I Don't Agree to the Terms

Yu Ju squinted his eyes and said, "The Divine Alliance is no good; you don't look for death like that."

"Alright, since nobody is willing to join the Divine Alliance, things should be easy from here. Aside from unsealing the Heavenly Emperor, I think we've got no other choice." Wang Qi shrugged and felt relieved inside. Lucky for him, these people were clear-headed; otherwise, he would have had to send them off to their doom.

"Unsealing the Heavenly Emperor is no simple task. Wangjing Island must be the most heavily guarded place in the Divine Alliance right now," Fang Chen spoke up. If things were as Wang Qi had described, the Divine Alliance might be the only territory not controlled by the Divines and directly in the hands of the Divine Alliance's upper ranks.

So the possibility of them storming in was practically negligible.

Hearing this, Wang Qi felt a bit awkward. The crew thought they just had to storm in, but Wang Qi had one more issue: he had to unseal Gu Shanhai first; otherwise, storming in would be pointless.

"Big shot, what do you think?" Wang Qi had no choice but to ask Gu Shanhai.

"Of course, I'm just going to sit and watch. You don't expect me to stand and watch, do you?" Gu Shanhai didn't really care either way.

"No, I mean unsealing. Otherwise, it'd be pretty awkward if we storm in and you can't get out," Wang Qi implied, asking for a straight answer, as it was all for Gu Shanhai's sake.

"Ah, why are you so persistent?" Gu Shanhai sighed, realizing his peaceful days were definitely over.

"Why are you so nonchalant, big shot? Those Divines and the people from the Divine Alliance are provoking you. You should let them witness the true power of you, the Heavenly Emperor, and show them who the real Divine King is." Wang Qi was trying to coax Gu Shanhai into action.

"No, I don't want to. I've kept a low profile all my life; why spoil it at the end?" Gu Shanhai was not so easily fooled.

This left Wang Qi utterly speechless; Gu Shanhai seemed more impervious to persuasion than ever.

"Just be straight with us, big shot. What will it take for you to cooperate?" Wang Qi was a bit worn out by the failed coaxing and decided to be candid.

"Well, there's room to negotiate." The reason Gu Shanhai was reluctant was that the funds for the campaign hadn't arrived yet.

These funds were not actual gold or silver but rather control over the situation. The current state of affairs was not yet chaotic enough for Wang Qi to emerge and take control of the entire world.

Gu Shanhai never planned to control the world; he only wanted resources, commonly referred to as wanting the benefits without the responsibilities.

And acquiring these campaign funds meant Wang Qi defeating the Divine Alliance. But now, with Wang Qi lacking any desire to do so, both responsibility and authority would fall on Gu Shanhai's shoulders.

But how could Gu Shanhai, practically a vegetable at this point, handle such tremendous pressure?

"No problem, big shot. As long as you agree, we can sort everything out," Wang Qi rejoiced internally, anything could be promised as long as Gu Shanhai was willing to take action.

"Firstly, I will only deal with killing the Divines and letting you flaunt the tiger's might. The rest, you handle. And I still need certain items; don't worry, I don't eat people," Gu Shanhai said.

Hearing this, Wang Qi was puzzled: "After dealing with the Divines, what other problems could there be?"

"Of course there is. The Divine Alliance and all the influence it wields—such a vast power, if it's not in your hands and someone else controls it, won't that create more trouble? And if you can't handle them again, won't you have to call on the big shot to save you? Then I'll have to come running from miles away to rescue you."

"So let's nip it in the bud; I'll handle the Divines, and you take care of the various powers."

"Additionally, if you don't have any power to your name, how can you give me what I need? Relying on you to scrape together a bunch of small fry to fulfill my requests would take ages."

With the mentality of not being shortchanged, Gu Shanhai figured, if there were issues with the plot, he might as well skip that part and move directly to the finale where the hero reigns supreme.

He had come to accept Wang Qi and thus thought of further enhancing his strength. Ideally, he hoped he could reach the upper limit of this world, and not just for himself but for his many crew members too. When summoned by the Life Origin Lotus, they should all have sufficient strength.

"No problem! As long as you, boss, make a move, I agree to all of this," Wang Qi replied without hesitation. He knew that finding the Transcendent items needed to break Gu Shanhai's seal was not an easy task. Only Gu Shanhai, who could foresee the future, would know the method.

"Oh, then let's head straight to Wangjing Island, release my true body, and toss this white jade gourd over. My true body can easily smash this thing to pieces," Gu Shanhai briefly explained.

Wang Qi suddenly realized, damn, that made sense. The true body of the other was so powerful that breaking the seal would be incredibly easy.

"Boss, you knew this all along, didn't you?" Wang Qi asked somewhat resentfully.

"Yes, you just didn't think of it yourself. You missed such a simple thing, who do you blame? Looking for things like the Endless Sea Spirit Claw, Crab King's Ten Claws," Gu Shanhai replied with a tone of disdain. Of course, even if Wang Qi had thought of it earlier, Gu Shanhai would have found other reasons to fool him.

After all, he had thought about letting him go through the process before, but now it didn't matter how he became stronger.

"The plan is simple, storm into Wangjing Island, and unseal the Heavenly Emperor. We're not strong enough, but with enough dark cuisine, we still have a chance," Wang Qi looked at the people discussing and finally spoke out, setting the plan.

The faces of the three people changed slightly. Yu Ju, not having witnessed the combat power of dark cuisine, thought it was something to eat. He was luckier; the Tribute had rewarded him with volcanic bread buns, which, besides being a bit hard and not quite bun-like, were pretty good.

So he didn't understand why the three worried.

"We need at least a +1 enhancement. If we can get two more stinky tofu eggs, that would be great," Wang Qi continued, having a special fondness for stinky tofu eggs, as they had resolved many difficult situations for him.

Hearing this, the three knew that Wang Qi intended to enhance a +2 stinky tofu egg, and at this moment, the corners of their eyes twitched.

"Captain, please consider carefully. No one on our ship can withstand the reinforced +2 stinky tofu egg. It will be total annihilation," Tang Quan showed a trace of fear in his eyes.

"Exactly, exactly, we need to preserve our useful bodies. Please think it over," Fang Chen also hurriedly chimed in.

"Are +1 enhanced stinky tofu eggs really that terrifying?" Yu Ju was still too young.

Therefore, Tang Quan gave Fang Chen a knowing look.

Fang Chen then took Yu Ju to a sealed and solid corner of the ship, not for anything else but to let him experience the power of a slight crack.

Then Fang Chen came back alone. Yu Ju was well taken care of by him; with that smell, he surely couldn't withstand it and would pass out, not expecting to wake up before dinner.

"Alright, alright, we won't combine them," Wang Qi had no choice but to agree when he saw this. He had just spoken without thinking it through.

Tang Quan was right. A +2 enhanced stinky tofu egg would severely harm them, almost as much as the enemy. With their resistance to dark cuisine, they could only hold out a bit longer than the enemy, and then there would be no then.

If they couldn't escape, it was certain death.

"In the meantime, we also need to increase our own strength as much as possible, so it's going to be tough for everyone for a while," Wang Qi knew that relying solely on dark cuisine as a Transcendent tool was not enough. Forging iron must be done with one's own hard work; thus, they needed to be strong.

And to get stronger, obviously, they had to eat dark cuisine. How else?

This made everyone's faces turn bitter, but they nodded their heads in agreement anyway.