55: trap
Inside Azure Dragon Beast Taming University, Zhang Zian's mother emotionally clutched her child in her arms, sobbing uncontrollably.
Having slept, she had recovered some of her spirit. Hearing the news that her child had been found, she had briefly tidied up her disheveled appearance, fearing she might scare the boy.
“Thank you, thank you all...” With one hand holding her child, she bowed repeatedly in gratitude to everyone, while the other hand pulled some crumpled bills from her pocket.
“My husband only left us this little bit. If you all don't mind...”
Guo Linshan quickly pushed her hand back: “What are you saying? Our Great Xia Spirit Guards are meant to serve the common people of Great Xia.”
The woman then looked at Su Ze, her eyes brimming with tears. She and her child both dropped to their knees with a thud.
“Young brother, our family has wronged you. My husband treated you like that, yet you held no grudge. I don't know how to express my gratitude...”
Su Ze hurriedly helped her up, shaking his head repeatedly.
“I'm just dealing with things as they are. The source of the plot against me was the Jiang Family; it has nothing to do with you.”
The woman, now standing, wanted to say more, but then she heard the child in her arms crying out that he was hungry.
He hadn't eaten anything since yesterday.
Su Ze had only given him water and hadn't brought any food.
The woman's heart immediately ached for him. She gave everyone an apologetic look and began walking toward home with the child.
“Be good. Once we're home, Mommy will cook something delicious for you. Shall we have braised pork today?”
“Okay!” Zhang Zian nodded with a smile, holding onto his mother's hand.
Su Ze noticed that beside him, Guo Linshan kept watching the child as he walked away.
Remembering how he had just been coaxing the child, it seemed he was very fond of children, yet Su Ze had never heard of him having any of his own.
Standing beside him and following his gaze, Su Ze said as if casually, “This child is very obedient. Even after going through something like this, he doesn't cry or make a fuss and even comforts his mother. He really is quite likable. Why don't you take him as a godson? It's quite pitiful for him to lose his father at such a young age.”
Guo Linshan was stunned for a moment but didn't answer immediately: “No rush, there will be plenty of opportunities in the future.”
“Alright, young brother Su Ze, I have to head back first. The detachment needs me to take charge.” With that, he took flight and flew toward the outskirts of the city.
Su Ze looked up with some envy at the way he flew so freely. He wondered when he would reach that level... After returning home, Su Ze sat cross-legged on his bed and took out the iron box Guo Linshan had given him.
Opening the latch, inside were neatly arranged quenching thought beads.
Su Ze picked one up at random. Its color was very pure, without a single impurity. Even among military-grade quenching thought beads, these were top-quality.
“The goods look pretty pure. Let me test them out.”
As he spoke, he closed his eyes, regulated his breathing, and began absorbing the power within the quenching thought bead.
The power within the bead continuously tempered his Spiritual Power. Every time a wisp of Spiritual Power passed through the bead, it became more solid and refined.
By the time Su Ze had exhausted the power of one quenching thought bead, he could feel that he wasn't far from another breakthrough.
Using quenching thought beads of this purity to raise one's Spiritual Power level was not only fast, but one also didn't have to worry about the Spiritual Power being contaminated by impurities that would need to be filtered out through meditation.
When Su Ze opened his eyes from his meditation, it was already late into the night.
Just as he was about to pick up another one to strive for a level breakthrough, he saw Feng Qingyi nearby, staring longingly at the iron box in his hand.
“Do you know how to use this?”
Feng Qingyi nodded very certainly, so Su Ze let her take one as well.
He then watched as she swallowed the quenching thought bead in one gulp, like a bird swallowing a glass marble.
“Wait, that's not how you use it...”
Su Ze was about to stop her when he felt power coming from the other side of the contract.
Feng Qingyi was actually refining the power of the quenching thought bead. She was just using a simple and crude devouring method unique to demon beasts, different from humans. Moreover, her refining speed was much faster than Su Ze's.
Because the Beast Taming Contract was a two-way contract, whenever either side increased their strength, it would pull the other side up with them.
Therefore, Su Ze placed the iron box directly between himself and Feng Qingyi. Whoever finished refining first could take another one.
This was equivalent to two people refining and meditating together. The speed was much faster than Su Ze refining alone.
It was a pity the Void Spirit Turtle couldn't shapeshift and its intelligence hadn't awakened; otherwise, Su Ze's cultivation speed could have been even faster.
By the time the late night ended and the sky grew bright, Su Ze had steadily broken through Level 25 and entered the mid-stage of Level 26.
During this period, Su Ze had only refined two quenching thought beads, while Feng Qingyi had devoured a full seven or eight.
However, her level was too high, and breaking through Level 60 was another threshold. So even after swallowing so many quenching thought beads, there was still no sign of a breakthrough.
But there were still many quenching thought beads left, so helping Feng Qingyi break through wouldn't be a problem.
Su Ze simply took two days off, intending to refine all the quenching thought beads first.
After all, now that he was being targeted by the Jiang Family, the pressure had increased manifold.
Furthermore, among the three powerhouses of Beishan City, Xiao Xu and Yu Shenghuo were both absent.
Although the reasons for their absence both sounded very reasonable, Su Ze always felt it was a bit too coincidental at this critical juncture.
So he could only strengthen his own power as much as possible; being able to protect himself was the most important thing... And while Su Ze was focused on refining the quenching thought beads.
At the Great Xia Spirit Guards camp, in a secret room located underground that only the Detachment Commander knew about, Guo Linshan was sitting cross-legged on the ground, eyes closed in meditation.
On his other side was an Armored Rock Rhino that had shrunk in size.
Between the two was an earthy-yellow, smooth crystal core as large as a person's embrace. It continuously diffused earthy-yellow energy which was being absorbed by the Armored Rock Rhino.
This was the Level 70 earth-attribute monster beast crystal core he had demanded from the Jiang Family.
He had originally thought the Jiang Family wouldn't pay any attention to this request, but unexpectedly, it was delivered after just one night.
One had to know that the highest level among those three was only the Level 67 Jiang Chen. It was just that because Jiang Tianlong's bonded beast was a rare platinum-level demon beast, the one with the highest combat power should actually be Jiang Tianlong.
Yet they were able to easily produce a Level 70 monster beast crystal core, which showed the Jiang Family's profound strength.
Guo Linshan's level, like his bonded beast, was Level 68. The limit for a Gold-rank Demon Beast was Level 70, but because the Armored Rock Rhino had been heavily wounded multiple times on the battlefield, losing its source bloodline, it had never been able to break through.
The reason Guo Linshan needed the monster beast crystal core was to help his bonded beast repair its bloodline defects and break through to the Level 70 limit in one go.
As for the two-level difference, it wasn't a big deal; generally, there was only a risk if the difference exceeded five levels.
And after breaking through this stagnant state, Guo Linshan believed he could also raise his own level to Level 70 within his lifetime.
Guo Linshan's thoughts were very beautiful, and the Armored Rock Rhino indeed successfully broke through to Level 69 after absorbing less than half of the crystal core's power, just as he had expected.
With the level barrier that had troubled the man and beast for so long finally broken, a look of joy appeared on Guo Linshan's face.
What he didn't notice was that amidst the earthy-yellow energy the Armored Rock Rhino was absorbing, there was a very thin trace of blood-red mixed in. This touch of blood-red was also gradually creeping into the Armored Rock Rhino's eyes!