Chapter 135 - The First Return

“The coast is clear,” Wen Jifei called.

The group knew that heading straight back to the cave after what had just happened would have been foolish, so they had simply hiked through the mountains for a while. Only after shaking off any potential tails did they finally stop in a clearing in the middle of a dense forest.

“Quick, take it out. I’ve never even seen one of those things before.” Wen Jifei rubbed his hands together excitedly.

“Yeah, just a peek, Little Qing.” He Tangtang crowded in too. “It’s gotta be worth forty or fifty energy cores, right? How big is it?”

Even Shen Yixiu leaned expectantly forward toward Han Qingyu in her full suit of armor. “Can I touch it?”

Han Qingyu stood there in silent thought.

Meanwhile, Yin Caixin was off to the side, murmuring to herself with a thoughtful expression, “Oh, so he did get it. He just hid it to keep people from changing their minds and starting a fight.”

Then she squeezed past Shen Yixiu’s shoulder to peer up impatiently at Han Qingyu as well.

Should I tell them?

Han Qingyu honestly didn’t mind telling the other three. After all, he’d already told Rust Girl about the gas cylinder thing. Not to mention, the only reason Wen Jifei didn’t know was a matter of timing, nothing more.

The problem was Yin Caixin. Not only was she a foreigner, but they also weren’t that close to her yet. These two factors alone were reason enough to exclude her.

The fact that she was a girl, arguably pretty, and probably dim, were all completely irrelevant. None of that affected Han Qingyu’s judgment in the slightest.

“There’s nothing to show you. I don’t have it.” Han Qingyu spread his hands with a helpless expression. “Why did you all assume I got it?”

Wen Jifei’s entire upper body straightened as he bugged his eyes. “Obviously! Given how you normally operate, would you have suggested the whole leave-it-to-luck thing if you weren’t confident you could get it? Nobody’s buying that.”

“Exactly.” He Tangtang nodded. “You wouldn’t have just walked away like that if you didn’t have it. You would’ve pinned every single person down and strip-searched them.”

Han Qingyu ignored those two idiots and turned to Shen Yixiu, hoping for a vote of confidence.

“I... I thought you’d try your luck first, but if someone else got it, you’d flip out and start fighting,” Rust Girl admitted. “I was ready to jump in.”

So, Rust Girl’s read of him was the same. She also thought things back there would not have ended so peacefully if Han Qingyu had not gotten it.

Han Qingyu was speechless.

Is that really the impression I give off?

Only Yin Caixin raised her hand. “I sort of believe you. You didn’t have the time or the opportunity to hide it. And how would you even do it, with that many people watching?”

“There were ways. I actually thought about it?,” Wen Jifei said. “If it were me, I’d press my face right up to the water and yell as loud as I could while groping around. I’d shove it in my mouth from underwater if I grabbed it. If I couldn’t hold it in my mouth, I’d just swallow it. Then later...”

Wen Jifei paused. “Wait. What if someone actually did that?!”

“Drop it, Plague Chicken.” He Tangtang smacked Wen Jifei’s shoulder with the back of his hand and whispered, “Keep going, and Little Qing will go back to slice every one of them open so he can check. Most of them are allies. That wouldn’t be a good look.”

Laughter finally derailed the topic. Han Qingyu let them laugh for a while.

“Alright, you can stop theorizing. There really was nothing down there. Now, let’s get moving. The most important thing now is finding another one,” Han Qingyu said, taking the lead and setting off.

He had said another one.

Wen Jifei caught it, but figured Han Qingyu had decided to keep it secret for a reason, so he let it go.

Did Little Qing discover something? Is Yin Caixin actually a spy? Is it possible for a spy to be this dim? Actually... that would be pretty terrifying.

***

The trial grounds were enormous, and the terrain was overwhelmingly complex.

Every team prioritized stealth, avoiding large groups, and staying on the move while watching their backs.

Han Qingyu’s group walked from morning until dusk, but still failed to pick up any leads on another metal core.

“If this keeps up, we’ll have no choice but to cut down the Sharpie at the end and claim that metal core along with the bonus one as the prize.”

The raw metal core Han Qingyu had consumed couldn’t be given back, nor could the absorbed energy be poured into an energy core. Only the liquid source energy from blue crystal cores could be extracted back out.

For Rust Girl and the others’ survival and growth, he couldn’t just absorb everything directly. He needed to hold on to at least one or two metal cores to have refined into blue crystal cores.

He’d already asked around about this. Metal cores won in competitions and trials like this one only incurredhad a ten percent processing and materials fee for the Research Institute to refine. It wasn’t like the regular arrangement where the military took the bulk of a platoon’s spoils.

Ten percent still stung, but it was bearable.

“Come look at this, Little Qing.” Wen Jifei lifted his chin to indicate the area directly below them.

The five of them were fanned out in a line, lying in the grass.

Han Qingyu shifted over and took a peek.

Down in the distance, people from the Alphonse family were collecting bodies.

This was the fourth day of the trial. Reportedly, more than thirty people had died in that time—a five percent mortality rate.

Han Qingyu wasn’t sure if that was considered high. One could argue it wasn’t, but this was a mere trial, not an actual battle. These kinds of casualties seemed a waste.

In the distance, two figures dressed in black silently placed the bodies into bags and carried them away.

