Little Corporal Ju and Great General Qing, the Hundred-Thousand-Year Golden Sword Lion King (4K)

"Mom's cooking!?"

Lin Qing's pupils suffered a magnitude-twelve earthquake. Then he abruptly sank into thought. Huo Yuhao's cooking tasted just as delicious as her father's, while his was every bit as awful as Ju Zi's mother's. Could the culinary talents of these two children of destiny truly be as far apart as clouds and mud?

Ju Zi hugged the fish mush, her eyes misty with tears. Tears streaked her delicate face like rain on pear blossoms, making her look every inch a little girl missing her late mother.

Despite knowing Ju Zi for years, Keke had never seen her best friend looking so pitiful. She flustered herself into circles, but her clumsy tongue could find no words of comfort, so she frantically shot meaningful looks at Lin Qing.

Cooking alone wasn't enough. He needed to bring out some motherly tenderness and coax her!

No further words were needed. A mother's love could always strike the softest place in a lionhearted man's heart. Putting his book learning into practice, Lin Qing offered a highly tactful response. "I'll make another serving. If you like it, have some more."

"One bite was enough. Why are you trying to murder me?" Ju Zi looked up and demanded.

The reversal caught him completely off guard. Looking at her fair face, where the tear tracks had yet to dry, Lin Qing exclaimed, "But you just said your mom-"

Ju Zi's eyes curved into smiling crescents. "It really does taste like Mom's cooking. Precisely because her lethal cooking skills were on par with yours, Dad strictly forbade her from going anywhere near the pots and pans at home.

"But Mom always tried making different dishes while Dad was at work during the day. Every time, she would fool me with this utterly sincere voice, saying her cooking had improved by leaps and bounds and desperately needed approval from her very first diner.

"Thank you. Since Mom passed away, I haven't eaten anything so heartwarming and utterly despair-inducing."

With that, Ju Zi returned the culinary abomination to its creator. Lin Qing locked eyes for two seconds with the fish head sticking out of the plate and gazing at the stars, then silently looked away. He tentatively scooped a spoonful into his mouth, only to turn into a zombie biting into garlic and retch it back out.

Holy crap, that tasted awful!

The fish in the Jingyang Mountain Range must have been contaminated by metal!

A person needed some self-awareness. His struggle ending in defeat, Lin Qing obediently resigned himself to providing the atmosphere and enjoyed Chef Ju Zi's roasted dragon meat.

The three ate with great relish. The ten-thousand-year Bronze Hellfire Dragon made full use of its remaining worth, its roasting meat sizzling with fat. It warmed their stomachs and quickly replenished their depleted stamina.

Keke stroked her belly, stuffed round by dinner, with glistening grease still at the corners of her lips. Reclining on a dark bluish rock beside the stream, she leisurely picked her teeth. "Burp... I'll take first watch. One of you can come relieve me in two hours."

Taking turns on watch was fair and impartial. Neither Lin Qing nor Ju Zi objected. They made an OK gesture to acknowledge her, then crawled into the cowhide tent together.

When traveling, soul masters usually replaced sleep with meditation and cultivation. There was no need to fret over propriety between men and women.

Lin Qing and Ju Zi sat on the ground, neither choosing to seize every moment to meditate and restore their mental energy. The soul beast population in this branch of the Jingyang Mountain Range was no match for the Star Dou Great Forest's; they hadn't encountered a single thousand-year soul beast along the way. Apart from taking turns driving the All-Terrain Detection Soul Tool, they had expended practically nothing throughout the trip, and both remained bright-eyed and energetic.

"I'll relieve Keke. You take the third watch," Lin Qing said.

"Let me go first." Ju Zi gently shook her head. "You drove the soul tool the longest. You should get more rest."

"The Jingyang Mountain Range lives up to its reputation as a paradise for metal attributes. The concentration of free metal energy is extremely high, constantly replenishing my soul power. I haven't really expended anything." Lin Qing propped up his chin. "Now that it's night, the gold element seems a little restless. It feels as though it's swarming toward a particular part of the mountain range. It'll probably attract some metal-attribute soul beasts to investigate.

