Chapter 263: She’s Here

A strong old man?

Gu Xiqiao rubbed her chin thoughtfully, her mind going through the people in the ancient martial arts world. Which powerful old man would fight a young man like Yao Jiamu? Or rather, who else besides the Elder’s Association that knew of the Peace Squad?

Based on Gu Xiqiao’s guesses, the Elder’s Association wouldn’t let the entire ancient martial arts world know of the Peace Squad. The first reason was simply because they were embarrassed, and the second was to avoid any unnecessary chaos from breaking out.

After all, it was an unusual force that was almost on par with those people from the ancient martial arts world that emerged suddenly.

Since the Elders’ Association wouldn’t say anything, then there was only one strong old man that would fight Yao Jiamu—The Tang family’s clan leader.

“Was his name Tang?” Gu Xiqiao asked as she squinted slightly to look at the group of people who were on the training grounds.

Hearing her words, Yao Jiamu looked at Gu Xiqiao in surprise. He was stunned that she even knew about this. “When I was fighting him the second time, he told me his family name was Tang, and was called Boss Tang. I didn’t believe him at that time though.” Now that Gu XIqiao was the one who said it, he believed it.

“Boss Tang?” Gu Xiqiao’s mouth twitched. “He’s the patriarch of the Tang family, but I guess it’s fine to call him Boss Tang.”

Boss Tang, why don’t you just call yourself Donald Duck instead?” (T/N: It’s a play on his name, in Chinese Boss Tang is Tang Lao Da, and Donald Duck in Chinese is called Tang Lao Ya)

“What about you, how have you been progressing?” Gu Xiqiao asked, turning to Yao Jiamu. The time flow ratio of the cave was one to seven, and since she had left for half a month, it had roughly been three months here. To be able to reach this level with the exercises that she had compiled and the pills she had given them, it wasn’t strange in the least.

Yao Jiamu looked at Gu Xiqiao with a confident look on his face. “I’m probably on the sixteenth floor, if we’re following the Trial Tower’s algorithm.”

“Can I have a fight with you?” Yao Jiamu suddenly said, after thinking about it for a bit.

Gu Xiqiao didn’t respond to his question. Jiji, Xixi, and Haha were all looking at Yao Jiamu blankly, sympathy clear in their eyes. There was also one that had an expression that screamed, ‘Are you nuts? Wanting to have a fight with Beauty Gu? If you’re not nuts then you’re probably mentally retarded!’

Sadly, although he could feel their stares on him, Yao Jiamu was still excited about it.

“A fight?” Gu Xiqiao smiled at Yao Jiamu. “Sure, I can gauge your combat abilities too.”

Everyone on the training grounds had heard of Gu Xiqiao’s arrival by now, and they were all rushing out to greet her. Gu Xiqiao hooked her fingers, beckoning to Wu Hongwen. “Come at me all four of you together.”

“All of us?” Yao Jiamu, Wu Hongwen, Xiao Yun, and Yin Shaoyuan were surprised to be included together.

Yin Shaoyuan glanced at Gu Xiqiao, more particularly, on her small frame. “You sure?”

It wasn’t that he was confident, but they had been having breakthroughs one after another recently, and could even tie when they were against the elders of the ancient martial arts world. Now she was asking for the four of them to have a go at her together, it wasn’t that he underestimated her that he asked. The main point was that they had been in the cave for half a month, going through extreme combat training and sometimes even going against the elders as part of their training too, which was their top resource in improving themselves.

Wu Hongwen, Yao Jiamu, and Xiao Yun knew Gu Xiqiao’s strength the best among them, so they didn’t say anything to that. There was only anticipation in their eyes.

Gu Xiqiao walked out of the cave, standing in the empty field. She flexed both her hands, and smiled lightly at the four of them. “Come on.”

“Wait,” Yin Shaoyuan suddenly said. “You can’t use Xixi.” Xixi was getting nuttier by the days, and if it were to team up with Gu Xiqiao, they’d definitely be beaten down to the ground without much effort needed on their end.

