CSMCDB - Chapter 51
Chapter 51
When Lin Jinyu climbed a tree and got a clear look at the person surrounded by five third-layer Star Warriors, she decided to leave quietly with Wen Yuncheng. However... Wen Yuncheng single-handedly managed to draw their ire.
At this point, it was obviously impossible to pretend nothing had happened. Lin Jinyu leaped down from the tree. "Senior..."
The one surrounded was Zhao Qiuyu.
A petite frame and a soft voice—judging by her appearance alone, Zhao Qiuyu looked as delicate as a perpetually young lolita. Her weapons, however, were a pair of giant iron hammers attached to chains.
She hadn't drawn her weapons, had used an item to conceal her strength to only show the first layer of a Star Warrior, and was all alone...
Lin Jinyu suspected Zhao Qiuyu was doing this on purpose.
Of course, if Wen Yuncheng had seen this, she would have definitely exclaimed, "It's a sting operation!"
"Yo, Junior~" Zhao Qiuyu waved, knowing she couldn't keep up the act with the people from the Tianmen Sect any longer. She stretched her limbs a little, only to hear that the five from the Tianmen Sect were not afraid in the slightest.
"Haha? This first-layer Star Warrior is your senior? Then your Star Academy must be quite—" Before he could finish, the first-layer Star Warrior suddenly became a third-layer Star Master. The speaker nearly bit his tongue off. He was dumbfounded, unable to react for a moment.
Zhao Qiuyu instantly drew her weapons, coated the iron hammers with Star Power, and detonated the power before it even hit anyone, sending the five men flying and crashing to the ground on the other side. From her position, Wen Yuncheng couldn't see what happened clearly. She only saw five people suddenly fly up and fall to the side. Thinking it was Lin Jinyu's doing, she turned her cannons, aimed at the men, and—Boom—
Just as Zhao Qiuyu put away her weapons and was about to ask her little junior why she was here alone, she caught a glimpse of dozens of Star Power cannonballs raining down from the sky, landing right on the five unlucky souls she had just knocked unconscious...
The smile on her lips froze instantly, and she turned to look at her junior. Although Lin Jinyu remained expressionless, Zhao Qiuyu could somehow detect a trace of awkwardness and hesitation on her face.
"...That was Student Wen, wasn't it? The one just now?" Zhao Qiuyu was extremely embarrassed. Right, someone had shouted earlier. It was just that the voice sounded like a girl's, so she thought it was someone she didn't know... It wasn't until she saw Lin Jinyu and the Star Power cannons that she realized. Lin Jinyu was teamed up with Wen Yuncheng.
"...Yes." Hearing Wen Yuncheng calling her from over there, Lin Jinyu said, "I'll go give them some healing pills. Senior, you should meet Wen Yuncheng."
"...Okay."
Awkward. Wen Yuncheng had never been so embarrassed. She was particularly annoyed. "1947! Why does a Long Aotian encounter a sting operation plot instead of a damsel-in-distress plot!"
[...] 1947 didn't dare to make a peep. It looked at the mission it hadn't issued yet, feeling incredibly fortunate that it had forgotten to issue it this time.
"I'm sorry, Senior... Um, I didn't see it was you... I'm really sorry. Are they... still breathing?"
"They are." Zhao Qiuyu found it a little funny in retrospect. When she saw these five from the Tianmen Sect, she was reminded of how some trash from the same sect had tried to rob Lin Jinyu last year. Even though nothing was lost, it was still disgusting. So she decided to mess with them a bit. If they didn't have any ill intentions, she would have let it go. But if they did... Zhao Qiuyu planned to teach them a lesson with her hammers.
She hadn't expected the show to be interrupted just as it was getting started.
Lin Jinyu fed each of the five a recovery pill and confirmed they wouldn't die before walking over.
"I'll head out first and hand these five scumbags over to the teachers. Then I'll demand an explanation and compensation from the Tianmen Sect," Zhao Qiuyu said. "Coincidentally, because of the giant dragon incident last year, this year's Beast Tide is getting a lot of attention. If the Tianmen Sect doesn't properly manage its disciples, they'll be facing more than just a heavy loss."
"Sorry to trouble you, Senior." Wen Yuncheng thanked her earnestly, then watched as the petite senior took out a rope, tied the five men together, and effortlessly lifted them before walking away.
Wen Yuncheng fell silent, feeling that Cheng Jiangliu still had a long way to go before he could win the beauty's heart.
In truth, the Tianmen Sect wasn't the only one whose members committed robbery. With so many sects and academies coming to the Demonic Beast Great Forest, the disciples or students with poor character among them stood out. It's just that people wouldn't remember the individual, only their sect or academy. And the Tianmen Sect was just unlucky... always running into Star Academy.
As the premier academy in the Imperial Capital, there were always quite a few sects that looked down on or were hostile toward Star Academy.
After bidding farewell to Zhao Qiuyu, Wen Yuncheng began to retrieve her cannons one by one. While deploying them was convenient, retrieving them required touching each one to put it back into her storage ring, which took some time.
"...Sorry. It would have been better if I had waited a bit longer." Wen Yuncheng remembered that Lin Jinyu had seemed to turn back to say something, but because she had shouted too quickly...
"It's fine." Normally, Lin Jinyu would have ended the conversation there. But thinking about Wen Yuncheng's recent state and her current guilty expression, she added a word of comfort, "You meant well. It's fine."
"Mmm..." After putting away all her cannons, Wen Yuncheng said, "I don't regret blasting those five pieces of trash. I just feel that if I had been a little slower, you wouldn't have had to waste your pills."
