Volume 2 – Bloom of the Other Shore Flower, Chapter 35: Snakes
Yun Yingnan’s expression was ugly. She said, “I’ll return the money after I’m done with this mission!”
Tree Snake sneered, “Done with your mission? Who knows when you’ll be done with your mission? Plus, you said the same thing twice earlier. And the results? Not only did you fail to clear up your debt, it grew even bigger than it was before. Miss Yingnan, with your mission completion rate, do you think you can trust yourself to pay back your debt at the end of your mission had you been in my position?”
Yu Yingnan’s face grew uglier and uglier. Her right hand was clenched into a fist, and she looked like she was about to lose control.
But not only was Tree Snake unafraid, he even moved his face closer and pointed at himself, saying, “C’mon, hit me! Hit me hard! Hit right here and make sure you kill me when you do hit! For goodness sake please don’t hold anything back at all!”
There was a loud bang, and the ground beneath Yu Yingnan’s feet suddenly cracked under pressure. This was because she failed to control some of her origin power from spreading. But despite the fact that Tree Snake had obviously made up his mind to bully her shamelessly until the end, she couldn’t punch him no matter how much she wanted to.
She inhaled deeply as her chest moved up and down. She barely managed to restrain her emotions before she yelled, “What the hell do you want then?”
Tree Snake made an inviting gesture and said, “What do we want? That’s up to the boss to decide! Follow me.”
Moments later, Yu Yingnan and Qianye walked into a big house a street away.
The first floor’s living hall was decorated luxuriously. A calligraphy writing was hung on one side of the wall, and a landscape drawing was hung on the other. There was also a row of heavy firearms hung inside the building, and the three styles looked completely incompatible with one another when gathered in one place.
Several dozens of fearsome-looking men suddenly surged into the living hall and stood still beside the walls. Then, they opened their eyes wide and stared angrily at Yu Yingnan and Qianye with impressive vigor. However, Qianye merely cast these small fries who were rank one Fighters at best a sweeping glance before ignoring them completely. Instead, he put his attention on the screen painted with a beauty lying drunkenly beside a lake at the left side of the building.
When everyone was done assuming their positions inside the living hall, a bare chested man finally walked out from behind the screen.
The man was a full head taller than Qianye, and a giant twin-winged python was tattooed all around his upper body. The head of the python sat at the center of his chest.
He was the boss of Sky Snake Gang, and his name was Sky Snake. No one actually remembered what his real name was.
Sky Snake threw his gigantic body directly onto the center of the sofa and laughed, saying, “Yingnan, it’s quite difficult to find you, you know!”
Yu Yingnan said coldly, “Cut the nonsense and get straight to the point! Stop wasting my time!”
Sky Snake slapped his own thigh once heavily and pointed at Yu Yingnan, saying, “Very good, I like that frank attitude of yours! In that case I won’t mince words with you. Do you know how much money you owe me right now? I doubt you’ve ever calculated it properly yourself, have you? Green Snake, bring over the bill and show it to her!”
A woman with long curly hair wearing a mini skirt walked over while twisting her round butt. She passed a bill to Yu Yingnan.
In reality, her looks were incomparable to Yu Yingnan’s. However, her advantage lay on her huge breast, long legs, and short mini skirt. She immediately knocked a certain four star hunter out of the limelight and attracted most of the men’s attention inside the living hall. Even Qianye couldn’t help himself from casting her a few glances.
Yu Yingnan immediately noticed his gaze and she shot him a fierce glare. Then, she snatched the bill from Green Snake’s hand and gave it a sweeping glance. She immediately cried out, “It can’t be this much!”
Sky Snake finally laughed to his heart’s content when he saw Yu Yingnan’s reaction to the bill. He said leisurely, “This bill clearly outlined everything you owed in detail. I’ve always worked fairly, and I will never swindle another person! If you don’t believe me, you can find someone else to help you calculate it properly!”
Yu Yingnan looked reluctant. Qianye only needed to look at her once to know that this extremely masculine friend of his wasn’t too good with numbers. Therefore, he said, “Let me have a look.”
Yu Yingnan hesitated for a moment before passing the bill to Qianye.