It was perfectly reasonable for the hosts to handle body recovery, yet Han Qingyu couldn’t shake the inexplicable feeling that something was amiss. He couldn’t put his finger on exactly what was bothering him, though.

In the end, he could only redirect his attention back to the metal cores, though with more caution than before.

Over decades of many trials, the vast majority of participants had always left safely, with someone winning and claiming the prize nearly every time.

“Let’s head back,” Han Qingyu called.

The sky was getting dark, so they headed back to their new cave.

On the way, they passed near the first cave they’d used before.

Everyone stopped for a moment.

“Maybe we should just give it back, Little Qing. That spear seems to mean a lot to him,” Shen Yixiu said after watching from afar for a while.

The figure in black was combing through the bushes on the slope across from them over and over. He alternated between standing motionless to study the ground and crawling under the scrub to poke around, popping back out somewhere else after a while.

“He hasn’t been searching all day, has he?” Yin Caixin asked.

“He’s probably afraid of what that Auntie will do to him if he goes back without it.” Wen Jifei sighed.

Wu Xu’s status in their group was evident from that morning. Not to mention, Wu Xu had been left behind to hold the line alone against twenty men, and his teammates hadn’t even looked back once.

Wen Jifei couldn’t understand it. It was a shame, too. Still, it was not their business, and there was no way to interfere.

“Is that guy stupid or what?!” He Tangtang felt indignant on Wu Xu’s behalf. “Or did that woman feed him some kind of slow-acting poison, and he needs to go back to her for regular doses of the antidote to survive?”

That was standard martial arts novel logic, but in reality, of course, no such thing existed.

Nobody could understand it.

With his skills, if Wu Xu went to the Azure Coalition and got fitted with a ninth-gen device, every platoon would be fighting tooth and nail to recruit him by the time he graduated from training.

Han Qingyu signaled the others to stay hidden on this side of the slope before descending alone, crossing over, and climbing up the other side.

Wu Xu heard movement and turned around, but when he saw it was Han Qingyu, he lowered the blades in his hands slightly.

There was no hostility in Han Qingyu’s body language. He even stopped at a distance and stood there for a few seconds before asking, “Found it?”

Wu Xu shook his head.

“Actually, I lied to you this morning,” Han Qingyu admitted truthfully. “I didn’t throw the spear away... Don’t get worked up yet. You couldn’t beat me right now anyway. Answer a few questions, and I’ll give it back.”

He stepped closer with every word.

Wu Xu stared thoughtfully at him for a moment, then nodded.

“Your name is Wu... Xu? Which Xu?”

“Heart blood.”[1]

“Oh, so Xu, as in survivor’s benefits.”[2] Han Qingyu nodded.

It wasn’t a character people would typically choose for a name.

After a brief pause, he asked, “Who are you, exactly? Can you tell me?”

Wu Xu started to shake his head, then stopped himself and hesitantly said, “I’m a battle slave of the Yu clan.”

Battle slave? Han Qingyu blinked, then asked several more questions. It was hard to accept the answers. This is the nineties. People like this still exist? This is beyond inhumane.

“Any interest in joining the Azure Coalition?” he asked directly.

Wu Xu shook his head.

“Alright.” Han Qingyu stood up. He didn’t think he could change the thinking and the logic of someone who’d been educated and bound since childhood. It was regrettable, but there was nothing he could do. “I can’t take you back to where I’m hiding, and this spot is too far to walk back. How about this? Walk with us for a stretch. Once we’re closer, I’ll go get it and bring it back to you.”

Wu Xu gazed at him for a few seconds before finally nodding. He waited for Han Qingyu to walk ahead, then followed at a distance of twenty or thirty meters. Even when Shen Yixiu and the others appeared, he showed no wariness or change in posture. He just kept following.

In the end, they left Wu Xu waiting at a river valley while Han Qingyu went back to the cave alone to retrieve the black spear. He tossed it back to Wu Xu when he returned.

This was the first time Han Qingyu had ever returned something he’d taken. If there were a reason, he couldn’t quite articulate it. Perhaps it was simply because Wu Xu had the look of someone surviving in spite of his tough life.

“That medicine. You should use it,” Han Qingyu said.

“Mn. Thank you.” Wu Xu decided to use the medicine in his pocket. Han Qingyu’s demeanor had convinced him that this man wouldn’t resort to underhanded tricks.

Wu Xu paused, then raised the black spear toward Han Qingyu and added, “Actually, this spear is said to be cursed. It’s called Binggu.”[3]

After saying that, he crouched down and seemed to set something on the ground. He then turned in silence and disappeared into the dark forest, carrying his allegedly cursed black spear.

Han Qingyu waited until he was gone before walking over.

On the ground was a silver coin.

It looked very old and had a hole punched through it, as though it had been worn on a string.

“Is this payment for the medicine, or a thank-you?”

Despite being worth a hundred thousand on paper, the ever-thrifty Han Qingyu still picked up the silver coin. He blew on it, but didn’t notice anything special, so he just slipped it into his pocket.

1. 恤 (xù) means compassion or sympathy, but the character itself is made up of the character for heart 心 (xīn) and blood 血 (xuè/xiě). ☜

2. Referencing the latter half of 抚恤 (fǔ xù) ☜

3. 病 (bìng) means sick, while 孤 (gū) can mean lonely, orphaned, or orphan. ☜