I'm caught in the cycle of endless competition, you're waiting for me in the apocalypse.

After buying some peace and quiet items at the mall, An Xin and Li Qingchuan returned to their suite and shared with everyone about the city lord's shamelessness.

"Are we all going to the City Lord's Mansion that day? But Anna knows us!" Gu Shuohan was speechless, still feeling annoyed that the person he knew turned out to be an old ghost.

“I have a plan. You can ignore these things. What we need to think about is how to investigate the city lord’s mansion discreetly.”

...From this moment on, all people, ghosts, and beasts participated in this promotional event.

"Fu Mochen sent a message, agreeing to the promotional event suggestion and also willing to invite prestigious, powerful, and wealthy individuals, such as ghosts or nobles, in the name of the Mochen Group." An Xin picked up the "Nothing to Do" sign and looked at the message she had just received.

“Ask him if it’s feasible to hold a promotional event at the City Lord’s Mansion,” Li Qingchuan spoke first.

"Yes, I asked. I'll wait for his reply."

"As long as the venue issue is resolved, everything else will be OK."

………………

The Seven-Story Pagoda of Beijing

In the top management center on the sixth floor, Fu Mochen was reporting to a gloomy man in a black suit with long, flowing black hair.

"My lord, this is the situation!" Fu Mochen respectfully presented the jade bottle with both hands.

The man's long, narrow, jet-black eyes had no whites, only an unfathomable blackness. When their gaze met, that blackness was like an abyss, dragging the other person into endless darkness and fear. Therefore, in Xie Zi'an's presence, no one dared to meet his eyes; they could only lower their heads…

When he looked at the jade bottle, his eyes remained expressionless, as if he had little interest in it.

In this world, no ghost knows his origins, nor can they discern his cultivation level. And his power is increasingly forgotten by them.

"Take it, it's useless to me..." The ethereal voice was calm and even, causing Fu Mochen's heart to tremble once again.

Those who can manifest in the world of ghosts and monsters are all greedy souls, only differing in the degree to which they reveal themselves. Even someone like him, who already possesses immense wealth and cultivation, still has desires, still yearns for things that can never be obtained…

But the Lord did not; there was no desire, no longing, perhaps not even hope in his voice; it was always faint.

"Has he already been to the spirit world? He probably gained nothing... Ha... just making a pointless sacrifice..." Xie Zian took long strides, slowly pacing until he stopped in front of the French windows, gazing into the distance as he calmly said, "A long time ago, someone told me that what is destined cannot be changed. I scorned that idea in my heart. But when I was deeply entangled in it, when I kept fighting, the gears of fate still kept turning, and years later I discovered that my past struggles had become part of my predetermined destiny. Isn't that ironic?"

He patted Fu Mochen on the shoulder and said, "You did a great job. If more ghosts advance, there might really be a turning point! Protect the spiritual liquid!"

After saying that, he lowered his eyes slightly and walked back to the sofa.

"Yes, my lord!" Fu Mochen's plaque flashed, and he glanced at it. "My lord, they've sent word, asking if the promotional event can be held at the City Lord's Mansion!"

After a moment of silence, a hollow voice rang out again: "What a troublemaker! Looks like I'll have to go myself."

"My lord? You haven't left the seven-story tower for a long time..." Fu Mochen said with concern, his brows furrowed.

"There has to be a reason to open the city lord's mansion, doesn't there?"

"My lord, are you going to help them? Or are you investigating Quan Yuli?"

"Mo Cheng! Isn't it quite interesting to participate in a game with a predictable outcome and be an observer?"

—I thought the master had no desire... but he's still very interested in gossiping!

………………

“Fu Mochen agreed. He said that since the World Lord was coming, only the City Lord’s Mansion was qualified to receive him, so the City Lord agreed. But the requirement was to provide one bottle of concentrated spirit liquid and 10 bottles of ordinary spirit liquid.”

"What a greedy and shameless guy!" Gu Shuohan really hated Kwon Yuri.

“I’ve already agreed to it, but I’ll have him prepare a costume party so we can blend in without showing our faces.”

“Xinxin’s idea is good. Apart from Gu Shuohan, we will all appear as protectors, dressed in uniform. As long as there are 3 to 4 people on site, the others can go out and investigate separately.” Qi Mingxuan finally had a chance to show himself, and his eyes followed An Xin’s figure the whole time.

"Yes! That way we can do it without anyone noticing..."

"Why anyone but me?" Gu Shuohan didn't want to show his face in this situation.

“Are you stupid? You’re ‘President Gu’! You’re supposed to be there the whole time. Besides, Fu Mochen has seen you before… Furthermore, you’re the weakest. We can’t let you act alone!” Ao Jue, who knew the most about what happened on the day of the auction, was the first to jump out and explain for the fool Gu.

"Tch, Xinxin, quick, give me the white jade porcelain bottle, I'm going to cleanse my marrow and bones right now!"

"Quiet down! The marrow cleansing and bone marrow treatment requires a 12-hour interval. I'll wake you up when the time is up!"

At this moment, An Xin and Di Ting were searching through the scroll of good fortune in their sea of ​​consciousness, preparing to buy several sets of black robes. They could use them as everyday clothes, as night clothes, and as uniforms for coordinated actions.

"Little Jiu, that... that Illusion Mask! This is amazing! You can customize your own face and it can block detection from people below the Nascent Soul stage. Hehe~ This is just fantastic!"

"Xinxin, look at the price! You stingy devil, is it worth spending 399 Fortune Points? And you bought 10 at once!" Diting had a "I've seen through you" look on his face.

