After listening to Chongyue's words, Wang turned his head away — but said nothing more.
"Since Third Sister already has a path forward, we ought to find a solution for the remaining younger brothers and sisters as well. That threat still needs to be dealt with."
Chongyue spoke, his gaze fixed on Wang's eyes. A moment of silence passed before he continued:
"I know what you're planning to do, Wang."
"Mm."
Wang gave a single nod. Chongyue's brow furrowed slightly, and he pressed on:
"This isn't something you can handle alone..."
"Mm."
Wang answered again — the same dry, noncommittal syllable. Seeing how the conversation was clearly going nowhere fast, Anthony instinctively began edging toward the door in tiny, subtle steps, and let out a quiet inward sigh.
This topic — Chongyue and Wang had clearly been around this same loop countless times already. And just like all those times before, it didn't look like today was going to produce any different result either...
That said, the matter of the Sui Beast was something Anthony genuinely cared about.
It really did need to be eliminated.
It was standing directly in the way of his income.
The whole reason Great Yan wasn't willing to authorize more temples right now — wasn't it entirely because of the Sui Beast problem? Which meant that only after the Sui Beast was dealt with could Anthony unleash his productivity at full, unconstrained capacity. The Sui Beast was, in very concrete terms, the single greatest obstacle on his road to financial freedom.
With that thought settling in his mind, Anthony stopped inching toward the exit, reached out, and poked Wang in the side.
"Second Brother, come on — stop being so stubborn about this..."
Meeting Wang's sideways glance, Anthony mulled it over for a moment, then finally said:
"Sister Jie is going to be able to come back on a regular schedule before long. You really don't want the first thing out of her mouth every single time to be asking whether you're planning to go blow yourself up against the Sui Beast alone again — and then spending the rest of her window chewing you out until the time runs out, do you?"
The things Chongyue had said earlier hadn't seemed to land much at all. But this, somehow, did. Wang's movements stiffened — and slowly, like a plant hit by frost, his head drooped downward.
"...Mm. Fair point."
In the end, Wang managed that much — a little dry, a little reluctant. Chongyue raised an eyebrow and shot a sidelong look at Anthony.
"And besides," Anthony continued, "once Sister Jie is back, things might look a little different. Maybe it's worth waiting just a bit. There'll be a way to handle the Sui Beast — we're not so pressed for time that we have to act right this second..."
At those words, Wang turned his head and looked at Anthony for the first time — something flickering in his eyes that looked almost like surprise.
He didn't know about other people. But this one — this Po —
When he said something like that, it probably meant he actually had some idea in mind.
Having already witnessed Jie's soul resurrection firsthand, Wang found himself willing to extend a small measure of trust.
"My own affairs will still require a very long time to prepare."
In the end, Wang only said that much — and he said it in the stiffest, most roundabout way possible. Anthony let out a quiet laugh at that.
"Not bad — at least you managed to talk some sense into your second brother and that stubborn streak of his."
Chongyue clapped Anthony on the back and said it with an air of something that sounded almost like satisfaction — as if there were nothing left to add. He offered a brief farewell, then raised a hand and walked out of the old temple.
Anthony and Wang saw Chongyue off, then turned back to the work at hand.
A single temple — that was never going to be enough, and neither Wang nor Anthony were the type to settle for limited efficiency.
And so, after a considerable amount of running around and negotiating, Wang managed to extract the most the True Dragon was willing to concede given the current circumstances — three temples.
And it was on the strength of those three temples that Anthony's Point-generation efficiency reached heights it had never seen before.
From each temple, Anthony diverted a share toward Jie's soul revival — and everything else went straight into his own pocket. By his calculations, on average, each temple was netting him five hundred Points per day.
Three temples. A grand total of fifteen hundred Points, every single day.
When he let himself imagine a future where these temples had been rolled out across all of Great Yan... Anthony couldn't help but feel a wave of pure, intoxicated longing wash over him.
All things considered — eliminating the Sui Beast was an obligation he would shoulder without hesitation. A matter of the highest personal duty.
