Nine Star Burden

Chapter 248: Toxic Healer Swears

In the volcanic Dimensional Space.

Two small heads popped up quietly from the soil and looked at the hordes of Lava Ghouls in the distance, keeping their eyes fixed on the long-haired and red-skinned demon.

It was not only because the red-skinned demon was standing out among a group of Lava Ghouls due to its height, but because it had hair!

The ones with the long hair were all the big bosses!

The ones with no hair or thinning hair were basically insignificant figures because they worked overtime every night… uh, no, they kept on guard every night.

The Lava Ghouls of the lowest level were basically bald or had sparse hair, which was a sign of their lowly status. They had to stand guard and patrol all night and establish territories. They were also at the beck and call of the big bosses.

Even when the big boss wanted to mate and reproduce, the Lava Ghouls would have to gather together and remain still while pretending to be the bonfire…

With such an intense and heavy workload, why wouldn’t their hair shed?

The sentence “I may have become bald, but I’ve also become stronger” was just a complete joke, for it was the biggest lie for all the underlings toiling and moiling all day and night.

The truth had proved that one could only become bald, but it would be difficult to become stronger.

“Is there enough time? Shall we kill another Lava Ghoul Witch?” Xia Yan asked while licking her dry lips and pressing her hand on the hot soil, secretly looking at the Lava Ghouls in the distance.

“If we hurry up, we should have enough time.” Jiang Xiao glanced at his watch and continued, “Hey, I discovered something.”

Xia Yan casually expressed assent and asked, “What’s the issue?”

Jiang Xiao observed the creatures quietly and said, “This time, we’ve taken a path that no one else has. We’ve seen so many creatures, Lava Ghouls, Lava Ghoul Witches, and Lava Ghoul Generals. However, have you discovered that we’ve never seen any Lava Ghoul Warriors?”

Xia Yan was slightly stunned for a while and then carefully tried to recall everything.

Having worked for three days and two nights, which was considered a long duration, in such a hot environment, neither of them had gotten a good rest. They obviously wouldn’t be in a good state either.

Fortunately, Jiang Xiao’s Blessing and Nostalgia allowed them to be in an excellent state, which was also the reason they could last so long and cover such a huge distance.

However, they couldn’t get rid of their mental exhaustion. At this moment, Jiang Xiao probably could fall asleep just by leaning on the pillow. Xia Yan wasn’t that much better either.

Xia Yan carefully tried to recall everything and began to feel a little dazed. “Seems like we really haven’t seen any Lava Ghoul Warriors.”

Jiang Xiao guessed, “Could this be the content of the exam? We’re conducting the ‘second’ wasteland reclamation. Could the seniors who have entered this place to conduct wasteland reclamation previously, wiped out all of the Lava Ghoul Warriors?”

Xia Yan blinked and finally couldn’t help it. She pulled out the last bottle of mineral water from the military backpack and took a sip to quench her thirst. She then poured some of it on her face and rubbed her eyes.

The warm water did not make Xia Yan sober up much. She handed the bottle that contained the remaining amount of water to Jiang Xiao and asked, “Bonus question? Is this a test question that the officials have hidden? The teams that did not go out to explore the Dimensional Space much really can’t discover this piece of information.”

Jiang Xiao took a sip of mineral water that moisturized his throat, after which he placed the bottle, which had more than half of the water left, into the military backpack. He knew that Xia Yan would still ask him for it again.

In times of real hardship, only one’s team members would dote on oneself.

If the two of them were out on a vacation, Jiang Xiao would definitely snatch Xia Yan’s mineral water and chug it all at one go if he were to get a little thirsty…

After thorough thinking, Jiang Xiao said, “This is a brand new volcanic Dimensional Space. The biological resources of this Dimensional Space are extremely abundant. We have been here for three days and two nights, and we’ve already encountered four Lava Ghoul Witches. How can we not see a single Lava Ghoul Warrior at all?”

“Yeah, that makes sense.” Xia Yan nodded. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to rub Jiang Xiao’s head in a bid to reward him. However, she was now feeling warm, dirty, and mentally exhausted. Hence, she didn’t bother doing so.

Even if Han Jiangxue was in front of her right now, Husky Xia wouldn’t wag her tail and suck up to her. What she needed most now was a bath, some quality sleep, and a large glass of iced cola.

“Note this information down. After we kill this Lava Ghoul Witch, we’ll head back. We won’t fight any creature, regardless of which ones we encounter,” said Xia Yan.

Jiang Xiao nodded without any objection. “Okay.”

Thanks to the fact that the Dimensional Space was newly developed, the creature resources were rather abundant. Within just three days, the two of them actually encountered four Lava Ghouls, which was quite a big number.

“Are you ready? I’m going to throw out Sound of Silence,” Jiang Xiao said as he put down the military backpack and reached behind to grab the handle of the sword. He prepared to repeat the trick and trap the Lava Ghouls in the corner of the wall together with Xia Yan.

“You’d better not throw Sound of Silence. We’d better make a quick decision. We’re really running out of time. Also, don’t fight later, I’ll kill them myself,” Xia Yan said all of a sudden.

Jiang Xiao blinked and wondered, What does this mean?

