Suddenly, I Can Duplicate Money

"You... are already at the Middle stage?"

As soon as Jia Su's words reached both Sun Fang and Jia Ning's ears, they all turned their heads towards Yun Hao, looking at him straight in his eye. They then imitated what Jia Su did, standing up from their seat, and even circling around Yun Hao before looking at him from head to toe.

But it wasn't only them, even the center of attention, Yun Hao, was completely baffled with what he just heard. He was already at the Middle-stage? Was that the reason why he wasn't feeling any more improvements in his strength? Because the low quality beast core was no longer effective for him?

So it wasn't because he over-saturated himself because of the cores? It wasn't because his duplicating powers caused the beast core to become ineffective?

Yun Hao had thought up a lot of reasons why the core was no longer working for him... but to think he already advanced to the Middle Stage of the Mortal Realm, and all it took was for him to snort in almost a hundred beast cores. This was...

"...Unbelievable," Sun Fang's whispers echoed throughout the cafe, "I knew you were just pretending to be a Normie! What's your real cultivation base?!"

"No, do your research," Jia Su shook his head from Sun Fang's words, "He has an unknown hatred for cultivators, he only became a cultivator when he thought that it was the only choice for him to continue living in this world."

"...How would you even know that?"

"I've done my research."

"..."

The group all looked at each other for a while before turning their attention back to Yun Hao.

"Since when did you advance to Middle stage!?" Jia Ning asked, the tone of her voice filled with advent curiosity, "You were just like us when we saw you in school!"

"Cough it up, Yun Hao!" Sun Fang followed, "If you're on some kind of cultivation steroids, then share it with us!"

"No, it isn't like that," Yun Hao then let out an awkward chuckle, his eye wandering all over the cafe as he tried to reason his way out. But finally, once he saw the boba on Sun Fang's drink, he quickly thought of something.

"It's the Phoenix Pill, it caused me to advance to the Middle-stage."

"But that's a medicinal pill, at most it could only help alleviate the pain of breaking through the next Rank," Jia Su quickly said as his eyes seem to focus on Yun Hao's single eye, "...Very sus."

"Turns out the effects are different from person to person!" Yun Hao quickly raised his voice.

"Well, no. It's--"

"The reason why I called all of you here is because of a Treasure Hunt!"

Before Jia Su could continue what he was saying, Yun Hao clapped his hands as he once again raised his voice, to the point of garnering the attention of the other customers. And as soon as some of the customers saw who it was, some of them raised their phones to take a video of Yun Hao.

"A... treasure hunt?"

Seeing that Yun Hao really had no plans of telling them anything, Jia Ning just let out a short but deep breath as she sat back down. Sun Fang and her brother were still vividly curious, but in the end, they also sat back down. After all, everyone had their secrets.

And so, with a sigh, Sun Fang could only back down, "What's this treasure hunt you speak of?"

"There will be a Treasure Hunt in Hengyang a few days from now..."

Yun Hao then explained his current circumstances to the group, about how the Song family head tasked him to go to the hunt as a representative of the Song family. And as a short payment for the Phoenix Pill that was 'wasted' on him, all of the things he would be getting from the treasure hunt will be given to the Song family.

"...So you called us here to shoulder your debt with you?" Sun Fang could not help but shake his head as he stood up, "Let's go, this dude is wasting our time. What's the use of going to a Treasure Hunt if we can't get any artifacts in the end? And why the fuck are you the one paying for the Phoenix Pill? Shouldn't it be that gorilla teacher?"

"She's actually been barred from teaching for 3 years since the accident," Jia Su quickly added, "And since it was the Confederation that passed the judgment, she would also be having a hard time joining any other jobs. The Song family probably thought that was enough punishment."

"How do you seem to know everything!?" Sun Fang could not help but be freaked out by Jia Su's words. It was kind of cool at first, now it was just freaky.

"That's actually common knowledge in Echo Hills," Jia Ning followed up.

"What? Are you saying I am stupid!?"

