Chapter 21: Chapter 20: Helping Others is the Root of Happiness
The searing Inner Strength began to boil, like a monstrous, sky-high wave.
He Xiaotian, completely disregarding the potential damage to his meridians, furiously poured it into the Pig Grudge’s skull.
The only reason he’d been talking nonsense was to steel his resolve to fight to the death, reminding himself that his father was still lying in a hospital bed.
Even though his Inner Strength had been upgraded to Perfect-level Lower Grade Scorched Earth, he still hadn’t found this grudge’s core.
Normally, if you got your head smashed and its contents burned away, you’d be dead as a doornail, spiraling up to heaven.
But this thing was completely fine, acting as if nothing had happened.
The swings of its big hammer were making him cough up blood.
Moreover, the Pig Grudge’s body contained an extremely powerful and frigid yin energy that neutralized the Inner Strength of his Fire-refined Golden Body.
Every step forward was an immense struggle.
After taking more than a dozen hits from the hammer, his Inner Strength finally spread into its chest cavity.
There, he discovered a heart that seemed to be made of ten-thousand-year-old ice.
The moment his Inner Strength touched it, it vaporized instantly, completely unable to break through.
He Xiaotian hardened his heart. ’I’ll detonate the Inner Strength in my Dantian and go all out with you.’
’Let’s see who breaks first. Who’s afraid of who?!’
If the Pig Grudge’s heart could withstand it, he would be the one to die.
The outcome?
He’d be pounded into meat paste, that’s all.
If he won, his father would be safe.
And he’d also get a handsome sum of Experience Points.
Even without the latter, the former made it all worthwhile.
"Dad, if you don’t buy me a new car after this, you’ll really be letting down your son for risking his life against this pig!"
"OINK OINK!!"
The searing Inner Strength was like an Avalanche, uprooting and destroying anything that dared stand in its way.
The ice-like heart gradually began to melt.
"BOOM!"
The moment before its heart vanished, a vicious glint flashed in the Pig Grudge’s single eye.
It detonated its own source of power with all its might.
It wasn’t that He Xiaotian didn’t feel the strange disturbance, but he was simply too weak to dodge.
He barely had any unbroken bones left in his body, and he’d just been hammered more than a dozen times.
He had also voluntarily detonated the Qi Force in his Dantian, causing tiny cracks to form along his meridians.
’How can I dodge?’
’All I can do is take it head-on!’
"BANG!"
Feeling the familiar hardness against his back, He Xiaotian knew he must have slammed into the wall again.
[Ding! Unranked Grudge—Pig Grudge—killed. 1,000 Experience Points awarded.]
"PFFT!"
He Xiaotian spat out a mouthful of blood. The Pig Grudge’s explosion hadn’t actually been that powerful.
Even smashing into the concrete wall would have just rattled his bones a bit and made his Qi and Blood churn.
But the two words from the Experience Points system, "Unranked Grudge," had just plunged a dagger straight into his heart.
"Un... Unranked?!"
An "unranked" Pig Grudge had nearly pounded him into a little cookie.
If it had been a ranked one, wouldn’t it have turned him into salad dressing?
Still, a thousand Experience Points was a decent consolation prize.
A single Butcher only gave one hundred points.
One Pig Grudge was worth ten times that.
But to He Xiaotian, it felt like a losing deal no matter how he looked at it.
He could take care of a Butcher with just a few punches and kicks. But a Pig Grudge?
If he hadn’t decisively leveled up his >, drastically increasing his power, he would have been toast long ago.
He would rather face a hundred Butchers than a single Pig Grudge.
"Cough, cough... I knew it. Lying low and building up strength is the only way to go. Frontal assaults and life-or-death struggles will get you killed sooner or later." He Xiaotian propped himself up against the wall and walked over to Zhao Lei and Zhou Yun.
He needed to confirm whether these two were dead or alive.
’They’d better not be dead, though. Otherwise, if some big shot from Z County comes and investigates me, it’ll be a huge problem.’
’How would I explain myself then?’
’Even if my whole body were a mouth, I wouldn’t be able to talk my way out of it.’
