Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After getting off the car and looking at the magnificent and imposing scenery of Oasis World, the Grand Wizard with the surname Chen following Su Deli could not help but secretly marvel the cleverness of the foreign world’s creation. However, his mindset was different after all. Very soon, he calmed down and when he was about to reprimand the surrounding disciples who were still in a daze, he inadvertently caught the strange action of Zhang Lisheng’s jumping and laughing.
With a jolt in his heart, the Grand Wizard with the surname Chen quietly studied the young man and then whispered in a low but clear cold voice to the wizards around him, “An E-ranked disciple who had just entered the Gate is even calmer than you lot! Shouldn’t all of you compose yourselves?!”
The wizards felt a shudder and immediately snapped back to reality. Knowing that they had lost their cool, they lowered their heads and did not dare make a sound.
At this time, a few figures strode out of the tents in the camp, headed by a young soldier with two bars and one star on his shoulders. He appeared to be high in spirits and was tall and huge, with thick brows and huge eyes. Even though it looked as though his rank was not high, it was undoubtedly an exception for his age.
He walked quickly to the wizards and shook hands with Grand Wizard Chen, Su Deli and the old woman who stopped Su Deli from flying into a rage on the armored car just now. Enthusiastically, he said, “Researcher Chen, Researcher Du, Assistant Su, I’m Liu Jiaqing, the commander of the A0001 camp. Welcome to the camp. Now that all of you are here, our camp can finally be strongly fortified!”
“You flatter us, C-Comander Liu!” Upon seeing this young Liu Jiaqing, who was only a major but had beaten the two lieutenant colonels who looked almost in their forties behind him to become the commander of the campsite, Grand Wizard Chen felt that he must have a special background. For this reason, he answered with careful wording.
“I wasn’t being flattering, Researcher Chen! In the past two weeks, the comrades of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences have really subverted old mindsets of many commanders, fighters and scientists, including me. These special powers developed from a human body’s latent energy and potential is completely unfathomable! So unfathomable!” Liu Jiaqing shook his head and replied. “Let us stop the digression and introduce each other first. This is Political Commissar Cheng Maoguo of our camp. This is…”
The commander of the A0001 camp site pointed at the key characters in the camp behind him and introduced them one by one. The two Grand Wizards, a Deacon and more than twenty disciples of different rankings from the Gate of Witchcraft looked as though they were absorbed as they listened to him.
At this moment, only Zhang Lisheng alone no longer had a calm attitude that he had just now. An uncomfortable expression could be seen on his face as he looked at the beautiful short-haired girl beside a lanky woman in her thirties who was wearing light black-rimmed glasses and had a cold look on her face. With a wry smile, he counted his bad luck inwardly.
When the young man was feeling a turmoil of emotion, he suddenly saw Liu Jiaqing point to the tall woman and say, “This is Dr. Xu Naijia, the deputy chief engineer of our entire Oasis World exploration project. In operational duty, Dr. Xu is second only to Commander Hua, Political Commissar Yao and chief engineer Liu. Her position is much higher than mine so she should be said as the supreme leader of our camp. ”
“Dr. Xu, you are the supreme leader of the camp so it means that you’re our supreme leader too. Do let us know if you have any instructions!” When Su Deli heard the woman’s importance, his eyes lit up and said half-jokingly.
“Assistant Su, don’t listen to Major Liu’s joke,” Xu Naijia nodded at the wizards but when she turned to look at Liu Jiaqing, she said with a calm expression solemnly. “Major Liu, I’m in charge of scientific research and you are in charge of logistics and security. Our authority doesn’t usually cross with each other.”
“But when they cross, I’d have to obey your command, don’t I, Dr. Xu?” As though Liu Jiaqing had already become accustomed to seeing Xu Naijia’s cold demeanor, he smiled nonchalantly and pointed at the short-haired girl beside her. “This is Dr. Xu’s assistant. She’s also one of the best researchers in our camp. she’s Dr. Guo Caiying who graduated from the famous school Stanford in the US…”
As he was speaking, he suddenly noticed the girl’s dumbstruck look so he quickly asked, “Dr. Guo! Dr. Guo! Are you okay?”
“Oh nothing! I-I’m feeling a little dizzy. M-Maybe because I didn’t sleep well yesterday night,” Guo Caiying snapped back to reality and had a hesitant look on her face. Bowing down her head and covering her forehead with a hand, she said with a weak voice.
“Go rest then if you didn’t sleep well. I’ll ask Doctor Li to measure your body temperature later and then I’ll ask the kitchen staff to send you a sick meal,” Liu Jiaqing replied, particularly concerned with a soft voice.
“Alright.” Guo Caiying nodded with a low head and whispered to Xu Naijia, “Cousin, I’ll go back to the tent first!”
Then, she turned around to walk towards the tents. Xu Naijia, who was standing behind her, pondered for a long time without saying anything while Zhang Lisheng secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
At this moment, after Liu Jiaqing had finished introducing the key characters of the camp on his side. Grand Wizard Chen no longer was inarticulate as usual. Instead, politely, he said with a smile, “Everyone should know my name right? I’m Chen Guangxing who came here in the name of a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
This time, I came together with Researcher Du Shancha and Assistant Su Deli to bring our disciples here to the A0001 camp to assist in the initial exploration of the Oasis World. I hope that we can have a great cooperation.”
“That’s certain!” Liu Jiaqing applauded and replied. “According to the regulations on military materials management, we can activate the latest nuclear power batteries so the living environment is better than the main camp in Gannan. At the very least, we can guarantee air-conditioning and hot baths. The living space here is also a bit more spacious. Researcher Chen, Director Du, Assistant Su, please settle down and take a rest first. What do you think if we only discuss about the specific work arrangements in the evening?”