Qianye’s life skill class had included basic calculation, and the bill before him was in fact quite simple. He only needed to check through a small portion of the bill carefully to figure out that the bill was probably proper and not tampered with.
Although the total amount owed had reached a shocking amount of 500 gold coins, only one third of it fell under interest and fines. Yu Yingnan had owed this sum of money for half a year, and in this chaotic city, there was no denying that that the annual interest of this debt was on the low side considering that it hadn’t exceeded 100%.
After a moment’s hesitation, Qianye ultimately said, “This bill looks fine, if you did borrow a sum of 300 gold coins or so.”
This time Yu Yingnan fell completely silent. A moment later, she glared at Sky Snake and said heavily, “What do you want? Say it.”
Sky Snake slapped his thigh again and chuckled, “Oh, I don’t really want anything actually. You see, we’ve known each other for such a long time, so there’s no way I’d force you to pay if you really can’t afford it, right? How about this: why don’t I go find Old 2 and…”
Before Sky Snake could even finish, Yu Yingnan immediately yelled out fiercely, “Don’t even think about it!”
“Then I can’t do anything about it. Unless…” Sky Snake leaned against the sofa again and looked playfully at Yu Yingnan. He snapped his fingers once, and Tree Snake jogged over and passed over another paper to Yu Yingnan.
Sky Snake waved a hand and said impassionedly, “It’s very simple! If you sign this contract, then your debt will be gone in one stroke!”
Yu Yingnan cast a glance at the paper and felt her eyebrows furrow immediately. She said in a chilly voice, “A death arena?”
“Exactly! If you participate in the death arena on our behalf and either win five matches or fight ten matches in a row, then your debt would be struck off completely! What do you say?” Sky Snake stared at Yu Yingnan with bright eyes. There was undeniably lust in his eyes, but the light of greed was even greater.
“This appearance fee seems a little high. You’re telling me that I can clear my debt this simply?” Yu Yingnan sneered.
Sky Snake laughed loudly and said, “Oh no, this appearance fee isn’t high at all. Sure, for another rank four Fighter this price is at least three times their worth, but you are different, Yu Yingnan! If you are willing to participate in the death arena, I can guarantee that the seats would be filled to capacity every time.”
He paused for a moment and worked hard to put on a kind smile despite his fiendish looks, “If you’re still worried, I can even ask your opponents to sign a minimum guarantee clause. This means that they cannot kill or disable you even if they win, or they would have to cough up a large sum of money. What do you think?”
His offer sounded unbelievably good, but in reality that was not the case. Qianye knew a little about death arenas. It was a bloody battle held publicly inside Darkblood City. The challengers were not restricted to just humans, and sometimes there would be battle between humans and foreign races. Sometimes, there would even be battles between ferocious beasts.
A beautiful female challenger and especially someone as reputable as Yu Yingnan was extremely favored by the audiences. This was because the battle had no set rules, and any methods were allowed inside the arena. If the female challenger wasn’t good enough, then the fight would often turn into a public show of humiliation.
In order to maintain the people’s interest, the organizers would often change things up a little inside the blood soaked arena. Every once in a while, the organizers would throw in a few beautiful female challengers to push the arena’s atmosphere towards a greater climax.
If Yu Yingnan were to attend the death arena, then there was a chance an “aftershow” might happen during the match. Of course the audiences were going to flock to the arena. It was only normal that the tickets would be prized at four to five times its usual prize.
Yu Yingnan’s face changed colors constantly. Suddenly, she clenched her teeth and said, “Alright, I’ll sign it!”
Just when Sky Snake was about to shout in joy at the unexpected good news, Qianye suddenly said, “Wait!”
When everyone’s gazes were focused onto him, Qianye waved the bill in his hand and said, “There are still seven days until this bill is due, right?”
Sky Snake said disdainfully, “So what? You’re not telling me that she could gather this sum of money, or complete a big mission that will pay a sum like this in a such short time, aren’t you? I’ve already inquired about the mission you’ve completely recently, and the total payout of that mission is only a hundred or so gold coins. Or are you saying that a small fry like you is going to repay the sum she owed?”
