Chapter 137
Chapter 137
“What happened to the person who came with you?”
Seeing that Zhiyu Jiang had been alone these past few days, Xiaopingzi could not help asking.
Clad in a palace maid’s uniform, Zhiyu shook her head. “I don’t know.”
She could not remember which day it had been. She had woken to discover that Meiren Liu, who should have been sleeping beside her, was gone.
Neither Shengsheng nor Meiren was anywhere to be found. Zhiyu looked back at the goldfish wind chime swaying in the open window, its clear notes tinkling in the wind, and a trace of loneliness entered her lowered eyes.
She was all alone now. Would they still come back?
…
The boots caked with blood and filth were thick with mud. Though his whole body was covered in bloody wounds, Jierge still stood ramrod straight.
Half his subordinates were dead or wounded. He now faced a true life-or-death crisis.
He looked at the man opposite him, whose brilliant red robes remained spotless even in this muddy place, and forced out a mocking smile.
“I was careless. I never imagined a descendant of the phoenix bloodline still survived in this world.”
Impatience marred Fusheng Duan’s lushly beautiful face as his jade-boned fingers toyed with an ancient-looking key.
At the sight, a man behind him immediately snapped, “Enough nonsense! Where’s the antidote?”
Jierge’s eyes flickered. “You do care about her. I’d thought a man like you would never be controlled by carnal desire, but you’re no better than anyone else.”
Unmoved by the provocation, Fusheng merely waved a hand without expression. The gravely wounded man in black whom Jierge had shielded behind him was instantly beheaded.
Jierge’s pupils contracted, his eyes blazing with hatred and a thread of fear.
“You can have the antidote if you release my subordinates,” he said through clenched teeth.
Interest entered Fusheng’s eyes, though contempt remained far stronger. “Are you threatening me?” He sounded as though he had just heard a joke.
…
Not long before, Shengsheng Zhou had been undergoing drastic changes from head to toe in a dark, cramped alley in Border City.
Of course, the description above was an exaggeration. The actual changes were not quite so “drastic.”
Shengsheng regarded the spinach leaf in her hand with distaste.
She hated vegetables.
*There’s no way around it. To activate the skill Popeye’s Heir, you have to eat it first. And I warned you that this cheat came as a package. It also includes Broadcast of a Sincere Heart, which could activate at any time. Are you sure you’ll be all right?*
After A-Pang’s careful selection, the human and bear had finally decided what to exchange for.
It was the deluxe one-plus-two package, including Point the Way, Popeye’s Heir, and the hidden add-on Broadcast of a Sincere Heart, among other things.
Just as Shengsheng painfully swallowed the spinach in her mouth, the thief who had been watching from the shadows finally made his move.
He had already determined that while this girl dressed like some wealthy household’s daughter, there was something wrong with her head. Why bother stealing on the sly? He could rob her openly without a problem.
With that thought, he stepped out wearing a lecherous grin.
The instant Shengsheng heard the footsteps, her gaze snapped toward him.
She looked him over and gave him an extremely “nuclear-kind” smile. “Do you need something?”
The thief chuckled. “I was hoping to ask you for a few things.”
Shengsheng’s smile deepened.
She liked petty thieves.
And so, for the first time since his birth, Thief A experienced the malice of the world.
“Tsk. Imagine being a thief and still being this poor.” Shengsheng Zhou weighed the purse in her hand and scoffed.
With his head buried in the ground and only his upturned rump exposed, the petty thief wriggled his waist as though struggling in protest.
Shengsheng kicked his jiggling, fleshy backside, poured out every copper coin, and tossed the purse onto him. “Here. You can have it back.”
With that, she immediately activated Point the Way.
And then–
Nothing happened.
Shengsheng: ?
*A-Pang, you dared give me a counterfeit?!*
A-Pang shook his head. *Absolutely not!!*
While the two argued, the sky, usually veiled in gray, suddenly blazed with light.
Stallholders raised their heads. Patrolling soldiers raised their heads. Every shopkeeper and customer along the street raised their heads and came outside.
Every person and animal in the entire city raised their heads in perfect unison!
As Shengsheng stared in confusion, the clouds suddenly converged, slowly taking the shape of a hand.
Its index finger rose and pointed in one direction. As if granted a revelation, the crowd below lifted their arms like puppets and pointed expressionlessly the same way.
Shengsheng: “…”
*Your people call this Point the Way?*
A-Pang: *…I don’t know either.*
The once-bustling city had fallen eerily silent. Everyone’s eyes were blank, and stranger still, every last one of them held the same pose.
As the only ordinary person who remained more or less lucid, Shengsheng covered her face and sprinted in the direction they indicated.
Damn it all. Why did she feel so embarrassed just because she was not posing like the rest of them?!
Outside the city, at the border between the two kingdoms, someone among the densely packed army suddenly cried out, “Look! What is that?”
Someone else paled in shock. “Could it be… a divine miracle?!”
“Silence! You dare violate military discipline? Do none of you value your heads?!”
The voice carried great authority, and no one spoke again. Yet the words “divine miracle” had already shaken every soldier to the core.
They gazed at the sky with faint fear in their eyes.
The general knew their morale had probably been shaken. He rode forward and addressed the man ahead of him respectfully. “Your Majesty, this…”
Beneath black battle armor, the leading man’s eyes slowly narrowed. Then he barked, “Attack!”
…
Shengsheng was truly at a loss for words. She had assumed Jierge and his party would be hiding inside the city, never imagining they had gone deep into the old-growth forest.
*Shengsheng, we’re almost there,* A-Pang reminded her.
Glancing at the clouds overhead as they gradually dissolved, Shengsheng drew a deep breath and slowed down.
This area had apparently never been developed. There was no road at all. Fortunately, she was now Popeye’s Heir. When trees blocked her, she snapped their branches; when grass blocked her, she ripped it out. After slaughtering a great many of nature’s children, her view suddenly opened up.
How to describe it? Open, of course.
The breeze whistled past her, and a cliff dropped away directly below.
She pulled back her foot. A few pebbles tumbled over the edge, without even an echo returning.
Shengsheng had just opened her mouth to curse when A-Pang spoke. *I truly cannot believe you. You can get lost even with the road pointed out to you. Is there any chance at all that you’re supposed to go right?*
Shengsheng: “…Sorry.”
That was more or less how the skill worked.