The call connected, and both ends fell silent.

Until Lin Haifeng’s voice came from the other end of the communicator: "Xiao Xue, you go out first."

"Let her stay."

Wen Yu cut Lin Haifeng off, his tone unfriendly and his words aimed straight at Lin Tianxue.

"Xiao Xue?"

"Lord Wen Yu."

From the other side came Xiao Xue’s cool voice, and for a moment Wen Yu seemed to recall their first meeting back in City M.

Back then, Xiao Xue had looked like she didn’t have much scheming in her, but her actual capability was already quite good. Add the tempering of these last few years—Wen Yu had to admit that Lin Haifeng’s whole family really was outstanding in a way that exceeded normal people... from a certain perspective, anyway.

The memory was cut off by Wen Yu himself. At this moment he said coldly, "I’m going to ask you one thing—did you send people to the Spirit World’s Treasure Land to snatch the Esoteric Level skill upgrade scroll?"

"Yes."

Lin Tianxue admitted it without arguing—there was no room to hide this in the first place, and nothing worth hiding.

"Then do you know that the Esoteric Level skill upgrade scroll is something I wanted?"

"I didn’t know, my lord."

Whether Lin Tianxue knew or not wasn’t important. The item was already in Wen Yu’s hands, and besides, Wen Yu himself didn’t think he had enough personal charisma to make the military wag their tails and obediently deliver every good thing into his hands.

That wasn’t realistic.

"Then do you know that this woman you’re hunting, this Sun Xuewei, is my old friend’s daughter?"

"I didn’t know, my lord."

On the other end of the communicator, Lin Tianxue’s tone was icy, but her answers were all "I don’t know."

"Well, you know now, right?"

"I know now."

There was still no joy, anger, sorrow, or delight to be heard. With just a conversation over distance, Wen Yu couldn’t guess what kind of expression Lin Tianxue had on her face at the moment—and in fact, there was basically no expression on her face at all.

"Remember, this is the last time. Lin Haifeng, keep your daughter in line."

He gave Lin Haifeng a stern warning—not only telling him to keep his daughter in line, but also warning him to stop playing all these messy little tricks in the future.

Wen Yu was certain that with Lin Haifeng’s ability, he would definitely be able to hear the meaning between the lines.

"Beep, beep, beep..."

The call ended. Wen Yu put the communicator back into his space ring, then turned and looked at Sun Xuewei, who was now standing upright with the support of a tree, and slowly furrowed his brows.

The daughter of an old friend...

This was trouble.

Human relationships are inherently an incredibly troublesome thing. There weren’t any of these complicated ties around Wen Yu, and he was quite glad he didn’t have them. But back then he had indeed accepted Sun Ruixing’s favor—that was an undeniable fact. Wen Yu wasn’t a good person, but repaying kindness with hatred was something he still couldn’t bring himself to do.

What’s more, Wen Yu had just remembered that he seemed to still owe Sun Xuewei two things—fine, the bullshit he’d pretended to act out in the past, he’d naturally have to swallow the bitter fruit himself.

So...

"The Esoteric Level skill upgrade scroll, I definitely won’t give it to you. In exchange, I can give you three SSS-Class skill scrolls. And I’ll help you settle what happened today. Mm, you should have heard the contents of that call just now. The culprit behind this is Lin Tianxue, the precious daughter of Lin Haifeng, the boss of the Yanjing Assembly Site. As for revenge or whatever, don’t even think about it. But I can guarantee that from now on in Yanjing you won’t have to bear any pressure from the military, and I can have them look after you a bit. Mm, that’s about it."

Aside from the three SSS-Class skill scrolls being an extra expense, the rest was just a matter of Wen Yu saying a single sentence—in fact, Wen Yu no longer even needed to say more. Lin Haifeng would understand by himself how he should treat Sun Xuewei and her small team in the future.

But it would only go that far; as for more care...

People still had to rely on themselves. Wen Yu might be strong, but he wasn’t going to support freeloaders.

After saying all this, Wen Yu calmly looked at the woman in front of him.

Sun Xuewei’s looks were decent; she could probably be considered a seven or eight out of ten beauty, and between her brows there was indeed a bit of Sun Ruixing’s former appearance.

But that was useless. In Wen Yu’s heart, there was no difference between women and men. He only cared whether someone was useful to him. The only difference between the sexes, at most, was that females had one extra function as far as he was concerned. As for all that romantic love crap, that kind of thing was far too extravagant in the apocalypse—just think about Ye Nan... tsk tsk, in the apocalypse, romance was practically a giant glowing weak point in the dark.

As for Sun Ruixing—people always have to let go of the past and look to the future, don’t they?

Hearing Wen Yu’s words, the corner of Sun Xuewei’s mouth trembled slightly. After a long moment, as if she had made some kind of decision, she raised her head and fixed her eyes on Wen Yu.

"I want to know how my father died..."

Sun Xuewei’s words made Wen Yu raise his eyebrows.

"Your father? Ah, judging from the look of it, you should have been to his grave already..."

