Ma Dalong burst into tears!
Sure, my lifelong dream was to one day be ruthlessly whipped by money!
But not like this, damn it!
This gold brick is way too hard!
“The spirit core! It’s the core of the spirit ruin! Core fragments! Don’t you want them? Stop hitting me!”
Jiang Nan was stunned!
He never expected to learn about core fragments from Ma Dalong’s mouth!
The Qiandao Lake spirit surge was directly linked to the core!
Finding core fragments was one of Jiang Nan’s objectives this time!
“Well, well! You know quite a lot! Keep talking, I won’t hit your mouth!”
[Resentment from Ma Dalong +1000!]
Mummy!
I wanna go home! This guy is evil!
He’s the devil!
“We originally came here to train during this spirit surge! Then we discovered one island had shockingly high spirit energy concentration!”
“A load of spirit beasts had gathered there, along with civilian spirit warriors like us, all drawn by the energy!”
“We figured we’d find the spot with the densest energy to cultivate, and that’s how we discovered the core fragment!”
The windbreaker youth hurriedly nodded, terrified. “Yes, yes! That place… it’s too creepy! There’s a whole troop of silverback gorillas!”
“They charged over, hoisted my second bro onto their shoulders, and carried him off! If we hadn’t run fast…”
Chicken-nest girl was crying. “Those silverbacks were still lining up at the cave entrance to go in and beat second bro! It was horrifying!”
“We could hear his screams! He’s probably already… waaah~”
Jiang Nan was dumbfounded. A troop of silverback gorillas?
Carrying people into a cave? Queuing up at the entrance to take turns beating him?
Why did this scene feel weirdly familiar?
*WHAM!*
One gold-brick headshot, and Ma Dalong passed out cold!
Chicken-nest girl and windbreaker youth turned white with fright!
Jiang Nan tossed Ma Dalong into the truck bed!
When the students saw Ma Dalong’s face, now battered beyond recognition and basically needing pixelation, their little faces all went pale!
A few vomited on the spot!
Jiang Nan: “Mark the coordinates on the map for me. Get on the truck yourselves! Hug your heads and squat!”
The two were scared witless and immediately did as told!
Jiang Nan leapt back onto the truck!
Zhong Yingxue swallowed hard. “Those silverbacks… they wouldn’t happen to be the ones we used on Luo Tianxiang at the start, would they…?”
Jiang Nan gave a pained laugh. “Pretty much!”
Back then we got a bunch of gorillas to beat up Luo Tianxiang!
They queued up!
After each beating they got Vigour Potion to drink!
Who knew it would turn into a tradition?
This custom has carried on to this day?
“We’ll deal with it later. First let’s get all the students to the evacuation point!”
He drove the truck, ferried Liu Guang and the others to the temporary shelter!
Then Jiang Nan rode the motorbike around rescuing more students. The only difference this time was that he brought Zhou Yuqing!
With this little human radar plus map positioning, the rescue speed shot up!
In just half a day, every student was gathered at the temporary shelter!
He then notified Huang Wei to send people to pick them up!
Huang Wei stared at the electronic map where all the student markers had converged into one spot. His scalp went numb!
He could hardly believe it. What kind of terrifying efficiency was this?
Jiang Nan alone was worth an entire search-and-rescue battalion!
The students were brought back to the stronghold!
The first thing every single one did after stepping off the helicopter was kneel and vomit!
“Bleeurgh! What is that smell!”
“Is this island where spirit beasts come to poop?”
“Urgh~ it stinks so bad!”
“Did the rescue team set up the stronghold inside a spirit-beast toilet?”
The lingering fragrance relentlessly assaulted the students’ nerves!
Seeing the students safely evacuated, Huang Wei finally let out a huge sigh of relief!
“South God! Absolutely epic!”
As Jiang Nan stepped off the helicopter, many staff members looked at him with admiration and gave him thumbs up!
Jiang Nan shyly scratched the back of his head, a little embarrassed!
Just then, two wails rang out!
The windbreaker youth knelt on the ground. “Second bro! Is that you? Wake up! Say something!”
Chicken-nest girl frowned in disgust!
“Ugh~ second bro, how did you let someone beat you into this state? Is it really you?”
He was practically unrecognisable!
The two knelt beside a stretcher!
On it lay a youth swollen to three times his size, beaten beyond all human semblance!
He clutched a stone slab, eyes vacant, as if his soul had already left him!
“Don’t! Don’t come near! All of you stay away!”
“Don’t hit me! Nobody come near! I’m not crazy, not crazy! Hahahaha! Waaaa~ Mummy!”
Second bro thrashed on the stretcher like a man possessed, face full of grief!
Jiang Nan swallowed. “Brother Wei, what’s up with that guy?”
Huang Wei: “Ah~ my people found him on Yali Island! He was already like this when they discovered him in the woods!”
“Physically he’s badly hurt, but the body wounds are treatable. It looks like he suffered some kind of mental trauma. We asked what happened, but he won’t say!”
Jiang Nan covered his face. Had he really been beaten into psychological trauma?
“There are too many gold-tier spirit beasts on Yali Island. My team couldn’t get in, so we don’t know what’s going on inside!”
Jiang Nan: “There should be a core fragment inside. Don’t worry! I’ll take people over shortly!”
He walked up to second bro. “Tell me what happened!”
“I’ll go teach them a proper lesson for you, make sure no more victims appear!”
Second bro: (#)´༎ຶ灬༎ຶ(#)
“Let me tell you, bro! Those gorillas are not gorillas at all!”
“They knocked me out, dragged me into a cave. I thought I was done for, but then they queued up to beat me, damn it!”
“One gorilla wasn’t enough! They took turns!”
Jiang Nan looked shocked. “Heavens! That cruel? They’re way too evil!”
Second bro: “Exactly! Super evil! No idea who they learned it from! How could they!”
Jiang Nan’s face was full of pity. “What a sin!”
It was me who started it!
Chicken-nest girl and windbreaker guy turned pale with fear. That cruel?
Good thing we ran fast! Otherwise the consequences would have been unthinkable!
Second bro grew more agitated. “Look what they did to me!”
“Oh right! They also shoved this stone slab at me, then let me go!”
“As I was leaving, I saw those gorillas carrying two more guys inside! No idea how those two are doing!”
Jiang Nan was stunned. Stone slab? What stone slab?
“Can I take a look?”
Second bro handed over the slab he had been clutching!
Jiang Nan looked closely and his whole body froze!
Simple lines on the slab sketched two human figures!
You could vaguely make out what they depicted!
One was a person with a dummy in their mouth, the other a bear face!
Carved on the slab:
As pictured: (⁎❝᷀ົڡ❝᷀ົ⁎)ෆ(ิ◕㉨◕ิ)
Jiang Nan: !!!
Goosebumps shot from his spine straight to the top of his head!
His face lit up with excitement!
In one teleport he appeared beside Zhong Yingxue!
“Xuexue, look! Isn’t this drawing of me? That bear face has to be Xiong Er, right?”
Zhong Yingxue stared at the picture on the slab, pretty face filled with astonishment!
“It really is! That proud little expression could only belong to you!”
Jiang Nan was practically shaking with excitement!
Not only was he looking for Xiong Er, Xiong Er was looking for him too?
It had only been a bit over a year! And the bear had learned to draw?
Xiong Er was about to ascend to the heavens!
