When everyone heard the reckless things he was saying, their hands stopped as they turned to look at him.
"Great idea!" said Miao Yi, clapping his hand on his thigh. Sikong Wuwei's eyes instantly brightened. Zhao Fei and the rest were staring at Miao Yi in disbelief, thinking—'You can't be serious, right? We all know how measly our strength is. Our ultimate goal isn't to make a fortune, nor are we aiming to be the top one hundred survivors. We just want to stay alive as long as we can.'
Then, Miao Yi pointed at Sikong Wuwei and hollered, "Sikong Wuwei. We will give you our full support. Go ahead and do it. You can go alone, and we won't take anything you manage to plunder. You can keep it yourself. If you die, we will definitely avenge you when we get the chance."
"Uh…" Sikong Wuwei was dumbfounded. He gave a dry laugh, then kept his mouth shut and ceased his delusions.
Zhao Fei and the rest laughed out loud. They had almost jumped in surprise. The tension within their hearts eased up when they realized Miao Yi was just messing around with the fool.
Sikong Wuwei was embarrassed from the laughter and became enraged. Pointing at Lu Siping, he shouted, "What are you laughing at? If you guys had made any other move earlier, the Alliance Master ordered us to trigger an avalanche and charge over to kill you all. I might have even chopped off your heads already, and you still have the gall to laugh at me?"
Lu Siping and the rest instantly froze, losing all desire to laugh.
'Trigger an avalanche?' They scanned their surroundings and couldn't help feeling a foreboding chill when they finally realized it. If they hadn't made their move on Yan Baichuan earlier on, the Red Scarves Alliance already had a plan on how to deal with the whole lot of them in a single stroke—and such a vicious plan at that!
Everyone felt a little conflicted as they stared at Miao Yi. He gave a dry cough and said, "Everyone belongs to one big family now. Don't say such hurtful things. We mustn't stay here too long. Hurry up and finish whatever you are doing."
Everyone went back to sorting out the Orbs of Will within the storage rings.
Miao Yi's brows creased when he saw the total amount of the Orbs of Will. There were only about ten thousand low-grade Orbs of Will. With over a thousand of them, even if it was divided equally, each person wouldn't even be able to get ten low-grade Orbs of Will.
"We killed so many. Some were even Manor Heads and Mountain Chieftains. Why are there so little Orbs of Will?" said Miao Yi, eyeing the crowd suspiciously. He couldn't help wondering if one of them pocketed some for themselves while they were cleaning up the battlefield. His gaze made everyone understand that he wanted answers.
In order to make sure everything was fair, he barely touched anything and would always immediately toss them over to Qi Xiuhong for safekeeping. Under everyone's watchful gazes, Qi Xiuhong wouldn't be able to do anything even if she wanted to. If there was a problem, then that could only mean that it happened during the time they were cleaning up the battlefield. Miao Yi would not tolerate such dishonorable deeds. He would definitely deal with the culprit if he found out someone did it. He didn't mind killing off one or two people as a warning.
Seeing the iciness in his gaze, Zhao Fei laughed bitterly, "Alliance Master. You may be mistaken. This situation is understandable. I am a Manor Head myself, but for this journey into the Sea of Constellations, I traded off almost all of my Orbs of Will. You could say that I practically spent my entire fortune. Yet, all I managed to obtain in the end were a pair of wristguards. After all, once you enter the Sea of Constellations, your cultivation is not as important as staying alive. By the time I left, I only had several hundred Orbs of Will on me. Usually, the lower-ranking officials wouldn't be able to stock up as much either, so they are probably even more worse off than I am."
"It's true!" The others nodded in agreement, clearly in a similar predicament themselves.
Miao Yi was startled, but after giving it some thought, he had to agree as well.. He was in a similar predicament himself, after all. Back then, he almost expended his entire fortune just to gain even the slightest bit of protection. It was only that his pockets were much deeper than those of the average person. He sighed, "Ultimately, all we did was help the Chambers of Commerce of the six nations earn some profit."
