Chapter 106: Sealing the Deal; Greetings, Your Majesty, the Queen
She chided him with coldness and force, “Didn’t you hear what I said?”
“I did.” There were no fluctuations in w.a.n.g Hu’s voice. “You should take a seat. I’ll help you with the recuperation.”
Di Baijun’s brows were locked into a deep frown, and she felt as if her punch had landed on cotton. That lukewarm and awfully stubborn and forceful demeanor of his made her feel terribly uncomfortable, and it greatly displeased her.
Forcing herself to calm down, she barked, “The most important thing right now is our safety. Calm down a little.”
w.a.n.g Hu stared at her for two seconds, his gaze throwing her into an even bigger panic. Then, majestic golden divine power surged out, instantly taking control of her movements.
“Hey, you jerk! You’re a dumba.s.s!”
Fl.u.s.tered and exasperated, Di Baijun couldn’t help but even somewhat lose control of her facial expression.
w.a.n.g Hu calmly walked onto the stone chaise lounge and got into a cross-legged sitting position. After making Silly Girl sit in front of him as well, he reached out both arms and started to help her with her recuperation. He said calmly, “I’ve already told you this so many times. If you can’t beat me, then you’ll have to obey me. Don’t push me to a corner.”
The cave quieted down. Only Di Baijun’s slightly heavy breathing, which was full of great displeasure, was still clearly audible as she stewed in silence.
w.a.n.g Hu, who didn’t look like he was bothered at all, continued with what he was doing.
Time pa.s.sed very quickly. In the twinkling of an eye, night had fallen.
Far away in the capital, a cabinet video conference was currently underway.
Li Aimin went about here and there without any concern for the exhaustion that all the rus.h.i.+ng about brought him. After he spoke with Dong Pingtao, he immediately applied to hold a cabinet meeting, upon which he recounted in detail the events to everyone.
In the end, he said gravely, “That’s what the situation is like now. Overall, it turned out pretty good. We’ve officially made a deal with each other. It’s highly likely that, from here on, it’ll form the basis of our communication with the Tiger King.
“Given the Tiger King’s combat power, his promise to slay two Divine Body Realm cultivators that show up in China for us ma.s.sively improves our people’s safety.
“You can say that we’ve seen returns on the huge price of 162 second-stage superior-grade pills that we’ve paid.
“Now, and also lastly, the Tiger King would like to enter the Hu County alternate world to kill some Third Realm experts to lay the groundwork for his children.
“This matter is of critical importance. We need to make a decision as soon as possible.”
After he spoke, the place stayed silent for a brief period while everyone fell deep into contemplation. They were naturally all aware of how important the matter was. Had it been anyone else, they would definitely have rejected the request without a second thought.
However, the party in question was the Tiger King whom they were currently painstakingly ‘pursuing’.
Moreover, Hu County was only a short distance away from him. They had to proceed with caution.
“Once we mishandle this, it’ll deal another substantial blow to our relations.h.i.+p with the Tiger King.
“And one more thing—if we handle this well, perhaps it’ll become a fresh breakthrough for us,” said a contemplative old man.
Everyone nodded inwardly. Another few elderly men then spoke up one after another and listed all the various pros and cons of the issue. However, as though they were all hesitating, none of them said anything decisive.
In the end, all of them vaguely looked at Dong Pingtao.
Dong Pingtao’s gaze swept across them, and he slowly said, “The Multi-Species Department has also come up with a proposal. Old Li, tell us more about it.”
Li Aimin nodded. Then, he presented the near-complete plan that he had come up with while traveling back and forth.
Everyone listened closely to what he said, contemplating and musing over it before they went on to further discuss it.
Over twenty minutes later, when everyone’s voices died down, Dong Pingtao said, “Those who approve of this solution, please raise your hands.”
Apart from two officials who forfeited their votes, everyone else raised their hands.
“More than half have voted for it. The solution will go through. The secretariat is to immediately take over and thoroughly perfect the specifics. Old Li, I’ll leave all the upcoming communication with the Tiger King to you,” said Dong Pingtao steadily.
