Chapter 348 Promotion to Mythical Grade (1/2)

”Gao Peng, Gao Peng, Goldie's gathering up all the dead fish on the beach. How silly is that?” said Da Zi.

”Oh? Why is that?” asked Gao Peng, patting Da Zi's head.

Most of his familiars had long outgrown receiving headpats from him. For instance, no matter how high he jumped, he could no longer reach Stripey's head.

Thank god he still had Da Zi, who now stood a mere one and a half feet tall.

Da Zi's feet clacked noisily against the ground as it moved forward alongside Gao Peng, not at all aware that the latter was silently assessing its height.

”Of course it's silly.” Da Zi began flexing all 32 of his claws. ”Why work so hard when Gao Peng is already taking care of all our needs? Goldie has gone bald from overworking itself, the poor thing.”

”It's already bald!” interjected Flamy, who still remembered the time that Goldie had made fun of it for going bald. It was still nursing a grudge over that.

”It would go bald even if it didn't overwork itself,” added Flamy. ”Bloody baldie.”

”Goldie's doing the right thing, you know,” said Gao Peng solemnly.

”Uhm?” Da Zi looked at Gao Peng curiously.

”That duck knows I'm rewarding it for its labor. It's not silly at all,” said Gao Peng. ”The only silly thing here is you thinking that I'm going to take care of you for the rest of your life.”

Da Zi tried to whistle as it continued walking forward, pretending not to have heard what Gao Peng had just said.

Achoo! Goldie let out a sneeze and scratched its bald head quizzically. Then it shook its head and continued picking up all the dead fish on the beach.

A lot of people had stayed behind to scavenge the dead monster carcasses on the beach. They would turn a huge profit by harvesting and selling their parts at the market. Most of them didn't care who had been responsible for killing them. As a rule, the remains of any sea monster higher than Commander-tier automatically went to those responsible for slaying them. No one in their right mind would dare claim them as their own. On the other hand, the remains of any sea monster below Commander-tier were free game for everyone else on the beach.

Just then, someone laid their hands on a crab's pincers at the same time as Goldie.

Both of them made eye contact with each other for two seconds of uncomfortable silence.

Then the man loosened his grip and slowly backed away.

Goldie stuffed the three-foot-long crab into its pouch.

”That's also a fish, a crab fish. Another 500 bucks in my pocket...” Goldie had draped fish of all sizes over its body, holding them all in place by bunching up its muscles to pinch them like clothespins.

Goldie had become more diligent after spending all those weeks honing its muscles.

It waddled along the beach, picking up any sea monster carcass it could find on the ground.

Some of the scavengers recognized Goldie. Even those who didn't eventually learned from the surrounding chatter that it was Gao Peng's familiar. Despite the duck's absent-mindedness, all of the scavengers had the good sense to stay out of its way.

Also, most of the fish that Goldie had picked up were of the worthless variety, making it all the easier for everyone to avoid it.

When Gao Peng and company arrived at the Southern Sky headquarters, they were greeted by the sounds of gongs and firecrackers. Golden leaves sparkled all around them.

In front of the entrance, a crowd of Southern Sky employees were holding a horizontal scroll in their hands, on which was written, ”Welcome home, heroes of the Southern Sky.”

Behind Gao Peng, Zheng Tiezhuang and the others laughed out loud.

As this was its first time coming home to such fanfare, a Blood Raging Kong hurriedly hid itself among the group of monsters in a corner. When the firecrackers rang out, it curled up and let out a terrified screech.

Gao Peng was speechless. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Hou Mu was behind all of this.

When Gao Peng walked past the threshold, Hou Mu wriggled out of the crowd of people and approached him.

”I won't be staying long in Yang Cheng City,” said Gao Peng to Hou Mu.