Chapter 130 – White Jade Beetle
When Yue Yang approached that weird Spherical-stalked Plant, the gigantic demon beetle which was chasing after Yue Yang immediately turned around and retreated.
Yue Yang thought that this gigantic demon beetle would need at least three minutes to return to the place where Ye Kong and the others were. He thought that he had given enough time for Ye Kong to contract the Beetle Larva. Yue Yang walked right in front of the weird Spherical-stalked Plant and was about to summon the Thorny Flower that was still evolving. However, against expectations, the Spherical-Stalked plant suddenly moved, its cactus-like, thorny surface slowly opening up. A bright white light suddenly filled the air, looking extremely holy and soothing. The surrounding dirty earth had even melted into black particles under the bright white light, slowly ascending to the sky.
At first, Yue Yang had thought that there was a precious pearl inside the Spherical-stalked Plant, just like those pearls that were stored inside shells.
When the bright white light was not that dazzling anymore, Yue Yang reached out to see and froze as he saw what was inside.
In the Spherical-stalked Plant, there was a coconut meat-like layer. And in the middle of the plant that did not have much meat left, was a beetle with a jade-like, sparkling and translucent body, whose innards could be seen through its shell. It looked a little like the Herculean Rhinoceros Beetle, but its horns weren’t that developed yet and also not as sharp. The horns didn’t even look like they were capable of injuring someone, instead, they gave others a mellow, lustrous and satiny feel.
The beetle looked like a masterpiece of a sculpture that had been polished repeatedly.
Its sparkling and translucent body looked like white jade and carried a tinge of gold barely visible to the eye. There was no other colour in its body. Its little horns, little feet and little body were all extremely adorable.
Yue Yang was secretly surprised. Even with his level 3 [Divine Vision], how could he not be able to see through this beetle?
Hui Tai Lang seemed to be a little annoyed by the White Jade Beetle who had enormous powers although it was still a baby. The reason was that the pure and holy power inside the beetle could disperse the demonic qi inside Hui Tai Lang’s body. Hence, Hui Tai Lang was unwilling to come near the White Jade Beetle.
If it was any other beetle with such an abundant power instead, Hui Tai Lang would probably already swallowed it whole.
Yue Yang reached his hands out and took this White Jade Beetle into his hands.
If he didn’t see that its feet and horns were moving ever so slightly, Yue Yang would have thought that this White Jade Beetle was a sculptor’s valuable art piece.
Was this really a living thing?
In this filthy Demon Abyss, how could there exist such a pure living thing? There were really so many weird, unexplainable things in this world. Yue Yang opened his beast encyclopedia and looked through the insect-type beasts for a long time, but he couldn’t find a matching record that fulfil the description of this White Jade Beetle. When he tried to feel it with his Innate Qi, just when he managed to get into it a little, a bright white light suddenly enveloped him whole… Hui Tai lang seemed to feel unwell amidst the white light and immediately retreated a few meters back, escaping from the vicinity of the white light.
Yue Yang studied it for a long time but he still could not find a good answer to this bizarre event.
He knew for sure that this beetle was a good thing, but he didn’t know what beast this White Jade Beetle was.
The White Jade Beetle didn’t struggle in his hands, even when Yue Yang was turning it upside down and all around to observe its every nook and corner. Only its little feet moved a little at times. Most of the time, it only stayed still quietly, as if it was in a deep sleep.
“Forget it, let’s just pick it up and see what it is later at home.” Yue Yang put the White Jade Beetle into his backpack. Suddenly, Hui Tai Lang immediately charged forward with all his speed, intending to bite on that white layer of meat that was left behind. Yue Yang sent it flying with a kick. What a good fellow, turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to its master’s words upon seeing a good item.
“Wang Wang Wu…” Hui Tai Lang hurriedly acted like an honest dog and wagged its tail excitedly. He even put on an ‘I’m a good boy’ look.
“Could this fruit’s flesh be used to nurture beasts?” Yue Yang searched it using his Innate Qi and found that this fruit had a Life Energy just like the Oak Tree’s Heart, but its energy was a little weaker. Furthermore, there was also a kind of pure energy that Yue Yang couldn’t figure out. Yue Yang started to think. Maybe if he used this fruit’s flesh to nurture beasts, especially nurturing young beasts, it would have a stronger effect than eating magic cores. That was because this fruit’s flesh was simply too pure, almost untarnished. No wonder Hui Tai Lang, this fellow, looked at it with its drool falling like a waterfall.
The weird Spherical-stalked Plant’s fruit flesh had almost been all eaten by the White Jade Beetle, only a little layer of flesh was left.
