Swallowing the Stars: Starting with the Battle of Geniuses

Chapter 155: Wishes Fulfilled, Azure Lotus Venerable's Fall Progress Reaches 66%

"My dear sister, we really owe you a lot this time!"

The Azure Lotus Venerable hugged Hunzhen with delight, saying happily, "Once I rise to a high position in the Women's Association, I will definitely bring you to my side and reward you handsomely!"

Shortly after she passed the message to Niu Feiyang through a special channel, she heard the news of King Galan's death.

She naturally regarded the treasure she had been eyeing as hers for the long time as hers, and overjoyed, she immediately went to her best friend to share her happiness.

"Hehe, what are you saying, sister? If I don't help you, am I supposed to go and help those stinky men?"

Hunzhen wore a gentle smile, but inwardly he thought with disdain: "This guy is really stingy. I 'helped her so much,' and all I get in return is an empty promise?"

While inwardly grumbling, his face was full of blessings, and he let Venerable Qinglian lead him in a proper celebration.

Meanwhile, through the tapping from the side, it was confirmed that Venerable Qinglian intended to wait a while longer until things settled down before entering the previous "token of love" into the Nine Domains Alliance Treasury to exchange for treasury points within the Nine Domains Alliance. This put his mind at ease.

Another century has passed, and even within the Hongmeng Alliance, it has been largely accepted that King Garan perished in the secret realm.

The Azure Lotus Venerable finally sold his token of love, using his savings to purchase a high-grade psychic weapon from the Nine Domains Alliance.

Such information would not be leaked to anyone else, but Venerable Qinglian was naturally open and frank with Hunzhen, who had fully participated in the "eating up the family's wealth" plan and provided tremendous assistance.

After all, even if she wanted to hide it, Hunzhen would most likely be able to guess it, so why ruin the sisterly relationship?

Moreover, even if she possessed this treasure, her primary purpose was not to use it for combat, but rather to enhance her status within the women's association, so naturally she would inevitably expose it.

Gradually, the women's association members who were familiar with Venerable Qinglian learned more or less about Venerable Qinglian's recent sudden wealth and acquisition of a powerful treasure, which aroused a lot of envy.

When others inquired about the origin of the treasure, Venerable Qinglian simply smiled calmly and did not answer.

And at that moment...

The long-lost King Garan has returned!

……

"W-How is this possible!?"

Inside the mansion, Venerable Qinglian's eyes widened upon seeing the message from King Garan, her lips slightly parted: "Wasn't he already confirmed dead!?"

She contacted Niu Feiyang immediately.

The other party gave an affirmative reply.

"Absolutely right! I crushed him into dust, leaving not a trace of ash. Unless he's a clone, he's surely dead!"

Niu Feiyang's vicious tone was unmistakable.

After hanging up the communication, Venerable Qinglian's face turned ashen.

"A clone? The Gara clan doesn't have the ability to create clones! Even if he really had some extraordinary encounter, why haven't we heard a thing of it for over a hundred years!?"

beep beep.

The Azure Lotus Venerable learned through her virtual assistant that King Garan was sending her a communication request.

Her expression suddenly returned to calm: "So be it, it's come to this. I've already swallowed it. What can this King Garan, a nobody with little influence, do to me?"

Venerable Qinglian quickly calmed down, answered the call, and immediately questioned, "Galan, where have you been gallivanting all this time?!"

"hey-hey……"

On the 3D video feed, King Garan scratched the back of his head shyly, looking at Venerable Qinglian with a gentle expression, and said, "Didn't you tell me to 'earn money to support my family'? Some time ago, I was trapped in a special secret realm isolated from the outside world. It took me a hundred years to pass a rigorous test set by a senior, and I finally came out, having obtained quite a few treasures!"

baby!?

Venerable Qinglian's heart skipped a beat. He instantly suppressed his cold expression and temporarily put aside his doubts about how King Garan had tricked Niu Feiyang into faking his death to enter the special secret realm. He asked gently, "Are you alright, Garan? Honestly, even if I said I needed to 'earn money to support the family,' you couldn't have gone to that dangerous secret realm without a word! I was so worried when I heard the news of your demise!"

On that day, Venerable Qinglian listed many things to prove the huge difference between himself and King Garan. Using dignity as a topic, he used rhetoric to induce King Garan to leave without saying a word, commonly known as... CPU.

At this moment, however, he seemed to have completely forgotten his coercion back then, and it was as if he only had deep concern in his heart.

