Journey to the West: The Mountain Shaker

Chapter 70 The Ultimate Kill 2

This is the eve of Haixing's arrival. Tomorrow morning, the teachers and students of the academy will have to set out to pick Xianyan fruit and guard the second line of defense above the mountainside.

What awaits everyone is seven or eight days of arduous work, and a decent income.

Generally, students work in groups of four. Each group can kill a dozen or so sea monsters every day. The various materials, such as feathers, meat, shells, claws, and venom glands, can be worth several hundred spirit stones. This means that each person can earn 50 to 100 spirit stones. If they are lucky, they can kill a few valuable sea monsters and earn several hundred spirit stones a day.

The academy also provides a daily wage of 100 spirit stones.

This return is considered quite high no matter where you put it.

That night, apart from a few people who were still working hard for the exam, most people suppressed their excitement, went to bed early, and conserved their energy to prepare for the tough battles in the following days.

The staff of the academy have to work much harder; for them, Haixing is a huge project that will take more than a month to complete.

In fact, they had been busy for many days. More than a dozen array masters directed ordinary people and hired cultivators to set up a complete array at the second line of defense, surrounding the entire mountain.

The night was drawing to a close. Sensing the call of the Xuan Stone within his mind, Steward Bao took it out of his storage bag, glanced at it, casually put it back, tapped his swollen knees, and sighed, "I forgot there's still one hole to finish. Even a True Immortal would be crawling themselves to death. Two people, come with me!"

"Who told you to be so capable?"

"This is what it means for the capable to do more."

……

A chorus of flattery rose from all around, but no one moved. After a few days, everyone had gotten a sense of it—this sallow-faced supervisor was always doing hard and tiring work in rugged terrain, with complicated tasks that took long hours, often several hours at a time.

Tomorrow is high tide, a big day, and there are plenty of sea monsters waiting to be slain. I need to get some rest tonight.

Seeing that no one was getting up, the steward reluctantly pulled out two spirit tickets: "This is the last job, I'll pay 100 per person! Also, you can rest separately after you finish, and there will be no roll call tomorrow morning."

Before he finished speaking, many hands shot up.

"If you want to climb the cave, come with the agility type." Manager Bao pointed to a tall, thin man and a short, sturdy man, and handed each of them a spirit ticket.

The two men happily grabbed the spirit tickets and, amidst the envious glances of the crowd, followed the steward out of the camp. Just before leaving the camp gate, the short, stocky man didn't forget to turn back and instruct the clerk in charge of registration: "We're sleeping outside tonight. Don't you dare come yelling in the morning and disturb my sweet dreams!"

"Dream on, you old sow!" The clerk spat, but still circled the two names and marked them with the word "going on a mission".

They traveled in silence, and the three on their mission soon arrived at the edge of a cave that went straight up and down.

"There are people waiting down there, let's go down." Manager Bao tossed out a long rope, tied it to a tree at random, and led the way down.

The cave is narrow, only allowing one person to go up and down at a time. Looking down from above, the jagged rocks on both sides are dark and resemble the mouths of giant beasts. Just thinking about setting up an array in this cave is disheartening.

"Only a few shrimp spirits and crab monsters can come up to this cave, right? Can't we just wait for them to come to us from up here?" the short, scrawny man complained, bending down and slowly climbing down.

Half an hour later, the three of them finally reached the bottom. Sure enough, someone was waiting below. Under the dim glow of the fluorescent light, a square-faced man with a pale complexion could be vaguely seen. It was Teacher Yin from the academy, who was walking around with a lit incense stick, seemingly trying to drive away some poisonous insects.

"There are a few bugs, I'll shoo them away. You guys catch your breath and rest for a bit." Teacher Yin shook the cigarette in her hand and smiled. "It has a slight smell, but it's harmless."

It did have a bit of a smell, but no one cared. They had been stumbling and bumping along the way, their hands and feet were too stiff to move, and everyone's legs were numb and their hands were weak. Their backs ached, and the worst part was that the space was cramped, and they had to be hunched over the whole time. Their abdomens were compressed, and they couldn't even breathe properly.

