Translator: Silavin & Danny
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
“Be careful. Don’t be too eager for quick success. Jade Fire Silkworms are timid and are easily scared away. If you let it run away, you will never catch it again,” In front of a fruit tree, Old Fang sent Yang Kai a Divine Sense transmission quietly while monitoring his movements nervously.
Yang Kai held a box in one hand and a burning incense in the other. His expression was solemn, as if he was having a life-and-death battle with someone. Upon receiving the transmission, he replied impatiently, “I know. You’ve said it many times. Can you not just relax?”
Old Fang smacked his lips and kept his silence.
The scent of the incense permeated the air, and a small scarlet head slowly emerged from the hole in the tree, attracted by the scent.
When half of its body was out of the tree, Yang Kai swung his other hand, directly sending the long worm into the box, then slammed it shut with a laugh, “It’s done!”
Old Fang looked sideways at him, “This is only the second worm. Why are you so happy? Don’t forget, you promised to catch five for Great General!”
Yang Kai’s laughter stopped abruptly, the corner of his mouth twitching, “What should I do?”
Old Fang sneered, “How should this Old Master know? There’s not much time left.”
“It’s already been a month?” Yang Kai was stunned.
As he was talking, a bell rang all of a sudden. Without waiting for Yang Kai to question, Old Fang announced, “We can leave now. The next three days are our break time.”
“Don’t go!” Yang Kai grabbed him, and continued surreptitiously, “Let’s wait for a while. Once the others leave…”
Before he could finish, however, he suddenly felt a strong and irresistible repulsion around him. A flash of light blurred his vision, and he was already outside the orchard when he regained his senses.
Yang Kai was dumbstruck.
Perhaps it was because he held on to Old Fang, so he found himself next to him.
“As soon as the time’s up, no one can stay inside. You better pray hard for yourself.” Old Fang explained.
When he finished, he turned around and rushed towards the Worker’s Room.
Yang Kai scratched his head and watched the others depart in streams of light. He had no choice but to keep up with them. Although the past month as a Worker had been safe and sound, he failed to fulfil his promise to the Ruler of the Dawn Great General regarding the five Jade Fire Silkworms. In fact, he only had two right now.
He had no idea how the golden rooster would react when he found out.
However, it was useless to think too much at this point, so Yang Kai could only move forward and solve things as they came up.
In the orchard, he had to circulate his strength to resist the scorching heat at all times, so it was truly hectic for him, though he believed that it was just as exhausting for the others. When Yang Kai returned to the village where the Worker’s Rooms were, he saw that every door was closed. Everyone was probably resting inside.
Returning to his own residence, he opened the barrier, sat cross-legged and adjusted his breathing, meditating for the whole night.
In the early morning of the next day, the golden rooster announced the breaking of dawn so loudly that even the barrier could not block out the sound. Knowing that he had three days off, Yang Kai did not bother to pay attention to it.
Beyond his expectation, a knock on the door came up a moment later, and continued without pause.
“Who is it?” Yang Kai opened his eyes and shouted.
There was no response outside the door, but the knock persisted in a steady rhythm.
He had no choice but to get up, and when he opened the door, he was dazzled by a burst of golden light. A half-man tall golden rooster stood as majestic as a statue outside the door
Their eyes stared into each other for a while, then Yang Kai closed the door with a slam.
After three breaths of time, the door was hammered viciously as if a volcano erupted. Not only that, but the Ruler of the Dawn Great General started to crow too.
Yang Kai understood that the situation was bad, and he knew that Zhou Zheng would be alarmed if he ignored things. Zhou Zheng intended to cause him trouble from the beginning, and if he had any excuse, Yang Kai would definitely suffer from it.
Without a choice, he opened the door again and put on a surprised face, “So it is Ruler of the Dawn Great General. What a rare guest!”
Great General seemed notably maddened and pecked at Yang Kai with its beak, which Yang Kai immediately dodged, and asked in shock, “What is the meaning of this, Great General?”
Great General blocked the door with its fat buttock and continued to crow as he flapped his wings.
Yang Kai cursed secretly in his heart, [This damn chicken has a good memory. It still remembers the agreement until now even if it was a month ago. I just came back to rest for a night and it already came to visit me.]
As its noise was getting louder and louder, many Workers had opened their doors to check what was going on. Therefore, Yang Kai had no choice but to take out the treasure box and announced, “Great General, do you want Jade Fire Silkworms? I’ve caught them for you. They’re inside here. Please calm down.”
As soon as he took out the box, the Ruler of the Dawn Great General immediately calmed down, its eyes locked on the box.
Yang Kai could not help complaining silently, [If you like to eat worms so much, why don’t you just go to the orchard to catch them instead of requesting others to bring them back for you?]
Under the Ruler of the Dawn Great General’s watchful eyes, Yang Kai took out a Jade Fire Silkworm from the box. The next moment, Ruler of the Dawn Great General extended its neck to peck, and the Jade Fire Silkworm disappeared.
“Eat slowly, no one will snatch it from you!” Yang Kai smiled, but he was thinking about what to say after he fed him the last Jade Fire Silkworm. The golden rooster did not seem to be fooled easily, and Yang Kai had no idea what would happen if he only produced two of the five promised worms.
[Why don’t I just drag it inside and butcher it?] Yang Kai gave up as soon as the thought flitted across his mind. Given that so many people saw the golden rooster in front of his door, if anything happened to Great General, Yang Kai would definitely be suspected.
After delaying as much as he could, he fed the second Jade Fire Silkworm to Great General.
