Harvest Galore

Ji Yang opened his eyes and saw countless stars in the night sky.

No, there weren't that many.

He blinked hard a few times, and only a handful remained.

The golden stars from being beaten senseless hadn't dispersed yet...

"Cough, cough!" He coughed heavily, spitting out several mouthfuls of bloody foam mixed with fragments. Ji Yang grimaced and said in a tearful voice, "My internal organs have been smashed to pieces—"

"Help..." He opened a line to the director's team. "Save me!"

"Huh?" The director immediately grew tense. "Ji Yang, what happened?"

Over the past few minutes, several explorers' livestreams had lost connection, including Ji Yang, Yue Wen, and Zhao Xing'er. The director had already sent people to check on them according to their locations.

If something happened to them on the livestream, it would be one thing if they were unaffiliated cultivators, but Hidden Dragon Pool would definitely launch a major investigation!

"I ran into an incredibly powerful tiger demon wearing a suit... It should be dead now. It knew martial arts techniques and severely injured me with a single punch." Ji Yang spoke rapidly. "There are at least two extremely powerful demons in this Wasteland Zone. You have to stop the livestream and capture them, or everyone will be in great danger!"

He recounted his experience, coughing up two more mouthfuls of blood as he spoke. He sounded miserable enough just listening to him.

"Really?" Hearing his feeble voice, the director no longer dared to doubt him. Gritting her teeth, she said, "Bring everyone onto the line!"

"Uh, but if everyone joins the line, the audience might hear our conversation. Won't that affect their experience?" an assistant beside her said hesitantly.

"We can't worry about that now. Safety has to come first," the director said. "Connect everyone!"

"Understood!"

At her command, everyone's earpieces were connected to the line.

"Everyone, I'm afraid I have some unfortunate news to announce." The director spoke in a deep voice. "Ji Yang just encountered a demon beast and was seriously injured. I've already sent people to retrieve him according to his location. It appears that a demon beast exceeding the level we had anticipated has appeared in this simulated Wasteland Zone. We don't know the exact reason yet, but... it should not be something you can handle. Please stay where you are and do not move. The production team will send people to protect you, and cultivators from the middle three realms will be sent to eliminate those demon beasts. In the meantime, you must be especially careful of a Rhinoceros Demon carrying a wrench..."

"That one's already dead," Yue Wen replied.

"Huh?" the director said. "You killed it?"

"Yes. It was fairly easy," Yue Wen said.

"There's also..." Ji Yang suddenly spoke in a weak voice.

"Right, there's also one more. Was it a tiger demon wearing a suit?" the director continued. "That one's even more vicious. It's the one that seriously injured Ji Yang."

"Yes, yes, that one." Ji Yang emphasized, "The Rhinoceros Demon didn't really do anything to me. It was mainly the tiger demon."

"If you're talking about that one, it's dead too." Yue Wen's calm voice came through again.

"Eh?" The director paused. "Are you sure? You encountered and killed both of those demons?"

"That's right." Yue Wen said, "You can send over a new Bee Camera later to take a look. I encountered the tiger demon while chasing the Rhinoceros Demon, so I killed both of them while I was at it. I don't think they've affected the livestream enough to warrant stopping it."

"..."

There was a moment of silence on the line, followed by the sound of a fountain jetting water.

"Ptuh—"

Then another voice, belonging to a medical worker, came through. "Director, we're the team sent to rescue Ji Yang. His injuries are indeed severe. He probably won't be able to continue participating in the project."

"How is he?" the director asked nervously.

"His injuries are quite serious, but we'd already stabilized him..." the other side replied. "However, after speaking a few words with you just now, he suddenly became enraged and started vomiting blood nonstop! Good heavens, it's over three meters high!"

The surrounding emergency team exclaimed in astonishment. "Let me take a picture. Wow, this is the first time I've seen a blood fountain this high."

"This has to go on our social feed."

"Is that really appropriate?"

"It's fine. I'll block our coworkers."

"..."

"All right, carry him out for treatment," the director said as though she had heard nothing. "As for everyone else, you should be able to continue, right?"

"No problem." Su Renxue's cold voice came through. "At least the people from Hidden Dragon Pool can."

They had just gone on and on about how miserable Ji Yang was and how powerful those two demon beasts were, only for an unaffiliated cultivator to casually kill them both.

It was truly rather humiliating.

As Ji Yang's senior apprentice-sister, Su Renxue had to step forward and protect her sect's reputation at a time like this.

Ji Yang's injury was a minor matter. Losing face for the sect, with hundreds of thousands of people watching, was the real problem!

"Then the project will continue. If you encounter any demon beasts stronger than expected, be sure to notify us immediately," the director said.

After ending the call, she let out a long sigh of relief. "That was almost a disaster."

If the livestream had been stopped because of an oversight this time, it would have seriously affected her prospects at the company. She might never again have the chance to be in charge of a project of this level.

