Warm breath tickled his ear like a feather, and goosebumps instantly broke out on Zhou Chen’s neck. He immediately shifted to the side, pulling free from Li Xiye’s arm, and said with feigned seriousness:

"I’ve already achieved financial freedom through my own hard work. I don’t need to live off some sugar mama."

Li Xiye raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Didn’t I only transfer five hundred million US Dollars to your card? And you’re acting this cocky? Your Advanced Secret Ceremony may have been covered by the Sword Forging Competition organizers, and you did win a good chunk of prize money, but don’t forget you also spent sixty million on service fees. Add in your usual expenses, and if you’re even a little reckless with your spending, you’ll be over a hundred million in debt in less than two months."

Zhou Chen faltered. "That’s a bit of an exaggeration, isn’t it...?"

"First of all, if you come across an Extraordinary Artifact or Extraordinary Materials that are perfect for you, are you going to buy them or not?"

"Of course I am."

"An Extraordinary Artifact effective for a Tier Two or Tier Three Ascender easily costs tens of millions. If it’s a Forbidden Object, it could even be over a hundred million. The prices of rare Extraordinary Materials are often driven up into the hundreds of millions as well. The cash you have on you would be gone after just a few purchases. On top of that, you have the cash-guzzling professions of an Alchemist and a Blacksmith. What makes you possibly think you’ve achieved financial freedom?"

Li Xiye continued, "Many Tier Two Ascenders regularly take Alchemy Potions to keep their Soul active and increase the probability of condensing a Golden Soul. If you want to speed up the process, you’d best buy a few bottles and pop them. However, that stuff is a highly confidential potion from the Alchemy Association; you can’t make it. A single bottle costs about twenty million.

And as you grow stronger and your horizons broaden, the enemies you face will become more powerful. You’ll have to arm yourself better for combat. Right now on the market, a single set of Mid-level Defense Artifacts costs in the tens of millions. Even if you could make them yourself... the materials still cost money, don’t they?"

Listening to Li Xiye’s rapid-fire breakdown, Zhou Chen really began to feel that his money might not be enough to go around.

’This was an unavoidable truth. The higher an Ascender’s tier, the more money they needed to spend.’

’At Tier Three, just setting up a single Secret Ceremony could cost over a hundred million.’

"Speaking of which, how are the preparations for your Advanced Secret Ceremony going?" The thought prompted Zhou Chen to ask.

"I’m still missing a few main materials that are hard to acquire. But there’s an auction in Las Vegas next month that might have what I need. As for the auxiliary ritual for the Advanced Secret Ceremony, I’ve been looking for a suitable candidate recently."

"A suitable candidate? What’s your ritual?"

Zhou Chen knew that for the advancement from Tier Three to Tier Four, the Advanced Secret Ceremony included a "ritual." An Ascender could only fully activate the Secret Ceremony by meeting specific conditions. This was because the Power wielded by Tier Four Ascenders touched upon the level of "Rules," and having a ritual to assist increased the chances of success.

"To defeat a Tier Four Ascender in a direct confrontation," Li Xiye said, her tone light and casual.

"..."

Zhou Chen was at a loss for words. ’So she’s going for a higher-tier solo kill, huh?’

’There’s a massive power gap between Tier Three and Tier Four. Only an unparalleled powerhouse like Li Xiye could even attempt to challenge a higher tier. Under normal circumstances, ten Tier Three Ascenders would be utterly crushed by a single Tier Four Ascender. Fighting above your tier is never that easy, let alone a Tier Three going against a Tier Four.’

’But Zhou Chen believed Li Xiye could pull it off. After all, she had already mastered "Rules"—something only Tier Four Ascenders should grasp—while still at Tier Three. On top of that, she had obtained a Divine Mark. She had the foundation and the ability.’

Just then, Li Xiye suddenly proposed, "Zhou Chen, since we’re both close to our next Advancement, how about we compete to see who gets there first?"

"All right."

"Then let’s add some stakes."

A cheerful smile spread across Li Xiye’s face. "The winner gets to order the loser to do one thing, unconditionally."

Zhou Chen eyed her with suspicion. "You’re not going to just advance on the spot as soon as I agree, are you?"

"Of course not." Li Xiye waved her hand dismissively. "It’ll be a fair competition."

Zhou Chen thought it over for a moment. ’It feels like I can’t lose, regardless of the outcome,’ he mused. He nodded. "All right, I’m in."

「The Movie Theater.」

The classic scene from *Titanic* played on the silver screen. Bathed in the glow of the sunset and vibrant clouds, Jack held Rose at the bow of the ship as they "flew." Moved by the score, many couples in the audience couldn’t resist pulling each other close and starting to make out.

Zhou Chen munched on his popcorn with relish. ’The great thing about New Era movies is the lack of political correctness,’ he thought. ’If this were made back in the day, they would have made Jack a transgender, vegetarian, animal-rights activist with depression. And Rose would have been an obese, transgender lesbian with multiple personality disorder. Who knows, after the ship sank, they might have even run into a black Mermaid harvesting sponges...’

Just as Zhou Chen’s imagination was running wild, a hand suddenly landed on his thigh.

He trembled and whipped his head around in astonishment. The person sitting next to him was none other than Li Xiye:

"Wh-what are you doing?"

Li Xiye simply pulled his phone from his pants pocket. The screen was flashing red, displaying an incoming call from Jiang Che.

Zhou Chen’s vision went dark. ’Shit, an emergency mission...’

The location for the emergency mission was the Eight Days Hotel near the high-speed rail station.

Using Flame Jump to bring Li Xiye to the hotel entrance, Zhou Chen found that a unit from the Special Operations Team had already arrived. They were dressed in hazmat suits and gas masks, completely sealed up.

"There is one infected person with an unknown disease. He’s beyond saving. There are also three others in the evolutionary stage of the illness; they’ve sprouted numerous crystal ores from their bodies... Now there are two," Li Xiye said calmly, her gaze fixed on one of the hotel rooms.

Her Perception Power was incredibly strong; she had already sensed what was happening inside the room.

"What’s going on?" Zhou Chen asked one of the Special Operations Team members.

"It’s the Crystal Disease," one of them said in a solemn voice. "A little while ago, someone called it in himself, said he was infected with the Crystal Disease, and told us to hurry and save him."

"Crystal Disease..."

Zhou Chen had heard of this disease. It had been all over the news lately, causing a major international uproar. Someone had even brought it up at the last Round Table Hall meeting.

As the epicenter of the Crystal Disease, the North Carolina Republic was reportedly seeing tens of thousands of deaths daily. The entire nation was semi-paralyzed, and the populace was in revolt.

’But how could the Crystal Disease appear in Jinzhu...’

’The thing was, ninety-nine percent of those infected with the Crystal Disease in North Carolina were from the slums. They couldn’t afford to travel abroad, and few people would visit the North Carolina Slum City for tourism. That was why, until now, not a single case of the Crystal Disease had appeared outside the North Carolina Republic.’

’Could it be that some of the wealthy contracted it and then started traveling around?’

"Have you looked into their backgrounds?" Zhou Chen asked.

"We have. They just got back from a trip to Europe. Never been to North Carolina," someone replied.

’Infected with Crystal Disease without ever visiting North Carolina... Doesn’t that mean it had already spread out of there long ago?’

Zhou Chen felt a massive headache coming on.

’We’re screwed!’