Ch. 301 - Uh... Occupational Illness...

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Just as Chen Shu was setting up his wok and lighting the fire,

terrible beast roars came again from the distance, apparently drawn by the commotion.

Qiao Yue's expression changed drastically. She said:

"Sis Fang Si, there are beast packs closing in from all sides! At least several hundred fierce beasts! And there's..."

"Gah!"

The Demon Eye Crow flapped both wings, a panicked look spreading across its face. Its black pupils stared fixedly ahead.

Boom! Boom!

A terrifying rumbling rang out, as if the very earth were trembling.

Everyone sensed it and looked up.

A giant tree had appeared. Its body stood dozens of meters tall, the lower half of its trunk splitting apart remarkably like a pair of legs as it strode forward.

"Holy shit, a Giant Tree!"

Fang Si immediately let loose with some national treasure-grade profanity.[1]

She truly had not expected to run into something like this.

The others were equally shocked, but there was no time to stand around dumbfounded.

Fang Si looked over and shouted: "Qingyi!"

Ning Qingyi nodded. The Swift Wind Sparrow descended and landed in front of the group.

Clearly, at this moment, the only move was to flee first and ask questions later!

"Chen Pi!"

Fang Si called out, reminding him to get ready to run.

If they dawdled any longer, what ended up in the pot wasn't going to be fierce beasts...

She looked back and saw that Chen Shu was already perched on the Swift Wind Sparrow's back.

When it came to running away, the Nanjiang Bandit was, naturally, quite experienced.

"Awooo!"

And beside him, the Husky wore an utterly wronged expression, a black pot sitting on its back...

"Get on, quick! No time to explain!"

Chen Shu shouted. He had sensed the danger even before the Giant Tree appeared.

Everyone hurried onto the Swift Wind Sparrow. The larger contract spirits were all recalled.

The Swift Wind Sparrow let out a clear cry, spread its wings, and fled into the distance.

Roar! Roar!

The stench from the burning Thousand-Vine Poison Trees was absolutely foul — practically like stink bombs — and had attracted countless fierce beasts.

"That thing just now was called a Giant Tree?"

Chen Shu looked back. He had no information about this type of fierce beast in his mind.

Fang Si said: "Yeah. It's only an ordinary Silver-rank, but kill one of them and countless Giant Trees will hunt you down!"

"Unless you have absolute power, our adventure would pretty much be over."

Qiao Yue and the others let out sighs of relief too. They would rather provoke a Silver Lord than mess with one of those things.

Fang Si asked: "Oh right, Chen Pi, what about the Heavenly Poison Flowers?"

"What flowers?"

Chen Shu widened his eyes, his face full of confusion.

"..."

Fang Si's mouth twitched. She said: "You've got some seriously thick skin, you jerk! Hand them over!"

Just moments ago, right in front of all four of them, he had pocketed the Heavenly Poison Flowers.

And now he turned around and played dumb. Classic you.

Chen Shu was about to talk his way out of it when he noticed four pairs of eyes all staring at him in unison.

He spread his hands and could only admit: "Look, my backpack's big — I can hold them for safekeeping!"

"I think we should let Sis Fang Si hold them!"

Lu Zhining said. The look in her eyes showed she already didn't quite trust Chen Shu anymore.

"Agreed!"

"Agreed!"

The other two nodded as well, deciding to let Fang Si keep them.

"You... you actually don't trust me!"

Chen Shu was heartbroken and heaved a sigh toward the heavens.

To think that after knowing each other for only a few days, his true colors had already been exposed...

The Swift Wind Sparrow flew at extreme speed as the group headed deeper into the dimensional space.

One hour later.

Fang Si said: "There shouldn't be any pursuers now. Let's go down."

The Swift Wind Sparrow landed directly. Without absolute power, it was best not to fly through the sky — after all, danger lurked everywhere here, and they might even run into a Silver-rank Lord.

The Demon Eye Crow let out a cry, its eyes glowing with a deep black light.

In an instant, a black orb materialized and floated upward.

The black orb rotated like a pupil, constantly scanning the surroundings for danger.