The words uttered by the commander of the campsite was reasonable, so of course he would receive no resistance. For this reason, the wizards were quickly dispersed into more than ten tents under the guidance of the odd-job soldiers.
The two Grand Wizards and the Deacon stayed alone while the important Gate of Witchcraft’s disciples shared the tents with an arrangement of two people, one tent. The rest of the disciples also lived four people in one tent. Not only that, all of the tents are air-conditioned and have a private bathroom, almost the same with a standard hotel room. The environment was way better than that of the Gannan camp.
Due to the reason that Zhang Lisheng came together with Su Deli and was mistaken as an important disciple, he and a C-ranked handsome and young disciple was led by an odd-job soldier into a two-person tent.
“Thank you, Brother!” Zhang Lisheng. who had been ladened with anxiety after seeing Guo Caiying appearing unexpectedly here in Oasis World’s campsite, politely thanked the tan odd-job soldier, who had a mouthful of white teeth when he smiled, and quickly walked into the tent compartment. After striping his clothes away, he washed his face with cold water first.
“just as the saying goes, the fish which nibbles at every bait will be caught. What is a university student who hasn’t even started any postgraduate study carrying out scientific research here in the Oasis World? And not only that, she actually came from a family of major cadre! isn’t this a hell of a mess…” As he muttered, feeling more and more frustrated, he suddenly heard the curtain being opened from behind.
Then, somebody snarled right away, “Why the hell are you here? You’re only an E-ranked disciple but you don’t even f*cking know the rules…”
With a simple sweep of his mind, Zhang Lisheng immediately realized what was going on. Frowning and not turning his head around, colorless scales suddenly crept on his arms and turned into dried sharp claws that grabbed forward ghastly, grabbing the head of the C-ranked disciple who had been standing respectfully behind Su Deli just now when they were outside but had now turned to become arrogant. Zhang Lisheng tightened his grip till the bones creaked, as black blood began to ooze out from his seven orifices of eyes, nose, mouth and ears.
Having been attacked suddenly, the Gate of Witchcraft’s disciple wanted to howl but he could not open his mouth. With no other option, he could only think of transforming into his most powerful wizard gu to struggle with all his might. However, to his despair, he saw the E-ranked disciple, whom he looked down on, suddenly have both sides of his back creak open, as several slender scorpion tail-like spurs grew out of it and pierced into his body violently.
The spurs entered along his blood vessel and stirred his muscles, causing the Gate of Witchcraft’s disciple to be in a tormenting pain that felt as though he was skinned alive. The blood vessels on his entire body bulged out as he blacked out in heart-wrenching pain. However, he was awakened by a gush of cold water with a nonchalant voice resonating by his ears. “Senior Brother, didn’t you want to chase me out so that you can wash up? Are you satisfied now?”
“Junior Brother, Junior Brother! I don’t dare anymore! I don’t dare anymore…” Feeling that the dried claw gripping his head had relaxed its grip a little, the Gate of Witchcraft’s disciple was also smart. He did not shout out loud but plead miserably instead.
“You trained so hard to become a Rank-6 Wizard but you’ve only transformed an ant-like wizard gu? How dare you call yourself a wizard and how dare you act so arrogant in front of other people? You really make me speechless! Scram now!” When Zhang Lisheng heard the pleading, he looked at the fully transformed Gate of Witchcraft’s disciple, whose body had produced a black-and-red hard shell, whose head had become flattened with two fangs protruding out of his mouth, and mocked him. Releasing his claw and retracting the scorpion tail on his back into his body, he threw that disciple aside like throwing trash, before washing up and washing his clothes at the same time.
Even though the Gate of Witchcraft’s disciple looked as though he had just undergone a heart-wrenching torture, it actually did not cause too much harm to him. After a while of gasping for breath, he felt better and silently crept up from the water puddle. Trembling, he looked at the E-ranked disciple whose body was entirely covered in foam not far away as intense hatred gleamed in his eyes.
Just as a series of expression coursed through his face while he was pondering whether the reason he was overpowered was because he had been caught off-guard just now or because that E-ranked disciple really had horrifying strength, he suddenly felt that his sight was a blur in front of his eyes. The figure that he had been staring intensely had disappeared instantly without a trace. When he was still feeling astonished, a cold voice resonated behind him, “Senior Brother, I asked you to scram so what are you still doing here? Or don’t tell me that you think that I don’t dare kill you now?”
“T-That… Senior Brother… N-No! Wait! A-Almighty God, your wizard power is powerful and you can crush me to death as though you’re killing a fly s-so how do I possibly dare to think so? I-I was merely thinking a-about serving you when I saw y-you washing your clothes just now, Oh Almighty God! T-This is why I remained behind…” His body shuddered violently, almost falling to the ground again. When he finally was certain that Zhang Lisheng possessed an unpredictable power that he would never be able to reach, the Gate of Witchcraft’s disciple stuttered incoherently.
“There’s no need to trouble you for that, Senior Brother. I’m not an Almighty God. I merely took a greater risk to transform some slightly more powerful wizard gus! Witchcraft cultivation is a hit-or-miss. Senior Brother, when you decided to choose the safe path by transforming an ‘ant’, you can only become an ‘ant’ in the future as well. It’s not that I’m strong, it’s you who are weak. There’s no point talking so much. scram!” Zhang Lisheng nihilated as he was speaking and walked back to stand under the shower head, before continuing to rinse his body in a carefree manner.
The Gate of Witchcraft’s disciple stood still dumbstruck for a long time. Something came to his mind as an irrepressible expression of remorse appeared on his face. Muttering “Ant, ant…” under his breath, he staggered out of the bathroom with a deathly pale face.
