Chapter 284: Chapter 208: All Miniature Vicious Beasts
"Brother Xiang, I have it too! I have it too!"
Yao Yao’s eyes sparkled with excitement, her little face flushed red. She shared her progress with Li Xiang and asked him to check her Spiritual Power.
Zhao Xueqing, who was standing to the side, rolled her eyes. ’What do you mean, "I have it too"? Are you copying me?’
Li Xiang smiled faintly and gave her an encouraging look. He then took Yao Yao’s small hand and channeled his own Spiritual Power into it.
Sure enough, a wisp of Spiritual Power, as ethereal as a rosy mist, flowed within Yao Yao’s body.
It seemed the Breathing Technique, which incorporated many difficult yoga poses, was quite suitable for Yao Yao.
"Let me teach you some tricks for forming a Spiritual Power Vortex," Li Xiang said. He immediately used his own Spiritual Power to envelop Yao Yao’s, guiding it through her body to demonstrate how to condense the vortex.
Yao Yao’s whole body grew hot. She glanced at Zhao Xueqing and Lei Xiaohui, thinking, ’You two are really tight-lipped. Something this intimate and pleasurable, and you didn’t say a single word about it before.’
"Cultivate well from now on. There’s something... I’m not sure if I should tell you," Li Xiang said, glancing at the three girls and hesitating.
"Brother Xiang, is there anything you can’t tell us?"
"That’s right. We’ve all started cultivating now. We’re your most loyal team!"
"Brother Xiang~, why are you still treating us like outsiders?"
The three girls’ coquettish pleas were too much for Li Xiang to handle. "Alright, I’ll tell you. Just don’t be too alarmed."
"Mhm, mhm."
"We’re listening. We’re paying close attention."
The three of them scooted closer to Li Xiang, eagerly anticipating what he was about to tell them.
After a moment of deliberation, Li Xiang finally decided to lay it all on the line with the three of them. "It’s like this. In nine years, the world will undergo a massive change..."
Li Xiang told them that the Apocalypse would arrive, and he hoped they would cultivate diligently, striving to reach Tier Twelve or higher before it began. Anything above Tier Twelve was considered a High-level Transcendent. By then, they would be able to help him.
"Huh? The Apocalypse?"
"Oh my god!"
"Brother Xiang, we believe you. From now on, we’ll do whatever you say."
The three women were utterly horrified, but they accepted it quickly. After all, they had all managed to cultivate Spiritual Power.
And Li Xiang himself was unfathomably profound, with countless miraculous abilities. As for how he knew, since Li Xiang didn’t bring it up, they were smart enough not to ask.
"Just cultivate diligently and keep this a secret. Live and work as you normally would," Li Xiang warned.
"Don’t worry, Brother Xiang. We’ll definitely work hard on our Cultivation and won’t let you down." The three women gazed at Li Xiang, their eyes practically shining with adoration.
Admiring a handsome and powerful man was only natural.
Moreover, Li Xiang was their guide. He had opened a very special window for them, one that would change the course of their lives.
They now had even less desire to get married. They had embarked on the path of Cultivation; perhaps they could stay forever young and live long lives. Why would they bother marrying anyone?
They wouldn’t look twice at an ordinary man anyway.
Besides, according to what Li Xiang said, the Apocalypse was coming. That was even more reason not to marry an ordinary person. Wasn’t it better to follow Li Xiang? He could keep them safe during the Apocalypse.
Each of the three women harbored their own secret thoughts. When the Apocalypse arrived and the current order collapsed, perhaps they would have a chance to truly have Li Xiang for themselves.
After all, Li Xiang had just mentioned that the population would plummet during the Apocalypse.
’Since the population is going to drop, doesn’t that mean we’ll need to have more children? And to have more children, don’t you need to marry more wives? For someone as amazing as Li Xiang, how could one wife possibly be enough?’
They finally understood. It turned out Brother Xiang hadn’t been building those mountainside Shelters for tourism or to make money; he really intended to use them for refuge and residence in the future.
Because of this, the three girls began to take the construction progress of the Shelters much more seriously, deciding to get truly involved.
Since it concerned their future living arrangements, there would surely be a room for each of them, and for their families as well.
’We should pick our rooms now, make sure the quality is top-notch, and then decorate them beautifully to create a cozy little nest.’
Li Xiang took out his laptop again to handle some work, replying to a few emails. When he needed to ask for their opinions, he would discuss it with the three girls in the room.
Li Xiang didn’t hide it from them, revealing that he had an Otherworldly Warehouse that could store daily necessities. The three women grew excited—that meant they could go on another huge shopping spree tomorrow.
Anyway, with Brother Xiang around, they weren’t worried about being unable to carry everything.
After they finished, the three returned to their own rooms to cultivate. They all grinded until two or three in the morning before sleeping. The girls secretly started competing with one another, each wanting to be the first to form a Spiritual Power Vortex.
This was especially true for Yao Yao. She had fallen behind before, so this time she was giving it her all, determined to be number one in forming a Spiritual Power Vortex.
The next day, everyone was refreshed and full of energy. Li Xiang went to the girls’ room and put all their luggage into his System Space. The three women, now traveling light with only a small purse each, checked out of the hotel. They spent the afternoon exploring Singapore and buying many things before arriving in the Melaka Tengah District of Malaysia in the evening. They checked into a hotel they had booked in advance.
The next day, they planned to visit historical sites like the Sambo Temple and the Dutch Red House.
