I Just Wanted To Live but I Somehow Became Better Than the Protagonist

——

Ye Yong could never know how his actions would ripple through the lives and things around him. If he had known, he wouldn’t have to worry about the butterfly effect. After sharing his thoughts of returning with Seventh Master, it wasn’t long before Ye Wen found him and Qin Shidream. The three slipped away from the imperial city quietly; after all, with Ye Yong’s current notoriety, leaving ostentatiously would likely invite trouble.

The imperial city was quite a distance from the Ye family, even Ye Wen’s transformation vessel took nearly four hours. By the time they returned to the Ye family, dawn had broken.

“By the way, this is yours.” Ye Wen tossed a storage bag.

Ye Yong caught it and probed with his consciousness, discovering at least two thousand high-grade spirit stones within.

“What is this?” A veritable fortune; even though Ye Yong’s wealth surpassed this amount, he was still somewhat taken aback.

“Didn’t the demon clan give nearly sixteen hundred high-grade spirit stones? Plus the bounty from Mei Renxing in the Great Zhou Dynasty, that totals two thousand one hundred. Is the count wrong?” Ye Wen hadn’t counted meticulously, just glanced at it roughly.

“It’s not about whether the count is right or wrong, but why is it all given to me?” Ye Yong felt like an exceedingly rare treasure chest, one that, when defeated, would burst forth with a pile of gold coins and equipment.

“Finding the demon clan was your achievement. Zhou Suren wouldn’t take advantage of a junior like you. I remember he mentioned he would give you a bonus; didn’t he give it to you when you went to the Imperial Study?”

“He did, but combined, isn’t it a bit too much?”

“It’s all what you deserve. If you ask me, it’s still too little.” Seeing Ye Yong’s reluctance to accept, Ye Wen tossed out a hasty remark about having other matters to attend to and left in a hurry.

Ye Yong looked at the neatly arranged storage bags and rings in the system space, a mix of emotions swirling within him.

Sometimes, having too much money can be a burden. To put it bluntly, if one day he were to be taken down by the protagonist, that protagonist could use these resources to hide away in a magical jade pendant space, safely cultivating to at least the Transformation Realm. To be killed by the protagonist and then become nourishment to be absorbed—just the thought of it made him feel uneasy and nauseous.

“Shidream, if you find the evil spirit and discover the demonic cultivator, you’ll also have a share.” Ye Yong planned to give some to Qin Shidream, shifting his assets.

“The Empress summoned me before and has already compensated me on behalf of the Emperor.” Qin Shidream produced a pink storage bag. “Moreover, finding the evil spirit and discovering the demonic cultivator were almost entirely your achievements, so…”

Qin Shidream handed over more than half of the contents to Ye Yong.

?

?

Ye Yong held a large pile of treasures, his face filled with doubt.

In the world of cultivating immortals, it was every man for himself, and for the sake of spirit stones and magical artifacts, people would even abandon their own kin, kill others, and steal their goods. How did it come to this, as if they were afraid he would starve to death without money?

“Poem Dream, take it away, I don’t need these.”

“You have a special situation, and your difficulty in breaking through is higher than ordinary people. You need these,” Qin Poem Dream said, refusing to take them back, and quickly walked towards the separate courtyard arranged for her.

Ye Yong was speechless, and could only put everything into his storage bag, temporarily keeping the treasures for his wife. Later, he would definitely force her to open her pink storage bag and fill the small space inside with a large amount of treasures.

Back in his own courtyard, although it was not yet dawn, as a canine creature, Xia Shi Qi and Xia Shi Jia heard the noise and immediately came out of the house. Seeing it was Ye Yong, Xia Shi Qi ran towards him, except for not wagging its tail, it was no different from a dog seeing its master.

Ye Yong symbolically patted its wolf head, and then threw out a beast pellet, letting it go to the side to gnaw on.

Compared to the lively and energetic Xia Shi Qi, Xia Shi Jia was much more introverted, slowly walking to Ye Yong’s side, lowering its head.

With Xia Shi Jia, Ye Yong was more patient, placing his hand on its head, stroking and patting it. Xia Shi Qi, who was lying on the ground gnawing on the beast pellet, suddenly lost its appetite.

76 Experience Pack

Xia Shi Qi quickly swallowed the beast pellet, and approached Ye Yong, constantly rubbing its head against his arm.

“Go, go, go.” Ye Yong waved his hand to shoo it away, like an uncaring stepfather.

Xia Shi Qi was not the type to give up easily, and continued to pester him.

Annoyed, Ye Yong casually stretched out his hand to pat it, and suddenly discovered something was off.

“How did you crystallize to the seventh layer?” Ye Yong knew that he had only been out for three days, and Xia Shi Qi had actually broken through two small realms from the fifth layer, which was truly unbelievable.

Xia Shi Qi shook its disheveled fur, stood up straight, raised its wolf head, and looked extremely arrogant.

Ye Yong saw the little creature’s expression, a smugness that made him roll his eyes. He turned to Xia Shijia, who had also ascended two small realms, now at the eighth layer of crystallization.

In the early story arc, reaching the seventh and eighth layers of crystallization was already quite impressive. If other young antagonists possessed such power, they would surely flaunt it daily, strutting through the streets like the most dashing of figures, ready to unleash their wolves on anyone who dared to cross them.

As for Ye Yong, his aim was to cultivate towards becoming a human—no, a high-level wolf pet—not to raise henchmen. He had no intention of letting them take the spotlight.

Xia Shiqi and Xia Shijia were still a fair distance from conversing with high-level wolf pets, and thus could not answer Ye Yong’s confusion. So, he stepped inside the house.

It was the dead of night; Wu Xue was asleep. Ye Yong moved quietly to his room, where Hua Ningyan was curled up on his bed, a small white fluffball, eyes closed in serene slumber.

Ye Yong was taken aback to find that her cultivation had broken through to the third layer of crystallization. What had the three spirit pets experienced during his absence?

He tiptoed to the bedside and scooped up the little fox.

Hua Ningyan jolted awake, instinctively trying to wriggle free, but then she caught a whiff of a familiar scent.

“Master! You’re back!”

“Shh…” Ye Yong gestured for Hua Ningyan to calm down, not wanting to wake Wu Xue.

Hua Ningyan was merely momentarily excited; her voice was usually soft and delicate, requiring no effort to lower it—just a need to steady her emotions. “Didn’t you say you’d be out for just one night? How could you take so long? You even went to the human dynasty.”