Chapter 123: Payday

Opening the lid of the cooked-mud pot, a swirling mist of steam instantly billowed out; it had no distinct scent, yet it carried a unique, ethereal softness.

Taking a closer look, the stewed, tender yellow snake soup resembled congealed fat, covered in shimmering spirit stone shards that looked like sesame seeds or crushed peanuts.

After many experiments by Du En, he finally arrived at this method of crushing them finely and sprinkling them on at the very last moment as a seasoning garnish.

Relying on the pure spiritual energy provided by these fifty low-grade spirit stone bits, he compensated for the insufficient quantity of the main auxiliary ingredients.

However, this snake soup was still only of the second-grade middle quality.

Because the grade of the cooked-mud pot was truly too low, this was already the limit of what it could cook.

"An upgrade to the cookware is imminent."

Although, from his expression that remained as calm as still water, one could not tell this at all.

Yet Yu Jian felt that this was being far too lenient on the other party; moreover, he had not yet squeezed enough profit out of this kid, and seeing the other newcomers acting so smug and carefree lately, he was filled with jealousy!

Yu Jian's attitude was arrogant, his arms crossed, appearing beyond reproach.

Consequently, both sides fell into silence, neither speaking for the moment.

"Asking me to run an errand on my way is fine, but you have to give me the spirit stones to buy the wine..."

Naturally, he could selectively bury second-grade early-stage demonic beasts into his own divine ability death-ground, nourishing himself, the master of the divine ability, in another form.

"You really are refusing a toast only to drink a forfeit, aren't you!"

Therefore, Du En struck directly at the critical pain point at this moment.

"..."

Subtracting the personnel who would not participate in daily patrols, they had long been unable to even maintain the basic two-shift day and night rotation; more and more sectors were left unpatrolled, and this was not alleviated by the recent replenishment of personnel, but rather, as new and old members were continuously killed, the gap was becoming even larger.

Facing Du En, who actually dared to ask for wine money, Yu Jian was furious and could no longer hold back.

In an instant, Yu Jian let out a breath of relief; he said nothing, only watching Du En leave with a sinister gaze.

"Nineteen have already died; no, counting this one today, it should be twenty."

The personnel issue at the outpost camp had always been obvious; the full complement was seven hundred people, and to manage two-shift, rotating patrols while still having time for rest, at least five hundred people were needed, but the actual number of people here was already less than two hundred and fifty.

Amidst the swirling dust, it was stained with a glaring red.

Tang Yiping was very clear about this, and he silently kept track of the other party's occasional insults!

Eat, practice, practice, refine...

Just like this, whether by taking the initiative to attack or encountering prey, in less than a month, he had already wiped out several nests of demonic beasts and killed eight second-grade demonic beasts.

"Hmph! Not afraid of death, are you! Fine! Wait until I break through to the late stage of Foundation Establishment and my standing in the eyes of the Camp Master rises; then I will torture you severely, making you wish for death but unable to die!"

Because there was simply too much meat; just the meat from second-grade middle-stage demonic beasts was currently stockpiled at tens of thousands of catties, and visibly, it would only continue to pile up.

"Fine."

Others might not care about this matter, but Xiang Tao, the Camp Master, had to!

"Actually, thinking about it carefully, it is within reason."

"The corpse-burier, come here!"

As for the other newcomer patrol guards, the situation looked very bad.

"Oh? An unexpected harvest?"

"Burying so many corpses, are you used to life and death?"

"Where are the spirit stones?"

"Huh?"

He had originally thought the saying that the Firm Spirit Art was like spirit stones—hard on the outside and pure on the inside—was just a metaphor; now it seemed the predecessor who created this technique might have truly used spirit stones for direct incision, and perhaps even chewed and consumed them raw.

On the night the monthly wages were issued, Du En still timed his speed carefully, slowly returning to the camp.

Yu Jian wanted to speak but stopped, his mouth hanging open for a long time, unable to step down from his position.

Du En's life was on the right track, beginning to accelerate steadily.

Such bloody lessons forced the remaining newcomer patrol guards to rely more on the veteran patrol guards, not daring to rashly leave their patrol sectors again.

Yu Jian fell into silence.

Yu Jian stopped in his tracks, his face exceptionally gloomy, gritting his teeth as his magic power began to surge; he was clearly about to get serious.

Du En began to lower his altitude, and after landing, he wanted to turn and go check the situation.

I am currently alive and kicking, have adapted, and can perform my daily patrol duties; even Camp Master Xiang Tao cannot kill me at will, so you, Yu Jian, had better think clearly about the consequences of fighting me to the death here!

