Chapter 4
On the way home, Su Jiu held an iced black tea in one hand and her phone in the other. Her gaze lingered on the little bear avatar on QQ, and she felt oddly conflicted.
She’d actually added the male lead’s younger sister on QQ, and the other girl had no idea she was the mayor’s daughter. What was she supposed to do now?
Forget it... She’d just let things take their course. Bai Qianyu seemed pretty easygoing in the novel, after all.
Before she knew it, she was home. It was a three-story courtyard with a distinct Jiangnan style. Su Jiu looked down at the bloodstains on her clothes and pursed her lips. If that old man or her bratty little brother saw them, she’d be in for a sound thrashing.
She glanced around. Seeing no one, she climbed up to her second-floor bedroom like a gecko.
Su Jiu took a shower in the bathroom, dried her hair, changed into a long nightgown, and fell fast asleep.
Who knew how much time had passed before her charging phone suddenly chimed?
“Who?”
Su Jiu blearily opened her eyes and groped for her phone. She didn’t have many friends; people like her dad usually just called. Picking it up, she saw that the little bear avatar she’d just added was indeed flashing.
She opened the message. It was from Bai Qianyu.
[Big Sister Jiu, are you really still at the Blood Condensation stage?]
Su Jiu didn’t understand why the other girl was asking, but it seemed like there was more to the question. She thought for a moment, then began typing.
[Yeah, but my blood-condensation level is almost ninety percent. That’s why you saw what happened today.]
The other girl replied quickly, clearly shocked:
[Ninety percent?! That’s a monstrous level! You’d rank among the best anywhere in Dragon Country...]
Su Jiu was secretly pleased to have shocked the male lead’s younger sister. But from what she knew of Bai Qianyu in the novel, she clearly hadn’t messaged just to flatter her.
So she continued typing:
[What’s wrong? Is the Lin family giving you trouble again? I remember you called the law enforcement team later, too.]
The other girl remained marked as typing for over a minute. At last, she sent a strange message:
[After the ruins were discovered, some glowing white liquid started flowing out of a ravine near my home, which is close to the outskirts. I drank about a bottle’s worth, and my blood-condensation level increased by three percent...]
Reading this, Su Jiu fell into thought. Bai Qianyu wasn’t a bad person, but Su Jiu wasn’t a fool, either. There had to be a reason she was telling her this.
She slowly walked downstairs, tapping the phone screen:
[We’ve only met once. Aren’t you afraid I’ll keep this secret all to myself?]
The other girl replied at once:
[I trust you... You feel different to me. I’m telling you because there are lots of unranked demonic beasts upstream from that ravine. I need someone around my level to go deeper.]
[The liquid in the ravine has become scarce, and it barely has any effect on me now, but it should help you. I’ll bring some to school on Sunday night so you can see it. Let’s meet by the flagpole.]
Reading the messages, Su Jiu froze. Her eyes grew distant as she suddenly remembered that in the novel, Bai Ming had returned from summer break with a lucky find: a dragon egg blasted out of the ruins that had already gone rotten. It had been found near the outskirts.
Could that silvery liquid be dragon egg fluid?!
Holy shit! Dragons were the kind of creature whose genes—even a trace of them—made them so formidable that even her own father could only look up to them. Bai Ming had gone from an Advanced Warrior to a Junior Battle General after drinking the foul-smelling egg fluid...
Now that the butterfly effect had set in, Su Jiu had saved Bai Qianyu, so she wouldn’t have to wait for her brother to come back before going there. Did that mean this opportunity belonged to her, Su Jiu?
Holy crap!
Su Jiu was startled by her own thought, but she couldn’t help feeling excited. Bai Ming had drunk the rotten stuff. If she got to drink the good stuff, wouldn’t she take off? Just thinking about it made her feel too excited to sleep.
“Xiaojiu, Uncle Lin brought your Big Sister Liu’er over as a guest today, and you’re still hiding away in your room...”
“Old man, I’m coming.”
Su Xingguo’s somewhat booming voice came from downstairs, startling Su Jiu. She hurriedly replied with a single word:
[Okay.]
