novelraw Chapter 49 : Serving a Mouthful of Dog Food
Chapter 49 : Serving a Mouthful of Dog Food
Serving a Mouthful of Dog Food
While the three of them were chatting, the Xiangliu spawn's corpse had already been cleaned up completely. Even the poisonous blood that had splattered on the ground was scrubbed away without a trace.
Seeing this, Gu Dongcang turned to Chu Tianxing. "The corpses of monsters like Xiangliu are basically pure trash with zero value. Not only are they completely useless, but they're also laced with deadly poison and seriously contaminated. Our Eastern Depot has to waste resources just to dispose of this thing properly, so we're basically doing you a favor by cleaning up your mess.
“Therefore, there will be no reward issued to you for this incident. I hope you can understand.”
Chu Tianxing blinked. “Then what about the merit for eradicating the Xiangliu juvenile, preventing the future disaster of it maturing, saving the many innocent women who might have died in its maw, and upholding social stability as well as the safety and lives of the Great Ming’s citizens… How is that to be calculated?”
Gu Dongcang smiled slightly. "We'll put a note in your file. If you ever want to work for the Eastern Depot, those achievements recorded in your file will bring you lots of benefits!"
He waved his hand dismissively. "Call me if anything like this happens again. Goodbye."
He jumped into the car with a flourish, slammed the door shut with a bang, and the black van disappeared so fast that even its taillights vanished in seconds.
Chu Tianxing pouted. “He took off so fast just to get out of paying me… Whatever. I guess I was just being a superhero for free this time.”
And with that, this unexpected encounter came to a complete end.
Although there had been no tangible rewards, he'd learned plenty of secrets and even discovered there might be realms beyond the Astral Qi Realm. Both Chu Tianxing and Qin Ling felt that was a pretty big win.
After that, Chu Tianxing continued escorting Qin Ling home.
The secluded alley where they'd encountered the Xiangliu spawn was actually pretty close to Qin Ling's place. After turning one more corner, they could see her apartment building.
There was a truck parked out front, loaded with watermelons.
The watermelon-selling uncle was chilling under his truck with a fan. When he saw them, he perked up. “Hey, kids! Wanna a melon? Fresh watermelons just hit the market, guaranteed to be sweet enough to melt your heart."
Chu Tianxing turned to Qin Ling. "Want some?"
She thought about it. “I’m in the mood for watermelon juice.”
Chu Tianxing nodded, went over to pick out a big watermelon, weighed it, and paid for it.
And then, he slapped it with his palm.
He asked the watermelon uncle for a straw, then poked a hole in the rind with his finger, stuck the straw in, and handed the watermelon to Qin Ling. “The watermelon juice you wanted.”
Yes, that slap just now was his Heart-Shattering Palm in action.
The watermelon's shell was completely intact, but the flesh inside had been vibrated until it was completely liquefied.
She took it, took a sip, and her eyes widened. “Wow, the rind's completely undamaged, but you really did turn all the flesh into juice. Your control is way more precise than mine."
Chu Tianxing gave a modest smile. “It’s nothing special.”
After taking a few sips, Qin Ling offered the watermelon back to Chu Tianxing. “The juice is really sweet. You want to try some?”
Chu Tianxing said, "Let me ask the uncle for another straw."
"......" Qin Ling's cheeks puffed up like steamed buns as she stared at Chu Tianxing with complete exasperation.
The watermelon uncle nearby also shook his head with a weird expression. Before Chu Tianxing could even ask, he took the initiative. "None left! That was my last straw!"
Chu Tianxing pointed to the small table in front of the uncle. "But there are several more right there."
The uncle waved his hand over the table like a magician, and the straws disappeared. He looked at Chu Tianxing with a straight face. “You’re seeing things, kid. There were never any straws. It was all in your head.”
"......"
Chu Tianxing blinked. Masters truly are hidden among the common people. This uncle’s skill at telling a barefaced lie is something my generation should study and learn from!
"Are you drinking or not?"
Qin Ling held the watermelon out to Chu Tianxing with a deadpan expression.
Chu Tianxing took the watermelon and said, “You’re the one who insisted. Don’t complain later that I got your straw dirty…”
He put the straw in his mouth and started gulping it down.
The corner of Qin Ling's mouth curved up slightly. After Chu Tianxing had several big sips, she took the watermelon back and happily drank from the same straw without any sign of disgust.
The watermelon uncle watched the two of them sharing the same straw, his weathered face full of wistful emotion. "Ah, to be young again..."
They passed the watermelon back and forth, and the whole thing was gone before long.
After that, Chu Tianxing walked Qin Ling to her building entrance and watched her go into the stairwell before heading home.
By the time he got back, it was almost eleven at night.
Chu Tianxing popped a Body-Strengthening Pill, did two rounds of the Muscle-Transforming and Bone-Tempering routine, then sat down to cultivate his Xiantian Art.