Qianye said, “Seven days isn’t too much, but it should be enough to sell off a couple of things.”
While saying this, he opened his backpack and took out the Flowing Gold Rose. Slowly, he placed it in front of Sky Snake.
“Cancel her debt in full, and this gun will belong to you. Or if you so wish, I can sell this myself and return 500 gold coins to you later. Now choose!” Qianye said indifferently.
Sky Snake’s expression changed greatly as he picked up the Flowing Gold Rose and gave it a close examination. Then, he carefully tested its origin power conversion rate before finally putting the gun back onto the table with great care. He let out a breath and said, “This is a grade three origin gun! It is the fine handiwork of the vampire race too!”
“You definitely have an eye for things, that’s for sure. So what do you think of my previous suggestion?”
Yu Yingnan grabbed Qianye’s arm immediately and said hastily, “Qianye! You can’t…”
Qianye patted her hand and motioned for her to keep quiet. Then, he looked back at Sky Snake once more.
If this Flowing Gold Rose were to be sold on the empire’s upper continent, its price could easily reach a thousand gold coins. In fact, it could reach an auction price of 600 gold coins even at a place like Darkblood City. It was more than enough to cancel out Yu Yingnan’s debt.
Sky Snake pondered for a moment before his expression suddenly changed when he recalled something. Then, he revealed a somewhat sinister smile and said, “This gun is a little interesting. But does it truly belong to you? I think I remember a friend who seem to have lost something just like this.”
Qianye retorted rudely, “Is your friend a vampire?”
Qianye wasn’t really angry when he heard Sky Snake’s obviously malicious tone. He knew from the beginning that the Flowing Gold Rose would bring trouble the moment it was revealed, but it wasn’t like he had any other choice. Considering Yu Yingnan’s temperament, she would’ve signed that piece of contract under that circumstances. She was an excellent hunter, but that didn’t mean that she could become an excellent gladiator. Moreover, the top champions of the death arena were all at rank five minimum.
Sky Snake slapped his table once and yelled angrily, “What the fuck do you mean by that! You’re too green to be accusing me falsely!”
“I’ve snatched this gun from a vampire on the wasteland. That’s why I asked you that question.” Qianye looked into Sky Snake’s eyes and said that softly. It was as if he didn’t know that Sky Snake Gang would immediately be uprooted by the expeditionary forces the second they were confirmed that they were in cahoots with the vampires.
Sky Snake let out a snort before sneering at him, “And why should I believe your words? In my opinion, you must’ve stolen this gun from somewhere else! How about you leave this gun with me until I confirmed that it wasn’t stolen from my friend. Then we’ll talk about repaying her debt later.”
While saying this, Sky Snake leaned forwards and clutched the Flowing Gold Rose firmly on the table. However, his expression suddenly turned apprehensive when he felt two cold, sudden killing intent pressing down on his body. His movements stopped midway just like that.
Sky Snake slowly raised his head and looked at Qianye with a bit of surprise. It was only natural that Yu Yingnan would carry a thick aura of death around her since she was a rank four fighter with a lot of years of experience as a hunter.
But what surprised Sky Snake was that the other killing intent had actually came from Qianye. This big boy that he nearly overlooked earlier actually carried an aura of death that was much thicker than even Yu Yingnan’s! Sky Snake could even smell a wet scent that felt like a blood waterfall pouring down from above his head.
“Is this the level of trustworthiness Sky Snake Gang has?” Qianye asked coldly.
“Trustworthiness?” Sky Snake wanted to laugh when he heard this word, but he actually found the urge vanishing when he stared back at the little fellow’s calm, almost serious gaze.
But he was ultimately a rank five expert. His face immediately darkened as he replied coldly, “I am Sky Snake, and my name is trust itself! As for you, you are just a kid whose hair isn’t even fully grown yet! How dare a mere one star hunter talk about trustworthiness with me!”
Yu Yingnan had already taken down the assault rifle behind her back by this point and said angrily, “Sky Snake! Don’t you push it too far!”
Qianye sighed quietly on the inside. He understood that Yu Yingnan’s words had screwed up the potential deal instead.