Planet Pulverizer: A Mortal's Ascent

Chapter 100: 500 Million

"How dare you!" Cao Tianyou was furious at the chaotic situation and yelled loudly, "Five Elements Sect's disciples!"

"At your command, Sect Master!"

Zhao Yuan and hundreds of disciples shouted in unison.

The Five Element Sect's average strength paled in comparison to the Solar Vermillion Sects. Nevertheless, witnessing Li Pin effortlessly defeat Qiu Changfeng filled them with pride and renewed their determination. Even if they were to fight against practitioners of Covert or Transformative Force, they wouldn't flinch.

Moreover, this was their turf.... If others dared to cause trouble on their turf, how could they possibly stand by and tolerate it?

Suddenly, Li Pin laughed loudly. "Hahaha! Well done!"

He continued, "Sect Master Cao, guard the entrance for me! Don't let any one of them escape! As for the Solar Vermillion Sect disciples...."

Li Pin made his move, tearing through Chang Yuanshan's defenses like lightning and gripping his neck tightly.

Crack!

With a burst of force from his fingers, Li Pin instantly crushed the Aura Force martial artist's neck, ending his struggle.

Tossing the corpse aside, Li Pin's gaze burned with aggression. He swept his eyes over all the Solar Vermillion Sect disciples in the arena.

"Come at me all at once!" he challenged, eyes blazing with intensity. "I'll take on every single one of you!"

"Uncle Chang!" raged Qiu Changfeng.

When he saw how Li Pin had snapped Chang Yuanshan's neck, Qiu Changfeng was incensed. Hair standing on end, he raged, "Li Pin! I refuse to believe you can keep this up for much longer! Let's see if you can fight all of us at once! Kill him!"

The Solar Vermillion Sect disciples, eyes reddened with fury, echoed the command, "Kill!"

***

A few minutes later, Li Pin was standing alone in the center of the arena. He slowly picked up a piece of cloth from somewhere and wiped the blood from his fists.

This blood mostly wasn't his.

Around Li Pin lay the bodies of more than thirty Solar Vermillion Sect disciples. Some groaned in pain from broken bones, while others remained motionless, completely lifeless. Among them was Qiu Changfeng, who had foolishly believed that sheer numbers could overpower Li Pin.

"Li Pin! Li Pin! Li Pin!" Lying on the ground, Qiu Chuyun roared in rage, pain, and despair, "You want to annihilate the entire Solar Vermillion Sect's legacy! You're cruel! Absolutely ruthless!"

Cao Tianyou stepped forward, his voice deep and serious. "You brought so many Solar Vermillion Sect disciples to besiege my sect tonight. Do you really need me to spell out why you were originally here?"

Cao Tianyou turned his attention to Li Pin. Watching as he wiped the blood from his hands, Cao Tianyou's eyes didn't carry the condescension of an elder, nor did they hold the regard of an equal. Instead, his gaze was replaced with a trace of newfound respect.

A smile rising on his lips, Cao Tianyou asked Li Pin, "Grandmaster Li, are you satisfied?"

Li Pin nodded. "Yes."

He truly found tonight to be satisfying.

"I'll leave this place to you. Assemble a team. We are heading to the Solar Vermillion Sect," Li Pin said calmly. "If they can come to us, we can go to them."

"Understood," Cao Tianyou responded immediately. "Zhao Yuan!"

"Leave it to me!" Zhao Yuan responded enthusiastically. "This martial arts exchange with the Solar Vermillion Sect is registered with the martial society. In exchanges, deaths and injuries are a common sight. Today just happened to have more casualties than usual."

Ring, ring!

At this moment, Cao Tianyou's phone rang.

As he picked up the call, a voice swiftly came through.

—Master... we've recovered the body of Solar Vermillion Sect's Sect Master, Qiu Chufeng.

"Is he really dead!?"

—He's dead!

The voice coming from the other end was grave and tinged with fear.

—He died from a shattered skull.

Likely due to his age, Cao Tianyou's phone was set to a very high volume, making it audible to everyone nearby.

