After Tang Xiu sent Miao Wentang away, he immediately went to see Mo Yi and Gui Jianchou. He learned from the duo that they had successfully extracted the active cell in the Bloodkin"s blood. They were now trying to fuse it with Chinese herbal medicines to research drugs that would benefit humanity.

Therefore, Tang Xiu lent the interspatial ring that he obtained from Ji Chimei to Mo Yi temporarily, while Shanzeley and his six underlings donated quite a lot of their blood and stored them away inside the jade bottle. The jade bottle was then stowed inside the fully sealed interspatial ring.

Shanjenna also left three days later with her big brother Shanzeley. The latter promised to s.h.i.+p the Imperial Jade Seal of China along with the huge resources Tang Xiu requested to China within a week. All the goods had been measured in worth and the estimated total value was to be deducted from the remaining fifteen billion GBP.

Finally, Tang Xiu"s life had returned to peacefulness. In the days that followed, he occasionally went out or met with his friends, and spent the rest of his time to study and read at home. As the days pa.s.sed, there were only two days left before the end of his freshman year.

The sun blazed like a ball of fire as it hung high in the sky.

Bluestar Villa Complex.

Tang Xiu was currently reading the book silently, yet his mind was racing. It was about his next plan of action— the most important thing he needed to do, to make a trip to the Longquan Bay in Kanas to open the Immortal Trove. After that, he needed to make a trip to Nine Dragons Island, as the renovation project there had reached its most critical time. The island would be his home base in the future, so there must not be any problems arising there later.

Ring, ring, ring…

His mobile suddenly rang loudly and interrupted his train of thoughts.

Tang Xiu glanced at the mobile screen. He immediately creased his brows and asked, "What"s up, Awu?"

"Chief Kang came to Shanghai, Boss!"

"Kang Xia?"

"Yeah!"

Tang Xiu said with a curious tone, "Why did she come to Shanghai without notifying in advance? That"s weird. Anyways, just forget it. Where"s she now?"

"Our men just saw her at Shanghai Airport," answered Mo Awu.

Tang Xiu replied shortly, and, after hanging up, he directly dialed Kang Xia"s cell number. He hadn"t yet talked but her voice already spoke from the phone, "This isn"t fun, you know. I wanted to surprise you, but you turned out to get the news of me coming to Shanghai already."

"Well, why did you come to Shanghai at this time?" asked Tang Xiu with a chuckle.

"I miss you." Kang Xia chuckled and said, "It just happens that the last few days I have been relatively idle, nor do I have anything to do in the next couple of days, so I just gave myself a few days of vacation. I"ve been mulling over it for some time, but any place without you is kinda boring, so I just came to Shanghai. Anyways, let"s go back to Star City after you"re done with your final exams."

"Return to Star City with you? What should I do there?" asked Tang Xiu quizzically.

"You know, Boss Tang. Your bad memory is kinda getting worse. You only ask others to do things without getting involved yourself, huh?" berated Kang Xia with a wry tone. "The New City project originally planned to be opened for sale June 1st. But since the Long Family had a problem with the Walled Hill Village a year ago, the project was affected and it has been delayed until now. We"ve prepared quite a sum this time, yet how can we open without you personally attending?"

Tang Xiu came to his senses suddenly and smilingly said, "I would have truly forgotten about it if not for you reminding me. Alright, then head straight to my place in Bluestar villa complex."

"Got it. Wait for me there."

At noon, Kang Xia came with a suitcase in hand. She didn"t hide the look of excitement on her stunningly beautiful face when she saw Tang Xiu. She gave him a big hug, and, while leaning in his embrace, she asked, "It"s been a long time since we"ve met. We"ve only been communicating by phone; have you been missing me?"

"I miss you!" said Tang Xiu with a smile.

Kang Xia pouted and said in a whisper, "Hmph, you miss me yet you didn"t even come to see me in Star City at all. I heard you went to Qingcheng Mountain a few days ago and stayed there for quite a long time."

"There was a very important thing I needed to tend to there," said Tang Xiu.

"I know that you have things to do and it was very important. But seriously? How busy are you exactly?" commented Kang Xia. "What thing do you have to do besides managing our Magnificent Tang Corporation and the Everlasting Feast Hall?"

Tang Xiu couldn"t help but laugh and said, "What else but cultivation besides those two things, right? You know well that wealth and fortune are nothing to me in reality, regardless of what kind of status and privileges I could have from them. What I always pursue is strength by reaching higher cultivation realms."

"I know that, so I"m gonna tell you good news," said Kang Xia with laughter. "You see, this lady has just broken through into the Foundation Establishment stage. I"ll be quite a powerful expert later too."

"You… just broke through to Foundation Establishment?" asked Tang Xiu, amazed and surprised.

"You didn"t expect that, did you?" said Kang Xia proudly. "Hahaha. My luck was so good—a friend of mine who works abroad all year round came to China and visited me. She showed me a string of beads when we spent our time together. I loved them so much because I could feel a very strong spiritual qi flowing from them. Later on, after my friend saw me enjoying that string of beads, she gave them to me. And… tada! This is the string."

Tang Xiu"s vision fell on Kang Xia"s raised wrist. The string of beads had a dim but colorful l.u.s.ter, consisting of 36 beads in total. What surprised him was that when his fingers touched it, he could clearly sense a surge of spiritual qi, including spiritual energy that reacted by swarming toward his hand and entering his body.

