IWYTBW - Chapter 49

 Chapter 49

Children Spoiled by Their Parents Are All Scourges.

As night fell, Li Youdeng deployed a small shielding field. The two sat inside, leisurely building a campfire and preparing to roast the alien beasts they had hunted, skinned and cleaned.

As Li Youdeng tore the fur off the five beast legs, she tossed the wristbands to Yi Zhen. “Here, I’ll take eight, the remaining fourteen are yours. These three teams were pretty good. Only a few white wristbands, the rest are all pink, and some are close to turning red.”

“Didn’t we agree on four for you and six for me?” Yi Zhen glanced at her. “Take another one.”

Li Youdeng chuckled. “Come on, you did most of the work. I just played the role of the bait and provided cover. There’s no need for me to take more. I’ll still pass the preliminaries easily.”

Yi Zhen took the wristbands and stuffed them into his backpack without even looking at them.

“You’re not going to destroy them?”

“If I want points, I can get them anytime,” Yi Zhen said. “Intact wristbands are much more useful.”

“How many points do you have now?” Li Youdeng asked. “Not counting today’s wristbands, I have 282, more than enough to last until the end of the preliminaries.”

Yi Zhen casually checked. “324, it’s enough.”

As he spoke, he picked up a rabbit-sized beast. The Bone-Eroding Spirit Scorpion, which had long since smelled the blood and was frantically spinning around in the bag, scurried out like a bolt of lightning when given permission and clung to the carcass.

Yi Zhen flung it far away to let it feed alone. The reason why the Bone-Eroding Spirit Scorpion had such a large appetite was that it was used to corroding its prey into a bloody liquid and then slurping it up. Although this method was convenient, it easily rendered a piece of land barren for more than a decade. Therefore, Yi Zhen had to clean up after it every time it finished eating.

The Three-Smile Butterfly was much easier to take care of. Yi Zhen had brought a large amount of flower nectar. Although it wasn’t as good as the Night Snow Epiphyllum, it made up for it in quantity rather than quality, so it wouldn’t go hungry.

The campfire crackled as the fat from the prey dripped into the flames. Every time Li Youdeng saw his little pets, she found them fascinating.

Yi Zhen pulled out a map. “I was thinking, do you have any plans for the next stage?”

“No plans, why?”

“I want to go here,” Yi Zhen pointed to a corner of the map.

This was the map of the current competition area, a reward from the system after he completed the harvesting task. About two and a half kilometers away from them, there was an area shrouded in purple mist. It looked extremely eerie as if a magic dragon and a witch covered in eyeballs were lurking there.

“Here?” Li Youdeng had also studied this map. “This is the poison swamp area, you...”

She glanced at the two little pets. She knew that Yi Zhen had a high level of expertise in poison.

“Then you go. I won’t hold you back. Where will we meet after you come out?”

Yi Zhen thought for a moment. “I’ll notify you then.”

“Alright.” Li Youdeng nodded and tossed him five shielding fields. “Solar-powered. Charge them for two hours during the day, and they can last all night.”

Shielding fields were essential for every contestant. With orbital satellites providing full coverage and live recording, it was inevitable that some inappropriate scenes would be captured, such as bathing, having sex, using the toilet... In these situations, having a shielding field made the contestants’ lives much easier.

Yi Zhen didn’t need to prepare them, but just in case, he still accepted the five shielding fields. “Thanks.”

The meat was almost cooked. This kind of small beast on Longhua had tender meat and rich fat. Even with five legs, it was perfect for犒劳 oneself after a hard day’s work and relaxing. Yi Zhen ate one and fed half of one to the Bone-Eroding Spirit Scorpion, which was staring at him with shining eyes and drooling.

Li Youdeng wiped her long staff. To avoid being discovered as someone playing the pig to eat the tiger, she always put away this conspicuous wooden staff when she went out to ambush people.

“You’re also an exchange student from Azoth University,” Yi Zhen remembered something. “Have you seen She Xin since then?”

Li Youdeng shook her head. “I only heard that a very important exchange student had transferred to the Mechanical Department, but he never attended a single day of class, just had his name on the roster... Later, I found out it was She Xin.”

She pouted. “A person claiming to be his brother even specifically asked to meet me. His gaze was really something. It was like I was some kind of gold-digger who was going to bleed his brother dry. Please, even though I’m a bit wild, I only go for mature men. I’m really not interested in minors!”

Yi Zhen exclaimed, “His brother went to find you?”

Li Youdeng gave him a sidelong glance. “What, he didn’t look for you?”

“No,” Yi Zhen shook his head. “Maybe he couldn’t find me. I don’t go to school. I usually just stay at home.”

The two chatted idly. The Bone-Eroding Spirit Scorpion nestled beside Yi Zhen, cleaning its pincers and face. The Three-Smile Butterfly suddenly fluttered its wings and landed on Yi Zhen’s face.

