Forty: Breaking Away

After the ball lightning had been completely erased, Jiu Ming suddenly regretted it...

It seemed like a huge waste to use the Sealed Card here. Who could have guessed that the ability inside it would be so unexpectedly powerful!?

And estimate its power based on the description on the card?

Don't make me laugh. This wasn't a game where a string of numbers could explain how powerful something was. In reality, its strength fluctuated depending on all kinds of circumstances!

If you wanted to quantify it, fine. Could you give me an absolute value that applied in every environment?

The best way to judge was to see how powerful the original user could make it. A ball of lightning that big had been erased so cleanly—this thing was practically against the heavens! Just who was that unlucky boy with the Hedgehog Head!?

The Thunder Snake King stood there, stunned and motionless for quite a while. Even the surrounding Thunder Snakes fell briefly silent. Not running now would be a disservice to himself!!

In an instant, Jiu Ming burst into a full-speed sprint, stepping over a mass of Thunder Snakes as he escaped the pit. Fortunately, the Thunder Snakes had just released a huge amount of lightning and were now weakened. Jiu Ming didn't get caught out by the current conducting through them when he stepped on them.

"Hiss!!"

The Thunder Snake King let out an enraged hiss from the pit. Jiu Ming had already gotten away, so he wasn't stupid enough to go back. The Thunder Snakes' overall strength had dropped significantly after that attack, making it even less likely they could catch him. Now they had to think about what to do next...

How could humanity possibly ignore such a huge High-Energy Crystal deposit?

Even if its location meant it couldn't be used, they would still have to seal it off. Otherwise, after clearing out the Thunder Snakes, who knew if another nest of Thunder Beasts might emerge here in the future, drawn by the mineral deposits...

Thunder Tigers, Thunder Leopards, Thunder Cats, and the like. They were all possible!

Exotic Beasts didn't absorb High-Energy Crystals like humans did. They could simply eat them. What made humans even more envious was that once their abilities were activated, they were basically fixed. They could be improved, but not changed.

But Exotic Beasts could undergo ability-free mutation, and they could also mutate by consuming large quantities of High-Energy Crystals. Ability-free mutations gave them powerful bodies; if they developed additional mutations with abilities... tsk!

What was more, besides consuming minerals, some Exotic Beasts were born with special abilities after mutating.

In other words, any Exotic Beast could develop a special ability, and could even choose which one. Of course, that was only possible if they managed to consume a large amount of the corresponding High-Energy Crystal.

So whenever a High-Energy Crystal deposit was discovered, even ordinary humans without an elemental affinity couldn't just leave it alone. Even if they couldn't mine it, they couldn't let the Exotic Beasts use it to strengthen themselves.

If the deposit here turned out to be extremely valuable, humanity wouldn't hesitate to mobilize troops and forcibly carve out a piece of the Death Forest to build a massive base!

After all, resources mattered a great deal in war, even when the enemy wasn't human.

"Pull back and hold our position for now. I've already requested military reinforcements." After the commotion at the pit abruptly died down, the Camp Commander immediately issued the order. They had found all the students, and escorting them out was now the priority.

There were quite a few people in the camp outside, but compared to the entire Death Forest, their numbers were insignificant. Even if they went after the Thunder Snakes now, a battle involving so many people would surely stir up the Death Forest. Their forces weren't enough to make all the Exotic Beasts in the forest fear them. If the whole forest turned on them, they were bound to be wiped out.

It was common knowledge that no mineral resources could be left to the Exotic Beasts. An Exotic Beast group with a mineral deposit had a huge advantage in battle over one without one.

The entire retreat went exceptionally smoothly. The pursuing Thunder Snakes seemed much weaker and were easily driven back by the troops, leaving behind plenty of corpses. And that was with the soldiers holding back. If they fought too fiercely, the consequences would be serious.

"These Thunder Snakes seem to be deliberately driving us away," Li Rui Ming said to Wang Hai as they walked. "And they all seem a bit weak."

"Maybe it has something to do with that attack just now... Hey, you. Can't you stay behind like a proper desk worker?"

"What's wrong with desk workers?" Li Rui Ming shot Wang Hai an annoyed look at his contemptuous remark. "Mages are 'desk workers' too."

"Come on! You've been reading too many novels." Wang Hai looked back. "You think if all of us took advantage of the Thunder Snakes being weak..."

"All of us? You dare compare our numbers to all the Exotic Beasts in the Death Forest?" Li Rui Ming rolled his eyes at him. "I made a rough estimate. We'd need at least five thousand people to intimidate all the Exotic Beasts in the Death Forest, and this isn't even a particularly large forest."

Exotic Beasts weren't mindless. If the difference in strength between the two sides was too great, they wouldn't act rashly either.