"A magical tool, and one that is inscribed with the Spirit Ama.s.sing Rest.i.tution Array?"

It was very unexpected for Tang Xiu to see a magical tool inscribed with the Spirit Ama.s.sing Rest.i.tution Array on Earth. It was a very common magical tool in the Immortal World that regular artificers could manufacture.

"How could I be so stupid all this time? While I don"t have to constantly absorb the world"s spiritual energy to strengthen myself—those who cultivate under my instruction are formally Daoist cultivators. If everyone wears such magical tools with the Spirit Ama.s.sing Rest.i.tution Array inscribed on it, their cultivation will definitely advance by leaps and bounds!"

Kang Xia was unaware of Tang Xiu"s thoughts and she proudly smiled, "What do you think? These beads are quite a good item, aren"t they? I"ve been thinking about giving it to you once I meet you to help improve your cultivation."

Tang Xiu loosened her wrist before shaking his head and replying, "I don"t need this string of beads as it doesn"t have much help to me. To be honest, I can and will also manufacture this kind of magical tool. I"ll refine a batch of them when I have some spare time."

"Magical tool? You will manufacture things like this too?"

Kang Xia"s face was full of amazement as she looked at Tang Xiu—but the proud and satisfying feeling in her heart actually turned into a loss. It was her specific purpose in coming to Shanghai to give such a precious treasure, and the result? It turned out that Tang Xiu didn"t need it!

"Yeah, I can refine them indeed." Tang Xiu nodded. "Although I don"t need this string of beads, you remind me that I have those whom I"ve been training. If everyone has this magical tool, it would be very helpful to their cultivation a lot. Thank you, Kang Xia."

The feeling of loss Kang Xia felt inside was alleviated a lot, and she replied with a smile, "Don"t thank me, though. Being able to help you is my biggest joy."

Endless whispers of love were forever the best emotional comfort. It made Tang Xiu still feel warmness despite having a heart that was as hard as stone. He picked up Kang Xia"s suitcase while his other hand held her hand and smilingly replied, "Alright, let"s go upstairs and have some rest! We"ll have dinner this evening."

But today, it was destined that huge, shocking news would sweep the entirety of China like a tornado.

TV stations, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, and communication media… all of them were focusing on one topic: That Grand Fortune Jewelry is looking for the twelve zodiac jade carvings. Anyone who has a zodiac jade carving can contact the Grand Fortune Jewelry"s General Manager, Hao Lei. Once it"s appraised to be truly part of the set, Grand Fortune Jewelry will purchase it at the price of 100 million US dollars.

100 million US dollars. It was a stratospherically large amount of money in the eyes of countless people. The news was like a nuke falling into the hearts of Chinese citizens, starting a great uproar.

****

Zheng Province, Lianying County.

Yang Pengchao was smoking a cigarette while squatting in front of the old and shabby paper kiosk at the entrance of the county"s top high school. His eyes kept glancing around as if he was looking for someone.

"Have you asked around clearly, Mengzi? Did Yue Li really say she would be a girlfriend to anyone who has money?" Yang Pengchao frowned and asked the thin youth named Mengzi next to him.

"Yeah, I have asked around clearly about that," said Mengzhi. "Yue Li did say so. I also heard that Beauty Queen Yue received a call from w.a.n.g Wei, a young master of Dongda Steel"s Boss in our county, and they talked for a long time too."

"w.a.n.g Wei?" Yang Pengchao frowned and said, "Isn"t that the guy who depends on the wealth and influence of his family to live a prodigal life all day? Wasn"t he the guy you beat last time? How come he"s still in contact with Yue Li?"

"I beat him once, and he found someone to beat me back thrice," said Mengzi in a whisper. "Boss, you"ve been staying in Zheng City for these two years, and those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds in the county have been giving us no face they accounted for a long time as well. I didn"t tell you about this before in fear of losing face."

Yang Pengchao"s face turned cold. He snorted coldly and said, "Hmph; don"t worry! Ten years is not too late for a man to exact his revenge. If w.a.n.g Wei has got the guts to smash you, then I"ll clean him up sooner or later all the same. Huh? Yue Li is out."

Yang Pengchao put down the cigarette and ran to the school gate. As a beautiful girl with a good figure walked out with her bag, he blocked her and said, "Yue Li, I wanna talk to you."

There was a look of excitement in Yue Lie"s eyes when she saw Yang Pengchao, but the light faded back into the depths of her eyes in a flash as she squeezed out a smile and said, "When did you come back, Pengchao?"

"I just came back today for only one purpose," said Yang Pengchao, "I wanna ask you something; is the recent rumor about you true?"

The smile on Yue Li"s face disappeared instantly and the ruddiness on her checks quickly faded away. She looked a bit fl.u.s.tered and also paled in silence. But it couldn"t hide the truth from betraying her in Yang Pengchao"s eyes.

Yang Pengchao took out a bank card and handed it over while speaking, "I know that I only made a small amount of money in the past two years, but compared to those students, I still have a lot more. This card has 65,000 yuan, my savings for the past two years."

"You…"

Yue Li looked up and watched Yang Peng incredulously.