’With no one to corroborate my story, everything I say would be suspect.’
He stretched out a finger and checked for breathing under their noses.
"Phew!"
He Xiaotian let out a sigh of relief. They were just severely injured and unconscious, not dead.
Looking at Zhao Lei’s pale face filled him with resentment.
’Damn you!’
’Didn’t you say that grudges that haven’t transformed into full-blown monsters were easy to deal with?’
’But you two ended up slacking off instantly, leaving me to fight to the death alone.’
He Xiaotian dug around in his pocket, took out a pair of gloves, and put them on.
Then he started stripping Zhao Lei’s clothes. ’Venting a little of my frustration isn’t going too far, right?’
After all, he had saved both their lives.
And so, a naked man lay quietly on the ground.
Zhao Lei, seemingly feeling the cold, even wrapped his arms around his chest.
"Pah!"
Having done all that, He Xiaotian finally walked toward the cold storage area.
’After a life-and-death battle, I can’t just walk away with only some Experience Points, right?’
’I should at least see if there’s any loot inside.’
Probably because the Pig Grudge was dead, the temperature in the cold storage area wasn’t as low as before.
Walking deeper inside, he discovered a tiny fissure.
The thing was, at most, the length of his little finger.
If it hadn’t been set against the white frost of the cold storage area, He Xiaotian probably wouldn’t have even noticed it.
[Ding! A convertible source of Experience Points has been discovered. Convert?]
’Is that even a question?’
’Of course I’m converting it!’
[Conversion complete. 3,050 Experience Points acquired.]
"What?!"
A black fissure no longer than his little finger was actually worth three thousand and fifty Experience Points?
That was worth risking his life against the Pig Grudge three times over!
’I came out here for one trip and actually gained five thousand and fifty Experience Points?’
He Xiaotian’s mood was complicated. After glancing at the shivering Zhao Lei on the ground, he thought, ’I forgive you.’
Afterward, he fought back the hunger in his stomach and cleaned up the battlefield.
He didn’t want anyone to collect his blood and use it to find him.
Hiding in the shadows and developing his strength was the right choice.
’A Level 3 Police Constable rank and ten thousand a month is too hot to handle!’
Before leaving, He Xiaotian casually placed the pig head that had survived the explosion on Zhao Lei’s chest, positioning his arms to cradle it.
At the entrance of the Zhongcheng Slaughterhouse, Director Huang was constantly wiping away sweat, worried about the comrades in the special task force.
That horrifying, sky-rending pig squeal from just now was truly unsettling.
He was terrified that Zhao Lei and Zhou Yun had died inside. If that were the case, he could only wait for instructions from the provincial capital.
He didn’t dare give the order for his officers to go in and throw their lives away for nothing.
"SWOOSH!"
He Xiaotian leaped over the wall, carrying two big hammers. With an explosive burst of force from his feet, he shot off like a lightning bolt in the direction he had come from.
"Junming, did you just feel like something flew past us?"
"I couldn’t see it clearly. It seemed like just a gust of wind."
He got into his second-hand Audi and barely managed to fit the iron hammers inside.
He Xiaotian thought for a moment, then took out a pen and paper and awkwardly scribbled a line of text with his left hand.
Then he casually picked up a stone, wrapped the paper around it, and with a flick of his right wrist, sent it flying toward Director Huang.
"CLANG!!"
"Who’s there?"
Director Huang flinched, gripping his gun with both hands and scanning his surroundings.
After a moment, an officer pointed at his car door and said, "Director, there’s a paper ball on it."
"???"
’Are you kidding me!’
’Since when can a paper ball embed itself in a car door?’
It took several people a great deal of effort to finally pry the paper ball out.
Director Huang opened it, and his lips twitched.
’This handwriting is hideous!’
’My kid’s scribbles are ten thousand times better than this.’
[The slaughterhouse incident has been resolved. The two members of the special task force are severely injured and unconscious. Please rescue them as soon as possible. Also, no need to thank me. Helping others is the root of happiness.]
Director Huang: "..."
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