Lu Siping sighed, "Indeed. Every time there is a Sea of Constellations Subjugation Crusade, that is the time when the Chambers of Commerce of each nation makes the most money. It might seem like a hefty sum for each of the Six Sages to offer a hundred thousand low-grade Orbs of Will as a reward, but the truth is the Chamber of Commerce would earn so much more. I've heard that the reward isn't even given out by the Six Sages themselves, but by the Chamber of Commerce working under them."
Sikong Wuwei cursed, "Here we are sending ourselves to our deaths while they're earning a fortune off of it. Damn it all! And they didn't even have to spend a single dime for it. To think they even had the face to offer a mere ten thousand low-grade Orbs of Will!"
However, everyone could only complain amongst themselves. Normally, they might not even dare mention it. But there was no helping it, because the rules of the game were set up by the other party after all.
No one dared to take too many of the Orbs of Will. If they took even just a little bit more, the others might not even get a single orb, and that would look really bad. So after tallying the numbers, they divided it equally among their members and each person managed to take just a few Orbs of Will.
The total amount of crystal coins was equally paltry. Just like with the Orbs of Will, when would they be able to use crystal coins once they were in the Sea of Constellations? Obviously they had to invest in their own survival. If they could trade it off for something to protect themselves, they would have done so without hesitation. After tallying the amount, it was also divided equally among everyone, with each person getting a measly amount of crystal coins.
In contrast, the total amount of Yao Cores, Yin Cores, Inner Cores and the like were a little beyond everyone's expectations. There were over ten thousand gradeless cores and five thousand First Grade Cores, but not a single one was Second Grade or above.
Everyone understood why immediately. This was a necessity for the Sea of Constellations. They had to use these to replenish the energy within their transcendent artifacts.
Miao Yi and the others needed these cores as well. To them now, besides high-grade transcendent artifacts, items like Yao Cores were the most useful. The more transcendent artifacts one possessed and the higher the grade, the more Yao Cores they would need to replenish its energy.
With Miao Yi getting first pick, the ten leaders of the alliance didn't hold back and each took two hundred First Grade cores for themselves. They gave the rest to the others to divide among themselves.
As for the pile of storage rings, Miao Yi and the others didn't take a single one. They couldn't superpose these on one another, so it would just be a hassle to keep it on them. There was no point in having ten fingers full of rings either. Thus, Miao Yi and the others gave the storage rings to their subordinates. After all, they were not short of fingers.
Then there was a whole bunch of miscellaneous items and daily necessities inside the storage rings. After they sorted everything together, they needed over twenty storage rings just to store them all. These rings were given to the members of the Enforcer Division to carry.
After everything was sorted out, Miao Yi took out two empty storage rings and handed them to Qi Xiuhong.
Qi Xiuhong didn't have a single transcendent artifact on her. Even her silver spear was something she had scraped together. She didn't have a single storage ring either. The person that had sent her here to the Sea of Constellations was utter scum. Even Miao Yi couldn't bear to watch and decided to take her in out of pity. It was nothing much for the Alliance Master himself to give away a storage ring or two, since the strongest group of people in the alliance didn't want them either.
Receiving the items, Qi Xiuhong forced a smile and said, "Thank you, Alliance Master."
"You have yet to accomplish anything. Our brothers have fought with their lives on the line to obtain these items, so I can't simply reward you as I please," said Miao Yi.
"I understand." Qi Xiuhong said, lowering her head. It was fortunate enough that these people were willing to let her stay when she couldn't even offer the slightest bit of help. How could she hope for anything more? Having two storage rings was enough. She had never even felt what it was like to have a storage ring of her own in her many years cultivating.
If she was given a second chance, she wouldn't have chosen the path of cultivation. She would much rather be a normal human, get married and have a family of her own. If she hadn't been accepted into the administration simply because of her beauty, she would probably still be a Loose Cultivator right now.
In the midst of carrying a pile of items with them to hand out to their subordinates, the six Captains exchanged glances. Then, Dong Quan took out a First Grade Spear Artifact and presented it before Qi Xiuhong. "This is a small gift from the brothers of the First Division. Please accept it, Auntie."
