novelNine Beings, the Cooperation Ends
| ← Ch.109 | Ch.111 → |
The wait was incredibly quiet, with no movement at all.
As every second passed by, Zhang Yuan felt a scalp-tingling sensation because he clearly understood what this meant.
The Second Floor Hui that resided in the cave was possibly dying without a chance to defend himself.
Or perhaps, he had already died.
A powerful cultivator as strong as the Third Realm, which China could only deal with by nuclear weapons, just died like that.
Despite having a psyche that weathered numerous obstacles, he still felt a little dispirited.
I worked so hard to cultivate...
Meanwhile, in the cave...
Zhang Yuan guessed correctly: this Hui was in the process of dying.
Similar to the previous Hui, under the four-time speed accelerated by another four times using Extreme Agility Time, the other party did not have a chance to react and was dealt a heavy blow.
At this point, the Hui was being pressed down on the stone chaise lounge... by a tiger paw morphed from divine power, unable to move as his life slipped away.
Only his eyes filled with resentment glared at Wang Hu. He said while feeling excruciating pain and hatred, "Who are you? Why do you want to kill me?"
After answering the previous Hui, Wang Hu was not interested in answering this time.
Instead, his mind wandered and thought about another question: Were 'Who are you? Why do you want to kill me?' the questions that all intelligent beings wanted to ask the most before they get killed by a stranger?
Rather, if they had not activated human intelligence, they would not ask these questions.
Moreover, if they did get killed, they would understand the reason for the most important question out of these two.
They would understand that they got killed by someone because their killer needed to eat them for food to survive.
A simple reason that did not require one to think about.
Fine—Wang Hu thought about such a boring question because it dawned on him that killing intelligent beings versus killing unintelligent beings were two completely different feelings.
For both his lifetimes that spanned decades, he had killed countless unintelligent beings and did not give much thought to it. He knew it was because he needed to fill his stomach and cultivate.
However, to kill intelligent beings—this was the third one.
It made him feel different, despite the fundamental act being the same: to plunder from the opponent and strengthen oneself.
Yet, he felt different.
He couldn't quite put it into words; it was a faint unwillingness to kill.
He thought for a few seconds and laughed at himself. He thought too much.
This was a natural environment where the weak were prey for the strong, where the strong were respected—didn't he already understand that?
Why think about such nonsense? Seems like the idea of killing people was forbidden that was ingrained into him as a man was still affecting him now, making him feel reluctant to kill intelligent beings.
Immediately, he chased away these pointless thoughts, and his gaze turned even colder.
They were different species and living in different worlds. In this chaotic world, not killing the other party to strengthen oneself equated to letting a more powerful being slay his family and plunder his everything in the future.
Moreover, the Hui species were not kind by any means. They upheld the principle of the weak being prey for the strong.
He who used to eat others got eaten now—it was normal.
If he had to blame someone, then blame this today's era.
His divine power coupled with his strength special ability depleted the Hui's vitality after two seconds.
As usual, he stored the divine elixir and checked the cave thoroughly for anything useful.
Unfortunately, this Hui may be stronger than the previous one, but he was also poorer.
He didn't even have a storage bag. Only the two kilograms of spirit stones he found hidden beneath the stone chaise lounge were useful.
What a pity... he started to digest and purify the Hui's divine body.
Not long later, this divine body that was 48 meters tall turned into a 27-cubic-meter-large piece of meat. He sealed in the fragrance and left.
He returned to Zhang Yuan, ignored the gaze that became even more respectful, and said calmly, "Let's go to the third target."
"Yes, " Zhang Yuan immediately nodded and decided to leave the questions.
He could only exclaim to himself. He did not understand a thing about the world of being really powerful so why worry pointlessly?
The gold flash traveled even faster than the speed of sound and disappeared into the distance.
The afternoon passed quickly. With Zhang Yuan's guide, Wang Hu—along with three pieces of meat—arrived at a secretive underground castle where dozens of people were gathered.
"Your Excellency, this is one of our bases in this alternate world, to serve as a hideout for people to cultivate using the denser spiritual energy in this world, " Zhang Yuan introduced.