"..." Lin Jinyu was speechless for a moment, not knowing how to respond. "...It's fine," she finally said. She thought to herself that Wen Yuncheng was a little money-grubber, so it was normal for her to think that way. Just a moment ago, Lin Jinyu had thought Wen Yuncheng felt guilty for heavily injuring the Tianmen Sect members. She had even started thinking about how to explain the law of the jungle where strength reigns supreme, even recalling some examples to give Wen Yuncheng, but she never expected...
And so, the small interlude in their training passed.
Wen Yuncheng had actually been eyeing the Abyssal Crystal Eagles ever since she entered the forest. After all, Abyssal Crystal was a biological ore... She really wanted to try using it to make a mechanical armguard to see what effect it would have. If it could self-repair... wouldn't that be the same as equipment with infinite durability?
Unfortunately, her cannons needed Lin Jinyu's help just to hit a Winged Tiger. Against a Star Lord-level Abyssal Crystal Eagle... the probability of failure was as high as ninety-nine percent.
According to the pattern 1947 mentioned, she would unlock the C-series 02 at level 30. Just like how she got the C-01 Guardian blueprint at level ten, she would get the C-02 blueprint at level thirty. Of course, Wen Yuncheng didn't know what it would be just yet.
The machines made from blueprints were different from skills. The power of skills would increase as her level rose, but the crafted Guardians and even the cannons would not. What Wen Yuncheng was currently doing was stacking numbers to increase damage, but this kind of increase had an upper limit. If the enemy had high-quality armor or if the level difference was too great, the damage dealt by the Guardians would be almost negligible.
"What's that smell?" Wen Yuncheng breathed in the air, sensing a faint, sweet scent.
Lin Jinyu hadn't smelled anything, but after Wen Yuncheng mentioned it, she focused her senses and quickly detected a fluctuation. The fluctuation was very faint; one wouldn't normally notice it without specifically trying to catch it. She took Wen Yuncheng's hand and hurried toward the source. "It should be some kind of spiritual herb or fruit that has ripened."
[...Other people sense heavenly treasures by detecting energy fluctuations. Only you smell the fragrance of a spiritual fruit.] 1947 didn't know whether to lament that the foodie Wen Yuncheng had the nose of a dog, or that this Long Aotian often went off-script.
"Really? But there should be demonic beasts guarding a place like that, right? If there are other people nearby, they'll probably head over too." Wen Yuncheng's excitement was followed by worry. "Will we get into trouble if we go?"
"We'll know once we take a look."
There weren't many types of spiritual fruits in the outer perimeter. They were rare, yes, but not the exaggerated, once-in-ten-thousand-years kind you read about in novels. A peerless spiritual fruit that could suddenly grant a non-cultivator the aptitude for cultivation was also unlikely to appear in the outer area.
Therefore, even if there were demonic beasts, their level wouldn't be too high.
Wen Yuncheng remarked to 1947: Finally, I get to experience a Long Aotian plot. My luck is so good.
[...] 1947 really wanted to say that this wasn't how a Long Aotian worked; a Long Aotian doesn't get saddled with the blame. But when it remembered it was the Long Aotian Growth System, it could only say through tears: [Yes, this must be a fortuitous encounter meant for you.]
"The smell seems to be getting stronger," Wen Yuncheng said as she followed Lin Jinyu.
Lin Jinyu sniffed carefully. Although she probably didn't smell anything, after Wen Yuncheng said that, she felt as if she could also catch a hint of sweetness.
"Hiss hiss hiss—"
"Roar!—"
It seemed demonic beasts were already fighting at the location of the spiritual fruit. Lin Jinyu didn't approach directly, instead pulling Wen Yuncheng up a tree. From a distance, they could see a giant python and a silver-gray giant wolf locked in combat. The overflowing ripples of Star Power seemed to be at the Star Lord level.
This was not a fortuitous encounter they could obtain.
While they watched from a great distance, several other teams also discovered the battle. Some wanted to fish in troubled waters and steal the spiritual fruit, or perhaps ambush the two demonic beasts, but the two beasts were clearly very alert. The moment they sensed the presence of humans, they would attack their enemies in unison.
After more than an hour, the battle was still not over.
"Why don't we leave, too?" Seeing that no one else was trying to go after the demonic beasts or the spiritual fruit, and that the two beasts were still locked in a stalemate, Wen Yuncheng couldn't help but suggest.
"Let's wait a little longer," Lin Jinyu added. "That spiritual fruit should have body-tempering properties. Although its market price ranges from eight hundred thousand to one point two million Star Stones, it's priceless and rarely seen."
When Wen Yuncheng heard that number, she immediately fell silent. She would be willing to wait even three days to get one point two million!
They waited until late at night. During that time, Wen Yuncheng spent points to buy a few steamed buns and shared them with Lin Jinyu, only saying that they were rations she had prepared beforehand. It wasn't in Lin Jinyu's nature to ask many questions, so she just quietly accepted Wen Yuncheng's kind gesture.
The battle over there seemed to be reaching a conclusion. The giant wolf was covered in wounds, and the giant python's flesh was torn open, a miserable sight.
Wen Yuncheng and Lin Jinyu carefully moved closer, only to discover that a large patch of fur on the giant wolf's hind leg was dyed red. It was clearly heavily injured. Its movements became sluggish, and finally, during one exchange, it was completely coiled by the giant python. Even though they were too far away to hear anything, Wen Yuncheng could imagine the sound of bones being crushed inch by inch. She shivered, then watched as the giant python opened its mouth and began to swallow the giant wolf bit by bit.
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