Chapter 120: In the Days Without Gold Coins

Early in the morning, in the courtyard of Julia's house, Chu Tian and Little White stared at each other eye-to-dog-eye, locked in a painful dilemma over how on earth they were going to get home!

"Sigh~~" Chu Tian let out a heavy sigh. "Little White, your boss is broke. What are we going to do?"

"Awooo!" Little White shook its head helplessly, expressing its inability to help. In this day and age, without gold coins, forget about traveling across the entire continent; you couldn't even take a trip down to the countryside.

"Awooo!" Little White suddenly pointed at Chu Tian's hands, then jerked its head toward the courtyard, looking at the farmers who were just beginning their day's labor.

"Praise the Goddess of Life!" Chu Tian widened his eyes, grabbed Little White, and stared right into its big eyes. "What did you say? You want me to get a job and make money?!"

"Awooo~~~" Little White nodded with a cheeky grin.

"Are you kidding me?" Chu Tian flew into a rage. "Your boss here is the dignified Right Chancellor of the Empire and an Ancient Archpriest! And you're telling me to go work odd jobs..."

"Who are you?!" Chu Tian's words were cut short by a stern shout. A young man dressed in rough linen clothes and carrying a greatsword strode in, pointing his blade directly at Chu Tian. "What are you doing in my house?!"

"Haha, my name is Vradino, and I was invited here by Miss Julia." Chu Tian greeted him with a face full of ingratiating smiles.

"Hmph! Another fraud pretending to be an Archpriest!"

"Brother, why are you here?" Julia walked out from the house and introduced them to Chu Tian, saying, "Hey, this is my brother, Locke." Then, with a proud tone, she added, "My brother is a Tier 3 Black Iron Swordsman!"

A Tier-3 professional? Chu Tian rolled his eyes internally. Didn't even the lowest-ranking guards at his own estate start at the Black Iron Swordsman level?

"Haha." Locke smiled smugly. "Julia, you're already a Tier 2 Apprentice Mage yourself. You'll catch up to me soon enough."

"Awooo!" Little White covered its head, too disdainful to listen any longer. In front of a dog whose drinking companion was a Tier 7 magical beast, an apprentice mage was hardly anything worth bragging about.

As the brother and sister stood there exchanging mutual praise, Locke pointed at Chu Tian and asked, "Julia, what's his deal?"

Whereupon, Julia recounted the tale of how Chu Tian had sneaked in to steal a porcibeast in the middle of the night, and then looked him up and down in surprise. "Huh? You actually look pretty good after changing clothes."

That morning, Chu Tian had borrowed a set of rough linen clothes from the old man to replace his fur outfit. After washing up and tying his messy hair back at the nape of his neck, Young Master Chu finally looked somewhat human.

"Julia, let's go inside!" Locke's expression suddenly turned tense. Shoving his sister, he pulled her into the house, then turned back, lowered his voice, and warned Chu Tian, "Don't you dare lay a hand on my sister! If you do, I'll chop you to pieces!" To emphasize his point, he viciously brandished his greatsword.

With a helpless shrug, Chu Tian resumed his discussion with Little White about the gold coin crisis. A moment later, Locke and Julia emerged from the house.

Locke announced, "Hey, I'm planning to form a mercenary group. Do you want to join?"

A mercenary group? Chu Tian's eyes lit up. That sounded like a very profitable business. "I'm in!"

"Good. From now on, you'll call me Captain." Locke nodded in satisfaction, then, completely unfazed by Chu Tian's presence, asked Julia, "Is this kid you recommended reliable?"

"Grandpa said he's not a bad person!" Julia retorted. "Do you dare doubt Grandpa's word? Besides, last night dozens of people couldn't catch him, so he definitely has to be a capable thief!"

Chu Tian was dumbfounded. Since when did he become a thief? He opened his mouth to object, but Locke cut him off. "Kid, starting today, you are the chief thief of the Iron Roar Mercenary Group!"

Without giving Chu Tian a chance to get a word in edgewise, Locke and Julia scurried back inside the house. However, thanks to the exceptionally sharp ears granted by the Dragon Emperor's blood, Chu Tian faintly caught the conversation between the siblings inside: "Brother, why did you make him the chief thief right off the bat? Can he handle such an important position?"

"Julia, keep it down, don't let the kid hear you. You think I wanted to make him chief thief? It's just that your brother couldn't find anyone else..."

In that instant, Chu Tian abandoned all hope for his financial future.

………………………………………………………………

In Pot Town near the village, the Iron Roar Mercenary Group held its inaugural meeting.

"Ahem, ahem!" Locke put on airs and began his speech. "Comrades, today, our Iron Roar Mercenary Group is officially established!"

Scattered applause echoed through the room, contributed entirely by Julia. Meanwhile, Chu Tian sat dejectedly to one side, holding Little White. As for the other members... there were none! The entire mercenary group consisted of precisely three people!

"Brother, cut the crap..."

"Call me Captain!" Locke snapped angrily. Then, wilted under Julia's fiery glare, he stammered, "Uh, well, then I won't waste any words. Oh, right, Julia, Grandpa doesn't know you sneaked out to follow me, does he?"

"I left Grandpa a letter." Julia smiled. "Don't worry, by the time Grandpa finds out, I'll already be a registered mercenary."

"That's good." Locke was reassured. "Hey, kid, say a few words!"

"Praise the Goddess of Life!" Chu Tian declared. "My name isn't 'kid', it's Vradi—"

"Enough! Enough! Stop putting on an act," Locke interrupted impatiently. "Ever since His Excellency Vradino's name spread across the continent, plenty of people have changed their names to his. Kid, tell the Captain your real name!"