"N… no, sorry!"

"..." Yun Hao could only look at the team he gathered. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to get these guys on his team? Should he just go solo?

As soon as he thought of that, he quickly shook his head. Going to the Danger Zone alone was probably not a good idea, it wouldn't have that name for no reason. He knew how strong he was compared to others of his level, but that was probably the same thought of the thousand others before him who are deceased now.

"I will reward you personally," Yun Hao then interrupted the three's heated conversation, "In truth… I have a secret backer."

"You cheat! I thought so! How else could a man like you even get stronger this fast!?"

Sun Fang once again returned to his seat as he pointed haphazardly at Yun Hao, "Speak, what will you be giving us? Will it also help us advance to the Middle-stage!?"

"How about 50 Level 1 low-quality beast cores?"

"Heh? You think we're beggars--"

"For each of you," Yun Hao followed. Since he could duplicate two beast cores of that quality now, he figured he could just leave out 1 and absorb the other. The hunt isn't until a few days later, that should be sufficient time to get 150 beast cores for them.

They get their beast cores, and Yun Hao's duplication powers could improve. It was sort of a win-win situation for all of them.

"50… for each of us?" Jia Ning could not help but take in a gulp as she heard Yun Hao's words. Her family could easily provide that... but to a single person? Just what kind of backer did Yun Hao have?

"Does your backer… have some kind of farm?" Jia Su asked.

"I suppose you could say that?" Yun Hao tried his best not to look away so as to not expose his lies.

"There are only 7 families in the whole world that are allowed to have Beast Core farms," Jia Su mentioned as he placed his hand on his chin, "Two of them are here in Xin, the Long family, and the Tao family."

"Long…?" Yun Hao was a bit shocked to hear that the Longs had even ventured into this business. He knew of how wealthy Long Yazhu's father was, and he treated Yun Hao nicely as well despite their differences. There was even a point that he wanted to adopt Yun Hao into his family, but he refused as he didn't want to get in the way of Long Yazhu's and his father's already broken relationship.

If he knew Long Yazhu was actually a dick, then he probably would have accepted it just to spit on Long Yazhu's face now. Yun Hao hasn't seen Yazhu's father, Long Ma, ever since he left for another country… perhaps he should try getting in touch with him in the future just to mess with Yazhu?

"Are you related to the Longs?"

Yun Hao's thoughts were then disrupted by Jia Su's inquisitive voice.

"You could say that," Yun Hao let out a short but deep sigh, "But no, they are not my backer."

"Then it is the Tao family, then?" A look of shock appeared on Jia Su's face, "Not much is known about them, but it somewhat makes sense that they would back someone like you."

"Let's not talk about this anymore," Yun Hao then waved his hand as he tried to shift the topic, "How about it…

...do you guys want to join me on the treasure hunt?"

***

"Just the two of us, huh?"

"Don't misunderstand, I had some extra free time!"

"I… see."

Yun Hao scanned the area within Sun Fang, but considering he saw him just walking towards the Hengyang Gates, with only just a single backpack… he was also probably checked in on one of the hotels near here.

The day of the Treasure Hunt had arrived, and it would seem that only Sun Fang was the only one that decided to go with him.

"You're Yun Hao, yes?"

A man in a black suit then approached the two of them, looking between his tablet and Yun Hao back and forth as he stopped in front, "I am an attendant from the Song family. I need to register you and your companion to the Treasure Hunt but…

...there's only two of you?"

"Huh? Are you looking down on us?" Sun Fang then stepped forward as he looked the man straight in the eyes.

"No," the man casually said before looking at his tablet, "Well, actually yes. Most of the groups that have already registered have at least 3 members in their group. I worry about the chance of you even getting anything in the Treasure Hunt."

"What did you--"

"We're here!"

Before Sun Fang could rebuke, a familiar voice approached them from afar. It was Jia Ning, running towards them as she waved her hand. Her brother was following her from behind, holding what seemed to be… a large camera.