Volume 15 – Splitting the Heaven and Earth Apart – Chapter 9 – The Former Acquaintance in the Sealfeel Village
Translated by: Pumpkin
Edited by: Phillip and Robin
“That’s right, it’s the Sealfeel Village.” Said the woman who came to deliver the title plates with absolute certainty.
The purple clothed woman nodded. She handed over the three title plates to Qin Yu and his brothers. “You all need to drip your blood on these three title plates in order to become their masters. Furthermore, by all means, do not lose them. As for you three going to the Sealfeel Village…”
The purple clothed woman frowned as she glanced at Qin Yu and his brothers. “Did the three of you not give the person who allocates others to villages any Divine Spiritual Stones?”
Qin Yu was startled.
He still remembered the time when he met Song Hui and Shi Tian. That couple had even told Qin Yu and his brothers to bribe the person who allocate the people to the villages. However, Qin Yu and his brothers did not care about it. However, from what it appears now, it would seem that this Sealfeel Village ought to be an extremely lacking village.
“That’s right. Why? Is this village located very far away from the Yuchi City where the Divine Spiritual Energy is extremely violent and incapable of being absorbed?” Qin Yu asked with a smile.
“You knew.” This purple clothed woman looked to Qin Yu with a shocked expression. “You knew yet you still deliberately did that?”
Seeing the youth before him still smiling even in such a situation, the purple clothed woman was instead shocked. Immediately after that, the purple clothed woman resumed her indifferent appearance. “Sealfeel Village, not only is it located far from the city where one cannot absorb the Divine Spiritual Energy, there is something even more important.”
Qin Yu and his brothers were unable to help themselves from raising their brows in surprise.
Seeing the three of them acting like this, the purple clothed woman instead felt a burst of comfortable sensation. Without giving Qin Yu and his brothers a chance to question her, she said. “Gao Xiaqi, come in quickly. Here are three newly promoted ascenders that are set to go to the Sealfeel Village. This mission shall be left to you.”
A blond haired youth wearing a battle armor walked in. He frowned as he looked at the purple clothed woman. “You said the Sealfeel Village?”
“That’s right. What? You don’t want to do the task?” The purple clothed woman looked at this Gao Xiaqi.
Gao Xiaqi humped coldly. “I am not that afraid.”
“If you have the skills, then change that General’s Army’s standardized battle armor.” Laughed that woman who was arranging the jade slips. This Gao Xiaqi however did not respond. Instead, he looked at Qin Yu and his brothers. “The three of you, follow me.”
Qin Yu and his brothers followed this Gao Xiaqi. Right when they left the range of the mine, they saw a scene that surprised them… The standardized battle armor that Gao Xiaqi wore had changed. It turned into a robe.
Qin Yu and his brothers all recalled the words that white clothed woman said when they were leaving… ‘If you have the skills, then change that General’s Army’s standardized battle armor.’
“Brother Gao, why did you remove the standardized battle armor?” Qin Yu asked.
This Gao Xiaqi glanced at Qin Yu. Instead of answering, he asked. “Are the three of you new recruits that have just ascended a thousand years ago?”
“That’s right, what about it?” Qin Yu asked in confusion.
Hou Fei and Hei Yu also stared at this Gao Xiaqi. Gao Xiaqi however looked to Qin Yu for a long time with an unbelieving expression. “Nothing. It’s just, in a mere thousand years, these two people have reached the Mid Level Deity level. And you… I am unable to even see through you. I reckon you’ve reached the High Level Deity level, right? How is that possible? It’s only been a thousand years. Could it be… that the three of you have ascended from the Heaven’s Will Realm?”
“Ascended from the Heaven’s Will Realm?” Qin Yu and his brothers were all puzzled.
Gao Xiaqi however, sighed without a concern for the confused Qin Yu and them. “The same level cosmic spaces in the lower realm still possesses some differences. In the weaker ones, for example the Green Devil Realm, there would only be one that ascends in several hundred millions of years. As for the stronger ones like the Heaven’s Will Realm, one would ascend here every couple hundred years.”
Qin Yu and his brothers glanced at each other.
