I Don't Agree to the Terms
Chapter 279 - 165: Since We’re Here, Take Everything - Part 2

Chapter 279: Chapter 165: Since We’re Here, Take Everything - Part 2

"Tomorrow I will go back into the mountains to search for Hu Mountain Cave. What are your plans?" Gu Shanhai had his own agenda. He had already searched Yun Niang Temple, but he had not yet visited the deserted gold disposal site of Hu Mountain Cave.

What if the painting is in there instead of with Yue Niang?

"Let’s keep working on improving our rapport with Yu Niang and Yue Niang. Yu Niang is simply a hopeless romantic, so if we want to save her, we must gain enough rapport." When White Cloud mentioned the term "hopeless romantic," he was gritting his teeth so hard that Gu Shanhai reckoned he could grind soybeans into powder with that bite.

This couple could be classified as the chaotic good alignment, acting solely for the sake of their conscience and were detached from any forthcoming disastrous floods since they only concerned themselves with the consequences of their good deeds that fell into the chaotic domain and simply ignored everything else.

Most players focused on chaotic good or chaotic neutral alignments, with other alignments being more niche and less common, typically involving behaviors that were more self-indulgent.

"Fine, let’s distribute according to this plan." Gu Shanhai did not care to interfere with their choices but cautioned, "Keep a close watch on Yue Niang for me and try to gather information about Luo Family and the previous situation at Hu Mountain Cave."

If the two of them couldn’t provide Gu Shanhai with the needed information, once he was free, he would just directly invest in divination predictions for himself; there was no need at this stage.

He didn’t even know what was causing the cycle of reincarnation, and saw no need to act on it.

For Gu Shanhai, if he couldn’t acquire the item triggering the reincarnation this time, he planned on using a page from the Time History Book to forge an identity as a resident of Qingxian Town to further his investigations.

"Right, we’ll be careful. But you should get rid of these items quickly to avoid slipping up," the Heavenly Immortal Kui said, agreeing to the plan although the mission had a main storyline, it was still very convoluted.

"I plan to dump all these items in the storeroom at Luo Mansion and see if they will turn on each other. If there’s a chance, you might try to influence them but keep it subtle otherwise it might backfire," Gu Shanhai’s approach was straightforward, lacking any fancy schemes or elaborate plans—simplicity was easier to manage.

"You’re cunning, too bad there’s no imperial court here, otherwise you could definitely make Luo Mansion shed a layer," Heavenly Immortal Kui expressed some regret; while the imperial court had emerged based on the collected intelligence, its influence was not as significant as in other instance regions under the same world view, and they were unable to reach it for favors.

"Or maybe... you could blow up Luo Mansion altogether and take down Luo Huaisong, his foolish son, and the Japanese, then kill Fan Shi under the cover of night—that would solve everything," White Cloud suggested an impressively radical idea.

Gu Shanhai was speechless; it was a perfect idea in theory and he agreed wholeheartedly, but it was definitely not a solution. It might be thrilling, but after the thrill, they would most likely have to reset and start over.

"Can do, but it’ll have to wait till the day after tomorrow." Gu Shanhai agreed, thinking he would investigate for one more day tomorrow, trying to thoroughly understand Hu Mountain Cave before taking action.

As for tonight, after placing the items in Luo Mansion, he planned to cultivate.

Although he had Spirit Plants, Spirit Root, etc., to help with automatic cultivation, he maintained a daily practice routine. His cultivation was not about the repetitive circulation of Mana but about constantly simulating and refining the "Green Emperor Longevity Scripture." Although it currently had only five levels, there was still room for growth.

Especially since arriving in the Causality World, Gu Shanhai had been continuously refining the first layer, Sensing Spirit, and the second layer, Perceiving, through cultivation techniques and spells from Xuanwei Sect. With his realm of strength being different, it was a case of reviewing the old to gain new insights.

"Oh, so you’re planning to investigate Hu Mountain Cave," Heavenly Immortal Kui realized Gu Shanhai’s intention.

"Exactly, I’ll discuss the rest upon my return. I’m going to make a trip to Luo Mansion now." Gu Shanhai quickly set off, levitating while carrying the items.

He soon arrived at Luo Mansion and, of course, knew where the storerooms were. He had thoroughly scoped out Luo Mansion earlier that day, even knowing where Luo Huaisong’s concubine and the house steward engaged discreetly in some ’games’ that were unmentionable below the neck.

Indeed, Luo Huaisong was ahead, entertaining guests, his steward calming his concubine. Gu Shanhai glanced as he passed by, even taking a photo, planning to later use it to coerce the steward and concubine into becoming his insiders.

"What a golden opportunity landing right at his doorstep, Gu Shanhai definitely couldn’t just take a look and leave it at that, he had to make use of it.

The storeroom was brightly lit, with two house servants on guard, but they looked drowsy and unattentive.

That was normal, hardly anyone would cause trouble at Luo Mansion, the Emperor’s authority was still respected.

Gu Shanhai walked right in as bold as brass, after stashing his things he took a stroll around to see if there was anything worthwhile.

Unfortunately, it was just an ordinary storeroom, none of the ledgers or trade documents with Japan would be kept here.

There were some gold and jewels, but they were relatively limited, mostly textiles and ceramics, often textiles could be used as currency, even holding more value than cash.

He quickly handled his business, and his senses spread out to explore the entire Luo Mansion, not lucky enough to stumble upon them plotting something, everyone was asleep at this point.

Especially today, Luo Huaisong and Gu Nei Zhenren had been drinking almost the entire day, both were deep in slumber, almost like they were dead.

’Once I start cultivating and have Spiritual Sense, I won’t have to rely on senses like this...’

His current senses were more like the basic five senses, while Spiritual Sense was akin to radar detection creating three-dimensional images, naturally providing much clearer vision. Of course, if Gu Shanhai used spiritual power to scan externally, he could achieve the same effect but it would be cruder and less safe.

"Job’s done, let’s get out of here," Gu Shanhai retracted his senses and left the storeroom and Luo Mansion without a sound.

He even tidied up any traces he might have left, ensuring no one could track him through them, this sort of skill definitely required practice, an essential backend capability for committing arson or murder.

Back at the mansion, the two were still binge-watching shows, something that left Gu Shanhai speechless.

Couldn’t they find some growth-type skills to improve their attributes?

Such skills weren’t rare, like Cultivation Techniques, Magic Meditation, etc., similar practices; even if one didn’t grind them, there were others selling on the trading floor. Players had no upper limit on learning skills, just prerequisite learning requirements. Like these long-duration instances, Gu Shanhai had done the same in his past life.

Yet some players didn’t bother because it was too cumbersome, sometimes grinding an instance might not raise proficiency much and took too much time, not to mention leveling up or boosting attributes. With that time they could just use skill points or Game Coins for leveling up, a click of the finger for easier improvement, much more efficient than grinding proficiency.

Gu Shanhai didn’t criticize the others, everyone had their own way of living.

He just found a corner and started to cultivate. Heavenly Immortal Drunk cast him a glance, he knew it was skill proficiency grinding, but didn’t expect anyone would actually use such an inefficient method to improve skills.

As long as you haven’t leveled up, no matter how much proficiency you had, the price remained the same. For players, once they had the skills, they would level them up immediately, why grind themselves into a loss?

"Never seen grinding skill proficiency before," Gu Shanhai remarked with a half-joking tone.

"Me neither," Heavenly Immortal Drunk chuckled, speaking the truth, and without disturbing Gu Shanhai, went back to watching his show."