Chapter 182: Feelings Tarnished by Money
Su Hao inquired, “Simple?”
Xiaobu replied matter-of-factly, “Of course, in three days, Huaxiang City will hold the ‘Autumn Harvest Grand Festival,’ and it needs to be presided over by [Child of Fate] Boss. It’s the same every year. You’ll get to see him then!”
Su Hao nodded and silently thought, “Do I have to wait three more days? I guess I can accept that.”
Xiaobu curiously asked, “Do you admire [Child of Fate] Boss?”
Su Hao nodded, saying, “Seems like it. He seems pretty formidable.”
(TLN:
There are two [Mingzi] in the previous chapter, so I changed the name of one of them to its evolution name [Lifebearer] to avoid confusion.
明子 (Mingzi): Child of Clarity from [Nightwalker] sequence.
命子 (Mingzi): Child of Fate aka [Lifebearer] from [Shell People] sequence.)
But now I’ll use its translation name.)
Xiaobu had stars in her eyes and said, “Indeed, Boss [Child of Fate] is our guardian deity in Huaxiang City. Everyone says that without him, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
Maybe seeing Su Hao’s confusion in his eyes, Xiaobu proudly explained, “Huaxiang City wasn’t like this before. I heard that it used to be very chaotic, with many outsiders causing destruction and fighting during both day and night. Many people died every day. But since the leader of the [Child of Fate] arrived, Huaxiang City changed into what you see now. Look how good it is! I really like it here.”
Su Hao nodded and asked, “What about the other [Child]? Don’t they protect Huaxiang along with the leader of the [Child of Fate]?”
Xiaobu continued, “I’m not sure, but I’ve heard others say that as long as Boss [Child of Fate] is around, the other three leaders, [Mingzi], [Changzi], and [Jingzi], get along peacefully. But, you see, Boss [Child of Fate] is already quite old. I don’t know how much longer he can keep it up. I don’t really understand it, but I just feel that Boss [Child of Fate] is very important.”
If power and spirit are not passed down, everything built will gradually disappear with time.
The ‘Dongling Pavilion’ wasn’t close, but Xiaobu chatted with Su Hao as they walked, and she didn’t feel tired. In fact, she became very excited because Su Hao was willing to accompany her and talk to her, and her gaze towards him grew increasingly fervent.
This kind of flirtatious look made Su Hao feel uneasy, and he unconsciously distanced himself a bit, but Xiaobu kept following him everywhere they went.
Perhaps, this is the dilemma of being handsome!
The saying, “You run, he chases, even with wings, you can’t fly away,” turned out to be true.
After wandering ‘Dongling Pavilion’ with Xiaobu, Su Hao couldn’t bear it any longer and said, “Xiaobu! Thank you for telling me so much today. We’ll meet again!”
With that, he turned to leave. Xiaobu panicked, rushed up to him, and grabbed his sleeve, saying, “You haven’t told me where I can find you!”
Su Hao calmly pulled his sleeve back and replied, “No need to find me; I’ll be leaving Huaxiang City in a few days.”
Ignoring Xiaobu, he blended into the crowd and disappeared.
Xiaobu stood there, watching Su Hao vanish, feeling a sense of loss she couldn’t put into words.
After a while, someone patted her shoulder from behind.
She turned to see, “Brother Wei!?”
Xiaobu could hardly believe who she saw, and this feeling of unexpected joy instantly reinvigorated her.
Su Hao handed her a bag of money and said, “Xiaobu, thank you for taking me so far today. This is your reward. Please take it.”
After that, Su Hao turned and disappeared into the crowd once again.
Xiaobu held the bag of money and stood still, feeling that her feelings had been tainted by money.
After a moment, she shook the bag of money and surprisingly thought, “It’s not bad at all! Double harvest today, I’ve earned!”
Waiting for three more days shouldn’t be a problem, especially since Su Hao still needed to find more information about the [Child of Fate] and the ‘Autumn Harvest Grand Festival.’ He couldn’t rely solely on Xiaobu’s unreliable information.
But the results he obtained, while differing in some aspects, had two consistent points: the ‘Autumn Harvest Grand Festival’ was indeed happening in three days, and it would most likely be presided over by the leader of the [Child of Fate], just like in previous years.
