Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Can you repeat that? I didn’t hear properly,” Gao Peng said softly.
Stripey felt the situation had just grown more complex. He looked at Gao Peng with extreme vigilance.
“Stripey, do you know that if you do this, you’ll lose the master who you love oh so much?” Gao Peng lamented. He then punched himself with his fist.
Stripey suddenly felt pain on his face, as if he had just been punched by something.
They returned to the villa that night. Gao Peng gathered all of his familiars and said, “We’re having a meeting tonight.”
Da Zi sat obediently next to Gao Peng. Dumby crossed his hands in front of his chest, glaring like King Kong. Flamy was flying in the air, leaving a trail of flames in its wake. Goldie was staring at Stripey, who was standing in the center of the room, spacing out…
Flop! Flop! Silly was standing on top of Gao Peng’s head and raising its tentacles, helping its master denounce Stripey. Of course, it would have looked more appropriate if it hadn’t had a box of fruit juice in its hands.
Stripey sat in the middle of the room, looking innocent, like he didn’t know what he had done wrong.
This isn’t appropriate. I’m just a little spider. Why are you guys treating me like this?
“This afternoon, one of your friends, Stripey, disregarded his master for sex. He actually hit me because of a white female spider!” Gao Peng said bitterly and hatefully.
Da Zi looked at Stripey in shock. I had no idea you were like this. You hit master just because of a female spider? Spiders are ugly. Why would you hit master because of a spider?
Flamy sneered. Of course, it was that stupid spider. He’ll have even less of a chance of competing with me for the position of most loved pet.
After Stripey received an ideological education, Gao Peng decided to punish Stripey by having him memorize the “Standards for being a Good Pupil and Child.”
When Gao Peng remembered Stripey couldn’t speak, he decided to have him write out the whole thing from memory.
An hour later, Gao Peng sat on a bench by the sandy shores of the lakeside with his grandpa as they enjoyed the sunset. Thirty feet away from them, also on the sandy shore, was a giant black spider writing quickly while looking distressed. He would, from time to time, let out an angry grumble and smash his claws in front of him.
What the heck is this! Why is this so hard to memorize. Why does something that can be so easily stated require so many words!
Stripey was studying painstakingly.
…
“The New World Allied Government has sent a few representatives to meet the Mountain Spirits and negotiate with them,” said Ji Hanwu softly as he took a sip of tea and looked at the sunset.
“The reason those Mountain Spirits started to attack humans was because humans were destroying the balance of the forest, so they wanted to get rid of the humans who were disobedient,” Ji Hanwu said softly.
Gao Peng frowned. “Destroying the balance of the forest? Is it because us humans cut down vegetation? That’s not right. After the Cataclysm, the rate at which we cut down trees is much slower than the speed of growth of new trees. What kind of reason is this?”
“What the Mountain Spirits meant by destroying the balance was us killing monsters. The irony is that the teams we sent out to the Mountain Spirits have discovered a large amount of monster corpses on the bodies of the Mountain Spirits.
“Ha.” Gao Peng couldn’t help but let out a laugh. Some of the juice in his hands spilled on the back of his hand.
“Fwut juice, fwut juice.” Silly got down from Gao Peng’s head and landed on the back of his hand, using its tentacles to pick up the fruit juice. It looked very satisfied. Its throat produced a very satisfied gulping sound.
“That’s quite the double standard they have there.” Gao Peng couldn’t help but laugh as well. These Mountain Spirits were quite interesting.
“They’re a group of ignorant and uneducated creatures. It’s impossible for the entirety of Yuzhou City not to kill any monsters. If these mountains are willing to retreat, fine. If they remain stubborn…” Ji Hanwu gave a slight smile.
“Does grandpa think they’ll retreat?”
“Those Mountain Spirits aren’t very intelligent. They can’t be compared to the intelligence of humans. If we have a good strategy, they’ll definitely—”
“Grandpa, your phone is ringing,” Gao Peng alerted him.
“Okay.” Ji Hanwu nodded his head and picked up the cell phone on the table next to him.
“Hello. Are there any results on the discussion?”
“Ji Hanwu, there…”
Ji Hanwu became silent after hearing the message that was conveyed through the phone.
“Grandpa? Grandpa?” Gao Peng called him quite a few times.
Ji Hanwu put down the phone slowly. He looked very calm.
“What’s the result? Is it about the Mountain Spirits?” Gao Peng asked curiously.
“The situation is still under control. You can rest easy.” Ji Hanwu nodded and then stood up, “I need to go to the restroom.”
“Grandpa, you’re going the wrong way. The restroom is at the back,” Gao Peng shouted.
“I know. Old people need to walk more often. I’m going to the toilet in the company’s headquarters. You just stay here and don’t move.” Ji Hanwu waved his hands without turning to look back.
Suddenly, Gao Peng heard a dragon’s cry. He turned around and only saw clouds floating in the air. There was nothing else there.
Maybe he was just hearing things.
Grandpa’s bathroom break sure had been long. Gao Peng looked at the time. Almost 40 minutes had passed. Gao Peng thought perhaps he had been delayed by other things because of his old age.
Another half an hour had passed, and the sky was getting dark. Only now did Grandpa slowly walk back towards Gao Peng.
“I was delayed by some problems at the company.” Grandpa sat down calmly and made himself a cup of tea, then drank the whole thing in one gulp.
Gao Peng didn’t think much of it. He turned around and asked grandpa, “Grandpa, have you finished preparations for the Royal Mountain Wolf Bird Army you wanted to establish?”
Ji Hanwu thought for a while. “Preparations for the Mountain Wolf Bird Army has almost finished. It is just that we are short on manpower. I have ordered someone to enlist a Mountain Wolf Bird King. The king will then control the strongest Mountain Wolf Bird in their flock. We should then be able to control the entire flock after raising them up for a period of time.”
Mountain Wolf Birds were a hierarchical species. At the top was the Mountain Wolf Bird King. The next in line were the strongest Mountain Wolf Birds in the flock, though they would all obey the orders of the Mountain Wolf Bird King.
It wasn’t that there hadn’t been attempts at domesticating the Mountain Wolf Birds. There was just one huge problem, and that was their huge appetites. They had to eat a lot and weren’t very strong.
Spending time and resources on another familiar would be more cost-effective.
However, the situation now was different. After taking the Royal Drug, their appetite might have grown a bit larger, but their strength would also definitely grow as well.
If one could properly manipulate these flying type monsters, they would be able to dominate the skies.
…
In the forest right outside Yuzhou City, half of the trees had been destroyed. There were signs of destruction everywhere. It was as if the area had just been hit by a thunderstorm, for the whole area was incredibly muddy. The holes on the ground had turned into puddles.
The middle of the destroyed area was filled with black rocks that had been cracked open. The black rocks gave off an ominous atmosphere.
There were traces of red inside the cracked rocks.
The cries of birds filled the air. A big gray bird landed, and several people jumped off from its back. They took a few pictures of the area and picked up rock samples.
One person who was using an instrument to search for something stopped searching and said, “The Mountain Spirit’s core has been taken away.”
“As expected. Take some of the samples of the Mountain Spirit back.”
The group of people quickly got back up on the bird and left the area.