"We need to be extra vigilant tonight. Tomorrow, when we go deeper into the mountains to hunt soul beasts, we should be careful too, so we don't run into anything we can't afford to provoke."

"All right."

Ju Zi gazed gently at Lin Qing as he cautioned her, tender warmth flowing through her eyes.

Awful food came in all varieties. To produce devilish cooking identical to her mother's, Lin Qing truly possessed an extraordinary talent of a different sort. She couldn't help seeing her mother's face and hearing her voice again.

"Lin Qing, would you like to eat a tangerine?"

"Hm?"

Realizing the suggestive double meaning in her words, Ju Zi's pretty face blazed red. She hurriedly explained, "Fruit after dinner! I'm a food-type soul master, remember?"

"Give me two."

"Golden tangerines cluster on southern boughs; each segment a gleam, each segment a verse."

Under Lin Qing's surprised gaze-It actually wasn't "I have a big tangerine"?-Ju Zi recited the unique incantation of a food-type soul master, lighting up two bright yellow hundred-year soul rings.

"First soul skill, Spirit-Reviving Little Green Tangerine! Second soul skill, Rapid-Healing Big Yellow Tangerine!"

Taking the two differently colored tangerines without suspicion, Lin Qing peeled the green one first and bit into its fresh, juicy flesh. His cheek muscles instantly began twitching. The green tangerine was sour-lethally sour!

"Don't spit it out! Don't! It'll work right away!"

Ju Zi burst into laughter and cheerfully leaned over, intending to cover his mouth with her hand. Lin Qing had no intention of spitting it out, however. Along with the sourness shooting straight into the crown of his head, a cool current flowed into his Sea of Consciousness, continually nourishing his spiritual power.

After personally experiencing the green tangerine's potency, Lin Qing peeled the yellow one with interest and tossed it into his mouth. This time, the flavor filling his mouth was sweet, delicious, and rich.

"The soul skills are pretty good." Lin Qing gave her a thumbs-up. "The green tangerine boosts spiritual power by about ten percent, while the yellow one heals physical injuries and can also ease muscle fatigue.

"With those first two soul skills alone, even if you didn't study soul tools and chose the traditional path of a food-type soul master, all the major powers would welcome you."

"That won't work. Traditional food-type soul masters cultivate too slowly. Not every food-type soul master has innate full soul power like Oscar, the Food God from your Douluo Continent-" Ju Zi said wistfully. "With my talent, without medicine to assist my cultivation, I might still be struggling along as a three-ring Soul Elder. How could I have become a five-ring Soul King before turning twenty?

"After graduating from the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, I'm going to enlist. Although I'm not very good at fighting, my soul power level and food-type martial soul should ensure I won't have to start as a private. I should at least qualify as a corporal."

"A mighty five-ring Soul King, and that's all you're aiming for?"

Lin Qing laughed loudly. This younger version of the empress and war goddess was still far from possessing her future confidence in commanding armies from behind the lines.

"What's wrong with being a corporal? I'll work my way up to general!" Ju Zi clenched her fists.

"Little Corporal Ju's journey to becoming Great General Ju will be thick with thorns," Lin Qing teased.

"-I admit it'll be a little difficult." Little Corporal Ju lowered her head dejectedly. "I've taken too much medicine. Breaking through to a seven-ring Soul Sage will be extremely difficult in this lifetime. I don't think I've ever heard of a Soul Emperor becoming an imperial general-"

Her beautiful black eyes blinked and sparkled. Ju Zi peeled seven or eight yellow tangerines and offered them to him. "Lin Qing, have you considered joining the military?

"With your Ultimate Metal talent, the Sun Moon Empire would gladly support you in commanding an army, perhaps even as commander of the Beast King Soul Engineer Corps-a true imperial general!