“Of course.” Gu Xiqiao stood under the sun, a cold light reflected on her. She narrowed her eyes towards them, and asked, “Do you want some time to discuss tactics?”

Xixi stood perched on Haha’s head, shaking its own head as it chatted with Jiji mentally. ‘I pity those four.’

‘Yeap.’ Jiji was looking at them without blinking its eyes. ‘I want to record this down, and replay it every day for them to watch.’

“This newcomer,” Xixi said, looking at Jiji. “The one in your arms, why is it called Dog Feed?” It thought that it would be named Chacha! This thing was definitely not part of their family!

“According to Beauty Qiao’s brain…” Jiji bent down to say into Xixi’s ears. “&*%￥@*&￥@…”

After saying a bunch of things, Jiji finally ended it with, “Actually, I’m just saying whatever that came to mind.”

Xixi: “…” Why don’t you die and just go to heaven?

“Young Master Tang, who do you think will win?” One of the people was standing behind Tang Qinghong, looking at the five people on the field with excitement.

Tang Qinghong groaned. “It’s hard to say.”

The person who asked him was surprised. “Hard to say? Wouldn’t Young Master Yao’s team win? It’s been half a month outside, but three months in the cave. There are so many top-notch resources in the cave, it’s basically a genius making factory in here. What’s more is the humanoid formation that Miss Gu personally arranged, and we also used the elders of the ancient martial arts world as our stepping stone.” The four geniuses and their formations, and they still wouldn’t be able to beat Gu Xiqiao?

The four of them could already spar to a tie with Tang Qinghong, and Tang Qinghong himself was already about the sixty-eighth floor in the Trial Tower. It was just a matter of time before he would break through the seventieth floor.

Tang Qinghong glanced at the person, shaking his head and said nothing more.

A hundred or so people in the training grounds had opened a gambling table amidst the excitement, and out of them, ninety had bet on Yao Jiamu and the others winning. The remainder were confident that Gu Xiqiao would be the one to triumph!

After they had all placed their bets, they suddenly saw a robot throwing in a wad of cash. “I bet that our Beauty Qiao will win.”

Dog Feed, who was still in Jiji’s arms opened its mouth to say suddenly, “Jiji, you have so much pocket money, and you’re gambling the entire thing away?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be taking all their money as my winnings later anyway.” Jiji was full of confidence, although none of that confidence could be seen on its mechanical face.

At this time, the battle on the training grounds had already begun.

A gust of wind blew suddenly, and Gu Xiqiao was standing straight, her eyes bright and clear. Her inky hair fluttered in the wind, but if you looked closely, you would see that the fluttering of her hair didn’t match the speed of which the wind was blowing at all. The entire space around her body had become another space entirely.

Purple lightning crackled and hovered around her, the light reflecting on her snow-white skin.

Yao Jiamu and the others started off with their strongest tricks, which was the humanoid formation that Gu Xiqiao had taught them, which they managed to bring up to a higher level.

Everyone in the area was watching the fight intently, not blinking for fear that they would miss something if they did.

The dust rose from the ground, obscuring their view, leaving them to only hear the sounds of ‘boom boom boom’.

Five minutes later, all was silent.

A plainly clothed figure walked out slowly from the dust, her figure was free of dirt and not a thing out of place. It looked like she had just come from a shopping mall or something.

The crowd breathed deeply, they had already thought that Miss Gu was an existence that defied all logic.

But they didn’t expect that every time they thought she had reached a limit, she would just surpass it once again.

Yao Jiamu and the others could already tie with Tang Qinghong, who was on the sixty-eighth floor.

It seemed that Gu Xiqiao barely exerted any effort to easily beat the sh*t out of the four of them.

Tang Qinghong was already on the sixty eighth floor.

Then which floor would she be?

Anything above that would be Xiantian stage, wasn’t that close to the ancient warriors level of strength already?

Everyone let out a long sigh, all their smugness and proudness of being able to beat down the elders of the ancient martial arts world vanished instantly at the scene that unfolded in front of their eyes.

They then turned and slowly trailed back into the cave to continue their training without another word.

In the empty field where the dust was settling, Yao Jiamu and the others lay on the ground, an expression of being f*cked over by life on their faces.