“Okay, I understand,” replied Li Aimin seriously with a nod.
…
The next evening, w.a.n.g Hu received a phone call from Li Aimin while he was helping Silly Girl with her recuperation.
Without bothering with pleasantries, Li Aimin went straight to the point and said, “Your Excellency, regarding your wish to enter the Hu County alternate world to kill Third Realm experts, after some detailed discussion; we feel that there’s a solution that will satisfy both yours and our needs.”
w.a.n.g Hu breathed a small sigh of relief inwardly. His prediction had been on the mark.
At once, without any change in his tone, he asked, “What kind of solution is it?”
“Cooperation between you and us,” Li Aimin said seriously, “Your Excellency, we’re definitely more informed about the Hu County alternate world than you. During the last few years, we’ve carried out extensive scouting of the world, and we have information on a lot of Third Realm experts.
“With us working with you, you’ll definitely save half the effort and achieve double the results when you head over to kill them. Moreover, it can also prevent anyone from discovering the world pa.s.sage as far as possible.”
His clear and easy-to-understand words made w.a.n.g Hu’s lips draw into an arc. He stayed quiet for over half a minute, seemingly thinking about the solution.
Despite this, Li Aimin didn’t become anxious and waited quietly instead. He was the one who had thought of the solution.
With China’s a.s.sistance, the Tiger King would definitely save a lot of trouble and yield double the results. The likelihood of the world pa.s.sage being discovered would also be drastically reduced.
Not only would the Tiger King get what he wanted, but China could also take the opportunity to benefit from the situation. It was a win-win situation.
At the moment, the specifics—such as the first target, the subsequent targets, logistics, and so on—were still being worked on by the secretariat.
After another half a minute or so, w.a.n.g Hu’s voice became more cautious, and he asked, “How do we distribute the spoils after the kills?”
Upon his question, Li Aimin relaxed a little. He had clinched the deal.
“At a ratio of 5:1. You’ll only need to attack and take your kills, Your Excellency. You can leave the rest to us.
“Out of every six you kill, Your Excellency needs to give one carca.s.s to us. How does that sound?”
w.a.n.g Hu thought about it. It was a reasonable ratio. He was only in charge of attacking and killing the prey. Although this was the hardest part, he had also received the most gains.
On the other hand, China was in charge of everything else. Selecting prey, concealing the world pa.s.sage, and so on weren’t easy either.
“Okay.” Without bargaining, he uttered only a simple word and thoroughly sealed the deal.
“May we work well together, Your Excellency. Please trust in us. China definitely won’t let you down,” said Li Aimin confidently with a smile.
w.a.n.g Hu replied aloofly, “I hope so.”
After a short pause, he said, “You can make preparations for it first. I will contact you within seven days.”
“Alright.” Li Aimin nodded. Then, with some hesitance, he said, “With all due respect, Your Excellency, may I ask about the extent of combat power have you reached? The more accurate your answer, the better it is. This way, we can better select the most suitable prey for Your Excellency.”
w.a.n.g Hu paused for a moment. Before he had even thought of how he should answer the question, Li Aimin went on and said, “China has created a Ten Floors measurement scale for Third Realm strength levels. I’ll send it to Your Excellency in a while. You can let me know after that.
“I hope Your Excellency can prioritize acting with prudence in everything.”
He gave a cautious reminder. After all, this matter was of grave importance. They had to act with care and caution.
w.a.n.g Hu didn’t answer him. Instead, he was rather curious about the Ten Floors strength levels scale that he had mentioned.
Without saying anything else, they hung up. About a minute later, he received a doc.u.ment.
w.a.n.g Hu opened it. After some detailed comparison, he discovered that this particular measurement scale pertaining to Third Realm levels of strength that China had come up with was really very accurate.
It just so also happened to match him.
Those who had just broken through to the Divine Body Realm with fewer than nine rounds of metamorphosis were cla.s.sified as the First Floor.
The Second Floor started with those who had just broken through after achieving nine rounds of metamorphosis.
