Luo Hua City Mistress beckoned towards Tian Lang, signaling for him to come over.

Tian Lang hesitated. Could he even run away? The chance was so slim that he doubted being able to force his body out.

First, being full of curiosity, Luo Hua City Mistress sized up Tian Lang. Then, it looked at the unconscious Yue Bing. It lightly chuckled, “How come everyone’s injured after the fight, yet you look like you’ve just gone for a vacation?”

The gears in Tian Lang’s head instantly turned, “That’s because I didn’t fight. I’m only a lowly thief and country bumpkin. What could I do to a demon?”

Since this fleshy mounded human didn’t know, Tian Lang decided to train the innate skill all humans were born with!

Lying!

He decided to lie. That time, he only regretted that he didn’t lie enough and still had a low level.

“The problem is that the demons of the Abyss don’t know that you are a country bumpkin right… Don’t tell me the demons talked about his wife, concubines, and his field with you.” Luo Hua City Mistress heartily laughed.

Tian Lang’s heart skipped a beat. It was unknown whether it was because it hit the topic spot on or this human’s unique way of laughing.

Humans usually laughed roguishly or silently, in a reserved manner. But this human laughed without restraint yet, the sounds it made didn’t sound unpleasant to the ears. Its laughter resounded a crisp sound of a bell in the heart, blossoming a sea of flowers. It had a kind of power that could not be explained by the inexperienced Chaotic Being.

“H-how do you know that?” Tian Lang stuttered as he gaped at Luo Hua City Mistress.

Luo Hua City Mistress’s smile became more radiant, “Oh, so what exactly did you talk about? I’m getting more interested!”

Originally, Tian Lang was extremely reluctant to share any story or whatsoever. Who knew what kind of secrets he might reveal unknowingly? But, seeing how mysterious this human’s laughter was, he had a nagging feeling of wanting to keep talking, “The demon general was extremely eager to fight, but how could I, a country bumpkin, compete against a demon? I said, brother, I have lots of humans and cows. I will give them so spare me. Alas, it became arrogant and flaunted about gaining attention from some Demon Princess Ilnam or something. It even had four demon sisters as concubines and flaunted their taste and colors. So, I told it, brother, you might be bored eating demon sisters alone, how about letting me, this country bumpkin who never tasted any demon sisters, join?”

Luo Hua City Mistress looked at Tian Lang wide-eyed, both in surprise and confusion, similar to a curious child, “Then, then?”

“I don’t know~. It got angry all of a sudden, calling me vile and things I don’t understand. Maybe it wanted to eat all of five of them alone? I mean, why flaunt if you won’t share.” As Tian Lang continued to speak, he found everything flowed so naturally that he had no need to even think, “What could I, as a country bumpkin, do? I made it drink all the blood from the battlefield. In the end, its belly bloated so much that it begged me to spare it. I, this country bumpkin, is a soft human at heart and let it go. Who knew, the next moment, it took out a sword and impaled its heart over and over again! I didn’t realize that the demon general was traumatized so much for it to commit such a crime!”

In the end, Tian Lang’s tone even carried a hint of self-judgment, his eyes heavy.

Obviously, Tian Lang himself was confused about whether he just made it up or such a thing truly happened. He even thought he boasted a bit too much. But he was worried that this human had a way to know whether the demon died or not, so he had to bite the bullet... Who knew Luo Hua City Mistress suddenly broke out in joyous laughter.

“Hahaha, I didn’t expect less from you, country bumpkin. Even though the way you speak is slightly weird, you have the ability. How about you become my personal guard? If you want, I can hire teachers and also prepare some demon sisters to taste, how about it? Pretty interesting, right?”

Luo Hua City Mistress’s offer gave Tian Lang an image of a cage surrounded by humans and demons, wearing weird costumes while holding some ropes and whips, to make a loyal pet out of him.

He shivered and force-laughed, “You jest great Luo Hua City Mistress, this country bumpkin can’t even hold a stick properly, how can he guard you against dangers?” To look convincing, Tian Lang grabbed a branch and held it from the middle. If he tied a red band on his hand and took a heroic pose, he would look nothing less than impressive.

“I feel like your words are so teasing. Somehow I also feel that you are just clueless.” Luo Hua City’s Mistress didn’t really care much about Tian Lang’s rejecting its offer; in fact, it only offered the position for fun. Those that could protect it won’t be interested in that position.

It lightly tossed a silver card at Tian Lang and smiled, “This is the award I give to your group. As for the awards, military service, and glory from the Warriors Guild, you guys need to go and retrieve those yourselves. I still have things to do, so I’ll take my leave first.”

Luo Hua City Mistress smiled as it waved its hand and floated away while carrying its three-tailed snow fox, leaving a fragrant scent.

Tian Lang noticed that the Luo Hua City Mistress’s skirt hem had become quite damaged. Clearly, its battle hadn’t gone all that smoothly. It seemed that Baron of Hell was quite powerful. Tian Lang felt that this human was actually quite formidable, both in terms of strength and courage. As it had dared to resist the abyss which others feared. If it had been anyone else, even if they were ten times stronger, they probably wouldn’t have dared.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Looks like I’ll have to re-assess my strength after I get the secret of fleshy mounds. Tian Lang squeezed his hard chest, earning a few weird gazes from the crowd.

He couldn’t assess his combat strength since he had yet to solidify his fleshy mounds.

