The Founder of Qi Cultivation, Reincarnates?

Chapter 368 365- Conflict At The Southern Border (4)

Despite revealing her desire to know everyone’s names, Ji Niu was only met with silence. Her doll-like face scrunched up into a pout, and she did it in such a practice manner that it looked almost perfect. Her face expressed a feeling that would cause most men to stop what they were doing and come to comfort her.

The boys around the table all thought in their hearts that this girl was really dangerous. They also shot pitting glances at Jun for being the one targeted by this demoness in angel’s clothing.

Lihua swept her gaze across Ji Niu.

“Are you a **** or something?”

Hearing that made Ji Niu’s expression stiffen, and the corner of her eyes could be seen twitching somewhat. Her innocent and delicate image was a second away from crumbling.

Ji Niu was barely able to suppress her rising anger as she forced a smile and said with crescent moon eyes.

“Is it common for girls from the Mainland to be this coarse?”

Crackle

Crackle

The boys around the table swear they could hear sparks echoing out as Ji Niu and Lihua's gazes clashed.

“Ehem.”

Fei Yin awkwardly cleared his throat and to cut the tension he introduce himself.

“Sister Ji Niu, I’m Fei Yin.”

Fei Yin was at the opposite end of the table from Ji Niu and he pointed at Yang Su to his left before he started introducing everyone.

When Fei Yin last introduce Lihua to his immediate right, Ji Niu quipped.

“Oh, it’s sister Lihua, is it?”

“You must be deaf to be asking after just being told.”

“You-”

“Ehem!”

Fei Yin had to clear his throat once again, this time a bit louder than before.

“Sister Ji Niu, you mentioned something when you came that piqued my interest.”

Ji Niu broke her gaze with Lihua and smiled sweetly at Fei Yin before saying.

“That’s right, I said the Southern City looks like it lacks resources because it was done on purpose.”

“By who? And why?”

Tai asked.

Ji Niu wore a pained expression as she said.

“This-I’m sorry but I can’t divulge such information. Unless…”

Ji Niu’s convincing pain expression suddenly turn into a mischievous smile as she looked at Tai and continued.

“Unless brother Tai can complete one request for me~”

“But I have someone already like.”

Tai suddenly blurted that out without thinking.

The others turned to look at him with weird expressions, while Ji Niu released a giggle that sounded like crystal-clear bell chimes.

“Even your laugh sounds fake.”

Lihua’s voice drifted over causing Ji Niu’s laughter to get stuck in her throat.

“Sister Lihua, why must you be so mean to Niu’er?”

Lihua completely ignored her and instead said.

“It’s obvious who choose to construct the Southern City this way, so I need not say anything. As for why, it’s because they took a page out of the Demonic Cult’s handbook. By limiting the circulation of resources the more competition there would be, and the more competition there was the stronger the overall strength of the Southern City would grow.”

“Ho? I guess sister Lihua is quite smart, Niu'er had thought there might not be any redeeming quality about you.”

Lihua simply remain silent, she had become unwilling to bicker with this disingenuous girl.

Even though Ji Niu's beauty was unique, given her small body and cute face, she was more of a pretty necklace that had been decorated heavily with the finest of gemstones. Beautiful in its own right but that beauty seemed too fabricated. In contrast, Lihua was a simple gem, but it was that simplicity that made her look untainted and extremely beautiful.

However, Ji Niu was unlike most stereotypical girls.

Seeing that Lihua was unwilling to respond to her provocation, she backed down as well. She had her own pride and dignity about how she did things.

Ji Niu then picked up from where Lihua stopped.

“The reason sister Lihua explained is not the only one. Another is that with fewer resources in circulation, more people would have to sacrifice limbs and life to kill Sea Beasts. And after these people risk their lives to obtain Sea Beasts, they would then have to sell them to the merchants here for next to nothing.”

“Isn’t that too cruel?”

Jun spoke up for the first time.

Ji Niu smiled at him sweetly, but Jun couldn’t keep a straight face. Ji Niu just purposely twisted her hips harder than necessary to look at him.

“Whether it's cruel or not does not matter to the people who make the rules. The cost of living here is high and will always remain that way. “

Ji Niu soon positioned her cheek to rest against her palm with closed eyes. Releasing a bemoaning sigh she then continued.

“To even get one low-grade Spirit Artifact you would probably have to kill about two early Rank 3 Sea Beasts.”

“What?”

Li Wen's expression changed and he was the first to express his shock.