In the cosmic spaces, the Mortal Realms were all of the same level. The Immortal, Devil and Demon Realm, the Dinosaur Realm and other cosmic spaces were also of the same level. Then the Divine Realm was another level. The number of cosmic spaces of the same level as the Immortal, Devil and Demon Realm was very large indeed. However, even though they were of the same level, there was still the difference of weak and strong.
For there to be an ascender every couple hundred years, the frequency was indeed very high.
The Immortal, Devil and Demon Realm, in normal circumstances, including even the Dark Star Realm, would only have an ascender in several millions of years.
“Some of the powerful experts of the Heaven’s Will Realm, they would reach the Mid Level Deity in a mere thousand years after ascending to the Divine Realm… I saw that the three of you were all this powerful. That’s why I thought you were from the Heaven’s Will Realm.” Said Gao Xiaqi with a smile.
Qin Yu lightly smiled and said. “There are numerous lower realm cosmic spaces. For the people that cultivate very fast, they are not necessarily all from the Heaven’s Will Realm.”
“Hey, Brother Gao, why did you change the appearance of the battle armor that you wore?” Hou Fei asked. Qin Yu and Hei Yu also looked to Gao Xiaqi. This was something they were all confused about.
Gao Xiaqi looked to Qin Yu and his brothers. He said helplessly. “Could it be that the three of you do not know about it? Allocating ascenders to the villages at the beginning was an extremely important matter. You all ought to have given some appreciation fee. If you did, then you would not be arranged to some remote village far from the city like this Sealfeel Village.”
“What’s wrong with the Sealfeel Village? What does that have to do with you changing the appearance of your battle armor?” Hou Fei continued to ask.
Gao Xiaqi gulped a mouthful of saliva and said. “You all need to be a bit more careful. For such a remote village like the Sealfeel Village, not only must villagers pay taxes to the City Governor once every thousand years, they also have to pay taxes to some powerful influential bosses!”
“Powerful influential bosses?” Qin Yu and his brothers glanced at each other.
“That is to say, the Mountain Rulers!” Said Gao Xiaqi explicitly. “Think about it, only twenty million people can live in the Yuchi City. The remaining two hundred million people are all living outside. The people living outside all live a much more difficult life. Furthermore, those that have ascended here, who among them was not a formidable person in their original cosmic space before they ascended? Thus, a lot of them decided to go to remote regions and occupy a mountain and claim themselves the ruler!”
Hei Yu frowned. Hou Fei instead blurted out. “Motherfucker, aren’t they just becoming bandits?”
Qin Yu however understood it very well.
For all those experts that had ascended to the Divine Realm, if they were to be at the lowest level the entire time, it was extremely normal for people to revolt.
“The City Governor doesn’t care about that?” Qin Yu asked.
Gao Xiaqi laughed grimly and said. “City Governor? The City Governor would only occasionally put up an appearance. As long as those powers do not affect the rule of the City Governor, the City Governor would not bother dealing with them. Furthermore, the number of cities in the Divine Realm is fixed. There are too many people in the Divine Realm, if those people were to kill each other, the City Governor could care less about them.”
“It is not easy to occupy a mountain and claim oneself as a ruler as all the villages are filled with Deities. If those Mountain Bandit Rulers force the village residents too hard, won’t the residents also rebel against them?” Qin Yu said.
Gao Xiaqi sighed and said. “You’re mistaken. While there are many that have occupied mountains and claim themselves rulers, only the large powers would dare to ask the villages to pay taxes. Most of the small powers would not dare to do such a thing.”
“Large powers? How large are they?” Qin Yu frowned.
Gao Xiaqi sighed and said. “There are three large powers outside of Yuchi City. If the City Governor wanted to, he would indeed be able to eliminate these three large powers. However, the City Governor doesn’t want to do that. That is because if he wants to eliminate these three large powers, at the very least several tens of Heavenly Deities would die. Tell me, for the City Governor who possesses a total of over a hundred Heavenly Deities underneath him, would he be willing to spend such a large price to eliminate them?”
Qin Yu and his brothers were shocked.
It would actually require the death of several tens of Heavenly Deities to eliminate these three powers?
“As far as I know, the Sealfeel Village is within the territory of one of the three large powers, the Black Dragon Pool. And the leader of the Black Dragon Pool is one of the top five super experts within the territory of Yuchi City!” Gasped Gao Xiaqi.
