Chapter 56

Chapter 56: Issue A Challenge For Me

The Stygian Snake led Vigilante A to the Qiao siblings, who were rushing towards them as well. It quickly hid behind Vigilante A’s back as it sensed the ferocity of Qiao Zijiang.

“Don’t say anything, I’ve already heard what I need to,” said Qiao Zijiang, as she glared daggers at the Stygian Snake, “Little Dragon, what a gutsy move to pull. Now that you have a higher branch to climb, are you trying to betray your master for personal fame?”

Vigilante A retaliated, “Now, now, young lady. I have a good eye; this Stygian Snake has never committed any evil deeds in its life, so give it the freedom it desires.”

Qiao Zijiang wasn’t surprised to hear those words. However, something immediately came to her mind, which compelled her to speak, “I don’t mind letting it go, but that’ll mean you owe me one. However my brother owes you one as well, so now we’re even.”

Qiao Zishan, who was by her side, spoke up, “Zijiang, don’t be so calculative. Hero, the pair of us siblings sent that little dragon here in a haste to sound out the situation. Although it was out of justice, it wasn’t an honorable thing to do, so I ask for your forgiveness. Since that little dragon hasn’t committed any evil deeds, I’ll give it the freedom it desires, according to what you’ve said.”

Hearing this, Qiao Zijiang honestly wasn’t willing to let go of such a good assistant, since it didn’t need to be a bargaining chip be used to return the favor his brother owed. Other demon servants were usually quite stupid after being cultivated, so a servant as shrewd and wretched as Long Fan was hard to come by.

Immediately, she spoke to the Stygian Snake, “Xiao Long, you’d better think twice. If you follow me, I can revive you if you were to die, but if you were to be free, nobody can save you. Although this hero is quite powerful, but I’m afraid he doesn’t know the method to revive you.”

Hearing this, the Stygian Snake rolled its eyes, “I could do that, but I want to be treated like a proper person. I don’t want to be your slave. You killed me unreasonably before, and although it was to exterminate that snake demon, I still want my monetary compensation. Also, from now onwards, I want endowment insurance, medical insurance, unemployment insurance, work-related injury insurance, childbirth insurance, and housing accumulation funds. Other than that, I want two rest days a week with 7 hour work days in addition to a payment of ten thousand a month. Although I don’t have to eat and can survive on vitality, my novels still need money…”

Long Fan thought to himself, ‘I shouldn’t be treated worse than that weakling white snake right? We may all be weaklings, but it had two rest days per week and 8 hour work days. I’m smarter than it by a bit, so I deserve better treatment! I at least deserve an hour less of work daily!’

Qiao Zijiang was dumbfounded; she shouldn’t have sent this fellow to fish for information, but sent a dumber one instead. She had seen the previous situations, and the white snake’s words from before must have provoked him! Although her goal of finding out Vigilante A’s identity had succeeded, now she had the problem of this slave trying to revoke its own status, which would be a tremendous loss.

Qiao Zishan was already nodding his head, “Hm, since you’ve never sinned, I’ll apologize on behalf of my sister. Your request is entirely reasonable, so fulfilling it is no problem.”

Qiao Zijiang’s jaw hardened; she had no choice since she couldn’t go against her brother, but what she didn’t know was that there was such a thing called overtime, which was free!

She immediately agreed, “Since elder brother has already said so, I’ll agree to your request, so get back here!”

The Stygian Snake happily flew back to Qiao Zijiang’s side.

With a swish of her hand, the Stygian Snake disappeared from midair.

Vigilante A then said, “Since everything’s settled, I’ll be returning to my meal now.”

Qiao Zishan saluted him then, “Great Hero, when you killed the Bai sisters, you helped remove the Seraph’s Brand on my heart. I am eternally grateful for what you have done, and your debt has no price. However, the Bai family’s roots run deep, and their Elder Ancestor is a character akin to the Land God; I’m afraid that you’ll be struck with disaster very soon. If you are agreeable to it, you can settle down at my home for the time being; my uncle Qiao Anping is powerful, his murderous spirit and martial arts are not to be trifled with. He is respected by the Elder of my family, so your safety is guaranteed.”

After he was done, he thought that Vigilante A might either see his offer as belittlement or he might completely ignore it, since his lack of emotions was the epitome of his personality.

What he didn’t expect was for Vigilante A’s eyes to glint in interest before completely forgetting his intended departure.

Vigilante A then asked, “So is that Elder in your family really that powerful?”

To which Qiao Zishan answered, “Yes, he is. Among the seven people in the Truth Department that are regarded as Master Cultivators, he’s probably the most powerful one.”

“Then how much bigger is he compared to you?”

Qiao Zishan was baffled by the question, but answered anyway, “I may look old, but I’m only 25 this year. However, the Elder is maybe around 100 or so?”

“Oh, I don’t care about your age. I meant when compared to your power, how much difference is there between you and him?”

Qiao Zishan thought Vigilante A would be curious to the difference between his physical appearance and his age. Usually, seeing his mature looks, most people would assume he was 35, 36, but Vigilante A was different. He didn’t care about his age, all he cared about was his power.

Qiao Zishan immediately felt a fondness for Vigilante A and answered again, “I apologize for the misunderstanding. Nobody knows the Elder’s true power, but since he’s quite afraid of my uncle, I would say they’re about the same in terms of power. According to my uncle, he’s about three times more powerful than me.”

The System Space.

The System spoke first, “It would seem that this anonymous red-named monster isn’t going to be easy to farm, that is if this Qiao Zishan isn’t lying.”

Fang Ning was shocked, “Have we finally met a wall we cannot climb over? Can we only pack up and leave now?”

