Chapter 554 – Aftermath
Ding
"The death curse isn't that bad, actually."
Although Brocell had slipped away, his luck energy would run out in about 1 year and 100 days. After that, the curse would decrease his lifespan or instantly kill him with an accident.
Miaomiao was a bit disappointed that Death Curse couldn't be used in combat. Still, it was good for dealing with tricky enemies, such as Brocell or Lilim.
Miaomiao flew back to Guo Jia and Liu Guang, who were still waiting for him at Red Sun City. He also didn't forget to transform into his human appearance to avoid misunderstanding.
When Miaomiao arrived, the strategist and Liu Guang were busy organizing the surviving sandworms after the explosion.
Fortunately, they were resilient to extreme heat. Most of them came out with a slight burn.
As soon as Liu Guang spotted Miaomiao, she waved her hands, "You're back. How's the fight?"
"Terrible. Brocell got away," Miaomiao sighed.
Guo Jia snickered, "It doesn't matter. What really matters is Brocell's backer. Even if we manage to kill him, his backer will still be out there. By letting him go, his backer will regard this incident as a trivial matter and leave us alone."
"But we clearly make an enemy out of Brocell."
Guo Jia turned to the group of sandworms, "But we gain so much from this raid. Look at what the sandworms bring for us. This should deal quite a blow to him since we've stolen so many of his supplies."
The surviving sandworms vomited what they had eaten in the dungeon. Most of them devoured golems, random ores, traps, and monsters from the dungeon. However, a few of them spat out wooden crates.
Miaomiao inspected the pile of unidentified treasures.
Fortunately, the golems stopped working, and they turned into several clumps of mineral ores. As for the golem cores, they were brimmed with Soul Qi.
The cores were first-grade to third-grade soul stones!
"Interesting."
Miaomiao checked the other things. The ores from the dungeon also emitted earth element Qi. If Miaomiao could refine them, he might be able to create earth element cores.
Various broken traps, such as guillotine blades, short spears, arrows, and poison were taken from the dungeon as well. Similar to the ores, each object contained elemental Qi, such as metal, poison, or wood.
Again, they were useless at glance, but Miaomiao could smelt and refine them into elemental cores.
As for the monsters, they were useless. Miaomiao couldn't use the corpse since they instantly dissipated into dust the moment their bodies got outside. Only the crystalized monster hearts were intact.
The crystallized monster hearts were similar to refined stones. They contained either Life or Demonic Essence, which was inferior to the other materials. Moreover, they contained high impurity, which made it unsuitable for cultivators to absorb the monster's energy.
Still, it might be useful as a battery for common daily appliances, such as a portable heater, a lamb, or a flying sword that weak cultivators always used.
As for the crates, Miaomiao drooled. He had a high expectation from these boxes.
Guo Jia opened one of the crates for Miaomiao.
Inside the wooden containers were brand new rifles. It didn't belong in the modern world due to its sci-fi-like design and bulky shape.
Miaomiao picked one of them and inspected the design. As soon as he realized what ammo type this gun required, Miaomiao broke a sweat.
The ejected empty magazine in Miaomiao's hands was designed to hold only one round-shaped ammunition. The size of the bullet was coincidentally the same as a 3rd-grade soul stone.
This weapon might be Brocell's newest creation. This thing could potentially consume soul stone energy to shoot Qi bullets, beams, or grenades, judging from the wide chamber.
"Nice!!"
Guo Jia dryly laughed, "Do you know what it does?"
"I have an idea, but I need an expert to test it!"
"Am I qualified for that?"
Wang Yun climbed up from Miaomiao's shadow. He patted his hands and saluted Miaomiao like a modern marine.
"Wang Michael Yun, reporting for duty, sir!"
Miaomiao raised his eyebrows and looked at Mike.
He was now a demi-human. His two elbow-shaped antennae extended from his forehead, and they poked Miaomiao's forehead as a greeting. Red scales covered most of his skin, including his cheeks. As for the eyes, they were similar to the eyes of the ants.
The most noticeable feature was his youthful look. With black short hair and a toned body, he looked stronger than the feeble body of an old man.
"It's been a while, Mike. I thought you were dead."
"I did, but your wife's subordinate saved my life."
"I see."
Miaomiao smiled at Liu Guang, and the latter blushed. She fidgeted, "Reward me later, okay?"
"…"
Miaomiao sighed. He passed the weapon to Mike, "I'm not a fan of firearms, and you seem to know them better than I do. From now on, these weapons will be under your care. Do whatever you want with them."
"Can I research on them and mass-produce them later?"
"Suit yourself."
"Haha! Thank you, sir!"
Mike collected the gun crates and ammunition to his spatial ring. Then, he sank into his shadow, returning to check on his men underground. He worried about the soldier ants that had grown up together with him.
After Mike had left, Miaomiao resumed his business. He looked at Guo Jia, "Any other goodies?"
Guo Jia grinned and gazed at Liu Guang. The latter put her fingers into the cleavage between her breasts and pulled out a card.
It looked like an ID card.
Miaomiao was puzzled, "What's that?"
Guo Jia reported, "We found that thing inside an abandoned bedroom of an employee. It seems special since it resonates with our Qi."
Miaomiao took the card and examined it. The card had an imprinted full name and the mini portrait of an employee.
CJ
"CJ's ID Card?"
Miaomiao almost asked them what this card was for, but he already discovered the answer.
Attaching to this ID card was a string of CJ's karma. The string led to the sky, and it definitely still connected to the ID owner.
Miaomiao circulated his Qi into it, and a hologram screen appeared from the surface of the ID Card, showing CJ's surprised face.
The ID card could be used to VDO call the employee!
'Dafuq, bro!? Wait, Mao Miaomiao? How did you…'
Miaomiao scoffed and waved his hand at the hologram in front of him, "What's up, motherfucker. I see that you are in cahoots with Brocell. Since when have you been working together?"
'Hey! I ditched that fool long ago!'
"Where are you? If you tell me honestly, I might spare your life when I'm done with Brocell."
'Look, fool. You're threatening the wrong person. I ain't working for Brocell. I'm agent 49! See this shit?!'
CJ panned his system camera elsewhere. It showed the scenery of a shining flower field and five massive moons in the dark sky.
The world that CJ was living in wasn't the Golden Heavenly Goose Planet!
"Hory shet."
'Yeah, Chinese Jesus. This is the holiest shit you've ever seen. A beauty, right? Now, look. I have nothing to do with Brocell anymore, and I don't care if you're going to gangbang him tomorrow. I'm already done with that planet. I'm a retired man.'
"What? Retired? So soon?"
The camera panned back to CJ's face. He sighed and confessed, 'I met Yuan Hua and Kishin Douji. They told me many things… TOO MANY THINGS. Hey, if I were you, I would have stopped cultivating and lived the life of a commoner. Don't press your luck, man.'
Miaomiao frowned, "What happened? Can you tell me?"
'It's better that you don't know. That shit is demoralizing and PTSD-inducing.'
"Try me."
'Shit. Don't blame me for this!'
CJ revealed everything of what he had experienced and learned from the other planet.
…
Several hours later, CJ and Miaomiao ended the chat.
Miaomiao opened a portal and let Guo Jia and Liu Guang enter his dantian world. As for Miaomiao, he looked at the sky and sighed.
He felt like he was a speck of dust in this vast universe.
He felt helpless.
"Damn sages."
From CJ's testimony, Kishin Douji already knew about the sages, and he even learned about their ulterior motives.
The sages were competing for mortal, immortal, and deity's faith. However, instead of fighting each other, they gambled, using everybody below their realm as chess pieces.
Each sage had a king, a queen, two knights, two rooks, and two bishops. As for the pawns, they could have only a hundred of them, officially.
The rules of the game were simple. Each sage could only communicate with the king piece to do their biddings. Interaction with other chess pieces was forbidden. However, every one hundred years, every sage could add, replace, or remove their pawns. They could also contact any mortal, immortal, or deity. Communicating with a third party or non-chess-piece was within the rules as well.
However, to command the neutral party to fight in their game, they had to form a proper contract first, such as a Pawn Contract or a Chess Piece Contract.
Mercenaries were not allowed!
This brought Miaomiao a piece of bad news. Since Mercenary Contract was not allowed, would Minghe's deal be legit?
Miaomiao was concerned. He might have dug his own grave with the offer, or Minghe might have attempted to reel him in as a replacement.
While Miaomiao was deep in thought, the world around Miaomiao turned dark.
Birds, sandworms, and small creatures stopped moving.
'Time Domain?'
Time had stopped again, but Miaomiao and Xie Tian didn't activate this ability.
CREAK
The creaking noise of old wood came from behind. A faceless boatman returned and rowed the boat toward Miaomiao.
The boatman flickered his finger and a golden paper hovered in front of Miaomiao. The words on the paper appeared.
"Mao Miaomiao. Ancestor Minghe has agreed to form a Temporary Mercenary Contract with you.. Sign the contract with your blood, and we shall protect you for 100 years."
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