"I am literally Vradino!" Chu Tian glared, furious. "And another thing, I am not a thief! Your daddy here is a priest!"

"A priest? Haha." The siblings burst into laughter together. "Go on then, cast a healing spell for us to see."

"Fine, whatever, I'll just be a thief!" Chu Tian compromised. Forget a healing spell; Young Master Chu didn't even have a single shred of magical fluctuation within him right now.

"That's more like it!" Locke patted Chu Tian on the shoulder. "Work hard from now on! Now, let's head to the town's Mercenary Guild and officially register!"

The three of them arrived at the Mercenary Guild, only to be redirected immediately to the Thieves' Guild because Chu Tian, functioning as the group's resident thief, lacked a professional rank and could not be registered as a mercenary.

With a look of physical pain, Locke forked over a silver coin to pay for Chu Tian's professional assessment.

The capability requirements for a low-level thief were quite simple, focusing only on three aspects: speed, scouting, and concealment. For Chu Tian's current physical condition, this posed zero threat. With the aid of the Dragon Emperor's blood, Chu Tian dashed across a distance of several hundred meters in the blink of an eye, and could see objects clearly from a hundred meters away. Furthermore, when it came to concealment, Chu Tian completely stunned the assessing thief.

"Gosh. Absolutely flawless!" the thief exclaimed in astonishment. "My good sir, your concealment technique is too perfect. Even an intermediate thief like me couldn't sense your presence at all!"

*No shit,* Chu Tian thought to himself. *I don't have any magic or battle qi fluctuations whatsoever! Forget about a little thief like you, even the Dragon Emperor himself couldn't sense my presence.*

"How about this, sir? I will directly grant you the rank of a Tier 3 Low-Level Thief." The assessor paused for a moment, then probed tentatively, "Would you like to test for a Tier 4 rank right away? You only need to pass the Mud Assassination and Stealing techniques. With your concealment skills, it should be a breeze."

"Let's talk about it later!" Before Chu Tian could refuse, Julia spoke up. "We don't have any money left."

"Oh, well, that's truly a pity."

The three of them slunk out of the Thieves' Guild in defeat and finally managed to register as mercenaries. All the way down the street, Locke kept grumbling at Julia, asking how she could possibly blurt out the truth like that. Sure, they were broke, but admitting it so bluntly was humiliating.

"Stop right there!" As soon as they stepped out of the Mercenary Guild, Chu Tian was suddenly intercepted. "Are you Vradino?"

"Praise the Goddess of Life!" Chu Tian narrowed his eyes and smiled, because standing before them were a dozen burly men, all heavily armed. "Hehe, you guys have got the wrong person."

"Hey, why did you lie?" Julia looked at Chu Tian, baffled.

"Julia!" Locke also realized the situation was amiss and quickly clapped a hand over his sister's mouth. "Ha-ha, gentlemen, my little sister is just joking." He pointed at Chu Tian and added, "This kid's name isn't Vradino."

"Hahaha." The leader of the thugs burst into wild laughter. "When you registered your mercenary group just a moment ago, I saw it with my own eyes—he used the name Vradino!"

"Hehe." Chu Tian offered a cunning smile. "There are plenty of people named Vradino on the continent these days, so there's nothing wrong with me using this name, right?"

"Hmph! Every single priest named Vradino deserves to die!" The burly leader roared fiercely. "Brothers, kill him!"

"Who dares?!" Locke brandished his sword, stepping in front of Chu Tian. "He's a member of our mercenary group! Who dares lay a finger on him?!"

"You call this little mercenary group anything? Hahaha... Just based on a Tier 3 Black Iron Swordsman like you?" Clearly, Locke was not taken seriously at all.

"Wait a second!" Chu Tian slipped around Locke and said to the burly man, "Are you looking for a priest named Vradino? Hehe, you've got the wrong guy. Even though my name is Vradino, I'm a thief!" With that, he flashed the newly acquired thief badge.

"Boss, our client only paid us to kill a priest named Vradino. Let's forget about this thief!" Another burly man clearly didn't want to waste time on Chu Tian. "There's another priest in this town named Vradino!"

"Hmph!" The leader pulled a portrait out from his tunic, scrutinized Chu Tian for a long moment, and then declared, "Let's move!"

The thugs turned and left. Chu Tian narrowed his eyes and smiled. Good thing he had changed his clothes and hairstyle, and that these fellows couldn't afford a magic-induced illusion scroll and had to rely solely on a generic portrait to hunt people down; otherwise, he would have been in real trouble today.

"Brother, why are they looking for a priest named Vradino?" Julia asked Locke, thoroughly confused.

"I have no idea. Oh, right, kid, you'd better stop using the name Vradino from now on." Locke walked up to Chu Tian. "I heard that starting yesterday, quite a few priests with that name have been murdered."

"Hehe, I wouldn't dare use the name Vradino ever again," Chu Tian said, feigning fright. "Call me Andy from now on!" After casually making up a pseudonym, Chu Tian sank into deep thought. *Damn it, I've only transmigrated for two days, and people are already hunting down priests named Vradino.*

Clearly, this whole affair was aimed squarely at him. But who on earth wanted him dead? The Leis Empire? This was the westernmost edge of the continent; they didn't have the reach to control events tens of thousands of miles away within two days. The Agula Mountains and Red Moon City? Unlikely either; they still needed Chu Tian's help. So who else could it be? Chu Tian racked his brain for a long time, but still couldn't figure out who wanted him out of the picture.

"Murder! Help! Murder~~~" A shrill, miserable scream echoed down the street. "The priest Vradino in town has been murdered..."