Chapter 208 Don’t believe in superstitions
“Platoon Commander, what should we do with the goat?” someone asked.
Li Qingzheng cut in, “Don’t address me as Platoon Commander, call me the Lord of Wolves! What is the name of the mountain we’re at? Oh yes, it’s Mount Kun! I shall be known as the Lord of Wolves of Mount Kun from now on!”
Off to the side, Chen Wudi asked, “Master, should I subdue this demon?”
“Not for now, no,” Ren Xiaosu replied.
Chen Wudi understood that Ren Xiaosu meant that Li Qingzheng might have to be subdued at some later point. “Master, when can we eat some goat?” He slurped.
“How about now?” When Ren Xiaosu heard Chen Wudi slurping, his expression nearly turned dark.
As the group prepared to cut the goat up and make the campfire, the male student named Wang Yuchi looked at Ren Xiaosu curiously. He lowered his voice and asked, “Monitor, when the wolves last appeared, you brought back such a large rabbit so quickly in the heavy snow. When the wolves appeared this time, they took the initiative and gave us a goat. Isn’t that too much of a coincidence?”
Chen Wudi and the students all looked at Ren Xiaosu. Wang Yuchi had spoken quietly enough that only their group heard it.
Ren Xiaosu could only look at them and say with a laugh, “Haha, it truly is a coincidence.” Since the situation had come to this, he could only claim it was a coincidence.
Wang Yuchi wondered, “Monitor, did the wolves present you with the rabbit as well? Was that why you said we didn’t have to worry about them?”
Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that these students were indeed smart. They could figure out the truth with so few details. He whispered, “Don’t say that to anyone else.”
After all, it would cause somewhat of a sensation if there were any mention of his interaction with the wolves. Since Li Qingzheng was willing to be the scapegoat, Ren Xiaosu was more than happy to let him do it.
But Wang Yuchi said, “Do we need to give anything in return?”
“I don’t think so.” Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “We don’t really have anything that we can give them anyway.”
On the same night, the entire platoon sat down beside the campfire at the entrance of the outpost. With the aroma of the roasted goat attacking their nostrils, the escapees started tearing up as they bit into the meat. These people had been starving for many days, and no one gave them any food even after they were conscripted into the military.
Li Qingzheng and his soldiers were refugees who had been recruited during the expansion of the private troops and were also unable to afford meat for their past meals. He lamented, “Actually, I felt terrible when I first learned I had been assigned to the outpost. After all, this is such a nowhere place that it feels like we’re being exiled. If we encounter any danger out here, we’ll just end up becoming cannon fodder.”
Ren Xiaosu gave him a look. He didn’t expect Li Qingzheng to understand their situation so well, and that he was actually just not showing it.
Li Qingzheng continued to lament, “But thinking about it now, it’s really quite nice if we could have meat for all of our meals. The smell of goat meat is really great!”
“We can go out and hunt since we have guns,” Ren Xiaosu suggested.
“But we’ll need our guns to fight against the enemy.” Li Qingzheng rejected his suggestion.
Ren Xiaosu analyzed, “Look, we only have a dozen guns or so. What can we do with a dozen guns when the enemy arrives?”.
“That really seems to be the case,” Li Qingzheng replied after some thought.
The students next to them realized Ren Xiaosu seemed to have a unique flair in persuading others.
Li Qingzheng was gnawing on goat leg and said with a smile, “I heard that the big shots in the stronghold can have barbecue for every meal. They even prepare lemons and onions before barbecuing the meat, only cooking it to medium rare so that the original juices are retained!”
Although lemons were uncommon these days, everyone had heard of this type of fruit. They never ate it before, but they heard that lemons were extremely sour. Onions, on the other hand, were still commonly seen.
Chen Wudi asked in a soft whisper, “Master, why do you need lemons and onions for a barbecue?”
Ren Xiaosu pondered it before saying, “So that you can squirt the lemon juice or rub the onions into other people’s eyes to get dibs on the meat?”