An early Rank 3 Sea Beast was equivalent to a cultivator at the early Core Formation Realm. Having to kill two just for a low-grade Spirit Artifact was completely ridiculous.

Normally, you would usually need the strength of a mid-stage Core Formation Realm to completely defeat an early Rank 3 Sea Beast. This was due to the fact that a Spirit Beast/Sea Beast’s strength in the same realm as a human cultivator was slightly stronger, due to their strong physiques and the natural abilities of their species.

? But the thing was, low-grade Spirit Artifacts were completely useless to Core Formation Realm cultivators. They were instead used by Sea Expansion Realm and Foundation Realm cultivators.

“Is the price of cultivation methods and martial art techniques similar to this? Are they forcing low-level cultivators to battle stronger Sea Beasts to survive in this City? Isn’t that mental?”

As Fang Chen voiced this concern, Ji Niu simply stretched her hands a little before casually responding.

“Cultivation methods and Martial arts techniques are even more absurdly expensive. The worth of a low-grade cultivation method is probably equal to a Rank 4 Sea Beast.”

Everyone’s face twitched upon hearing Ji Niu’s crazy words

.

A Nascent-level Sea Beast was being used to exchange for a low-grade cultivation method? Where else in the cultivation world would you hear about something so fundamentally batshit ludicrous?

“How is anyone even alive in this place? Why is no one leaving, and why would anyone be willing to live under such conditions?”

Ji Niu looked at Tai and snickered.

“It's not all bad. If you join a Battalion, they’ll provide you with a cultivation method along with equipment and a monthly pay depending on the number and strength of the Sea Beasts you kill. And you’re underestimating us Borderners. What do you think would happen if low-level cultivators battling higher-level Sea Beast gets normalized?”

Upon hearing this, everyone immediately realized what she meant.

“Are you supposed to be telling us these things given your identity? If the citizens of the Southern City knew the real price of Sea Beasts then there would be an uproar.”

“So what if I tell you? You would have eventually found out on you’re own, and does sister Lihua really think the citizens don’t know? How many Mainlanders do you think come here on a daily basis and see these absurd prices?”

Lihua said no more after hearing Ji Niu’s words.

However, Mu Fan suddenly asked Lihua.

“Wait, what do you mean by her identity?”

After a moment of silence, Lihua said.

“...She’s Ji Niu, the Southern Beast Rankings fourth rank holder and the little sister of the First Rank holder, Ji Mei.”

Everyone immediately showed slightly surprised expressions as they turned to stare at Ji Niu. They knew she was strong after she manage to approach them practically undetected, but they would have never guessed she was the fourth-place ranker on the Southern Border Beast Ranking.

Like imagining such a petite girl killing large vicious Sea Beasts must be a sight to hold.

Lihua had told them of Wu Kai’s identity and now seeing Ji Niu, the boys were curious about the others in the higher ranks. How strong were they?

Yang Su in particular had his curiosity peaked more than anyone else.

What did he want most out of the Chosen Tournament? To battle strong opponents so he could grow stronger.

Neither Yang Su nor the others had paid the Southern Border Beast Rankings any mind, but now it got their full attention.

‘What’s this?’

Ji Niu thought as she glanced at everyone at the table. She could vaguely feel an indistinct aura suddenly emanating from each of them.

‘There battling Intent seems to be surging.’

Ji Niu concluded before an excited glint appeared in her eyes.

However, at this moment a voice echoed out.

“You little demoness, you actually reached before anyone else, why am I even surprised?”

With the sounds of robes fluttering, an elegantly dressed young man that had a fan covering half his face was seen landing on top of the stairs.

“Ho? What’s with the intense surge of battle intent in this room? Is the party going to start without me? Ah, sister Ji Niu is here too?”

Before the young man could enter properly, a booming voice echoed out that caused the wooden constructed pavilion to tremble. But this person's latter sentence was softer and filled with nervousness when he realize Ji Niu was inside the pavilion.

Soon a rather burly young man with a large saber on his back nimbly came up the stairs in a few steps.

You would think with such a physique and heavy-looking sword on his back the fragile wooden stairs would immediately shatter upon his steps, but it was the contrary, they didn’t even tremble.

Seeing the appearance of these two people, the boys at the table were confused about who they were.

But Ji Niu suddenly turned and introduce the two.

“That pervert over there with the fan is called Cheng Li, and that big spineless brute is called Shi Lei. They occupy the sixth place and third place on the Southern Border Rankings. What are you two doing here, you've ruined the mood with your presence.”