“There’s no need for that. I said that it was difficult to farm, not impossible to farm. Just wait until after I cultivate in isolation to level up my Dragonization Ability to Intermediate Level. I’m sure that after that and after eating a month’s worth of food in a single sitting, I’ll definitely be able to face that fellow. If worse comes to worst, it can become a test of endurance, four hours or four weeks doesn’t matter to me, but I’m sure it won’t last so long.

“You’re right. Besides, we have the preservation area in the System Space, so it is possible to save up some food and consumables to make it a battle of endurance. It isn’t a robot, so it’s endurance isn’t limitless. If it came to that, I doubt it would be able to win. The battlefield shouldn’t be a place with aquatic plants, so we can take away its source of replenishment.”

Qiao Zishan noticed that Vigilante A was stunned. At first, he thought that Vigilante A was merely shocked at the Bai family’s Elder’s power, but what he then said wasn’t what Qiao Zishan expected at all.

“If that’s the case, help me issue a challenge. Say that if he wants to pick a bone with me and seek vengeance for his family of rats, he can go to the West Desert where it’s empty enough for a full-out battle. As soon as he arrives, I will be there once I receive a message from him. I do not want the battle to take place just anywhere else as I cannot guarantee there will be no innocents harmed. He is also welcome to ambush me, but I advise him to think about his rat children and grandchildren before doing so; he should know that me not wanting to go to his hiding places doesn’t mean I don’t have the ability to.

Hearing this, Qiao Zishan was extremely shocked, because he understood what Vigilante A was conveying clearly; a dragon can shape-shift to any size so no burrow is a challenge.

He once again saluted Vigilante A before saying, “You are indeed a benevolent and kind hero. Since even you aren’t scared, I won’t drag the passing of your message for too long.”

“That’s good. However, you’re wrong when you said that you won’t be able to repay me.”

Qiao Zishan was baffled and his heart dropped to his stomach. Was Vigilante A going to ask of something impossible from him? He grit his teeth as he said, “If I can be of help to the great hero, he only needs to speak up. If it is within Zishan’s means, I will try my best to help.”

“Oh, it’s like this you see, recently I’ve been low on money…”

Qiao Zishan was stunned, but then he watched his younger sister Qiao Zijiang fetch out a gold card from her bag, as if she had long expected this.

“Great hero, there isn’t a lot of money in the card; fifty million in it, and the password is six 1’s. You can withdraw the money as you please,” Qiao Zijiang’s tone as she spoke was one of relief as Vigilante A only wanted money to repay the favor they owed.

The gold card seemed to grow legs as it suddenly flew into Vigilante A’s hand before she could even pass it to him. It then proceeded to disappear in the blink of an eye.

Vigilante A then said, “I see it was true that the people from the Truth Department are more generous than the people from the Special Affairs Department. Feel free to contact me in the future on matters concerning the extermination of evil. My QQ’s XXXXXXXX and my Wechat is XXXXXXXXXXX…”

Hearing this, Qiao Zijiang’s eyes immediately lit up like he had just been granted a wish, he nodded his head quickly and said, “I’ll add you now. There have been a lot of accidents recently; apparently the higher-ups are preparing to meet the Association of Spirit Kings to discuss the giant rat crisis; if another operation is needed, you might have to appear.”

After adding each other’s contact methods, the trio went their separate ways.

Noticing the elated expression on his younger sister’s face as they left, Qiao Zishan was baffled.

Qiao Zijiang immediately explained, “I never thought that he would be as greedy as his profile made him out to be. The fact that he was willing to accept money to exterminate evil really is the best. Our Qiao family doesn’t have a lot of manpower and with the principles of our family, the greatest danger we would face would probably only be from the most evil of monsters. However, the fact that he dared to challenge the Bai family’s Elder means that he is at least as powerful as the Elder. Having him on our side is worth more than just the fifty million.”

Qiao Zishan nodded his head, “It’s sad that Father had to leave so soon. If it weren’t because of my clumsiness, you wouldn’t have had to go around planning and preparing everything. You’ve worked hard.”

Qiao Zijiang sniggered at her brother in return, “I wasn’t working hard, I just needed to use my brain.”

Qiao Zishan thought to himself, “Does that mean I don’t have a brain..?”

He could only nod his head in answer as he spoke, “I just never thought that Vigilante A, what with his reputation and power, would have such a weak master. It was such a weak and tiny snake, and it seemed to be worse than our little dragon.”

Qiao Zijiang patted her head in helplessness, “Elder Brother, how can you just believe everything someone else says? Didn’t you see all those posts on Weibo where a lot of pet masters said they became slaves to their pets instead? I think the connection between Vigilante A and that white snake is deeper than it seems. Long Fan was probably bluffed by its boasting.”

“That white snake didn’t practice the Aura Masking Ability, but the weak aura of the True Dragon it carried was hard to miss. The two were probably related; maybe the white snake was young when they descended on this earth, which would explain why Vigilante A was accepting of its ridiculous words. Otherwise, a proud person like Vigilante A wouldn’t let himself be called a slave. From the looks of things, the white snake was probably the larvae of the True Dragon and Vigilante A is the True Dragon itself.”

If Fang Ning had heard Qiao Zijiang’s analysis, he would’ve expressed awe at her intelligence, because he did address the System as “Sir System” most of the time…

Qiao Zishan spoke up, “Alright, we have to report the situation to the higher-ups. They should be the ones deciding whether or not we should keep recruiting him, but I doubt it would possible. The True Dragon is even more arrogant, so why would it humble itself to the level of humans?”

Qiao Zijiang then answered, “I think so too, maybe the higher-ups would just have to acquiesce in his neutral actions, as long as he maintains his current way of acting. That isn’t something we should worry about.”