Chapter 982: Chapter 399 - The Treacherous Businessman, Xuan Ziwen?

Xuan Ziwen, who was sitting inside a self-driving fort, was looking much better now. It was very difficult to estimate the price of a hundred-thousand-year soul ring. Furthermore, this hundred-thousand-year soul ring was destroyed by his energy-piercing ion ray, which was equivalent to a natural death. Anyone could absorb this soul ring. It was invaluable!

The Tang Sect had sacrificed a lot this time to deal with the beast wave. This thing was like a reward for them. It was good if the disciples were able to obtain some rewards.

Only a few minutes passed before all the All-Terrain Self-Driving Forts returned on their own. They scaled the city walls with their long legs as if they were walking on flat ground. Shi Xing was wide-eyed in shock as he witnessed this.

This is too strong. Not only is their offensive strength terrifying, but their adaptation to all types of terrain is, too…

Shi Xing’s eyes turned slightly red. He suddenly turned around to look at Xian Lin’er before swallowing hard.

Xian Lin’er composed herself. “Shi Xing, what do you want?”

“Yes, Shi Xing. What do you want? Are you harboring any ideas about my wife?” The tall, burly, and bald Qian Duoduo had arrived at the top of the city wall, and quickly walked towards Xian Lin’er. He was nervous as he looked at Shi Xing.

Shi Xing’s lips twisted a little and he thought to himself, Only you can handle this Martial Goddess. Of course he didn’t dare to say that out loud. “Dean Xian, Dean Qian, don’t misunderstand.”

Qian Duoduo snapped, “Look at how red your face is! You look like you’re going to orgasm! How can I not misunderstand? Stand there and don’t move. Tell me whatever you need to.”

Shi Xing almost spat blood out and snapped, “Don’t worry, I won’t snatch your wife from you! Deans, I want this All-Terrain Self-Driving Fort! No matter what it costs, the Shrek City Defense Army needs to be fully equipped! We’ll take whatever there is. It’s best if everyone has one! If that’s possible, we won’t be afraid of this Beast Wave, and I’d even dare to attack the Great Star Dou Forest itself!”

Xian Lin’er was amused. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist it. However, I’m sorry to disappoint you. Do you think it’s easy to get ahold of something like this? You’ve already witnessed how strong it is. It’s costly to manufacture one of these. Overall, all the self-driving forts, apart from Teacher Xuan’s own Class 8 soul tool, are all Class 6 soul tools. They are defensively weak, but their offensive strength and mobility are extremely great. Their manufacturing cost is…”

Shi Xing turned pale after Xian Lin’er muttered a number.

“So expensive? However, this is really good stuff! It’s fine even if not everyone is equipped with one of it. Give me five hundred of them first.” Shi Xing grit his teeth as he spoke. After all, Shrek City’s Defense Army was in charge of protecting Shrek City. They couldn’t skimp on their equipment!

A war was the best way to test whether they were well-equipped. What had happened earlier tempted Shi Xing to own one of these All-Terrain Self-Driving Forts.

Xian Lin’er replied, “We don’t even have five hundred of them. We ordered one hundred from the Tang Sect. These are all that we have. Currently, the Tang Sect has manufactured sixty-one of them, and they’ve already used up a large amount of rare metals. We haven’t even paid them!”

“They were the ones who paid for the rare metals. Furthermore, you’ve also seen how many stationary soul cannon shells the Tang Sect took out this time. Who knows how many of them will be left over once this war is over? Do you think the Academy has so much money to give them? Let’s not even talk about ordering another batch of these soul tools!”

“This…” Shi Xing was a little depressed. Yes! The Tang Sect had sacrificed a lot. Even if they didn’t ask for any rewards, they should at least recoup the costs that they had incurred. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to survive, much less grow. This fight would also drain the Academy greatly. However, the All-Terrain Self-Driving Forts were simply too attractive to him. Instantly, the Time Douluo was stuck in a dilemma.

At this point, Xuan Ziwen left his self-driving fort and came over in front of all of them.

“Mission accomplished.” Xuan Ziwen said as he tossed and caught a red soul bone in his hands. This soul bone seemed to be an arm bone, but which arm it came from was unknown.

Xian Lin’er and Qian Duoduo’s eyes turned red when they saw this soul bone. It was a hundred-thousand-year soul bone that carried two soul skills!

