Open up and break into another world

Having killed Tian Dali, Xu Ming rightfully inherited his assets—resources worth nearly two hundred thousand taels of gold, and a storage ring.

"Killing and looting is indeed a way to get rich. No wonder there are so many vicious people who specialize in this kind of business!"

Afterward, Xu Ming accompanied Sun Ji in the Monster Beast Mountain Range to grind for points for a few days. When the time was almost up, they returned to the Desolate Martial Manor to report.

Xu Ming undoubtedly ranked first and was rewarded with one hundred thousand taels of gold; Sun Ji ranked second and was rewarded with eighty thousand taels.

After returning to the Martial Manor, Xu Ming spent another ten thousand merit points to redeem a sacred healing medicine from the Artifact Shop, completely healing Sun Ji's injuries and leaving no hidden dangers.

Xu Ming also gave the extra storage ring to Xu Kai—after all, in the capital, Xu Kai was his only blood relative; Xu Ming could now be considered somewhat successful, so how could he not take care of his clan brother?

In the Martial Manor, news of Tian Dali's death quickly spread.

The vast majority of people, upon hearing it, unhesitatingly believed—he deserved to die!

Only one or two good-for-nothings, who were in cahoots with Tian Dali, cried out for justice for Tian Dali. Of course, whether they cried out for justice or not made no difference, because no one paid them any attention.

Time flowed by uneventfully.

"Finally…Inner Refinement is complete!"

One afternoon, Xu Ming suddenly received a notification from Little Guaji, saying that his cultivation had reached the Perfect Inner Refinement stage through offline training.

Feeling the abundant and surging Profound Qi within his body, Xu Ming couldn't help but let out a long roar.

Perfect Inner Refinement meant that he had reached the pinnacle of the Inner Refinement stage; if he could go one step further, he would be a Connate expert—of course, for Xu Ming, taking it a step further was a very simple matter; all he needed to do was…wait!

"It's been more than a month since I came to this world, and I can finally barely dare to call myself an expert!" Xu Ming exclaimed.

A Perfect Inner Refinement martial artist still held a very high status in the Flying Cloud Kingdom—in major powers such as the Flying Cloud Martial Pavilion and the Nine Cauldrons Merchant Guild, they could serve as middle-level managers; in the army, they could hold the position of ten-thousand-man commander; in small forces or small cities, they could become leaders!

Moreover, Xu Ming's Perfect Inner Refinement was not an ordinary Perfect Inner Refinement martial artist!

"Recently, the situation in the capital seems to be somewhat tense…"

Although Xu Ming was in the Desolate Martial Manor and rarely went out, he could still feel a storm brewing within Cloud Arising City.

Cloud Arising City's defenses were much stricter than usual. The Cloud Arising Guards, originally stationed outside the city, were being mobilized into the city in batches, causing widespread unease.

The entire Cloud Arising City was under strict investigation, and it seemed that many fugitives and spies from other countries had been found.

"It seems that the rumors that the Emperor will abdicate and a new Emperor will ascend the throne at this birthday celebration are likely true…"

When Xu Ming had just returned from the Monster Beast Mountain Range, he had originally wanted to clean up Lin Muqing. However, considering that killing Lin Muqing at this time would likely provoke a conflict between the Lin family and himself, thereby affecting Wen Shuai's chances of winning the throne, he gave up.

Even though Wen Shuai's chances of winning the throne seemed to be very low to begin with…

It was said that Lin Muqing also wanted to find trouble with Xu Ming because he strongly suspected that it was Xu Ming who had put a bounty on him in the Hidden Thorn organization, causing him to lose an arm, and he still hadn't gathered the precious medicinal materials to restore his arm.

However, it was also because of the tense situation that he didn't dare to come to his door.

Xu Ming's days seemed to be uneventful, but in fact, undercurrents were surging.

"You're taking it easy," Xu Ming said.

Wen Shuai drank his tea, his eyes full of enjoyment: "In a few days, whether I succeed or fail, I'm afraid it will be difficult to have such a peaceful time again…"

If he succeeded in vying for the throne, Wen Shuai would become the ruler of the Flying Cloud Kingdom. At that time, he would be in charge of all the affairs of the entire Flying Cloud Kingdom and would be extremely busy. And if he failed… Wen Shuai's fate would be unknown.

