Dual Cultivation God Returns

Chapter 726: Bad Luck?



"...Ha...!"

This slightly befuddled short half-exclamation reached Hong Yue's and Fen Baihu's ears as they stopped at a small canyon for a short rest.

Five days passed since the conversation about empathy in the forest clearing.

During this time they went around the prominent Spiritual Lands in the general vicinity of the World Stone that led to the Battle God's Cradle.

"...un-believable... to think not one of them had any signs of being a remotely suitable target...", Wu Long muttered with what seemed like incredulousness.

He then felt a gaze of crimson eyes from the side, and turning there saw a blatant stare, "Mm? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"No... I was just wondering if you regret your confidence from back then or not...", Hong Yue said in a completely flat tone, leaving him speechless.

The completely neutral way she said that, without a hint of an ulterior motive or any intention to poke fun at him, just genuinely curious about it, packed a surprising destructive power.

"Pfft", Fen Baihu covered her mouth trying to stifle her laughter and looked away.

"I'm glad at least one of us three is having a good time", he lightly sighed with a smile on his face turning to her.

"It's not like I am having a bad time either", Hong Yue, whose normal demeanor mostly returned to her in this time, shrugged her shoulders.

"Hahaha, that's good to hear", a light laugh gave away he wasn't really having a bad time too, "But yeah~, I was also just thinking that there was no way my luck was that bad for this to be happening right after I sounded so smug earlier"

Wu Long's insistence on staying open-minded about a chance of a suitable Spiritual Land - ripe for non-hostile takeover due to one or another circumstance surrounding it - existing somewhere on this continent, which he repeatedly reinforced over these five days, certainly could be misinterpreted as a happy-go-lucky attitude.

But it wasn't just baseless optimism. Nor was it an entirely logical deduction that claimed nothing was certain until proven, although that too was part of it. But it was in larger part simply a statistical truth rooted in his experience and knowledge.

He didn't really ever need to take over Spiritual Lands in his past, but his lifespan was simply so long that he inevitably learned about many things he didn't really care to find out intentionally.

One of those things was that let alone this world ruled by lower-tier Transcendents, even in lands ruled by Immortals or Gods, the river of time still ran its course, and great changes still took place, and those changes birthed new opportunities, or revived old ones.

"Bad luck? Did you really think your luck is so great that a Profound-Grade Spiritual Land would just so happen to be unoccupied or have circumstances that would allow you to take it, at this precise moment in this continent's history?", Fen Baihu raised her eyebrows.

"Of course not, hahaha", Wu Long chuckled, shaking his head, clearly showing that would have been absurd, "I am saying there's usually a few of those in any minor or even major world, at any time in history. There has and will always be new or overlooked opportunities that could be taken advantage of, there's always something to be found or discovered no matter when or where"

The two beauties looked at him with wide eyes. And after a bit...

"I hope this is not a case of 'Bloody Poodle' or 'Nine Mistakes'. It isn't, right?", Fen Baihu then narrowed her eyes.

"Bloody Poodle? Nine Mistakes?", Hong Yue tilted her head at the cryptic words.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Ugh... was it Ziyan?", Wu Long had the urge to cover his face with his palm.

"Oh my, ladies have their solidarity, Daoist Wu", Fen Baihu covered her mouth with the fingers of her hand in an elegant pose, her tone and manner of speech slightly changing.

"Mengqi it is then", but Wu Long simply nodded to confirm his own thoughts, causing the Celestial Fox to falter and widen her eyes.

"H-how?"

"Well, Ziyan wouldn't really try to hide it, but Mengqi would certainly try to evoke that 'ladies solidarity' you just spoke of", Wu Long simply shrugged, demonstrating that he simply knew his ladies too well.

'Lady Wu, I tried', Fen Baihu inwardly had a mildly apologetic thought, but didn't dwell on it much longer.

"But to answer your question, no", Wu Long added, "What I'm saying is just something I know to be true in such overwhelming majority of cases, that actually landing in the opposite situation would have to be like shooting an arrow blindfolded without aim and hitting one specific target out of billions"

"So if it's really happening now, it's either bad luck or skill?", Fen Baihu asked with mischief, causing Wu Long to laugh.

"Hahaha, are you saying I have a skill in landing in the worst of the most unlikely circumstances? I'll have you know that I am usually known to be quite lucky", he replied inwardly admitting that actually he was never particularly lucky or unlucky. That said, if the whole miracle of his reincarnation took most of the luck he was supposed to have, he wouldn't be surprised, nor would he regret it.

But so far, his luck was split relatively evenly like it always was, with a slight tilt to good luck for the time being, so he didn't see any reason to believe there was anything in particular of concern in that aspect.

"And if it's the case that you really landed in that extremely rare situation, and that there are no Spiritual Lands that could be taken in a moral way?", Hong Yue asked, pursuing her own curiosity, as she explored the concepts he talked about five days ago in her mind this whole

time.

"Then I'll just have to pick the lesser of evils among those choices I do have", Wu Long shrugged his shoulders, since it wasn't the end of the world for him.

He did say he would search for new answers to his problems, but it didn't suddenly turn him into the shining image of a good man.

He had no illusions about himself.

The very actions he was currently taking toward his goals now couldn't be really considered objectively harmless, whether that was using the impending conflict between three Sects over the World Stone to his advantage, approaching the Three Pillars Sect with his own motives in mind, or the attack he made on the Crystal Wood Sect and the Seven Scars Guild, both of which didn't provoke him in any way.

He was doing what he saw fit, as he always was.

The assassin nodded, seemingly finding his reply helpful in her search of answers. It would be hard for her to suddenly understand someone so morally upright like Wei Lan or to a lesser extent a few other of his ladies. An immediate rejection would happen in that case since there was no common ground for her to relate to.

But someone in a morally ambiguous area - such as Wu Long - was actually the best person for her to learn these things from.

"Not to mention, no natural opportunities doesn't mean we can't create our own opportunity. Only wishing for an opportunity is too passive of an approach. If push comes to shove, we can use the same trick as in the Three Continents, tying several less powerful Spiritual Lands with formations, since there are for sure a few of those we could get our hands on", he added, making both beauties almost gasp, since they completely overlooked that possibility. "Alright, let's expand the area of search a little, perhaps we will have better luck around the other World Stone", he then decided to end their short rest here.

"Mm? Isn't that the territory of the Iron Claw Group? I thought you didn't want to get too involved with them at this time yet?", Fen Baihu asked with curiosity.

"They're backed by one of the biggest Trading Companies in this Stellar Region, so it's true that I don't want to put them on guard against us just yet, but it's not like I'll avoid them forever", Wu Long took out a map that he was using these five days to make notes and markings, "But the World Stone I was talking about was not that one, it's the most populated area so I'm skeptical about looking there, there's a more quiet region to look around in"

"...?... the only other one is... but that one's sealed, isn't it?", the Celestial Fox raised her

eyebrows.

"Didn't you hear my pitch to the Three Pillars Sect? We're using that World Stone too", he turned in the direction they had to go next.

"Ah, yes, to bait everyone into thinking it might become valuable as well", she nodded remembering the plan Zhao Xieren discussed with Elder Yu of the Three Pillars Sect.

"Haha, well, something like that", he made a slight chuckle that sounded like there was more

to it, and as she turned into a small fox that landed on his shoulder, the two remaining figures stepped into clouds of black smoke.