"Two thousand meters ahead — Silver-rank fierce beast!"

"Eight hundred meters to the right — five Black Iron-rank!"

"Two thousand four hundred meters to the rear — three Silver-rank variant fierce beasts!"

Qiao Yue was fully focused, continuously receiving information from the Demon Eye Crow.

As a reconnaissance-type contract spirit, it was essentially psychic in nature and could communicate telepathically with its master.

"Chen Shu, you scout for treasure!"

The Demon Eye Crow could only detect the situation with fierce beasts, not treasures.

"..."

Chen Shu's mouth twitched. Sure, he was a bit sensitive when it came to treasure.

But with obstructions everywhere, how the hell was he supposed to see anything!

He said: "Sis Fang Si, I'm a human, not a contract spirit..."

So she was treating him like a reconnaissance spirit now?

"I thought you actually had some kind of psychic power! Let's deal with the Black Iron ones first!"

Fang Si said and headed directly to the right.

Now that they were in the depths, everyone stayed fully alert, not daring to let their guard down. Black Iron Beast Tamers in a Dangerous-level dimensional space carried enormous risk.

And so, the group proceeded cautiously, specifically hunting Black Iron-rank fierce beasts.

Along the way, they gathered quite a few treasures.

Unfortunately, the Demon Eye Crow's reconnaissance skill could not be maintained indefinitely. Every half hour, everyone had to stop and wait for the skill to cool down.

Two weeks passed in the blink of an eye.

Chen Shu was now covered in grime and filth, looking utterly wretched.

Fang Si and the others were the same. Their beautiful faces were obscured, but none of them cared.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A terrifying explosion rang out. A massive Emerald Giant Frog let out a wail and was directly killed.

Chen Shu took out his butcher's cleaver, cut open the Emerald Giant Frog, and extracted its core materials and Beast Taming True Pearl.

It was none other than a Black Iron Three-Star Lord fierce beast!

The group's main objective in coming here was precisely to hunt Black Iron Three-Star Lords.

If they had gone to a Common-level dimensional space, forget Black Iron Three-Star Lords — even Black Iron One-Star Lords were extremely hard to come by.

But a Dangerous-level space was different. Although it contained the terrifying existence of Silver Lords, Black Iron Three-Star Lords were not rare.

"Another five million in the bank!"

Chen Shu stuffed the core materials and Beast Taming True Pearl into a urea bag. Black Iron Three-Star Lords were worth considerably more.

Although Black Iron only had three sub-ranks,

the gaps between them were massive — nothing like the Foundation-level's one through nine.

On the other side, Fang Si very carefully harvested three stalks of Seven Star Grass.

"Chen Pi, a bag!"

Since the materials were different types, storing them together would inevitably cause some medicinal properties to dissipate.

Chen Shu's urea bags had proven invaluable.

No one knew exactly how many urea bags he had in that backpack...

Chen Shu silently pulled out a bag and walked toward Fang Si, a grin spreading across his face.

"Holy shit, just fucking toss it to me!"

Fang Si jolted in alarm. The look on Chen Shu's face made it perfectly clear he was about to bag someone!

"Uh... occupational illness...[2]"

Chen Shu laughed awkwardly and tossed the bag over.

What goddamn occupational illness?!

Qiao Yue and the other two all stared at him. After two weeks together, they had thoroughly seen through Chen Shu...

[1] 国粹 (guócuì): Literally means "national treasure" — the finest, most quintessential cultural artifacts of a nation. In Chinese internet slang, it was sarcastically repurposed to refer to profanity and swearing, the joke being that cursing is so "quintessentially Chinese" it deserves national treasure status. Fang Si unleashing 国粹 here means she let out some truly exquisite swearing upon seeing the Giant Tree.

[2] Occupational illness (职业病, zhíyèbìng): Literally a clinical term for work-related disease, but colloquially refers to professional habits you can't turn off. Chen Shu's "occupation" is being a bandit, so his "occupational illness" is the reflexive urge to put a urea bag over people's heads. The comedy is Fang Si's exasperated "What the hell kind of occupational illness is THAT?!"