A hundred-thousand-year soul ring and bone were considered the most valuable treasures in the world of soul masters right now. There wasn’t any way of putting a value on such a soul ring and soul bone.

Xuan Ziwen looked at them and said, “If the Academy puts out a suitable price or is willing to exchange rare metals with a similar value for them, we won’t mind selling them.”

The Tang Sect was the one who had provided all the resources and manpower in the earlier fight. Xuan Ziwen wasn’t going to give away this soul ring and soul bone. They definitely belonged to the Tang Sect.

Xian Lin’er laughed bitterly. “Alright, Teacher Xuan. You can keep it. We can’t afford them. Let’s talk about the rest after we survive this beast wave.”

“Hallmaster.” At this point, the disciples from the Tang Sect’s Soul Tool Hall all exited their Self-Driving Forts and quickly gathered around Xuan Ziwen.

Xian Lin’er saw that they were each holding some weird equipment that wasn’t very large.

Xuan Ziwen smiled and said, “We collected some soul rings without any owners. Most of them are thousand-year or ten-thousand-year soul rings. I wonder if anyone from the Academy or the Shrek City Defense Army needs them.”

“Soul rings without owners?” Shi Xing’s eyes opened wide again.

Xuan Ziwen nodded and said, “The soul tools that are used to kill soul beasts can be specially processed to alter their internal structures, which removes the aura of a soul master and makes any soul rings produced ownerless. We used soul ring storage tools to keep them, and we can provide them to any soul master who wants to absorb them.”

“Yes! I want all of them. We can negotiate the price.” Shi Xing was completely decisive. He immediately expressed his wish in front of Xuan Ziwen before Xian Lin’er and Qian Duoduo managed to do so.

Yes! Of course he wanted all of them. They were all either thousand- or ten-thousand-year soul rings. He had witnessed how many of these soul rings the Tang Sect had collected earlier.

Thousand-year soul rings were already considered very good for the outer courtyard disciples of Shrek Academy. Ten-thousand-year soul rings were even more valuable!

The Academy didn’t have too high of a demand for these soul rings. After all, the students were encouraged to obtain their soul rings quickly when their cultivations reached a bottleneck during the semester.

However, things weren’t that simple in the Shrek City Defense Army!

There were more than three thousand soul masters in Shrek City’s Defense Army. Most of them had either graduated or were eliminated from Shrek Academy’s outer courtyard. They remained in the city and joined the Defense Army to earn some experience. Out of these three thousand soul masters, there were many whose cultivations had reached a bottleneck. They were all born in Shrek City, and they were quite proud. As their cultivation gradually grew, they weren’t too anxious to obtain soul rings. If there weren’t any suitable soul rings, they wouldn’t easily absorb one.

However, Xuan Ziwen had collected countless soul rings this time, and they were even all either thousand or ten-thousand-year soul rings! They were considered great things by the soul masters of Shrek City’s Defense Army! Shi Xing wouldn’t be the one to foot the bill for all these soul rings, though.

How expensive were Shrek Academy’s tuition fees? Those who were able to study in Shrek Academy were well-to-do. Many of them were even disciples of sects. Of course they had to pay for the soul rings if they wanted them.

Xuan Ziwen nodded and said, “No problem. Later I’ll get my disciples to find out the number of soul rings that we’ve collected. After that, I’ll need you to send some people to differentiate between the types of soul rings that we have, which will make it more convenient for your soul masters to absorb them. As for the price of these soul rings, I’m sure Shrek Academy will offer us a reasonable amount. It’s fine even if your soul masters can’t pay up immediately. We just need to record their names in a register. I only have one request – I hope that the Academy can help us monitor the payments for these soul rings. We are also willing to exchange these soul rings for rare metals if you have them.”

Profiteer!, Shi Xing cursed silently in his heart. Even Xian Lin’er couldn’t help but shake her head silently.

Xuan Ziwen seemed like a generous person, but he wasn’t going to give any concessions. The Tang Sect had just forced a beast wave back. Under such circumstances, would Shrek Academy really dock the number of soul rings they’d collected? Definitely not! As for the prices of the soul rings, would Shrek Academy dare to quote the Tang Sect a low price? At least they had to be reasonable, and offer prices recognized by the world of soul masters. These prices were based on the standard set by those who specially led people out to hunt soul beasts for soul rings. They were definitely not low.

Different soul rings were priced differently. It depended on how many soul rings they had collected.