Yue Yang scraped off one chunk and gave it to the drooling Hui Tai Lang, who chomped it as if it was Zhu Ba Jie* who was eating ginseng. The piece of fruit flesh did not even touch its teeth and went straight to its stomach.
(*Rango: http://www.cultural-china.com/chinaWH/html/en/History125bye510.html )
On the contrary, when Yue Yang summoned Xiao Wen Li out and gave her a piece, she took the fruit flesh and smelled it before giving it back to Yue Yang, as if she had no interest in that piece of flesh. Yue Yang sweated hard as he caressed her little head, “Kids are not supposed to be picky with food.”
Xiao Wen Li still shook her head, her six arms hugging Yue Yang’s thighs as she acted like a spoiled child. When Yue Yang still forced the fruit flesh to her, she took it and pretended that she was going to eat it, before suddenly passing the fruit flesh to Hui Tai Lang and turned into a ray of rainbow light and entered back into Yue Yang’s body to rest. Yue Yang sweated hard when he saw this, but Hui Tai Lang, on the other hand, was overjoyed to eat another piece of fruit flesh. It was so happy that its long tails wagged hard to the left and right…
Trying to test it again, Yue Yang summoned the Bloody Queen out.
When she received a piece of the fruit flesh, she nodded her head at first, then shook her head and started spouting a chain of Demonic Abyss Language. She even gestured a few hand gestures to Yue Yang, it was a pity that Yue Yang couldn’t understand her at all.
Based on the Bloody Queen’s hand gestures, Yue Yang reckoned that she was saying this fruit flesh was quite delicious indeed, it was just that its real core was already missing. Yue Yang guessed that the best part of the fruit had already been eaten by the White Jade Beetle. As for the remaining fruit flesh, Xiao Wen Li wasn’t interested in it while the Bloody Queen’s reaction was only so-so. She liked to eat it but not to the point of drooling after it like Hui Tai Lang had.
“I should keep it first, maybe it will be useful in the future.” Yue Yang had never disliked more treasures coming his way. He put the rest of the Spherical-stalked Plant into his Lich Ring. With this ring, Yue Yang could gather treasures more easily.
Far away, a loud rumbling, followed by an earthquake had suddenly resounded.
In the air, the five little kids rode on their flying beasts as they rushed over to Yue Yang, screaming. They had not even arrived before their shout reached Yue Yang, “The swarms of insects are coming, we need to go to the teleportation gate quick!”
Below them, the miserable looking Ye Kong, Fatty Hai and company were running along the valley.
There were even more Black Winged Worms and Blood Sucking Mosquitoes in the sky, forming clouds of insects swarms. But the scariest thing was still that Herculean Rhinoceros Beetle, its large body destroying everything in its path as it chased after Ye Kong and the others. The impact from its body shook the whole valley, causing chunks of rocks to turn into dust when it touches them with its horns. If it managed to catch up with Ye Kong and Fatty Hai, they would probably be turned into meat paste in an instant…
“What are you guys waiting for, open the teleportation scroll quickly!” Yue Yang almost sweated to death. Under such a dangerous circumstances, why are they still running here to find him?
“I have no problem with that, but Fatty Hai would need some time to activate the teleportation scroll.” Before Ye Kong even finished his words, Yue Yang had already taken out his Hui Jin Magic Blade and charged right at the furious Herculean Rhinoceros Beetle. On the other hand, Hui Tai Lang looked upwards as it gave a loud howl. Its whole body suddenly started emitting a Demon King-like demonic qi, threatening the swarms of insects and pressuring them from coming closer.
When everyone had teleported away, Yue Yang took Hui Tai Lang away from the head of the gigantic Herculean Rhinoceros Beetle and immediately teleported back.
At this time, a more terrifying swarm of insects had appeared in the sky. It was the parasitic Bee Swarm that liked to feed on young beasts…
Yue Yang thought that the Demon Abyss was indeed a terrifying place. It was no wonder that the monsters that grew in the Demon Abyss were all much stronger than the monsters in the Soaring Dragon Continent. The environment here was extremely harsh. Any monsters that managed to survive in this environment would naturally be the strongest.
“Very well, everyone has safely returned,” The tall girl saw that the five kids had all returned. Ye Kong, Fatty Hai and the others had also returned safely although they looked miserable as hell. As for Yue Yang, who returned last, she didn’t need to worry as Yue Yang’s battle capabilities were the reason that everyone had managed to survive in the first place. If not for him, their two little groups would probably have been completely wiped out.
“Hey noobie newbies, you guys are really late. I even managed to take a nap.” That arrogant guy ridiculed them ruthlessly. “Let’s see, what did you guys bring back with you? Your hands are all empty, haha, how could you even think of joining the Death Class with this kind of abilities?”
“Shi Lun, don’t be too much. You can show off in front of us again if you can win the Weekly Championship.” The tall girl’s face darkened, as she replied his ridicule with sarcasm.
“All of you shut up! We have to go to the Medicine Hall to send the medicines and complete our mission.” The black-armoured, eagle-eyed man suddenly bellowed strictly. In the Blackstone Square, the students of the Hell Class who were waiting immediately fell into their formation and walked towards the teleportation gate that the middle-aged doctor had opened. Yue Yang didn’t want to go at first. Such a thing like getting rewards from their work, he would rather leave it all to Fatty Hai, the ‘boss’. However, Princess Bei Bei pulled his hands and was adamant to bring him along. Unable to change this little royal loli’s mind, he could only follow along.
The Medicine Hall that they were teleported to was extremely large, it was at least ten times bigger than the Medicine Hall that Yue Yang had seen in the Tong Tian Tower.
Surrounding the Medicine Hall, there was a large square and three different buildings located in a triangular position with the Medicine Hall as the center.
When they were teleported, the first thing they saw was the huge number of people on the large square.
Most of them were soldiers.
There were also different students wearing different school uniforms. There were some wearing Shang Jing Academy’s uniform, and some others that Yue Yang didn’t recognize, but all of them were elites.
The whole ground was filled with injured soldiers. With simple estimations, one could clearly see there were at least three thousand people with one look.
Yue Yang secretly confirmed the suspicion in his heart. Indeed, not only Ivy Academy had dispatched their students to pick herbs, everyone who knew how to pick herbs had been dispatched to help. The number of injured soldiers that the Ivy Academy was responsible for was three hundred. If there wasn’t enough Black Eared Shrivelled Heart Orchid, then the soldiers that were under the Ivy Academy’s responsibility would die due to failure in completing the mission. Yue Yang guessed that there shouldn’t be many problems in completing the mission for the Ivy Academy, but what about the other Academies? Did they manage to reach their targets?
“Ivy Academy’s students, please submit the herbs over here.” A sweet-sounding female doctor welcomed them and led the Ivy Academy Hell Class’ students to a benevolent, kind-looking old lady matron. Bowing slightly, she said, “Doctor, the Ivy Academy has come to submit the herbs. Seems like they have managed to gather quite a few.”
“Very good. You are in charge of recording their achievements. Those with outstanding achievements will be given twice the reward from the Empire.” the old lady matron received every single medicinal plant and checked through them carefully.
Almost all of the Ivy Academy’s Hell Class students took out ten stalks, only five students didn’t manage to get ten and failed the mission.
However, the old lady matron still thanked them gratefully and said, “Every single Black Eared Shrivelled Heart Orchid would be able to save one life. You guys have already done very well. Furthermore, you guys have all picked the right herbs, there are no mistakes or scraps. You are all extremely outstanding students, we hope that you will continue to do your best in the future…” This old lady matron had even given a passing mark on the Point Cards for students who hadn’t reached the target.
Her actions caused some people on the side to protest. There was a guy from Shang Jing Academy who stood up and criticized loudly, “Doctor, this is not fair. Why didn’t you give me a passing mark even though I have completed the requirements of the mission? They didn’t even manage to reach the quota, why do you give them a passing mark?”
“Young one, I thought you had known the reason yourself… Do you know why? That’s because they didn’t cheat. You must be willing to help people from your own heart when you are helping someone, and not simply for the sake of completing a mission. Although you did submit ten stalks of Black Eared Shrivelled Heart Orchids, you had asked others to help you gather them. When you put herbs that were picked with different methods together, although you can’t see any problems with it on the outside, it would affect the medicinal herbs quality later on. Luckily you didn’t mix too much, otherwise they might even be useless. Student, I hope that you will remember that being honest is the foundation for saving lives. For the herbs that you have brought back with much trouble, I would like to thank you for your contribution on behalf of the wounded soldiers. However, as a doctor, I can’t give you a passing mark.” the old lady matron’s words made that guy deeply ashamed and embarrassed.
Yue Yang saw that the records were recorded in different signboards according to students from different Academies. Most of the Academies had picked up around 200 stalks each.
The only different one was Shang Jing Academy, who had gathered more than 500 stalks.
There were also herbs gathered by elite soldiers who totalled up to around 100 stalks… Looking at these results, Yue Yang couldn’t help but sigh in his heart. There were three thousand poisoned soldiers, and they had not even gathered 1000 stalks of herbs. What would the remaining 2000 soldiers do?
Could it be that other than the Black Eared Shrivelled Heart Orchid, there was no other way at all?
The White Jade Beetle’s pure energy was extremely effective to disperse demonic qi, would it be effective in curing poisons….? Yue Yang entered into a deep thought.