King Garan seemed to have forgotten about this matter, and only apologized repeatedly, appearing completely like an honest, good man and a good husband. He said that he would go to apologize to his wife right now and comfort her.

The Venerable Qinglian was worried that his sale of the token of their love would be exposed, and he also coveted the treasure that King Garan had just obtained from the secret realm, so he readily agreed.

Originally, she had already intended to sever all ties with King Garan.

However, upon learning of King Garan's new acquisition of treasures, he had another idea. Feeling that it was not yet time to break off relations, he naturally began to think about how to appease the other party in the near future.

So she stepped directly out of the mansion, intending to play the role of a virtuous wife and greet King Garan properly at the door.

Unexpectedly, just a few steps outside the gate, several figures arrived.

"Qinglian, we've come to see you."

However, it was a group of fake sisters from the women's association who arrived together.

Such a coincidence, it seems like everything happened at the right time.

For no apparent reason, Venerable Qinglian felt a bad premonition. Forcing a smile, she asked, "Sisters, what brings you all here today? You could have just contacted the Glory World, why are you all here at once?"

A female venerable one who came to the door smiled and said, "Isn't it because you've been in the limelight lately? The president decided to entrust you with the hosting rights for this social ball. We're just here to deliver the qualification certificate for the event and to drop by and see you."

What a coincidence!

Normally, Venerable Qinglian would have been overjoyed, but at this moment she only felt inexplicably uneasy.

The timing of a social dance party is not fixed. The current time is neither too early nor too late; it just seems like a coincidence.

But Venerable Qinglian felt that something was amiss.

It's true... if someone could really influence the woman to harm her, why go through all this trouble? So rationally, she didn't think there was anything wrong with it.

Whoosh.

Just as they were dealing with the situation, they heard a gust of wind, and it was the arrival of King Garan.

"This..." The female venerable one looked at King Garan with slight doubt.

Another female king, however, brightened up and exclaimed with a smile, "Isn't this King Garan?"

While laughing, she raised an eyebrow at Venerable Qinglian: "Hehe, Sister Qinglian, you recently became rich and bought a priceless treasure. Could it be because of this Prince Charming who specifically named you at the ball?"

In the hidden realms, inheritors often perish. King Garan, an ordinary titled king, would naturally not attract much attention with his death. Unless someone specifically searches for relevant records, outsiders would have virtually no chance of knowing of his demise.

Therefore, although the queen of the women's association recognized King Garan, who had spent lavishly at the ball, she did not know that his appearance at this moment was due to his "resurrection from the dead".

The Azure Lotus Venerable's face turned pale instantly. She looked up abruptly and saw that King Garan's expression, which had been joyful, changed from happiness to confusion. The next moment, as if he had figured something out, his face turned black!

All the women present heard was a question.

"Qinglian, didn't you say you couldn't raise the money at all, which is why you made me pay for the bulk of that token?!"

King Garan glared intently at Venerable Qinglian, saying each word clearly, "And where did you get the resources to exchange for this treasure, huh?"

The King of Garan's openly amplified voice didn't just reach the ears of a few women's association members; in nearby residences, many busybodies peeked out and began to happily gossip.

The latest novel is first published here!

Knowing he could no longer conceal the truth, Venerable Qinglian immediately snorted coldly and said, "King Garan, you'd better show some respect! Don't spout nonsense here! You're just damaging my reputation!"

In her view, as long as she firmly insisted that King Garan was being unreasonable, the rumors would only circulate for a while before nothing more came of it.

After all, the so-called token of love had already been exchanged for the Nine Realms Alliance's treasure points, which were then used to acquire high-level treasures.

In the vast universe, apart from a few insectoid races, female life is always in a vulnerable position, and cosmic life forms naturally tend to believe in these weak women.

This kind of thing isn't unprecedented.

"I... I've damaged your reputation for no reason?!"

King Garan seemed to laugh in anger, pointing his finger at Venerable Qinglian, his finger trembling uncontrollably as if he couldn't control his divine body.

At this moment, not only were the residents of the surrounding mansions happily watching the drama unfold, but even the female members of the Guild who had originally come to congratulate and inform Venerable Qinglian also stepped back a distance, looking on with expressions of anticipation for the show.

With the experience and knowledge of these women's association members, how could they not know what was going on?

It's simply that Venerable Qinglian misappropriated King Garan's property, and the truth came out. This explains why Venerable Qinglian suddenly received such a windfall.

