Chapter 4290 — Greed Outed

At this, Chang Daoping was utterly at a loss. From the other party's utter lack of scruple, he could tell that this was no bluff—and besides, that beast attendant had specifically warned him earlier to leave by way of the teleportation array.

But the man had never once said that robbers would block the road on the way out!

If these two were merely of average strength, that would have been one thing, but before him stood two Nascent Soul stage spirit beasts in human form. There was no need even to think—there was simply no beating them!

"You..." Chang Daoping seethed with rage, yet in the end he did not dare turn on them to their faces. Helpless beyond measure, he had no choice but to toss out the pack from his back, and at the same time drew out the Star Ink Milk he carried on his person.

No one on earth would willingly hand over a treasure like Star Ink Milk—but what else could he do? Was he really going to die here over it?

Chang Daoping had not risen to his present level by valuing wealth above his life. Once he had thought it through, he was quite straightforward about it: since beating them was impossible anyway, there was no point in struggling and resisting—it would be worse than useless, and might well cost him his life for nothing. Why bother?

The azure-robed man showed not the slightest surprise. They had seen plenty of capable humans, each one domineering and arrogant in ordinary times, strutting about full of swagger—but when the moment of truth arrived, such people invariably knew which way the wind blew better than anyone, and clung to their lives more dearly than anyone.

One of them took Chang Daoping's pack, riffled through it a few times, roughly appraised its worth, and then tossed it carelessly aside. But when he picked up the little spirit-jade vial holding the Star Ink Milk, he suddenly gave a startled cry of doubt.

"Heh heh, you're a rather interesting fellow—going to all the trouble of playing such a little trick just to fool these underlings of yours. Tsk, tsk..." The azure-robed man curled his lip in mockery. Then, as if deliberately so that everyone could see clearly, he fetched a box also made of spirit jade, though far larger than the group's little vials.

The crowd looked on in bewilderment—until they watched the azure-robed man pour all the Star Ink Milk into the box, whereupon every face turned utterly strange, and the looks they bent on Chang Daoping now carried something distinctly complicated and hard to name.

In terms of capacity alone, the spirit-jade box the azure-robed man produced was at least ten times larger than Chang Daoping's little vial. Yet what unfolded before their eyes was this: the Star Ink Milk poured from that small vial filled the ten-times-larger spirit-jade box to the very brim!

Had they not seen it with their own eyes, no one would have believed it if told. Even now, the crowd could scarcely trust their eyes—how could this be?

Had everyone present been ordinary folk, being duped and deceived like this would have been one thing. But they were all accomplished Golden Core experts, and to be fooled like a pack of idiots—without a single doubt stirring throughout the whole process—that was a bit much to swallow.

One could only say that, though it was but a petty trick not fit for polite company, Chang Daoping had pulled it off flawlessly.

"Heh heh. At first glance there's nothing remarkable about it—just a little spirit-jade vial anyone could buy anywhere. Who'd have thought its construction was so ingenious, with a whole world hidden inside? If I'm not mistaken, there are at least several formations layered onto it—a blinding formation and a pocket-universe formation among them, surely—so that it could hold this much Star Ink Milk while still deceiving the eye. Tsk, tsk, you certainly laid out no small sum for this." The azure-robed man wore a look of contempt even as he deliberately spelled out the hidden mechanism for all to hear.

As his words fell, Chang Daoping's face burned with shame. Such a trick would have been no matter had it never come to light—but now, before so many of his underlings, to be exposed so mercilessly in public left him with no face to save.

Sure enough, the way the others now looked at Chang Daoping was no longer marked by the reverence and trust of before.

Until this moment, what had won Chang Daoping the crowd's trust so completely was not only his strength and standing, nor merely his long-standing domineering manner, but also one crucial thing: he shared his blessings and his hardships with them alike.

Take this expedition to the ruins. By rights, Chang Daoping alone deserved the lion's share of the credit—the others had merely lent some effort in breaking the Moon Shadow Formation. When it came to dividing the Star Ink Milk, even had Chang Daoping demanded half, no one would have objected. Yet he had taken the initiative to do as everyone else and draw only a single small vial for himself—a gesture rare indeed.

Hearts are made of flesh. Because Chang Daoping dealt with people so openly and fairly, the crowd felt they could rely on him, and so they served him with wholehearted devotion.

Yet none of them could ever have guessed that the upright, honorable front Chang Daoping presented was in truth nothing but a pious sham—that right under their very noses, he was carrying on such a petty, underhanded scheme.

In an instant, the image Chang Daoping had built in their minds over so long crumbled the moment the azure-robed man tipped out that spirit-jade vial.

And compared with the rest, the looks Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao bent on Chang Daoping at this moment were those of true, cold-burning fury!

Cao Shishi, Luo Tuoxiang, and the others had merely been duped by Chang Daoping; at least each of them had received a small vial of Star Ink Milk, so their material losses were not great. Only Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao were the true victims.

No wonder, then, that when Chang Daoping had been the first to draw his Star Ink Milk, Wei Zhao had thought the man was taking far too long. By rights, filling a single small vial should never have required so much time.

Wei Zhao had assumed Chang Daoping was simply overcome with emotion—this was, after all, the rarest Star Ink Milk in the world, and one could hardly decant it the way one poured water; care was surely needed. So at the time, he had not taken it to heart.

Now, looking back, why was it that just when it came to his and Huang Xiaotao's turn, the Star Ink Milk had run out precisely then? This was plainly Chang Daoping's calculation from the very start!

In all that time, Chang Daoping must have already worked out how much Star Ink Milk there was. After leaving one small vial for each of his own underlings, every last drop of the rest had gone into his vial with a world inside it—so when it came to Wei Zhao's and Huang Xiaotao's turn, naturally there was nothing left at all.

This was no coincidence after all. From beginning to end, Chang Daoping had dug a pit and let Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao jump in of their own accord—and in the end, though they had been duped, they could not even find fault with him, and would have had to call him a man of generosity besides!

Had the two azure-robed men not been present, Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao would have wanted nothing more than to strike at Chang Daoping on the spot! (To be continued..) R640