July 10th, lunar calendar.
At the military camp beneath the feet of the god Wuya, before the central building.
A group of bedraggled men and women in ragged clothes, like refugees, were driven out.
"Whew~" Lu Ran mingled among them, letting out a long breath as he looked up at the blazing sun in the clear sky, his heart filled with countless emotions.
There was no such thing as daylight in the Demon Lair, Evil Dog Village. The longer one stayed inside, the more one naturally missed the light.
Heaven had favored them. Rain Alley City, which was shrouded in endless rain year-round, actually had clear skies stretching for thousands of miles today.
Beside him, Jiang Ruyi slowly closed her beautiful eyes as well, tilting up her face slightly to feel the sunlight upon her.
Twenty-one full days of slaughter had finally come to an end here.
"Doesn't it kind of feel like we worked for nothing?" Lu Ran suddenly asked.
"Hm?" Jiang Ruyi did not open her eyes, still leisurely enjoying the warm sunlight.
Lu Ran said, "We killed for twenty-one days, and not a single magic crystal remained. We came back empty-handed."
"I-I..." Tian Tian pulled a Mist Realm magic crystal from her pocket and held it out to Lu Ran. "I still have one."
Lu Ran immediately laughed. "Keep it. Treat it as a memento."
"Mhm, mhm." Tian Tian was delighted and carefully put the magic crystal away.
A mere Mist Realm magic crystal was not worth much.
But the time it represented was incredibly precious to Tian Tian.
"How was it working for nothing?" Jiang Ruyi slowly said. "We all advanced, and we completed the mission perfectly."
Upgrading their equipment was not the most important thing.
What mattered was the rise in their combat strength, the team's tactical application, and the tacit understanding in their coordination. "Transforming the body and changing the bones" was enough to describe it!
"Class Monitor Jiang?" A voice came from behind them.
Jiang Ruyi turned her head and saw a ragged, exceptionally bedraggled figure.
Third-Rate God, Greedy Wolf Believer, Gao Zhonglin?
Gao Zhonglin pushed up his rimless glasses. Of everything on his body, only those glasses were clean. "You've been in Evil Dog Village for quite a while."
The two sides were not familiar with each other, so Jiang Ruyi merely nodded politely.
Seeing that Goddess Jiang was unwilling to speak, Gao Zhonglin looked toward Lu Ran instead and smilingly held out his hand.
"Ran Ge, I've admired you for a long time!"
Interestingly enough, ever since the exam results had been announced, people had begun calling Lu Ran "Ran Ge" too.
When one was out in the world,
one's face truly had to be earned by oneself.
"No, no, no." Lu Ran shook his hand and repeatedly shook his head, humble as could be.
Gao Zhonglin laughed. "When will Ran Ge go easy on us and let me have a taste of being first too?"
"The emperor takes turns; next year it'll be your household's turn!" Lu Ran's eyes were full of encouragement.
"Haha!" Gao Zhonglin burst into laughter. "Next year? We'll have graduated by then!"
"Damn." Lu Ran looked at Jiang Ruyi beside him. "He heard the meaning behind it."
Jiang Ruyi smiled and shot Lu Ran an annoyed look.
The few people around them who had been eavesdropping were also rather speechless.
They had truly thought Lu Ran was encouraging Gao Zhonglin, at least exchanging some polite words.
But after the two spoke like that, everyone finally understood what Lu Ran had meant.
"A true master!" Lu Ran wore an expression of mutual appreciation.
"Not at all, not at all." Gao Zhonglin smiled as he released his hand. "Did you complete the equipment-upgrade mission?"
"We did." Lu Ran nodded.
"You did?" Gao Zhonglin was greatly surprised, his gaze sweeping back and forth between Lu Ran and Jiang Ruyi.
Lu Ran was all laughs and jokes, perhaps without a single true word from his mouth, but Jiang Ruyi had nodded as well. Gao Zhonglin was genuinely shocked.
Gao Zhonglin licked his dry lips, his gaze flickering slightly. "You took first place in both exams. You're not like us.
"If you wanted to complete the mission, you had to kill at least two thousand Mist Realm Vicious Hounds, right?"
As soon as those words fell, even the people around them secretly glanced over.
The social-experience trainees naturally knew that these student believers were rookies among rookies.
But upon hearing of such results, they could not help clicking their tongues in amazement.
Two thousand Vicious Hounds?
Two thousand??
Were these fucking students? Every last one of them was a butcher?!
"We took a shortcut." Lu Ran sized up Gao Zhonglin.
That little expression, that little look in his eyes...
Little Wolf Cub,
you finally let your wolf tail show, didn't you?
Honestly, one could not blame outsiders for looking at "Celestial Goat Believers" like Lu Ran through tinted glasses.
A Human Race Believer really could grow more and more like their own god!
After all, seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds were at the critical stage of shaping and perfecting their personalities. When a god intervened so forcefully at that stage, it would naturally affect every aspect of a believer's growth.
Not to mention that gods already liked recruiting believers whose temperaments resembled their own.
"Ran Ge, teach me!"
Gao Zhonglin's expression turned urgent as he grabbed Lu Ran's hand.
Lu Ran put on a magnanimous air, holding nothing back. "We went and killed Stream Realm Vicious Hounds."
Gao Zhonglin: ???