“Someone’s coming,” Yi Zhen frowned. “I’ll put out the fire. You clean up.”

Li Youdeng paused. She slung her staff on her back and rolled up a tent with her bare hands. Yi Zhen quickly scattered a handful of wet soil to prevent the campfire from emitting smoke. Then, Li Youdeng sat down casually in her original spot while Yi Zhen quickly climbed a nearby tree, waiting to see who was coming.

The moon was bright, and the stars were sparse. The forest was bathed in a faint silver glow. He crouched among the branches, his breath and body temperature merging with his surroundings.

After a while, faint sounds could indeed be heard. Yi Zhen looked down from his vantage point and saw three adult men dressed in black silently emerge from the forest, holding detection devices.

Yi Zhen sent a message to Li Youdeng: [3 of them.]

Li Youdeng glanced at it and continued to act nonchalant, idly poking the fire.

Ordinary shielding fields were indeed no match for professional detection equipment. The three burly men seemed to appear out of thin air, brazenly entering the range of the field. Li Youdeng played her part perfectly, letting out a terrified scream.

“You... who are you?!”

Mental healers were best at mental assessment. Her fingers tapped lightly, sending information to Yi Zhen: [Middle A-, both sides B+]

Why is it A again? Are As as common as cabbages in this arena?

Yi Zhen crouched in the tree, watching the three men casually look around and open their optical computers to report. “Only one, a female.”

Li Youdeng held her staff horizontally in front of her, gripping it tightly, and trembled. “Who are you? I’m asking you again! If you don’t answer, I’ll attack!”

Yi Zhen really admired her acting skills. If she doesn’t get an Oscar, I’m not watching.

“I apologize, miss,” the leader of the men in black took out a white cloth and wiped his hands. “You’re in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Li Youdeng was stunned. “You’re... not here for my wristband?”

Her own wristband had already been upgraded to red, which wouldn’t serve the purpose of playing the pig to eat the tiger. So, she usually wore a pure white wristband, which was now conspicuously trembling on her fair wrist.

She immediately said, “I can give you my wristband. Just go!”

Li Youdeng’s eyes were timid, her face charming yet serene. Who could say she wasn’t a pitiful beauty at this moment? But these three uninvited guests were completely unmoved. The leader said coldly, “I’m sorry, miss.”

Seeing them approach, Li Youdeng hurriedly shouted, “Wait, wait! You really want to kill me? Why? I need a reason, right?”

“I was just sitting here, minding my own business, eating hot pot and singing songs, when suddenly three people show up wanting to kill me, and it’s not even for my wristband... Am I dreaming?” She craned her neck, staring at the three men defiantly. “This is the Heroes Championship Tournament, not a place where you can do whatever you want!”

The man paused. The henchman behind him let out a low chuckle. “Little beauty, blame your bad luck for happening to be sitting here tonight, within our sweep range... To prevent you from hearing what you shouldn’t, we have to do some dirty work.”

The other henchman said in a deep voice, “Don’t worry, all the unrelated people within the sweep range won’t escape. You’re not the only unlucky one. There are others to accompany you on your way.”

Li Youdeng frowned. “What do you mean? You’re going to discuss something and you’re afraid of being overheard, so you drew a circle, and everyone unrelated inside the circle has to be eliminated? You...”

This time, her expression really changed. She had never seen or even heard of such arrogant and vicious behavior! To eliminate everyone in an area they deemed unsafe just because they wanted to discuss some unknown bullshit... Only a tyrant who believed himself to be divinely ordained could commit such a senseless and despicable act!

Li Youdeng slowly straightened up. She said in a low voice, “Is that so? It seems I’m not the unlucky one. The truly unlucky ones are probably all dead by your hands, right?”

As soon as she finished speaking, a brilliant light flashed, and the three men were instantly blinded.

Yi Zhen quickly leaped down from the tree. The moment the white light shone, the god of death descended upon the three men! His five fingers, replacing a sleeve sword and dagger, transformed into flowing light like a galaxy, slicing across the leader’s throat. The man was a true A-grade. Within a hundredth of a second of sensing the killing intent, he instantly raised his arm, trying to block the attack.

His idea was right, but his action was terribly wrong.

If it had been an ordinary weapon, it wouldn’t have been able to harm him at all, given an A-grade’s steel-like physique.

But this was just an “if.” In a life-or-death situation, there were no “ifs,” and no room for negligence.

His arm and neck were severed by Yi Zhen. The wound hesitated for a full half-second before blood gushed out in a grand display!

Yi Zhen spun around. He was like a dancer, a deadly dancer. Dancers used their soft arms to hold wine glasses and golden gauze. His hands held only the cold light that thirsted for blood.

