Chapter 26
The moment Jiang Fu passed through the Safety Passage and entered the city,
the nerves he had kept taut finally relaxed.
I'm finally back!
Just then,
he heard the guard on duty speak again.
Jiang Fu couldn't help sneaking another glance at Shi Jiu in his arms.
Only now
did he realize something.
The girl he was relying on was almost unfairly beautiful.
And he had carried her all the way back...
At that moment,
Shi Jiu was curled up in Jiang Fu's arms, playing a game on her phone.
Noticing his gaze,
she looked up slightly. "What is it?"
"Ah," Jiang Fu said. "Nothing."
"...Where are you going next?"
Shi Jiu looked back down.
Her fingers flew across the screen. "I can't move for now. Wherever you go, I go."
Jiang Fu nodded. "...Okay."
He planned to head to the Martial Artist Guild lobby first
and sell what he had collected today.
The Battle Knife and combat suit in his backpack would be hard to explain.
He had no plans to sell them yet.
But those hundred Red-tailed Rat tails...
They should fetch twenty thousand.
It wasn't enough to cover the Vitality Pill,
but it should buy him something else to replenish his Blood Energy.
Tomorrow, I'll fight again!
With that thought,
Jiang Fu quickened his pace.
He entered the Martial Artist Guild's First Floor Lobby
and was heading toward the Trading Area when
an anxious, panicked voice rang out.
"Student Shi, what happened to you?"
A moment later,
Shen Yan, now in fresh clothes with his hair back to normal, rushed down from the second floor like a gust of wind.
In an instant, he was in front of Jiang Fu.
"Let go of Student Shi!"
As he spoke,
he reached out to snatch Shi Jiu from Jiang Fu's arms.
Jiang Fu frowned.
His legs, waist, and abdomen drove him into motion at once.
Neural reaction speed multiplied by ten!
Speed multiplied by ten!
Explosive power multiplied by ten!
He dodged Shen Yan's grasp in an instant.
Jiang Fu held Shi Jiu protectively against him
and fixed the man with a cold, wary stare.
Shen Yan froze, then glared at Jiang Fu and opened his mouth to scold him.
But the next moment,
his body trembled faintly, and he swallowed the rebuke by force.
Shi Jiu raised her eyes slightly and stared coldly at Shen Yan.
Right then,
her gaze and Jiang Fu's
looked strangely alike.
Shen Yan felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over him from head to toe.
He snapped back to his senses.
He wanted to slap himself.
What the hell was I thinking?
With that little ancestor's strength, who could get close to her unless she wanted them to?
Shen Yan hurried to recover. "Ahem! That was rash of me."
"Student Shi, what are you two..."
Shi Jiu looked away
and went back to her game. "I'm tired. I don't feel like walking."
Jiang Fu nodded with a straight face
and took a few steps back.
"I see, I see..." Shen Yan said stiffly.
As he spoke,
he stole another look at Jiang Fu.
Unease and surprise stirred in his heart.
Such fast neural reactions!
Just what I'd expect from a genius with an initial Spirit Power of one thousand!
Shen Yan looked at the boy before him, who was still on guard,
then at the little ancestor in his arms...
For a moment,
Shen Yan felt dazed.
Both of them had a Document Bag rolled up and tucked into a trouser pocket.
And the identical Martial Artist Badges hanging from the zippers of their school uniforms lightly touched because of the way Jiang Fu held her.
Wait!
What exactly am I looking at?
Have I gone mad, or has the world?
That little ancestor...
She's ruthless, brutal, and so cold she's almost impossible to approach.
Yet now she's curled up in a boy's arms...
playing on her phone without a care in the world?
Could it be...
Shen Yan couldn't help looking at Jiang Fu with envy.
"Supervisor Shen, was there something else?"
Seeing Shen Yan blocking the way with that leering expression,
Jiang Fu grew impatient.
"Ah, no!"
Shen Yan came back to himself and hurriedly stepped aside.
Jiang Fu said nothing more.
Carrying Shi Jiu, he headed straight for the Trading Area.
Only then did Shen Yan breathe a sigh of relief.
Then, still shaken, he muttered, "Good thing Jiang Fu dodged."
"Otherwise, I might have lost both hands."
