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TOSDAG Chapter 17: Mutual Benefit Agreement
🕑 Added 2025-01-29 14:49:51 +0000 UTCThird Person P.O.V
"Fuu." Leek exhaled as his feet touched the ground again, a light layer of sweat was present on his forehead, and his muscles resented a little all the effort he had just made.
A little over a couple of hours ago, the city lord had agreed to a deal with him, Leek would be allowed to stay in Glory City and would be under the protection of the city lord, in exchange for this he would form his own family, which would directly enter the rank of noble, which was the same rank that the Huyan family had, and he would be given direct support from the Snow Wind family for the next 5 years until he was fully established.
During this time, he would have to support the family with methods to strengthen their cultivation, but Leek had put as a condition that there would only be four people he would help at a time and only once a week, after all, he would also need time to strengthen himself, and he would have to train those same people so they could master the use of ki and spread it to the rest of Glory City.
At first, the city lord didn't seem too convinced with the small number of people Leek set as a condition, but after showing some of the other uses ki could have besides strengthening, energy materialization, and presence detection, the hard-faced man couldn't resist and ended up accepting the deal.
"Flying, I thought only Legend rank spiritualists would be capable of something like that, at least not without the help of a flying demon spirit or artifact." Huyan Xiong said in surprise.
"Well, it's not like it was something easy for me, I never received the full explanation, I only know the basics of it, but from how my energy feels, I can make some assumptions, so it might take me a week or two before I can fly freely." Leek said wiping the sweat from his forehead.
"Two weeks." Ye Zong and Ye Shuo looked shocked, while Huyan Xiong just sighed in resignation, he had seen this boy do and say too many weird things to let this shake him too much.
"I really would have liked to come into contact with your people sooner." He said a little grumpily, if he had found the Saiyans and not just Leek, then the amount of benefits and power that Glory City could have received would have been unimaginable.
"To be completely honest, I don't know how that would have ended. Saiyans were a warrior race that believed in power above all else. The strong rule, the weak obey, and the cowards die. Sure, there were some more radical than others, but we got to a point where most didn't look for trouble with those who weren't warriors, like those who worked at the meat distribution center, but I don't know how willing the royal family would have been to join this city and operate under Mr. Ye Zong." Leek said, giving the man a look.
Ye Zong frowned a little. "What are you trying to say?"
"I'm not trying to offend you, compared to me, you are very strong, but I've already told you before, I wasn't someone particularly strong among those of my age, a little better than average, but nothing more, I don't know how strong you can become by fusing with your demonic spirit, but I don't think it would have been enough for the Saiyans to lower their heads"
Ye Zong was aware that the Saiyan's words weren't just gossip, he himself had come to a similar conclusion if he took into account that someone 15 years old that was equivalent to 3-star gold rank was only slightly better than average for Saiyans, but he still wanted verbal confirmation, so he chose to get that information from Leek's words.
"Then let's check it out." Was all Ye Zong said before a gust of wind shot out in all directions with him as the center.
The pitch-black scales materialized on his skin like armor, a long tail fell behind him, his size grew to at least 3 and a half meters, and his eyes became like those of a reptile.
The aura that was coating the now transformed man seemed to be wrapped in flames, the power was palpable around him, and although the pressure of this energy was not directed towards him, Leek clearly felt the weight of the power of the man before him, it was not even necessary to clarify that he was quite a bit stronger than Huyan Xiong fused with his white-horned sacred ox.
"So?" Was all the man said as he crossed his arms.
Leek almost gulped, and although his instincts kept screaming danger, he resisted the urge to take a step back, standing up straight and spoke with a small smile. "Hehe, you really are a monster, I would say that you maybe enter the top 120 of the strongest"
And although in Leek's opinion, this was not a way to belittle Ye Zong's power, the man seemed to have received a punch in the face.
"T-TOP 120?" Ye Shuo and Huyan Xiong looked incredibly shocked.
"Yes." Leek nodded, which made the men's expressions darken, he did not consider that he was underestimating Ye Zong or overestimating the Saiyans, after all, as far as he remembered, a small group of them, maybe 5 or 6, were sent to different planets to conquer them.
Or in Raditz's case, he alone was strong enough to conquer Earth if it weren't for Goku and Piccolo, if just one of them hadn't participated in the fight then probably the planet have been conquered without much trouble.
