Monster Paradise

It was the beginning of summer and the sun rose in the east of Wanbao City before 6 a.m.

Watching the sky turn bright outside the window, Lin Huang and Xiao Mo realized that it was already morning.

“Let’s take a walk outside and have breakfast,” Lin Huang suggested after looking at the time and realizing it was not even 6 a.m. and since both of them were not sleepy at all. “There’s this breakfast place nearby that’s run by a couple. They have really good fried buns and fried dumplings that are absolutely delicious and really popular. There’ll be people queuing past 7 a.m. every day. They begin the preparations at 6 a.m. Let’s wash up and it’ll open when we arrive.”

Naturally, Xiao Mo had no objection to that. He hardly had the opportunity to go out. As a Purple Crow member, he would basically stay in when he had no mission. He would focus on the mission whenever he was out, so he had no time to enjoy the view outside at all. Now that his identity was different and it was his first time in Wanbao City, it was only natural for him to be so excited with all the fresh and new sights.

After quickly washing up, Lin Huang brought along the Nightmare Tapir, the Ninetails Lynx, and Bloody when they headed out.

Many cultivators brought their pets out in Wanbao City. Most of them were not Imperial Censors; they merely spent money to buy pets that had already been tamed. The two God Figurine’s Combat Souls that Lin Huang brought along did not catch any attention. However, Nightmare Tapir’s rather unique appearance would attract some occasional stare.

The breakfast place that Lin Huang talked about was less than a kilometer from the hotel that he was staying at. They arrived in a couple of minutes as they conversed along the way.

The couple had just opened the store. Even the pots had just been put on the stove. They had worked out their specific responsibilities. One was filled the buns while the other wrapped the dumplings.

Lin Huang picked an al-fresco table casually outside the store and sat down. He and Xiao Mo were their first customers.

“Why are you so early today, young sir?” greeted the lady boss while smiling. Lin Huang was clearly a regular here.

“Oh yeah, we woke up early today.” Lin Huang smiled and nodded.

“You brought a friend today.” The lady boss peeped at Xiao Mo. She smiled happily when she noticed that it was a handsome man.

“That’s right. I told him that you guys have delicious fried buns and fried dumplings, so I brought him here.”

“You guys are too early today. You might need to wait for a while,” said the boss, feeling a little bad.

“Don’t worry about it. We’re not in a rush.”

Lin Huang chatted with the couple for a while after he ordered. Then, they began cooking.

Xiao Mo lowered his voice and asked while feeling a little confused, “The boss and lady boss are ordinary people, am I right? Do you usually talk to them like this?”

“More or less. They usually have many customers. It’s rare for us to talk so much today. We usually only make small talk,” Lin Huang answered, “Is there anything wrong?”

Xiao Mo fell into silence for a moment before speaking again, “We basically don’t talk to ordinary people.”

Lin Huang recalled that they did indeed teach the members of the Purple Crow training camp that they should keep their distance and not communicate as much as possible.

“The Purple Crow limits the members’ contact with the outside world except when they’re on a mission. It’s mainly to prevent the members from being influenced by the outside world to have their perceptions changed. Now, what you need most is to change your perception. You don’t have to tie yourself down with the Purple Crow’s values.”

“But most of the information you get from talking to them is largely useless.” Xiao Mo habitually analyzed and categorized the information from the conversation following the Purple Crow standard.

“If people only speak 100% useful information with nothing unnecessary, how boring would it be?” Lin Huang said while smiling, “The useless information makes the conversation colorful and warm. It makes people’s relationships rich and interesting.”

Xiao Mo was confused about what Lin Huang said. “How is that interesting to you?”

“You’ll be living and working with other people from now on. Don’t decline communication. If you don’t know what to say, then listen to what they’ve got to say. It’s good to be a listener. Slowly, you’ll learn the fun in communicating.” Lin Huang patted Xiao Mo’s shoulder.

The lady boss served them three plates of fried buns and two plates of fried dumplings while chuckling as the duo chatted. She then brought them two bowls of porridge.

The serving was not considered large with ten pieces per portion.

The fried dumpling was crispy while the fried bun was filled with juicy soup. Lin Huang, the Nightmare Tapir, and Bloody preferred the fried buns but Xiao Mo and the Ninetails Lynx preferred the crispy fried dumplings.

Lin Huang only ate half the portion of the fried buns and left the rest for Xiao Mo, Bloody, and the two God Figurine’s Combat Souls.

Xiao Mo had four servings of fried dumplings alone and was a little embarrassed when he was done.

Seeing his expression, the lady boss said while smiling, “You’re still growing, young man. It’s normal to eat a lot, so don’t be embarrassed.”

“The lady boss is right,” Lin Huang teased with a grin.

After they were done with breakfast and had paid, Lin Huang brought Xiao Mo to the park nearby.

It was almost 6.40 a.m. at that moment. There were some aunties and uncles exercising at the park.

Lin Huang ambled down the little path with Xiao Mo toward the park.

Xiao Mo thought that the weird exercise the aunties and uncles were executing was rather new to him.

Lin Huang nodded in satisfaction upon noticing his curious expression.

He strolled in the park with Xiao Mo. Soon, there were more and more people in the park. Xiao Mo began to feel uncomfortable as he was still not used to crowded places.

They walked around until approximately 7.30 a.m. before returning to the hotel.

Lin Huang asked Xiao Mo when they returned to the hotel room, “How do you feel after that stroll in the park?”

“I felt uncomfortable, especially when it’s so crowded, but there’re some things that are pretty interesting,” Xiao Mo answered.

Lin Huang was basically satisfied with his answer. He was a little worried that Xiao Mo might not have the interest to blend into normal life. Now, to his relief, it seemed like he was not as close-minded as he thought he would be.

“I’ll begin my closed-door cultivation from today onwards. It might last for more than a month. Within this one month or so, I’ve got two missions for you. I hope that you can complete them.

“As the first mission, I’ll give you a brand new method. I hope that you can build a whole new cultivation system in your body with this method. This method can help you break through from imperial-level purple gold-rank to virtual god-level. My request is that you cultivate this brand new cultivation system with this method as much as you can until you reach holy fire-level.”

Xiao Mo was rather anxious to hear the mission. He thought it would be difficult since he spent three years to break through from iron-level to white flame-level.

Naturally, Lin Huang noticed his concern and added immediately, “You already possess a powerful cultivation base now. You should be quick in building a new system. Don’t worry too much about your progress. You can ask Bloody if there’s anything that you don’t understand. I’ll leave it to accompany you.”

Lin Huang shook his left hand as he spoke, then Bloody came out of his sleeve.

Xiao Mo was astonished to find out that Lin Huang had a summoning beast hidden in his sleeve all this time.

Lin Huang proceeded to speak after giving a simple introduction on Bloody, “The second mission is to go to the park that I brought you to earlier every day. You’ll have to spend at least an hour there. Also, you’ll need to talk to at least three people every time, even if it’s just one sentence. You can go there anytime between seven in the morning to seven at night, but you must spend an hour there. If you don’t do it, you’ll have to spend double the duration on the next day and double the number of people that you talk to. Bloody will monitor your progress during that period. This is a basic lesson for you to learn to communicate with your future partners. I hope that you’ll take this seriously.”

Xiao Mo looked even more nervous now after hearing the second mission. He thought this mission was even more difficult than the first one.