[Martial City of the Heavens, Luxury Hotel Room]
"Come in."
Hearing a knock on the door, Tendo, reclining on a leather sofa, responded without lifting his head.
The room door opened with a creak, and Ye Shen Lin and Huan Qianying walked in together.
Looking at Ye Shen Lin, who was as expressionless as he had been in childhood, Tendo, from the sofa, greeted him with a smile: "Long time no see, Lin."
Ye Shen Lin nodded, responding politely: "Mhm, long time no see."
Out of professional habit, Ye Shen Lin subconsciously observed the room's layout and the people currently present as he spoke.
In the living room, besides Tendo and Caroline, there were two individuals Ye Shen Lin didn't recognize.
One was a little girl with green hair, who was currently facing away from the door, clutching a game console. She was playing intently, muttering something quietly to herself.
The other stranger was a young man in a gray martial arts uniform, standing alone in the corner of the living room.
The man's condition was clearly unsettling, as he was not only frowning deeply, beads of cold sweat forming on his forehead, but his hands beneath the uniform were tightly clenched, as if he were wrestling with an incredibly difficult decision.
In stark contrast, Tendo sat leisurely on the sofa, watching the news channel of the Martial City of the Heavens on TV.
Caroline sat on the single sofa next to Tendo, her fingers lightly tapping the tactical tablet on her lap, seemingly recording and analyzing something.
This presented a sharp juxtaposition with the nervous and conflicted man in the corner.
Seeing this, Ye Shen Lin instinctively felt something was wrong.
Because he felt an aura called 'fear' emanating from that unfamiliar man.
Trouble...
In an instant, Ye Shen Lin realized that Tendo seeking him out was indeed for no 'good reason'.
Ignoring Ye Shen Lin's seemingly calm but inwardly complex emotions, Tendo picked up the remote control, briefly turned off the television, and then turned to her, smiling: "Lin, please wait a moment. After I finish talking with my client here, I'll tell you the purpose of calling you over."
Ye Shen Lin nodded, then deliberately walked to the sofa furthest from Tendo and sat down.
He presented an attitude of keeping a respectful distance from Tendo. Tendo didn't mind this, turning his attention to the young man in the corner of the living room and smiling: "How is it, Mr. Jiang? Have you considered it?"
"We can help you obtain Martial Badges worth twice your original strength limit. All you have to pay is seventy percent of your Heavenly Martial Coins each month from now on. This is a very good deal, isn't it?"
Hearing Tendo's words, more sweat beaded on Jiang Lingfeng's forehead.
Heavenly Martial Coins are the special currency of the Central Heavenly Martial Qilin Tower. While they can purchase many items unavailable externally, they are incredibly difficult to obtain.
The most direct and effective way to get them is through the Martial Badges.
Holding one Martial Badge entitles one to receive one Heavenly Martial Coin from the every month.
Even with Tendo's help, he would go from originally being able to obtain a maximum of 'ten Martial Badges' to obtaining 'twenty'.
But for those extra ten badges, he would have to pay Tendo a hefty price of fourteen Heavenly Martial Coins.
Looking at it purely from the perspective of Heavenly Martial Coins, this deal was unequivocally a loss.
Even though obtaining more Martial Badges grants more authority within the Heavenly Martial Qilin Tower in the future, if he doesn't have enough Heavenly Martial Coins to make purchases, what good is higher authority?
Therefore, after weighing the pros and cons, Jiang Lingfeng reached a decision.
He looked up at Tendo, saying earnestly: "I'm sorry, I still feel—"
"Don't be so quick to refuse, Mr. Jiang."
Without letting him finish, Tendo raised a hand to interrupt him and nodded towards Caroline beside him.
"Caroline, show him something 'good'."
Caroline nodded knowingly. With a swipe of her finger on the tactical tablet, an image was immediately projected into the living room.
The image showed a Martial Badge challenger being ruthlessly crushed by a Tower Guardian.
Jiang Lingfeng recognized both the Martial Badge challenger and the Tower Guardian in the image.
The former was a minorly famous genius in the Martial City of the Heavens. His actual strength would typically allow him to obtain around twenty to twenty-five Martial Badges, about half a tier above Jiang Lingfeng.
The latter was a notoriously good-tempered Tower Guardian, known for never being too harsh and occasionally going easy to save the challenger's face.
Yet, this mildly famous genius and this normally good-natured Tower Guardian were, in this instance, delivering a rare heavy-handed defeat.
There had to be something fishy going on.
After a brief moment of thought, Jiang Lingfeng seemed to understand something, his face turning instantly pale.
He abruptly looked at Tendo, his lips trembling.
"What did you do to the Tower Guardian?"
Tendo didn't rush to explain, instead looking at him with a half-smile.
Although Tendo's eyes were covered by a black eyepatch, Jiang Lingfeng felt as if he could see Tendo's now playful gaze through the black fabric.