Especially Yin Shaoyun, who initially thought that he had managed to catch up to Gu Xiqiao in the half-month that he had been training here. He didn’t expect that not only did he not catch up to her at all, but she had gone ahead and made the gap wider!

She had been outside for only half a month, and had not taken advantage of the different flow of time in the caves, just how did she make such a huge leap?

There was only one word to describe her in their hearts, ‘Insane’.

“You still have some problems understanding the exercises.” Gu Xiqiao narrowed her eyes at the four who were still lying motionless on the ground. Her elegant brows twisted slightly, and she softly said, “There are some small changes needed, you still don’t understand it thoroughly enough.”

Tang Qinghong finally snapped out of his daze when the clear voice reached his ears, and he could only smile bitterly as he processed what she said.

“It’s not easy for them to understand these exercises according to your notes in such a short period of time. Not everyone has the same super comprehension ability that you have.” Really, the word ‘jealous’ couldn’t even begin to cover the feelings that he had towards that super comprehension ability of hers.

“It’s not that far off from the ranking tournament, they don’t have much time.” Gu Xiqiao shook her head. Super comprehension ability, what?

She had been locked in the void for countless years, and the only she could do was read and read and read the endless stream of books that were there. It was the sort of endurance that ordinary people couldn’t even imagine.

There was a saying, you wouldn’t be able to survive if you weren’t crazy.

Tang Qinghong would never understand the feeling in Gu Xiqiao’s heart, but when he noted her words, the calm expression on his face finally cracked. “The ranking tournament? You’re going to enter them into the tournament?”

Gu Xiqiao smiled brightly and nodded her head.

Shock appeared on Tang Qinghong’s face, and he could practically feel the group of geniuses back in the ancient martial arts world that was going to go nuts.

Gu Xiqiao ignored his internal struggle, instead heading into the room where the ancient texts were kept. She opened the one that Yao Jiamu and the others had recently started to practice, picking up a pen to write down more notes in it.

Jiji sat on her lap, counting its winnings. Gu Xiqiao looked down at it, and said, “Don’t forget my portion.”

Jiji: “…” It reached out to give her half of the winnings without any complaints.

Don’t bite the hands that feeds you, okay? You can’t just offend someone like that.

Xixi: “…” It’s fine if you bully flowers and plants on your usual days, but now you’re even picking on the robot!

Gu XIqiao glanced at Xixi.

Xixi: “Wonderful beauty, hello!”

She turned away, focusing on her writings. After that, she picked up her phone to reply to the message that Jiang Shuxuan had sent earlier—[Wait for me at the middle school, we’ll pick up Little Huazi.]

After shooting the message off, she left the place. Naturally, she wouldn’t see the dejected face that Yao Jiamu made when he later found the notes that she had scribbled on the ancient text.

***

In middle school, Gu Xiqiao walked slowly down the corridor, looking thoughtful as she made her way through the area. Suddenly, she stopped.

At the same time, the system voice sounded.

[Random mission activated: Eliminate the malicious aura in the surroundings!]

[Mission completion reward: 1,000 points!]

The mission rewards were given according to the difficulty of the mission, and 1,000 points was comparable to those chain missions she had done. If it was just a normal evil spirit, the rewards wouldn’t be so high. She closed her eyes, her mental power instantly stretching out to envelope the area over a ten miles radius.

The concentration of the evil spirits was not big, but it covered a very big area.

No wonder it gave so many points as the mission reward.

‘Although it isn’t very dense, it will still affect the minds of regular people. It’s fine for those with more pure minds, but it’s hard to say what would happen for those who are more unstable.’ If she didn’t handle it properly, there would be more deaths and murders. A grave expression appeared on Gu Xiqiao’s face.

Jiji followed behind her, holding barbecue sauce in its hands. When it had taken its own money to the stall to buy it, it had almost scared the stall owner to death. Fortunately, Gu Xiqiao had explained that it was a new type of robot, and the stall owner was finally convinced not to call the police on her. “Beauty Qiao, maybe a nutcase will come out suddenly.”

