Chapter 255: Investiture – Elder (4k)
As the commander’s disbelieving voice fell, the atmosphere in the air instantly became much heavier, and everyone’s gaze turned to the figure with fluttering sleeves in the sky.
Putting the greatsword in her hand into her spiritual space, Huang Wen glanced at Su Jiu in the sky and asked Mentor Lu Shu beside her, slightly confused, “Is there something special about the name Su Jiu?”
“I don’t know… maybe it’s the offspring of some big shot?”
Hearing this, Lu Shu wiped his glasses and slowly shook his head, looking at the sky with a puzzled expression, also feeling a bit clueless. They had been sailing at sea for over a week, and their information was a bit out of sync with the outside world.
“Is it because of my business?”
Gently swinging her little fleshy legs, Bai Zhi’s eyes, which were filled with small flowers, showed a hint of understanding. Looking at the black dragon armor on the hunting dragon riders’ armor, she narrowed her eyes slightly, then smiled softly.
After so many years, it was still the same uniform.
“Could it be the top student from Mo University who solved the skin disease disaster in Magic City…”
Among the dragon hunters, someone recognized Su Jiu’s identity, and then exclaimed in surprise. This person was the deputy officer next to the commander.
That person couldn’t help but move aside, and upon seeing Su Jiu’s face, which had been published on the list of those who died in the line of duty as a memorial photo more than half a month ago, his expression immediately became stunned, and he muttered to himself,
“This is 108,000 li away from Magic City, and didn’t she die in that explosion that could kill a Demigod?”
The reason he had such an impression was that he had recently attended a consciousness training on behalf of this commander, and the instructor at the training had tirelessly taught him to learn from Su Jiu.
After the Night Watchers died, the Dragon Country would send the condolence money to their families according to the level of the incident, and their identities would also be publicly announced within the official circles, with an internal funeral, and their names would be inscribed on the martyrs’ monument, not only for propaganda purposes but also to show the Dragon Country’s unconditional support for fearless heroes.
Glancing at the people around him, the commander quickly regained his senses. After a moment of silence, he looked up again and asked in an unbelievable tone, “Are you… really that top student from Mo University? But I remember the official side said you died in a secret realm, and they even erected a tombstone for you.”
Hearing their words, Su Jiu was slightly stunned, and after a moment of silence, a twitch at the corner of her mouth, she pointed to her face and asked, “You mean everyone thought I was dead? And they even erected a monument for me…”
Su Jiu was incredibly speechless. She thought she had only been gone for a short while, and they had already erected a monument for her. If she wandered in the North for more than a month like Bai Ming, and no ghost saw her…
Wouldn’t the grass on her grave have grown already?
“Sorry, we’ll talk about these things later. For now, let’s handle these students’ issues. You can go ashore and wander for a while, there’s a port market… We’ll wait for you at the Dragon Hunter Alliance Hall after we’re done.”
The commander realized that what he had said was not quite right, so he quickly clasped his fists in apology, looked at Su Jiu again, and then waved to signal the dragon hunters to safely escort the people on the ship ashore. “Each of you take three students and send them ashore!”
“Yes!” The surrounding War General level dragon hunters quickly nodded, responded, and then surged their external qi towards the ice ship.
“Alright, let’s go ashore and stay there first.”
Su Jiu nodded slightly, waved to Bai Zhi below, and shouted, then transformed into a bloody stream of light and flew towards the shore. Bai Zhi pouted, gently patted the ice pole, and with a “swish,” she followed Su Jiu like a little tail.
Looking at the retreating figures of Su Jiu and the two of them, the commander quickly turned his head and instructed his deputy officer very seriously, “Go and notify the elders of the Night Watchers here in Jiuyun. Just tell them that Su Jiu, who died half a month ago, is alive again, and let them handle their internal affairs themselves.”
Seeing his superior so serious, the deputy officer quickly nodded his head and also turned into a stream of light and rushed in another direction.
“Let’s see if we can find any alchemy balls for capturing monsters. Those things cost 50,000 each, which isn’t cheap… But since you’ve chosen a beast group that meets your standards, they should at least be descendants of a Battle King, right?” Su Jiu gently blocked the incoming airflow with her hand, tilted her head, and asked Bai Zhi behind her softly.
If they were not descendants of a Battle King, they wouldn’t fetch much. Although even a War General level species could sell for hundreds of thousands each, that was just a drop in the bucket for Su Jiu.