His current level of strength was at the Second Floor.
The Ten Floors strength levels scale also happened to coincide with his shoulder height growth scale.
A shoulder height of 10 meters was cla.s.sified as the Second Floor;
A shoulder height of 20 meters was cla.s.sified as the Third Floor;
A shoulder height of 30 meters was cla.s.sified as the Fourth Floor;
…
In that case, his current level of strength was…
He did some detailed consideration. The Ten Floors scale was a measurement of strength. To the vast majority of Third Realm cultivators, it could also be used as a measurement of their combat power.
The floor that their level of strength belonged to was the floor that their combat power was.
Even for warrior animal species that were favored by nature such as the tigers, this was likely also the case for the majority of them.
After all, the difference in strength between each floor and the next wasn’t a small one. The difference in strength between the first five floors went as high as a maximum of fivefold.
It was extremely difficult for one to overcome a fivefold strength disparity.
Most species would find it hard to overcome even a twofold or threefold disparity, let alone a fivefold one.
w.a.n.g Hu currently possessed three great special abilities. Including the power of the wind, that made a total of four.
He hadn’t successfully cultivated the White Tiger Battle Art and the Wind-Riding Divine Art yet, so they weren’t part of the consideration for now.
After comparing them in detail for a couple of minutes, w.a.n.g Hu could now roughly gauge his current level of strength. At once, he sent a message to Li Aimin: “Everything Third Floor and under is fine with me.”
Li Aimin, who had been waiting for his response, raised an eyebrow. Everything Third Floor and under was fine with him?
This meant that the Tiger King’s combat power had reached the Fourth Floor. In fact, given the Tiger King’s cautious nature, it was highly likely that he had even reached advanced-level Fourth Floor.
“Whew!”
He couldn’t help but exhale lightly. A grave look filled his eyes.
How fearsome!
His combat power could be said to have already reached the limit of experts that China could currently support.
After all, China’s spiritual energy density level was only at the fourth stage of the Third Realm. The strongest ent.i.ty that could possibly appear was experts of Fourth Floor level of strength.
They had ultimately still underestimated the Tiger King’s current combat power.
One could easily imagine how great of an impact it would cause once word of it got out.
Just the cultivators in China alone would already probably suffer a blow.
Li Aimin suppressed his astonishment and quickly replied with an ‘okay’. Then, he began to busy himself with his work.
Disregarding the series of commotions destined to occur in China due to w.a.n.g Hu taking the initiative to expose some of his combat power, w.a.n.g Hu immediately returned to the cave again to treat Silly Girl’s condition after ending his communications with Li Aimin.
Since his past life, he had always firmly believed that when it came to certain things, one should either choose not to do it entirely or do their absolute best if they chose to go ahead with it.
Just like how he was helping Silly Girl with her recuperation and displaying his fatigue, these were things that he had to do his absolute best in. He must move that harebrained Silly Girl even more and make her feel even more touched.
For the sake of doing that, how he wished he could tire himself out so badly that he would even vomit blood.
In any case, he didn’t intend to cherish his health at all over the next few days.
The next day, after a night’s busy work and having breakfast at dawn, w.a.n.g Hu brought all the tigers and the fox with him and started to move back to their old home.
w.a.n.g Hu and Di Baijun stayed in their Dao forms and walked at the front. They didn’t move very quickly, but they were definitely not slow either.
Although Di Baijun was still far from fully recovering, after the last few days, she didn’t have any problems walking at a speed like this.
The two tigers walked with each other side by side. In the lush and verdant forest full of life and vitality where tall, towering trees could be seen all around them; the sight of the two of them—whose looks were so peerlessly graceful that mere words couldn’t describe them—walking side by side made them look as though they were a celestial couple.
That was what w.a.n.g Hu felt anyway. As for how Silly Girl felt, he didn’t feel like thinking about it at the moment.
w.a.n.g Shan and Su Ling were following them at the back.
Big Treasure and Little Treasure were playing and fooling around on w.a.n.g Shan’s almost five-meter-tall form.