He practiced until midnight, then logged online to check his subscription growth, posted a 10,000-word update, browsed the comment section for a bit, shut down his computer, and went back to cultivating.
He kept at it until 3 AM before finally going to sleep.
After just two hours of sleep, he woke up right on time at 5 AM, popped another Body-Strengthening Pill, and did the Muscle-Transforming and Bone-Tempering routine as his morning exercise, followed by more Xiantian Art cultivation.
As his Xiantian Art cultivation grew deeper, his sensitivity to Spiritual Qi became increasingly sharp. He could even distinguish subtle changes in the Spiritual Qi at different times of day.
In his perception, Spiritual Qi was most lively and fresh in the early morning when the sun was about to rise but hadn't yet appeared. It gave off a feeling of thriving vitality.
At noon, when the sun was blazing, the Spiritual Qi became as volatile and scorching as fire, feeling extremely irritable and dangerous.
The scorching feeling within the Spiritual Qi gradually faded when the sun set, but it was still not docile enough.
It wasn't until midnight that the Spiritual Qi became gentle and serene, giving off a sense of tolerance and tranquility.
Chu Tianxing instinctively realized that the most suitable times to absorb spiritual Qi for cultivation were at dawn and midnight.
His cultivation isn’t high enough to completely control Spiritual Qi at other times.
Trying to pull that angry noon-time Spiritual Qi into his body would be like drinking gasoline and lighting a match.
Normally, a martial artist has to get all the way to the peak of the Inner Force Realm before they can even feel the spiritual qi around them. Only then can they try to form a True Qi Seed and actively draw Spiritual Qi into their bodies for cultivation.
Chu Tianxing was nowhere near that. He’d only opened five Principal Meridians and still had a long way to go.
"But... since I can sense Spiritual Qi this early, and even accurately analyze the different properties of Spiritual Qi at different times, maybe I'll be able to actively draw Spiritual Qi into my body and cultivate with it earlier than ordinary Inner Force realm martial artists. Maybe I don't have to wait until I reach the peak of the Inner Force realm."
Chu Tianxing didn't know if his guess was right or not.
For now, sensing it was all he could do.
That omnipresent Spiritual Qi hadn't yet entered his meridians and synchronized with his breathing rhythm while practicing the Xiantian Art.
At seven o'clock, Chu Tianxing finished his morning routine and then did a round of Peach Blossom Island's basic Jade Waves Palm technique to aid digestion before sitting down at his computer to check tonight's elimination match roster.
The match roster had been released early that morning.
Chu Tianxing's junior youth division was split into Groups A and B.
Chu Tianxing was placed in Group A, and his first elimination match opponent was a young contestant named Han Xiao.
"As the top scorer in my group, my opponent can only be a second or third place scorer from other groups... This guy couldn't even win his own group. He’s probably nothing special."
But even though he figured Han Xiao wasn't a huge threat, Chu Tianxing wouldn't underestimate his opponent. He went straight to the tournament website and started looking for videos of Han Xiao’s earlier fights.
While the earlier matches weren't broadcasted on TV, they recorded everything.
The recordings only had one fixed camera angle with no close-up shots, so spotting an opponent's weaknesses through the footage was nearly impossible.
But for Chu Tianxing, this was enough.
He found all nine of Han Xiao’s fights and watched them all, paying extra close attention to the one he lost. By the time he was done, Chu Tianxing had a good read on him.
"This Han Xiao's martial arts are even slightly weaker than Chu Jun whom I faced in the group stage. Even if I’m being modest, I've got a ninety percent chance of beating him. Well, the match is pretty much a sure win, but what am I going to do for my grand entrance? It’s going to be on TV, so my reputation is on the line. As much as I hate all this flashy nonsense, I should probably at least pretend to care…”
He racked his brain for a long time, even recalling the poses of all the cool characters from the TV shows, movies, novels, anime, and games he had ever seen. But there were so many awesome characters to choose from that he couldn’t choose instead...
"Forget it. I’ll come up with a few, and then just pick the right one on the spot!"
Shaking his head to clear away the random thoughts, Chu Tianxing went back to practicing martial arts.
The Legend of the Condor Heroes was already finished, and he still had several hundred thousand words in his stockpile, enough to keep posting for two months.
And he hadn't even squeezed all the potential out of the story yet.
His system worked on a simple rule: bigger impact means more fans, and that translates into bigger rewards. If his book got turned into a TV show or a movie, something that millions of people would see… the payoff would be astronomical.
He was confident it would work. Back in his old world, the story had been adapted a bunch of times and was a huge classic.
If he could make that happen here, and the story’s influence exploded… maybe the skills from the book could finally break out of their low-fantasy shell. Maybe his dream could come true.
The Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms could unleash countless flying dragons, the Finger Flicking Divine Skills could fire meteor-like Qi bullets, the Nine Yin White Bone Claws could tear through iron like paper, the palm techniques could catch bullets, and the Maiden of Yue sword style could cut through an army...