Chapter 27
1
The night in the village was peaceful and quiet.
Tang Hao sat next to the light and inspected the string of jade beads.
There were twelve beads in total. Each one was perfectly spherical and transparent. They were blood-red in color without any flaws or impurities. Each bead glowed splendidly and gave off an aura of extravagance.
Other people could see that this was an extremely precious item. In Tang Hao’s eyes, he could ‘see’ the qi that emanated from within each bead.
This was an Artifact! It held extraordinary importance to a qi cultivator.
Artifacts were created from gathering special materials and refined using the power of talismans. They were imbued with amazing powers of attack, defense and many other types.
‘I wonder what can this string of jade beads do?’ Tang Hao thought as he gradually channeled a stream of qi into the beads.
The beads glowed faintly and slowly grew in intensity. He could vaguely see rows of golden talismanic runes shimmer in and out of existence.
Tang Hao turned off the light and those runes became clearer. They shifted their form in front of his eyes, he felt like he was dreaming.
He observed closely the shifting runes and found that each jade bead was a different Artifact of its own and had its own set of runes. After comparing them, he found that eleven of them had the same set of runes, while only one of them had a set of totally different runes.
He recalled the chapter on talismanic runes in the inherited texts from the jade pendant and deciphered those runes.
Eleven of the beads were imbued with the power of defense. The final one was imbued with the power of spatial manipulation and contained a pocket dimension.
2This discovery made Tang Hao incredibly excited.
Artifacts with powers of spatial manipulation were the rarest type.
He held the bead in his palm and channeled qi into it. Soon, he could feel an attractive force from the bead pulling him in, dragging his spirit within the bead.
The next moment, he ‘saw’ a wide space of about three or four hundred square meters.
He was disappointed that the interior was empty.
He willed his spirit to return to the real world. As he held the beads, he felt his excitement mounting.
This was exactly like bringing a portable warehouse with him. He could fit anything inside and retrieve them at will. This was extremely convenient.
He rolled the beads in his hand, then wore the string of beads on his wrist.
The beads were smooth and cool to the touch. They emanated a chilly aura as they touched his skin. It was very comfortable.
He saw that it was still early in the night, and so he took out the various medicinal ingredients from his backpack and started brewing potions.
The next morning, after Tang Hao woke up, he made calls to President Biao, Liu Dajun and the others.
“Big Bro Liu, I’ve prepared the five bottles of weight-loss potions for you, and also two bottles of aphrodisiac potions.”
“Oh! I’ll head over to grab them?”
“There’s no need. I’ll deliver them to you. It’s on my delivery route anyway.”
“Alright, deliver it to my office then. You know where Sunshine Plaza is, right?”
“I know!” Tang Hao replied, then ended the call.
He made separate appointments with President Li, President Huang, and the others, then departed on his little three-wheeled motorcycle.
Brilliant Property is the biggest property company in the district. It was also one of the most influential companies in the entire Z Province. Many famous housing developments and buildings belonged to Brilliant Property.
Sunshine Plaza was on a prime plot of land in the city center.
About forty minutes later, Tang Hao reached the city center and easily found Sunshine Plaza.
He parked his motorcycle, then gave Liu Dajun a call.
“Oh! Lil Tang! Just wait for me for a bit, I’m almost there.”
“OK!” Tang Hao replied, then ended the call.
He waited for a few minutes. As he looked into the building, he suddenly had an idea.
‘Why not I go inside and take a look if there are any nice houses.’
He was considering moving out since the incident last night. Since he was already there, he might as well take a look at the different properties for sale.
With the eight-million-plus yuan in his account, he could afford to buy a very decent house.
He stepped into Sunshine Plaza.
Inside was a spacious foyer with many intricately built scale models of houses for sale. It was still early in the morning so there were no other customers.
Several sales clerks were standing in a corner. They were in the same office jacket, miniskirt, and pantyhose. Each one of them was tall and slim and wore heavy makeup on their faces. They turned to look at who was coming into the building.
As sales clerks of a property company, they had encountered many different types of people in their work, especially rich people. When they glanced at someone, they could roughly gauge how much their clothes cost and whether they were rich.
Tang Hao was dressed in his usual clothes: A plain white button-down shirt and a faded pair of jeans. He had bought a new pair of shoes, but they were from the bargain bin. He still looked like a poor kid.
The sales clerks frowned when they looked at him from head to toe.
They turned back around and resumed their chatting.
A person in that getup was not here to buy houses, especially when he looked so young and so poor. He should not be able to afford anything there, and he probably stepped into the foyer to kill some time.
Tang Hao browsed around the foyer, then walked toward one of the model buildings.
One of the sales clerks turned to look at him again. She furrowed her brows as if trying to figure out who this poor kid was.
“Eh! You’re Tang Hao?”
Tang Hao was surprised. He turned back to find out who had called his name.
“You are…?” He asked hesitantly.
“You’re really Tang Hao! It’s been a few years! You look different, but you’re still dressed in the same clothes.”
She saw the puzzlement on Tang Hao’s face and explained, “I’m Ma Fangfang! Why, can’t you recognize me?”
She sounded a little full of herself, as if very confident with her appearance.
“Oh, it’s Fangfang! I honestly couldn’t recognize you!” Tang Hao said.
Ma Fangfang was his classmate in junior high. However, they were only mere acquaintances and barely talked to each other.
He remembered that Ma Fangfang was a materialistic girl. She had a relationship with a rich kid in junior high and never looked at poor village kids like him directly.
After graduating from junior high, he had heard that she entered a vocational high school. They lost contact after that.
He did not expect to meet her again at this place.
As the Chinese saying goes, a girl undergoes eighteen changes before she becomes a woman. She looked more beautiful and trendy after all those years. With makeup on, Tang Hao could not recognize her.
“Did you apply for a college, Tang Hao? I remember that your results were pretty good back then,” Ma Fangfang said.
Tang Hao shook his head. “No, I dropped out of school halfway. I’m doing deliveries now.”
Ma Fangfang was surprised. “Oh, if it’s like that…”
Tang Hao could see the change in the way she looked at him. He could catch a faint hint of disdain.
In her eyes, a delivery boy was a lowly job.
The other sales ladies also frowned and looked at him with disgust.
“So he’s just a delivery boy! No wonder…”