While looking at King Garan's furious expression, Venerable Qinglian remained calm and composed, having already prepared thousands of short essays in his mind to publish in the world of glory.

However, the next moment, King Garan, with a large hand gesture, directly played a video through his virtual device.

The scene features only a man and a woman, whispering sweet nothings to each other.

Everyone immediately recognized the male protagonist as King Garan and the female protagonist as Venerable Qinglian. They seemed surprised that a female Venerable would show such a girlish demeanor, and several shouts of "Oh ho~" immediately rang out from the surrounding mansions.

But the next moment, what Venerable Qinglian said in the scene completely negated their newly formed impression of him.

The Azure Lotus Venerable gently stroked King Garan's chest with her jade-like hand and said softly, "I know, you've always liked that stubborn King Shiyuan, haven't you? Hehe, as long as you agree to my request, I can help you~."

Next, naturally, came the secret plan the two had devised to take down King Shiyuan, a plan that could not be made public. Inevitably, they mentioned the "token of love" and the amount of money King Garan had contributed.

Even the members of the Women's Association were now looking at Venerable Qinglian with a strange expression. This woman was far too vicious! For a treasure, she had sold out her best friends?

Seeing King Garan reveal all this to the public, Venerable Qinglian was furious: "You—you actually secretly recorded this?! Are you even a man?! You actually recorded this kind of thing, and not only did you record it, but you also brazenly released it! Released it right here! King Garan, you've ruined my reputation, I—I'll fight you to the death!"

Seeing the Azure Lotus Venerable, who was jumping up and down in a panic but didn't dare to take any action within the Five-Colored Aurora Lake, King Garan's face turned sinister: "Hmph, I knew long ago that you, you bitch, were no good. How could I not have a backup plan? Did you think I didn't know that Niu Feiyang was someone you lured here? If it weren't for my good fortune, I would have perished in that secret realm a hundred years ago! I even thought that we were husband and wife and was going to forgive you! Now it seems that you were after my wallet from the very beginning! The treasure you have is the one you traded for the token of love I bought for you, isn't it!? If not, then you'd better take out that token of love that 'symbolizes our unwavering love' right now!"

Seeing that Venerable Qinglian was speechless, King Garan sneered, "Can't produce it, huh? If you can't, then let's have a good discussion! I'm going to take back everything that belongs to me!"

After saying this, seeing that Venerable Qinglian couldn't utter a single word, King Garan immediately turned and left.

When the women's association saw King Garan leave, they immediately stepped forward to offer feigned comfort to Venerable Qinglian, but in reality, they were trying to find out some details about the matter.

Looking at the few fake sisters, Venerable Qinglian forced a smile to deal with them. Thinking about how he had embarrassed himself in front of everyone today, he felt a mix of emotions, which gradually turned into hatred for King Garan.

"Why couldn't you just die in that secret realm!?"

As for King Garan's harsh words, although she was slightly worried, she ultimately didn't take them to heart.

The women's association has a history of similar incidents, but they have never caused any major problems.

However... this time her prediction was wrong.

Before she could even get back to her residence and warm up, she received a message from the president of the Women's Association, the Venerable Baihe.

The other party sternly warned her that her deeds were too egregious and spread extremely rapidly, causing great damage to the reputation of the women's association, and ordered her to resolve the matter immediately.

The Azure Lotus Venerable was naturally stunned on the spot. That was a true top-tier cosmic overlord, an existence second only to the cosmic lord! She dared not disobey this communication, which was practically an order!

However, Venerable Qinglian couldn't understand why, when it came to scheming against people, it turned out so badly.

This was undoubtedly the result of Hunzhen's nearly century-long covert manipulation and early intervention, and because the nature of "devouring the family's wealth" was far more egregious than some of the Women's Association's previous misdeeds, it was also due to the results of his deliberate efforts to infiltrate and uncover the Women's Association's dark secrets during this period...

With all these buffs stacked up, from the very beginning, Hunzhen had Qinglian Venerable completely under his control. In addition, the effect of his advanced knowledge had already eliminated the possibility of any accidents.

Venerable Qinglian was heartbroken, but no matter how unwilling she was, the obvious thing was that she had to solve this problem as soon as possible and restore the reputation of the Women's Association.

But when she took the initiative to contact King Garan to discuss a solution, she was dumbfounded.

"What did you say?!"

Venerable Qinglian slammed his fist on the table in anger: "Isn't it enough that I gave you this high-grade treasure that I exchanged for? When did I ever owe you money?!"

(End of this chapter)