“Why are you hitting yourself, Chief Duan?”
Jiang He could not help asking when he saw Duan Tianhe slap his own face red. In return, Duan Tianhe forced a smile that was uglier than a crying face, took a deep breath and said, “I’m fine, just killing a mosquito. By the way, Jiang He… you just said that Yan Dehao came with the cardinals of the Sky Demon Cult?”
Jiang He nodded.
Still…
Mosquito?
He really took notice, but why bother when they could not break his skin no matter how strong they were?
Meanwhile, Duan Tianhe appeared stunned and said, “The cardinal of the Sky Demon Cult has to be divine-tier, and would not be weak in ability…”
Jiang He shook his head and said, “Divine-tier is not bad, but as for ability… I killed them too quickly. I killed one with a single palm and then the other with a sword. They did not really resist, and I’m not too sure what their specific ability was.”
Duan Tianhe: “…”
Cheng Dongfeng: “So delicious!”
At the moment, Cheng Dongfeng was having mouthfuls of his lunchbox, and could not help showering praise after just a taste of the stir-fried black wood-ear over meat. “Grand-master Jiang He, where did you buy this black wood-ear from? It tastes really good—can I have a taste? I’m getting a few catties after I get back.”
“That’s mutated black wood-ear. It strengthens physiques after consumption, so it probably counts as a rank-seven floral spirit—you can’t buy it from Lingzhou City.”
???
Cheng Dongfeng did a double take, and then…
Found the lunchbox even tastier.
He wolfed it down, finishing the lunchbox in its entirety within ten seconds, even stretching his tongue to lick the spot where the dish had been to avoid wasting the juices of the vegetables.
After stretching his senses over his body for a while, he exclaimed in surprise, “It really strengthens physique—I’ve never cultivated body refinement techniques, and my physique is probably rank-five even though I am rank-eight now. I certainly did not expect that a boxed lunch could push my physique up to rank-six.”
Meanwhile, Duan Tianhe, who had been left stunned by the words ‘killed them too quickly’ and ‘did not really resist’ shuddered, his entire being going numb.
Mutated black wood-ear?
Rank-seven floral spirit?
And the type that strengthened physique…
What great providence had he missed out on by just saying ‘I’m not hungry’ and ‘I’m not thirsty’?
Suddenly, the ground started shaking.
Cheng Dongfeng, who just finished his lunchbox exclaimed in surprise, “Aftershock?”
“Aftershock, my food.”
Jiang He looked speechless. “I’ve told you—it’s not an earthquake, just a heritage site collapsing… the two of you are a rank-seven and a rank-eight martial arts grandmaster in your own right, so can’t you at least act the part? Like a bunch of somethings making a ruckus.”
However, the ground shook even more violently at that.
The soil thirty meters away from Jiang He churned and parted, with Dumbo climbing out in its big trousers to stand on its rear legs before throwing a corpse it had been holding on the ground, saying, “Found it, master. There are over a dozen more corpses down there nearby too… Huh? Those two donkeys are here too?”
Naturally, he was referring to Duan Tianhe and Cheng Dongfeng with that last part.
With that, the dog dug itself back into the ground with a pop, just before Trumbo climbed out several seconds later, threw off two more corpses before climbing back in.
Duan Tianhe’s eyes tightened, quietly saying, “Earth-type powers?”
He shook his head just as he finished, murmuring in disbelief, “No way. Cats and dogs are the most average of animals and would only become average Ferals even after evolving into Ferals, with little chance of awakening superpowers. And they wouldn’t have awakened Earth-type powers even if they could, right?”
After all, there was a logic behind how humans awaken their superpowers.
Take Wang Sizhen, for instance…
He was a project supervisor familiar with construction work, which was why he had awakened a rubber mallet—likewise, the old blacksmith at Lingzhou City’s Martial Arts Department (MAD) awakened a hammer specifically for metalwork because of his profession as well.
Zhou Rui, being an athlete in fencing, awakened Royal Sword.
The Fourth Elder whom Jiang He killed was once a magician, which was why he awakened abilities concerned with magic tricks, gaining the ability to conjure poker cards.
As for Wang Siyu… She awakened mind-reading abilities after failing her exam, perhaps because she wanted to use that power to cheat.
And that was the same for Ferals.
Only animals such as rodents and pangolins would awaken earth-type abilities.
In turn, marine lifeforms would easily awaken water-type abilities, while wolves and avian that became Ferals could gain wind-type abilities.
Nonetheless, Jiang He shook his head in disagreement towards Duan Tianhe’s analysis, mentioning an example to argue his case, “There are no absolutes. Take Li Fei for example, who is the owner of a breeder’s union but awakened superstrength—if we followed your reasoning, shouldn’t he have awakened beast-taming abilities?”
“And then there is Yang Chengwu… he favors blade techniques, and yet he awakens superstrength as well.”
Cheng Dongfeng mused then, “Actually, I think Old Duan has a point. A few days ago, an English teacher in Lingzhou City awakened powers that had to do with his profession… that materializes a blackboard duster. If your name was called and you answered, it would hit you squarely in the head with pinpoint precision within 100 meters.”
Jiang He was taken aback.
That teacher…
Was awesome!
He must have thrown a lot of dusters during his lessons, did he not?