Qin Yu and his brothers immediately removed all thoughts of resisting.
A super expert that was one of the top five super experts among the territory of the Yuchi City, why would he be a boss of bandits?
“I suspect you all understood the reason why I changed the appearance of the standardized battle armor now, right? Although that Black Dragon Pool would not truly become enemies with the City Governor, but for nobodies like us, we are their favorite target to bully. As for ordinary people like you three, they would at the very most rob you and would not take your lives.” Said Gao Xiaqi helplessly.
After leaving the Divine Spiritual Stone Mine, under the guidance of Gao Xiaqi, Qin Yu and his brothers walked for three entire days and night before they arrived at the remote Sealfeel Village. At the same time, Qin Yu had also came to learn a bit about the territory under the Yuchi City.
The closer one was to the Yuchi City, the safer one would be. For remote regions further away from the Yuchi City, they are territories that belonged to different large bandit groups. The status of these mountain bandits were all different too.
For example, the three large bandits powers like the ‘Black Dragon Pool’ dared to collect taxes from all the major villages of the remote region. They naturally were the ones that lived the most comfortably. As for some of the small bandit powers, they instead relied on robbing and killing.
For remote villages like the Sealfeel Village, they were the unlucky ones. Not only must they pay taxes to the City Governor, they must also pay taxes to the Black Dragon Pool.
The Sealfeel Village occupied an extremely vast area. From a single glance, one can see at the very least several thousands of houses. Qin Yu and his brothers nodded in their hearts. At least this Sealfeel Village was not too desolate.
“There are over ten thousand people living in the Sealfeel Village. It classifies as a small scale village. Large scale villages all have populations of several hundred thousands.” Gao Xiaqi said.
Qin Yu nodded in agreement. There were two hundred million people outside of the Yuchi City. For two hundred million people, a village of over ten thousand being considered a small village was extremely normal.
“This is the house of the Village Chief. The Village Chief will tell you three all you need to know.” Gao Xiaqi walked to a courtyard manor in a very familiar sense. The doors to this courtyard manor were wide open. There were currently three middle aged men chatting and laughing within the courtyard manor.
Gao Xiaqi walked over. He went to the tallest middle aged man among the three and said. “Village Chief Fan Xu, you ought to have received the notification already. These are three new ascenders that have been appointed to this village. From today on, they will be members of your Sealfeel Village.”
Fan Xu was at least two meters tall. Although his size was extremely huge, his appearance was that of a gentle and quiet person.
Holding a feathered fan, Fan Xu walked over to Qin Yu and his brothers with a smile on his face. “I am the Village Chief of the Sealfeel Village, Fan Xu. You three ought to be Qin Yu, Hei Yu and Hou Fei, right? These are the things that you all must pay attention to in the village. I’ve already prepared them for you.” As he said that, Fan Xu handed Qin Yu and them a jade slip.
Qin Yu received the jade slip. “Village Chief Fan Xu, I am Qin Yu. This is my second brother Hou Fei. This is my third brother Hei Yu.”
Qin Yu swept through this jade slip with his Divine Awareness. He then cupped his hands respectfully and said. “Village Chief, in that case us three brothers shall not disturb you anymore. Goodbye. Brother Gao Xiaqi, thank you for bringing us here. Goodbye.” Qin Yu and his brothers straightforwardly left.
“Eh? Seeing what I had written on my jade slip about paying taxes twice, he was actually not shocked in the slightest and left so straightforwardly. Truly strange.” Said Fan Xu with a confused expression as he flipped his feathered fan. He then looked to Gao Xiaqi.
“That’s right, I’ve told them about it on the road.” Said Gao Xiaqi with a smile on his face. “Village Chief Fan Xu, I shall also take my leave, goodbye.”
Fan Xu nodded. He then turned around and proceed to walk back to his two friends. He was still muttering. “Three brothers? Three brothers ascending together? That’s truly rare.”
After seeing the information in that jade slip, Qin Yu came to know about some important things.
The taxes were to be paid once every thousand years. For the City Governor, they were to pay a thousand Low Quality Divine Spiritual Stones once every thousand years. As for the Black Dragon Pool, they were to pay a thousand and five hundred Low Quality Divine Spiritual Stones once every thousand years.