The Sambo Temple, as its name suggests, was built to commemorate Eunuch Sanbao, Zheng He. Back then, when Zheng He was leading his voyages to the Western Oceans, his fleet had reached this place. He engaged in peaceful trade with the local people, exchanging porcelain, silk, gold, silver, bronze, and iron goods.
A place with such historical significance was naturally a must-visit.
As for the Dutch Red House, it was just a bonus stop.
After checking into the hotel, Li Xiang returned their suitcases, which contained many of the girls’ personal items they would need: underwear, pajamas, disposable face towels, disposable toilet seat covers, sunscreen, and the like.
Li Xiang took out some of the Vine Sticks he had made earlier and let them choose. Each of them picked one with a suitable grip, and Lei Xiaohui was especially excited.
"I have to go out again tonight. Make sure you lock the doors and windows. These Vine Sticks can be used for self-defense."
The crime rate in Malaysia should be manageable. Besides, Lei Xiaohui was skilled in Martial Arts, and all three had now cultivated Spiritual Power, so Li Xiang wasn’t too worried.
"Brother Xiang, can we go with you?" The three women were reluctant to see him go.
"Just focus on your Cultivation. Right now, you’d only be a burden if you came with me."
The three women: "..."
"Alright, I’m off." Li Xiang waved and left.
In less than a minute, Li Xiang arrived on the opposite side of the Malacca Strait, on the island of Sumatra. At its narrowest point, the strait is only about thirty kilometers wide.
The spot where Li Xiang crossed was just over seventy kilometers wide. At his Extreme Speed of 5 Mach, he could cover 102 kilometers in a minute.
This island had a fair number of ferocious beasts, but they were relatively small. For instance, the Sumatran Tiger is the smallest surviving tiger subspecies; the Sumatran Rhino is the smallest of the rhinoceros family; the Dwarf Elephant, as its name implies, is a very small elephant, at most half the size of an African Elephant; and there were also Clouded Leopards, which were also "adorably small."
One could only say that Nature truly is miraculous. The same or similar species can evolve to have different body sizes to adapt to different living conditions.
Li Xiang swept across the island of Sumatra three times, killing many "mini" tigers, rhinos, elephants, Clouded Leopards, Malayan Tapirs, and the like. Unfortunately, he didn’t encounter any Extraordinary beings with High-Tier potential. The strongest was a Tier Nine Sumatran Tiger, and it didn’t even "drop" any Extraordinary Items. The beasts here were simply too weak, innately deficient.
However, after he crossed Java Island, Bali Island, and a host of other islands, arriving at a few islands more than two thousand kilometers away, he discovered a species of giant lizard.
The Komodo Dragon, also known as the Komodo monitor, is the largest living species of lizard. It typically grows to a length of 2–3.5 meters (the longest recorded was about 8 meters) and weighs 70–150 kilograms. They are highly venomous, their saliva is teeming with pathogenic bacteria, they are carnivorous, have been known to eat humans, and are disgustingly ugly. Their average lifespan in the wild is about 25–40 years, while those in captivity live shorter lives of only 8–10 years.
These giant lizards are found only in the Lesser Sunda Islands region of Indonesia, on islands including Komodo Island, Flores Island, Rinca Island, and Padar Island.
When hunting large animals like water buffalo and wild boars, Komodo Dragons use their biological weapons. They will bite the buffalo anywhere on its body, and as the wounded animal panics and flees, the Komodo Dragon doesn’t give chase. Instead, it waits for a while before unhurriedly following the buffalo’s scent with its tongue to feast upon the heavily wounded or already dead animal.
Their tongues are long and forked at the tip, constantly flicking in and out. The tongue is their olfactory organ, and it is incredibly sensitive, able to keenly detect scents drifting in the air. With the help of the wind, they can even detect carrion up to 9.5 kilometers away.
These giant lizards have a recorded history of eating people. Official records list 12 victims, but the number of unrecorded cases is likely countless.
It is said that several hundred years ago, when Indonesia was still a desolate land, some exiled convicts lived here. A terrifying rumor circulated among the convicts about a man-eating giant monster on a small island called Komodo. However, no one took the news seriously.
They were just convicts, after all. If they got eaten, they got eaten.
It wasn’t until 1911 that an American pilot, flying over Komodo Island, accidentally discovered these "monsters." In 1912, a paper was published that officially named them Komodo Dragons.
These creatures were ugly and disgusting, with sticky drool that could hang thirty centimeters from their mouths. As Li Xiang swept through these islands, whenever he detected a "potential mutation," he would use his Cold Ice Sword Qi to kill it from a distance, not wanting to get any of their filth on him.
As his Realm improved, the power of his Cold Ice Sword Qi also increased, and the number he could fire in one go rose to nearly one hundred fifty streams.
Li Xiang always fired them one at a time, so he could shoot one hundred and fifty times.
Since he didn’t have many Achievement Points at the moment—just over 300,000—he didn’t upgrade his other Superpowers, as he had no immediate use for them.
He previously had over 270,000, but after clearing several large islands, his Achievement Points had once again surpassed 300,000.
"Huh? Is someone drowning?"
His Black Mountain Profound Armor was covered in filth, so Li Xiang went to the shore to wash it with seawater. Suddenly, he noticed two hands waving in the water in the distance. It looked like someone had fallen in and was struggling for help.
However, no matter how the dark figure struggled, it couldn’t swim to shore. It would swim a few meters toward the beach, only for a wave to crash and pull it back out again.
’Something’s not right. It’s the middle of the night, on a deserted island, and two hands are sticking out of the water...’
’Should I save them?’
’Is it a person or a ghost?’
Li Xiang stared for a few more moments, then couldn’t help but smile.
