13.14 – Couldn’t he let ordinary people live?!
editors: alamerysl, BlueBug & Macabre
Entrance checks were performed by machines, and each contestant’s nano-computer carried a unique test code. There were too many people attending this competition for them to announce contestants by name during the beginning phases. In order to avoid naming confusion, everyone would be referred to by their personal code.
After pairing up with their chosen beastman, the Sculptor would need to input their personal code into the official website in order to obtain a second code for their accompanying beastman so that they could also enter the competition arena.
Xue Ling did not provide Yin Jia with a code, but the man still easily managed to enter with him. Xue Ling twisted his head to give him a very meaningful look, but did not expose him on the spot.
He had clearly given that code to Mu Xi right from the start, so it was obvious that Yin Jia had forcefully obtained the code from Mu Xi. This kind of thing was not likely to have been done on the spot, so based on Xue Ling’s understanding of the man, he had probably obtained the code from Mu Xi as soon as Xue Ling had given it to her.
Xue Ling was curious to know when he would make his move, so he didn’t expose his lies. After entering the competition area, he began to concentrate on examining ores.
Everyone was given sufficient time to select an ore. They could wait all the way up until the last day as long as they did not leave the venue during this period of time.
Every stone in the stadium was marked, and there were military personnel stationed here for defense, making it impossible for anyone to start trouble.
After Xue Ling entered the venue, he obtained a stone distribution from the entrance assistant. The venue was very large, and had been divided into eight areas full of ores. Xue Ling looked at the route and discovered that as long as he followed the route marked out by the venue, he would be able to see all eight exhibition areas along the way.
Yin Jia didn’t ask him any questions, and only stood behind him in silence. Xue Ling wasn’t in a hurry to look for ores, so he tipped his head to glance at him, then quipped, “Am I not simply cheating like this?”
Yin Jia looked down at his mildly delighted expression. “Hmm?” He thought about it, then expressed his own doubt.
Xue Ling curved his lips and reached out to take his hand, hugging his arm. His entire body leaned very close to Yin Jia. He was not very tall, and it gave off the feeling of a little bird leaning against a person when he came so close. He was smiling widely, and based on how they looked, those who didn’t recognize them would probably mistake them for a couple instead of father and son. “My father is the strongest person in the Empire. With you as a bodyguard, who would dare snatch away my ore?”
Yin Jia stretched out his hand and rubbed his head, but did not prevent him from getting closer. It was unknown if he had thought through anything while he was hiding away from Xue Ling these past two weeks, but he had become more and more indulgent towards Xue Ling. “That’s for the best.”
Xue Ling nodded, and was about to bring Yin Jia with him to start forward when he heard someone calling his name from nearby. Xue Ling turned his head to look over, and narrowed his eyes.
The person who was greeting him was the one who had participated in the class transfer test and entered Class S along with him, Mo Lan. He was followed by Mo Xi, who stood behind his younger brother with a grim expression on his face, acting like a real bodyguard. There were two other people with them, the protagonist Hao Songle, and his elder brother, Hao Xu.
Xue Ling’s gaze fell on Hao Xu and turned rather complicated. In the entire Hao family, if he had to say which one had treated the original body the best, it was probably Hao Xu. Hao Xu was also looking at Xue Ling, and when their eyes met, he discovered that Hao Xu’s gaze contained a little guilt and concern.
Xue Ling raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise. The original body’s impression of Hao Xu was not bad, but it was merely a little bit of sunshine amidst endless darkness, so he did not hate this elder brother of his. It was probably because, in Hao Xu’s eyes, it was indeed that his own parents who had wronged Helan Jiuyun, so he treated Helan Jiuyun very well. But he spent very little time at home and couldn’t do much.
The scene turned awkward for a while. Hao Songle had a bad expression on his face, but when he saw that Xue Ling was holding onto Yin Jia’s hands, he simply shut up and chose to say nothing. It was rare for Hao Xu to have a chance to see Xue Ling, so after their gazes met, he spoke out a greeting. “Long time no see, Jiuyun.”
Xue Ling nodded and said nothing more. Among these people, Mo Xi was the only one he was actually familiar with, so he also called out a greeting, “Hello, Big Brother Mo.”
