Chapter 195: A Bizarre Combination Running into Bizarre Matters
In contrast to other small teams, Dan Fei’s only had two members. This was rather unique. However, although they were only two, they were also the ones who drew the most eyeballs and most attention.
There was no reason other than Dan Fei’s outfit. For those noble sons and disciples used to seeing Dan Fei’s elegant and refined clothing, her primal and revealing side made the testosterone within their bodies rapidly increase uncontrollably.
“That’s odd, I thought Miss Dan Fei always acts independently? Why does she have a companion this time? Who’s this brat? How can he form a team with Dan Fei?”
“What the hell? Are the manners and morals of this world changing? Even the Dan Fei who comes and goes freely has started to form teams. Oh heavens, my goddess is forming a team with another man by herself. Damn it, damn it!”
“Just who is that fellow? I need to find out more about him later. Could it be that Dan Fei, who holds such high standards actually has a sweetheart?”
“Ai, if I could form a team with Miss Dan Fei, I’d be willing to pay any price.”
If the countless men’s nagging mutterings and all of their whining complaints towards Jiang Chen had all transformed into spittle, it would’ve been enough to drown Jiang Chen eight to ten times over.
Jiang Chen was quite at ease as he stood there. He maintained a distance of half an arm’s length away from Dan Fei while completely ignoring all the envy and hate from the others.
A vicious gaze descended upon Jiang Chen from a distance. The owner of that gaze was the first prince Ye Dai.
“Jiang Chen, what rights do you have to be forming a team with Dan Fei? Has number four also fallen beneath Dan Fei’s skirts? Otherwise, how could he bear to let Jiang Chen form a team with someone else?” Ye Dai’s internal emotions were quite distorted and he was itching to stomp Jiang Chen into the ground with one foot and then occupy his spot.
It wasn’t that Jiang Chen was pretending that he was all that. He also knew that forming a team with Dan Fei was a matter that held extreme risk and would form lots of grudges for him.
Since he couldn’t change this fact, he could only shut off his five senses and simply get into meditation. Otherwise, staring back at all those vengeful and mournful looks from others for too long would only bring bad luck.
After roughly an hour, Dan Fei’s elegant hands viciously pinched Jiang Chen’s waist, “Stop playing dead, it’s our turn to go in.”
“Eh?” Jiang Chen felt a wave of pain as he followed Dan Fei into the transportation matrix in a haze of befuddlement. White light seared his vision as they entered the transportation matrix.
When his vision had returned to normal, in the next instant, they’d already arrived in the world of the maze realm.
There was an enormous lake in front of them, and its surface was as clear as a bright mirror as it reflected the white clouds and blue sky. It was so beautiful that with a mere glance, their breathing quickened.
They’d landed on the banks of a lake.
As Dan Fei looked at this scene that was as pretty as a picture, she was in a good mood and couldn’t help but sigh, “This is so beautiful. This is the prettiest landing spot I’ve encountered in the three times I’ve participated in the maze realm trials.”
Right after her words were spoken, a ripple occurred without forewarning on the surface of the water. An arrow of water directly shot towards them as a fierce copperhead crocodile that was enclosed within the arrow of water aimed to bite down directly on Dan Fei’s beautiful neck.
Jiang Chen’s reaction was exceedingly swift as he sent a punch crashing over, “Damned animal, get lost!”
This punch was both accurate and swift as it viciously thudded into the pouncing copperhead crocodile’s chin when it was just a meter away from Dan Fei.
The copperhead crocodile released a ghastly wail as its entire chin was completely pulverized, turning into a bloody mess. The body of the copperhead crocodile once again fell into the water along with its ghastly scream.
Although Dan Fei was still relatively calm after having been met with an ambush, her spirits had more or less been dampened.
Her beautiful eyes looked at Jiang Chen as she faintly smiled. “And I thought you didn’t know how to cherish the fairer sex.”
Jiang Chen chuckled, “Don’t think too much of it. I was afraid that the honored tutor would rip me apart after I returned if something happens to you.”
“Heh heh, don’t explain yourself. I don’t like to listen to an explanation like that.”
Her slender legs were already moving up the shore of the lake as she spoke, walking towards the grassy field in the distance, leaving Jiang Chen who was behind a back that was both alluring and filled with untamed wildness.
Jiang Chen had to admit that this woman truly did have the right to be proud of her body.
“Sister Dan Fei, nice focus.” Jiang Chen quickly caught up and said with a smile.
“What nice focus?” Dan Fei’s cherry blossom lips twitched. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Nice acting skills as well. I’m rather curious, if I hadn’t sent that creature flying just now, when would you have dodged?”
Dan Fei chuckled but didn’t respond, she moved quickly towards the front with light footsteps.
“Jiang Chen, you’re my bodyguard along the way. I won’t make a move unless I have to!”
Dan Fei’s curvaceous and toned body created an exceedingly beautiful sight in the midst of this vast expanse.
Jiang Chen was resigned. He knew that in terms of schemes and bad tempers, this woman was more adept at both of them. He sighed lightly. He decided to go along with the flow since he was already along for the ride.
Jiang Chen actually wouldn’t mind if she doesn’t make a move. He truly hadn’t planned on hunting that much prey this time anyways, he rather train instead.
Placing himself in an unfamiliar environment that could result in danger or lethal threats at any time, such an environment was the greatest allure of the trial.
Dan Fei’s speed wasn’t slow along the way, but she also wasn’t wandering absentmindedly. She would occasionally stoop by the side of the road and take a look here, take a sniff there, looking for something in all directions.