After dealing with Bairnis’s matters, she still planned to upgrade her extraordinary ice attribute. However, things that could improve extraordinary attributes often cost hundreds of millions, and even the cheapest ones cost over a hundred million, and they might not even be effective.
Therefore, she, Su Jiu, was still very poor and hungry, and needed to be kept by a rich woman like the Silly Duke.
“Descendants of a Battle King? Hmph hmph…” Bai Zhi snorted disdainfully. The little white flowers in her eyes flowed, and then she said very arrogantly,
“The beast pet I chose is a descendant of a Beginner War God. I heard this from Bishop Cen Chuan in the glass pillar. In the place you mentioned, there is a sparrow group. It is said that this sparrow group once had a War God level existence, but later, due to conflicts with other tribes, it declined.”
Su Jiu nodded thoughtfully, a faint smile appearing on her face. If they were descendants of a Beginner War God, at least one could be sold for millions, or even higher…
Soon they arrived above Jiuyun Fortress. The two looked down from the sky. Behind the steel dragon were dense black dots, and countless shops were opened there.
When they completely crossed the barrier, they could feel many gazes on them, but upon noticing Su Jiu’s powerful War General aura, they retracted their gazes—after all, it was not uncommon for a War General level expert to appear in this foreign trade port.
Sloppily landing in a deserted corner, the boisterous sound waves rushed towards them, making Su Jiu, who had been at sea for half a month, somewhat unaccustomed to it.
The scale of the Jiuyun Port was comparable to the prosperous Magic City, and perhaps due to proper planning, the entire port city gave an imposing and magnificent feeling, with people flowing endlessly on the spacious streets.
The air carried a slight salty and moist smell of the sea, but for Su Jiu, who had been drifting at sea for so long, it was nothing.
The two looked around at the prosperous scene. Su Jiu glanced at Bai Zhi, who was still looking around curiously, and then smiled softly, holding her arm and saying, “Stop being silly… We’ve finally gotten out of the sea, why don’t we go for a walk?”
“Hey! Don’t just hug me… This is the only time.”
Her hand was suddenly hugged, and Bai Zhi’s body stiffened. Just as she was about to break free, she caught a glimpse of Su Jiu’s smiling profile, and the words on her lips softened involuntarily.
She couldn’t quite distinguish what kind of feelings she had for this girl who had caused her to fail her breakthrough.
The two wandered around again in a meandering manner. Holding five or six skewers of monster barbecue in her right hand, Su Jiu lightly bit into one of them, glanced at the almost setting sun, and said to Bai Zhi beside her with some helplessness, “I couldn’t find a place selling alchemy balls. It’s probably because this is by the sea. I guess I’ll have to buy them in Chuan Yu. I need to go to the Dragon Hunter Alliance first.”
“Hey, I didn’t expect there to be a cake shop here… You wait here for a moment, I’m going to buy an orange.”
Walking a section of the street, Su Jiu first turned into a cake shop and was busy with something inside, making Bai Zhi outside look at Su Jiu writing something with a pen impatiently.
“I’ll pick it up tonight.”
When ordering the cake, Su Jiu specifically said that she would pick it up at night. She walked out amidst Bai Zhi’s bored gaze. The latter lowered her eyes and pretended not to care, asking, “This thing doesn’t look tasty, why did you buy it? You’re a monster, you don’t eat this kind of thing.”
She didn’t know why Su Jiu bought such flashy and impractical things. She had never eaten such things herself, only cream and fat, things that were all harmful and beneficial nothing.
Hearing this, Su Jiu turned her head, rolled her eyes, quickly raised her hand, and lightly flicked the girl’s forehead, laughing, “You’ve been reborn, haven’t you? I thought I’d buy you a cake to celebrate. Don’t do bad things anymore… The taste is floral.”
“Who… who did bad things!”
Hearing Su Jiu’s words, Bai Zhi subconsciously blurted out, then froze. She turned her head to look at the cake shop again, her gaze swept across the cakes, her small mouth slightly moved, flattened, and she gently closed her eyes…
Tsk.
It’s not that I can’t try it, let’s see these pastries made by humans.
Then the two arrived at the Dragon Hunter Alliance according to the hints from passersby. Su Jiu’s gaze fell on the familiar stone lions at the entrance, and she slowly led Bai Zhi in.
“Judging by your appearance, you must be Lord Su Jiu whom Commander entrusted us to bring to the conference room? Please come this way, sir.”