Money-wise, Xuan Ziwen passed the problem to Shrek Academy. Weren’t they trying to enhance the strength of the City Defense Army? If the soul masters paid for the soul rings on their own, they would find it very difficult to gather so much money at once. However, they just needed to sign a guarantee, and Shrek Academy would be their guarantor. If the money couldn’t be claimed in the end, the Tang Sect could just find Shrek Academy instead of Shrek City’s Defense Army.

Was he really a soul engineer, and not a businessman?

Xian Lin’er, Qian Duoduo and Shi Xing all had this thought in their mind. Even so, this was still a good thing for Shrek. After fusing with these soul rings, the strength of Shrek City’s Defense Army was bound to increase. At this critical moment, increasing one’s abilities would help one in his own survival!

Their opinion of Xuan Ziwen might become even more drastic if they found out that the soul ring storage tools could only preserve the soul rings for a short period of time!

However, no matter what, the beast wave had been pushed back temporarily.

Xuan Ziwen allowed some of the Soul Tool Hall disciples to follow Shi Xing to calculate the number of soul rings that they had collected. He himself didn’t leave, but asked Xian Lin’er, “Dean Xian, what do you think about our All-Terrain Self-Driving Forts?”

Xian Lin’er smiled and replied, “Of course they’re great! Didn’t you see how red the Time Douluo’s eyes were? That first cannon strike of yours played a very critical role. Otherwise, the carpet attacks might not have been able to stop the soul beasts from charging over, even though they are strong. Most importantly, they were frightened by your first attack.”

Xuan Ziwen laughed bitterly. “Do you know what price we had to pay for that first cannon strike?” He intentionally lowered his voice as he spoke. While he was very immersed in his work on soul tools, he wasn’t a senseless person.

Xian Lin’er quietly stepped forward and asked, “What do you mean?”

Xuan Ziwen answered, “That strike was an energy-piercing ion ray that I invented. It causes high energy compression, and my Self-Driving Fort is the core of it. My Self-Driving Fort is actually a  Class 8 energy-compression, auxiliary-type soul tool! The main cannons that the rest used are piercing cannons that have already been compressed. I used energy ions to integrate them before firing and performing short-term control.

“I only developed this because I’m a Class 8 soul engineer who’s captivated by the strength of Class 9 soul tools. You also witnessed how strong it was; its destructive strength is even slightly stronger than most ordinary Class 9 soul tools. It’s even comparable to the Starsky Douluo’s Sunmoon Divine Needle. However, it can’t compare to the Sunmoon Divine Needle in terms of the effective range of its attack.”

Xian Lin’er said, “It’s already very great! Are there any flaws?”

Xuan Ziwen nodded and laughed bitterly, “Yes, its flaw is that it drains too much soul power. To compress and prevent the compressed soul power from exploding, more soul power has to be drained. That strike just now completely used up the soul power in one hundred and twenty Class 6 Sealed Milk Bottles. The soul rays that were fired to suppress the soul beasts on the ground were actually powered by the students from the Academy’s Soul Engineering Department and my disciples from the Tang Sect’s Soul Tool Hall. They were only able to maintain their attack for fifteen minutes, which means that our attacks would have ended if the enemies didn’t retreat within fifteen minutes. We’ll need to change all of those Milk Bottles. Right now, we have less than two hundred Sealed Milk Bottles left, so we’ll only be able to last for another two hours.”

Xian Lin’er was shocked after hearing Xuan Ziwen’s words. One attack used up all the soul power in a hundred and twenty Class 6 Sealed Milk Bottles? The total soul power in a hundred and twenty Class 6 Sealed Milk Bottles was even greater than the soul power an Ultimate Douluo had. While that attack was ferocious, it wasn’t as strong as an all-out strike by an Ultimate Douluo.

Xuan Ziwen was telling her that the attack earlier couldn’t be replicated again. The price to pay was too great.

After taking a deep breath, Xian Lin’er gazed deeply at Xuan Ziwen as she said, “Teacher Xuan, you’ve already done very well. With this deterrence, I believe it’ll be a lot longer before the next attack arrives.”

Xuan Ziwen nodded and said, “I thought of that, too. Let’s recover our soul power as quickly as possible, and hope the beasts take a longer rest. This will give us time to charge our Sealed Milk Bottles.”

“Hopefully!” Xian Lin’er laughed bitterly.