"If the birthday celebration were postponed for a few months, maybe I could help you change the situation…" Xu Ming sighed, "But now, my strength is still not enough to help you much!"

"I don't need your help," Wen Shuai said. "When I first befriended you, although I also had the idea of using you to strengthen my power, more than that, I befriended you as a person! To be honest, being in my position, it's really rare to be able to make a friend like you who I can talk to!"

Although Wen Shuai was the Third Prince of the Flying Cloud Kingdom, his identity was actually very awkward.

Because in the competition for the throne, Wen Shuai's chances of winning were far smaller than Wen Man's; therefore, many people in the upper class of the capital avoided Wen Shuai like the plague, for fear of being misunderstood by the First Prince as having a good relationship with Wen Shuai. And those forces and experts who had joined Wen Shuai were actually mostly there for Elder Du, this legendary figure.

"That's true…" Xu Ming quite agreed with Wen Shuai's words.

Wen Shuai had actually always been quite lonely; and Elder Du, who was closest to him, was also his elder, so Wen Shuai couldn't find anyone to talk to about many things in his heart—until he met Xu Ming.

"I don't know how many more times we'll be able to drink tea and chat like this!" Wen Shuai sighed. "Come, let's have a toast with tea instead of wine!"

"Okay!"

The two of them drank a full cup and then fell silent with great understanding.

After a long time, Xu Ming said: "I should also go to the birthday celebration. No matter what the result is at that time, I will do my best to protect you!"

Xu Ming's words were by no means empty words. As long as he could find a way to get a large sum of merit points, then he could turn on the cheat and increase his attack, defense, and speed to a very high level; in this way, Xu Ming could even sweep across the entire Flying Cloud Kingdom!

At that time, not to mention protecting Wen Shuai, even pushing Wen Shuai directly to the throne wouldn't necessarily be too difficult.

"Thank you!" Wen Shuai also heard the confidence in Xu Ming's words, although he was not sure where Xu Ming's confidence came from.

"Perhaps, Xu Ming will ask his mysterious master to come out of the mountain for my sake!" Wen Shuai thought to himself.

All along, Wen Shuai had always felt that behind Xu Ming, there was a very powerful master. As for just how powerful… it was estimated that he was at least at Elder Du's level!

One Elder Du was already enough for Wen Shuai to compete with the powerful First Prince, so what if there were two Elder Dus?

"Boss, there's a beauty looking for you!" Sun Ji's loud voice rang out in the distance.

A beauty?

Xu Ming and Wen Shuai couldn't help but turn their heads to look. They saw Sun Ji still rushing towards them from a distance, but a light figure had already arrived in front of them.

"Miss Quan?"

"Quan Xin?"

Wen Shuai and Xu Ming were both surprised—why would Quan Xin come here?

"Xu Ming, that's your residence, right? I'm sleeping here tonight!" Quan Xin pointed to the small building not far away.

"Uh…yes." Xu Ming was stunned, and hadn't reacted to what was happening. He just replied subconsciously.

"Okay, then I'll go in first!" Quan Xin said, and then ran "impatiently" towards the small building. "By the way, Xu Ming, you come in too, I have something to tell you!"

As soon as she finished speaking, Quan Xin had already entered the small building and even closed the door.

"This…what's the situation?" Xu Ming was dumbfounded. "Can someone tell me what's going on?"

"Bo…Boss!" At this time, Sun Ji finally ran over panting; obviously, he had tried his best to run all the way, but he still couldn't keep up with Quan Xin's speed. "That beauty is looking for you!"

"I know…" Xu Ming was still in a daze—what exactly was going on? Sleeping…here…tonight?

"Brother Xu Ming!" Wen Shuai got up and cupped his fists with a hearty laugh. "I admire you, I admire you! I didn't expect that even Miss Quan, who is known for her aloofness, would be won over by you at some point! Since that's the case, I won't disturb you, I'll take my leave first. Oh, right…I wish you a good dream!"

After speaking, Wen Shuai also raised his eyebrows with a strange smile, as if to say—you got this!

"Go away, don't get in the way here!" Before leaving, Wen Shuai also dragged Sun Ji away.

"Hey, hey, listen to me, I really don't know what's going on! Hey, don't go…"

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