Starry Sky Professional Directory 15
Chapter 15: Ruthless (Seeking More Readers)
2024-06-29
Chapter 15: Ruthless (Seeking More Readers)
Another world.
Inside a temporary camp.
Fang Xing opened a used smart computer he’d found in the secondhand market.
“Begin data transfer!”
His ten fingers flew across the keyboard, and images appeared on the screen. These included a large number of videos shot by a drone resembling a bird, as well as footage and audio recorded by insect-shaped surveillance devices.
“Hmm, it’s definitely an ancient agrarian society…their farming techniques are very primitive.”
The surveillance footage showed mostly farming. Watching the ragged “farmers” toil under the sun, sweat dripping from their brows, Fang Xing fell silent.
Because these “farmers,” at minimum, were all first or second-rank Martial Artists, with the occasional Jadeite Level Martial Artist among them!
Fortunately, the local Jadeite Level Martial Artists’ vigilance was generally low, or perhaps they’d never seen simulation surveillance equipment before, so they hadn’t noticed anything amiss.
These farmer-Martial Artists spent most of their time silently working, their faces numb and lifeless. Only rarely would they exchange a few words.
After so many days of collecting data, from lip movements to pronunciation, the information was complete.
Fang Xing’s next task was to have the computer consolidate the data, and then learn this new language!
‘Too bad there’s no language learning device, but I shouldn’t need much time to learn this language…’
Having been a top student in a standardized education system, Fang Xing was quite confident in his ability.
The cultivation of the Martial Dao is essentially a form of evolution; one’s brain’s memory capacity and mental agility significantly increase with each advancement in realm!
“Here, Martial Artists can only farm, haul manure, or venture into the wilderness?”
Watching the used computer organize and analyze the data, Fang Xing scanned the surveillance footage, trying to understand the Martial Artist ecosystem of this world. He had seen Martial Artists farming, transporting manure, and adventuring. Most Martial Artists lived poorly, only those at the Jadeite Level enjoying a slightly better life.
“Beyond that, there are people of higher status…”
Fang Xing opened a surveillance clip filmed from a great distance. It showed a slightly overweight middle-aged man dressed in silk robes, like a wealthy landlord, collecting supplies from house to house: rice, ore, herbs, even the crystal sand Fang Xing himself possessed…
In the end, he loaded several large carts full of goods and had them escorted by Jadeite Level Martial Artists. However, before this plump landlord, these Martial Artists clearly held a lower status, behaving politely, even obsequiously.
This wasn’t purely a difference in status, but more likely a difference in strength!
This short, fat landlord seemed capable of killing several Jadeite Level Martial Artists!
“Talismans…”
Fang Xing recalled the talisman used by the leader of the four-person adventuring team, as well as the image of the Iron Body, and formed a judgment in his mind.
“The top priority is to learn the local language, then change my clothes and try to make contact…”
He glanced at the used computer screen. The decryption progress marked as ‘Alien Language’ was still under 10%.
“There’s still time. Eh?”
At that moment, the initial drone Fang Xing had deployed for surveillance transmitted another image.
The image showed a woman, her clothes torn and her body covered in blood, fleeing desperately. Judging by her direction, she would reach the temporary camp in a few minutes!
“Hmm? Another victim of that wild boar?”
Fang Xing frowned.
The wild beast nearby was incredibly powerful. Besides the Jadeite Level leader of the four-person team who barely escaped using a talisman, the other herbalists who encountered it were all killed without a trace—a true herbalist killer.
Even the herbalists’ corpses ended up in the wild boar’s belly, leaving no remains.
Without a doubt, this woman was also a herbalist, driven to desperation by the wild boar.
“But why is she running towards me?”
Fang Xing felt a headache coming on.
“Judging by her speed and build, she’s probably below the third rank, a second-rank Martial Artist…she shouldn’t have any dangerous items on her either; otherwise, even a single talisman would have prevented her from being pushed to this point by the wild boar.”
He sighed, covered himself in protective clothing, leaving no opening for his eyes, ears, nose, or mouth, and picked up his electric baton: “Let’s go take a look…”
…
Whoosh!
A figure flickered, Xue Yuling using her light footwork to move past a thicket of thorns.
She was tall and slender, with fair skin and long legs that had once captivated even the Immortal Master. If she hadn’t been in trouble, she wouldn’t have ventured out alone to gather herbs.
“Damn it, I was tricked!”
“The purchase price of ‘Zhu Long Grass’ in Qinglinfang City has risen, making harvesting even more dangerous…those above don’t want to give us any leeway at all.”
Xue Yuling gritted her teeth.
