Chapter 250 - Obviously You Can Depend on Your Own Strength

-Isn’t this supposed to be a squad? Why are there only three people?-

Seeing the three uniformed man standing in a row, as if performing an arms drill, Zhang Che blinked, thinking to himself that this squad was indeed very small.

However, Huang Juyun didn’t care about Zhang Che’s silent cursings as he introduced them. “This is Liu Gang, their squad captain. He advanced into a high-tier beastmaster two years ago.”

“Nice to meet you, Zhang-shao!” Liu Gang saluted Zhang Che sharply. The man was in his thirties, with a medium build. His skin was tanned, his appearance tough and determined.

Zhang Che hurriedly waved his hand, “Don’t, don’t. Just calling me Zhang Che is fine!”

-What the heck is it with the shao suffix! It sounds like it’s used exclusively for antagonistic characters! I don’t want to collect lunchboxes. Otherwise, how is the author going to continue the story?-¹

Liu Gang didn’t respond to him. Instead, he turned to look at Huang Juyun.

Huang Juyun nodded at Liu Gang, then continued introducing the other two men to Zhang Che, “Alright, you guys call him Zhang Che, then. This is Pang Dazhi, and this is Yi Chong. Both of them are also high-tier beastmasters.”

Pang Dazhi was true to his name. He had a large build, with a tiger’s back and a bear’s waist. On the other hand, Yi Chong was the smallest of the three, but he exuded the aura of a fierce elite.

Since Zhang Che didn’t allow them to address him as Zhang-shao, they only nodded at him in acknowledgement.

The three of them were all at a similar age, and were all high-tier beastmasters. It forced Zhang Che to reevaluate the Huang family’s influence.

It was no easy task to nurture a high-tier beastmaster, and now Huang Juyun had directly shown three of them to Zhang Che, the aim of which was merely to train his close combat skills.

He could imagine that the Huang family had quite a number of such high-tier beastmasters who had yet to show themselves. They were definitely the top-tier forces of the Huang family!

“Alright, since you all know each other now, you’ll set off tomorrow morning,” Huang Juyun nodded at them once more. After that, everyone left of their own accord.

——

The next morning, Zhang Che woke up early and met up with Liu Gang’s squad at the front courtyard of the Huang family’s ancestral home. However, he was surprised to see Liu Gang was actually accompanied by a black tiger as tall as a human, and about six meters long.

Just as he was wondering about this, Huang Juyun smiled and explained, “This is Liu Gang’s pet. He tamed it by chance in the beast world. Now that it’s fully grown, its at six-star silver-quality. It can help with catching exotic beasts for food in the beast world.”

Zhang Che was greatly moved. His father-in-law knew that he had a huge appetite and he purposefully found someone with a pet to help him. What a thoughtful man!

“Thank you, Uncle Huang!”

“What’s there to thank me for? I was originally thinking of getting you a spatial-type beast card, but my card wasn’t spacious enough and couldn’t bring much food. I was afraid it wouldn’t be able to last you for many days, so I got Liu Gang here,” Huang Juyun explained, chuckling.

Zhang Che thought inwardly, -I knew it. These large families do have spatial-type beast cards! But father-in-law said his spatial-type beast card can’t hold many items. What’s that about?

-Could it be that those spatial-type beast cards usually don’t have much room?-

Thinking of that, Zhang Che immediately felt that his Purple Crystal Tortoise was indeed some high-end stuff, with a thousand cubic meters of space! The Heavens knew how many beast cards that was equivalent to…

More importantly, the Purple Crystal Tortoise was not only a storage-type subdued beast; its offensive and defensive abilities were similarly top-tier!

——

After bidding farewell to Huang Juyun and Huang Tielan, Zhang Che and Liu Gang’s squad boarded a military vehicle and headed straight to the spatial gateway over a hundred kilometers to the northwest of Bei Du.

This was the beast world Liu Gang and the others frequented and were more familiar with, so they chose to bring Zhang Che there to train his close combat skills.

During the journey, Liu Gang and the others didn’t speak a word at all, leaving Zhang Che feeling a little awkward. He tried initiating a conversation, “Three big brothers here, how long have you been in the army?”

“Sixteen years,” Liu Gang answered.

“Thirteen years,” Pang Dazhi said.

“Fourteen years,” Yi Chong replied.

Their answers were really simple and concise! Zhang Che was depressed. How boring would it be if they continued to act like this after entering the beast world?

——

The vehicle kept driving northwest, and finally reached their destination about two hours later.

They encountered a few ambushes by single exotic beasts on their way, but how could they be a match at all for Zhang Che and the others? Zhang Che didn’t even have any intention of making a move, leaving the job to Liu Gang and the others, who dispatched the exotic beasts easily.

—

After arriving at the location of the spatial gateway, they parked the vehicle in the military camp and the four of them, carrying their own backpacks, crossed over the spatial gateway.

“Zhang-shao…” the moment Liu Gang spoke up, he remembered what Zhang Che said before, and changed his words, “Zhang Che, the place we’re going is where our unit used to hunt. The level and quality of the exotic beasts there aren’t low by any means. You must be careful.”

Huang Juyun probably didn’t tell Liu Gang and the others about Zhang Che’s exact strength, and thus he reminded Zhang Che to be careful. He was probably thinking that although this kid was a Tier Five beastmaster, the quality of his subdued beasts shouldn’t be too good.

“Don’t worry, Brother Liu. I will be careful,” Zhang Che nodded as he thought of what Liu Gang just said. -Unit! As expected, the Huang family’s influence isn’t small! Although I have no idea how many people are in the unit he spoke of, there shouldn’t be less than a hundred or so.-

“Mhm, let’s set off then,” Liu Gang nodded and jumped onto the back of that black tiger pet of his, while the other two also summoned their respective mount-type beasts.

-We’re running there?- Zhang Che thought. -The place your unit hunts at shouldn’t be nearby, right?- As such, he immediately voiced the question.

“It’s not close, over five hundred kilometers away from the safety zone. If we move at full speed, we should be able to arrive by this afternoon.”

Zhang Che nearly wept. It was too much of a waste of time to ride for a few hours.

A five-colored streak of light shot out from Zhang Che’s brows. The Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon’s eye-catching figure immediately appeared before Liu Gang and the others.

Liu Gang’s black tiger pet probably sensed the terrifying aura on the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon, letting out low growls uneasily.

Meanwhile, Liu Gang and the others were shocked. -A legend-quality beast! And it’s even a dragon, a fellow at the top of the food chain! How terrifyingly strong must it be?-

Their gazes toward Zhang Che became a little strange.

-This guy is obviously someone who can depend on his own strength. Why are you coming with us to train your skills!?-

As the saying went, “One might triumphs ten techniques”. Even if he was a newbie at fighting, with such a powerful subdued beast, he was invincible among beastmasters of the same tier!

Zhang Che ignored the surprise on their faces. Instead, he raised his hand and pointed at the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon, saying, “Let’s go, what are you spacing out for!?”

++++++++

Translator’s Note:

1) Collecting lunchboxes originated from Stephen Chow’s movie in 1999, King of Comedy, where the extras of a film set go to collect their lunchboxes after their work is done. He’s saying that it feels like his role is being reduced to that of a side or minor character if others start calling him Zhang-shao, which is an informal term for Young Master.