Chapter 5: Scaled Demon (1/2)

”Look, look, what did I see?”

”How unfortunate, I originally wanted to invite my brother Jiang Li to sleep in the tent with me, but now it would seem that he already has a better choice.”

Yan Hong walked out from the side with his hands behind his back.

He reached out and removed the bowl of soup from the tray. There was even a thin handkerchief underneath.

In this era, such an action was no longer a hint, but a clear indication.

”Get lost!”

”I'm going to practice tonight. It's not like you haven't heard of the snoring before. I'm fine staying in the carriage by myself.”

Jiang Li kept his handkerchief and decisively rejected Yan Hong's invitation.

Yan Hong was actually here to congratulate him, because among the young men and women in the convoy, his reputation had completely reversed. He had gone from a wretched and cowardly pervert to a determined and vengeful pugilistic young master.

He had clearly not done anything good, and there was indeed an attempt at peeping, but after he revealed his strength, his peers' opinions of him changed drastically.

In fact, this was quite normal.

Humans were selfish by nature. In the process of interacting with humans, ”value” was always the first standard for others to judge you.

Even family and friends, even parents and lovers, would be subconsciously affected by this ”value”.

Therefore, a person's character was not that important, especially since they were strangers who met by chance. Would anyone really care about your character? What they cared about was your wealth, status, and power.

In this special world, strength was undoubtedly the first criterion of value. So after he revealed his strength, he even directly became the dream lover of many young girls.

On the other hand, Yan Fengyue was not having a good time recently.

It turned out that her group of friends who were close to her still wanted to be nice in front of her. However, they started saying that she was shameless and seduced men.

The most important thing was that the campsite was not big, so Yan Fengyue heard such gossip several times. The awkwardness was not something a little girl could handle.

It was not right for her to pretend that she did not hear it, but she could not expose those friends either. It was unbearable to hold it in.

...

Time passed day by day on the journey. As their destination approached, several carriages gathered together.

Jiang Li noticed that the markings on the carriage were exactly the same, and the way the robed cultivators conversed was obviously familiar with each other. Obviously, these carriages belonged to the same force.

Every time Yan Hong set up camp to rest, he would communicate with the other teams in exchange for information.

Due to the mysteriousness of those cultivators, or perhaps because they generally looked down on the character of mortals, the useful information they obtained was also very little.

They only knew that these convoys belonged to a force called the Immortal Ascension Pavilion. Every few years, they would send out convoys to test and bring away children with spiritual roots from the secular kingdoms.

According to their speculations, this might be an intermediary organization that connected the mortal world to the cultivation world. With their current knowledge and experience, they were unable to speculate how powerful this organization was.

As expected, if there was a need, there would be benefits. If there were benefits, there would definitely be people who would take this job.

As an intermediary, they would be able to profit from both sides. The owner of the Immortal Ascension Pavilion must have a good financial mind.

Then, on a certain evening when Jiang Li had broken through to Level 7 of the Age Tiger Technique, Yan Hong came looking for him excitedly.

”Jiang Li! Jiang Li! Come out quickly! I have something good to show you!”

Jiang Li slowly ended his martial arts practice and sighed. It seemed that he had to be more careful when practicing his martial arts in the future. If he were to raise the level of his Age Tiger Technique again, he would be able to generate internal force. If he were to be interrupted like this, he would probably cough out three liters of blood from the backlash.

”My young lord, what are you making such a fuss about? If you ask me if I want a wife, I might be interested,” Jiang Li came out of the carriage grumpily.

Recently, he had been practicing martial arts in his free time. Because he had those few buffs active the entire time, his energy was always full. If he did not practice martial arts to expend it, it would be unbearable.

”What nonsense are you talking about? Come with me. Another convoy has joined us. This time, you definitely won't be able to guess who is in the car.” Yan Hong said excitedly as he pulled Jiang Li towards the back of the convoy.

”Let me guess, a golden-haired girl with blue eyes, a dark-skinned girl with curly hair, or a girl with piercings in her ears, nose, and mouth? Hey, Yan Hong, can you focus on something else besides girls?”

”This time, I guarantee that it's not a girl. No, it seems to be a girl. Actually, it's not a real girl either. Anyway, just follow me.”

Soon, Jiang Li noticed that something was not right because Yan Hong and the others were not the only ones that had joined in the fun this time. There were over 200 people in the convoy, and most of them were gathered around the new group.

What kind of person could be so popular?

Moreover, it did not feel like they were looking at a human. Instead, it felt like they were looking at a monkey in a zoo.

Jiang Li and Yi Yun approached. With his brute strength that far exceeded his peers, he forced his way through the crowd.

The carriage that he finally saw stunned him, because the thing on this carriage was not the enclosed box that he was familiar with, but a large iron cage welded together from steel bars the thickness of a thumb.

Inside the cage was a wooden bathtub about half the height of a human. It was the kind that was commonly seen in period dramas.

From the looks of it, could it be that some ferocious beast was locked inside?

Jiang Li looked at Yan Hong with obvious intentions.

”What's inside?”

”Wait and see, it will show itself later.”

Yan Hong stood at the front of the crowd confidently.

At this moment, some of the boys got impatient and went up to slap the wooden bucket inside the cage.

Some people even started to throw the remaining pieces of the steamed bun into the wooden barrel.

”Hey, come out quickly! If you don't come out soon, I'm going to throw rocks!”

One of the youths from the other carriages was quite bold. He really began to search for rocks on the ground.

Thump!

A rock the size of a fist was thrown into a wooden barrel by some guy. Something inside seemed to have finally been angered, and water splashed violently.

”Those who don't want to die! Scram!”

The internal martial artist's angry shout rang out, instantly scaring the devilish brat who was throwing the rock, he squatted down abruptly.

No one else dared to stir up trouble. Several black-clothed martial artists appeared and began to forcefully disperse the crowd.

In the end, these soon-to-be cultivators were just a bunch of children. After being frightened, they decisively and honestly dispersed. Jiang Li could only helplessly leave with the others.

At the last moment, he saw a slender arm reaching out to grab the metal bar outside.

”Yan Hong, can you tell me what's inside now?”

Yan Hong scratched his head in embarrassment, ”I don't know. But that must be a demon, and it is an aquatic demon.”

Jiang Li shook his head. He knew that he should not have held any expectations for Yan Hong's reliability.

”But, a demon…” Jiang Li muttered this word. He did not know if it was the kind of monster he imagined.

...

At night, the moonlight shone down.

In a quiet corner of the camp, Jiang Li was snoring thunderously in his carriage.