Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Puchi!” Silly nodded its head proudly. This made it extremely pleased.
Then, it fished out a cup of fruit juice from its personal dimension, rewarding its own excellence.
Gao Peng was in despair. Healing a third of a fingernail-sized knife wound. Just how weak was this guy’s healing ability? Most importantly, he still seemed so proud of himself.
Don’t you have any self-awareness at all?! It’s the level; it has to be because the level isn’t high enough…
Gao Peng could only try to comfort himself in this manner.
When the level goes up, it will become useful.
It seemed that the items that he had asked Grandpa to help him collect had mostly been obtained. When he got back, his familiars would again be strengthened a good deal. Perhaps Silly’s abilities could be heightened as well.
Gao Peng brought Silly along as he went downstairs. There, he ran straight into Xue Hong.
Xue Hong did not have any special opinions towards this second-generation head of the company. She treated him simply like a normal person, neither fawning over him nor being antagonistic.
Either way, she had no plans of climbing the corporate ladder. Her position right now was pretty good. Hence, without any special ambitions, her attitude towards Gao Peng had always been plain and simple. She never questioned what he did.
“Puchi puchi?” Silly floated in mid-air, making its squishy sounds.
Xue Hong slowed down her pace, and she could not help but glance at Silly. He was a transparent, round, and cute little fella, so he was always tempting others to squish his cute little head.
…
Gao Peng realized that recently, Dumby seemed to like staring dumbly at nothing.
It would stand there in the middle of the night, raising its head towards the starry night sky. Its sapphire blue soul flames and the bright Milky Way seemed to be shining at one another.
Gao Peng felt that there was something on Dumby’s mind.
“What’s the matter Dumby?”
Dumby turned its head downwards at its master, and moaned in a low, raspy voice.
“Want… to go back and see, miss… miss her.”
Gao Peng was stunned at first. Back to Chang’an? Then he threw away that idea. It wouldn’t be Chang’an.
After some thinking, Gao Peng suddenly remembered that Dumby was initially caught and brought over as an experimental subject. It should have been living in its own family group in the wild.
The “her” that was mentioned made Gao Peng feel that there was a story behind all this.
“Your mate?” Gao Peng asked curiously.
“No, not.” Dumby shook its head. “Daugh… daughter.”
Daughter? Gao Peng could not help taking a second glance at Dumby.
He could not tell!
To think that Dumby was already a father ape.
Dumby had been fiercely loyal ever since it became his familiar, and it did everything without complaint. Never once had it voiced any requests. Now, during this rare moment that Dumby had asked for something, Gao Peng naturally found no reason to object. “Alright, let’s go visit your hometown then.”
Dumby was very happy, smiling like a fool. It just kept on smiling dumbly at Gao Peng.
“Where’s your hometown?”
The atmosphere suddenly became awkward…
Dumby and Gao Peng stared at each other, a large pair of eyes staring straight into a small pair of eyes.
“Red, red water, big trees!” Dumby struggled hard to describe.
Gao Peng began thinking. After furrowing his brows in thought for a moment, he took out his phone and searched for pictures. Biggest populations of Red River Apes.
“Is it here?”
“No.” Dumby shook its head.
“What about here?”
“No.”
“Here?”
Dumby froze this time, then brought its head close, trying hard to distinguish the scenery shown in the picture. Then, the soul flames in Dumby’s eye sockets shone brightly with excitement.
At the ground floor of the dormitories, a giant skeleton let out an excited howl towards the heavens.
…
“You want to go to the Red Sand River in Chuanshu? Why the sudden urge to go there?”
“One of my familiars was caught from that area. It wants to visit its hometown now. As its trainer, of course I have to accompany it there.”
“Hmm… If I remember correctly, I think that the company has some plans to purchase some goods over at the Red Sand River. Han Qiu!” Ji Hanwu shouted outside the door.
Secretary Han hurried in immediately. “Yes, Chairman Ji. The company has been purchasing superior quality Red Heart Sand from the Red Sand River. It would be best if we could come to terms for long-term cooperation,” said Secretary Han, in an absolutely serious manner.
