Pay-to-Win Cultivation: I Get 10,000x Returns

Chapter 283: Disciple Has Always Believed That External Objects Are Ultimately Just Assistance

Lin Yinyin let out two sharp, mocking laughs. With a series of rapid smacks, she pulled several thick, thread-bound books from her storage bracelet and slammed them down onto the tea table.

Her voice dripped with pure, unfiltered schadenfreude. “I guess you didn’t know, did you, Brother? Various ‘literary works’ starring you have been secretly dominating the black markets back in Liang Country!”

She crossed her arms, looking incredibly smug. “You actually expected that fatty Yu Yun to successfully ban them? Please! The harder he tried to censor them, the more viral they went. The secondary market prices are astronomical right now! Look at this—I had to call in serious favors just to collect the complete boxed set.”

Zhang Xian slowly scanned the titles printed on the covers:

The Zhenguo Duke’s Poetry Collection

The Unofficial History of Great Liang

The Biography of the Zhenguo Duke

Yu Rao: The Two or Three Things Between Me and Zhang Xian

Sisters of the Moon Garden: This Servant Girl and the Duke

Zhang Xian physically felt his blood pressure spike, his vision swimming with dark spots. Are you kidding me? My pillow companions actually wrote and published tell-all romance novels behind my back?! How did I not know about this?!

Watching Zhang Xian look like he wanted the floor to swallow him whole, Su Yunmiao couldn’t help but laugh softly. “It makes perfect tactical sense. Grandmaster Taichu is nothing if not thorough. He undoubtedly sent deep-cover agents to infiltrate the minor world you originated from to dig up your entire background.”

She tapped the poetry collection. “By cross-referencing your ‘original’ works with the ancient records of Wang Ye, Taichu couldn’t help but draw the obvious conclusion: you and Wang Ye are both reincarnated entities hailing from the exact same higher Immortal Realm. That is precisely why he is so intensely fixated on you, treating you as his ultimate rival.”

Hearing this theory laid out so logically, Lin Yinyin and Li Fuxi both looked at Zhang Xian, their eyes practically sparkling with awe and admiration.

So that’s why he can casually pull Heaven-grade skill manuals and Top Grade spirit treasures out of thin air! His resources truly are limitless. He really might be a reincarnated immortal. The man I chose truly is built different!

However, amidst the sudden surge of romantic admiration, a cold sliver of doubt slid through Li Fuxi’s mind.

If Zhang Xian truly is a reincarnated immortal… and he actually knows the administrative override to open the Stone Gate of Fate… why does he constantly, vehemently deny it?

Half a year passed in the blink of an eye.

Su Yuanshen was as good as his word. He delivered the very first production batch of combat puppets to Zhang Xian precisely on schedule—20 units in total.

These were next-generation Star Iron Battle Puppets. Forged around an indestructible Star Marrow Iron skeleton and fused with the advanced, system-provided puppet architecture Zhang Xian had supplied, these units were absolute monsters. When powered by High Grade Spirit Stones, their baseline combat output stabilized perfectly at the seventh layer of the Nascent Soul stage.

The sheer DPS of the units completely shattered everyone’s initial projections.

However, Su Yuanshen was quick to lay out the technical limitations. “These units are hyper-specialized for pure warfare. They are fundamentally different from the utility or proxy puppets you are used to. They cannot equip external spirit treasures, nor can they cultivate or execute complex, multi-step spell sequences. Their offensive moveset is highly linear—they rely strictly on discharging massive, concentrated bursts of kinetic and spiritual energy.”

“The trade-off,” Su Yuanshen continued, his eyes gleaming with engineering pride, “is that they require zero mental bandwidth to operate. You don’t need to manually pilot them. You simply issue a macro command—’Attack,’ ‘Defend,’ ‘Hold Position’—and the onboard AI handles the rest. They are perfectly optimized for swarm tactics and overwhelming suppression.”

“The primary drawback,” he added with a slight grimace, “is the fuel efficiency. Or rather, the complete lack of it. Operating at this intensity drains Spirit Stones at a frankly terrifying rate.”

The numbers were staggering. For a Star Iron Battle Puppet to operate at maximum combat output for a single breath, it instantly vaporized 100 High Grade Spirit Stones. Because the fuel consumption was so absurd, Su Yuanshen had been forced to engineer a dedicated mustard-seed Formation space directly into the puppet’s reactor core just to hold the necessary ammunition. They were literal, unadulterated gold-burning leviathans.

Hearing the exorbitant running costs, Zhang Xian nodded solemnly, his face a mask of supreme financial responsibility. “Understood. Please rest assured, I will use them with the utmost discretion. I will never deploy them unless the situation is absolutely dire.”

Ten seconds later, he turned around and started handing them out like cheap party favors.

He gave two units to Lin Yinyin, two to Li Fuxi, and two to Su Yunmiao. He then casually donated another two units to the island’s defense grid, waving it off as “pre-paying my docking fees and rent for the decade.”

He then flagged down a Zhiyin proxy and arranged for a continent-wide express delivery service, shipping several units all the way to Yun Wanqing and Liu Qingxuan in the Great Xia Dynasty, and forwarding even more units back to Xia Xuanyin and Wang Ya in the Liang Country minor world.

Watching Zhang Xian act like a billionaire philanthropist on a spending spree, Su Yunmiao couldn’t help but feel a surge of genuine concern. “Zhang Xian, you just gifted away almost your entire heavy-ordnance detail. Won’t your own vanguard be left completely exposed? What happens if you get ambushed by a high-level threat?”