Chen Wudi was confused.
The people around him looked over with expressionless faces. Li Qingzheng said, sounding rather surprised, “Are you serious…”
But all of a sudden, Li Qingzheng noticed the light from a vehicle heading up the mountain. He stood up immediately. “Why would anyone come to this remote place at this hour of the night?”
A lone off-road vehicle was approaching them. Venturing out in this current wilderness with so few people was usually not too confidence inspiring. Under normal circumstances, most people would choose to travel in convoys. So the appearance of this lone off-road vehicle made the situation seem even stranger.
Everyone at the outpost stood at the entrance. Li Qingzheng and other soldiers who were issued with guns were even carrying them on their backs.
When the off-road vehicle arrived at the entrance of the outpost, the dazzling headlights of the vehicle shone directly in the faces of Ren Xiaosu and the others. It was as though they did not care about how they felt.
When two people jumped out of the vehicle, Ren Xiaosu saw they were both wearing the Li Consortium’s military uniforms. But from the looks of it, the fabric was much more exquisite than the ones he had come across in the past.
No. Actually, he had seen it once before. The commander of the combat brigade was dressed just like the two of them.
But when Li Qingzheng saw the colonel epaulets on their shoulders, he saluted. “Sirs, we welcome you to our outpost for inspection.” The two officers had fair complexions and looked dignified. When they stepped onto the snow in their leather boots, they made crunching sounds. They were even wearing black leather gloves. However, the two men looked exceptionally young. When one of them saw the roasted goat, he said with a smile, “I didn’t expect you all to be enjoying this so much. After inspecting several dozen outposts, we noticed all of them were having difficulties just getting by. It’s only you guys here who are living so comfortably. Bring two chairs over for us.” After he said that, he walked into the outpost with the other officer. Li Qingzheng got someone to bring out two chairs for these two officers while he prepared to sit on the ground.
But just as his buttocks touched the ground, that officer suddenly frowned and said, “Did we say you could sit? Stand to the side!”
He took off his gloves and started cutting some meat from the goat. After taking a bite, he frowned and said, “You didn’t even season it properly! This tastes horrible. Ptui!”
Ren Xiaosu watched this guy spit out the meat in his mouth along with some saliva onto the roasted goat. How were the rest of them supposed to eat it now?!
But his first reaction was… to stop Chen Wudi. Ren Xiaosu whispered, “Don’t be rash. I’ll kill them later when no one is around.”
With the illumination of the campfire, Ren Xiaosu suddenly saw a silvery gleam underneath the officers’ eyes. He thought they might have something to fall back on. Why else would the two of them venture out this late at night? It didn’t even seem like they had brought any heavy weapons with them.
The two officers wiped their hands on the snow and put their leather gloves back on. The lead officer said calmly, “Keep a careful watch at the outpost. If you see any enemies approaching, remember to report it immediately. If there is any delay, all of you will be brought in for a court martial. There can only be one outcome then, execution!”
Li Qingzheng bowed slightly as he nodded and said, “Yes, yes, we’ll keep a careful watch here at the outpost.”
As the two men spoke, they got back into the vehicle. With a roar, the vehicle moved off and left behind deep tracks in the snow with its snow chains.
The two of them had trashed the originally good mood everyone was in. Someone asked, “Are we going to let them leave just like that?”
Li Qingzheng could only helplessly wave if off. “Put out the fire and go to bed. What else can we do if we don’t let them leave? Just blame it on our shitty lives. They’re family members of the Li Consortium, after
all!”
“What about the goat?” someone asked.
“We can still eat it after cutting off the parts they spat on,” Li Qingzheng replied. As refugees, they had had a certain submissiveness hammered into their characters. So what if they were angry and feeling wronged? Life would still go on.
He then walked into his house. Ren Xiaosu looked at the others and said, “Y’all can go to sleep first. We’ll tidy up the place.”
By “we,” he was referring to their smaller group consisting of himself, Chen Wudi, and the students, which they themselves were fully aware of. But since the students were always diligent at doing their work, no one thought anything of it.