For a moment, Qiu Chuyun appeared unable to accept reality, shouting frantically, "Impossible! It can't be true! How could the Sect Master die! He's a Martial Saint! An expert at the pinnacle of martial arts! How could he possibly die!"

Because Qiu Chuyun had already sustained life-threatening injuries, with his internal organs shattered, his agitation caused him to suddenly spew out a mouthful of blood.

"The Solar Vermillion Sect, the Solar Vermillion Sect... I refuse to accept this... I refuse to accept this...."

He cried out in agony, his voice growing weaker, until finally, he lost his breath.

Seeing his pitiful state, both the intimidated disciples of the Solar Vermillion Sect and the disciples of the Five Elements Sect felt a surge of emotion and lamented him.

"The grandmaster of the Solar Vermillion Sect, and he dies just like that?"

"So what if he's a grandmaster?" Li Pin said. "There's no such thing as perpetual victory or invincibility. No sect or individual can remain perpetually strong and everlasting.

Li Pin had this realization even before he developed Core Force in his previous life. Yet Qiu Chuyun, an Aura Cultivation expert, still failed to grasp this fundamental truth.

With that, Li Pin crossed his arms, calmly turned around, and walked outside.

When he passed Jiang Zhenhai, he paused and cast a glance at him. Having already lost his courage, this seemingly simple gesture caused Jiang Zhenhai's legs to go weak, and he slumped to the ground.

"Grandmaster Li... I... I..." he spluttered.

"Dominate the Jiang Province, huh," muttered Li Pin.

Li Pin recalled his first meeting with Jiang Zhenhai, the Dragon Fist from the capital city, who had been so full of confidence and brilliance....

He couldn't even muster up the courage to throw a punch at him at this moment.

Li Pin shook his head and vanished from the hall. Zhao Yuan quickly signaled a team of elite members to follow him.

Seated on the floor, Jiang Zhenhai's eyes flickered with indescribable pain as he watched Li Pin leave the hall.

The Sect Master, Qiu Chufeng, perished.

The Vice Sect Master, Qiu Chuyun, perished.

The Aura Force martial artist, Chang Yuanshan, also perished.

Even half of the meticulously chosen elite martial artists sent to counter the Five Elements Sect... have been killed or heavily injured. The remaining ones...had lost their will to fight.

These disciples would most likely abandon their path and switch to more stable industries.

Without courageous elite disciples... the Solar Vermillion Sect was done for.

And all of this had happened because he mistakenly believed that he had uncovered Li Pin's weakness and handed a video suggesting Li Pin had used Blood-Seething Powder to Qiu Chufeng, leading the Sect Master to entertain his misguided thoughts.

The cost of this mistake... was everything!

Jiang Zhenhai sat there, dazed, as though he was trapped in a never-ending nightmare he could never wake from.

If Heaven could grant him another chance, he would never have handed over those videos.

***

The elite forces of the Solar Vermillion Sect had already been deployed to besiege the Five Elements Sect. With neither the Sect Master nor the Vice Sect Master present, the Solar Vermillion Sect found itself leaderless, akin to a herd of dragons without their heads.

While there were martial artists of considerable prowess present, they were no match for the combined assault of Li Pin, Zhao Yuan, and the elite fighters of the Five Elements Sect.

Needless to say, this assault would be attributed to a "martial arts exchange." After all, the Solar Vermillion Sect themselves were the ones who initiated the request for this operation.

Tragically, over twenty disciples succumbed to their injuries during this "exchange," causing the remaining members of the Solar Vermillion Sect to disperse.

In just one hour, the Solar Vermillion Sect had fallen completely under the Five Element Sect's control.

***

At the Solar Vermillion Sect.

Li Pin was studying manuals related to the Solar Vermillion Force and the sect's teachings when Zhao Yuan hurriedly ushered him into another room.

Inside the room were three genuine Astral Crystals and four pieces of genuine astral equipment. In addition to that, there was also a variety of precious materials and medicinal herbs.