So the first thing he did after getting off the ground was to put his hands on his hips and take a deep breath. However, after only a few breaths, two figures suddenly appeared in the air. With two "plop, plop" sounds, the two cultivators, one tall and one short, were hit from behind and fell to the ground stiffly like puppets.

Manager Bao and Teacher Yin stood aside. If the students from Class 1 were there, they would definitely be surprised by Teacher Yin's calmness. Teacher Yin, who usually turns pale and is terrified when students get into a fight, is completely unfazed by this sudden change.

"Fragrance? You have a lot of money, why waste it like this!"

A sinister voice echoed in the cave. With a snap of the fingers, a gentle rune lamp lit up inside, illuminating Steward Bao's calm face and two other cultivators, one tall and one short.

Under the lamplight, two cultivators lay on the ground with two daggers stuck in their backs, and blood was rapidly seeping out, staining their clothes and the rubble beneath them a deep crimson.

"It's just insurance, to prevent them from crushing the waist tags." Manager Bao took the incense from Teacher Yin's hand, extinguished it, and pointed to the tags hanging from the waists of the two dead men. "Hurry up and get the tags, we don't have much time."

The short, stocky cultivator bent down, took down two plaques, handed one to the tall, thin man next to him, and also took the Qiankun bags of the two cultivators and put them into his pocket.

The two stood still and channeled their energy, sending two streams of spiritual power into the tablet to forcibly erase the previous owner's consciousness before inputting their own.

The whole process took two or three minutes. The waist tag first lit up and then went dark. When it lit up again, it had changed owners.

"Tsk tsk, Heavenly artifacts are really good stuff. This waist token has the Commander of the Mountain on it, right?" The short, ugly man touched the waist token again and again, his small eyes staring wide-eyed at the patterns on it, his face full of amazement. "You dare to make us do this? You can even cover up the Commander of the Mountain? This Flower Fruit Mountain is practically your home now."

"What is Flower Fruit Mountain! Hmph, one day, the entire Aolai will belong to Xingyue." Steward Bao added with a hint of smugness.

"'Our Xingyue'? Ha!" The short, stocky man suddenly pulled out a knife and said unhappily, "Don't think I don't know who you are, a lackey of the Thirteen Families! Xingyue belongs to them, who do you think you are?"

Hmm? Something doesn't sound right about that tone.

Manager Bao raised his eyes and looked at the short man with suspicion. It was a pity. Although he came from Aolai, he had been staying in the academy for the past ten years. He had learned to play tricks and schemes and was very good at scheming, but he had lost his sense of danger.

Under the light, a blade flashed, and Manager Bao suddenly felt dizzy, as if the entire cave was spinning in front of him.

"Bang!" When everything returned to normal, the steward saw a pair of feet wearing cloud-climbing boots. Bright red blood splattered everywhere, and his vision was sticky and smelled of rust.

In the end, they still couldn't go to Xingyue, and couldn't leave Aolai?

Before losing consciousness, the steward thought regretfully.

"ah--!"

The young, handsome teacher, Mr. Yin, screamed and fled in panic. In his haste, he tripped on a rock and fell to the ground. He managed to crawl a few times on his hands and feet when his waist tightened, and he was lifted up and thrown like a sandbag next to the body of Manager Bao.

"Don't worry, I won't kill you. Someone has to lead the way, right?" The short, stocky man walked over, squatted down, and patted Teacher Yin's face. "Damn it, I hate spies the most! Damn it, you guys dared to tempt me, knowing I can't resist! Two million spirit stones, plus two Foundation Establishment points... damn it, I had absolutely no way to resist! You made me a spy too, it's infuriating!"

Snapped!Snapped!Snapped!

The short, ugly man got angrier and angrier. What started as a few pats turned into slapping her face from both sides, and in no time he had turned Teacher Yin’s delicate face into the shape of Pigsy from Journey to the West.

The poor man lay sprawled on the blood-soaked gravel, supporting himself on one elbow, too afraid to move. His head was ringing from the slaps, and he was completely stunned, with only a pair of rat-like eyes gleaming with fear and unease.