Chapter 1289  Spoils & Temptations

Wang Wei waved his hand to materialize a small screen with Red Mask’s face. He smiled while asking: “Everything’s done?”

“Yes, lord,” Red Mask nodded. “I apologize it took so long.”

“No, you’re not to blame.” Wang Wei would never blame her for taking so long. On the contrary, he would praise her for succeeding in this mission. In the lower dimension, his Fate Shadow Guard had a deep foundation, so he was always strict with Wang Ju when she failed.

However, in the upper dimension, it was the opposite. Their foundation was weak, and any success in these challenging missions is proof of Red Mask’s capabilities.

“You did an excellent job this time,” Wang Wei said with a smile. “From now on, you’re truly Wang Ju’s successor.” Red Mask’s body trembled after hearing these words as she understood the implications. From now on, Wang Wei will trust her more, give her more power, and, more importantly, he’ll be more forgiven. She doesn’t have to constantly worry about losing her job and position.

Of course, this doesn’t mean she’s worry-free and doesn’t have to work hard. However, she can now breathe a little.

“Thank you for believing in me,” Red Mask bowed.

“You’ve earned it,” Wang Wei nodded. “Anything else to report?”

“Two things,” Red Mask continued. “When I controlled the palace, I noticed a group of people with Xiao Tiandi; they had just captured a few of the Blood Dragon’s descendants. They tried to leave with an Arran Breaking Formation, but I’ve activated all the palace’s formations and captured them.”

“This must be Xun Junyao’s group,” Wang Wei muttered.

“Sir, what do you want me to do with them?”

“Send their leader a message to set up a meeting, then let them go,” Wang Wei said.

“As you wish.”

“What’s the second thing you wanted to report?”

“I’ve discovered a secret area of the dragon palace,” Red Mask continued. “According to my analysis, it should be where Blood Dragon kept most of the information from his spy agency. However, that area has an independent array system and central hub, so we might need to use force to enter.”

“Not necessarily,” Wang Wei replied. “Ask Xun Junyao for a few blood essences from the Blood Dragon. Then, use his bloodline to open these formations.”

“Very well,” Red Mask nodded.

“We are about to expand,” Wang Wei continued. “Are you prepared?”

“I am, sir,” Red Mask responded. As soon as she knew the content of her mission, she understood the number of resources they were about to acquire, so she had already planned how to utilize them properly and expand the Fate Shadow Guards.

“Good,” Wang Wei nodded, very pleased. Red Mask was not only good at her job, she can also anticipate his next moves and prepare in advance. That only means that, slowly and steadily, she’s approaching Wang Ju’s level.

After dismissing the communication, Wang Wei sent a message to everyone else to gather at the central hall once their missions were done before heading into the treasury. Wang Wei immediately salivated.

The first thing he noticed was the number of resources below Tier 10. There were so many that even if he combined the resources from the lower dimension, it would only be a fraction of the ones in this treasury. That’s truly absurd if you think about how many resources there are for Tier 9 and below across all 3800 World Communities.

Wang Wei continued deep into this treasury, and he felt a sense of overwhelming greed seething in his mind. He had to pause, take a moment, and calm his rampaging mind. He understood that if he allowed this greed to influence him, he would take all these resources without sharing them with his men, leading to numerous problems.

Although he could suppress his problems with his overwhelming strength, such an act would ruin his reputation among his men and, more importantly, destroy his plans to turn these people into his true followers. He would not do such a short-sighted thing.

‘I cannot use all these resources even if I wanted to. And as the leader, I control it and can use the most precious one, so why ruin my future for a temporary sense of satisfaction?’ Wang Wei thought as he exhaled. ‘Plus, if this small amount of wealth is enough to influence my mind, then I would be disappointed in myself.’

Wang Wei opened his mind, and he was back to his original self. However, he frowned. “It seems my mind is not as perfect as I thought,” he muttered. Wang Wei always knew he was greedy; his capitalist tendency to pursue the maximum profit in any situation has become a core aspect of his personality. However, he thought he had absolute control over his greed, but today’s events prove him otherwise.

“It’s time for me to cultivate my mind and temper my Dao Heart,” Wang Wei muttered. “Maybe even update my Everchanging Dao Heart. If I can experience the life of a man who controls all the wealth in the world and can give up that wealth, my mind should sublimate to another level.”

Wang Wei has been tempering his mind and Dao Heart the natural way through a long life and experiencing things. However, this approach seemed insufficient, and he needed to take some steps. Wang Wei sighed: “I have so much to do, but something tells me I don’t have much time.”

He continued observing the things in the treasury, and as expected, there were so many rare things. Wang Wei knew he would not have to worry about resources for a long time. He also has some expectations for the other parasites’ treasury.

After thirty minutes, Wang Wei left the treasury with a few things. The first was all the resources he needed to cultivate his body, soul, and willpower. During most of Wang Wei’s cultivation journey, he never needed to worry about his soul and willpower. However, his body and Dao were about to catch up to those two things, meaning it was about time he emphasized cultivating them.

He could wait until his body and Dao catch up to achieve perfect unity, but that approach would only delay him. Since he was confident in raising his other aspects to the peak, it’s best to raise his soul and willpower to the limit and wait for them to catch up and achieve unity of the essence, spirit, and Qi.

The second thing that Wang Wei took from the treasury was all the Tier 11 Longevity Resources. He kept the Eternal Life Wood and the Second Life Pill, granting an additional two extra lives. With the one he had remaining, that’s a total of three. However, Wang Wei was not too excited about this since he had a feeling that these things might become useless after entering the Taboo Realm. These longevity resources might treat him as a Paragon and become useless after achieving taboo strength.

The good news is there were enough longevity resources to reward three of his most capable men: Mongke, Dulgun, and Jia Ping. As for the Flame Blacksmith? Wang Wei will reward him with an Innate Purple Flame, a Heavenly Flame born between Heaven and Earth, but the rank is Tier 12.

As long as the Flame Blacksmith succeeds in refining this flame, his soul will enter Paragon Quantity, and his soul power will reach that level in quantity. Then, the Blacksmith will become a talent capable of refining Paragon Tier Artifacts while being an Empyrean. Such achievement will enhance his luck, allowing him to achieve white luck or come close to it.

Of course, refining such a powerful flame is a risk. Under normal circumstances, Wang Wei would never have allowed such a thing. However, the Flame Blacksmith has the talent to succeed, and more importantly, Wang Wei now has enough resources to ensure his survival in case something occurs.

‘I can’t believe I found the Path Refining Stone,’ Wang Wei thought with a smile. This thing could be said to be valuable, while at the same time, not so much. This thing had little effect on most cultivators who only pursue strength in eternal life.

However, for someone like Wang Wei, who has a pursuit besides the basic one, this stone is valuable beyond words. That’s because it allows him to experience the life of people on a similar path but with a different approach.

For example, Wang Wei wants absolute freedom, but there are different ways to approach this goal. He chose the way of control. His way of achieving freedom is by controlling everything and even having the power to take other’s freedom.

However, someone else might have a different approach. They might want to detach themselves from the rules and just break free from their restraints without being a controlled freak like Wang Wei.

With the stone, Wang Wei can experience the lives of these people on the same path as him, learn from them, and temper his mind, Dao Heart, and his path to freedom.