---
And so, as the Avatar known as Po gradually found his footing in Great Yan's soil and began generating a steady positive return, Anthony — perched on the toilet aboard the Primordial River — reeled in his gaze from the distance and turned it back toward the river stretching before him, quietly running the numbers in his head.
The Po situation was handled for now. All he had to do was leave it on autopilot and let the Points roll in on their own.
With Terra secured as a solid base of operations, the pressure Anthony had been quietly carrying around in his chest eased up just a little. But almost immediately, his mind was already turning over the next phase of his plans.
First: the completion of his personal main quest had also paid out five thousand Points. Combined with the temple output from the past few days, he was sitting on roughly ten thousand Points in hand.
Going forward, a minimum of fifteen hundred Points would flow in every day from the temples. And at his current fishing pace, fishing alone was generating somewhere around two thousand or so additional Points per day. Together, that came out to roughly four thousand Points per day.
Now that he had Points coming in, it was time to think about how to spend them.
At the moment, Anthony had two things he needed to put Points toward.
The first was his own[The Artificer]Ability Tree.
Staring out at the Primordial River, Anthony's thoughts drifted in a dozen directions at once.
Over the past few days, he'd been running the Avatar Po ragged on the Terra side building temples, while on the Primordial River itself, he'd been reviewing the specifics of[The Artificer]. And before long, he'd stumbled across something that genuinely baffled him...
This class could apparently just — drop buildings directly onto the Primordial River.
After a quick scan, he'd also found a whole suite of complementary blueprints that had unlocked specifically because of his[The Angler]ability. Pricey, every single one of them — but there was no doubt that each one, once built, would accelerate his economic efficiency.
For instance, there was one blueprint he'd already set his sights on.
[Angler's Companion Throne]
[Effect: Through continuous absorption of life force or energy, the Angler's Companion Throne will, via your Angler ability, perform autonomous fishing toward a designated world. The World Affinity level applied will be your current World Affinity level minus 2 (minimum of 1).]
[Forge Cap: 1]
[Unlock Cost: 8,000 Points]
[Forge Cost: 2,000 Points]
A fully automatic fishing machine.
The moment Anthony laid eyes on it, he was immediately, desperately, achingly covetous.
Unfortunately, ten thousand Points was, by any measure, an eye-watering price. And this was actually on the cheaper end of what[The Artificer]had on offer... Not that he could say he was surprised — wherever you went, crafting was a profession that burned money as fast as it made it. High earning, high spending.
But the cost wasn't the only reason Anthony wasn't rushing to unlock it.
He also needed to hold Points in reserve for Kakyoin's resurrection.
Now that his personal main quest was complete, the chat group would almost certainly be posting the next main quest soon — likely requiring the resurrection of another group member. Which meant Anthony needed to find a way to stockpile the fifty thousand Points required for Kakyoin's revival first.
"In the end... it always comes back to not having enough money."
He let out a sigh, gazing out at the Primordial River in front of him.
He desperately wanted to use The Artificer to blanket the entire Primordial River in infrastructure. But the funds just weren't there.
Oh well. Fish for now, check in on what the group members were up to...
With that thought, Anthony opened the chat group — and promptly blinked.
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: I've arrived in Morioh. Scenery's not bad.]
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: Things have gone reasonably smoothly. Right now I'm with Joseph and Jotaro tracking down this Yoshikage Kira. Shouldn't take too long to find him.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: ?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Wait — the three of you? Together?]
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: Yeah, that's right. And you happen to be around too. We'll go retrieve the Arrow shortly — once we have it, we'll hand it over to you for recycling.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: I'm scared.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: I have a feeling a certain office worker is about to have a very bad day.]
[Let Night City Burn: That sounds like something terrifying is about to happen.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Honestly — Jonathan, why don't you start a livestream?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: I genuinely want to see this one.]
[AAA City Female Ghost: +1]
[Sinseoki Era Warrior of Frieren: +1]
[Strictest Father of the Demon King: ...I find myself rather curious to witness it as well.]
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: Well... alright, I suppose. Let me figure out how to start a livestream.]
____
👻🔥Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Group chat of the Dead
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone