Not to Be Trifled With

The instructors had long had some understanding of Wu Youren's capabilities. They could also guess that, beyond the skills he displayed openly, the youth likely possessed a few secrets he kept to himself. In any case, in the eyes of these instructors, he could at least be considered "pretty lucky." In this regard, he was somewhat similar to Chen Quanxu. Manna had social favors to repay, and the others had similar needs. When it came to Guizu relics, who would ever think they had too many? When Wu Youren called for backup, he had prioritized her—after all, he was her creditor—followed by Kenpa. The latter was older and presumably more experienced in handling such matters. As it turned out, Rossi had driven over with the others, and Daiqisi had even followed right behind. Making as many friends as possible was indeed very necessary! Even in his delight, Wu Youren secretly reminded himself: keep a sense of proportion! Moderate generosity could win friends, but if not kept carefully in check, it could just as easily fuel the flames of greed. Rossi shooed away the onlookers. As expected, what everyone cared about most was what harvest he had reaped after being out for over ten days. The youth hesitated for a moment before speaking. "Have you asked Hong Da about this?" No matter the time or place, the leader always came first. That was true in a society of human connections, and even more so in a savage society! "At least you're sensible, kid!" A raspy, cigarette-roughened voice rang out, though there was no sign of the speaker. "I was wondering where Manna was rushing off to." "I get first pick. Whatever isn't essential I'll leave to you all. Just remember—fair trade!" With a grand knight speaking up, even Daiqisi, who had been quite fierce just moments ago, could only stick out her tongue in secret. "The harvest this time was a bit lackluster," Wu Youren said. "Only two Guizu relics in total, and no crystals." "Take them out and let's see," Rossi urged impatiently, then vigilantly glanced left and right. "Hold on, there's Instructor Ranxue and the others," the youth said unhurriedly. "Let me state this upfront: you all negotiate among yourselves over who gets what. Don't ask me—I can't afford to get mixed up in that." "Not bad, kid, sensible," Kenpa laughed upon hearing this. "At least you haven't let it go to your head. I've got high hopes for you." With high-demand goods, even in a fair transaction, a seller's preference carried significant power. To understand self-restraint and avoid being seduced by such influence at such a young age was truly impressive. "No crystals again?" Manna couldn't help chiming in. "Did you head into the mountains, or have you awakened?" If one became an apprentice ability master, resentment crystals would be useful in many areas. The question was somewhat blunt, but inside, Wu Youren secretly gave her a thumbs-up: *Great assist!* He shook his head. "How would I dare go into the mountains? But lately, corpse Guizu have suddenly become more numerous, and it feels like they drop relics more often." Ordinary intangible Guizu mostly dropped crystals, while corpse Guizu were roughly a fifty-fifty split. Still, since everything he had gotten was relics, it wasn't surprising he had formed such an impression. "That's because of a Guizu aura riot," Kenpa answered offhandedly, then asked in astonishment, "You didn't know?" "He snuck off to Tianjing," Manna said with a cold snort, then straightened her expression. "Hong Da told me to ask you: what happened?" The population of Tianjing's urban center reached several million; normally, it would be difficult to notice any single person's coming and going. However, the occasion Wu Youren had experienced was a bit too out of the ordinary, and his own appearance was distinctive enough. He didn't know that the people pursuing him belonged to the New Army system, but people from Count Jing'an's side and the Fanghua Martial Academy had recognized him. Thus, it was only natural that the news would reach Hong Da's ears. Wu Youren had long prepared for this question. "Well, I wanted to build some mechanical devices, but I couldn't find suitable materials in Red Pine." Red Pine Martial Academy was situated in Tianjing's distant suburbs. While its facilities were complete, its material supplies were indeed not as comprehensive as Tianjing's. "You could have told me!" Manna said seriously. "I didn't even know what I might find," the youth said, spreading his hands. "It was better to check in person." Manna looked at him and asked thoughtfully, "You didn't take up some mission from your team's Guard Captain, did you?" This question was somewhat probing, but the fact that she asked it outright showed it wasn't critically severe—at least giving him a chance to explain. Wu Youren touched his forehead and sighed. "Alright, I also wanted to look into market prices for Guizu relics." "Not that I don't trust Hong Da's valuation, I was purely curious!" "That's still not trusting it," someone chuckled—it was Instructor Ranxue, who had just arrived as well. "It's rare for you to remember me, Little Wu. Well, prices between Tianjing and Red Pine definitely differ." "But you're a smart guy, so let me ask you just one thing... Even if you could sell Guizu relics for more in Tianjing, would you dare?" "I wouldn't dare," Wu Youren replied honestly, shaking his head. "This time I didn't even do anything, and I was chased across several streets!" "The ones chasing you were from the New Army," Daiqisi spoke up. "Hong Da forbade you from going to Tianjing for your own good." "Once they detain you, those people won't be anywhere near as reasonable as Red Pine. What's more, the academy could be dragged into the mire because of you." "Yeah," Wu Youren nodded obediently. "I know better now." Although his "little scheme" had been seen through, he didn't think it was such a terrible thing. Who acted entirely without selfish motives? He was no saint. "During the two days you were in Tianjing, Guizu aura broke