Chương 23: Jinxed

After Fatty Zhang left, Ren Qingquan practised the Body Tempering Method. But after only two hours of training, Ren Qingquan stopped.

'Now that I think about it, I'll visit the library and copy the novels there. I don't want to get bored while levelling and farming for points later.' Feeling a bit speechless, I could only watch as Ren Qingquan went to the library and asked me to copy the novels on the first floor. This went on until evening, when he returned to his courtyard for dinner and sleep. For the next three days, Xiao Cai hasn't reported anything. So Ren Qingquan wasted his time asking me to [Scan] several novel series from the library.

On the fourth day, before Ren Qingquan left his courtyard to [Scan] some novels, I sensed someone approaching his courtyard while he was resting at the stone table. I thought the person approaching was Xiao Cai, but after focusing my attention, I found it was actually Fatty Zhang. Just then, a loud bang came from Ren Qingquan's courtyard door. Because of Fatty Zhang's heavy door smash, one of the doors immediately collapsed.

Fatty Zhang, covered in sweat and looking pale, ignored the door he had broken and quickly ran towards Ren Qingquan.

"Young Master Ren!... Ren... Thanks... huff the heaven above huff that you're still here!" Fatty heaved as he fell to the ground.

"Please bring me with you!"

"Huh?" Ren Qingquan looked confused.

"Bring you to where?" Fatty took a few deep breaths before replying, "Let me join your hunting trip! I've just heard that the Zhang house has recalled its core member to return to the main house in the capital!"

"If I dilly-dally and am late, the patriarch might have my head. If I go in time, or even too early, I might accidentally reenter the vortex of the succession battle. Those crazy bastards in the capital will definitely send several assassins after me! I don't want to die yet!" Both Ren Qingquan and I were speechless.

"There's no way the succession battle is that exaggerated, right? After all, the competitors are still families," Ren Qingquan asked, doubtful. Fatty Zhang looked around Ren Qingquan's courtyard before walking closer to him and whispering, "Normally, yes, but the current patriarch has incredible control over the family. What a pity. He has a few screws loose and believes in the survival of the fittest.

So during the succession battle, as long as the one who sent the assassin isn't known or they successfully slander someone else, even resorting to assassination to remove competitors are fair game."

"Then, what does going hunting with me have to do with the thing you mentioned before?" Fatty Zhang said, "I have used a trick to delay the messenger coming towards me. If I left the city before the messenger arrived, I should be able to escape this family meeting without losing my head. After all, I wasn't willingly ignoring the family's order, but only because the messages didn't reach me in time. Although that messenger might get whipped several times, I'll ask my dad to compensate him later.

For now, I still need to save my own life." After hearing Fatty Zhang talk up to that point, I saw Ren Qingquan awkwardly nod his head. Fatty Zhang quickly sprang back to his feet and asked, "When are we going to leave? My trick can only delay the messenger for two more days at most."

"When she came to bring me lunch, I'll ask Xiao Cai about the preparation," Ren Qingquan answered Fatty's question. Although Xiao Cai should have been busy preparing for Ren Qingquan, she still arrived on time to serve him his breakfast, lunch, and dinner. As expected, Xiao Cai arrived on time for lunch while holding a tray of food. When she saw the broken door and fatty Zhang, Xiao Cai glared at him before speaking coldly, "This is already the seventh door you've destroyed."

While glaring at fatty Zhang to pressure him, Xiao Cai set the food she'd brought on the table. Watching the busy Xiao Cai, Ren Qingquan asked, "How are the preparations for my hunting trip?"

"Most of the camping items are ready. I've also successfully recruited two Martial Grandmasters and four Martial Masters. I am currently searching for another Martial Grandmaster to recruit."

"How long will it take?" A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Xiao Cai shook her head slightly.

"I am not sure because I haven't found a suitable Martial Grandmaster mercenary yet. If I haven't found a Martial Grandmaster by the one-week limit, I'll fill the number with Martial Masters."

"Then you can just fill the team with Martial Masters and stop looking for another Martial Grandmaster. If possible, I want you to be ready to leave in two days at most." Ren Qingquan said as he prepared to eat. But before he took a bite, Ren Qingquan looked at fatty Zhang and motioned to Xiao Cai, "Please help me bring him another dish." Xiao Cai nodded and left.

"I'll also call a repairman to fix the door."

Time flies, and it's finally time for Ren Qingquan to leave the city with Fatty Zhang, Xiao Cai, a few dozen guards, and mercenary martial artists. Over the past two days, I've either been scanning more novels with Ren Qingquan, experimenting with my skills, or eavesdropping on Ren Shiluo and Ren Xuan. Of the two, Ren Shiluo has been quite busy.