When everyone else returned to their houses to rest, Ren Xiaosu said, “Y’all take your time to tidy up. I’ll head out for a while.”
When the students heard that, their eyes lit up. “Good on you, Monitor!”
The off-road vehicle was moving slowly along the mountain road. Even though the vehicle was equipped with snow chains, they could not drive too fast in the snow, especially not when they were driving downhill.
Jazz music was playing inside the vehicle while the officer in the front seat chuckled as he put in another cassette. “You can really feel the control the Li Consortium has over these lands when you see the fear in those people’s eyes.”
“It’s really quite interesting to see them angry but not dare to show it.”
“After we get back this time, we should be able to step up for the second stage of synchronization. By then, even more nanomachines can be injected into our bodies. Apparently, a family member of the Li Consortium in Stronghold 107 has already gone on to the second stage of the process.”
“There’s no hurry. We’re only just beginning.” The family members of the organization were all outstanding and intelligent. They received the best education and understood the truest face of the world. If all the roads in the world led to Rome, they would be born in Rome.
But since the Li Consortium could even produce a demon like Li Shentan, they could create even more of such demons. The only difference was that one of them was lonely while the others were not.
During their conversation, something suddenly dropped down from above. They looked astounded but managed to react quickly enough to open the door and jump out at the same time!
With a loud bang, the shadow clone landed on the off-road vehicle from above and smashed right through the middle. The sparks from the black saber cutting through the vehicle were extraordinarily striking in the darkness!
Ren Xiaosu watched this scene quietly from the hillside. But to his surprise, the reactions of the two officers were much quicker than he expected. Furthermore, they should be showing signs of fractures and other injuries after jumping out of the vehicle into the hilly terrain. However, they were unscathed!
The two officers got up from the ground and dusted off the snow on their bodies. One of them sneered, “Could it be someone from the outpost?”
They were not stupid. Anyone who would attack them in a place like this would definitely have to be from the outpost. But they could never have expected there to actually be a supernatural being posted to that shabby outpost back there.
As an officer took off his gloves, he could feel a silver torrent gushing through his veins. The new nanoforms followed his will and gathered within his body until even his blood turned silver.
“You’re the first supernatural being to face our newfound strength, so you should feel honored—”
His voice stopped abruptly. He only had enough time to see the black shadow clone suddenly disappear from above the vehicle before a menacing hand grasped him by the neck. With a slight twist, his neck was broken.
Ren Xiaosu found it a shame that Luo Lan was not here to see this. Didn’t he tell him to not believe in superstitions?
When the shadow clone disappeared from sight again, the other officer turned around and tried to escape into the wilderness. However, he was immediately chased down by the shadow clone from behind.
The shadow clone punched the spine of its opponent, making a cracking sound. Ren Xiaosu felt some sort of special energy surrounding the spine that was trying to disperse the weight of the punch with an intense, regular motion. However, the strength of the shadow clone was simply too great! Before the opponent could build up his defense, it had already started to break apart.
Ren Xiaosu slowly made his way out of the forest. He had noticed a lake on the hillside that was suitable for discarding the corpses and vehicle in. It was just that it would be a bit tough on the shadow clone to carry the vehicle over. After all, it did weigh more than a ton.
Ren Xiaosu did not use his saber throughout the battle because he was worried about leaving bloodstains behind. In the end, his opponents turned out to be surprisingly vulnerable. At the beginning, the arrogance of these two people made Ren Xiaosu very cautious of them. He did not expect that his punches would be so strong against them.
Just like his encounter with Midnight back then, he had planned on giving it his all in an earth-shattering battle. But before he could even get to that point, his opponents had already been killed. With the outcome like this, it seemed like he had gotten all stoked for nothing…
But a moment later, Ren Xiaosu saw a silvery glow seeping out from under the skin of the two bodies. It was as though it was being guided by his will. Ren Xiaosu was surprised to discover that he seemed to be able to… control them.