Although this was secret, when he was faced with the Earth's number-one—a Tiger King whose personality was aloof and whom they were working together with; there was no need to hide any information.
Wang Hu did not give a response and did not ask a thing, appearing to be uninterested in this matter.
Instead, he thought to himself—his guess was right. China had specially sent people into this alternate world for them to cultivate.
Most likely, other human countries would do the same if something similar occurred.
Many people among mankind were fearless of the risks when an opportunity arose.
Most importantly, the numbers of humans were huge. There were many geniuses. It might be dangerous, but they could afford to lose some.
Their losses and gains were proportionate.
As for his tiger species, that would not work. Even if he could send Old Third, Jun Wen, and Su Ling in; he would not do so.
Because losing any one of them would pain him so much. Even for himself—if not for China's cooperation, he was reluctant to enter this world.
After all, as long as it was on Earth, he was confident that he would be invincible, and no one could defeat him.
Without the huge pressure of being in danger and since he was invincible, he naturally wouldn't want to be in this strange and dangerous alternate world.
To put it simply, his initial plan was to cooperate with China and enter this alternate world to hunt for the sake of helping Silly Girl recover.
China had explored and maintained a presence in this world for many years. On top of that, they were mortal enemies with the Hui species. He was confident they had sufficient information which he could work with.
Based on the situation now, his plans were right, and it went well. In just a short afternoon, he killed three beings in the Third Realm and reaped many benefits without making a scene.
If he had come alone, he would not have such efficiency, and the danger would be a lot greater.
Under Zhang Yuan's introduction, the person in charge of this base met Wang Hu. He did not say much, and he was brought into a room by the two.
The two men entered another room, and the person in charge immediately asked curiously, "How did it go? What did it feel like to follow Wang Hu around?"
It was clear that the two had a good relationship. They were close from the way they spoke.
Zhang Yuan was not surprised that the man asked this question... as Wang Hu was the number-one on Earth since the awakening of spiritual energy, and the other existing Third Realm was even his wife.
On top of that, he was not human but still maintained peaceful relations with China, and he even helped with the matters of China.
All the factors combined, not one cultivator in China—including the common man—was not curious about Wang Hu. He was the same, in the past and even now.
He pondered for a moment and smiled wryly."The pressure is huge."
"The pressure is huge?" The person in charge thought for a second and understood.
"The pressure is so huge just being by the side of Tiger King. He was like a mountain that rested on my head at all times, " Zhang Yuan described.
The person in charge nodded in understanding. It was easy to understand; it was the same feeling that common men had when they faced him or when he faced his leaders.
He hesitated for a moment before asking, "How is the combat power of Tiger King? Did you see him fight?"
Zhang Yuan thought for a moment and shook his head. His voice was bitter and helpless."I didn't see it. All I can say is that he is incredibly strong. He is at a level where we can't fathom and find it pointless to try and fathom... we are not even close."
The person in charge was taken aback, and his expression turned incredibly serious. He wanted to ask further, but he knew that there were rules to stop him from inquiring even more.
He nodded and changed the subject, with his heart feeling heavy.
...
In his resting room, Wang Hu was capable of eavesdropping on the conversation of the person in charge but did not attempt to do so since there was no need to.
He recovered quietly for a moment, stared at the three pieces of meat, thought for a second, and decided to digest one of the meat.
Since there were 12 chosen targets, having one less piece of meat was not that important. However, increasing his combat power was inversely important.
The night passed quickly, and a piece of meat from a Third Realm was already digested by Wang Hu. The effects were good: it made his tiger form grow by 10 centimeters, and his combat power improved.
It had been more than a month since he broke through the Third Realm. Although he spent a few days helping Silly Girl with her recovery, his improvement was still very quick, and his tiger form reached around 12 meters.
At eight in the morning, Wang Hu stored the meat in the base and set off with Zhang Yuan, continuing on his hunt.
In the blink of an eye, another day passed, and Wang Hu brought back five pieces of meat, two more storage bags, and 10 kilograms of spirit stones—he made a killing.
On this day, he traveled more than 10, 000 kilometers, killing a total of four Third Realms Huis and two more from other species. He gave one of the bodies of the other species to the Chinese. They had transported it to an unknown place, and he was also not interested in knowing where.