Zhang Xian stood tall, his expression radiating the austere humility of a true ascetic monk. “Ancestor-Master, your concern is deeply appreciated. But this disciple has always believed a fundamental truth: external tools and foreign armaments are ultimately just crutches. One’s own, hard-fought cultivation is the only true foundation. I have kept two units for absolute emergencies, but my true sense of security must always stem from my own two hands.”

His delivery was flawless. He sounded exactly like a peerless paragon of the orthodox path, utterly uncorrupted by material wealth.

Hearing this profound declaration, Su Yunmiao nodded in deep, solemn agreement. Her gaze softened, filling with intense approval and respect for the young man’s unshakeable Dao Heart.

Standing slightly behind them, Lin Yinyin was biting her lip so hard she was almost drawing blood just to keep from bursting into hysterical laughter. She knew her brother entirely too well. The more righteous and high-minded his speeches became, the more absolutely devious the scam he was currently running in the background.

[Ding! Refund triggered for Star Iron Battle Puppet x2. Refunding: Ordinary Heaven-grade Battle Puppet x2000]

[Item Info: Ordinary Star Iron Battle Puppet. Heaven-grade war puppet. Insert Spirit Stones to activate. Capable of receiving autonomous attack and defense macros.]

[Ding! Refund triggered for Star Iron Battle Puppet x2.]

[Ding!]

Unaware of the massive, autonomous army currently multiplying in Zhang Xian’s shadow inventory, Su Yuanshen offered a helpful reminder. “Zhang Xian, we only used a fraction of the Star Marrow Iron you provided. If you need a second production run, you only need to say the word.”

Zhang Xian waved his hand with the casual grace of a tycoon tossing a tip. “No need, Head Seat Su. Keep the surplus materials. Consider it a well-earned bonus for your team’s phenomenal work.”

Hearing the casual dismissal of a literal king’s ransom in divine materials, both Su Yunmiao and Su Yuanshen were struck by another wave of profound emotion. Zhang Xian wasn’t just a generational talent; he possessed the broad, magnanimous spirit of a true king.

Bowing deeply in gratitude, Su Yuanshen and Inspector Wei took their leave, returning to the Yunmiao Sect headquarters completely satisfied.

Life on Penglai Immortal Island settled into a luxurious, peaceful rhythm.

If one looked up, they would frequently spot three identical, matte-black luxury dreadnoughts parked in the airspace above the island.

One vessel belonged exclusively to Su Yunmiao, who had thoroughly embraced the sheer, unapologetic decadence of the lifestyle.

The second belonged to Li Fuxi. Being incredibly thin-skinned and desperate to maintain the dignified aura of a strict Master in public, she avoided any overt displays of affection with Zhang Xian, usually locking herself in her ship to cultivate in absolute solitude.

The third dreadnought was the joint property of Zhang Xian and Lin Yinyin. The two of them spent an exorbitant amount of time locked in the primary suite, deeply “comprehending the Dao” through intense dual cultivation. Through their relentless, sweaty efforts, Lin Yinyin successfully shattered her bottleneck, hitting the ninth layer of the Golden Core stage.

And then she immediately got busted by Li Fuxi.

Despite Lin Yinyin loudly and tearfully protesting her innocence—swearing on her life that she and her brother were engaged in purely academic, highly spiritual dual cultivation with absolutely zero inappropriate contact—Li Fuxi wasn’t buying a single word of it.

Citing the strict orthodox doctrine that “excessive dual cultivation destabilizes the mental state and fundamentally weakens the foundation,” Li Fuxi forcibly dragged Lin Yinyin onto her own dreadnought. She placed the younger girl under strict, 24/7 house arrest to force her to properly prepare for her impending Heavenly Tribulation.

Meanwhile, back on the Central Continent front, the geopolitical board was shifting rapidly.

Before departing for the Northern Ridge, Lin Jianyuan officially abdicated his seat on the council, passing the mantle directly to his niece, Lin Xiaozhu.

Leveraging his massive, system-backed financial resources and newly minted prestige, Xia Chengyan easily swept the election to fill the other vacant council seat.

Operating as a unified voting bloc, the two heavily aggressively lobbied and funded the rapid construction of the Myriad Spirits Rosy Cloud Formation and the continent-wide teleportation grid, accelerating the projects at a breakneck pace.

At the borders of the Heavenly Abyss Alliance, the oppressive Realm-Severing Light Wall was officially deactivated. The Alliance vanguard pushed deep into the Western Region, establishing dozens of fortified outposts. Operating with methodical precision, they systematically purged the lingering Hatred mobs, rescued thousands of survivors who had been hiding in the wastes, and began the massive logistical nightmare of reconstruction.

Grandmaster Taichu, however, had completely evaporated from the server. There were zero sightings and zero intelligence reports.

The entire Central Continent had fully accepted the leaked footage of his treason. Even the Guiyuan Sect, struggling to rebuild its shattered infrastructure and reputation, officially condemned him, violently tearing down every single statue of Taichu within their borders.

Along with his total social and political ruin, Taichu’s signature, immaculate center-parted hairstyle also suffered a catastrophic drop in popularity, quickly fading into obscurity.

During this peaceful interlude, Zhang Xian occasionally took his dreadnought out for a spin, dropping by the Great Xia Dynasty to check on Yun Wanqing and Liu Qingxuan, before crossing realms to visit the Liang Country minor world to deliver a massive influx of premium care packages to his old crew.