"Ah, that won't do! We'll have to buy this to prevent those below the Golden Core realm from 'seeing through the fog' and trying to detect us." An Xin sighed, realizing she needed to accumulate more Luck Points. "This only has 9 Luck Points, let's exchange for 10!"

"Alright! Xinxin, there's something. You're now connected to water and lightning, right?" Seeing her nod, Di Ting continued, "Actually, you used your spiritual power to encourage the growth of the green sprout before. Since lightning belongs to the 'Zhen' trigram, which is associated with wood, that means you've truly connected with water and wood. Perhaps... you can connect with metal, wood, water, fire, and earth here?"

"But there's no spiritual energy here, the energy is insufficient, and even the rules of the Heavenly Dao are incomplete. How can we connect with it?"

"It's actually very simple! Go collect colored spirit stones! Collect a large number of spirit stones of five different colors. As long as you can sense the different elemental energies in them and resonate with them, that's it! If you can fuse these different elemental energies, then the perfect golden core is right before your eyes!"

When it comes to "perfection", Diting gets particularly excited.

"Xiao Jiu, you know, you're just like one of my homeroom teachers. You always encourage me, help me, are happy for my growth, and proud of my achievements! Thank you, Xiao Jiu!"

"Why did things suddenly get so emotional? Quick, shut these men up, they're so noisy!" Di Ting raised its dog head at a 45-degree angle, ignoring An Xin.

As soon as she recovered, she took a "seeing through the fog" mask and applied it to Wei Ran's face like a face mask.

"Wow~ I really can't see his face clearly anymore, it's like there's a layer of foggy mosaic." An Xin's surprised voice rang out, causing all the handsome guys to gather around Wei Ran. Then she was met with a chorus of "Wow!"s.

"Xinxin, what is this?" Wei Ran touched his face, feeling nothing.

"This is called 'Seeing Flowers Through the Fog,' a mask designed to prevent detection by cultivators below the Golden Core realm. Everyone, including the Ghost General, has one; it's for use on the day of the promotional event!"

"Xinxin, you have so many good things. Even our Dragon Palace doesn't have these kinds of things!" Ao Jue looked at Wei Ran carefully but couldn't find any flaws.

"What do you Heavenly Dragon Clan need this for? With such strong martial arts, this kind of thing is only suitable for people like us who do things in secret! If I had your martial arts, I could just raze the City Lord's Mansion to the ground!" An Xin was afraid that Ao Jue, who was heartless, would dig up her past, so she quickly offered her "flattery".

"That's true, hahaha~" Luckily, Ao Jue didn't bring out his tail, otherwise he would have definitely whipped something bad.

"The promotion event date has been set: seven days from now, at the City Lord's Mansion, a masquerade ball, to promote the Spirit Liquid."

………………

City Lord's Mansion

“It must be Fu Mochen. He’s afraid I’ll steal his business, so he specially invited Xie Zi’an…” Quan Yuli smashed another glass ornament.

"Father, don't get angry. Fu Mochen is just a businessman who is greedy for small profits. No matter how big he becomes, it's useless. He has no power. When that President Gu comes, won't it be a matter of just a word from you, Father?"

"But...would Xie Zi'an side with Fu Mochen?"

"It's hard to say. The World Lord is indifferent by nature, and he probably wouldn't get involved in such business matters. However, don't forget where the spirit stones came from! Could it be that he came because he became interested in or suspicious of the spirit liquid? After all, we still don't know where the spirit liquid came from. According to our insider at the auction house, they only signed a sales channel contract. The person surnamed Gu strictly requires the secrecy and protection of the spirit liquid's research and development, so even Fu Mochen probably doesn't know where the spirit liquid comes from."

"Then let's see what Mr. Gu's attitude is!"

"Should I ask him out?"

"He's just some nobody. Let's talk about him at the promotional event. Asking him out alone would be giving him too much credit; he'd easily take advantage of us!" Kwon Yuri smiled dismissively, then asked, "How's Anna?"

"Much better, I can get out of bed and move around today."

"Oh, really? It seems this elixir is really good. It's a pity I only asked him for one bottle of concentrated elixir and ten bottles of regular elixir. I should have asked for more." Kwon Yuri made no attempt to hide her greed.

"If that guy surnamed Gu at the promotion event is sensible, will we still lack spiritual liquid in the future?"

"Hahaha~ Yes, you're right!"

………………

Time flies

Seven days have passed in the blink of an eye, and the promotional meeting is in two hours.

For the next seven days, at An Xin's request, everyone spent two hours each day learning formations and talismans from Ao Jue, two hours meditating, and two hours learning the connection and application of the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams from Di Ting. (An Xin used a glass bottle of spiritual liquid as a benefit, along with money, to exchange for many Five Elements Spiritual Stones for everyone to use.) For one hour, the four men would use (1 drop) of Yin-Yang Water to temper their bodies in a huge jacuzzi, while An Xin would use 2 drops of Yin-Yang Water to temper her body in her own bathtub.

In just a few days, Gu Shuohan, the one with the lowest cultivation level among them, had already advanced to the advanced stage of Qi Refining. Meanwhile, the Ghost Generals had already begun their attempts to break through to the Body Condensation stage.

"Alright, let's all put on the black robes. Ahan, you wear that one, the modified crane robe." Seeing that everyone was dressed successfully, An Xin took out the 'Seeing Flowers Through the Mist' and helped everyone put it on. She let the ghost generals enter the warm jade first, Di Ting returned to his sea of ​​consciousness, and Ao Jue hung around An Xin's neck.

"Is everyone ready?" An Xin saw the men nod, took out the Ruyi, enlarged it again and again until all five of them were standing on it, then accelerated and flew out of the floor-to-ceiling window of the VIP suite, heading towards the City Lord's Mansion.