Everyone followed the white-furred gorilla to the back mountain.
They all wanted to see what this Xiong Er that Jiang Nan kept mentioning was really like.
The moment they arrived, they were stunned by how dense the spiritual energy was.
On the lush green lawn stood a huge white stone shaped like half a circle.
It was densely carved with curse runes.
This was exactly where the core fragment was located. All sorts of flowers and plants were planted around it.
The entrance to a nearby cave had been neatly trimmed.
In front of the cave mouth burned a bonfire with an enormous wild boar roasting over it, fat dripping and sizzling.
The smell of roast meat made everyone swallow hard.
What was going on?
Was there a civilian spiritual warrior camped here?
The next second, everyone collectively froze.
By the stream, a big black bear wearing Little Dragon cartoon shorts was sitting on a rock, head lowered, washing another pair of shorts in the water.
Its thick bear paws scrubbed and scrubbed.
It even knew to rinse them after scrubbing.
Its bear tail wagged left and right.
On a nearby tree branch, seventy or eighty pairs were already hanging out to dry.
Everyone was dumbfounded.
Holy crap. It really was Wu Liang’s little brother.
Even their taste was identical.
Does a black bear seriously know how to wash underpundiess?
Did Xiong Er roast that wild boar? It’s already eating cooked food?
Jiang Nan’s eyes were full of delight. He jumped down and opened his arms wide.
“Haha. Xiong Er.”
The bear washing shorts by the river twitched its round ears, whipped its head around.
The instant it saw Jiang Nan, it froze, then its grin stretched almost to its ears.
It flung the shorts away and charged over, throwing itself into Jiang Nan’s arms.
Wu Liang laughed loudly and hugged it too.
Xiong Er was so excited it opened its huge bear maw and roared.
“Lan thin. Bear Dad. Miss. Hahaha.”
Xiong Er suddenly blurted that out and instantly blew Jiang Nan’s and Wu Liang’s minds.
Everyone stared at Xiong Er in horror.
Hey hey hey.
That bear just spoke, right?
Oh my god.
At this moment, the volunteers’ entire worldviews collapsed. Their eyeballs nearly exploded.
Could you at least respect basic biology and evolution a little?
How can it talk?
Xia Yao covered her little mouth. “Xiong… Xiong Er just said Nan-ge. Xiong Da. Miss?”
Zhong Yingxue was practically jumping with excitement. “Really really. It’s just got a big lisp.”
Qin Shou: “Stop pretending. Hurry up and take off the costume. Aren’t you hot?”
“This suit looks so realistic. Where’s the zip?”
“Pla… platinum? Platinum one? This bear is platinum one?”
At that moment Jiang Nan was already searching behind Xiong Er for the zip. It had to be a fake bear, right?
If Brother Da knew about this, he’d jump out and beat you.
Wu Liang looked baffled. “How do you even know how to talk? You trying to ascend to heaven?”
Xiong Er scratched the back of its head and grinned. “Caught people. Learn.”
Jiang Nan still couldn’t find the zip.
Damn it.
So Xiong Er learned to speak from captured people? Plus everything it picked up from hanging around him before?
Do bears even have the same vocal cords as humans?
But Wu Liang can talk when he turns into a bear, so thinking about it that way, it’s not actually weird.
Whatever the case, Jiang Nan was still beaming with joy.
“Platinum one? Nice. You’ve already surpassed me? Ate all the ginseng? How come you didn’t grow bigger? Look at that white-furred gorilla.”
Right now Xiong Er was only about two and a half metres tall, seemingly no different from before.
Xiong Er gave the white-furred gorilla a disdainful glance, threw its head back and roared.
Spiritual energy surged wildly. Its bear body suddenly expanded to twenty-five metres, like a small mountain. Its platinum-one strength was on full display.
Xiong Er: “Dad. No worry.”
Jiang Nan: ???
Can normal spiritual beasts freely control their body size?
Something’s not right here. Just what species of spiritual beast is Xiong Er exactly?
At this moment the volunteers’ eyes collectively went blank. Ever since stepping onto Pear Island, their worldviews had shattered who knows how many times.
Xiong Er shrank back to normal size, went over and nuzzled Zhong Yingxue and Xia Yao affectionately.
Then it dragged everyone towards its cave.
The moment they entered, they saw the walls hung with all sorts of items from the human world.
Backpacks, tents, pots and pans, everything.
Clearly things Xiong Er had collected over the past year.