"When that day comes, Little Corporal Ju will pledge her life to Great General Qing!"

Ju Zi puffed out her chest and imitated Lin Qing's tone, even raising a hand in a rather imperfect salute. Lin Qing smiled. "Great General Qing does sound appealing, and Little Corporal Ju's loyalty is certainly tempting. Unfortunately, we're fellow sufferers.

"You're held back by insufficient strength, while I'm hampered by my nationality. Until he's ten thousand percent certain of my loyalty to the Sun Moon Empire, the Sun Moon emperor won't readily entrust an army to me."

"Sigh-"

Her plan to find a powerful backer fell apart. Sighing, Ju Zi turned into a little bitter tangerine and plopped down beside Lin Qing. "Heaven loves to toy with the unfortunate. My dad spent his whole life working honestly as a chef, only to meet a miserable end, killed by the Star Luo Empire. My mother fell gravely ill from excessive grief and died.

"My lifelong wish is to lead the Sun Moon army into the Star Luo Empire and avenge my parents-wait, why are you suddenly looking at me so strangely?"

"I'm from the Star Luo Empire-"

"Huh???"

Ju Zi shot to her feet, practically leaping three feet into the air. Pointing shakily at Lin Qing, she asked, "You're from the Star Luo Empire?"

Oh no. She'd been rambling on all this time, openly planning an invasion of his homeland right in front of him!?

Crossing her arms tightly over her chest to hug her small, helpless self, Ju Zi looked utterly lost. Should she kneel and beg for mercy, loudly proclaiming that the bond between classmates was thicker than blood, or grit her teeth, close her eyes, and bravely meet her end-

"Snap out of it."

Lin Qing curled a finger and tapped Ju Zi's forehead to bring her back to her senses. "I've already settled in the Sun Moon Empire. I'm not interested in bouncing back and forth and running off to the Star Luo Empire again. Besides, I have a blood feud with Shrek Academy. That's one of the reasons I traveled so far to come to Sun Moon."

"Ohhh~"

That single syllable wound through nine bends and eighteen turns. Little Corporal Ju dropped her defensive posture and approached Lin Qing again. Patting the towering peaks of her chest with one hand, she declared solemnly, "Four thousand years ago, the four nations on the two continents were at war. Shrek Academy raised its arm and rallied everyone, overturning the Sun Moon Empire's victory.

"When the Sun Moon Empire attacks the Star Luo Empire in the future, Shrek Academy certainly won't stand by and watch. That makes us natural allies in both offense and defense!

"One year in the Hongchen Class, a lifetime of friendship! With our strong-strong-strong-weak partnership, we'll definitely accomplish our great revenge!"

The flames of war blazed in the girl's heart. The three great empires and the continent's foremost soul master academy had an alliance for both offense and defense. If troops marched against the Star Luo Empire, Shrek Academy would have no way to stay out of it. Lin Qing would then throw his full support behind the Sun Moon Empire and help her exact revenge!

With Ultimate Metal protecting me, who could kill me!

Boom-!

A deafening roar exploded without warning. Ju Zi instinctively shrank toward Lin Qing, thinking Heaven had come to torment this ill-fated little girl again. A moment later, Lin Qing pulled her out of the tent to join Keke.

"It seems to be coming from the rock face, where Wang Shaojie and the others were doing their tests," Keke said urgently. "That sound might be Senior Unbreakable fighting an enemy."

"Soul beasts are coming."

Lin Qing cut Keke off, his piercing gaze sweeping their surroundings. Beastly silhouettes converged from all directions, forming an orderly encirclement. Pairs of fiery eyes lit up the darkness. Ju Zi and Keke's breath caught, the sense of danger gripping their hearts like a giant hand.

Over a dozen lion-type soul beasts surrounded them. The golden-maned giant lions' fur blazed like fire, their bearing fierce and proud. Moonlight seemed to coat the silver lions, which radiated a clear, cool glow. They numbered only half as many as the golden lions. The pride advanced slowly, clearly viewing the three as prey.