And although he didn't know how the Earth of Dragon Ball at that time compared to this planet, he wouldn't underestimate the blue planet, after all, even taking Goku and Piccolo out of the equation, there were still people like Tien Shinhan, Krillin, Yamcha, Master Roshi, Son Gohan, Tao Pai Pai and other warriors, in addition to armies with planes, tanks, and so on, and even with all that, Earth was rated as a planet with low combat power.
Could Ye Zong conquer a planet like Earth by himself or destroy a moon like Roshi did? Leek really doubted that was the case, so could 10 Ye Zongs do it? 20? 50? Leek wasn't sure how many Ye Zongs it would take to accomplish that, but the fact that it would take more than one already put him below Raditz, a low-class warrior who was slightly stronger than the Saibamans.
And if he took the Bardock from the OVA into account, he should have around ten thousand units of power, much more than Raditz and Nappa.
So, ranking Ye Zong under the top 100 shouldn't be far-fetched. "If you had made contact with the Saiyans and offered to come to Glory City, then they probably would have called for a match to see who would rule this city, like I said, they would never bow their heads to someone weaker, but I think that would have been a really bad idea, I can't imagine a Saiyan ruling such a big place, your best chance would have been to convince them that ruling is too boring and difficult, that way maybe you would have come to an agreement with them to protect the city as long as they gave them a good fight every now and then and fed them plenty"
The three men looked at Leek with strange expressions, and at this point, he was more or less used to it, so he decided to bet on what they were thinking and said. "Ah, but don't worry, I'm not the kind of Saiyan that says things like 'I rule because I'm the strongest, so bow down and make me your king', there weren't too many of that kind to begin with, the problem is that Saiyans were a proud people, none of you would let yourselves be chained down by someone weaker, right?"
Thinking about Leek's words, the 3 adults found themselves nodding, if, any some reason, they had to leave Glory City and arrive in a populated place where the strongest warriors were at most gold rank, and they wanted to order them around, would they agree to bow their heads? Would they leave the safe and comfortable place? Or would they try to rule it because that was the most logical thing to do for them?
There was no need to think too much to know what the answer would be, really strong people are usually proud of their own strength, and very few would put aside that pride to adapt to an environment where they don't rule and are below weaker people for the simple fact that "this was someone else's home".
"So, that would be all?" Leek asked stretching his arms, if he was honest, he already wanted to finish this meeting and go get some rest, he didn't know if he could continue staying at Huyan Xiong's house, but if that was the case, he wanted to talk to him to find out if it would be okay if he went out in a few days to hunt some demonic beasts.
He had received a zenkai after the fight with those giant gorillas, and during all this time he had been training to properly control that gained power, so he felt ready to go and get some money in exchange for the materials that those beasts would give him, after all, after buying some good quality clothes and eating at the luxurious meat restaurant with Huyan Lanruo and Xiao Ning'er his funds were a little scarce.
In addition, he could also take advantage of the opportunity to recover his spaceship, that ship was full of incredibly useful things that he was not willing to give up, and it even served as his own private room, similar to those in the so-called capsule hotels that abounded in Japan.
"There are still a few more things." Ye Zong, in human form once again, caught Leek's attention.
"The method you came up with to increase the speed of cultivation, I would like to see it"
"That won't be possible." Leek said as he shook his head, he himself had asked Lanruo to inform her father about the conversation they had in the clearing that night, all in the hopes that Huyan Xiong would tell the city lord.
The reason for doing this?
He wanted to have an extra card to play, a way to say. "I am incredibly valuable, and there will only be benefits if you let me stay in your city"
That first step had been successfully accomplished, Ye Zong seemed to clearly understand all the benefits Leek could bring to Glory City, so now he had to move on to the second step, showing a bit of resistance to the city lord's requests.
He had to make him understand that while he was willing to support as best he could, he wasn't going to give him everything he wanted at the moment Ye Zong wanted it, it was something like a power game, Leek wanted to get to the point where the statement "he's too valuable to mess with" applied to him.
And to start building that feeling, he would start with this, he would be the one to decide when to show Ye Zong the method he had devised, although of course, to avoid any kind of bad blood on the part of the city lord, he had to have an explanation that was, at the very least, halfway acceptable, along with just a little bit of arrogance for decoration.
"The method I came up with hasn't been tested yet, I want to do a couple of field experiments before I show you any of it, besides, according to my guesses, the process isn't instantaneous, it will take some time when it's done, during that time I need to be focused, and if I'm honest, I'd like to get some rest, after all, I had no idea this meeting would last so long." Leek said with a short yawn.
