Chapter 17: Chapter 17: A New Man (1)

"Just… a few more."

3 days after Song Jian visited Yun Hao's home, Yun Hao dropped face first on his bed. Yes… after more than 10 days, he once again had access to his bed as the number of coins finally dwindled more than half. The pile now reached only up to his ankles, a far cry as to what it was 13 days ago when it reached up almost to Yun Hao's waist.

He was even able to free up half of the inside of his house, scooping the rest towards one side so that it would no longer impede his steps. The process was rigorous… was it worth it?

'Definitely,' Yun Hao thought as he let out an almost frenzied laugh. If it wasn't for the hard pillow covering his face, the whole city might have heard him.

$278,000. He now had somewhere in the total of $278,000 he can legally spend. Just $22,000 more, and he can officially be a Cultivator. If he tried his best tomorrow, then he could probably have his meridians opened up the next day.

Finally, after almost 2 weeks of hard work, the worse would have passed.

"...Pft," Yun Hao could not help but once again laugh at his thoughts. Hard work? If the merchants and the workers heard him complaining about earning more than $15,000 a day every day, then they would surely put him in a sack and hit him like a pinata.

Yun Hao then turned his head to the side, stretching his arms and grabbing one of the coins scattered on the ground. Yun Hao stared at the coin for a few seconds before letting out a word, "...Duplicate."

"..."

It looked as if nothing happened, but as soon as he slid the coin across his fingers, the coin that he was previously holding revealed the new coin behind it. Even after all this time, he still couldn't believe how and why he was granted this kind of godly power. He is still afraid to use it too much, as there might be a limit to it. But even after all this time, it was still here.

Yun Hao then carefully and gently placed the two coins back on the ground before scooching further on his bed as the excitement and exhaustion of today's work finally got to him.

Tomorrow, he would definitely do his best to get more than $22,000.

***

"Thanks for the business again, young man!"

"Thank you as well, Mr. Lei."

"Come to me again when you've collected enough coins, okay? Only to me."

"You got it, Mr. Lei."

Yun Hao bowed towards the old merchant before walking away. If only the old man knew that he wasn't the only one Yun Hao was exchanging the coins with, then he would definitely lose his mind. He was even the last one to receive Yun Hao's collection of coins for today.

Yes, after another whole day of distributing his coins to different merchants all over the markets, Yun Hao had finally amassed around a total of $310,000. That was more than $30,000 in a single day, probably his best time yet.

Finally-- he had enough money to enter the world of Cultivators. Sadly, the sun was about to set in an hour and he wouldn't be able to make it to a Confederation building. As initially planned, he would have to wait until tomorrow to visit one. Once again, Yun Hao could not help but let out a burst of laughter, garnering the attention of the people shopping in the market.

"Mommy, that man looks funny!"

"D… don't look at him, he probably just robbed someone and is celebrating it."

"..."

Yun Hao quickly stopped and cleared his throat as he noticed the people in the area started looking around him. He really should stop bursting out in laughter whenever he thinks of something satisfactory, he was rich now… and rich people had class.

"...Pft."

But alas, once again, his thoughts betrayed him as he fell into laughter.

"Yun Hao?"

This time, however, his laughter was short-lived as he saw his reflection in front of a window. How could people even see him as rich if the clothes he was wearing looked like he just got them from a thrift store and never even washed it?

Although he wasn't really one to care about how people looked at him, he was still going to a somewhat formal event tomorrow. He was going to the Confederation building, it would be disrespectful if he were to go there wearing nothing but a shirt and flip-flops.

He also started showing his scar more, but due to his long hair, no matter how much he pulled it back, his own sweat was not enough to keep it in place. And so, after a short deliberation, Yun Hao decided to spend some of his money to buy a new set of clothes to wear tomorrow.

Nothing really special happened as he was buying the clothes, besides of course the looks of the staff as he walked in with only wearing flip flops. But thanks to the fashion of the new generation of looking like a homeless person, the staff didn't really give him a hard time; even smiling as Yun Hao showed the three cards in his wallet.

"Not too short please, I would still like to feel something flowing in between my fingers whenever I play with my hair."

"Please follow me, we'll have your hair shampooed first."

Now the grooming, on the other hand, was completely the opposite. As soon as Yun Hao laid his back to have his hair rinsed, the stylist instantly jumped back in fright as he saw the huge scar that adorned Yun Hao's face.

"I… I'm sorry!"

"..."

Yun Hao could only wipe his face as the shower of water accidentally splashed on it. Other than that, though, there were only oohs and aahs of amazement as Yun Hao walked out of the salon. Previously, due to his long and bedraggled hair which reached his shoulders, he looked like some kind of gangster whenever his scar was showing.

But now, with his hair properly kept and parted, even with his scar showing, it made him look like some kind of princely warrior. At least that's what the female staff thought as she handed him the payment for the haircut.

It was true what they said: You're not ugly, you just lack money.

Of course, Yun Hao still looked scary at first glance, but once you get past the scar, the rest of his face truly was beyond handsome, add that to the fact that he was quite tall and muscular-- it was a complete recipe as one of the reasons why the rich young masters of Tsinghai Academy abhorred him.

He was also extremely popular with the young ladies there at first, but when Yun Hao continually ignored their advances and then found out that he actually had a girlfriend, they started to despise him-- even more when he was finally kicked out of the boxing team.

Now, with this new look, Yun Hao could finally say it--

He was a completely different man.

He was a completely different man than he was just a few weeks ago. He hasn't even had a day where he thought of just ending it and offing himself.

Well, that is, not until he arrived back home.

Yun Hao was whistling, even waving his hands with a smile on his face as he walked past the workers of the scrapyard, completely weirding them out. He continued to whistle as his steps showed how excited he was for tomorrow.

This excitement, however, completely disappeared as he heard something clanging from the direction of his house. Yun Hao immediately dropped his empty bags on the ground as he rushed towards his house.

'Does she need anything else?' Yun Hao thought. The only person that was appearing inside Yun Hao's mind was Song Jian, as she already visited without any warning beforehand. She could have called, seeing as Huang Yi had Yun Hao's new number, it would be impossible for her not to give it to Song Jian.

"Ms. Song!" Yun Hao shouted as he reached the perimeter of his house, "You should--"

His steps, however, completely came to a halt as he saw the one standing in front of his house. His house, which door was open, with a handful of the remaining coins exposing themselves through the doorway.

But most importantly, the person who just stepped out of his house was not Song Jian…

...But one of the workers of the scrapyard.