She put away her phone and headed downstairs. She vaguely remembered that some wealthy businessmen from the city were auctioning off items from the ruins today. Uncle Lin was probably one of them, too.
As soon as she came downstairs, she saw her younger brother, Su Xiaoyu, standing beside a youthful, pretty girl like a servant. Then she spotted a suited, middle-aged man who looked a lot like Lin Lie sitting across the table from her father.
She was already regretting not pretending to be asleep and staying in her room to cultivate. She figured she still needed to raise her strength a little more, though she already met the requirements for some basic martial techniques.
“Xiaojiu, look at Lin Liu’er. She’s about your age, and her blood-condensation level is already at eighty-five percent.”
As Su Xingguo’s tiger-like eyes turned toward Su Jiu, the mood in the room instantly stiffened. Everyone’s gaze fell on her.
Then, before Su Jiu could say anything, Su Xingguo gritted his teeth and said in a tone of exasperation, “Your homeroom teacher called again today to say you skipped class.”
“...”
Su Jiu knew that staying quiet was best, but her gaze settled on the middle-aged man, and her eyes narrowed slightly.
Lin Mo, head of the Lin family in Huayang City and a minor boss in the early part of the novel, had come to her house?
“Big Brother Su, maybe Xiaojiu was sick and forgot to ask for leave. My own brat gets into trouble all the time, too.”
Lin Mo chuckled and poured more tea into Su Xingguo’s cup, filling it to about eighty percent. Though he was speaking up for Su Jiu, his expression showed he agreed with Su Xingguo.
“Your son may be a troublemaker, but his blood-condensation level is nearly eighty percent. This brat probably hasn’t even reached sixty. All she does is hole up in her room. Who knows what she’s doing in class?”
Su Xingguo grew angrier as he spoke. Seeing Su Jiu not wearing her uniform only added to his frustration. Just a year ago, his daughter had been near the top of her class, with a good chance of getting into a 211, or even a 985 university.
Now she probably couldn’t even get into some no-name college. Then he’d have to swallow his pride and beg a private university to admit her.
“Big Brother Su, let’s not talk about that. Tomorrow’s the auction of the items from the ruins. I heard you got your hands on a pool of dragon saliva...”
Noticing the mood, Lin Mo quickly changed the subject. He needed a favor from Mayor Su—one that would affect whether his daughter had a chance to compete for a place at one of Dragon Country’s top five universities.
“I didn’t ‘get my hands on it.’ I traded three thousand merit points directly with the state for it.” Su Xingguo frowned and turned to Lin Mo. He’d known this old fox was only after profit and had come to ask him for something.
“Big Brother Su, you know that for Liu’er to compete with those geniuses for a place at one of the Five Great Universities, she needs to break through the Blood Condensation stage at over eighty-eight percent. Otherwise, once she reaches the Warrior stage, those real geniuses will have all kinds of martial techniques and combat skills. She won’t stand a chance in the practical exam.”
Before Su Xingguo could reply, Lin Mo suddenly took a golden-yellow root from his bag. Its tendrils swayed like dragon whiskers. He held it out with an earnest expression. “This is a hundred-year-old Dragon-Whisker Ginseng. I happened to obtain it ten years ago. It can replenish blood and vitality and strengthen the body of anyone below Warrior rank.”
“I’m afraid not... I need that dragon saliva to raise Xiaojiu’s blood-condensation level. Otherwise, she might have trouble awakening in a few days.”
Su Xingguo shook his head and flatly refused. He had a little over four thousand merit points in total, and he’d spent three thousand on Su Jiu. He couldn’t give up the greater prize for something of lesser value.
“Old man, why not trade with Uncle Lin? The two items are worth about the same, and Uncle Lin will surely give us some extra compensation.”
Just as Lin Mo was about to say something, Su Jiu chuckled. Her eyes shone as she stared at the Dragon-Whisker Ginseng. She didn’t need a higher blood-condensation level, but she was sorely lacking in physical strength and vitality.
In her last few fights with the Crimson Flame Wolf, she’d kept getting sent flying and knocked down. If her body had been stronger, she wouldn’t have had to die more than a dozen times and rely on a walkthrough just to kill it.