Ye Xong didn't seem very happy to hear Leek's words, but, although he seemed to have something to say, in the end he didn't, and simply nodded a couple of times before moving on to another topic.
"For now, you will be staying at Huyan Xiong's house, the process for you to have your own noble-rank house will take a little less than a month before being ready, when that happens a banquet will be held where your existence will be announced to the rest of the families while instigating search efforts for more human communities, the fact that you exist proves that there is life beyond the walls that protect our city, so it might be beneficial to find them and form alliances to protect each other, but in order for the rest of the houses to see this as a necessity and put in a real effort I will need you to show some of what you are capable of during that event"
The corner of Leek's mouth twitched a little, he had never been to an event like the one Ye Zong described, so he was not very sure about how he should behave, in addition to the fact that he was not sure how fruitful those search groups would be, after all, he really was something like an alien that came from another universe that had the body of another alien from a third different universe, but it's not like he can say that.
"Alright, I'll try, but don't expect too much-refined behavior from me, I am a Saiyan after all, we're not made to dress up and attend high society gatherings, but to fight"
"Hahaha." Huyan Xiong laughed as he stepped forward and patted Leek on the back. "I understand how you feel, but you just need to behave like you did in this meeting, except for the part about calling the city lord "old man" of course." He said in a good mood.
Ye Zong kept his stony expression and just snorted while Leek scratched his head, a little embarrassed. "Well, that was just my Saiyan instinct, Saiyans usually respond to challenges, especially if they're so direct." The truth was that he didn't regret what he did, he proved that he wasn't a cowardly doormat, but perhaps he would have to measure himself a little more in the future, stubbornness, also called Saiyan pride, was something that could be used against him, and Leek didn't feel like being a victim of his own temper.
"And about getting your transport back." Ye Shuo said.
"Yes, if I'm honest, that's something I'd like to handle myself, it's of incalculable value to me, plus some items that I don't want to risk getting lost or damaged due to lack of knowledge of how to handle it, I'd like to have it before you announce my existence, I wouldn't like someone else to find it and take it away mistakenly, I promise to show it to you once I get it back." Leek said, after all, after using it as his "home" for a while, he had grown fond of the giant hamster sphere.
"You can go, but you will be assigned an escort, now that we made a deal, you are our responsibility. If anything happens to you now, Glory City will suffer losses." Ye Zong said.
Leek sighed, but in the end, he nodded, he would rather go alone, but what Ye Zong said made sense, besides, he could use some support, just in case.
"Ah, I almost forgot." Leek said as he mentally scolded himself. "One last thing, I would like you to give me a lunar calendar, I need to know the state of the moon"
Ye Zong, Ye Shuo, and Huyan Xiong looked a little surprised. "Why?" The city lord asked.
"It has to do with health, let's say the moon, when in a certain state, has a… negative effect on Saiyans, it's something that can be overcome with training, but it's something I didn't get yet, so I'll have to manage on my own, I'd just like to avoid the most annoying effects"
The three men seemed a little confused and curious about this, but it was clear that Leek didn't want to give any more information, so they decided not to ask anymore.
"Well, don't worry about it kid, I'll ask someone to give you one when we get back." Huyan Xiong said. "By the way, this night the moon will be in its First Quarter"
Leek nodded, and with that, the meeting finally ended, and both Leek and Huyan Xiong left the city lord's mansion.
But only when they were both a few dozen meters away from the place did Leek speak again.
"Um, excuse me, during this entire month before the banquet the city lord spoke of, will I be staying at your house?"
"Of course, once it is announced that you exist and your own family is formed, then you will live in your own house, but until then, you will stay in the Huyan family's house, I think you will be comfortable there, right?"
"Oh, sure, I have no problem with that, it's just that…" Leek didn't say the last part, but Huyan Xiong understood immediately, Huyan Lanruo, perhaps if she were in her normal state there wouldn't be too many problems, but now that she looked like a schoolgirl in love, perhaps an "accident" could happen if they weren't careful.
"Hahaha, I imagine my daughter will be happy, but don't worry, I will talk to her seriously, I will make her an offer she can't refuse"
Leek seemed a little skeptical, but he had no choice but to trust Huyan Xiong, after all, he was Lanruo's father, so he should know her better than Leek did.
He just hoped that Huyan Xiong could really calm things down, because he didn't trust much in his own ability to resist Lanruo if she really "attacked" him.
