Chapter 131: A Family Must Always Stay Together
How far would the disturbance from a nuclear warhead extend?
As a matter of fact, everyone within dozens of miles away from ground zero would hear the violent explosion, and see the flames rising into the night sky.
While Helan County at the foot of Mount Helan was now uninhabited, the founding of the Martial Arts Department (MAD) and the completion of the Warrior Assessment Policy saw the forming of many parties of warriors.
Wang Meng’s group was incidentally one such party.
The cultivation manuals, weapons, and cultivation resources that the MAD sold in turn had allowed these martial artists and Awakened to see the hope of becoming stronger… which needs a lot of money. That was why the Superpower Research Department’s purchasing of Feral materials provided those martial artists and Awakened a channel for obtaining funds!
Most importantly, they could earn a lot from it!
After all, Feral Materials fetched a hefty price, which was why there were many parties of warriors who would go hunting for Ferals.
As such, there were people nearby who noticed the terrific explosion. Though they did not dare to get a closer look, they reported it to the MAD, even uploading videos of the scene—someone even inadvertently captured the scene where the second W-55 nuclear warhead detonated.
In the wee hours of the morning.
The MAD of Western Xia.
While Western Xia was a province, its MAD was much smaller in scale compared to Lingzhou City. Incidentally, the person in charge was Pudgy Jiang, a longtime acquaintance of Jiang He’s.
And now, his plump figure was seated before a computer as he watched the scene of the detonation broadcasted on his computer. With a twitch of his gaze, he immediately made his conclusion with a frown, “It appears to be a nuclear warhead… from its detonation range and magnitude, its yield is at least above 80 tons.”
“However, the effective firing range of nuclear rocket launchers are too short. With such a heavy yield, the shooter would definitely be dead!”
“Send someone to have a look,” Pudgy Jiang said then. “There’s a huge chance this was a terror attack by the Sky Demon Cult. And call Duan Tianhe—I need to report to him!”
Right now, Duan Tianhe was basically his leader.
***
Meanwhile, Duan Tianhe had returned to Mount Helan.
That was when he realized something.
He was lost.
The mountain was pitch-black, and there were no markers with which he could identify directions. He had to run several circles before he found the location where he was fighting.
Both Guilty Star’s corpse and the S-grade alloy combat axe was still there.
Jiang He picked up the combat axe and searched his corpse for a long time, until he finally found his Decan Decree which was marked with ‘Guilty’, as well as several thousand dollars in three cash, three golden bricks, one satellite phone, and an axe technique text called ‘World Tyrant Fury’.
“…”
Jiang He stared at the axe technique manual for a bit, feeling…
Embarrassed.
“World Tyrant Fury? Isn’t that name too funny? Could this be an axe technique Guilty Star developed himself?”
After that, he walked up to Bound Star’s corpse.
He proved to be much poorer compared to Guilty Star, having only one gold brick and just ten thousand dollars in cash.
With that, Jiang He collected their corpses.
“Families must stay together. Since Sixth Elder, Pain Star, Killer Star, and five Heavenly Generals are buried in my yard, I’ll bring you home and reunite all of you.”
Sighing, Jiang He remembered the Third Elder of the Sky Demon Cult then.
He wanted to bring his corpse back as well, but was afraid of being caught in nuclear radiation, and therefore hung his head miserably and sighed, “Looks like I would have to leave your corpse to rot in the wild… eh?”
Suddenly, Jiang He blinked.
Why did it felt like he had forgotten something?
He mused to himself for a while and only remembered then—his big kitty was gone. Therefore, he could not help becoming furious and seethed, “That god damn thing… how dare it flee when I’m away? It seems that my physical beast training technique is not complete.”
Jiang He only let it go after cursing for a while, muttering, “But that’s fine.”
“Mount Helan is only that vast. Where could it hide?”
“I’m going to tear its flesh and break its bones when I find it. I will never believe it would still not listen to me afterward.”
Whoosh!
With a leap, Jiang He disappeared.
But after he vanished, the black panther stepped out of a nearby bush. There was a very human grim look on its face, expressing the emotion of ‘there is no place for me to hide in the whole wide world’.
In fact, it did not flee.
It intended to stay and hear what Jiang He had to say.
That was why it ended up being spooked when it heard ‘tear its flesh and break its bones’.
“Maybe serving that human is not a bad thing.” The black panther was quite smart, and it remembered Jiang He moves as well as that big, thick eggplant.
It gave chase in a flash.
“Oh?”
Even as he weaved in and out of the forest, Jiang He sneered inwardly when it sensed the movement behind him. Still, he did not stop to wait, but streaked towards the Rolling Bell Mouth in a single breath, arriving near the giant willow tree.
With its thousands of dangling branches, the giant willow tree was a beautiful sight under the colors of the night.
Some of its branches were even gleaming with crystalline emerald radiance like glow sticks, illuminating the surroundings in a pleasant green hue.
“Bro!”
The black panther caught up then, wheezing through its spirit voice. “Bro, that tree is extremely formidable, be careful…”
And yet, before it finished, Jiang He had already stepped forward into the willow tree’s range of attack.
However, the willow tree did not attack immediately, which gave Jiang He time to observe it closely. How many branches could a willow tree have, when its tree crown extends over six hundred squared meters?
It would not be an exaggeration to say countless.
Still, only several hundred branches were brimming with that faint, green crystalline radiance.
And amongst those hundreds, only around ten of those branches were extremely bright.
“A floral spirit develops sentience… according to what I’ve read on Warrior Home, someone found one willow tree floral spirit discovered two years before at Jiangnan’s river delta.”
Jiang He recalled that he only spared that post a few glance without really concentrating. He vaguely remembered that the other willow tree was quite powerful as well—it was an equivalent of rank-eight, and it took the combined efforts of three rank-eights to cut it down, thereby obtaining substantial Origin Fluid and one Willow Heart.
The so-called Willow Heart was a spirit object that grew within the tree, the core in which the sentience of the willow tree developed.
It was alleged that the effect of the Willow Heart was outrageous. Not only would one’s cultivation improve significantly after consumption, it even extended one’s lifespan by dozens of years.
Still, Jiang He was not really interested.
What was so covetous about promoting longevity?
The eggplant he used for dishes did that too.
“Oh, right… willow trees could be grown from a single willow branch.”
Jiang He thought then, and smiled. “Big willow tree, I mean you no harm. I will leave if you give me three of your branches, or I’m cutting you down for my hearth back home!”
Whoosh!
The entire willow tree abruptly shook, its many emerald branches twitching wildly…
And yet, it did not attack.
Its root system was too developed, and as a floral spirit, it could observe an area around itself to some extent, via other wild grass and plants growing over the surface… which was how it ‘witnessed firsthand’ how Jiang He had killed Bound Star and Guilty Star.
Hence, the willow tree turned silent after shaking for a while.
Crunch, crunch.
With three soft but audible snaps, the willow tree detached its own branches, and three emerald crystalline branches landed from the tree.
“You’re quite tacful, willow tree.”
Jiang He could not help showing delight as he accepted the branches.
After all, he was a little thrilled!
With such an enormous willow tree in his yard… he would definitely be sleeping easy. Even if the Sky Demon Cult wanted to attack him in his house, they would have to ask his tree first!
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