To the two of them who rarely went out, moving and traveling was undoubtedly a novel experience.
Two pairs of curious and innocent eyes were constantly looking at their surroundings.
A few hours of traveling later, they returned home after being away for more than two months.
“Jun Wen pays his respects to the King and the Queen.”
The moment they got back, Jun Wen—who had been left behind to guard their home—immediately hurried over. Without any sense of unfamiliarity, he lowered his head in front of w.a.n.g Hu and Di Baijun’s Dao forms to express submission before greeting them respectfully.
Di Baijun’s hands balled up tightly the moment she heard what he said. Her eyes narrowed, and she glared fiercely at Jun Wen.
Didn’t I tell you not to address me as Queen?
Have you already forgotten when only a little more than two months have gone by?
She formed another grudge against him, though she also became more puzzled than before.
Why had she thought that well of Jun Wen back then?
No matter what she thought, though, she naturally couldn’t really do anything to Jun Wen at the moment. After all, it was best that she didn’t use her powers for the time being.
She could only snort lightly and remark coldly and haughtily, “Looks like you’ve become bolder after our absence of more than two months, Jun Wen?”
Taken aback, Jun Wen frowned deeply inwardly.
Had he done something wrong?
However, after watching so many Chinese period dynasty television dramas, he was sure that he hadn’t done anything wrong etiquette-wise.
Was he supposed to even kneel?
After thinking about it for a moment, he asked respectfully, “Jun Wen dares not. If I may take the liberty to ask the Queen, has this subordinate done anything wrong?”
Di Baijun’s eyebrow twitched again. Behind her, both w.a.n.g Shan and Su Ling started to gloat.
Both of them already knew what the mistake was.
Hmph. That Jun Wen guy, or whatever his name is, is so stupid. Doesn’t he know that Sister-in-law isn’t used to other tigers addressing her as the Queen?
Just as well. It’s best if Sister-in-law teaches Jun Wen a good lesson.
w.a.n.g Shan thought happily to himself. Su Ling, on the other hand, was mainly gloating over the vicious tigress’ predicament.
At last, a tiger that dares to defy you has appeared!
“Didn’t I warn you before that you’re not allowed to address me as the Queen?” Di Baijun replied coldly. As she spoke, she even glanced out of the corner of her eye at the jerk beside her.
Although his expression was calm and serene, she simply couldn’t help but feel like he was laughing. At once, she found Jun Wen even more of an eyesore.
Jun Wen was stupefied. He had always thought of himself as a clever person, but never would he have imagined that the reason would be something like that.
It had already been more than two months, and both the Tiger King and his wife had already broken through to the Third Realm, and yet the conflict between the two of them still existed!
From the looks of it, the conflict couldn’t be easily resolved, which led to the Tiger Queen disliking people addressing her as the Queen.
This was beneficial to his fight for the Tiger King position in the future, though. It would be best if the Tiger Queen and the Tiger King stayed on bad terms forever.
However, things had become rather tricky at the moment.
Based on his observations, the Tiger King had intentions of reconciliation. It was just that the Tiger Queen wasn’t willing.
Since he had already addressed her as the Tiger Queen just now, if he went along with the Tiger Queen now, then he might end up displeasing the Tiger King.
As the saying went, ‘to be in the king’s company is tantamount to being in the company of a tiger’. They were tigers from the start. Thus, he had to be even more careful and cautious.
However, he could take the opportunity to pick one of them and put in full efforts to win the trust of the other.
His mind lit up, and he immediately made a prompt decision. Alright, that was exactly what he would do.
Both the Tiger King and the Tiger Queen had broken through to the Third Realm. They could already start on establis.h.i.+ng the Tiger Dynasty. It was imperative that he gained more trust from them at this point.
The King and the Queen…
It was time to make a choice.
Without any hesitation, Jun Wen looked at w.a.n.g Hu hesitantly with a frown on his face.
The underlying meaning in his expression was very obvious: ‘What do you think, my lord?’