Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The number of drugs Gao Peng had concocted by hand numbered in the thousands. Concocting a Normal-tier drug wouldn’t take much of his effort.
His hands moved with expert precision. If Gao Peng had prioritized quantity over quality, they would probably have moved much faster.
Eleven minutes and fifty-five seconds passed. The drug preparation process was finally completed.
Gao Peng looked at the gray reagent in his hand. The color of its contents was evenly spread out; it was perfect.
When Gao Peng lightly shook it, a faint fragrance wafted from the vial.
Gao Peng strained his eyes at the reagent, assessing its viscosity. The liquid swirled at the bottom of its vial, its surface glistening like a mirror.
Gao Peng then filled a syringe up with the reagent and beckoned at the dazed Yin Yang Calendula on the cold countertop. “Time for your injection.”
The flower didn’t even need to be told twice. It shuffled its leaves across the countertop’s surface towards Gao Peng, following the sweet scent that was coming from the vial in his hand.
It entwined its tendrils around Gao Peng’s hand and lightly rubbed them against him.
Tch—
Gao Peng stabbed the syringe into its stem. The injection process took at least twelve seconds.
Gao Peng didn’t even need to look at the clock on the wall to tell how long it took.
He realized that his memory was improving considerably as his Soul Power grew stronger. He could now count the seconds down just as accurately as any wall clock.
After the injection, lethargy seemed to overtake the Yin Yang Calendula. Its white crown drooped slightly, while its leaves coiled up into a lifeless bunch.
Evolution wasn’t instantaneous, but rather a long and arduous process.
Gao Peng inserted the tiny plant creature into a glass case and took it with him. The Yin Yang Calendula was originally named Xiao Hua. However, that was also the name of Dumby’s daughter. Gao Peng had made quite a blunder in this respect. Since Dumby’s daughter was named Xiao Hua first, he had no choice but to give the calendula another name: Xiao Cao.
When he exited the laboratory, he saw a few laboratory assistants scooping out squid eggs from a wok. They stared at him, stunned. “Er… you hungry, sir? We just cooked up some squid eggs.”
“No thanks. I’m done with my experiment. You guys can go back in now,” said Gao Peng with a faint smile. He entered the elevator.
“He was only in there for ten minutes…” said one of the assistants while looking at the bowl of squid eggs in his hands.
Cooking squid eggs required at least ten minutes, not counting the time needed to collect other ingredients from the fridge and boil the water.
In the ten minutes they had spent cooking squid eggs, Gao Peng had already completed an experiment on his own.
The younger laboratory assistants looked despondently at each other.
Back on the first floor, Gao Peng was greeted by the sight of Goldie sitting on a pile of dead fish carcasses at the building’s main entrance. The duck’s fishy loot had blocked the entrance, making it somewhat difficult to go through it.
The guards at the entrance looked helplessly at the scene before them. When they saw Gao Peng exiting from the elevator, they hurried over to him and looked as if they had something to say to him, but couldn’t get the words out.
“Go back to your posts. I’ll handle this,” said Gao Peng reassuringly.
“You really worked hard…” he then said to Goldie, unsure whether to laugh or cry about the matter.
Goldie nodded, apparently pleased with itself. “Five hundred bucks for each of them,” it said.
Gao Peng nodded back. “All right then. Five hundred a piece.”
He squatted at the main entrance and began counting the pile of fish beside Goldie like a fish vendor counting their merchandise in the market. Gao Peng even rolled up his sleeves like one.
The pile of fish carcasses was giving off a pungent, fishy smell. However, Gao Peng didn’t mind it at all.
“Fifteen hundred, two thousand, twenty-five hundred…”
Gao Peng suddenly stopped and picked up a three-foot-long gray crab. When he rapped his knuckles against its shell, it gave out a hollow clanking sound.
“Is this even a fish?”
“How is this not a fish?” said Goldie, flustered. “It’s a crab fish! I’ve eaten it before!”
Bam!
In its excitement, Goldie slammed its wing against the thorax of the “crab fish,” smashing it into pieces.
The guards at the main entrance flinched when they saw what Goldie did to the crab’s shell.
“How many times have I told you? We’re all civilized individuals here, capable of self-restraint,” said Gao Peng patiently. “Violence is never the answer. We should always reason with others, not smack them around like common thugs!”
“All right. I’ll take your crab fish this time. That’s 3,000 dollars, right?” said Gao Peng.
Goldie had brought back thirteen “fish” in total.
Gao Peng didn’t make any fuss about the ridiculous names Goldie had given some of the fish it had collected, such as “shell fish” or “lobster fish.”
He then paid Goldie 6,500 Alliance dollars. When the duck left the building, Gao Peng ordered someone to take the pile of “fish” to be cleaned and cooked as part of the employees’ dinner buffet that night.
The price that Gao Peng had paid for Goldie’s loot was much higher than the cost of the beef and mutton that were already prepared in the company’s cafeteria.
Half an hour later, the Yin Yang Calendula slowly woke up and gazed at Gao Peng from its glass prison.
Gao Peng opened the glass case. The Yin Yang Calendula coiled its tendrils around his arm and began climbing up towards Gao Peng’s neck.
Silly extended a meaty tentacle in front of the Yin Yang Calendula, then shook its tentacle warningly at the plant creature.
The Yin Yang Calendula dejectedly slithered to the ground, then climbed up Dumby’s body and planted its roots into its skull.
[Monster Name]: Yin Yang Calendula
[Monster Grade]: Perfect
It didn’t evolve into its other evolutionary variant. Its monster grade had simply gone up a level. It now had the potential to advance to Commander-tier.
Gao Peng wasn’t in a hurry to increase the calendula’s monster tier. Only after he had promoted it to Epic-grade would he begin focusing on its tier.
He had more or less settled his business in Yang Cheng City. The combat and reconnaissance divisions were the results of his first attempt at corporate reorganization. If the results were satisfactory, he would consider enacting these changes in the company’s other branches.
“Young Master Gao, we won’t let you down,” shouted Zheng Tiezhuang.
Liu Changhao had a steely gaze in his eyes. Being ex-military, he was a no-nonsense man of few words.
“Don’t do it for me, but for the company,” said Gao Peng with a laugh. He waved a hand at them before taking his leave.
A huge truck rumbled along the road towards the airport, leaving a smoky trail behind it.
…
Gao Peng’s finally reached Yuzhou. As soon as he cleared customs, Gao Peng immediately made his way to the headquarters.
The King Eel’s skeleton had been brought back to life via Dumby’s powers. However, it wasn’t as powerful as it had been before when it was still flesh and blood. This was the weakest Lord-tier creature Gao Peng had ever seen.
The King Eel’s skeleton wasn’t terribly endowed with physical strength. It wasn’t specialized in close quarters combat even when it was still alive. Gao Peng also noticed that the skeleton that Dumby had resurrected had been stripped of its elemental powers. This was truly regrettable.
However, it was still a Lord-tier monster, albeit a somewhat weak one. It was at least 65 feet long, which was enough to intimidate others. The only good thing about its current state was the fact that the King Eel could now live on dry land without any consequences.