Was that power not a little outrageous? A materialized object actually had auto-targeting ability?
Seemingly able to tell what Jiang He was thinking just then, Cheng Dongfeng chuckled. “Actually, that power is pretty much chickenfeed. The class of the teacher’s power is very, very weak and barely counts as D-class—it works against a normal human, but any martial artist with some competence would be able to catch or knock it out of the air.”
“Hah!”
Jiang He laughed in return. “Superpowers must be applied correctly to maximize its utility. Even if that ability clearly was not meant for fighting, you could suggest the idea to Wu Yueru so that she recruits that Awakened to teach at the Martial Arts Academy (MAA) to teach the students about basic martial arts. I assure you, no student would be up to mischief during lessons.”
“That Awakened is fated to teach for life, it seems!” Jiang He could not help joking then.
Suddenly, Yan Dehao, who had been digging away while they conversed started to laugh out loud.
He climbed under the hole he had dug himself, and soon pulled out a rank-eight Feral corpse.
“What’s going on?”
Cheng Dongfeng turned to Jiang He, who smiled. “I killed over twenty high-ranked Ferals in passing just now, but their corpses all ended up buried beneath the ground. But since my pets don’t want it because their meat isn’t nutritious, I’m not bothered to dig them out.”
Hence, without another word, Cheng Dongfeng ran off to start digging alongside Yan Dehao.
On the other hand, Duan Tianhe refrained from suffering the embarrassment, but as Duan Tianhe dug out a rank-nine Feral corpse from beneath the ground while laughing maniacally, he clenched his teeth, rolled up his teeth and ran there to start digging as well.
He had missed two huge chances today, and he was not about to let it slip a third time!
After all…
The corpses of high-ranked Ferals were very valuable!
Even the corpse of a rank-seven Feral was priced at ten million at minimum, while rank-eight Feral corpses were worth around thirty million. Rank-nine Feral corpses were worth twice the price of rank-eight Feral corpses, and even stronger ones could sell for a hundred million.
Simply digging a few corpses meant weapons and combat suits could be upgraded to pure S-grade alloys, as well as having some spare change to purchase cultivation resources.
All at once, dust kicked up from the rubble as Yan Dehao, Duan Tianhe and Cheng Dongfeng somehow clicked together immediately and started digging in tandem. By the time the other MAD personnel arrived, the twenty or so Feral corpses and all the Sky Demon Cultists’ corpses were dug out.
After Jiang He put away the cultists’ corpses and released a gust of True Qi to levitate Dumbo and Trumbo, he said goodbye to Cheng Dongfeng and the others before flying away from Mount Dadong.
***
Up in the air.
Flying for the first time, Dumbo and Trumbo were barking and purring relentlessly in excitement.
“Shut up!’
Having had enough, Jiang He yelled in irritation before saying, “I’ve got my hands on a daemonic cultivation method, and I’ll get someone to translate after we get back. You two would quickly reach divine-tier with that cultivation, and fly by yourself when the time comes.”
“Thank you, master!”
Delighted, both Dumbo and Trumbo quickly thanked him.
However, Jiang He seemed a little pale and tired…
“I’ve used much of my spirit after releasing Twenty-Three Swords. I need to seize the moment to get home and sleep, and start farming after I wake up… by the way, does Wang Hou actually want to give me that 100 Orirocks and Sword-Will Barrenwort he promised me?”
Jiang He laughed coolly even as the thought crossed his mind.
Would he dare to renege on his promise?
Perhaps he had not suffered the lashing of society!
***
“A-choo!”
At the MAD of Jingdu City, Wang Hou sneezed for some reason and could not help barking, “Which fool is cursing me behind my back? Why do I have this persistent urge to sneeze?”
“By the way, Old Zhou. Could you reach Jiang He yet?”
Zhou Yu shook his head.
After none of his calls before reached Jiang He, he had forgotten about the matter entirely come morning. Moreover, Duan Tianhe had also forgotten to contact his superiors after suffering much shock since reaching Mount Dadong.
Nonetheless, Zhou Yu replied, “Don’t worry, Minister Wang—Jiang He must have turned off his phone when he went to sleep… how about this? Didn’t you promise Jiang He 100 Orirocks and a tuft of Sword-Will Barrenwort?”
“Should I bring it to him today?”
“Alright.”
Wang Hou said. “Rearrange your work schedule so that you could bring that stuff to the kid as soon as possible. I must prepare for the talks with the Dragoncroc Emperor in a few days.”
Haha!
Zhou Yu kept a straight face as he laughed and retorted inwardly.
Prepare?
Wouldn’t you just be sleeping over the next few days?
How could Zhou Yu not understand Wang Hou’s personality after being his deputy over eight years? Whenever Minister Wang goes idling, he could not wait to sleep for twenty-four hours.
“There’s a conference in the afternoon—you should oversee it.”
After having a drink of the thick tea in the Thermos cup, Wang Hou got up and yawned. “Have a good talk with Jiang He after meeting him. The kid is open to coaxing but not coercion, so get a good word in and prevent him from starting trouble before my negotiations with the Dragoncroc Emperor is finished. Otherwise, even if the beast was unwilling to go to war, it might cause some problems to save face.”
