CHAPTER 32: CHAPTER 31: HUMAN TRAFFICKERS (PART 2)

Watching the three human traffickers groaning in pain on the ground, Li Xing felt no sympathy, and she pressed the tip of her foot onto the fingers of the squinty-eyed one, grinding them.

"Ahhhhh—, spare me, hero, spare me!"

"Where were you planning to take me?"

Squinty-eyes hissed in pain, his voice trembled as he replied, "No, no, we were just playing a joke on you."

Li Xing applied more pressure with her foot, and as the fingers flattened, squinty-eyes finally couldn’t hold on and cried out, "I’ll talk, I’ll talk—!"

"There’s a smuggling organization that buys people at high prices. They don’t care about gender, age, or appearance; there’s just one requirement: they must have double black traits. One double black can sell for twenty million space credits."

"Everyone on the street knows about this, and many are tempted, but double blacks are too rare, very hard to come by. The three of us indeed just arrived in Datang. We hadn’t planned on kidnapping anyone, but we happened to see the hero shopping alone, and she was a double black, so we had a spur-of-the-moment idea..."

Twenty million space credits could support a family of three for a lifetime of luxury, what kind of organization is so generous?

"What’s the name of this smuggling organization? Where is its base?"

"It’s... it’s..."

Squinty-eyes was beaten badly by Li Xing, losing a lot of blood, and as he spoke, his voice was getting weaker and weaker. At this moment, he was merely moving his lips but no sound came out. Li Xing, eager to know the answer, leaned closer to squinty-eyes.

Just then, a sudden change occurred; squinty-eyes took out a green bean pod-like thing and squeezed it towards Li Xing’s face.

A puff of white smoke sprayed out from the pod. Li Xing was shocked and leaned back to dodge, but the white smoke was relentless and was about to touch her skin. At this critical moment, a water ball suddenly appeared, enveloping the white smoke.

Yang Zhou stood not far away, arms crossed, quietly observing the scene.

"Teacher Yang? Why are you here?"

"Isn’t it because I was worried you might be tricked? So, I came to have a look."

Ever since he knew that Li Xing had picked up a good weapon from a street vendor’s shop, Yang Zhou frequently visited the commercial street to treasure hunt. Today, by chance, he spotted Li Xing walking into an alley with three men following her from a distance.

Yang Zhou was concerned, so he quietly followed to check things out. He saw that Li Xing was handling the situation well, so he didn’t intervene until squinty-eyes pulled out the pod and launched a sneak attack, at which point he showed himself.

With a cold glance at the three traffickers, Yang Zhou flicked his fingers, and the water ball enveloping the white smoke exploded overhead. The three of them were soaked, fainting in unison. It seemed the smoke was a strong narcotic.

"Your skills are good, but your vigilance needs improvement."

Li Xing nodded; the sneak attack by squinty-eyes truly caught her off guard. She needed to train harder to ensure her physical reactions were quick enough in critical moments.

"You should go back now; I’ll hand these three over to the Guard Team."

After Li Xing left, Yang Zhou dialed a number.

"Hello, I have three people here I think you’ll find interesting—"

——————

Before sunset, Li Xing rode a tricycle, carrying the now-legitimized Big-mouth Flower home.

"The big girl is back!" Li Yi was in the yard practicing sword skills. He had passed the recruitment assessment and would become a combat course teacher after the school term started, recently helping Yang Zhou with lesson plans, researching sword techniques daily.

At one glance, he noticed the flower pot floating behind Li Xing, with the ugly flower probing like venom, and Li Yi shivered, nearly dropping his broadsword.

"What is that!"

"My captured combat spirit pet, it’s registered."

Li Yi sneered, "It’s really ugly, don’t let Aunt Anna see it, or she’ll puke."

Big-mouth Flower: ... I’m tired of all this swearing, let’s just end it all.

