Cheat Cultivator's Ascension - Chapter 473 - 473: Investment
“Am I?” shaking his head before locking gazes with the duchess once more, Su Xiaotian dismissively asked as strength started to surge across his body as well, his power surging and pushing back the heavy pressure bearing down on him, the royal lady having her eyes widened as she never expected the young man in front of her to reveal such strength.
‘That previous fight is never a fluke…’ Despite suppressing her strength to the mortal levels, merely intending to get an interesting reaction out of the immortal-like young man previously, Dongfang Xiang couldn’t help but feel baffled as she realized that, despite the young man’s shallow cultivation level, his actual prowess lies far beyond his current level.
‘Just how far can someone like this go…’ she wonders to herself as she starts getting the two of them out of this slightly awkward situation, pulling the pressure coming out of her back to herself in a split-second, making it seem like what just proceeded never happened at all, her face no longer showing the serious expression, but rather, a jovial, accommodating smile.
“Not bad at all, young man; it wasn’t all too far off the actual answer.” Despite hitting the nail on the head, the duchess still wanted to save some mystique for herself, hence why the act, an act that is way too easily seen through by Su Xiaotian, prompted him to laugh in his mind.
Knowing that there won’t be any benefit to him, as well as the lady in front of him, should he reveal such a fact, he merely keeps himself quiet as he nods to her words, removing his gaze from the royal lady, looking around for a while before returning his attention to her.
“I’ll take that as a compliment, Miss Xiang,” he replied with a smile on his face, the two of them continuing to share some pleasantry for a while before they finally got into the main topic of their discussion, with the duchess starting with an offer to him at first.
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“So, you want me to enter this academy of this grand kingdom of yours? That’s the only condition for all those things you promised?” thinking about the numerous perks and benefits of the offer that the duchess had just laid out on the table for him, the immortal-like young man felt quite baffled, not because of the value of those things to him, but rather the value of those things for these people.
‘I’m more than able to just buy such things or maybe even better items in the system but… for them to be able to take out such things for me… truly impressive…’ he thought to himself as he felt the need to reevaluate his thoughts about this royal family whose shared quite the unpleasant first encounter with him, particularly his thoughts and mental image of this lady.
Hearing the traces of doubt in the young man’s mind, the duchess shakes her head helplessly as she starts explaining why she gave an offer like that, something that can only be described as too good to be true in the standards of not only the people of the Sky Soul Star, but even those knowledgeable about their kingdom as well.
“The reason for the exchange is establish a good connection with a talent, in this case, yourself, Tian boy, after all” Dongfang Xiang starts clarifying as she finally finds a position that made her body significantly more comfortable than before, her entire body on the soft chair with her long, shapely legs on one side and her upper body brought close to the table separating her and the young man, her dazzling eyes glowing with intelligence as she continues.
“Of course, that’s only the temporary goal of us losing out so much in such an exchange, however, such short term loses is of no big matter to what we can get in return~~” she continues as from the moment she finds herself comfortable in this place, from the previous intelligent, sharp lady, she starts shifting into a playful, fox-like tone.
“Return?” Despite already having an idea of what she is talking about, Su Xiaotian continues to show interest as he wants to confirm it through her own words, the words he expected, and the ones that came out of her mouth the next moment, just varying slightly without any difference in their substance.
“I’ve been playing quite the fool for a lot of times already that I can instinctively tell when one is doing so as well, kid…” she shakes her head as she watches the young man act, praising him as she concluded that such act of his would pass as something believable had it not been her that is in front of him right now.
“There’s nothing entertaining if I just cut you in the middle and guess it again, am I wrong?” no expecting the young man to retort to her remarks, the duchess caught herself laughing with quite the amusement, her eyes slightly teary, making the immortal-like young man wonder just what is it about what he said that is funny enough for this lady to act like so.
“It has truly been a while since there’s someone outside of my family to act this audacious, but not pretentious, in front of me, it really is quite refreshing~” Dongfang Xiang said as if she’s answering the unspoken question on Su Xiaotian’s mind, her expression gradually recovering despite the smile of amusement never leaving her now bright face before she starts speaking once again.
“Well, I should probably consider it one of those returns I am talking about~” she paused, taking a serious look at the young man in front of her before she nodded, opening her mouth once more as she continued with her reason.
“But most importantly, the return we’re talking about, as I suppose you’re already well aware of, Tian boy, is the fact that helping you when you’re still a fledgling is basically us nurturing a giant tree we can take shade from on a hot day, and shelter from in the rain…”
Looking with quite the mix of complex emotions towards the young man, Dongfang Xiang sighs before she starts wondering what sorts of hardship this young man had to go through in order to reach this level of strength for someone of his cultivation level, not to mention the sufferings he will encounter should he continue walking this path.
“Miss Xiang seems to be way too optimistic about my chances to reach great heights in cultivation, shouldn’t you yourself know the most just how hard it will be for talented people like ourselves? Not to mention the tribulation of nature we have to go through, there’s also jealous people who won’t stop at anything, coveting what others possess.”
With such reminders from Su Xiaotian, Dongfang Xiang merely shakes her head as she felt like this young man is merely trying to test her nerves, whether she truly wants to spend a massive effort just to support him, a test that she would’ve passed anyways as the moment she saw the chasm between him and the other geniuses of his age, geniuses who came not only from this planet but also from the great forces of the kingdom her family rules over, she already decided to do her best to establish a connection between him and the kingdom her sister reigns over.
