“Are there many and complicated monsters in the west of Bear Country?”
When Su Jiu heard about the monsters from three factions, she wasn’t surprised. After all, she had spent her entire junior year of high school learning about the composition of monsters in this world.
Evil monsters exist in all segments.
As the racial value increases, some monsters’ attitudes towards humans become more neutral, just like the forces of major races such as the Blood Clan, Sea Clan, and Snow Demon, which maintain a neutral attitude towards humans.
Friendly attitudes towards humans are at two extremes: one is the particularly weak, cute monsters, and the other is the extremely powerful guardian-level monsters. The former simply hopes to obtain food from humans, while the latter…
In Dragon Country, there are many ancient immortals revered as legends. Many of them are not powerful individuals, but monsters that guard a region for humans, thereby deserving to be enshrined in the imperial ancestral temple. Therefore, even Lord Liu Yue was called a celestial beast by the locals.
“Not only is it chaotic, but they also often engage in internal strife, forming factions and fighting each other to seize territory,” Lan Xi chuckled and continued to explain, her tone becoming more solemn.
“So people on our side don’t take planes and choose to transfer here by car… Of course, that’s not the main point.”
“Not the main point?”
This time, Su Jiu was truly stunned. Logically, shouldn’t they just look for benevolent monsters?
Besides, she had also heard that the Catherine Family had contact with the Fen Shuangluan, and that Fen Shuangluan was very likely the target they were looking for.
“Yes, not the main point.”
Lan Xi nodded, confidently stating. Then she changed the subject, saying something that felt inexplicable and chilling:
“To be precise, we can only beg others to be guardian gods. The one who used to be a guardian god was an Ice Phoenix, and the Duke’s family that was the only one able to contact it can no longer be reached…”
“In recent years, the one who has been fulfilling the duty of resisting the monster tide is an Initial Stage Battle King Ice Sky Vulture. It should have been considered a neutral faction leaning towards humans, but its methods have deviated. It’s as if gods need sacrifices; it requires local villagers to offer five pieces of the most sincere faith each year.”
“The most sincere faith?”
Hearing this, Su Jiu couldn’t help but think of the Ancient God Sect’s methods. They also required faith, and she wondered if this faith was related to that faith.
“Yes, the kind of heartwarming faith,”
Lan Xi also showed a look of disgust, but realizing Su Jiu was looking at her, she quickly said it jokingly.
“Heartwarming? You don’t mean it literally, do you?”
Su Jiu narrowed her eyes slightly, feeling the surrounding atmosphere had become much colder. She knew that the English phrase “heartwarming” did not have the same connotation as in Chinese; it meant literally…
“Exactly as you understand it. The difference between that Ice Vulture and those monsters that randomly kill humans is that it only needs to eat five people a year.”
After taking another sip of coffee, Lan Xi appeared somewhat helpless and then said very seriously, “Originally, offering some condemned criminals each year could be considered mutually beneficial, but this time, they have a demand, and the other party took the opportunity to raise the price, asking for twenty young people under the age of twenty.”
“Such a request, any normal person would be unable to agree, right?”
Listening to Lan Xi’s story, Su Jiu played the part of a supporting character at appropriate times, interjecting a sentence and then waiting for the rest of the story.
“That’s right, so the Duke was furious and ordered us to search for the trace of that Ice Phoenix deity again. However, we have no means to contact them, so this search is like looking for a needle in a haystack. At this time, a piece of news came from the monsters that were neutral towards humans…”
Lan Xi spoke slowly, pausing slightly. Her gaze drifted out the window to the snow-covered coniferous forest, and as she saw a white figure flit by in the distance, she continued,
“The news said that the Ice Phoenix had fallen into a trap woven by many groups. The Duke couldn’t tell if this news was true or false because most of those groups were…”
“These groups that are friendly to humans, and that includes the Ice Sky Vulture.”
“Did the Duke not ask the monster groups what happened?”
After listening to the story, Su Jiu felt that some parts were strange. Many things only had results, without causes. The stance of some monsters, whether based on race or behavior, was very blurry.
If her cousin Su Ze were here, it would be much better. After all, the latter was a professional teacher at Imperial Capital University. Su Jiu planned to find time to ask him about the current situation.
After they chatted for a while, Su Jiu began to resolve the experience of the ice attribute from the top-grade high-level ice attribute Magic Crystal on her.
She could feel that she had touched the realm of frost. The frost realm was like a thin film, and as soon as she reached the Half-King level, she would be able to comprehend it and directly turn it into combat power.
Looking inward at the dual-attribute inner core, Su Jiu could see that the blue part was emitting a faint frost, as if trying to suppress the fire attribute realm on the other side. However, the two sides were still barely in a balanced state.
Su Jiu had almost no grasp of the fire attribute realm at the moment, and the balance between the two was not good. After breaking through to Half-King, her first priority would be to elevate the fire attribute realm, otherwise, the imbalance could cause damage to her body.
As for the opportunity to break through the fire attribute, she had already thought of it: the Fen Shuangluan… Perhaps the Ice Phoenix mentioned by Fen Shuangluan had an inseparable relationship, and the Catherine Family also had a connection with the Ice Phoenix.
