"You-you-you!"
A smile was squeezed onto Jiang Fan's face.
"Hello!"
The receptionist, Xiao Xin, looked utterly stunned as she examined Jiang Fan from head to toe several times.
"You're still alive!"
"What happened to Old Third Yue?"
Jiang Fan raised an eyebrow.
"He's dead!"
The receptionist's voice suddenly rose.
"What? Dead?"
After saying that, she hurriedly covered her mouth.
"How did he die?"
Jiang Fan asked indifferently.
"Their three-man team took me out to hunt monstrous beasts. Later, they wanted to use me as bait, so I ran!"
"Then I got lost and ended up circling back. I saw that they'd already been killed, and there was a Scorpion-tailed Wolf lying in the trap!"
Xiao Xin gave Jiang Fan a strange look.
After a long pause, she said meaningfully, "Old Third Yue and the others often tricked people who wanted to make a fortune into going to Phoenix Mountain!"
"They were very experienced at it. Who knows how many people they harmed? I never thought they'd end up falling into the hands of..."
At this point, Xiao Xin shook her head.
"Although they were utterly wicked, everyone clapped when they died. They were all loners too, so no one would stand up for them!"
"But could you come up with a more convincing excuse?"
Jiang Fan was stunned, then immediately shrugged.
Seeing that Xiao Xin had made herself clear, she stopped speaking with Jiang Fan and turned to open the hall's doors for work.
When she turned around, however, she began humming a song. She sounded rather relaxed.
"Thank you!"
Jiang Fan spoke softly behind her.
Because Jiang Fan's clothes had been torn badly by branches during his battle with the Azure-Scaled Giant Python,
although he had washed off the bloodstains, he still looked like a beggar.
He first bought a set of clothes at the market, then, after cleaning himself up, went to the Inner City's morning market and bought ten pounds of monstrous beast meat. After spending nearly ten thousand Blue Star Coins, he carried the meat and slowly walked toward Aunt's Home.
It was just after seven in the morning.
When he reached the door, he hesitated.
Yesterday, he had been entirely focused on going outside the city to hunt monstrous beasts. He had only remembered to ask Lei Ming to request leave for him, completely forgetting to tell Aunt that he wouldn't be coming home for the night.
Aunt must have been worried sick!
Just as Jiang Fan raised his hand, the door opened from inside.
"Xiao Fan?"
The person who opened the door was Su Qingwan. When she saw that it was Jiang Fan, she cried out in surprise.
"Where did you go last night?"
"I was worried sick!"
"Come in, quickly!"
At that moment, Ma Ning heard the noise and came out of the room as well.
"Brother! Where did you go last night?"
"Mom didn't sleep at all last night. She even went to the Jiang Family to look for you, but you weren't there either..."
As she spoke, her gaze fell on the things Jiang Fan was carrying.
"What are you carrying?"
Jiang Fan raised the bag for her to see.
"Monstrous beast meat!"
Ma Ning took the bag and looked inside, stunned.
"So much?"
Then she realized something.
"Where did it come from?"
Su Qingwan looked at Jiang Fan nervously.
Jiang Fan smiled faintly.
"My uncle was injured, wasn't he? I borrowed it from a classmate..."
"I stayed at my classmate's house last night!"
Jiang Fan casually made up an excuse, then took out the remaining forty thousand Blue Star Coins.
Sure enough, Su Qingwan and Ma Ning relaxed after hearing this.
However, seeing that Jiang Fan had borrowed money from someone for Ma Jiang, Su Qingwan felt even more distressed.
"Xiao Fan, you've gone to so much trouble over your uncle's matter!"
"We'll pay this money back once your uncle recovers!"
In the past, she would never have accepted Jiang Fan's money, no matter what.
But now, Ma Jiang was injured so badly and needed medical expenses, while Ma Ning's tuition for next semester was due soon. She needed this money.
Thinking of this, she could not help sighing.
When will this life ever get better?
After Jiang Fan arranged everything at home, had Ma Ning pay her tuition, and told Aunt to quickly settle the outstanding medical bills, he finally left Aunt's Home.
Although the family was still short on money and the biggest gap had yet to be filled, their situation had been relieved for the time being.
As for how to earn more money and completely change his family's circumstances, he would have to think about it some more.
Yesterday, he had asked Lei Ming to request two days of leave for him.
Only one day had passed, and he was too lazy to go to school again.
Now that he had activated his Mysterious Seal space, cultivating inside it was ten times faster than cultivating outside.
Moreover, constantly challenging the space and obtaining cultivation techniques could also improve his combat awareness. Naturally, he did not want to waste any more time at school.
What could the school teach him?
Aside from the body-tempering technique in Martial Arts True Understanding and some knowledge from the cultural classes, there was nothing else.
It seemed he would have to find a way to request a long leave from school.
When Jiang Fan arrived at Thunder Martial Hall, it was still early.
After greeting Sister Bingbing, he headed straight for the cultivation room.
This time, he had gained a great deal at Phoenix Mountain.
Aside from earning more than forty thousand Blue Star Coins from hunting the Scorpion-tailed Wolf, he had also unexpectedly hunted an Azure-Scaled Giant Python.
That had been a Second-level Monstrous Beast!
After absorbing the Azure-Scaled Giant Python's life energy, he felt stronger than he had ever been before.
That was why he was extremely eager to find out through quantitative measurements exactly how much the life energy had improved him.
In the past, every time he hunted a monstrous beast and absorbed its life energy, the only thing displayed was the progress of his Mysterious Seal's unlocking.
But this time, it was the first time the energy had affected his body.
He wanted to know the conversion ratio involved. That way, he could estimate how much help different monstrous beasts would provide him in the future.
He skillfully drew blood and began the test.
The red light vanished, and the electronic display of the Qi and Blood Testing Device showed a value of 4.7.
Thump, thump! Thump, thump!
Jiang Fan's heart pounded violently!
With his current qi and blood value of 4.7, he could already crush any high school student at Third High School in Jiang City.
If he remembered correctly, even some Genius who had awakened very early could reach only a little over 2, despite the effects of large quantities of nourishing medicines.
Although he did not know how the top Genius in River City compared, he had achieved such a tremendous improvement in such a short time.
Even if those so-called Genius were temporarily ahead of him, he was not afraid in the slightest!
Catching up was merely a matter of time!
Jiang Fan calmed his surging emotions and walked over to the Combat Power Testing Device.
He threw a casual punch.
In front of the Combat Power Testing Device, the red numbers flashed rapidly before finally stopping on the screen!
Combat Power: 682.
Seeing this number, Jiang Fan's heart jolted!
According to this world's rules, qi and blood values and combat power values basically maintained a ratio of 1:100.
Although one could increase combat power by cultivating techniques after awakening,
it would generally remain within a normal range of fluctuation.
For someone like him to have such an exaggerated ratio was something he had never seen before!
Why?
Before you continue