Elite Monster

Ning Shewo froze for half a second, then nodded repeatedly. "That was exactly what I had in mind."

A message popped up before Meng Chao's eyes:

Elite Citizen Ning Shewo received your guidance and deepened his understanding of the structure of the 'Seven-Eyed Dragon Tarantula sub-adult'. Contribution Points +15

"Ho, look what I've farmed—an Elite Monster!" Meng Chao was over the moon.

So far, he had discovered three types of citizens.

Ordinary Citizens, like Chu Feixiong.

Elite Citizens, like Ning Shewo.

And Special Citizens, like Bai Jiacao.

Since there were ordinary, elite, and special ones, were there also Golden Citizens, Epic Citizens, Immortal Citizens, and Half-Step Great Perfection Peak Citizens?

"Right. The countless heroes who would emerge from Dragon City in the future are all still hot-blooded boys and ignorant girls. Pity I can't remember their names or faces. Otherwise, if I found them right away and gave them some pointers..." Meng Chao's gaze flickered.

That was a matter for later. For now, he had to seize this Elite Monster and farm it hard.

Over the next ten minutes, Ning Shewo performed the most comfortable harvesting operation he had done in ten years.

The young man seemed to have crawled straight into the cracks of his heart. Before he could even ask, the right instrument would already be placed in his hand at precisely the right moment.

Twice, what he wanted differed from what the young man handed him. Just as he was about to curse, he realized that the other party's choice was actually more appropriate.

The incision marks Meng Chao drew were also the easiest places to cut, allowing for perfect separation.

And whenever Ning Shewo's nerve pain flared up and he trembled instinctively, Meng Chao would promptly spray gel and assist with the operation, letting him rest for a moment.

This young man was not an assistant at all. He was holding a feather and scratching the old man's itch.

"Whose disciple is he? With skills like these, he should have long since made a name for himself in the circle!" Ning Shewo was utterly baffled.

As the second assistant, Ning Xueshi had nothing to do at all. She could only stand to the side, dumbfounded, her cold pride shattered to pieces.

Very quickly, most of the materials had been harvested clean.

Only the venom sac deep within the abdominal cavity remained.

It was a trembling organ, like soft tofu pudding, covered in nerve cords and blood vessels. Never mind touching it—it looked as though even a breath could shatter it.

"Little Meng, if it were you, what technique would you use to remove it?"

At the final step, they had saved three and a half minutes, and the organ's decay had been controlled exceptionally well. Ning Shewo relaxed slightly and began to cherish talent.

"From below, through the central protrusion—the fourth solution of the Reverse Lock Seven Solutions, Oblique Pick Three Stars." Meng Chao pinched a curved needle-blade as fine as a cow's hair, twisted it gently, and pecked three times as lightly as a feather.

This was an advanced technique mentioned in the future version of the Elementary Harvesting Technique. It was extraordinarily difficult; only after reaching Ultimate mastery could one have a ten percent chance of success.

Before becoming a Transcendent, ordinary harvesters could forget about using this move.

Meng Chao only half understood it himself. Under the control of neural currents, he was merely putting on a demonstration.

"This is—"

Ning Shewo sucked in a cold breath, and every strand of his white hair stood on end.

No one knew of the stormy waves raging in his heart.

The Reverse Lock Seven Solutions was a cutting-edge technique jointly developed by several senior figures in the circle. It was hailed as "the Harvesting Technique prepared for the next decade" and circulated only within an extremely small circle.

The technique itself was already highly advanced and full of experimental elements.

Yet there were subtle differences between Meng Chao's fourth solution and the fourth solution Ning Shewo knew.

Ning Shewo pondered it carefully, then discovered in horror that Meng Chao's fourth solution was more precise and efficient. It could shorten the removal time by five percent and greatly ensure the integrity and freshness of the material.

This was an improved version of the fourth solution!

Behind this mysterious young man, someone had actually upgraded the Reverse Lock Seven Solutions!

"Who is he? Who is his teacher? Just how enormous are the forces and research team behind him?"

