"It’s an improvement of about a third!" Qin Ziwu said excitedly.
"Not bad."
Qin Ziwen nodded. The enhancement was even more effective than he’d imagined.
"What kind of can was that, big bro? My maximum strength actually increased!"
"It’s not a permanent increase. It’s temporary."
"Huh?" Half the excitement instantly vanished from Qin Ziwu’s face, and his shoulders slumped.
He had been overjoyed, thinking his strength had permanently increased by that much.
"Keep testing. See how long it lasts."
"Oh..."
Leaving the Martial Arts Arena, Qin Ziwen mused to himself. ’I wonder if the strength boost is a flat amount or a percentage. If it’s a percentage, is there a cap?’
As his mind raced, Qin Ziwen pulled himself back to the present. ’There aren’t many of the red cans.’
’I can’t use them all for testing. The drop rate for these cans is low. It’s best to save them for actual combat.’
’As long as I can confirm it works on the Extraordinary, it won’t be a waste.’
...
「Wanfu Grand Restaurant.」
After midnight, the patrons in the grand restaurant had nearly all departed.
The restaurant fell silent.
In the pitch-black restaurant, only a few small candles burned at the turns of the staircase, providing scant illumination.
A group of shadowy figures appeared in silence.
"Everyone knows the mission, right? First, find the Marshal’s location. Best case scenario, we rescue him."
"But we don’t know where the Marshal is."
"Marshal Xue is definitely in this building. The dining hall is downstairs, so the inn must be upstairs. Let’s head up. Our lord said that whoever rescues the Marshal will be rewarded with ten thousand gold."
The group whispered amongst themselves. Soon, one of them began fumbling through the darkness, slowly making his way up the stairs.
"Is this the place?"
"I think so."
"Everyone, stay sharp and be careful. I heard there are monsters in here."
The man at the very rear of the group moved the slowest. Watching his companions tiptoe ahead, his eyes darted about. He didn’t move forward. Instead, he began to back away, his movements light and cautious.
Suddenly, his back hit something solid, like a wall.
The man’s pupils dilated. ’We walked straight in,’ he thought. ’We didn’t make any turns. How can there be a wall behind me?’
A dreadful thought struck him, and his body began to tremble uncontrollably. He took two deep breaths and slowly turned his head.
WHOOSH—
Before he could fully turn, a fierce gust of wind rushed at him from behind!
"AHHHH!!!!"
A bloodcurdling scream shattered the darkness and the silence.
In an instant, the entire restaurant was flooded with light from a source high above.
Vague silhouettes holding crossbows stood poised against the pillars, looking down from on high. The air was thick with killing intent.
The black-clad men, who had been tiptoeing upstairs, all froze. Cold sweat beaded on their foreheads as they stood rooted to the spot.
One of them looked back and let out a terrified scream.
On the staircase behind them, a figure lay in a pool of blood.
His entire upper body had been reduced to a pile of gore.
Even more horrifying, standing directly behind the body in the pool of blood, was a tall figure who regarded them with the indifferent gaze of a god.
"Mon... Monster!"
"How can this be? How did this happen?"
The men collapsed to the ground, weeping and begging for their lives.
"Who sent you?"
A grim voice echoed from the floor above.
By the fourth-floor railing, Xue Wang’s expression was grim. ’It seems someone wants me dead.’
"Marshal Xue, we’re here to save you!" one of the men below shouted.
"Hah." Xue Wang scoffed. ’I never gave such an order.’
’I’m still in their headquarters. Sending men here would only put me in more danger.’
He now understood. These people just wanted supplies, not his life. Since they couldn’t get to the Great Yong, he was worth more to them alive.
From the crowd below, a man suddenly cried out, "Marshal, it was—"
Before he could finish, the man beside him drew a dagger and lunged for his throat.
The dagger stopped in mid-air. A large hand, moving with impossible speed, had shot out and caught his wrist.
Mogu lowered its head, gazing at him without expression.
The men were terrified. Not a single one of them had seen it move.
It was as if a phantom had suddenly, mysteriously materialized right beside them.
"Argh!" The man with the dagger shrieked as Mogu’s fingers closed around his arm, crushing it like soft clay. With a casual flick of its wrist, Mogu lifted the man into the air, where he exploded into a bloody mist.
"Marshal, it was General Wang who sent us!" the man who had just been attacked with the dagger shouted hastily. "General Wang said you were in great danger here, so he sent us to rescue you."
Hearing those two words, "General Wang," Xue Wang’s triangular eyes narrowed, a vicious glint appearing in their depths. ’Good, good, very good. I’ve only been gone a day, and my subordinates are already this impatient. So eager to make their move.’
Xue Wang’s first instinct was to borrow troops from the restaurant’s owners, but the thought died when he remembered they couldn’t go to the Great Yong.
Xue Wang turned to the man beside him. "General Cao, could you leave a few of them alive? I’ll have them take a message back for me. This whole affair was caused by the foolishness of my subordinates. I’m willing to offer ten thousand shi of grain as compensation."
Cao Biansheng waved a hand. "Leave a few of them alive."
...
"Brother Long~"
The surface of the sea rippled, and a small, lone fishing boat bobbed on the water not far from shore.
Yang Long sat cross-legged at the bow, clad in a straw raincoat with a bamboo hat pulled low over his eyes. He chewed on a tender twig, leaning boredly on his fish spear.
His gaze traveled over the sparkling sea to the distant beach.
"Brother Long—" The voice was faint, torn apart by the wind.
He spat out the twig, straightened up, and squinted toward the shore.
Several small black dots bounced on the beach, waving their arms like windmills.
’What are those little rascals yelling about?’ he muttered, cocking an ear to listen.
The sea breeze carried their voices, and this time Yang Long could hear them more clearly.
"Get... away..."
’Get... away?’
’Could there be something under the water?’
A chill went down Yang Long’s spine. He instinctively glanced at the water next to his boat. It was clear enough to see a few strands of seaweed swaying gently. There was nothing there.
But just then, a sudden chill ran down his back.
The sun overhead had disappeared.
A massive shadow had fallen over him, swallowing the small boat whole.
He slowly turned his head. An impossibly massive ship had silently come up behind him. Its black hull was like a moving fortress wall, or a continent that had risen from the sea.
The hull was enormous, yet it made no sound as it sailed.
It reminded him of Chairman Qin’s Ghost Ship.
He looked up. On the deck, a large black flag billowed in the wind, emblazoned with a crimson Divine Bird.
The bow was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with people.
A rope with a hanging basket was thrown down from the bow.
Yang Long didn’t want to go up, but he felt he had no choice.
...
...