There are primarily three methods for an average person to earn Low Quality Divine Spiritual Stones. The first was to be like the ascenders and mine in the Divine Spiritual Stone Mine. After a thousand years, other than the Divine Spiritual Stones being paid for fees and taxes, one would usually have quite many remaining. The second was to weed out Divine Spiritual Stones from exhausted mines. If one were lucky, one would also be able to find them from those mines. As for the third method, it was… working.
One could work for the City Governor. One could work for those that are rich and powerful. There were many different kinds of work. As for the salary, they’d be paid in Divine Spiritual Stones.
Of course, other than these three methods, there were also other ways. For example, going to the wilderness and searching for rare materials or precious medicinal herbs, ores and such. One could find those and then bring it to the city and sell them.
Merely, jobs like that were relatively dangerous. One must also possess a great eyesight in order to find rare materials or precious medicinal herbs. It was not a task that ordinary people could do.
Qin Yu and his brothers thus began living peacefully in the Sealfeel Village. The three of them casually build a courtyard manor. There would usually also be a lot of villagers coming over to greet them. For the majority of the time, Qin Yu and his brothers spent their time in the Jiang Lan’s Realm. However, they would still occasionally come out from the Jiang Lan’s Realm and their courtyard manor once everyday. Thus, they had also become familiar with quite many villagers.
Soon, three hundred years have passed.
Qin Yu and his brothers had spent their days very peacefully. And today, it was the date of the tax payment. This time around, they are to pay taxes to the Black Dragon Pool. The date of the tax payment for the Black Dragon Pool was different from the date of the tax payment for the City Governor.
All of the villagers of Sealfeel Village had gathered in front of the entrance of the Village Chief’s house. Not a single person dared to not pay the taxes for the Black Dragon Pool. If they were to not pay taxes to the City Governor, they would only be punished. However, the people of the Black Dragon Pool would instead directly kill those who refused to pay taxes.
“Brother Li Liao, how is it?” Two men who were walking next to each other started talking.
“Xing Yuan, I am truly at a loss. Zi Yun’s parents are truly too stubborn. Although you and Zi Yun love each other, her parents are determined that they will only marry their daughter to you if you manage to purchase a house in the Yuchi City.” Said Li Liao helplessly.
Xing Yuan took a deep sigh.
This Xing Yuan was precisely the previous Gold Punishment Lord of the Dark Star Realm. When the Gold Punishment Lords of the Dark Star Realm ascend to the Divine Realm, they too would become only an ordinary person. He did not bribe the people who allocate others to the villages and was thus allocated to this location.
Back in the mine, Qin Yu and his brothers had come out too infrequently. Thus, they did not manage to encounter Xing Yuan.
“Two million Low Quality Divine Spiritual Stones, I won’t be able to pull out that amount even if you threatened to kill me.” Xing Yuan clenched his fists. He was filled with anger.
All those years in the Dark Star Realm, he had never fallen in love. After arriving to the Divine Realm, he had never thought about falling in love either. He merely wanted to train. However, after meeting Zi Yun, the two of them, male and female, both started feeling hot in their heads and became frantically in love with each other.
Zi Yun had grown up in the Divine Realm. Zi Yun’s parents were extremely and completely determined that they wanted their daughter to live a better life and not worry about everyday life in the Sealfeel Village. They were determined that they wanted Xing Yuan to purchase a house in Yuchi City before coming to them to ask for their daughter’s hand in marriage.
“Xing Yuan, don’t be too heartbroken. As men, we merely need to continue training. Once we reach the Heavenly Deity level one day, won’t there be so many women who will wish to marry you that they’ll cram your doorsteps apart.” Li Liao consoled. However, Li Liao himself also knew how hard it was to become a Heavenly Deity.
Xing Yuan sighed. “Brother Li Liao, you don’t understand my frame of mind.”
Once one had fallen in love, it is impossible for one to climb back out.
Suddenly, a familiar voice sounded.
“Eh? Brother Xing Yuan?”
Xing Yuan turned his head around to look at the voice. He saw three youths walking over together. The smile as well as the manner of the youth who lead the three, Xing Yuan immediately recognized who he was. With astonishment, he said. “Liu Xing, it’s you. You’ve also ascended to the Divine Realm?”