Li Xing chuckled dryly a few times, directing the flower pot upstairs into her room, then called back to Li Yi for help with today’s groceries–low-tier Terra-hog moved to the kitchen.

It wasn’t that Li Xing was unwilling to bring out mid-tier Star Beast Meat for them to eat, but she feared being exposed. Anyway, the Spiritual Pendant space keeps things fresh and unspoiled, so she’s saving it until Li Yi can accept her hunting deeper inside. These two Terra-hogs were hunted on the way back to the city. Though not high-ranked, their meat is tender and fatty, perfect for dinner.

"Wow, these two are really plump; my Xing Er is really impressive!"

"Come on, I was just lucky."

"Humble, just like me!"

The father and daughter sat on small stools, skinning and deboning the Terra-hogs, keeping the meat for eating and sending the hides for recycling.

"Xing, be extra careful in the woods recently. I heard from the Guard Team there’s a Thunder Beast near the outpost."

"Huh?" How come she didn’t know a Thunder Beast appeared at the abandoned outpost? "Has anyone seen it?"

Li Yi shook his head, his hands working briskly, "That Thunder Beast is very cunning; it hasn’t shown itself. But Xiao Liu told me that he swears there’s a Thunder Beast hiding in the abandoned outpost. Moreover, it seems to be a Thunder Beast in mating season, foul-tempered, often marking territory with explosive thunder fire, with about twenty explosions a day."

"..." How coincidental? Her alchemy explosion today basically matched that frequency.

Li Yi: "Xiao Liu sent a Flying Monitor inside. The walls there were blown black, with undigested grass stalks and rotting leaves spewed everywhere. Do you see how dangerous that thing is, blowing itself sick when it goes berserk!"

"..."

But her failed elixir’s potion made Li Yi’s description sound so gross.

Li Yi: "Xing, you’re much stronger now, but compared to a high-tier Star Beast, you’re still a novice. Never do anything reckless; just stick to the outskirts of the forest for now. Stay away from the abandoned outpost, and run if you’re in danger. Nothing is more important than life, got it!"

"...Got it."

Big-mouth stole the Spirit Stone, breaking the Shielding Array. She thought no one was in the wild, so she didn’t set another one. Who knew Guard Team would be around? She’d have to be more careful from now on to avoid leaving traces even in the wild.

"Yi Ge! Come quickly—!"

Li Yi: "Hey—! On my way!"

Aunt Anna called hurriedly, so Li Yi quickly tossed aside the Terra-hog, not even wiping his hands, and dashed towards the backyard, Li Xing right behind him.

"What happened?" Seeing that Aunt Anna was standing safely in the garden, both Li Yi and Li Xing breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh, Xiao Xing is back? Perfect, come help me check if this Purple Jade Fruit has seeded?"

Li Xing was startled, then quickly washed her hands and moved closer to examine the Purple Jade Fruit plant in the vegetable patch.

Entirely purple Spirit Plant, bearing clusters of white fist-sized fruits, their smooth surfaces glistening like jade. When fully ripe, peeling the skin reveals flesh that, when dried, resembles flour in both appearance and texture.

Normally, seeds bought from the store can only be planted for one season, and they certainly won’t seed. This is the seller’s way of protecting their interests. But on the top of this Purple Jade Fruit plant, there really were six small bright red seeds, each the size of a fingernail.

Li Xing could feel the vibrant life force emanating from the Spirit Plant, confirming these seeds were all viable living seeds.

"They truly are seeds."

Could the Spirit Gathering Array purify plants, enhancing their level?

"Aunt Anna, once these seeds mature, we can experiment to see if they can be planted. If they grow, we won’t need to buy Purple Jade Fruits anymore."

Li Xing guessed that if the second generation of Spirit Plants could grow, the Chaotic Power they contained would be minimal, sparing them even the purification process.

"...Great!"

Aunt Anna trembled with excitement; being able to grow seed-bearing Purple Jade Fruit was nothing short of a miracle.