When he did this, Wang Yuetian quickly followed suit and took out a First Grade Armor Artifact. "Auntie. This is a small gift from the brothers of the Second Division."
"This is a small gift from the brothers of the Third Division."
The six Captains were able to read the situation well and didn't pick out two of the same kind to give to her. Soon, they had presented Qi Xiuhong with a complete set of transcendent artifacts.
However, the title of 'Auntie' didn't sit well with her. It more or less meant that they assumed she was Miao Yi's woman. Qi Xiuhong's face was flushed with embarrassment as she waved her hands to indicate that she couldn't accept their gifts.
Beside her, Miao Yi said, "Now that you're here in the Sea of Constellations, I suggest you put your dignity aside for the moment. There is nothing more important than your own life. If you are able to return alive, nothing can defeat you. Since the brothers are offering these items to you, you may as well accept them."
When she heard him, Qi Xiuhong bit her lip then accepted everyone's gifts, softly replying with, "Thank you!"
To someone who wasn't relatively thick-skinned, it was hard for them to accept such gifts.
The six Captains noticed the embarrassment on her face, and snuck a glance at Miao Yi. They didn't say much and just chuckled as they turned around to leave.
Soon afterwards, with the addition of a massive pile of treasures to their arsenal, everyone's equipment was taken up a notch. Many of them now had a complete set of battle armor. Even though it was mostly pieced together from random scraps of Second Grade and First Grade Transcendent Artifacts, it was better than having none at all.
After everyone was done with their preparations, the previously disorganized group had now become disciplined and orderly.
Under the wind and snow, with the map of the Western Star Sea in their hands, the leaders of the alliance assembled together and discussed on a location to hide themselves. Then, Miao Yi ordered Sikong Wuwei to lead a small group from the Enforcer Division to scout the road ahead while the rest of the troops followed behind on their mounts. Then they began crossing the giant snowy mountain...
Under the vast, starry night sky, and atop the mighty ocean, the Western Constellations Palace was as quiet as ever.
Standing before the astrolabe, Hei Yun laughed in a maniacal voice, "Tang Jun. The forces of your Fifth Earthly Branch are rather fascinating. A few hundred more have died in such a short span of time. Almost seven hundred have already kicked the bucket out of the original two thousand. As for the rest, I think they'll probably die too before the forces of my Ghost Nation can even reach them. Well, this works out too. It won't disrupt the harmony between us then."
Tang Jun had a dark expression on his face as he stared at the astrolabe. However, he replied mockingly, "You think too highly of your own forces. What's really fascinating is how something that's neither ghost nor human like you is able to have a son. Are you sure he's your son? I seem to have heard that he's not related to you?"
"What did you say?" Hei Yun barked. His eyes began glowing with a green sheen and the entire hall was instantly filled with a dark ghostly aura. The horned pythons coiled up on the pillars immediately stuck their tongues out.
Yun Guang was instantly amused. This Tang Jun had a pretty nasty tongue. The other person had just mocked him a little, and Tang Jun immediately shot back with a personal attack. Yun Guang couldn't help asking in jest, "Tang Jun. How do you know whether his son is related to him or not? Do I hear a pinch of jealousy in your tone? That's right. I seem to have heard you are quite familiar with that ghost woman?"
His tongue was clearly much nastier than Tang Jun's.
Tang Jun merely shrugged his shoulders and chuckled, as though admitting to it.
"Bullshit!" roared Hei Yun. He pointed at Yun Guang and shouted, "I'll rip off that dirty tongue of yours!"
Yun Guang cast a sidewards glance at him and scoffed, "I'd like to see you try. Do you think that I won't cut your head off and use it as a chamberpot!?"
Seeing both parties about to throw it down, a white silhouette abruptly flew over. The benevolent Grandmaster Qi Jie stood between both sides and clapped his palms together. "Amitabha. Both of you, please do not forget that we are in Fu Qing's Constellations Palace."