They walked all the way to the deepest part.
On a big flat stone lay a sleeping bag. Next to it were stacked stone slabs, all carved with missing-person notices.
Everything Jiang Nan had left for Xiong Er back then was carefully preserved inside the cave.
But when Jiang Nan saw the carvings on the wall, his body stiffened.
The wall was carved with the following:
(๑•̀(ｴ)•́๑)(ิ◕㉨◕ิ)
(ૢ⁼̴̤̆ꇴ⁼̴̤̆ૢ)(⁎❝᷀ົڡ❝᷀ົ⁎)(∗❛ัᴗ❛ั∗)
Jiang Nan recognised at a glance that they were the members of the squad he had talked about back then.
Wu Liang. Xiong Er.
Xia Yao. Himself. Zhong Yingxue.
Exactly the same as the photo taken when they parted.
Did Xiong Er fall asleep every night looking at these wall carvings?
Seeing Xiong Er standing beside him scratching its head and grinning, Jiang Nan’s eyes reddened slightly.
Wu Liang: “Nan bro. How about…”
Jiang Nan wiped his nose, grinned and said, “Xiong Er. Want to leave with big bro? I’ve got your back.”
Xiong Er was stunned for a long moment, then nodded frantically. “Go.”
It threw itself over and rubbed all over Jiang Nan’s chest.
Wu Liang burst out laughing, too excited for words.
Xia Yao jumped for joy. “Yay. That’s awesome. Hehe. Xiao Nan, you’re the best.”
Zhong Yingxue was equally thrilled.
Of course Jiang Nan hadn’t made this decision lightly.
Whether it was intelligence or certain behaviours, Xiong Er had already stepped far beyond the category of “beast”.
It was infinitely close to human, even consciously learning things.
Staying in a spirit ruin clearly wasn’t suitable anymore.
And Pioneer Academy wasn’t some rigid, old-fashioned place. They would definitely accept Xiong Er.
As for any other problems? As long as he wanted to solve them, nothing was impossible.
This time, Jiang Nan’s determination to take Xiong Er out was rock-solid.
Jiang Nan grinned. “But there are still a few things here to sort out first.”
“I need to take that core fragment by your door. Where did you get it? Are there any more?”
Xiong Er kept nodding, pulling everyone over to the core fragment at the entrance.
“Stole. Still more. Over there. Bunch big cow.”
Jiang Nan’s little face went dark.
Your lisp is on another level.
But getting words out to that extent was already impressive for a bear.
The moment Qin Shou heard that, his eyes turned red, killing intent flared, teeth clenched.
“Cows? What cows? Where are the cows?”
Clearly Qin Shou harboured bone-deep hatred for the cows that had once sent him straight to the ghost-animal zone’s ancestor list.
So Xiong Er explained with words and gestures. After half an hour of torture from its massive lisp, they finally understood.
After Jiang Nan and the others left, Xiong Er had hidden away eating ginseng the whole time.
It even took the gorillas as underlings and shared some with them.
Once all the ginseng was gone, Xiong Er suddenly realised nothing in the area could threaten it anymore.
It straight-up became the local emperor and started thinking about finding Jiang Nan.
But a bear that knew how to ambush from the bushes would never do anything that exposed itself.
It hid itself perfectly.
Every time it ordered the gorillas to catch humans, it made them hand over a missing-person notice before releasing them.
Then, a while ago during the spirit storm.
Xiong Er noticed the spiritual energy was especially dense around the big-horned cow herd.
It sneaked over to check, decided the thing was good stuff, and in the dead of night actually stole it back to use as furniture.
It got chased for miles. Even now it looked aggrieved talking about it.
Jiang Nan stroked his chin. “So there’s still one over there?”
Xiong Er nodded repeatedly. “Mm mm mm. Bigger than mine.”
Xia Yao couldn’t take it anymore.
“Bigger than mine.”
Jiang Nan snickered. “Yes. Yours is the biggest. I know. No need to stress it.”
Xia Yao blanked for a second, then her pretty face flushed red and she glared fiercely at Jiang Nan.
“Pah. Bad Xiao Nan.”
[Resentment from Xia Yao +666.]
At this moment Qin Shou’s eyes were bloodshot, fighting spirit soaring.
“Thirty years east of the river. Thirty years west of the river. Never bully a poor youth.”
“Today is different from the past. I, Qin Shou, will have my revenge for that year.”
“Time for vengeance. Core fragment. Leave it to me.”
