Chang Chi arrived in a flash, and left even faster.
He shattered the weird creature with a single punch. Without saying a word, he left.
Some were shocked; others were envious.
The Patrol Team members with buds sprouting from their heads, tainted by the weird creature's curse, were even more overjoyed. Some burst into tears.
They had escaped disaster once again. Though they would lose some vitality because of it, staying alive was the greatest relief. Compared to their lives, everything else was trivial.
Tang Long and Fei Shan were busy running around, too. Ten people had died this time, a tremendous loss for the Patrol Team.
The Patrol Team once again faced a shortage of manpower.
Jiang Yan and the others left and continued their night watch.
The second half of the night passed peacefully. At last, nothing else happened.
At midday, Jiang Yan opened his eyes, got out of bed, dressed, fetched water to wash up, and headed to the square for a meal.
As soon as he arrived, Tang Long came straight over.
"Brother Jiang, are you free? I've prepared a few good dishes. Come have a drink."
Tang Long's gaze held genuine sincerity, along with a trace of awkwardness.
Jiang Yan fell silent. He said nothing, simply staring at Tang Long. After a long moment, he replied coldly, "Sorry for the trouble."
"No trouble at all." Tang Long laughed heartily and hurried off with Jiang Yan.
At Tang Long's home, a large pot sat over a fire in the courtyard. Fei Shan, a junior officer of the Dahe Gang, had turned chef for the day, clattering away with his spatula and ladle. The aroma of meat wafted through the air.
When he saw Jiang Yan come in, he grinned and wiped the sweat from his brow, but said nothing.
Before long, the dishes covered the table, and Tang Long filled everyone's cups.
None of the three spoke. After a brief silence, Fei Shan got straight to the point. "Brother Jiang, the two of us ran without a fight yesterday. We wronged you, and we're here to apologize."
Jiang Yan remained silent.
Fei Shan downed a cup, then filled it again. "You understand the situation yesterday. Sheng, the senior officer, arranged for us to escape on our own. Even if all three of us had stayed, we'd only have died. And I didn't want to die that way."
Jiang Yan remained silent. He knew Fei Shan was right. If the Shepherd hadn't shown signs of a possible advancement, he might have died there.
Tang Long and Fei Shan staying behind wouldn't have changed the outcome, either.
The Shepherd was too fast. No strategy of sending in one wave after another could have dealt with it. They needed the power to kill it in a single strike.
And none of the three of them had that kind of strength.
But—
Even so, though the two men hadn't been wrong from a rational point of view, having it happen to him still left Jiang Yan feeling cold and unable to accept it.
Once you were abandoned, it could happen a second time.
He wouldn't take it out on Tang Long and Fei Shan. He had already beaten Sheng Fuwu to death, and most of the rage in his heart had long since dissipated.
Jiang Yan was the kind of person who kept a low profile and believed in quietly building up his strength. Unless he was truly driven into a corner with no way out, he wouldn't act. But once he did, he would strike like fire, shake the heavens and split the earth, grind his enemies' bones to dust and scatter their ashes, and uproot them completely, leaving no hidden danger behind.
Low-key, rational, ruthless.
The kind of man who didn't waste words.
He didn't want to have anything more to do with these two. His transfer order would arrive soon anyway, and afterward he could find something else to do.
As he thought this, Fei Shan was about to drink his second cup. Jiang Yan lifted his own and said coldly, "I don't blame you."
Because if it had been me, I'd have done the same!
He silently told himself this.
Fei Shan smiled and exchanged a glance with Tang Long.
The two men raised their cups together and lightly clinked them against Jiang Yan's. The sound rang out, crisp and clear.
They drank together.
After finishing his cup, Fei Shan stood and went into the inner room, returning with a bundle.
He moved aside a large serving platter and opened the bundle. Three objects inside caught Jiang Yan's attention.
The first was a medicine bottle, probably for pills.
The second was a book, probably a cultivation method or a martial technique.
The third was a jade shard. He couldn't tell what it was.
Fei Shan said solemnly, "Jiang Yan, Tang Long and I were in the wrong this time. We're willing to give you one of these three things as an apology. We hope you'll accept."
He picked up the medicine bottle and said, "There are five Blood Qi Pills inside."
Blood Qi Pills were made from precious medicinal ingredients and could strengthen one's blood and qi. For Martial Apprentices, they were valuable pills.
The pills were good.
But Jiang Yan no longer needed them. He was already at the peak of the Martial Apprentice stage, and Blood Qi Pills were useless to him.
Only a Breakthrough Pill, the kind used when a Martial Apprentice advanced, would be of any use.
But Tang Long and Fei Shan couldn't possibly have a Breakthrough Pill. It was the sort of pill that would make Martial Apprentices fight tooth and nail for it.
Fei Shan continued, "This book is an External Cultivation technique. It doesn't cultivate qi, only the body. Usually, only the children of wealthy families or sects have enough resources to consider practicing it."
External Cultivation made Jiang Yan's eyebrows lift. Martial Apprentices had high attack but low defense. If he practiced an External Cultivation technique, his body would become tougher, greatly increasing his chances of survival, as well as his strength and constitution.
His cultivation had already reached the peak of the Martial Apprentice stage, and he still hadn't found a cultivation method for the Body Refining Realm. Practicing an External Cultivation technique was a good choice.
As for the resources needed to practice it, the weird creatures he encountered on patrol would provide them.
"As for this third item..." Fei Shan hesitated, but went on. "To be honest, I don't know what this Jade Plaque is, either. I found it."
"At first, I thought that since it was jade, it had to be worth something. But I took it to a pawnshop in Guihua City, and they told me it was low-grade jade, worthless."
"Later, I tested it by chance and found it was very hard. So I just kept it here..."
Fei Shan pointed to the place over his heart, where he used it as a Heart-Protecting Mirror.
Jiang Yan understood and picked up the jade shard.
He examined it closely. The shard was very thin, with distinct gray patterns inside.
He scrutinized it. The gray patterns were chaotic. After staring at them for a while, he suddenly felt as if they had come alive, drawing his gaze in deep.
A feeling of chaos and disorder rose within him, along with a nauseating sense of distortion.
He pulled his eyes away and looked at Fei Shan.
Fei Shan said, "You feel it too, right? There's something wrong with those patterns. If you stare at them too long, they make you feel sick."
Jiang Yan nodded. It wasn't all that strange. After all, if someone stood on the bank of a raging river and watched the waves for too long, they might start to feel afraid.
It was just that the thing really was ugly. No wonder the pawnshop wouldn't take it.
Those ghostly patterns looked just like the ones on talismans. Staring at them for too long made you feel sick.
At that thought, an idea suddenly struck him.
Martial Arts Modifier:
Human Race: Jiang Yan
Secret Technique: Sword Finger
Level: ?
Status: Not yet initiated
Upgrade (No) Deduce (No)
Weird Value: 15
"Secret Technique?"
A question arose in Jiang Yan's mind.
He wasn't a complete novice anymore, but he had never heard of a martial technique called a Secret Technique.
But what did that matter?
Jiang Yan put down the jade shard and picked up the External Cultivation book. Without even looking at it, he tucked it into his robe.
He said solemnly, "A gentleman doesn't take what others cherish. This Jade Plaque must have saved your life, Brother Fei, so I'll take the External Cultivation technique instead!"
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