In an instant, countless thoughts flashed through Ning Shewo's mind.

At the same time, another message popped up in Meng Chao's field of vision:

Elite Citizen Ning Shewo received your guidance and gained a deeper understanding of the fourth solution of the Reverse Lock Seven Solutions. Contribution Points +55

"Elite Monsters really do learn fast. I just waved my hands around randomly, and you understood?" Meng Chao secretly reveled.

He desperately grasped at fragments of memories concerning the fourth solution of the Reverse Lock Seven Solutions from his previous life. Following the sensation of leaping neural currents, he demonstrated Oblique Pick Three Stars once more.

Naturally, his movements were raw, clumsy, even fragmented.

But the spirit concealed within them, a spirit ahead of its era, opened a brand-new shining door before Ning Shewo's eyes!

The old man saw Meng Chao's intention and said incredulously, "Little Friend Meng, this, your family elders..."

If he casually taught outsiders the secret technique and ultimate move that his elders had developed through countless painstaking efforts, would he not be disciplined by Family Law when he returned home?

Since Ning Shewo was an Elite Monster, Meng Chao could no longer fob him off with "self-taught." After considering his words, he said, "Sorry. I was joking with you two just now. Please forgive me; I have my own difficulties and cannot reveal my lineage.

"However, before letting me come out to gain experience, my teacher once said that whether the Reverse Lock Seven Solutions or knowledge of monsters, they were all crystallizations of wisdom slowly forged by all the people of Dragon City during the Survival War.

"Techniques need to be exchanged, and there is no need to fear exchange. If exchange can make the Reverse Lock Seven Solutions more complete, provide warriors and Transcendents with more resources, and give Dragon City greater hope of rising, then that is a boundlessly meritorious good deed. Why hide one's knowledge?"

"Hiss..."

If Meng Chao's rich theoretical knowledge and solid fundamentals had merely made Ning Shewo look at him more highly before—

Then these thunderous words elevated the senior's appraisal of the young man to an entirely new height.

"This boy cannot be more than twenty, yet he possesses such breadth of heart?" Ning Shewo's heart shook violently.

Ning Xueshi was even more tangled with confusion.

She had only recently learned the Reverse Lock Seven Solutions and could not see the profundity in Meng Chao's movements. She thought his hand had simply cramped.

But seeing her grandfather's expression, she knew that this youth, younger than herself, possessed an understanding of the Reverse Lock Seven Solutions beyond imagination.

How laughable that she had just mocked him for "stealing a master's teachings." Who would have thought that he possessed peerless skills and was even willing to share them without reservation?

They were the same age, yet their realms were truly worlds apart.

The girl's face flushed crimson, but the stubbornness in her bones made her mutter softly, "Then why did you ask me for three hundred thousand..."

"Miss Ning, we have only just met, so I'm afraid you may have misunderstood me."

Meng Chao smiled faintly and gazed toward the bright red moon. "In truth, I have little interest in money itself. It is only that I recently made a grand vow to devote everything I can to society. To better achieve that goal, I thought of forming my own team.

"These three hundred thousand are not for personal enjoyment. They are start-up funds for my contributions, the first spark I cast into the blazing fire of Earth Civilization in the Otherworld."

Old Ning and Miss Ning were moved together.

"Enough talk. Come, the final venom sac. I'll hold the Work Area steady while you strip out the nerve cords." Thinking of his father, Meng Chao sped things up.

Ning Shewo nodded. A flash of blade-light shone even brighter than before.

The translucent venom sac, like a Polygonum multiflorum root, was removed in one clean, decisive motion.

Its form was complete. Not a single nerve or blood vessel had been punctured, not half a drop of venom had leaked out, and it still thumped like a heart.

Its quality was perfect!

Holding his breath, Ning Shewo placed the venom sac into Mithril Stabilizing Fluid. Then he removed his mask, accepted a jar of specially prepared ointment from his granddaughter, and carefully tended to his hands.

He did not glance even once at the perfectly preserved venom sac.