Once he found the secret of fleshy mounds, he would solidify soft fleshy mounds and understand his power level. Only after comparing his ‘combat prowess’ with Luo Hua City Mistress’s would he decide whether to attack Abyss or not.

Now that all the distractions disappeared, Tian Lang had one job.

Go to Ivy Academy.

But why was his human compass still sleeping? The possibility of injuries he couldn’t see had already dulled his motivation.

He helplessly admitted Yue Bing to the clinic beside Warrior’s Guild. However, this institution’s fees were more than ten times higher than regular clinics outside of the Guild.

Unless the situation was complicated, ordinary mercenaries would never step inside this clinic, even if all of their four limbs had been broken. Even when they bought Healing Stones, they wouldn’t buy them from here. Instead, they would buy it from street peddlers outside. Although those mid-lower-ranked Healing Stones, which were produced from special-type medicinal beasts, gave less than par results and were crazy expensive, the prices were still ten times cheaper than the mid-average-ranked Healing Stones sold by the clinic...

It was said that the reason why the prices in the clinic were so high was the result of the decision made thousands of years ago by the Five Great Heroes that founded the Warrior’s Guild. The reason was not to earn money but to remind the later generations to make use of their brains more in battles so that they would suffer fewer injuries and refrain from being reckless fools.

Tian Lang didn’t know the long history behind this clinic. He thought the prices were the usual and paid whatever they asked. Gold, silver, copper, such things were useless in front of Dragon crystals.

Now that Tian Lang settled Yue Bing’s possible injury, he had to think of a way to pay it.

Initially, Tian Lang didn’t care about paying or whatever. But when Luo Hua City Mistress gave him the silver card, he realized he couldn’t force humans to work without pay.

Why did Luo Hua City Mistress wait so long even though it had other things to do?

It waited to hand over Tian Lang’s reward. So that it won’t feel burdened. That was the only reason Tian Lang could think of.

But what could he pay Yue Bing with?

Tian Lang decided to wait until Yue Bing woke up.

And then seconds passed as minutes came.

...

How could Tian Lang, the impatient Chaotic Being, sit in one place and do nothing?

Since this was a rare chance, he decided to enjoy his human body. After his evolution, he had been embroiled in one thing after another, from Yue Bing’s classmates to the appearance of a heretic, which then led their counterattack on the abyss, then a battle against the demon general. After all this, he finally had a breather.

So before Yue Bing woke up, he might as well take a look at the stalls to enjoy his human life and find something to pay Yue Bing at the same time.

The trade district was noisy as always. Peddlers sold Teleportation Scrolls, Healing Stones, and many other exotic items.

Tian Lang’s eyes were basically glowing. He grabbed this and that and curiously asked about everything, annoying the peddlers a great deal. Not to mention that his questions already threatened the authenticity of the items, his get-up also oozed off I am penniless aura.

The items were hardly anything to Tian Lang’s eyes. They showed pitiful energy signatures. Even so, some of their functions fascinated him to no end.

For instance, a red bracelet could conjure small fireballs once the practitioner injected their qi. The fire had very little strength, with little to no damageability. However, Tian Lang, who badly wanted an elemental skill, salivated on the bracelet.

But the peddler gave a non-negotiable 10 gold coins price to the miserable dressed Tian Lang.

How could he pay that? After paying for Yue Bing’s medical fees, he only had 19 silvers and 18 coppers.

Tian Lang’s eyes glinted. The thought of murder and robbery didn’t fail to cross his mind. But even the inexperienced Tian Lang knew to avoid public places for such deeds.

As he played with the dull silver coins, Tian Lang continued to observe and eavesdrop on the mercenaries. When he was a pup, this was the most efficient way to gather information, which didn’t change even after his evolution.

One of the news that he heard the most was the appearance of Wisdom Fruit and Lustrous Branch. More than half of the mercenaries spoke about them. Curious, Tian Lang stalked a mercenary group to get more information.

“...ain, I heard it’s that same group. Can you believe that? How can they be so lucky? Do you think they found a secret stash? Or inheritance?”

“Who? The Storm Mercenary Group? Tsk, tsk. You don’t know who to slander. The leader is the son-in-law of the Da Xia Empire’s Royal Family. Naturally, he didn’t marry into one of the three great countries without backing and ability.”

“Damn, I wanna marry into a Royal Family!”

“Rogan, you think the empire just gives away stuff like Wisdom Fruit and Lustrous Branch? Hahaha!”

“Damn, guys. Shut up. What are they exchanging for? Gold? My Kong Tiger is getting restless lately. I can use it to expect a level up with a bit of intelligence.”

“Captain. That’s going to be hard, I think. They want something of equal value. The exchange will remain active for two weeks.”

“Ugh, that’s going to be hard. If it was gold, I could borrow some from the bank thanks to the recent [Demon Slayer] achievements we got.”

“Most of the time it’s like that. Anyway, besides the Wisdom Fruit, that Lustrous Branch is useless to anything other than plant-type beasts.”

“Idiot, both of them are most useful to plant-type beasts. It’s just Wisdom Fruit can also help other types of beasts gain a certain level of intelligence, but the effects are definitely lower. The Lustrous Branch is also used for many types of rare and exotic pills. Selling them to alchemists can bring good amounts of gold. Anyway, we are going to that place, let’s go.”

Useful to plant-type beasts...? Tian Lang felt like the world revolved around to help him.