After the ugly scene at Gu Chen’s home, Han Yumei and Han Lei delivered their ultimatum: his family had one month to come up with the money or sell the house. Otherwise, they would file a lawsuit. “I’m so useless I can’t even keep our home.” Luo Sulan clutched Han Yan, her face slick with tears. Luo Sulan was a gentle woman by nature. When Gu Chen’s father was alive, she had been treated like a princess, never having to lift a finger. She didn’t even know how to sweep the floor, let alone manage a household. Gu Chen knew how hard it had been for her to raise him and his sister alone after his father’s death. “Don’t worry, Mom. Dad may be gone, but I’m here now. I won’t let them take our house. You get some rest. I’m going to talk to Uncle Wei about this.” Gu Chen dialed his father’s old friend, Wei Wei, the lawyer who had once served as their family business’s legal counsel. “Hi, Uncle Wei? This is Chen… Is your back any better? I have a legal matter I wanted to ask you about… It’s just…” Gu Chen’s face was a little pale when he finally hung up the phone. He’d confirmed it. His relatives had been telling the truth—they had a legal claim to a part of the house. If they took it to court, the verdict would almost certainly be what they demanded: pay them their share or sell the property and split the proceeds. “Chen, what did Wei Wei say?” Luo Sulan asked, her eyes fixed on him nervously. “Don’t you worry, Mom. I checked with Uncle Wei, and there’s a solution,” Gu Chen said with a reassuring smile. “You just make sure Yan is okay. I’ll take care of this. No one is taking this house from us.” “That’s good… that’s great…” Luo Sulan breathed a heavy sigh of relief. After a restless night, Gu Chen took a train to the teleport station and entered Spirit Crucible first thing in the morning. He materialized in his room at the Gangjia Fortress. When a person teleported into Spirit Crucible, they always appeared in a private room accessible only to them, unless they granted permission to others. This room was his only home in Spirit Crucible until he could complete his first evolution and ascend to the Second Crucible. Gu Chen had no power or influence. To keep the house, his only option was to come up with two million dollars in a single month. It was profoundly unfair, but without power, fairness was a luxury he couldn’t afford. Two million Xingyuan was a staggering sum for a young man who had just finished his integrated compulsory education. In the past, Gu Chen couldn’t have earned that much in a year, let alone a month. But things were different now. If he hadn’t already cooked the shell of the Divine-Blood Ironscale Beetle, that shell alone would have been worth one or two million. Even without the shell, he still had the black crystal, the one that could force creatures to evolve. As long as he had that, two million was nothing. Looking at the carcass of the primitive Jade-Scale Beast on the floor, Gu Chen hesitated for a moment before carving it into pieces. He dried the meat into jerky and packed it in a pouch at his waist. He had to catch a creature first. Only then could he use the crystal to evolve it and sell the valuable flesh. Now that he possessed a suit of sacred-blood-beast soul armor, he could raise his sights from ordinary creatures to primitive ones. Primitive creatures weren’t worth much on their own, and waiting for an ordinary creature to evolve into a primitive one would waste an entire day. To make two million, Gu Chen would need to sell the flesh of a mutant creature, at the very least. Primitive creatures were usually found a dozen kilometers from the Gangjia Fortress. Gu Chen had never dared venture that far before, but now he had his armor. This time, his goal wasn’t the Bronze-Fang Beast, weakest of all primitive creatures. He was targeting the swift mantis, often spotted in Qingfeng Valley. Though a primitive creature, a swift mantis was physically fragile; a well-placed stab from a standard alloy dagger could kill it. The problem was its speed. An ordinary person couldn’t even track its movements, and its pair of hacksaw-like forelegs could shear through human bone. A single blow could cripple a man, if not kill him outright. Few hunters willingly sought them out. For Gu Chen, however, the swift mantis was the perfect choice. At the end of the day, it was still just a primitive creature. There was no way its blades could slice through his Divine-Blood armor. If the mantis couldn’t hurt him, he could definitely kill it. Most importantly, if he severed its claws and wings, a swift mantis would be rendered helpless but would remain alive. That way, Gu Chen could easily carry it back to his room, keep it, and use the black crystal to evolve it into a mutant before selling its flesh. Of course, if he managed to kill a few swift mantises, he might even get lucky and gain a Spirit Core. A swift mantis’s Spirit Core manifested as a swift jagged blade—a long dagger, a weapon type Gu Chen had already mastered. Although the swift jagged blade was only a primitive Spirit Core weapon, it was the sharpest in its class, easily rivaling some mutant-class weapons. Because hunting a swift mantis was so dangerous, few ever went to Qingfeng Valley, and even fewer had obtained a swift jagged blade. A weapon that rare would sell for more than two million. If Gu Chen could score one, he wouldn’t need to bother with selling mutant flesh at all. The closer Gu Chen got to Qingfeng Valley, the fewer people he saw. Soon, the area around the valley was devoid of any human activity. He didn’t dare venture too deep. Instead, he found a concealed spot among the rocks and summoned the Divine-Blood Ironscale Beetle Spirit Core. The brilliant golden armor flowed over his body. Taking a deep breath, he crept toward Qingfeng Valley. Gu Chen moved slowly. The valley was overgrown with dense trees and wild grass as tall as a man. The wind rustled through the canopy and grass, making it nearly impossible to spot a mantis hiding in the shifting foliage. A moment’s carelessness, even in his armor, could result in shattered bones.

Chapter 5: A Debt of Blood