Gao Zhonglin's face, once full of anticipation, immediately turned strange. "That's what you call taking a shortcut?"
"Yeah!" Lu Ran confirmed. "Two thousand Mist Realm Vicious Hounds became two hundred Stream Realm Vicious Hounds, didn't they?"
Gao Zhonglin nearly failed to draw another breath!
He snorted. "By that logic, why not kill River Realm Vicious Hounds? Then twenty would be enough!"
"Brother, what a talent! No wonder you're a master!" Lu Ran's eyes lit up as he nodded repeatedly. "I'll try it next time!"
Gao Zhonglin was completely numb!
Was that even fucking human speech?
"Class monitor, the information has all been registered. Teacher Dou said we should go to school after classes begin and exchange for new equipment." Deng Yutang walked over. "The vehicle has been contacted too. It'll be here soon."
As he spoke, Deng Yutang curiously looked at Lu Ran and Gao Zhonglin shaking hands.
To those in the know, this scene was quite strange.
After all, the two ranked first and second respectively.
And one was a sheep, while the other was a wolf.
"Thank you for the lesson, Ran Ge. I'm going to turn in my mission!" Gao Zhonglin released his hand, nodded to Deng Yutang and Tian Tian, then turned and left.
There was no point chatting with this bastard anymore!
He had wanted to fish for some intelligence, ask for dog-killing secrets, and inquire about Team 98's tactics.
Who would have thought
that the other guy would put on such a massive fucking show?!
It was truly unbearable~
"Damn it." Lu Ran stared at Gao Zhonglin's retreating back and muttered softly, "I got to show off again~"
A hand suddenly landed on Lu Ran's back.
Lu Ran turned his head and saw Jiang Ruyi also watching Gao Zhonglin's retreating back as she softly said,
"He's chasing fiercely, and his momentum is strong. He's also a Greedy Wolf Believer, so he'll most likely become more and more ferocious."
"Definitely." Lu Ran nodded at once.
Whether from the team's perspective or an individual one, the two sides were each other's most direct competitors!
Lu Ran was indeed one step ahead at present, but he absolutely could not relax in the slightest.
The cold reality lay before them: rankings meant resources, and resources meant possibilities for development.
"You have another exam to take. Be sure to be careful on the Night of the Fifteenth." Jiang Ruyi spoke gently. "You must listen to the Moon Watcher's arrangements. Don't be too reckless."
The worry in the girl's eyes could not be concealed at all.
Lu Ran put away his smile and nodded solemnly. "Don't worry!
"This time, I won't be carried away by another woman again."
Smack!
Jiang Ruyi's face showed annoyed reproach as she gave Lu Ran's shoulder a neither-heavy-nor-light slap.
This guy really was...
He could not stay serious for more than three seconds!
At ten-thirty in the morning, Lu Ran dragged his exhausted body home and opened his front door.
He did not even change his shoes, heading straight into the bathroom.
The ragged clothes on his body no longer needed washing.
Back in Evil Dog Village, whenever he entered Stone City to rest, he would wash his clothes while bathing.
And those garments, so often stained with blood, had long since become impossible to wash back to their original color.
A full half hour later, Lu Ran finally emerged refreshed, carrying his clean Xiaguang Saber.
He changed into a dry set of clothes, came before the shrine, and respectfully bowed. "Greetings, Immortal Sheep. This disciple is going to sleep first."
Truly exhausted, Lu Ran briefly greeted his god, then pulled out his phone from a drawer, plugged it in to charge, and plunged headfirst onto his small bed.
Lu Ran had imagined it beautifully. He wanted to sleep until the sky turned dark and the earth turned dim.
Yet the moment he fell asleep, he found himself standing within the mist-shrouded Evil Sculpture Garden.
"Immortal Sheep, please let this disciple sleep for a while first!"
Lu Ran was completely defeated.
Being a believer meant he could not even have peace while sleeping?
Lu Ran said, "I really can't hold on anymore. I'll go?"
An abnormal change suddenly arose in the Sculpture Garden, nearly frightening Lu Ran awake!
The Vicious Hound sculpture had originally stood quietly, but a dim glow suddenly appeared in its dog eyes.
It was as if it had fucking come alive!
The evil sculpture stared directly at Lu Ran, making his hair stand on end!
"You often close your eyes, attempting to use your other senses to perceive the movements of the battlefield." A deep, hoarse voice came from behind him.
Lu Ran turned around and looked up, only to see an equally enormous Pitch-Black Sheep Head floating in the air.
Black fire swayed atop the Black Goat Head.
Those dead sheep eyes lightly regarded the tiny human.
"Yes." Lu Ran forcefully suppressed the terror in his heart and nodded heavily.
No matter how many times he saw those horizontal pupils, Lu Ran feared he would never be able to adapt to them.
"This evil method can aid you greatly."
The Black Fire Goat Head did not open its mouth, yet its voice clearly entered Lu Ran's ears.
The next instant, Lu Ran's body trembled!
The evil sculpture behind him suddenly released a thick line of mist, like a slender stream of water descending from the heavens.
In the end, the mist-line connected to the tiny human's body.
Sniff~
Lu Ran suddenly wrinkled his nose, smelling a dense death qi.
By his ears, he seemed to hear the faint rustling of black fire swaying atop the Black Sheep Head.
Evil Method of the Evil Vicious Dog Clan—Evil Sense!
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