through the cordon," Daiqisi said solemnly. "The cause is unknown." "To be honest, it came out of nowhere and completely without warning. If you hadn't been in the city center, you probably wouldn't have been able to clear your name entirely." "Ah?" The youth gaped in shock upon hearing this, his mouth wide open. "Th-th-this... isn't that overestimating me a bit too much?" "Mainly because you had just met with your boss," Ranxue said languidly. "You know how it is—in some matters, they'd rather kill an innocent by mistake than let a guilty one slip away!" "But..." Wu Youren's mouth moved as if to argue. In the end, he simply sighed and gave a bitter smile. "So being chased all over the place was actually a good thing?" He had long sorted through this logic; even Chen Quanxu considered that it wasn't entirely a bad thing. Still, when it was time to act, one had to put on a show. In this life, who wasn't an actor? "Alright, stop scaring him," Manna spoke up. *Was I scaring him?* Ranxue didn't bother explaining further. Glancing at the youth, he remarked, "Hunting corpse Guizu all by yourself—you sure have a strong stomach." "When you're trying to make money, how can you afford to be picky?" Wu Youren smiled nonchalantly. He then looked around carefully before retrieving a leather pouch from the backpack beside him. Inside the pouch were two Guizu relics, one light gray and the other dark blue. With several instructors gathered together acting so secretively, naturally others grew curious. A strand of perception tried to probe over, but a sudden cold snort rang out. "Hm?" Hong Da demanded first pick of the spoils, but when trouble arose, she truly stepped up to shoulder it! Only after driving away the perception of the other grand knight did she say, "They're both common drops from corpse Guizu. You all can choose." Corpse Guizu had been numerous lately, so everyone had gained some familiarity with the relics they dropped. Instructor Hong naturally wanted the two items as well, but since they weren't particularly rare, there was no need for her to compete with these knights for them. "You guys are being... a bit unfair here," an off-road vehicle drove up, and the female archer stepped out. One of her hands was still wrapped in bandages—an injury sustained from drawing her bow too frequently. The male archer, who hadn't shown up, had even worse injuries—during the rampage of corpse Guizu a few days ago, both of them had been temporarily conscripted by the academy. As instructors, their annual quotas were already complete, but suppressing corpse Guizu required ranged firepower, making it impossible to refuse such a call-up. Fortunately, it was purely ranged combat, and they had the right to withdraw if faced with close combat, so the danger hadn't been overly great. "There's a share for you," Manna said with a smile. "It's merely a matter of who picks first." While they chatted cheerfully, around noon, a small stir arose within the quarantine station. The cafeteria meals, which were already unpalatable to begin with, became even more watery and bland. Many martial artists complained, "We're just quarantined, damn it, not serving prison time, alright?" Still, eating a little less for a meal or two was barely tolerable, but by the afternoon, certain types of wound medicine ran critically low. The primary supplier of these provisions was Red Pine. In the surrounding region, only a faction of Red Pine's immense scale could organize such a massive supply chain. Even the government only had the capacity to coordinate in between, not to mention that snow was now falling, making travel treacherous. Red Pine's staff offered an explanation: heavy snow was falling and the academy was short on stock too; anyone who couldn't stand it was welcome to leave the quarantine station. Thus, the pressure shifted onto the military. If this continued at the quarantine station, trouble would surely break out. The military had no choice but to approach Red Pine's people and inquire: just what do you mean by this? The people on Red Pine's side were also full of resentment. "Eating our food, drinking our water, and robbing our people... we can't afford to cater to such entitled lords!" The incident with the youth carrying the bird was merely the fuse; within the quarantine station, quite a few similar incidents had occurred before. For the quarantined Red Pine personnel, internal matters were easy to coordinate, but the outside martial artists were a mixed bag of dragons and snakes—all sorts of people were among them. Everyone simply wanted to use this pretext to show those outsiders who the masters of this land truly were! The truth was eventually circulated. The squad that had tried to bully Wu Youren numbered over a dozen people. Unable to withstand this pressure, they could only leave the quarantine station in sullen resentment. In the freezing cold, with heavy snow blocking the roads and meager supplies, leaving at this time was truly not a good choice. Yet these people stubbornly refused to pay compensation, showing some actual backbone. However, to the Red Pine folks: *Trying to act tough on our turf?* This time, it really had nothing to do with Wu Youren. As local tyrants, who wouldn't have a bit of a temper? This group drove three off-road vehicles out of the quarantine station, followed from a distance by more than a dozen vehicles trailing behind them. Further back... there were faint black dots, too far to make out clearly! After driving just over a kilometer, the three vehicles spun their steering wheels and obediently drove right back. Their supplies were already running low, wound medicine was scarce, and even fuel was lacking. The group had been determined not to back down, planning to seek out the barbarians if left with no other choice. Whether defecting or pillaging—either way, their remaining provisions were truly not enough to survive on. Yet the vehicles tailing them radiated monstrous malice! Between stubborn pride and humiliation, they chose stubborn humiliation!