Trying her best to sober up, Xia Yan said, “I’ll smack them with my sword.”

Smack with the sword?

Jiang Xiao was suddenly stunned, and he immediately thought of Xia Yan’s newly acquired Star Technique, Body of Star Power. The scene of Xia Yan and Han Jiangxue going against each other in the training hall was still fresh in his memory. He remembered that the giant sword was indeed very wide.

Jiang Xiao hurriedly asked, “Can you do it?”

She glanced at him and seemed to be rather dissatisfied. “There are no problems with my physical strength and Star Power. However, I need to sleep, so it’d be better for the battle to end sooner.”

“Okay… Alright, then. Be careful.” After some thought, Jiang Xiao still nodded in the end.

“Use Nostalgia. Don’t throw out Sound of Silence. Let them hit me, I have to get injured. My destructive power is very strong,” Xia Yan said with a solemn expression.

Jiang Xiao raised his eyebrows.

In his head, he had already translated Xia Yan’s words into:

Don’t take action, I’m very strong this time.

Jiang Xiao immediately activated Nostalgia, causing a dark golden halo to appear under the feet of all creatures within a radius of forty meters.

“Wow?”

“Eeyah?” A group of Lava Ghouls that was standing guard discovered that something was amiss with their companions, followed by the dark golden halos at their feet.

At the next moment, the halo disappeared all of a sudden.

“Ah?” The Lava Ghoul scratched its sparse hair, appearing rather ugly yet adorable. Before it could even report to its leader about the situation, a massive object landed in the gray world all of a sudden.

Jiang Xiao got a great shock.

The sword Star Map appeared on Xia Yan’s body, revealing the eighth golden star slot that had ignited all of a sudden, lighting up the hazy world.

At the next moment, Xia Yan was covered in rich Star Power.

Immediately afterward, Xia Yan’s body was lifted off the ground and the rich Star Power condensed rapidly. Within just two seconds, a large Xia Yan, which was made up of Star Power, appeared in this world.

Accompanied by the surging Star Power, Xia Yan’s body was attached to the chest of the Body of Star Power at this moment.

A massive dark golden halo appeared at Xia Yan’s feet, which was stuck to the giant sword that was smacked downwards forcefully.

The Body of Star Power was rather interesting. Not only would it cause the user’s destructive power to increase, but it also allowed Xia Yan to condense a massive sword.

If possible, could Xia Yan not become a giant and simply use the Body of Star Power to summon a giant sword?

That was an interesting idea. He wondered how great of an extent Xia Yan could exert the powers of that Star Technique to.

Bang!

The ground trembled and the dust splashed outwards.

Xia Yan knelt down and smacked the sword horizontally downwards, after which the giant sword made of Star Power was smacked against the red-skinned little demon. The immense Star Power spread outwards and several Lava Ghouls were all mushed up.

The Lava Ghoul Witch was also smacked onto the ground by the sword, but its body had already become a little deformed. It was screaming in pain and rolling all over the ground.

Jiang Xiao hurriedly took a few steps towards the side, almost getting stepped on by her.

He managed to dodge, but the five-meter tall giant Xia Yan stood up and lunged forward to step onto the two Lava Ghouls that were by themselves. The giant sword made of Star Power was once again swung downwards.

This time, it was aimed at the Lava Ghoul Witch.

Bang!

The sky collapsed and the earth trembled.

Jiang Xiao subconsciously covered his face, then his entire body was covered in smoke and ash.

The Bursting Flames fireballs were launched at them, but Xia Yan didn’t stop them at all. She stepped on the corpses and continuously absorbed the Star Power and Vitality with the help of the halo of Nostalgia. The Bursting Flames fireballs actually helped to reduce her vitality.

As the smoke dissipated, Xia Yan had already picked up the corpse of the Lava Ghoul Witch.

The effect of Jiang Xiao’s Gold Quality Nostalgia was indeed strong and terrifying. The vitality that the corpses had given was rather excessive, and the Bursting Flames fireballs of the Lava Ghouls could not offset the vitality that she had absorbed. There was no outlet for her to release her strength at all.

She simply bent over, picked Jiang Xiao up with one hand, and scurried outwards.

Didn’t you say that we don’t have enough time?

Since I’m full of energy now, I’ll just run.

Jiang Xiao was held in the giant hand made of Star Power and swayed from side to side while Xia Yan ran around. Feeling his stomach churning, he had no choice but to bear with the agony while yelling, “Bao! Bao![1]”

The military backpack contained the maps that the two of them had drawn, which were considered the examination scripts. Without them, all of their efforts would have gone in vain.

Before the battle started, Jiang Xiao put the military backpack on the ground beside him.

To his surprise, Xia Yan clenched her fists tightly and he seemed to have heard the sound of bones popping and cracking.

Xia Yan questioned, “Who are you calling baby? Try calling me that again?” [2. “Baobao” means “baby” in Chinese]

Jiang Xiao was dumbfounded.

Xia Yan yelled, “Say something!”

Jiang Xiao was having an emotional breakdown. He swore as Xia Yan did previously and then yelled in exasperation, “Xia Yan! If I ever call you baby again in this life, I’ll be a dog!”

[1] Bag in Chinese