Before heading off to the Scarlet Mist, Tolly planned to get himself some food. ‘Perhaps I’ll soon have a big fight tonight, so I have to be armed to my teeth. No matter what will happen later, it’s always right to have enough food around. If I have to die tonight, I’ll have to die with a filled stomach.’ Tolly told himself. Hence, he walked towards a stall where he could buy some food for himself. The owner of the stall was a young woman in her forties with a freckled face and two pigtails. She looked like the kind of woman whose youth’s proud livery had already turned into tottered weeds of small worth. She was sitting behind her stall, eating Red Rose. ‘What’s going on? Red Rose again? Red is the color of blood. Does it forebode that my trip tonight might be a bad one?’ While Tolly was thinking, the woman gawked at him without saying anything. The silence reigned between them for a short while. Finally, the woman asked, “How can I help you, young man?” “Hello, I’d like some fo
It was getting darker and the Osher grove was filled with the more blood-colored mist. However, Tolly was not plunged into darkness completely, for a reddish moon, almost as big as the sun, crept into the sky slowly, accompanied by two little moons on each side of it. The big moon in the center, like a noble lady with four maids beside her, was drop-dead gorgeous but mysteriously strange. A cold breeze blew through, sending shivers down his spine. Except for the whispers of the trees, the only sound that could be heard at the moment was coming from their footsteps. The big moon glowed on the top of the trees, turning them reddish, making the grove more eerie and scary. It was not until that time that Tolly realized why this grove was also called the Scarlet Mist. ‘If these smugglers are not greedy, they must be all in big trouble with their lives. Otherwise, no one would be willing to step into such a dangerous place.’ Tolly thought to himself. Casting a glance at these smugglers b
Tolly hummed his little soft tune happily, thinking he would soon be able to catch something he wanted to finish collecting the herbs, but he did not notice that the old man on the same tree was gaping at him in disbelief. “Damn it! What are you doing here?” the old man asked. “Nothing. I’m singing, you know. The song is called ‘Health’. I bet you’ve never heard of it before. I learned it when I was back on another planet.” Tolly began to sing again, “Circle three times left; circle three times right. I’ll shake my head and I’ll move my hips. Please come together for exercise…” “Are you nuts? Stop singing that silly song! I’ve never seen such a stupid guy like you before. Your bait has already gone, but you haven’t even noticed it yet. What’s the point of your coming here?” the old man said angrily in a husky voice. The old man was telling him the truth. Tolly had been busy with his singing that he had ignored the black leaf worm pierced through on the hook had gone. ‘That’s funny
Tolly made a face and stuck out his furred tongue, showing that he was fully amazed by the difficulties they had in their cultivation.But Tolly also felt he was lucky, for he had always been able to eat like a horse, which might help with his cultivation according to Michael. And above all, he had Universe Golden Cauldron to his advantage.‘As the old saying goes, if you want to do an excellent job, you must get your tools improved first. When it comes to my cultivation now, the keyword is upgrading. If I can upgrade to a higher level, I’ll best them as easy as pie.’ Tolly thought to himself, curving his lips up to a confident smile,‘Of course, at the moment, I’ll have to get those two important herbs to help me get rid of the Rotten Throat Wind.’Time was cracking.Most of them, one by one, had all got something for their hunting except for Tolly and the one-eyed man. They decided to call it a day and some of them even took Red Rose out of nowhere and started eating them while chat
Soon, half of the Fried White Duck was gone, and surprisingly, Tolly saw from the screen that his vital energy went from 174 to 194 points. How could it be like that? He remembered that a White Duck only contained 30 points of vital energy. Not thinking too much, he had another piece of the Fried White Duck. He saw that his vital energy turned to 200 points. He did not know that while he was eating, not only could he absorb the vital energy from the food itself, but also the vital energy that escaped into the air if he could get himself into an extremely relaxed state. Then he stood up and threw the rest of the Fried White Duck onto the ground below the Magic Carpet. He decided to wait for what might happen next quietly and patiently. As a part of his plan, he hoped that it would work. In the distance, the moon seemed to grow brighter. It was quite like a beautiful and graceful lady, whose lips curved up into a happy smile, admiring the Tolly’s smarts high above in the sky. Stan
About five or six minutes later, the noises coming from the carpet finally faded away. It seemed that the animals on the carpet had already jumped back onto the ground.Tolly asked his shield to have an eyehole in each of the four directions so that he could have a thorough view of the carpet.After confirming there were no dangerous creatures on the carpet, only then did Tolly dare to sneak out of the box to the carpet.“I want to get out!” He said to his shield.“All right, my master, I’ll get a door in the box for you.”The same AI voice rang out. Suddenly, a door appeared in front of Tolly. Tolly pushed it gently and walked out of the box.When on the carpet, he found it was a big mess. Several brown squirrels and grey hares had been sliced off into small pieces, their flesh going almost everywhere. And there was even a Sword Swan that had been cut in halves.On top of that, the carpet was also covered with a lot of brownish-red rocks, all thrown by Needle Scorpions obviously, bec
Tolly removed the lid from the wok gradually.He then visualized the picture of an embroidery needle in his mind again, which soon made his lid-like Stone Turtle Shield turn into a tiny needle. Once again, Tolly put it in his ear.After that, his eyes fell on the nine shiny golden pellets swirling around in the wok. Needless to say, they were the Golden Throat Pills that he had just made to counteract the poison of the Rotten Throat Wind.‘Well, finally!” Tolly exclaimed, very excited.Without any further delay, Tolly immediately picked up three of the pills and threw them into his mouth. He had no idea whether three pills were enough or not to detoxify the poison in his body. It was just that he had always been fond of the number three.Back on Earth, he had used to read a book called ‘All About Taoism”, which had been written by a famous oriental philosopher named Lao Tzu. In the book, it said:Tao gave birth to the One; the One gave birth successively to Two things, three things, u
“How can the Golden Dragon Gang be compared to us?” the old man said, annoyed,“They are just a bunch of bandits who only know how to collect protection money everywhere. Everyone hates them.”“Indeed!” Tolly replied.“We Nine Voice Sect are quite different. We all bank on ourselves by looking for niche markets to make profits. Though some of our businesses might be illegal, we never do anything bad to harm other people.“Really?” Tolly said in disbelief.“Yeah. Our mission is to work for the well-being of our families and friends. As for our vision, we strive to be the best smugglers in the world of Goldearth…”“Okay, okay, I get it,” Tolly cut in on him, “Do you need me to be your helper?”“No, you don’t need to do anything. We’re pros, you know.”With that, Old Peter pulled out what looked like a glow stick.‘It must be used to send signals.” Tolly thought.Sure enough, Tolly saw the old man press a small button on it gently. In a minute, something shiny was flicked into the air, a