"The First Branch Range is wolf territory. The lions rule Jingyang Peak. Why would they enter the First Branch Range-" Ju Zi's brows knitted tightly, unable to understand why the lions had deigned to come here.

Lions, tigers, leopards, and bears were four kinds of soul beasts renowned worldwide for their strength among others of the same rank. The metal energy in the Jingyang Mountain Range was exceptionally dense, and many metal-attribute soul beasts habitually swallowed metal to assist their cultivation. Their fighting strength was generally around thirty percent higher than that of their kin elsewhere. The lions were the mountain range's royal species, occupying Jingyang Peak!

"The lions leaving their territory might have something to do with the change in the gold element. The Jingyang Mountain Range is no longer safe. You two get inside the All-Terrain Detection Soul Tool. We're retreating."

Lin Qing made a swift decision and took out the All-Terrain Detection Soul Tool. The strongest of the dozen or so golden and silver lions before them had only eight thousand years of cultivation, but the entire pride pouring out of its den undoubtedly heralded a catastrophe.

Judging by the direction of the noise, the lion king was probably at the rock face, where the Unbreakable Douluo was presumably fighting him. Their best option was to leave the Jingyang Mountain Range first!

Fully aware of the danger, the two girls climbed into the metal sphere as quickly as possible. Its six long legs sprang out, and it followed close behind Lin Qing as he charged out of the lions' encirclement!

"Roar-

-!"

Naturally, the lions would not let prey already within their grasp escape. A golden lion roared and leaped. Nourished by the Jingyang Mountain Range's metal energy for years on end, its enormous body resembled a giant bear. Muscles bulged beneath its brilliantly gleaming metallic fur, and both foreclaws swept straight toward Lin Qing.

Not to be outdone, the silver lions opened their bloody maws, balls of light forming deep in their throats. Silver represented the elements. Lions that consumed mithril had mutated, awakening six elements: earth, water, wind, fire, light, and darkness. Now, all six elements gathered together as they supported the golden lions with ranged bombardment!

Meanwhile, at the rock face in the First Branch Range.

Night lay deep beneath a bright moon hanging in the heavens. The lions stood in ranks, golden radiance and silver brilliance intermingling, densely covering the rock face.

Atop the rocks, a male lion stood proudly. Layer upon layer of mane draped over his shoulders and back, blazing with golden light. His towering body was majestic, and a pair of snow-white saber teeth protruded beside his mouth, their chilling edges displaying the authority of the Jingyang Mountain Range's overlord.

The ruler of the Jingyang Mountain Range, the hundred-thousand-year Golden Sword Lion King!

Inside the All-Terrain Detection Soul Tool, Wang Shaojie and Zi Mu trembled. The Unbreakable Douluo, Zheng Zhan, hovered in midair with a grave expression. "Golden Sword Lion King, we have no intention of offending your majesty. Could we each take a step back?"

A hundred-thousand-year soul beast's intelligence was no lower than that of a human sage. Unwilling to rashly clash with the pride, Zheng Zhan tried to persuade the Golden Sword Lion King.

"A Titled Douluo as stupid as a King Kong Baboon."

The Golden Sword Lion King opened and closed his enormous jaws, his two saber teeth gleaming coldly. "Humans absorb soul rings to break through their cultivation realms, pursuing the pinnacle by stepping over the corpses of soul beasts. Our two races have been mortal enemies for tens of millions of years.

"The birth of a metal source in this branch range was an unexpected delight. I wouldn't mind eliminating a great enemy of soul beasts and adding another joy to the occasion!"

The Unbreakable Douluo was like a tightly drawn bowstring. The instant he heard the lion king's savage declaration, he sprang into action. A white barrier rose, blocking the Golden Sword Lion King's advance.

"Children, I'll hold off the lion king! Get out of the Jingyang Mountain Range!"