Upon arriving at the service hall, a hall attendant quickly walked over, extended a hand respectfully, and led the way. After passing through several corridors and taking elevators up and down, the three arrived at a door with red lacquer. The attendant gently pushed open the door, and inside, two elders and a middle-aged man were sitting in the center.
On the other side were the commander and others from before. They were now like well-behaved babies, even looking at the middle-aged man with great trepidation… They had originally wanted to invite an elder, but an elder had come instead.
Night Watcher ranks were divided into ordinary members, elders, grand elders, and titled ones. Ordinary members possessed the strongest combat power among War Generals, while elders were the strongest combat power of Monarch level, and so on. Elders and grand elders were all War God level, and grand elders were the ceiling among War Gods… The old man was a grand elder in Huainan Province.
As for titled ones, they were peak existences who only acted during national crises.
“I’ll wait for you outside.”
Bai Zhi said softly, then let the attendant take her to find a place to rest. Su Jiu nodded slightly, then her gaze fell on the middle-aged man wearing familiar attire. His face was cold, he wore a black flowing sand trench coat, and a black feather cape. This outfit – Su Jiu had seen it on Ren.
This was a Night Watcher, and his aura was stronger than Ren’s, so he was likely a War God level expert.
While Su Jiu was sizing them up, they were also sizing her up. After half a minute, the elder with red sleeves in the middle slowly stood up. Without paying too much attention to formalities, he directly got up from his chair, smiled, and threw a bag of magic crystals to Su Jiu. He said gratefully, “Thank you, my young friend, for your help. Without you, this would have been the biggest teaching accident since the establishment of Chuan Yu University. Inside are ten intermediate magic crystals and one Battle King medicinal herb… it’s a small token of appreciation from our school board.”
“Thank you!”
Taking the small bag, Su Jiu’s face immediately lit up with surprise, and she quickly clasped her fists in thanks. What she lacked now was magic crystals. She had to feed E Huo and Bai Nisi, and she needed to spend money. With these ten intermediate magic crystals, her urgent need would be met.
“Good… no pretense, fitting this old man’s taste.”
Seeing Su Jiu happily accept the reward, the old man in red looked at Su Jiu with a smile and said, “I heard you’re coming to Chuan Yu Province. If you dislike the crowding on airplanes, I can take you there myself.”
“Thank you, sir, but that would be too much trouble for you. I’d better pass.”
Hearing the old man in red’s words, Su Jiu thanked him repeatedly and was about to politely decline.
“Isn’t this the vice president of Chuan Da? He’s a War God level expert, what hardship would it be for him to fly with you alone?”
After this old man spoke, the elder in blue on the far left also squinted at Su Jiu. First, he teased her, then in a very complimentary tone, he said, “I never thought the person talking to me behind the communication terminal would be such a young girl. I originally thought it was an experienced official who was approaching thirty. Alas, the younger generation is formidable…”
Hearing the words “War God level,” Su Jiu was slightly startled. She then looked at the old man in red and slightly clasped her fists in a bow, saying softly, “Then I’ll trouble you, sir.”
“It’s just a small matter. You, girl, are polite and humble, much better than my useless students… It’s a shame Mr. Mad Blade got there first.”
The old man in red waved his hand, looked at Su Jiu with admiration, and then said with a faint smile.
The elder in blue then chuckled and said, “I heard from those students about that ice ship. It doesn’t look like it was created with skills. Instead, it’s an art piece that has been meticulously polished… I didn’t expect you to have such skill in developing such techniques and skills at such a young age.”
Gently shaking her head, Su Jiu did not accept the honor. She said very seriously, “You don’t need to praise me, sir. These were taught to me by Dean Yan of the Ice Water Academy of Mo University… If you’re interested, you can also find him.”
“That’s possible. I do have some ideas, perhaps for heading north in two months…” The elder in blue looked at Su Jiu with some surprise, gently stroked his beard, and said, suddenly stopping as if he had spoken of a crucial topic, and then smiled.
After chatting for a while longer, the three fell silent. At this moment, a hoarse voice rang out, feeling like sand scratching against glass, very clearly the sound of vocal cord damage –
“After the review meeting, I, as an Elder, now announce – Night Watcher Su Jiu, for meritorious service in saving the city, is granted the Elder Token!”
“Furthermore, according to the statistics of enemy kills and people saved by the Dragon Country Command, you will be awarded twenty thousand seven hundred commendation points and promoted to Half-step Song of Praise!”
The middle-aged Night Watcher’s cold face actually showed a smile. He felt around with his hand and produced a token identical to Ren’s from before, and handed it over.