These items were relatively normal. The most peculiar object was a box containing over a dozen property transfer certificates.

The preliminary procedures for these certificates have already been completed, leaving only the final exchange to be executed. In fact, some of these certificates did not require personal attendance as all the necessary authorization documents were already in place.

"So... how much is it?" Li Pin asked.

Zhao Yuan took a deep breath and exclaimed, "The total value of just these assets already surpasses 500 million. With all ownership transfers and authorization procedures completed, we can easily get 300 million."

500 million!

While the Five Elements Sect had a market capitalization of several billions, these were mostly just estimated valuations. If they were to liquidate their assets within half a month, a billion would have been considered a decent outcome.

Li Pin asked, somewhat surprised, "Why is the Solar Vermillion Sect transferring so many assets? Is there an impending financial crisis?"

"I, too, couldn't understand why at first, but based on what I have heard from the Solar Vermillion Sect's disciples, I made a guess," Zhao Yuan said, glancing at the assets. "This should be the compensation that the Solar Vermillion Sect is giving to the Zhou family."

"Zhou Family?" Li Pin quickly figured out something. "Zhou Chaoguang?"

"Yes, the Solar Vermillion Sect sent Zhou Chaoguang to deal with you, but it cost him his life instead. The Zhou Family still has an elderly grandmaster, but he's over seventy and even I could hold my ground against him.

"Zhou Chaoguang was the one holding up the Zhou Family, and with his death, they've lost their main support. Naturally, they won't be willing to let this go and will demand compensation from the Solar Vermillion Sect."

Zhao Yuan smiled and continued, "I'm curious as to what evidence the Zhou family had over the Solar Vermillion Sect that compelled them to lower their heads. But now... that's irrelevant. Grandmaster Li, all this will soon be your spoils of war."

Li Pin shifted his gaze onto the property transfer agreements.

Soon, he picked out a few that still needed some finishing touches and handed them over to Zhao Yuan.

"The Five Elements Sect should have their own way to liquidate these properties. There may be some costs associated with it, but whatever you manage to get from it, it all belongs to the Five Elements Sect," Li Pin said.

"No," Zhao Yuan declined promptly. "Grandmaster Li, you can leave the liquidation to us, but we mustn't accept the funds from the sale."

The Five Elements Sect could at least liquidate one hundred million from the property worth two hundred million. This was a huge sum given the size of the Five Elements Sect.

"Take it," Li Pin insisted. "There will likely be some fallout from this matter. I'll leave it to the Five Elements Sect to handle it."

"This..."

For a moment, Zhao Yuan didn't know how to respond. He could only turn to Cao Tianyou for a decision.

Li Pin didn't say anything more and began picking up the four pieces of astral equipment.

"Are these astral equipment made from genuine Astral Crystals?" Li Pin asked, taking out a piece of astral equipment in the form of a necklace.

"Yes, they are genuine Astral Crystals, further refining it with various other crystals will give it remarkable properties," Zhao Yuan continued. "If we consider the Astral Equipment worth a few million circulating on the market as something that Astral Cultivators look down upon, crafted merely to deceive ordinary people and provide a sense of psychological comfort, then these astral equipments... are the real deal!

"The Astral Equipment the newly awakened Astral Cultivators used are all at this level. Each one starts at twenty or thirty million."

"What's the margin?" Li Pin asked.

"It's doubled."

"Doubled?" Li Pin was a bit surprised. "The price has increased tenfold?"

"It's mainly due to the labor costs," Zhao Yuan explained. "Astral Cultivators can easily craft Substandard astral equipment, but these genuine astral equipment pieces require much more effort to craft. Since Astral Cultivators' time is valuable, their prices would naturally be higher."

Li Pin nodded.

Three pieces of genuine Astral Crystals plus four genuine Astral Equipments, at the very least, amount to 150 million. Add in some materials, precious medicines, and assets worth 300 million....

By destroying the Solar Vermillion Sect, Li Pin had gained 500 million!

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