Ji Yang's careless exaggeration had nearly ruined her future.

She had initially thought the two demon beasts he mentioned really were overwhelmingly powerful. Now it seemed that everyone else could deal with them easily, which meant that Ji Yang was simply overwhelmingly weak.

"Next time we have a project like this, we need to be more rigorous when choosing participants," she said quietly to those around her. "We can't just let any Tom, Dick, or Harry in. We nearly let one piece of dog crap ruin the whole pot of porridge."

In the mountain forest in the distance.

The "piece of dog crap" was lying on a stretcher. The medical workers had just stabilized his pulse and wiped the blood from his chest, and they were now preparing to send him back to the rear.

Ji Yang stared up at the sky, tears filling his eyes.

I awakened at fifteen, entered the sect at sixteen, mastered the Shadow Profound Supernatural Power at eighteen, and reached the Unity Realm at nineteen. I always thought I was one of the best among my peers, but today I finally realized...

Could I actually be a complete good-for-nothing?

Maybe I should really just die.

Yue Wen had no idea that his perfunctory response had caused someone else such immense psychological damage. He had only wanted the livestream to continue safely.

There were Demon Suppressing Coins scattered all over the ground. Who would want to leave?

He certainly didn't.

And it wasn't just the Demon Suppressing Coins. The longer the livestream continued, the more money he could earn.

That was precisely what he urgently needed right now.

In fact, he had only reached the peak of the Unity Realm last night. However, instead of feeling as happy as he had imagined after reaching perfection, he felt somewhat troubled.

Because this meant that continuing to cultivate his Cultivation Method would have little meaning.

After reaching perfection in the Third Realm, if he wanted to advance any further, he would have to refine Gang with great fire and break through into the Gang Realm.

He had originally thought he could leisurely accumulate materials while cultivating, and that by the time he reached perfection, he would have gathered almost everything he needed. Then he could break through naturally. How comfortable would that have been?

Who could have expected him to reach this point so quickly?

Having too much comprehension was quite troublesome too.

If he continued slowly saving money to buy materials now, he would only be wasting time. He had to hurry and gather the four Immortal Materials needed to refine the Chaos Dragon Gang, and the pressure suddenly increased.

This livestream was the largest windfall he had received recently, so he absolutely couldn't give it up easily.

After the call ended, he exchanged a glance with Zhao Xing'er. "Let's search together and split whatever we find."

Yellow Big Tiger had run the Tiger Head Gang for many years. Even after that disaster, it should still have some savings. Assassins at the level of the Rhinoceros Deer brothers certainly charged exorbitant fees. They weren't demon beasts from the Wasteland Zone, either. They might have money or treasures on them, making it worth searching their corpses.

Yue Wen and Zhao Xing'er immediately began searching.

Second Rhinoceros Deer had nothing on him but a battered hammer. Still, the material was excellent and extraordinarily hard. Even after clashing head-on with the Drum Beating Golden Hammer, it hadn't been completely destroyed.

The same went for Big Rhinoceros Deer's wrench.

Yue Wen simply kept both the hammer and the wrench. Even if he didn't use them himself, he could probably make a little money by selling the materials.

Even a tiny bit of meat was still meat.

Aside from that, however, the Rhinoceros Deer brothers had nothing of value on them. Big Rhinoceros Deer had only one additional item: a key marked with the number "58." It looked like the key to a storage locker.

The brothers' belongings might all be stored there, but they had no idea where the locker was. It seemed that possessing the key was of little use.

As for Yellow Big Tiger, he had nothing on him. His clothes usually disintegrated during combat, so it was impossible for him to carry anything in his pockets.

However, a round jade pendant hung from his chest. It had a lustrous sheen. Zhao Xing'er picked it up and examined it before saying, "This is Mustard Seed Jade. The quality looks average. It probably can't hold much."

Mustard Seed Jade was the most common type of Storage Magic Artifact. Array patterns were engraved into spiritual jade, carving out a small portable space. The type hanging on Yellow Big Tiger's chest was the most ordinary Mustard Seed Jade, probably with only a few cubic meters of storage space.

Zhao Xing'er's tone was disdainful, looking down on such a common item. But Yue Wen's eyes lit up when he heard this.

"Mustard Seed Jade is great. I'm in desperate need of a Storage Magic Artifact." He smiled.

They couldn't open the jade pendant yet. He would have to return and slowly refine it. Fortunately, low-grade Storage Magic Artifacts like this didn't contain overly complicated array patterns, making them relatively easy to refine anew.

Some high-grade Storage Magic Artifacts couldn't be opened even after their original owners died. Some would even self-destruct along with their owners, which would be troublesome.

Once he finished refining it, even if there was nothing inside the jade pendant, he would still have another usable Storage Magic Artifact. This trip had certainly been fruitful.

What else could he say?

Thank you, little tiger.