In recent days, I've often seen him massaging his temple as he reads reports about an unknown attack targeting the family's mines, branch stores in other cities, farmland, and other resource points. Meanwhile, Ren Xuan has also been busy. From the occasional mutter I hear from this regressor, I know he has been desperately climbing the ranks of the sect he joined. Right now, with his master's backing, Ren Xuan has climbed to a lower-ranked decision-making position.

Although he couldn't say anything at the sect meeting that convenes occasionally, at least his status is high enough to attend. He has also reached the Third Stage of the Martial Grandmaster realm, which is not as exaggerated as Ren Qingquan's skyrocketing realm, but it's still enough for people to praise him as a monstrous genius. Aside from that, I often saw Ren Xuan secretly crafting pills, forging weapons, and drawing what looked like a talisman. The more I saw it, the more certain I became of my guess.

This guy should know about cultivators and even knew where those missing cultivators gathered. Anyway, I didn't forget to copy all the knowledge Ren Xuan used and store it in my memory. Thankfully, [Calculate] has increased my memory capacity, allowing me to store a lot of knowledge. Even after collecting many useless and not-so-useful pieces of knowledge, I can still remember them clearly whenever I wish to recall them.

While I was eavesdropping on Ren Xuan as usual, Ren Qingquan's team finally entered the forest that Ren Qingquan had visited more than half a year earlier. This time, they didn't bring the carriage and left it at the inn in a nearby big village. After Xiao Cai paid some money and left some Ren family guards to help manage their carriage, Ren Qingquan's team rode their horses straight into the forest on the periphery of the Endless Mountain.

While on the road, Xiao Cai suddenly said, "With our current team composition, we should be able to venture deeper and hunt in the outer area of the Endless Mountain relatively safely."

"Young master, do you wish to hunt in the peripheral area as usual, or would you try to enter the outer area of the Endless Mountain?" Xiao Cai asked. I saw Ren Qingquan answer without hesitation, "Of course, the outer area. I want to enter as deep as possible into the Endless Mountain. The technique I practised requires me to kill many fresh, strong, ferocious beasts." Xiao Cai nodded and told the leader of the guard to march deeper into the forest.

Coincidentally, among the guards was the familiar Martial Grandmaster realm guard who had been in charge of guarding Ren Qingquan while he hunted before. As someone who has seen Xiao Cai's power, that guard immediately nodded with respect when he heard Xiao Cai's words. Although the mercenaries slightly complained, they soon shut up when they saw that the guards didn't say anything. While riding his horse, Ren Qingquan suddenly said, 'System, I want to upgrade the radius of my [Scan].'

It's a bit sudden, but I can see why Ren Qingquan asked me to increase [Scan]'s radius. He is currently on a hunt. With the help of [Scan]'s wider area, he can not only detect danger in advance but also search for prey using the system map. Anyway, I sent him a message through the screen. [Do you wish to spend 1 point to increase the radius of [Scan] by 1 meter?]'Yes. Help me to upgrade the distance to 100 meter radius. I prefer round numbers.' [You've spent 89 points to upgrade [Scan]'s radius.] With Ren Qingquan's word, I spent his points to upgrade [Scan]'s range. As the points around me continue to decrease, I can feel [Scan]'s range keeps increasing while the energy that's floating around me in the dark space keeps decreasing. After a few seconds, the size of Ren Qingquan's [Scan] has reached 100 meters, while the number of points has decreased by 89. With his newly upgraded map, Ren Qingquan constantly opened them while searching for any dots that show items and beasts with high energy.

Soon, a few hours have passed. During this time, nothing noteworthy happened. The team has only killed a few ferocious beasts at the Martial Apprentice and Martial Master levels. It's worth noting that Ren Qingquan is the one who told the team where those beasts are. This makes everyone in the group acknowledge Ren Qingquan's skill at sensing ferocious beasts. When asked, Ren Qingquan said he learned a special sensing technique in his family's library.

Of course, this is nonsensical, because he has used my map to find those beasts. After several hours of travel, the familiar Martial Grandmaster level guard leader stopped the team.

"We'll be entering the outer area of the Endless Mountain soon. Don't be careless and maintain your alertness." Everyone nodded in response. But even though the team had grown tense, they hadn't encountered any ferocious beasts after a few hours of walking. Ren Qingquan couldn't contain his curiosity any longer. He turned to Xiao Cai and whispered, "Why have we not encountered any beasts? Did we get lost?"

"We aren't lost. We have arrived at the outer area of the Endless Mountain. Not every part of the mountain is filled with strong beasts. Those strong beasts are quite territorial, so we'll rarely see them unless we get closer to the inner area." Ren Qingquan nodded after hearing Xiao Cai's explanation.

"Oh... I thought we'd immediately meet ferocious beasts at the Martial Saint or even Martial Lord realm after entering the outer area of the Endless Mountain." Not long after Ren Qingquan said that, I suddenly sensed a creature with a massive amount of energy within the range of my [Scan]. I was utterly speechless when I realised what had happened. [Host, you jinxed it. A strong beast has arrived nearby!]