Such a coincidence? Gao Peng was surprised.
“Someone else from the company was supposed to go, but since you wish to make a trip there, then help out on the way and negotiate a deal. This will be good training for you. It’s alright even if you are unable to negotiate a deal, the experience is the most important.” Ji Hanwu spoke plainly.
“Alright.” Gao Peng was still surprised.
…
The Southern Sky Group’s private jet slowly descended, landing securely on the ground.
Along with a few elites in suits and leather shoes, Gao Peng got off the plane.
In front of the plane, a row of black commercial cars were parked along the side of the airport. Right in front of them was a young man with a round belly.
The young man was wearing a black shirt. His hair was dyed brown and spiked towards the back. He wore black-rimmed glasses and smiled with his eyes in a squint, which made him look like a jolly old man. “This should be Young Master Gao, I presume. It’s a pleasure, a pleasure. I am Zhao Jialiang, the representative from Qingchuan Company.”
Gao Peng greeted Zhao Jialiang and made some small talk. As for the actual plans for striking a deal, Gao Peng expressed that a professional would handle the discussions.
He had never learned how to do business. If business deals were left to him, he was afraid he would lose all the company’s earnings.
Zhao Jialiang laughed out loud when he heard Gao Peng. “You talk with sense, Young Master Gao. We’ll leave this professional stuff for the professionals then.” He raised winked Gao Peng and said, “We’ll go have our own fun.”
Gao Peng then asked Zhao Jialiang, “Oh, Brother Zhao, do you know where the Red River Apes gather within the Red Sand River area?”
Red River Apes? This kid has a unique taste.
Zhao Jialiang was stunned. The question stumped him.
If you asked about the best high-end places around Lizhou, or which places had the prettiest girls, he would have all the answers. To be frank, people called him the whoremonger of Lizhou.
But why would this guy ask about such ugly monsters…
Stumped, Zhao Jialiang turned around and waved. Immediately, a female secretary in a white suit strode over.
“Where do the Red River Apes gather within the Red Sand River area?”
After only a brief pause to think, the secretary replied, “The two patches of forest along the midstream area of the Red Sand River have a number of areas where Red River Apes gather. If you wish to obtain a Red River Ape, I can contact a monster capturing agency.”
Zhao Jialiang turned and hinted to Gao Peng, “If you need any kind of help within the local areas of Lizhou, my Qingchuan Company does have a fair share of influence.”
Gao Peng shook his head. “No need to go through such trouble, thanks.” And with that, he took Dumby and the rest and left the airport, leaving Zhao Jialiang and company perplexed.
Wasn’t he supposed to strike a deal here? Why does it feel like this guy is even more unreliable than I am?
The Red Sand River cut right across the area outside of Lizhou City, which was within the boundaries of Chuanshu Province. It contained large amounts of red shale, hence the reason its waters were red.
After the cataclysm, red shale went through transformations. One could now extract a rare material called Red Heart Sand from deep within areas containing large amounts of red shale.
Renting a large ship, Gao Peng sailed along the river.
The banks of the Red Sand River lay low against the river, and large expanses of dense forest were often visible from the ship. On the river surface, many ships, both large and small, were sailing along. The reddish-brown river waters were extremely turbid.
“Uncle, are there monsters below the river?” Gao Peng asked uncertainly. The ships here seemed to be rather daring. He could even see small ships, barely more than a dozen meters long, boldly sailing along the river.
“Of course, why wouldn’t there be?” The old sailor chuckled. “But don’t worry, all of our ships here have one of the King Red Carp’s scales attached to the bottom. As long as we do not attack any of the monsters, they won’t attack us.”
King Red Carp?
Gao Peng asked curiously, “A familiar?”
“Nope, but His Excellency, King Red Carp, is good to us. All we need to do is offer it some monsters as tribute, and then we are rewarded with some of its scales. Its scales can protect us from being attacked by monsters while we sail along the river.”
This was the first time Gao Peng had heard of such a thing. Why had he never heard of this on the news?
It was just that such behavior… did not seem much different from the old legends of humans offering tributes to mountain or river deities to appease them.