The cold light simultaneously swept across the necks of the two B-grades behind him. Their reactions were much slower than the leader’s. Without the futile resistance, these two cuts were both swift and clean, as if he had just blown a cool breath on them.

The henchman cried out, “You!”

Thousands of years ago, in order to achieve his political goals, the Old Man of the Mountain, Hassan-I Sabbah, built an eagle’s nest in the high mountains and created a garden. He selected steadfast young men and made them intoxicated with burning poppy shells, leaving them to play with beautiful girls in the paradise-like garden, drinking from luxurious golden cups. When night passed, he would use the same method to make them fall unconscious again. When they woke up, the young men found themselves back in the cold, hard eagle’s nest, recalling the bliss of the previous night as if it were a dream. Then the Old Man of the Mountain would tell them that they had gone to paradise last night, and if they served him with a willingness to die, they would reach that place after death.

Seeing, hearing, and experiencing it firsthand, the young men’s faith became like an inexhaustible fire, each swing of their swords bringing them closer to paradise. They were later called the Assassins, the pretenders to godhood.

Assassins trained in this way always wielded the fastest blades and killed the most people. Where the blade passed, a person might not even realize they were dead, and even the wound on the corpse would still struggle to heal.

Yi Zhen wasn’t an assassin trained in this orthodox system. He didn’t want to go to any paradise after death. But his body moved with his will, and his power at this moment was even greater than that of the Assassins who raided palaces and residences thousands of years ago. Blood didn’t flow, but as the henchman uttered a single word, the moving muscles tore open the already healing wound, and blood finally oozed out very slowly.

The two fell to the ground one after another, making heavy thuds.

Li Youdeng watched them grimly. She went up and searched them for a while, then called out in a low voice, “Yi Zhen, they don’t have wristbands!”

“They don’t have wristbands, or their wristbands aren’t on them?” Yi Zhen also crouched down and examined the three corpses. He asked Tai’a in a low voice, “Do you sense any transmigrators?”

Tai’a had been quiet these past three days, focusing all its attention on detecting transmigrators. It replied: [No, I have not detected any communication between a transmigrator and a system.]

Yi Zhen nodded. He raised his finger slightly, and the Three-Smile Butterfly fluttered up.

“Take us to where these three came from,” he said softly.

The Bone-Eroding Spirit Scorpion ran on the ground, and the Three-Smile Butterfly flew in the sky. The two of them zigzagged for about four hundred meters. The Three-Smile Butterfly stopped, but the Bone-Eroding Spirit Scorpion was still eager to move forward.

Yi Zhen extended his mental tendrils and pulled back its tail hook, signaling it to behave. Yi Zhen could also sense faint voices in the distance.

[Follow me,] Yi Zhen signed to Li Youdeng. [Control your heartbeat.]

Li Youdeng nodded. Although she couldn’t achieve Yi Zhen’s level of concealment, she was a mental healer. She could give herself a calming mental suggestion to keep her body in the most relaxed state.

In the darkness, Yi Zhen turned into mist, lingering in the wind, covering Li Youdeng behind him as they slowly approached the source of the voices.

He really wanted to complain. Who came up with this method of clearing the area? It was both stupid and vicious. What kind of secret were they discussing that required clearing out all unrelated people within a four-hundred-meter radius? Weren’t they afraid that a tough one among them would fight back?

Moreover, to do such dirty work so openly, sneaking around without any stealth, was laughably idiotic.

As he thought about this, a thought suddenly struck Yi Zhen.

Such a barbaric, childish, and vicious act was indeed unlikely to come from an adult. It was more like the behavior of a child.

A barbaric, childish, and vicious child who could command his subordinates to kill and clear an area... He might not have believed such a person existed before, but hadn’t he just met one three days ago on the transport ship?

He quietly parted the bushes. At the same time, a somewhat familiar, somewhat unfamiliar young voice reached his ears.

“Why haven’t they returned yet? These useless trash, can’t even handle such a small matter.”

The moon shone brightly. The speaker was pacing back and forth impatiently. On his fifth step, half of his face turned towards Yi Zhen.

Yi Zhen’s expression turned cold. He gently, unconsciously curled his lips into a sneer.

Enemies always cross paths, especially in a place as damned as this... So, it’s you, huh, kid?

“Damn it, why did I have to be assigned to Longhua? There are so many damn trees. Who knows if someone is hiding there!” The delicate-looking boy cursed with increasing agitation. The Golden Nephila that had tried to ambush Yi Zhen was gone. Now, a crystal-clear purple snake was coiled on his left shoulder. “When I get back, I’ll ask Mother to find an excuse to give me this damn planet. I’ll turn it into a cobalt bomb testing ground!”

Yi Zhen raised his eyebrows. Behind him, Li Youdeng’s heart also skipped a beat.

... Queen Mother?

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