I Have 10 Equipment Slots

Chapter 465: Chapter 263: Wiped Out with a Single Palm

Yang Siyue was startled.

She spun around, looking to her rear right.

The mountaintop in her line of sight had been empty, but after Gu Zheng finished speaking, a figure slowly materialized.

It was none other than the Grand Director of the Demon Slayer Bureau, Xu Jianzhu.

"Rest assured, Gu King. I am here precisely to ensure the Seventh Princess’s safety."

Xu Jianzhu said calmly, "If the Seventh Princess wishes to leave, please accompany me. I will courteously escort you out of the country."

...So he was here to protect Yang Siyue, not to assassinate her in secret.

It was a good thing Yang Siyue had been so cautious ever since entering the Jing Country, avoiding all eyes and ears.

To think she had been under Xu Jianzhu’s watch all along.

Of course, this also revealed another side to the situation.

Someone from the Zhong Family still hadn’t given up and wanted to cause trouble.

It was less that Xu Jianzhu was protecting Yang Siyue and more that he was preventing these people from sabotaging things!

"Then I’ll have to trouble you, Lord Xu."

Gu Zheng clasped his fist in a salute from a distance.

"Thank you, Lord Xu," Yang Siyue added her thanks.

With Xu Jianzhu escorting her, she wouldn’t have to be so careful when she left.

"You’re too kind, Gu King. It is my duty."

Xu Jianzhu returned the cupped-fist salute.

Then, taking Yang Siyue, who had bid her farewell, he headed north, then west, leaving Fengzhou.

Gu Zheng took the invitation and returned to Qingshi County Town.

Upon entering the Gu Mansion, he summoned Gu Xue, Gu Feng, Gu Wan’Er, Gu Pan’Er, and Zhou Dingding.

"This is an invitation to the eight-hundredth birthday celebration of the Yang Family’s old ancestor from the Shang Country’s royal family."

Opening the gilt-lettered invitation, Gu Zheng showed it to them and said, "The invitee may bring one family member as a companion. Who among you wants to go?"

"I’ll go!"

Gu Xue was the first to raise her hand.

"Me too, me too!" Gu Wan’Er hopped up and down. "Big Brother, I’m the youngest, take me!"

"Hmph! Well, I’m the prettiest!" Gu Xue puffed out her chest.

Among the three sisters, including Zhou Dingding, she was indeed the best-looking.

"At this kind of birthday banquet, there might be sparring matches between the younger generation. There’ll be fighting and killing, and people could get hurt. I’m a man, I’m not afraid of a few scrapes. Let me go!" Gu Feng said with a self-sacrificing expression.

After a period of painstaking effort, he had now reached the peak of the Alien Body stage and even possessed a Divine Weapon Seal, so he was feeling quite confident.

"I won’t be going," Gu Pan’Er said with a smile.

"I won’t go either," Zhou Dingding chimed in.

"Big Sister can stay, but Dingding, you should try to go," Gu Zheng said softly.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Gu Xue frowned. "Big Brother, are you messing with us?"

"You all want to go, but there’s only one spot. Naturally, you’ll have to compete for it," Gu Zheng said calmly, his expression unreadable.

"Compete?" Gu Xue rolled her eyes. "If we have to compete, what’s the point? Wouldn’t it be better to just pick Dingding from the start?"

"Exactly," Gu Feng agreed.

"The competition I’m talking about isn’t a martial contest." With a wave of his hand, Gu Zheng threw out a roll of white cloth. He controlled his Powerful Qi to slice it apart—SHFF SHFF SHFF—into more than ten pieces that landed on the table.

"The content of the competition is to explore the new areas that have appeared in the county. Each of you will take a piece of cloth and a pen, choose an area, and begin your exploration. You will draw and write down the environment and special species you find inside."

Gu Zheng explained, "Whoever records the most content in the greatest detail will get the highest score. Big Sister will be the one to grade you at the end. The person with the highest score will accompany me to the Yang Family Ancestral Land for the eight-hundredth birthday celebration."

With the Three Domains Unification, many areas from the originally ownerless Spirit Realm Space had already merged into Qingshi County.

Some of these new areas directly swallowed up Qingshi County’s barren mountains and open fields, while others merged with cliffs, gullies, and the like.

Gu Zheng had briefly scanned the situation inside. There was some danger, but with the cultivation of Gu Feng and the others, they were more than capable of handling it.

After all, even the weakest among them, Gu Feng, was now at the peak of the Alien Body stage.

Gu Xue, Gu Wan’Er, and Gu Pan’Er were already at the Super Body stage.

Zhou Dingding, in fact, had just advanced to the third stage of Super Body a few days ago.

With their strength, exploring, mapping, and recording information would be a perfect training experience for them.

"Explore new areas? I can do that, no problem!"

Hearing this, Gu Xue clapped her hands excitedly. "Quite a few people in town have been talking about the new areas that have appeared, but not many dare to go in."

Exploring a new environment and recording information was related to one’s cultivation level, but it was an even greater test of patience and meticulousness.

Zhou Dingding’s advantage wasn’t as great in this regard.

"Alright."

Gu Feng nodded. "I have no problem with that either."

"Mmm..." Gu Wan’Er sighed. "Fine, then."

"Yes, Master." Zhou Dingding no longer refused.

"Alright, I’ll be the one to give the final scores," Gu Pan’Er said with a smile.

Before the Celestial Change, she had traveled far and wide for several years, making her more than qualified to be the judge.

"Then it’s settled."

Gu Zheng stood up. "The clock starts today and ends the day before the birthday celebration. Don’t worry about running out of new areas to explore. These extra regions are ones I moved from a Spirit Realm Space and merged into Qingshi County. A new one will appear almost every day."

"Ha, I knew Big Brother was behind this!" Gu Xue clapped her hands reflexively.

WHAP!

Gu Zheng gave her a flick on the forehead from across the room, holding back his strength just enough to make Gu Xue yelp in pain and rub her head, begging for mercy.

"Serves you right!"

Gu Feng snickered.

The appearance of new areas within Qingshi County had been reported to the Marquis Mansion from the very beginning. Gu Zheng hadn’t dealt with it because he was waiting for the fusion process to complete fully.

In the meantime, he didn’t care what others thought, as long as they weren’t deliberately causing trouble.

Even if people trespassed into the new areas, Gu Zheng let them be.

He would only intervene in a life-or-death situation. Otherwise, he ignored them completely.

Gu Xue, Gu Feng, and the others, however, were entering with a mission.

Gu Zheng would not interfere with them either.

In truth, if it were simply a matter of surveying the environment, having the four members of the Alien Race—Two Ears and Three Eyes—do it would be much faster and more convenient.