A Bountiful Harvest

When Ji Yang opened his eyes, he saw countless stars in the night sky. No, not that many. He blinked hard, and only a few were left. *It's just the stars in my eyes from getting beaten half to death...* "Cough, cough!" He hacked violently, vomiting several mouthfuls of bloody froth mixed with minced tissue. Ji Yang grimaced, his voice trembling on the verge of tears. "My internal organs are crushed—" "Help..." He dialed the direct channel to the production crew. "Save me!" "Huh?" The director on the other end immediately grew tense. "Ji Yang, what happened?" In the past few minutes, several adventurers' livestreams had disconnected, including Ji Yang, Yue Wen, and Zhao Xing'er. The director had already dispatched personnel to their locations to investigate. If anything went wrong during the livestream, a rogue cultivator would be manageable, but Hidden Dragon Pool would hold them accountable to the fullest extent! "I ran into an exceptionally formidable tiger demon wearing a suit... It's probably gone by now. It knows martial cultivation methods and critically injured me with a single punch." Ji Yang babbled frantically, "There are at least two demons with terrifying cultivation in this wasteland zone! You must stop the livestream and catch them, or everyone will be in grave danger!" As he recounted his ordeal, he coughed up two more mouthfuls of blood. Just listening to him was agonizing. "Are you serious?" Hearing his faint, dying breath, the director dared not doubt him any longer. Gritting her teeth, she ordered, "Patch everyone into the channel!" "Uh, but if we connect everyone together, the audience might overhear the conversation. Won't that ruin the viewing experience?" an assistant beside her hesitated. "We can't worry about that now! Safety is the absolute top priority," the director insisted. "Connect them!" "Yes, ma'am!" With that command, everyone's earpieces were linked into the group call. "Everyone, I regret to announce some unfortunate news," the director said in a heavy voice. "Ji Yang was just grievously injured by a demon beast. I've already dispatched a team to retrieve him based on his coordinates. There appear to be demon beasts far exceeding our designated threat level inside this simulated wasteland zone. We don't know the specifics yet, but... they are likely beyond what you can handle. Please remain where you are and do not move. The crew will send personnel to protect you, and middle three realms cultivators will be deployed to purge those demon beasts. Until then, you must be extremely cautious of a roe deer demon wielding a wrench..." "That one's already dead," Yue Wen replied. "Huh?" the director asked. "You killed it?" "Yeah, went pretty smoothly," Yue Wen said. "There's... also..." Ji Yang gasped weakly. "Right, there's another one—isn't there a tiger demon wearing a suit?" the director added. "That one is even more savage. It's the one that critically injured Ji Yang." "Yes, yes, exactly!" Ji Yang emphasized. "The roe deer demon didn't really do much to me. It was mainly the tiger demon!" "If it's that one, it's dead too," came Yue Wen's nonchalant reply. "Wait, what?" The director paused. "Are you sure? You ran into both of those demons and killed them?" "That's right," Yue Wen said. "You can send a new bee insect camera over shortly to take a look. While I was chasing down the roe deer demon, I ran into the tiger demon and just took care of both along the way. I don't think it's disrupted the livestream to any significant extent." "..." A brief silence hung over the channel, followed by the sound of a geyser erupting. *Pfft—!* Then, the voice of a medical responder cut in. "Director, this is the team that arrived to treat Ji Yang. His injuries are indeed severe. He won't be able to continue the program." "How is he doing?" the director asked anxiously. "His wounds are undeniably grave, but we had already stabilized him..." the paramedic answered. "Then just a moment ago, after hearing a few words on the call, rage rushed to his heart and he started violently spewing blood! Whoa, that fountain shot over three meters high!" Exclamations from the emergency medical crew drifted over the line. "Let me take a photo! Wow, first time I've ever seen a blood fountain that high!" "Gotta post this to Moments." "Isn't that a bit inappropriate?" "It's fine, I'll just block our colleagues from seeing it." "..." "Alright, carry him out and get him to emergency care," the director said, acting as though she hadn't heard a word. "As for the rest of you, can you continue?" "No problem," Su Renxue's frosty voice chimed in. "At least, we from Hidden Dragon Pool can." Just moments ago, they had painted a harrowing picture of Ji Yang's suffering and how monstrous the two beasts were, only for a rogue cultivator to casually dispatch both on his way. It was utterly humiliating. As Ji Yang's senior martial sister, Su Renxue had to step up and defend their sect's honor. Ji Yang's injury was a minor matter compared to disgracing their sect in front of hundreds of thousands of viewers! "Then the program will proceed. If any of you encounter demon beasts whose strength exceeds expectations, notify us immediately," the director said. After ending the group call, she exhaled a long breath of relief. "That was almost a disaster." If the livestream had been halted due to an oversight on her part, her career prospects at the company would have suffered tremendously, and she might never have been trusted with a