Because Su Hao had discovered that after killing the leader of a significant force in Huaxiang City, the [Child of Clarity Mingzi], the city should have fallen into a certain degree of chaos. However, it was quickly pacified, indicating how strong the control of the [Child of Fate] over Huaxiang City was. Huaxiang City’s affairs were still led by the [Child of Fate].
Su Hao also noticed that in the past two days, more and more people had entered Huaxiang City. The streets were overcrowded, and if he had arrived just three days later, he might not have found a place to stay.
Furthermore, Su Hao sensed an increasing number of powerful sixth-level mutants in his radar, which gave him a sense that something unusual was happening. He also remembered what the [Earth Lord] he had killed in Linyuan City had said, predicting the imminent death of the [Child of Fate] in Huaxiang City. It seemed that not only the [Earth Lord] from Anliang City but also [Earth Lords] from across the continent were converging here, waiting for the [Child of Fate] to die.
Of course, it wasn’t just the [Earth Lord]; other sixth-level mutants probably came too, expecting a big battle to break out, seizing the opportunity.
One should not assume that evolving from a sixth-level mutant to a [Lifebearer] is simple just because Su Hao and Yashan evolved very smoothly. In fact, the mortality rate for ordinary mutants attempting to evolve is quite high.
To reach the next level, mutants must continually accumulate vital energy to reach a certain threshold for use in evolution.
Su Hao had a special way to accumulate vital energy, but people in this world didn’t. To enhance their vital energy, they had to kill mutants of the same level and plunder fragments of their genetic code.
However, once you reach the sixth level, mutants of the same level aren’t that easy to kill. Some sixth-level mutants can stand still and be impervious to attacks.
Therefore, for sixth-level mutants, there are two major challenges to evolution: the first is accumulating vital energy, and the second is the nearly impossible task of consuming the flesh of seventh-level mutants.
These two challenges almost stop the vast majority of sixth-level mutants from advancing. Only the lucky ones favored by fate, commonly known as protagonists, can overcome these difficulties and ultimately achieve evolution, becoming seventh-level mutants.
So, for sixth-level mutants who want to evolve, the most important thing is to have access to reliable information. They usually like to occupy a city and establish an organization to collect information for themselves. Then, wherever there’s something happening, you’ll find their presence.
They search the world for opportunities to evolve and aspire to become the top-ranked mutants on the continent.
Su Hao sighed, “The ordinary people of Huaxiang City hope the [Child of Fate] lives well, but almost all the prepared [Earth Lords] hope for the [Child of Fate]’s death.”
No matter what he did, there were always people hoping for the best and others hoping for the worst.
These past two days, Su Hao didn’t do anything else but enjoyed traveling, experiencing exotic customs and witnessing the diversity of human life.
On the night before the ‘Autumn Harvest Grand Festival,’ inside a study room at the ‘Dongling Pavilion.’
An old man sat in the main seat, his bald head shining, no hair on his head, short white curly beard, his face full of wrinkles, and his skin dry and aged. The fine hairs on his earlobes had fallen out, making him look like an ordinary elderly man in appearance. However, his entire presence exuded immense power. Just sitting there, he made people dare not look into his eyes. This elderly body, with all its signs of aging, held unimaginable strength, the same power that had made countless mutants shiver.
Even though he was old, no one dared to challenge his authority. He was the [Child of Fate] of Huaxiang City — Xiu!
Standing in front of [Child of Fate] Xiu was a middle-aged man, his son, [The Earth Lord] Ji.
[Child of Fate] Xiu didn’t speak; he simply pushed a tray forward.
[Earth Lord] Ji saw what was on the tray, and his pupils contracted. A surge of electricity rushed to his brain, followed by immense joy filling his heart. He knew that it was the flesh and blood of the [Child of Fate]. Swallowing it would allow him to evolve into the ultimate form of the [Shell People] sequence, the [Earth Lord]. He would also become the new ruler of this city and a top figure in the world.
He had waited for this day for too long.
But as this excitement appeared, he suppressed it, not daring to reveal any signs of it. Instead, he pretended to ask in confusion, “[Child of Fate] Xiu, this is…”
Yes, as Xiu’s son, he didn’t even dare to call his father “father.”
(End of this chapter)