Sun Ruixing’s grave was easy to find, and in the current peaceful environment, with Peak Level 6 strength, Sun Xuewei was more than capable of going to seek out the truth of certain matters.

"Yes."

"I killed him! Back then the situation was that only one of us could live, so I killed him."

Very straightforward words; in just two sentences he summed up everything that had happened in the past—there was nothing unspeakable about it. Since he had already let go of these things, then there was nothing left to hide. As for making enemies or whatever...

Leaving aside whether Sun Xuewei even had the qualifications to be his enemy, even if she did, all she could do was hope that Sun Ruixing’s spirit in heaven would bless her...

Sure enough, Sun Xuewei did not reveal any resentment or hatred. Instead, it was as if a huge stone had been lifted from her heart, and her whole being instantly relaxed quite a bit.

She gave Wen Yu a slight bow. "Thank you for telling me this, and thank you for helping me just now."

As a soul-type powerful expert, his Perception Ability was relatively outstanding. With Wen Yu’s power, he naturally sensed Sun Xuewei’s true state of mind—she had no intention of revenge at all. Compared to avenging her dead father, she wanted more to look toward her own future. This was probably also the common wish of both Sun Ruixing and Wen Yu.

So...

"Let’s talk business then. I remember Lord Sequence Number 2 promised me two favors back then, right?"

Wen Yu was stunned for a moment, then looked at Sun Xuewei with a face full of appreciation—this girl wasn’t bad. Not only did she have self-awareness, she also knew how to maximize her own利益.

To demand benefits from your father’s killer—this kind of psychological fortitude was anything but ordinary!

"One!"

Wen Yu raised his index finger.

"Just now you asked me about the truth of your father’s death, and I also told you the truth. That counts as one favor."

"Fine."

Sun Xuewei nodded, accepting Wen Yu’s reasoning. At this moment she looked just like a businesswoman negotiating a deal, her brows and eyes filled with deep thought. It was obvious she wanted to use this favor from Wen Yu to exchange for some capital sufficient to transform herself.

"I want a Limit Breaking Ability."

"Dream on! Little girl, let me tell you, even a lion opening its mouth wide wouldn’t dare open it as wide as you just did."

"Then I want an Esoteric Level ability."

This condition instantly rendered Wen Yu silent...

One favor, one Esoteric Level skill—Wen Yu’s favor at this point really was worth that price...

Unfortunately, Wen Yu currently didn’t have any ready-made Esoteric Level abilities on hand. If he agreed, he might have to spend a few months heading off to some treasure land to scour for one, paying far too high a price.

Seeing Wen Yu frown in thought, Sun Xuewei’s heart was pounding like a drum—she had, of course, heard of Wen Yu’s name. When she saw Wen Yu’s portrait a few years ago, Sun Xuewei instantly recalled scene after scene from the past. Knowing she had missed out on a huge opportunity, she had once thought of going to the Star of Africa to look for Wen Yu and obtain some benefits. But how could Wen Yu be someone any random Tom, Dick, or Harry could just meet?

Sun Xuewei simply couldn’t even find a way to approach him...

And now, the opportunity had delivered itself right to her door...

If she didn’t take a hard bite out of this big, fat piece of meat, she’d practically be letting the deceased Sun Ruixing down! Revenge was definitely out of the question—Sun Xuewei had that much self-awareness—so squeezing some extra benefits out of him wasn’t too much, was it?

It really wasn’t too much...

"An Esoteric Level skill is doable. My favor is indeed worth that much. But for you, it’s not the best choice. How about this: I’ll put together a Skill System centered on the Indestructible Flashing Bluestar for you, guaranteed to contain 2 SSS-Class skills, and none of the remaining ones will be lower than S-class. With that, the boost you get will be much greater than from a single Esoteric Level skill alone."

"Then what about the three SSS-Class skills you promised in exchange for the Esoteric Level skill upgrade scroll?"

Sun Xuewei’s attitude was completely unyielding—she had also accurately judged that Wen Yu wasn’t going to do anything to her.

"Those naturally count as extra."

Wen Yu went generous for once.

"Okay."

Sun Xuewei nodded in agreement, and then she saw Wen Yu directly take out three skill scrolls from his space ring.

Deification (SSS-Class, Passive Skill).

Fortress (SSS-Class, Passive Skill): Passively enhances any Soul-Armored state, skills, and defense capabilities granted by physical attributes, increasing them tenfold!

Torrent (SSS-Class, Passive Skill): Fully Strengthens all water-based Skill Effects, increasing them by 150%.

These three skill scrolls were all Wen Yu’s own creations—the Skill Effects were simple, with large amplification values. That was the main characteristic of the SSS-Class skills Wen Yu designed.

For complex skills like Ultra Mortal Combat, Wen Yu couldn’t create them. But as for these simple and direct Passive Skills, the actual effect they could exert was by no means bad.

After tossing the three skill scrolls to Sun Xuewei, Wen Yu said to her, "Now, let me have a look at the description for Indestructible Flashing Bluestar."