"So even if there's a good opportunity, you have to assess the situation before seizing it." Li Rui Ming shook his head regretfully. They'd missed a good chance to take advantage of the Thunder Snakes being weakened—and also missed the chance to find out which incredible figure had somehow managed to withstand such a powerful attack.

Withstanding it was one thing. Making the attack vanish without ever letting it erupt... that took real skill.

"When did you get here!?" As soon as he returned to his tent, Wang Hai spotted Jiu Ming sitting to one side, looking almost transparent and yawning. He was so startled that he blurted out the question.

"About five minutes before you." Jiu Ming rubbed his eyes and replied weakly. High risk, high reward. This time, he was almost as drained as he'd been last time.

Wang Hai studied Jiu Ming carefully. He looked much more exhausted than usual. Wang Hai reached out and pulled the tent flap shut. "How did you get so... transparent?"

Jiu Ming had always been a ghost, but with an opacity of nearly eighty percent, he hadn't looked much like one. Now, seeing just how transparent his body was, you might mistake him at first glance for someone with a special invisibility ability.

"I got beat to a pulp, so of course I faded." Jiu Ming waved a hand. "Did the internship get canceled?"

"Yeah." Wang Hai nodded and began to explain. "Giving students an internship site that hadn't been altered by people was a new rule this year, but nobody expected such a rare situation to crop up at the site."

"So what now?"

"Well, we'll definitely be changing sites." Wang Hai shrugged. There was nothing to be done about it. The students were lucky!

"By the way, how'd you get beat up? There shouldn't be many things in the Death Forest that can threaten you." Wang Hai sounded puzzled. The Death Forest wasn't particularly large, so it shouldn't have many powerful Exotic Beasts.

"I lured away a big group of Thunder Snakes and got mobbed." Jiu Ming sounded helpless. No matter how strong he was, if a group of Thunder Snakes with decent strength surrounded him, he was still going to get hit. He might be able to instantly kill any Thunder Snake one-on-one, but he couldn't instantly kill a whole group at once.

"Really?"

"...What are you doubting?" Jiu Ming curled his lip. Of course he knew what Wang Hai was suspicious about. "I wouldn't run away in the middle of a fight."

"I believe that. But you came here looking so sickly..." Wang Hai raised an eyebrow. Hadn't Jiu Ming fought the Thunder Snake King earlier?

"Ahem. Since I worked so hard I nearly got myself killed, how about you raise my payment?"

Wang Hai's eyebrows immediately knitted together. Damn it! So he'd come to ask for workers' compensation?

"Um... our original agreement doesn't have a clause for that, and besides, the number of students who died this time..." Wang Hai put on a serious, businesslike expression that didn't suit his burly frame at all. It was clear he planned to wriggle out of it.

"Don't mess with me! Not many Changhe Academy students died there."

"How do you know?"

"I checked the roster." Jiu Ming pointed at a list that had been tossed aside in Wang Hai's tent. "There were several hundred of them, so I couldn't remember everyone, but after following them around for so long, I remembered some faces. I matched them against the photos on the list... more or less."

Wang Hai's mouth twitched violently. "Do you think the academy's budget grows on trees? Anyway, the final payment is calculated based on the number of students, and that can't change... But if you need money... Oh, you like High-Energy Crystals."

Wang Hai thought for a moment. "If you need those, someone will be taking over here before long. I have some connections. I can arrange for you to join this operation as a hired hand, and the pay definitely won't be low. But your identity..."

"Don't! Forget it. I'll stick to protecting the students." Realizing what Wang Hai was about to say, Jiu Ming's mouth twitched slightly, and he hurriedly cut him off. It was true that he wanted to get more High-Energy Crystals to convert into Origin Power, but he wanted even less to find out what it felt like to drill a "blow-up doll."

If it weren't for the fact that the end of the month was almost here... he wouldn't be getting involved in so many things!

Come to think of it, was he the least qualified shopkeeper ever?

His enormous Mysterious Shop had only one lone shopkeeper—himself—and not even a single employee. Ahem. Maybe it was time to find himself a clever landlady?

Jiu Ming glanced over his status and shook his head. Never mind. He shouldn't lead anyone astray. He'd forget about a landlady. Maybe he could hire an employee if he got the chance?

"Suit yourself. It's just a fake skin. Why are you so bothered by it?" Wang Hai shook his head, baffled.

"Is that so?" Jiu Ming's expression darkened a little. "Why don't you try wearing one yourself?"

"Why would you have to be that much of a pervert to do that?" Wang Hai had barely finished speaking when he paused. Right, why did he keep bringing it up to Jiu Ming, even if he meant well? When he thought about it... that really was pretty perverted.

There were other reasons Jiu Ming hadn't gone back to the pit. He was sure that if he dared return, the Thunder Snake King, whose treasure he'd stolen, would fly into another rage and fight him to the death!

And there was no way he could claim the entire deposit for himself. There was no point in doing something so thankless.

What a pain.