When the time reached one month since they were sent over, at the juncture where they could collect their first monthly wage after finishing work today, nineteen newcomers had already been killed while patrolling alone.

"Little Du, bring me two bottles of spirit wine on your way later; tell Zhao Jinlin it's for me, he knows what wine to give."

Then, the dietary energy began to surge.

While he was still flying in the sky on his artifact, he saw a figure from afar, like a kite with a broken string, slamming violently outside the camp's formation.

"Bastard!"

Damn it, why are all the other newcomers obedient, submissive, asking for instructions morning and night, and waiting on me hand and foot, while you, this guy, just refuse to soften up?

It makes me have to pretend to be served comfortably in front of others, faking smiles and fake comfort all day!

Du En's answer was very simple, but he made no actual move, still standing in place, calmly looking at the other party.

The spirit stone shards were crispy and fragrant when chewed, not getting stuck in the teeth; the overall taste and flavor were quite good.

Du En thought to himself and began to taste it.

Because he was truly afraid of breaking the jade vase to catch the rat; who let the Du En before him strike a pose of mutual destruction?

Is it worth it to trade his future, or even his life, against a guy like this who doesn't understand status?

It is not worth it!

But now, stuck in this awkward position, although no one was watching, he could not step down, could not lose face, and could not take the initiative to soften his attitude.

One family's joy is another's sorrow.

Whenever there was nothing left to eat, he would go seek spiritual energy, go gather spiritual items, and incidentally hunt and kill demonic beasts to use as ingredients.

Yu Jian thought to himself, silently making a vow.

But if he truly couldn't even handle his primary duties—that is, managing the camp and maintaining the most basic daily patrols—then he would be in for a world of suffering; being held accountable and reprimanded would be the least of it.

The main thing was that Du En held a card that was too incisive; other than this, he couldn't think of a suitable solution.

Among them, four early-stage second-rank demonic beasts were buried by him directly into his own divine ability, the Death Ground.

But at this moment, when everyone else gathered at the sound, Yu Jian suddenly jumped out, blocking Du En's line of sight, causing the footsteps here to halt.

In this way, the number of times Du En practiced his cultivation techniques each day would increase to thirty-five.

Du En discovered that the spiritual meal, supplemented with spiritual stone fragments, had a meal-power that made his Qi, blood, and magic power slightly more agile; clearly, it was because it aligned with the intent of the Firm Spirit Art that it was like this.

"……"

The cause of death was basically being grabbed, eaten, or bitten to death by demonic beasts; only one person was found to have died from poison, and it was unknown where they had run off to, becoming infected with a fierce miasma poison that even an early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator couldn't withstand.

"What? Hmph! I would like to see what you have to say for yourself!"

He lunged forward fiercely, while Du En retreated just as fiercely; as one charged and the other retreated, the distance between them didn't close by even a fraction. Thus, after a while, Yu Jian's head, which had been clouded by rage, finally calmed down slightly.

Raising his eyes again to look in the direction the person had fled, a demonic beast with blood-stained lips cowered in the dim miasma of the mountain forest, revealing a look of unwillingness, but it still chose to retreat and leave before the people in the camp could react.

This made Yu Jian freeze for a moment, then he thought of something and appeared incredulous; suppressing his anger, he asked coldly: "What are you still standing there for? Hurry up and go!"

Yes, it was indeed possible to find a way to ambush and kill Du En outside the camp.

At the same time, he was stingy with various materials, using the Fire Ignition Art to begin refining artifacts, churning out many low-quality second-rank low-grade magical artifacts specifically for self-detonation, rapidly grinding his proficiency.

Regarding this, Du En remained calm: "Not to mention that I am not in the wrong, I only need to mention one other point."

Xiang Tao's shout broke the stalemate here.

Don't look at how harshly he cursed Tang Yiping, or how he killed newcomers as easily as slaughtering chickens; for one thing, insulting a supervisor didn't interfere with his duties, and for another, newcomers who were already beyond saving couldn't be brought back to life anyway, so it was better to kill them directly to establish authority, which could be considered making use of their remaining value.

"……Just like that?"

"Attacked by demonic beasts again……"

Even so, it only slowed the upward trend in the number of victims.

Yu Jian thought about recent events, his heart growing increasingly angry, but he was still very much afraid to act rashly.

"Among the old patrol guards, there are also four faces that haven't been seen for over seven days."

Therefore, it cannot be let go so easily!

And because of this, he temporarily saved his own life.

(End of this chapter)