As soon as it said that, a group of punks was seen to be gathered in the corner in front of them. Faint yin energy could be seen in the center of their foreheads. They were obviously already confused by the malicious aura around them, but it didn’t seem too serious yet.

When they saw Gu Xiqiao, they immediately moved to surround her. Their purpose was obvious—extortion.

Gu Xiqiao: “…” They wanted to extort her, of all people?

Jiji: “…” There were actually people crazy enough to dare to rob this female monster?

Not far from there, a group of middle school students was walking. A young boy was in the lead, and when he saw this, he exclaimed, “That’s Dalin and Hua Youlin’s big sister!”

They had often seen Gu Xiqiao walking Hua Youlin and Luo Wenlin out of school, and had an extremely deep impression of this beautiful sister of theirs. Especially when this pretty girl was also the national ranker, which made them admire her all the more. “Hurry, we need to help her. Go and call the security uncle!”

The delegation of tasks among the teenagers were done quickly.

Some picked up branches from the ground, and some picked up bricks. Some even took out their blades that they used to sharpen their 2B pencils.

When the group of teenagers finally arrived, Gu Xiqiao was stepping on the leader’s chest, pulling out a scattered pile of money from his pocket. She narrowed her eyes at the man she was stepping on. “Where else do you have money?”

The man raised a trembling finger, pointing to the soles of his shoes fearfully.

“It’s smelly, I don’t want it.” Gu Xiqiao took back her leg, and glanced towards the others who had been beaten and were laying on the ground. “Next time you bully anyone, I’ll twist you into a fried dough twist. Do you know what that is?”

The people who had been beaten to the ground nodded their heads hurriedly, some still in a daze from the beating they had gotten. She gestured to Jiji.

Jiji leaned down to pick up the steel pipe that they had used as a weapon from the ground. It reached out and twisted the pipe, turning the shape into a fried dough twist easily.

The group of teenagers who had rushed over to save her, was met with a scene of the punks being beaten instead: “…” So, who was the one robbing whom?

Gu Xiqiao turned her head and saw the group of teenagers, and with her excellent memory, she recognized all of them. Feeling embarrassed at being caught in this manner, she took out the money that she had taken from the punks and handed it to them. “Thank you, go and treat yourselves to some milk tea.”

Hua Youlin’s classmates looked at the money that she had pushed into his hands, and wanted to refuse it. But when he raised his head, Gu Xiqiao had already vanished, as though out of thin air. He rubbed his eyes to make sure that he wasn’t imagining it, his jaw dropping in disbelief when he realized she had indeed disappeared.

At the same time, the gangsters on the ground were slowly picking themselves.

The group of teenagers immediately stepped back, hiding the money in their hands. The courage and adrenaline that had run through them when they were rushing to save Gu Xiqiao previously had all but vanished at this time.

They didn’t expect these punks to take one look at them, then turn to run away in fear. It looked like they wouldn’t be extorting anyone anytime soon in the future.

Yeah, so… what DID Hua Youlin’s sister do to them?!

***

In a milk tea shop not far from the middle school, a good looking man was sitting by the window. Just the slender fingers on his beautiful hands and elegant facial features were enough to win the countless lingering gaze that was on him. There were two kids who were dressed in the middle school uniform opposite him, and there was a tanned skin boy sitting beside him.

Chu Ziheng sat on the chair, his back rammed straight. It seemed that he felt something, because he started laughing. This laugh stunned the girls that were sitting around him, it was just too beautiful. When he laughed, it felt like everything around him blurred into the background, and he was the only color among the grey of everyone and everything else.

“It’s really so interesting, I can’t believe that I underestimated her…” Chu Ziheng reached out to tap his fingers against the table. Looking at the snow-white teenager that was holding a cup of milk tea, he asked, “Are you sure your sister is coming? Do you want me to send you back instead?”

Hua Youlin shook his head when he heard the question. “I already sent a message to my sister, she knows I’m here.”

The wind chime at the entrance rang just as he said that, and the surroundings quieted down suddenly at the same moment.

Hua Youlin’s eyes lit up, a bright smile on his face. “Look, she’s here!”