project of this scale again. Ji Yang's wild exaggerations had nearly ruined her future. She had assumed the two demons he spoke of were hopelessly overpowering. Now it turned out that someone else could handle them with ease, which meant Ji Yang was simply hopelessly weak. "Next time we run a project like this, we must screen candidates far more rigorously," she whispered to those around her. "We can't just let every random nobody in. One piece of dog shit nearly spoiled the entire pot of broth." In the distant mountain forest. The "piece of dog shit" lay flat on a stretcher. The medics had just stabilized his heart meridian and wiped the blood from his chest, preparing to evacuate him to the rear. Ji Yang stared blankly up at the sky, tears pooling in his eyes. *I awakened at fifteen, entered the sect at sixteen, mastered the Shadow Profound supernatural power at eighteen, and attained the Union Realm at nineteen. I always thought of myself as an exceptional talent among my peers. Only today do I realize...* *Am I truly just a useless piece of trash?* *Maybe I really should just die.* ... Yue Wen had no idea how much psychological damage his casual dismissal had inflicted. His only concern had been ensuring that the livestream continued smoothly. With evil-suppressing coins littering the ground, who would want to leave? He certainly didn't. Beyond the evil-suppressing coins, staying on the air longer translated directly into more monetary earnings. Both were things he desperately needed right now. In truth, he had only reached the Union Realm great perfection the previous night. Yet after reaching perfection, he hadn't felt the joy he had anticipated; instead, it brought him quite a headache. It meant that cultivating ordinary methods any further yielded negligible returns. To advance after completing the Third Realm, he had to smelt Gang over fierce flames and break through to the Gang Realm. Originally, he had thought he could take his time gathering materials while cultivating, comfortably collecting everything by the time he reached great perfection so the breakthrough would happen naturally. How convenient would that have been? Who could have guessed he would arrive at the finish line so quickly? Having exceptional comprehension truly was a bother. If he continued to amass money and buy materials at a leisurely pace, it would be a total waste of time. He had to urgently gather the four immortal materials required to smelt the Chaos Dragon Gang, and the pressure had suddenly mounted. As his biggest windfall in recent days, this livestream was not something he could afford to abandon lightly. Once the call ended, he exchanged a glance with Zhao Xing'er. "Let's search together and split whatever we find fifty-fifty." Huang Dahu had run the Tiger Head Gang for years. Even after that catastrophe, he likely had some savings stashed away. As for hitmen of the roe deer brothers' caliber, their fees were bound to be exorbitant. Neither were ordinary demon beasts hailing from the wasteland zones; they might well carry money or treasures, making their corpses worth looting. Yue Wen and Zhao Xing'er promptly set to work searching the bodies. Er Pao had nothing on him except a battered hammer. Still, the material of that hammer was remarkably tough—even after clashing directly against the Drum-Beating Golden Urn Hammers, it hadn't shattered completely. The same went for Da Pao's wrench. Yue Wen simply kept both the hammer and the wrench. Even if he couldn't use them, selling them off for their raw materials would fetch a modest sum. Even a dung beetle had some meat, after all. Aside from those, the roe deer brothers carried nothing of value, save for a single key on Da Pao stamped with the number "58." It looked like a locker key. The brothers' belongings were likely stored wherever that locker was, but without knowing the location, having the key didn't seem particularly useful. As for Huang Dahu, his body held no loose possessions—his clothes regularly exploded during combat anyway, so he could hardly carry anything in his pockets. However, hanging around his neck was a lustrous, round jade pendant. Zhao Xing'er picked it up and examined it, remarking, "This is a mustard seed jade. Doesn't look like great quality, so it probably can't hold very much." A mustard seed jade was the most common type of storage magic implement, created by engraving formation patterns onto jade endowed with spiritual nature to carve out a small, portable pocket of space. The one around Huang Dahu's neck was of the most ordinary grade, likely possessing only a few cubic meters of storage capacity. Zhao Xing'er spoke with disdain, looking down on such common goods, but Yue Wen's eyes lit up upon hearing her words. "Mustard seed jade is great! I happen to be missing a storage magic implement," he said with a grin. He couldn't open the jade pendant just yet; he would have to take it back and refine it slowly. Fortunately, lower-grade storage implements like this didn't feature overly intricate formation patterns, making them relatively easy to re-refine. Otherwise, certain high-grade storage implements remained sealed even after the owner died, while others would self-destruct along with their master, which would have been a real headache. Once he finished refining it, even if there was nothing inside, he would still gain a usable storage magic implement. This trip could certainly be considered a bountiful harvest. What else could he say? *Thank you, little tiger.*