Stuck in a Chinese novel

Wei Jun arrived at his newly constructed villa and entered to find someone waiting for him. He had a meeting set with Yue Peng so he was a little late but that was only because he didn't think Zi Huan would end up taking so much of his time.

"I apologize if I've made you wait," Wei Jun said as he sat on the sofa in front of her. Yue Peng shook her head as she replied, "I only just arrived. I was busy so I was a little late as well. We're both late so let's not dwell on that and move on. Do you have it?"

Wei Jun nodded and pulled out the core of the D rank monsters he had faced. He also had many of the C rank cores but he decided to give her only D rank cores. As it turned out, even though the military-controlled most of the dungeons around the empire, they were still short of the monster cores needed to make that gun. Wei Jun would rather not draw their attention to his company with a sudden flux in cores.

It was always better to keep the government or whoever was in charge away from the matters of a private corporation. The government, when it would utilize its power, could damage the company quite a bit.

Or in this case, it would be the military but the essence of it was the same. Keep the government off you as* was the safest way to do business. Wei Jun, in the end, was doing business.

"How much can you sell it for?" Wei Jun asked as he saw Yue Peng pick up the core and examine it. After a brief examination, she placed it back on the table and replied, "For now, the military is buying it at a hefty price. Of course, some… undesirable organizations are asking for the same. This little stone should fetch us a ten million, easy."

Wei Jun nodded and pulled a hundred D rank cores of different monsters. He placed them in front of Yue Peng and said, "Sell them. To the military if possible. I take it you know how to get it past them under the table."

Yue Peng was a little taken aback by that additional condition. "Why not deal with them openly?"

"Because then they'd bring themselves into our organization. You wouldn't want that, would you?" Wei Jun asked. Yue Peng thought for a while and nodded. While it would have been easier to deal with the military out in the open, the reason Wei Jun asked to deal with them in the dark was to ensure their safety.

However, doing so would also mean lower prices of their items which Wei Jun knew about. He waved his hand before Yue Peng could raise the issue and said, "A little loss is nothing compared to controlling the market. If the military wouldn't pay our desirable amount, then others would."

It would have been more profitable to deal with the darker organizations but Wei Jun wanted the military to have the cores so he could somehow get the refinement method or if he couldn't get that, he at least wanted the refined bullets which at the moment, according to his knowledge, only the military could make.

With that out of the way, Wei Jun gave her some extra cores and taught her how to refine them into Qi. It would have been great if he knew how to refine them into bullets but even the system didn't know how to do that from their conversation earlier so Wei Jun was stuck putting his bets on the military.

As for why he wanted Yue Peng to increase his strength was simple. Not only was she his party member, but she was also a very valuable business partner who made him a lot of money. The money he needed to buy items in the shop. With all the matters dealt with, Yue Peng left.

Once Wei Jun was alone, he returned to the gym where he didn't find Xing Xiaomei or Xia Lu in the private room. Wei Jun shook his head to clear his thoughts and began to strengthen his core.

His core was already very much solidified and if not for his head hurting every time he tried to do so, he would have long since finished. But now, after a long break, he didn't experience any discomfort while strengthening his core and training for the rest of the week.

The core strengthening was going flawlessly as ever. It was a lot more difficult this time but only difficult in the sense that he would have to expend more effort to pull strands to his core. While the time taken was also much less than before, he'd have to expend all the more effort. While he couldn't get the theory behind it, he didn't care. It wasn't like he could expend lesser strength to do it. The amount of Qi he used to pull the strands of Qi increased on its own, increasing the strain on his brain but the time also lessened in return.

It was very, very difficult this time around, but he couldn't just take a break from doing so. He repeated the same movements for the rest of the week without a break. As always, the strain on his mind would increase after each strand of Qi settled inside his core but the time with it reduced.

He couldn't feel it while in that state, but he felt like he was also perspiring and letting out steam from his body which proved to be true when…

[It's time, host] Experience tales with empire

He suddenly stopped everything and opened his eyes, breathing heavily. His breathing calmed down in an instant after a while but the ground around him was scorched. He sighed and came to a halt after a long exhale.

'Thanks for waking me up.'

[No problem, host]

He had asked the system to inform him when it was Sunday because he had something else he wanted to do before the week ended. He wanted to be true to his promise and attend dungeons for the military. While the first dungeon was just a trial dungeon for the military to know who they were signing up with, he wanted to get the rest of his agreement through before they asked him to.

And if he was being honest, he was also looking forward to doing so. After all, he still remembered the gains he obtained from the giant zombie and while it was a once-in-a-hundred type of opportunity, the other dungeons were still a treasure trove for him given that he could obtain cores from them to sell and strengthen his party members, he could also raise his Death Qi significantly.

With all those benefits present, it would have been a foolish thing to not take advantage of it while he could. After all, there was always the risk of the truth about the contract coming out.

Before then, he needed to hit the grandmaster rank and become strong enough for the military to be at least wary of him. It wasn't like the military would think of him as a threat because he remembered the sect master mentioning some old man from the CSF who probably led the military as well even though he was wary of it.

Still, being a grandmaster would make him more than stronger than anyone else other than some monsters out there. Not to mention, he needed to be a grandmaster to deal with the upcoming protagonist whom he had already angered a lot by taking Xing Xiaomei.

As he stood up, his muscles cracked and settled into place. He felt refreshed but tired at the same time. His body was brimming with energy but his mind was incredibly tired due to strengthening his core.

He left his villa after refreshing himself but he had only gone a little far when his phone rang. It was an unknown number but Wei Jun still picked it up. From the other side though, rang a familiar voice.

"Come to the sect. Now." Without even waiting for a reply, the sect master from the other side disconnected the call. Wei Jun, on the other hand, could only sigh and return to his villa. After calling for the helicopter which arrived shortly, he boarded it and left for the sect.

In about an hour, he arrived at the Jeju island variant that had a mountain as tall as the sky, and exited the helicopter. Waiting for him was a woman with ethereal features and had he not seen Xing Xiaomei, he would have definitely considered the woman before her beautiful.

"Welcome, disciple Ruan. Follow me. I will take you to the sect master." The woman said with an expressionless face. Wei Jun wasn't interested in anything else either so he simply nodded and followed her to the sect master's courtyard. As he arrived, he sensed two presences. One belonged to the sect master while the other one was as chilly as hell.

The worst part was that recognized that presence as well.

"Hello, husband."