After a short silence, Tendo gave his explanation with a smile.
"Nothing much. I just played an interesting game with those Tower Guardians."
"After all, as you know, outsiders are generally unauthorized and unable to influence the will of the Tower Guardians, but there are exceptions to everything..."
As Tendo spoke, his right hand began to toy with a special silver coin, which spun rapidly between his fingers before Tendo flicked it into the air.
As the coin fell, Tendo said in a relaxed tone: "...Since those guys were inexplicably confident and easily agreed to a gamble with me—a gamble where the stakes were their souls—and lost their 'souls' to me."
The words finished, and the silver coin landed in Tendo's palm with a clink.
Tendo gripped the coin, looked up at Jiang Lingfeng, and smiled.
"Mr. Jiang, if you refuse my 'invitation' today, I can guarantee that afterwards, forget twenty Martial Badges, you won't even be able to gather the most basic seven needed for the Starry Sky Ladder Ranking Tournament."
"Because no matter which Martial Tower you challenge, I will have them be as strict as possible with you."
"Given those circumstances, how many towers do you think you can successfully challenge?"
Hearing Tendo's words, Jiang Lingfeng secretly clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white.
In a daze, he recalled his sister waiting for him at home, depending on the badges for resources. He remembered his oath to 'establish a footing in the Martial City of the Heavens'. Finally, he said in a hoarse, despairing voice: "I agree."
A few minutes later.
"Pleasure doing business."
After signing a special contract with Jiang Lingfeng, Tendo smiled and sent him away.
Once the pale-faced Jiang Lingfeng left the room, Tendo looked at Caroline beside him and smiled: "Caroline, how many important clients on our list are left to close?"
A stream of quantum data flashed across Caroline's eyes, and then she spoke: "There are seventy-nine left. All seventy-nine can obtain between 30 and 50 badges based on their own strength, and most of them have their own factional backing."
Hearing this, Tendo rested his hands on the back of the sofa and said indifferently: "Only seventy-nine of the troublesome Star Envoy second and third generations are left? Then I think we should be able to make them all important clients before the Starry Sky Ladder Ranking Tournament begins."
"After all, instead of letting them waste those precious Heavenly Martial Coins on useless things, why don't I put those coins to use, right?"
After saying this, Tendo turned to look at Ye Shen Lin, who was sitting on the sofa furthest from him, and smiled: "How about it, Lin? Interested in joining the venture?"
"If you join, I can guarantee you an extra commission."
Ye Shen Lin, who had largely guessed what Tendo was doing, did not discuss the righteousness of Tendo's actions, but simply said: "Can I refuse?"
Tendo smiled and said: "What do you think?"
Hearing this, Ye Shen Lin shed his usual composure, showing a rare look of difficulty and resistance.
However, under Tendo's half-smile, he finally sighed helplessly and chose to compromise.
"Understood."
The dimensional viewers on Site 13 were astonished watching Tendo, who in just a few words, had forced Ye Shen Lin onto his pirate ship and was clearly up to no good.
Because what Tendo was doing right now did not look like the actions of a 'good person' in any way.
After all, what good person forces someone to sign such an unequal contract with a smile on their face?
Perhaps to put Ye Shen Lin at ease in joining, or perhaps to respond to the dimensional viewers on Site 13, Tendo stretched after Ye Shen Lin joined, and then said with a smile: "Lin, don't be so resistant. This is nothing more than a simple capital operation."
A simple capital operation...
Although Ye Shen Lin had many things he wanted to say about Tendo's description, considering Tendo's personality and methods, he was certain that even if he spoke, it wouldn't change the outcome.
If that was the case, what more did he have to say?
Moreover, while Ye Shen Lin didn't know how many 'clients' Tendo had already operated on in the manner just shown, one thing was clear: going against Tendo was absolutely not a wise choice.
Therefore, from the moment he stepped into the room, he actually had no choice.
And thanks to the support of so many 'clients', Ye Shen Lin believed Tendo would become the richest person once the Starry Sky Ladder Ranking Tournament began.
Tendo's strength already surpassed everyone else, and now he was also amassing the most resources.
This Ladder Ranking Tournament had become even more devoid of suspense.
However, while this operation would allow Tendo to acquire enough Heavenly Martial Coins, it also had a clear drawback—
After all, where there is oppression, there will be resistance.
And the current Tendo was undoubtedly the obvious oppressor.
Thinking of this, Ye Shen Lin, who was already on the same pirate ship as Tendo, asked: "Tendo, how do you plan to deal with the contestants who band together to resist you?"
A strange expression appeared on Tendo's face when he heard Ye Shen Lin's question.
"Lin, does that matter?"
"..."
Ye Shen Lin fell silent, looking at the indifferent Tendo.
Indeed, for Tendo, whether these people formed groups or not would not affect the final result.
Looking at it this way, whether they resisted... truly didn't matter much.
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