"Ah! Given the relationship between those two, it looks like this genius Psychic Master with an initial Spirit Power of one thousand is beyond the Martial Artist Guild's reach..."
At the very center of the Trading Area
stood the Trading House established by the Martial Artist Guild specifically to buy all kinds of materials from the Wilderness Area.
"You're selling something?"
Shi Jiu lifted her eyes from her phone and looked at Jiang Fu.
He nodded. "I collected some Red-tailed Rat tails."
Shi Jiu looked down again. "Sell the Silver Moon Wolf too."
After a pause, she added, "I want to take that snake back to study it. We can't sell it yet."
Jiang Fu pressed his lips together.
Multiply by Ten was his trump card.
He couldn't reveal it.
Jiang Fu nodded. "Okay. How do we split the money?"
Shi Jiu lowered her head and resumed her game. "You killed the wolf."
Jiang Fu looked at her earnestly. "You helped too."
At those words,
Shi Jiu paused.
She immediately remembered Jiang Fu throwing her into the air as bait.
...He caught me pretty steadily afterward, too.
Her eyes stayed on her phone as she gave a distracted "Oh."
A minion killed her hero in the game.
Jiang Fu went on, "Then we'll split it fifty-fifty. Half each!"
As he spoke,
he strode eagerly into the Guild's Acquisition Shop.
The Trading House had a spacious interior.
Large numbers of Martial Artists had gathered there.
Most had returned from the Wilderness Area with prey to trade.
Others, though, wandered the Trading House empty-handed,
their eyes darting around as if searching for prey.
The arrival of two students in school uniforms immediately drew most people's attention.
Shi Jiu, in particular, caught their eyes as she lay in Jiang Fu's arms.
She was so beautiful it was hard to look away.
Jiang Fu had planned to set her down on a nearby sofa.
But after seeing the Martial Artists around them...
and remembering Shen Yan's leering expression...
Better keep carrying her.
With the constitution of a Quasi-Martial Artist,
Physical Strength multiplied by ten, Stamina multiplied by ten.
Jiang Fu could barely feel Shi Jiu's weight.
He stopped at an unoccupied counter
and politely greeted the staff member behind it. "Hello."
She looked about twenty-five or twenty-six.
Dressed in a dark teal Professional Suit, she looked sharp and capable.
The words "Manager" and "Li Yue" stood out on the White Work Badge pinned to her chest.
Li Yue smiled. "How can I help you two?"
Jiang Fu quickly asked, "Do you buy Red-tailed Rat tails here?"
Li Yue paused in surprise.
When she saw a boy approach with a girl in his arms,
she had assumed they needed help.
...Red-tailed Rat tails?
Someone actually went to the trouble of catching Red-tailed Rats?
But when she saw the Ninth High School Uniforms the two were wearing...
It made perfect sense.
Li Yue had already filled in plenty of details in her head.
Two high school students who had just become martial artists had rushed eagerly into the Wilderness Area.
By luck, they had come across a lone Red-tailed Rat aboveground in the Blank Zone.
Working together, they had finally killed it and cut off its tail.
Then they had excitedly brought their spoils back.
Li Yue looked at Shi Jiu in Jiang Fu's arms and could not help feeling sorry for her.
This pretty little girl must have gotten hurt while catching the Red-tailed Rat!
At that thought...
Li Yue smiled. "Yes, we buy those."
"Come inside, you two. We can talk there."
As she spoke, Li Yue rose to her feet.
This was only the External Reception Area.
The Real Trading House was farther inside.
Carrying Shi Jiu, Jiang Fu hurried after her.
Not far away...
A martial artist in a Camouflage Combat Uniform stared at Jiang Fu's retreating figure.
His brow furrowed deeply.
"That's Jiang Fu!"
"He's still alive!"
"Did Brother Peng and Brother Hu fail?!"
Inside an Independent Trading Room...
Li Yue looked at the boy and girl before her.
Her smile was gentle. "The Martial Artist Guild buys Red-tailed Rat Tails for two hundred Xia Coins each."
"But since you two have only just become martial artists, and this is your first visit to the Martial Artist Guild's Trading House..."
"You're eligible for a preferential rate."
"Five hundred Xia Coins per Red-tailed Rat Tail. How does that sound?"
You two martial artists of the new generation...
Take this goodwill of the martial artist world to heart!
Before you continue