Mo Xi curved his lips and nodded to Xue Ling. “Marshal, Little Yun, I hope you are well.”
Yin Jia’s eyes went amongst the few people in front of them, and he finally came to the conclusion that the competitive threat of the two across from him was too low, and they would be unable to steal his Yun’er away. So he nodded coolly and said, “We’ll go ahead first.” He could tell that Xue Ling did not intend to go with him, so he took the initiative to suggest they leave.
But apparently, the people opposite them had no intention of letting them go. “It’s a rare chance for us to have run into each other. Let’s go together.” Although Mo Lan’s greeting had been ignored, he would naturally grasp the opportunity to talk to the Marshal and interact with him as tightly as he could. Mo Lan had no intention of letting them go off alone. “We’re all looking at stones, and we can also communicate with each other about anything that puzzles us.”
Xue Ling sneered mysteriously, then turned around and left, pulling Yin Jia along. “You can follow him if you can.”
His attitude was really arrogant. This kind of method that was so offensive to others was not something normal people would do, but who was Xue Ling? He also had Yin Jia by his side, and with a plug-in like him, Xue Ling could be arrogant to the extreme in this world without anything happening to him. Besides, his words were the truth. He could see what the interior of the ores were like with just a glance. Hao Songle and Mo Lan’s speed would not be able to keep up with his at all.
But the people present didn’t know about his strength at all. Everyone had their own thoughts, and although Mo Xi was a little curious about why Xue Ling had become so arrogant, he had spent many days with Xue Ling and still had some understanding regarding his character. Looking at his current attitude, he could surmise that Xue Ling didn’t want to hang out with them.
After all, Hao Songle was there.
Hao Songle’s expression was very ugly. He naturally understood Xue Ling’s words as contempt. He originally had no real desire to win when he first came to this world, but after being trampled on by someone for this long, no transmigrator who had any desire to win would have a good impression of Xue Ling. After mocking Xue Ling in his heart for a long time, he finally managed to control his mood.
Mo Lan’s gaze fell onto Xue Ling and Yin Jia’s interlaced hands, and he stared at the two people’s backs for a long time before turning to his brother and saying, “Elder brother, let’s go. We’ll follow them and take a look.” Everyone on the Star Net said that Yin Jia was incredibly indulgent of Xue Ling, and Mo Lan always defined the relationship between them as foster father and son. Based on Yin Jia’s responsible character, it was natural for him to treat Xue Ling well, but he would definitely never let Xue Ling be so close to him.
Almost scandalously close.
Alarm rose in Mo Lan’s heart. He followed behind the two, wanting to see how they interacted with each other from behind, but he only saw that Xue Ling went directly through the first exhibition area without touching or even looking at a single stone.
Mo Lan frowned. Xue Ling even gave up all the stones in the first exhibition area because he didn’t want to go with them? Although the route would loop back in the end and there would be another chance to walk through it again, at the end of the day, there was no order to the placement of stones, and no tradition that stated that the first exhibition area would not contain any good ores. The fact that Xue Ling gave up on this area directly shook Mo Lan’s mind slightly.
Was it really necessary to be alert against this kind of opponent?
Yin Jia seemed to be surprised by Xue Ling’s action, and slowly made him slow down. “Yun’er, aren’t you looking at the ores?”
Xue Ling’s steps paused, and he raised his head to look at him.
Yin Jia said, “If you don’t like those people, just pretend you can’t see them. There’s no need to do this just to go against them.”
Xue Ling smiled as he shook his head, then sighed. “Father still doesn’t understand me~”
His tone was light and flirtatious, and also carried a bit of teasing intent, “Although I’m capricious, I won’t take big events like this lightly. I want to take advantage of this competition to find the SSS Grade stone that teacher asked me to find. The first area doesn’t have any, so we left. It’s not about fighting them. They’re not worth it.”
Yin Jia’s steps also paused as he said, “You can clearly tell if there are any suitable stones from just a glance?”
Xue Ling stood on tiptoe and beckoned for Yin Jia to bend down. Yin Jia took in his curling eyelashes and his eyes that were glittering with mischief, but still lowered his head.
In this world, the only person who could make him so willing to bow down was probably this child alone.
“As long as I use my spiritual powers to make a sweep, I can see exactly how big or heavy these stones are, and see what’s inside them.”