Yang Kai scratched his chin and probed tentatively, “Great General may not know about this, this Jade Fire Silkworm has a strong Fire Attribute Strength. If you eat too many at once, I’m afraid it will be bad for your health. How about this, Great General should go back and have a rest first before eating the remaining three worms?”
Great General ignored the advice and instead turned his head to the side and stared at Yang Kai with one eye, full of humanized mockery.
Yang Kai suddenly became angry out of shame as he felt he was despised by a chicken…
Before he could say anything more, a pleasant voice came from the outside, “Yang Kai, you forgot this with me.”
When the words fell, an object was tossed into Yang Kai’s face.
Yang Kai reached up to catch it, and when he saw what it was, joy filled his face.
It was a worm-catching box, and when he scanned it with his Divine Sense, he could tell that there were exactly three Jade Fire Silkworms inside.
He looked up and nodded at the visitor to show his gratitude, then shook the box in his hand as he continued, “Does Great General still want to eat?”
“Oh oh oh oh…”
Yang Kai did not want to waste time on him anymore, only hoping to send this scourge away as soon as possible, so he swiftly fed the three Jade Fire Silkworms to him before letting out a sigh, “Great General, five Jade Fire Silkworms, no more and no less. Fortunately, I did not fail my mission!”
“Oh oh oh…” Ruler of the Dawn Great General crowed at him again.
Yang Kai’s face darkened, “Great General, what does this mean? We made an agreement a month ago. Do you want to renege on our deal now?”
Dié You, who leaned on the doorframe and watched the show, covered her mouth and smiled, “Great General says he is a man of his word, so how can he break his promise? Smelly brat, give him your hand, Great General is giving out a reward!”
“A reward?” Hearing this, Yang Kai raised his brow, but immediately understood what it meant and hurriedly extended his hand to the Ruler of the Dawn Great General.
The Ruler of the Dawn Great General opened its mouth and a mass of golden light floated out of it, falling on Yang Kai’s palm. When the light dispersed, a Spirit Pill glowing in seven-coloured light sat on his palm.
[Is this an Open Heaven Pill?]
Although Yang Kai had not seen Open Heaven Pills before, he could still identify it from the information that he obtained in the previous conversation with Old Fang. This Spirit Pill in his hand was definitely an Open Heaven Pill.
He had heard that if the Ruler of the Dawn Great General was in a good mood, he might give out Open Heaven Pills, but he did not expect to get one so soon.
Yang Kai was overjoyed and quickly cupped his fists, “Many thanks, Great General!”
At that moment, the Ruler of the Dawn Great General had already turned around and walked out of the door with his wiggling butt.
“Get home safe, Great General. Come and play again when you’re free!” Dié You greeted with a smile.
After the golden rooster left, Yang Kai grinned and shook the Open Heaven Pill in his hand, “So lucky!”
Dié You rolled her eyes at him and revealed, “Every newcomer will be rewarded an Open Heaven Pill when they feed a Jade Fire Silkworm to Great General for the first time.”
Yang Kai was surprised, “Is it for certain?”
Dié You shrugged her shoulders, “En, I haven’t seen an exception for all these years.”
Yang Kai was stunned for a long time before he began cursing through gritted teeth, “That old fox!”
It was no wonder Old Fang was so cheerful when he asked to borrow the worm-catching tools. It seemed that he knew about this custom too. Yang Kai thought Old Fang was a generous soul, but now it seemed that the old man had known about Great General’s habits and had been aiming for this Open Heaven Pill since the beginning.
Just as Yang Kai understood this point, the old fox appeared.
Old Fang rushed into the house with a flicker, and nodded at Dié You with a smile, “Sister Dié You is here.”
“Old Fang!” Dié You nodded.
“I’m here to find this little brat!” Old Fang pointed at Yang Kai and went straight to him, stretched out his hand, and continued, “Take it out brat. Don’t tell me you have nothing.”
Looking at his bright smile and his appearance of having achieved a great victory, Yang Kai really felt like taking out his Azure Dragon Spear and stabbing Old Fang to death!
“Hurry up, hurry up, what are you waiting for?” Old Fang urged, just like a predatory creditor.
Yang Kai clenched his teeth as he slammed the Open Heaven Pill on Old Fang’s palm. Old Fang immediately beamed and put it away carefully. Then he stretched out his hand again, “How about my things? Give them back to me too.”
“Lend them to me a bit longer!” Yang Kai turned his head away.
“What? How is this Old Master supposed to catch worms if he lends you the tools? Return them to me, or this Old Master will fight you to the death!”
“You can try!” Yang Kai glared sideways at him.
The old man turned to Dié You and complained, “Sister Dié You, be our judge. This shitty brat doesn’t want to return what he borrowed. Isn’t he too terrible?”
Dié You chuckled, “Since when did you two become so close?”
Old Fang rolled his eyes, “This Old Master is not close to him! It’s just that his plot is next to mine. You have no idea. This Old Master has been used by him as a slave this past month. It was a true living Hell.”
Dié You’s face changed drastically at Old Fang’s words and she questioned in a deep voice, “The plot next to yours? Isn’t that ‘that’ plot?”
Old Fang nodded, “En, that one…”
Dié You frowned. After pondering for a while, she turned to Yang Kai, “Return the tools to him. Elder Sister will take you to buy a new set later.”
Yang Kai was unwilling as he had only just gotten that Open Heaven Pill for a moment before it was taken away by Old Fang. He did not even have the time to study it carefully. Although he had made a promise earlier, he was still upset that Old Fang had set him up.
