Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
To avoid alerting Yuzhou’s military and causing a panic, Gao Peng didn’t bring Stripey back with him. Instead, he had Dumby keep Stripey company as Dumby was resting. Gao Peng needed to discuss this development with his grandfather immediately.
As for whether Stripey would cause any more trouble if it was left alone, Gao Peng was fine as long as it didn’t bully the smaller creatures around it.
Stripey nodded obediently. Honestly, it was still a little dizzy.
A fear of heights wasn’t entirely uncommon, and relatively easy to overcome. A couple of days on a glass plank suspended a few hundred feet in the air would do the trick.
For Stripey, it took a couple of hours for it to get used to its new size. It was now able to look straight down without feeling nauseous, and it looked rather pleased with itself.
I, Stripey, am no longer afraid of heights.
I am Stripey the Courageous!
After Gao Peng left, Stripey remained where it was, rump arched high into the air. He pawed idly at something on the ground, looking very much like he was enjoying himself.
Slowly, shadowy figures emerged slowly from the woods nearby. They kept a safe distance, admiring Stripey from afar.
Mountain spirits of Stripey’s size were extremely rare. Mountain spirits also tended to look like well…mountains. Even if they were living breathing mountains, they didn’t have quite the same visual impact as one like Stripey, whose arachnoid form, skyscraper legs and granite exterior cut a rather monstrous figure.
Stripey could feel their inquisitive gazes on him, like little pricks of light. It made him very uncomfortable.
The earth trembled and shook as Stripey got up and unleashed a fearsome roar in their direction.
A cloud of gray ash erupted from his mouth and engulfed the entire mountain range.
After 30 seconds of venting his displeasure at those insects, they were nowhere to be seen. Satisfied that they were gone, he flopped on his belly where he was earlier between the mountains.
“Is this what it feels like to mess with other people? It feels amazing! No wonder Da Zi always used to steal my food…”
Stripey lay contentedly on the ground. Every part of its body in contact of with the ground started absorbing earth into its body, like roots of a tree. Energy surged within him. A huge being like him cannot survive on substances like flesh or blood. He has to survive on the energy he absorbs from Nature, like from rivers or mountains. To him, consuming flesh or blood is a luxury that will help him evolve that much faster.
On the way home, Da Zi was downcast.
Gao Peng gently rapped him on the head. “Haven’t we seen Stripey? Why do you look so down?”
Da Zi raised his head and briefly met Gao peng’s gaze before he resumed his melancholy.After a few moments, he murmured quietly. “Now that he’s so big, I can’t play with him any more.”
Gao peng had no idea what to say to Da Zi. Hopefully, he’d forget this ever happened in a couple of days. Nonetheless, Da Zi did make him realize that there would hardly be anyone left able to play with Stripey at his current size.
Just like a human couldn’t possibly spend the rest of his or her days speaking to a colony of ants, Stripey would eventually end up lonely and isolated. That wasn’t what Gao Peng wanted to see. He couldn’t have cared less if it had been someone else’s familiar, but because it was Stripey, he had to worry about these things on Stripey’s behalf.
Gao Peng fell deep into thought…
Maybe the other Mountain Spirits would be friends with Stripey. Maybe the White Dragon was secretly lonely as well?
Pondering these questions, Gao Peng made his way back to Southern Sky.
His grandfather was reading in the study, so he knocked before entering. Ji Hanwu glanced at him, his eyes narrowing imperceptibly. All of a sudden, he hurled a punch at Gao Peng with his left hand.
Whoosh—
To be more accurate, the punch was so quick Gao Peng could only see a blurred image of it in the air. The sound of his fist slicing through the air rang as clear as a bell.
The hairs on his back stood on end. He hardened his skin like iron, and in that same breath, retaliated with a similar punch.
He only used twenty percent of his real power, though.
Bang!!
His grandfather’s sleeve ripped into shreds. He was almost lifted straight out of his chair by the sheer force of the punch.
While regaining his composure, he nodded slightly. “Not bad. You’ve gotten stronger. You must be hungry. Let me rustle up some food.” He left the study with as much dignity as he could muster.
As he went downstairs, his arm had yet to recover and was still trembling slightly.
“I can’t believe this brat tried so hard when I was clearly testing him. I wouldn’t have held back if I knew he was going to pull a stunt like this. The nerve!”
The moment Gao Peng had entered the room, Ji Hanwu had been able to sense something different about him. His Emperor-tier Trainer Extrasensory ability could easily pick up the abundant vitality beating within Gao Peng’s heart at such a close distance. It surprised him, which was why he had decided to test Gao Peng.
“This little brat…” Ji Hanwu couldn’t help but think back to the time Gao Peng had thrown his Mountain Spirit’s Heart at the slumbering Mountain Spirit. He couldn’t help but marvel at how much Gao Peng had grown. It made him both happy and sad at the same time.
However, now that Gao Peng could take care of himself, it was time for him to let go of more than one thing.
The most pressing matter at hand however was… were they having twice cooked pork or salt fried pork for dinner?
Ji Hanwu put on his apron and went to work in the kitchen.
Over dinner, Gao Peng told his grandfather everything that had happened with Stripey. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle it.” His grandfather nodded slowly.
…
“Chairman Ji, the Wooden Peacock will be defiant until the end. It hasn’t eaten anything for the past two weeks and is starving itself to death.” The person in charge of lab number five passed him a file with data on the Wooden Peacock and its abilities.
“Hm.” Ji Hanwu nodded slightly. He wasn’t surprised.
He had actually received reports on the Wooden Peacock’s situation a few days earlier. He already knew how it was starving itself, crying out in lament every night alone in its cell.
Ji Hanwu had thought of having the White Dragon knock it out before force feeding it, but had eventually decided against it. He was a traditional man with a deep respect for the strength of the familiar’s resolve, and he refused to disrespect it by doing so.
He would grant the peacock’s dying wish.
“You can continue researching the other materials in the lab, but leave the remains intact.” His eyes flickered from the file to the lab technician before he closed the file.
“Understood.”