They’d walked about twenty to thirty li and had been harassed seven or eight times.
Except, up until now, the harassment had come from mortal rank spirit creatures, which was equivalent to the human true qi realm. Although their battle strength was similar to premier human true qi masters, they were still inconsequential in front of Jiang Chen.
There were two that were particularly violent and fierce that were directly pounded to death with a few punches and kicks from Jiang Chen.
There were another two that took the long way around and ran away with their tails between their legs as soon as they saw Jiang Chen. It was unknown if he’d used some particular skills to scare them off.
This matter was extremely bizarre in Dan Fei’s eyes.
Likewise, Jiang Chen also found Dan Fei’s actions incredibly baffling.
The two of them seemed to be feeling wronged and acting out of spite as neither paid attention to the other. This bizarre combination walked roughly seventy to eighty li before Dan Fei could no longer bear it and broke the silence first.
“Hey, Jiang Chen, are you a man or not? Will it kill you to say something?”
Jiang Chen started. “What do you want me to say? Aren’t you looking for a baby spirit animal? I was afraid I’d interrupt your concentration if I talked to you.”
It was an impressive sounding excuse that resulted in another eye roll from Dan Fei.
“Why are you such a good-for-nothing? Didn’t I give you a storage ring? Why aren’t you collecting the cores of those violent beasts?”
“What’s the point in collecting trash? A waste of time and energy.” Jiang Chen shrugged his shoulders. He really wasn’t putting on airs. Those beasts were of the mortal rank and they wouldn’t fetch much money, no matter how many he collected. They’d also take up space within the storage ring as well.
“Trash? Jiang Chen, do you think you have a lot of money? Don’t you know that beast cores can be sold? We spent twenty thousand each in sign up fees for us to get in here, do you understand that?”
“I’m not the one paying.” Jiang Chen beamed.
“I’m the one paying!” Dan Fei’s beautiful face darkened, appearing like someone slightly infatuated with money. “Don’t forget, I hired you. If you don’t collect the creatures’ cores, you’re ruining my wealth! Not to mention the hunting gains will be ranked after we exit.”
“Rankings? Not interested.”
Dan Fei’s cherry lips opened as she wanted to say something, but was interrupted by Jiang Chen. “I say, are you here to earn money or to find a baby spirit animal? I think I know why you failed the previous two times that you entered. Sister Dan Fei, I’m not admonishing you, but really, don’t be blinded by your love for money!”
Dan Fei nearly puked blood in her anger. She was the one who paid the entrance fee, while this brat was acting high and mighty. Not only was he not picking up beast cores, but he was even self-righteously lecturing her being mad about money.
Damn it, this was simply too loathsome.
“Don’t you dare refuse to accept the fact that we’re not here to earn money! It’s easy enough to earn money in the outside world. Why spend so much time and effort to enter the maze realm to earn money? Anyways, I’m not picking up the beast cores. You pick them up if you want to!”
Jiang Chen spoke with a complete ruffian’s tone. I’m just not going to pick them up.
Emotions flickered over Dan Fei’s beautiful cheeks, and she seemed to think something through for a while. She exhaled lightly as her tone changed.
“Alright Jiang Chen, let’s just say you’re right. Let’s keep going.”
Dan Fei had never been lectured like this by someone before, and she’d truly felt a bit aggrieved in the beginning. However, she was an incredibly intelligent woman and felt that Jiang Chen made a great deal of sense after thinking about it.
They only had a month’s worth of time. If she squandered it here and there, the time would be up quite quickly.
Although the beast cores were worth a reasonable amount of money, they couldn’t be compared to the main mission of this trip. And, if she wished to make money, there were innumerable opportunities in the outside world like Jiang Chen had said. What need did she have to come here and suffer through all this?
When she thought through this logic, Dan Fei’s ruffled emotions smoothed themselves. However, the pride of a woman made her unable to reconcile with Jiang Chen with laughter and chatter immediately.
It was a bit odd that as the two traveled on, the various mortal rank creatures that they encountered didn’t harass them at all. It was as if they were wary of something. The creatures took a spin around ten meters from the two and would then walk away without the slightest intention to attack.
Dan Fei thought that these creatures were intelligent and knew that they couldn’t afford to provoke the two. However, things became odder and odder the more she thought about it.
How could mortal rank beasts have such high intelligence?
Her beautiful eyes covertly observed Jiang Chen with a few traces of surprise, but she could glean no hints from him. There was nothing from Jiang Chen’s face that served as evidence that connected him to this matter.
“Bizarre. I’ve already participated in the Autumn Hunt twice. In my previous experiences, I had to spend the majority of my time fending off the harassment by these violent creatures. This trip is truly odd.” Dan Fei didn’t understand what was happening, but her intuition told her that this surely had something to do with Jiang Chen.
However, based on Dan Fei’s understanding of the nature of these beasts, she felt that this was impossible!
Dan Fei’s emotions were quite complicated as she took these questions down the road with her. She wanted to ask Jiang Chen, but was worried that he’d fob her off with some excuse if she’d asked.
She pretty much guessed that even if this had something to do with Jiang Chen, this fellow would never admit it.
At this step, Dan Fei also firmly believed in the lordmaster’s judgment of Jiang Chen. There was definitely a unique mysteriousness about him.
Everything that happened to him, any single one of the occurrences, were full of baffling connotations.
Just as Dan Fei was letting her thoughts run wild, Jiang Chen who was ahead of her suddenly halted, his entire being was like a bowstring that had been pulled taut and full of poised momentum.