Competition in the market was fierce, with some female Immortal Masters specializing in seductive arts reportedly joining the fray. While doing some business was possible, it barely kept her from starving. Buying Spirit Rice and pills to improve her martial arts was impossible.
Therefore, she had no choice but to come. Who could have predicted that she would encounter a wild boar beast that seemed to have increased in strength? Her team was completely wiped out, and she herself was left in a miserable state.
‘Almost there…if I just run a little further, there’s a river. Then, I can escape by jumping into the river!’
Xue Yuling wasn’t sure if the wild boar beast was still behind her, but having suffered hardship since childhood, she always considered the worst-case scenario. The rivers in the wild were extremely dangerous, but they could wash away her scent—it was her only chance of survival!
Suddenly!
She saw the grass ahead move, and a silver humanoid monster jumped out!
“What the hell is that?”
Xue Yuling let out a cry, her ruthless nature, honed in the lower classes, showing without hesitation. With a flick of her wrist, three cold points flew like stars, striking Fang Xing’s chest.
“Hidden weapons?”
Fang Xing was startled, then saw three darts land, their sharp blades gleaming with a blue light, clearly coated with poison.
Fortunately, he was wearing a nano-protective suit, which prevented any damage and absorbed much of the force. He only felt a slight tightness in his chest.
“You dare attack me first? In any world, this is self-defense!”
Fang Xing shouted, bringing his electric baton down.
“What strange sound?”
Xue Yuling couldn’t understand Fang Xing’s language, but that didn’t stop her from producing an iron judge’s pen, blocking the electric baton. Her action was precise. The pen tip trembled slightly, aimed at several major acupoints on Fang Xing’s body, clearly concealing a powerful counterattack.
This ‘Splashing Wind Pen’ technique would be a top-tier martial art in the mortal world’s martial arts circles!
Clang!
Feeling the force from the judge’s pen, Xue Yuling relaxed: “This monster is so weak…”
But the next moment, she was horrified to see an electric spark flicker on the other’s black stick!
A terrifying current followed, sending her flying backward, falling to the ground and convulsing.
“Blood-refined artifact? You actually have a blood-refined artifact?”
Xue Yuling looked at the humanoid monster approaching, confirming that it was also human. She immediately cried out, “Please spare me…”
Combined with her delicate features, she gave off an air of pitiful helplessness.
“What are you saying? I don’t understand!”
Of Fang Xing’s words, he could only vaguely make out the character ‘you,’ but he understood she was begging for mercy.
Unfortunately…
“The prettier the woman, the more trouble…so you’d better die!”
Fang Xing struck with his baton.
Zzzt!
A silver-white current erupted from the tip of the electric baton, accurately striking Xue Yuling’s forehead.
“This merchant is a liar. It said it could electrocute an elephant, yet this woman can still talk…I’ll shock her a few more times, just in case.”
Fang Xing poked her with the electric baton, confirming that she was indeed dead, then put on rubber gloves and searched her body.
Unknown to the woman, he had the drone’s all-seeing eye and knew that the wild beast had long since given up the chase.
It was ironic that the ‘path to survival’ she had chosen was actually a dead end.
I wonder if she would be angry enough to die again if she came back to life?
“Wait…was that my first kill? Should I be throwing up?”
Fang Xing realized this belatedly and took a deep breath to calm down.
Well…
Perhaps the time travel was too unbelievable, combined with the memories of his previous life, suffering the hardships of being a bio-engineered human…
In short, he found that he wasn’t feeling particularly anxious or afraid…
After several deep breaths, only calmness remained, a calmness with which he began to search the body.
“Nice figure…”
“Loot…a pair of judge’s pens, a purse, three jade bottles…eh? There’s even a book?”
Fang Xing picked up a book.
The paper quality was ordinary, thread-bound, the pages yellowed and showing signs of worm damage and dirt. On the cover, four characters of the alien language, which Fang Xing didn’t recognize, were written in elegant script.
“Good stuff…”
He didn’t mind at all: “This is excellent research data. I’ll give it to the computer for analysis; it will greatly speed up the decryption process!”
As for the purse?
Opening it, it only contained three grains of sand identical to those he had found before.
“It seems…like a form of currency. So, I have seven units of currency now?”
Fang Xing stroked his chin and looked at the jade bottles.
Two of the bottles had their seals broken. He didn’t dare smell them, let alone swallow them. He planned to test them later with poison test strips and a lab rat.
The last bottle had a wax seal, appearing intact and unopened. Three alien characters were inscribed on the bottle, but he still couldn’t understand them.
‘How high is the probability that an unopened bottle contains poison?
‘If it’s a trap, would the people of this world eat loot taken from their enemies?’
(End of Chapter)
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