Instead, he stared at Meng Chao for a long time with a complicated look in his eyes.

Meng Chao lowered his gaze, admiring the information that had appeared in his field of vision.

Serving as the first assistant in harvesting a mutated super beast had also brought in a great deal of proficiency and Contribution Points. He calculated which skill he should upgrade or awaken next.

To the senior's eyes, this expression made the young man seem all the more low-key, steady, and humble.

"Xue Shi, how much cash do we still have in our account?" Ning Shewo suddenly asked.

Ning Xueshi was slightly startled. "About... more than eight hundred thousand?"

"Transfer it all to Little Friend Meng. Do not leave a single cent behind," Ning Shewo said.

"Grandpa?" Ning Xueshi was greatly shocked.

"Old sir, that's too much. We agreed on five hundred thousand." Meng Chao swallowed.

"Little Friend Meng, that move just now, Oblique Pick Three Stars, can not only be used on the venom sac of the Seven-Eyed Dragon Tarantula. It can also be applied to the venom sac removal techniques of nearly a hundred kinds of highly venomous monsters. It causes little bleeding, is fast, and has a low chance of venom leakage. In truth, it is worth far more than a few hundred thousand. It is only that I have been treating my injuries recently, so my account is not convenient at the moment. Take this first. Once I sell off the materials, we can discuss it properly," Ning Shewo said sincerely.

Meng Chao immediately said, "Since it is a gift from an elder, for a junior to keep refusing would seem insufficiently free and easy. How about this? I have also done some research into the other six solutions of the Reverse Lock Seven Solutions. But judging by Old Ning's injuries, it will still take a year and a half to recover. Shall we continue our exchange another day?"

"Little Friend Meng, you—you know what injury I suffered?" Ning Shewo suddenly raised his voice.

Meng Chao froze for a moment. "Just now, I noticed that your hand trembled periodically every three to five seconds. The veins on the back of your hand were also slightly raised, dark purple in color, with faint black vapor emerging from them and spreading upward. The venom of a Purple Crown Viper King has eroded the ulnar nerve, radial nerve, and median nerve in both your hands, and has even affected part of your optic nerves, hasn't it?"

"Since you can see my grandfather's injury, how can you say he can recover in a year and a half? This is clearly an incurable illness!" Ning Xueshi's voice carried a sob.

"An incurable illness?" Meng Chao was surprised.

In the fragments of memories from his previous life, this was an injury harvesters suffered easily enough. Though troublesome, it was far from hopeless.

After pondering for a moment, he understood. The war had not yet escalated. Many monsters had not yet mutated, and Purple Crown Viper Kings were still extremely rare monsters.

Monsters were evolving, and humanity was evolving as well. By the time Purple Crown Viper Kings became more numerous than earthworms, humanity would naturally develop all kinds of antidotes and treatments.

What was an incurable illness now might not be beyond cure in the fragments of his memories from his previous life.

==========

Let me say a little more about updates. I've seen how enthusiastic many readers are, all asking whether Old Cow can update more often.

Here's the thing: everyone knows how important exposure is for a new book. But at present, there cannot be too many recommendation channels. Apart from word of mouth among readers, only the "Newly Signed Books Ranking" is a channel with relatively high traffic.

The condition for getting onto the "Newly Signed Books Ranking" is that the book must be under two hundred thousand characters within its first month of release. Once it exceeds that word count, it immediately drops off the ranking.

Everyone should know Old Cow's speed. I also want to satisfy everyone as much as possible, but in order to remain on the signed-books ranking for a few more days and let more readers see this new book, I can only control the pace a little for now.

Please don't be impatient. When the time comes for me to unleash my typing speed, Old Cow's hands will definitely turn into two clouds of gray mist.

Finally, I still ask everyone to please bookmark the book and give it some recommendation votes—these numbers are also closely tied to whether this book can receive editor recommendations and what kind of recommendation slots it can get. Old Cow does not know anything about promotion; I just keep my head down and write. I can only rely on everyone's help. Thank you!