Yin Jia was momentarily dazed by his words, and Xue Ling came even closer, this red lips exhaling a breath of hot air in Yin Jia’s ear, his voice carrying a slightly nasal quality, soft and tender as he continued, “If I want, I can also see what a person has with him, such as…” His fingertips drew coy circles on Yin Jia’s palm, “Father’s underwear is a complete set every day, and it’s always the same~”
Yin Jia’s breath caught as his eyes met with Xue Ling’s amused ones- He found it hard to recover.
He had no chance to answer before Xue Ling tossed out a careless laugh. “I’m joking~” He delightedly kissed the side of Yin Jia’s face, then turned and continued onward.
Yin Jia narrowed his eyes. He was really starting to suspect that this child of his was intentionally provoking him.
Previously, he was confused, and he didn’t suspect that Xue Ling’s actions carried other intentions, only feeling that his own thoughts were dirty. Now that he had stabilized his mood, it was only natural for him to discover that some of Xue Ling’s little actions were full of flirtatious innuendo. It was impossible for him to not wonder if it was intentional.
But was he doing it intentionally because he liked him, or was it for a different purpose…
Yin Jia’s thoughts could not help but go to strange places. He recalled his wits when Xue Ling called back to him, and saw the child watching him with a doubtful expression on his face. “Father, let’s go? What are you dazed about?”
Yin Jia shook his head. “Nothing.” No matter what the child thought, he was already by his side. Since he was already entered into the family tree, he simply won’t be leaving it in the future.
Xue Ling walked around the exhibition area, and just as he was about to give up, he saw the ore he was looking for in the last exhibition area. Xue Ling was thrilled as he brought Yin Jia over to stand beside the stone. He immediately picked up the stone’s sign and asked Yin Jia to hold it for him.
Some people who had seen how he picked his stone could not help but laugh and make fun of him, but when they saw the silver hair of the man who was holding the stone for Xue Ling, they chose to shut up instead.
Silver haired people could not be provoked and the Sculptor he was following behind was also not someone they could afford to upset.
Xue Ling smoothly obtained the stone. It was quite big, and the energy crystal contained inside would be big enough for Xue Ling to carve a complete set of things after it was refined.
He brought Yin Jia out of the stadium with him, but it had only been half a day since they had entered and some people were still entering the venue one after another. For him to come out so quickly seemed like he was simply giving up on the competition.
Xue Ling completely ignored those surprised gazes and handed the stone over to the guards for them to send it into the refiner.
The stone was rather big, and the time required for refining was quite long. By the time Xue Ling carefully lifted out the finished product in order to put it into the box that Yin Jia had already prepared, music began to ring out throughout the entire venue.
It was very exciting music, and those who didn’t know better would think that it was time to rush into battle. In fact, it was just that one person’s name had appeared on the entire competition’s ranking board.
At this point in time, the number of people who had emerged from the venue was very small, and the number of names on the list was even smaller. But when normal contestants showed up on the list, there would be no music. Thus, when people were finally able to see Xue Ling’s name clearly as well as the quality of the stone he had found listed behind it, the sound of loud voices began to add up, and people who wanted to find Xue Ling outside of the venue suddenly increased. The exterior of the venue rippled with people, like the surface of water when a small stone was tossed in.
However, Xue Ling had already entered the First Fleet’s airship that was waiting outside, and was on his way back to the Marshal’s Palace.
SSS Grade stones were extremely difficult to find. Xue Ling had made his way through the entire venue and only found one. So when news that Xue Ling had found a SSS Grade stone was sent out, the entire Star Net went into an uproar once again.
As though worrying that this piece of news wasn’t making enough noise, Xue Ling even took a 360-degree image of the energy crystal and placed it on his personal home page. As long as anyone went to his homepage, they would be able to personally interact with that piece of crystal.
So once again, his home page was crowded with visitors. People expressed that it was impossible to compare between people, because it would only cause one to anger themselves to death. Did the Young Master have to be so godly, and have such amazing luck?! Couldn’t he let ordinary people live?!
In this regard, Xue Ling was very happy about his success. After all, he wanted to help the original owner become a winner in life. Regarding envy and hate and things like that, of course, the more the better.