When she reached the Half-King level, she would have the strength to intervene in this matter.
The frosty white sky gradually darkened, and outside the window, it was pitch black. However, Su Jiu, who was cultivating and self-treating, was suddenly awakened by a burst of strange noises.
Su Jiu slowly opened her eyes and found that Lan Xi on the opposite side was playing a game, and the Little Flower Fairy beside her was sleeping behind the curtain, drooling at the corner of her mouth, looking foolish.
Under the Dragon Country-style sleeves was a ball of yarn, and next to the yarn was a half-knitted small gray wool strip. She was probably trying to knit a scarf.
“What’s going on over there?”
Su Jiu let out a sigh of relief and met Lan Xi’s gaze as she also looked up. In the direction of the right door, the scolding and crashing sounds of things being thrown were constantly coming as if they were demonic music entering the brain.
Because it was in Bear Language, Su Jiu couldn’t understand much of what was being said.
Picking up a paper cup nearby and using it to listen through the wall, Lan Xi raised an eyebrow. After a long while, she sat back in her seat, pointed to the room next door, and explained to Su Jiu:
“The gangsters in Yord City are extorting protection fees. They don’t know where they got the list, which basically consists of passengers going to Yord City. The people next door seem to disagree with paying the protection fees, so a dispute has arisen.”
“These gangsters are really arrogant to be extorting protection fees from the very beginning of the train journey.”
Nodding, Su Jiu guessed that it was probably the travel agencies selling personal information. However, as long as they didn’t provoke her, she didn’t want to be a city’s light by cracking down on criminals, especially in a foreign country.
“When a country is in hardship, there are always those who take advantage of their strength to make a fortune during wartime.”
Lan Xi showed a helpless expression. As a nobleperson leaning towards the official side, she naturally had no good feelings towards these people who took advantage of the chaos to gain wealth.
“Boss! Over here, I remember there are three young girls sitting alone. Hehe, if they don’t have money, we can take them…”
Just as the two of them thought it was over, with a laugh, the door to the private room was kicked open with a “bang!”. Then, they saw a group of fierce-looking white men sizing up Su Jiu and the others’ private room aggressively.
The leading man noticed there were only three of them and his eyes lit up. He brazenly reached out, grinning and pulling at the black tattoo on his lips, and chuckled, “Ten thousand rubles per person. If you can’t pay, use yourselves to settle the debt.”
Su Jiu frowned as she looked at the men. Her gaze swept over them and she noticed a small snake with wings drawn on their arms. This should be the emblem of a certain gang, but it wasn’t the Hark Gang’s; the Hark Gang’s emblem was a Western black dragon.
“Let me handle it. Although these people are only at the Initial Stage Battle King level, they are still troublesome. We can’t kill them, as it’s easy for the subordinates to attract their elders,”
Lan Xi said in a low voice, placing a hand on Su Jiu’s shoulder. She took out a bank card from her pocket, forced a smile, and handed it over, saying softly, “My lords, there are 350,000 rubles inside. It’s a small token of my appreciation.”
“Heh heh… Sensible.”
The man took the bank card and nodded, a satisfied smile on his face. He had his subordinates take the card and verify it with a card reader. Seeing that the number was correct, his smile grew even stronger.
“Then… esteemed gang lords, you should let us girls go, right?”
Lan Xi still had a smile on her face, showing both politeness and sincerity.
“Letting you go is naturally not a problem…”
The man nodded, his gaze shifting from Lan Xi to Bai Zhi, who had just woken up. He licked his lips, pointed at her, and said with a sinister smile, “Leave this Eastern beauty to me.”
“Haha, boss, I noticed her earlier. Only that girl with a voluptuous figure fits our aesthetic…”
As soon as he spoke, his subordinates burst into laughter, failing to notice that the atmosphere had suddenly turned cold, and white petals seemed to be floating in the air.
Su Jiu turned to look at Bai Zhi, who was holding a flower bud in her hand. Bai Zhi’s face showed no other expression, and intense killing intent flowed in her floral eyes. Those floating petals were indeed caused by the flower bud in Bai Zhi’s hand.
She couldn’t help but find it amusing. Although she couldn’t conveniently fight, those who provoked the “Little Fool” would likely not have a good ending.
“Are these flower petals made by you, little girl? This kind of…”
Someone also noticed the floating petals and looked at Bai Zhi, mockingly reaching out to grab a petal. Unexpectedly, the person instantly froze, their pupils remaining in the same state…
Then came the next person, and soon the petals spread like fear, and the several subordinates they brought with them were all in this state.
“You damn woman, playing dirty, huh?”
The leader also noticed the abnormality of his subordinates and a look of anger appeared on his face. He kicked out with a large foot, directly smashing the table the three of them were sitting at. Wood chips flew everywhere.
His gaze fell on Su Jiu and Lan Xi. Knowing that they couldn’t understand Bear Language, he specifically emphasized in broken Dragon Language:
“I am the leader of the top gang of Hark Gang, Liu Ming the Second. You’d better release them from their constraints!”
