

It was said that the human woman possessed a strange aura that made all living things feel affinity for her.

So that was it!

So that was it!!

Yuanchao instantly ‘understood’ everything.

“Good… good indeed, my dear sister.” He growled through gritted teeth. “I wondered why she was so eager to rush to the northern front. So she had already discovered this secret. She wants to cut me out, cut out the entire demon kingdom, and secretly claim this supreme treasure for herself!”

“That damned human is the ‘key’ she found.”