Both parties were just maintaining a short collaboration. It was best not to delve too deep into the secrets of one another.
After returning to the base, Zhang Yuan picked up a call and said resignedly, "Your Excellency, we have to stop the collaboration."
Wang Hu's gaze turned to look at him wordlessly, seeming to be waiting for him to explain.
Zhang Yuan immediately felt a heavy pressure coming at him. Even though he knew Wang Hu did not do it on purpose, he still immediately explained, "We received information confirming that the last three targets of our plan had left their homes three days ago.
"The planning team suggests that we give up, end the hunt, and return as soon as possible.
"We killed seven Third Realm Huis within the short span of a day. Hui species may be strong in this world, but based on our estimations, there are only more than 200 Third Realm Huis in total.
"Even though we picked the isolated places to carry out the hunt, seven was already a large number. If we continue to kill, we won't have suitable targets left, and it will only draw the attention of the Hui species.
"Even right now, we might draw attention as well, so we better play safe."
He did not mention that they originally planned to finish the hunt in five days as they also included the time to be spent on travel.
Who knew that the Tiger King was so quick that he already killed nine in less than two days? The other three left their homes and did not come back for three days now so they had to give up.
Wang Hu arched his eyebrows and felt a little pity. They ran out of targets so quickly.
He paused and spoke calmly, "Are there no other species?"
In such a huge alternate world, there would definitely be other suitable targets other than the 12 that China picked.
Wang Hu guessed that, other than the seven who were Hui, the other five were not Hui. They must have obstructed China or even killed Chinese people.
Certainly, there was other suitable prey at the Third Realm.
Zhang Yuan smiled wryly and spoke in resignation, "Your Excellency, to tell you the truth, indeed, there are, but they had not offended China. It does not match our policy if we kill them without a reason.
"Sorry."
Although the Tiger King might be displeased, that was the decision of the leaders.
It was simple—the country's policies were of utmost importance.
'We won't attack others unless we are attacked. '
They believe that, even if the Tiger King was momentarily displeased, he would still understand as time passed by.
It might even lower his guard.
Considering that they treated the alternate world with respect, he might even have faith that they would also treat the tiger species the same.
Wang Hu was not displeased; he only felt a little pity so he asked.
He had no opinions about China being unwilling to go against Third Realms with whom they did not have a feud. In fact, he was glad.
"Never mind, we shall return tomorrow morning."
Zhang Yuan was filled with glee and spoke respectfully, "Your Excellency, thank you for understanding."
Wang Hu waved his hand without saying a word, and Zhang Yuan left the room.
On the second day, Wang Hu—along with Zhang Yuan and seven pieces of meat—flew towards the world passage. He even activated Extreme Agility Time.
Even for him, after doing something 'bad', he couldn't help but to speed up when leaving and wanted to leave as soon as possible.
The journey was smooth-sailing, and nothing happened.
They returned to China through the world passage.
After coming out from the world passage, Wang Hu sensed danger, but it disappeared after a few seconds.
He knew that this was the Chinese being cautious and worried that they were powerful beings from the alternate world that came out, and so the nuclear weapons had been pointed at him in preparation to shoot.
He did not take it to heart and did not stay for long. He dropped off Zhang Yuan and flew back home.
After two minutes, Li Aimin—who had been waiting—smiled in resignation.
As expected of the Tiger King, he left just like that.
Even saying a few sentences with him would do. Instead, he just left without giving me a chance to say some pleasant things.
Didn't we just work together?
He put the thoughts aside. He met Zhang Yuan immediately as there were many things that he wanted to ask about in person.
On the other hand, Wang Hu—who was carrying seven pieces of meat—did not return home straight away. Instead, he stopped midway.
He breathed a sigh of relief. He had returned to China, left Hu County, and was completely away from the dangerous place. Now, he could finally feel at ease.
However, he couldn't just go back like this.
How was he able to show that he had risked so much if he went back with huge returns safely without any mishaps?
How was he able to show that he had risked his life, fought with his life at stake, and almost died to come back with these gains?
Most importantly, how was he able to move Silly Girl?
| ← Ch. 109 | Ch. 111 → |