20: Chapter 20 Who's Weak?

The construction site was bustling with activity.

However, amidst this heated construction boom, a small group of people seemed completely out of place.

It was the few thousand fresh troops led by Minister Wang Fugui.

"Huff... huff... I can't do it anymore..."

Minister Wang Fugui was used to being pampered. He held a shovel, but after only a few digs, he was already panting like a broken bellows, sweat soaking through his expensive silk lining.

The thugs and guards who usually threw their weight around were no better off.

Although they were slightly stronger than Minister Wang Fugui, it was only by a small margin.

Compared to everyone else on the site, their work efficiency was negligible.

"Hey! Move, move! Don't block the way!"

A burly man carrying a giant rock rushed past like a gust of wind, nearly knocking Minister Wang Fugui away.

Minister Wang Fugui was about to lose his temper, but realized it was a long-term laborer from his old estate who handled the night soil.

The burly man looked back at him with disgust: "I say, Minister Wang, if you don't have the strength, go rest on the side. Can you stop being such a hindrance here? Everyone is rushing to meet the schedule!"

"Exactly!" A middle-aged woman using an earth elemental hammer to hammer the foundation also curled her lip, "Dawdling about, not even as good as a woman! I really don't know why the City Lord kept you lot; you're purely causing trouble!"

"You... you..."

Minister Wang Fugui trembled with rage, his Face turning liver-colored.

This was rebellion!

Truly rebellious!

In the past, when these mud-legged people saw him, which one of them didn't bow and scrape, not even daring to breathe loudly?

Now they actually dared to despise him?

It wasn't just him; the guards and thugs also felt a sense of great humiliation.

They used to be the only ones looking down on others, but now the tables had turned?

Who could tolerate this?

"Damn it! Who are you looking down on?"

The Guard Captain gritted his teeth and rolled up his sleeves, "Brothers! Give me all your strength! Let these mud-legged people see our true strength!"

"Right! We can't be outdone by them!"

"Do it!!"

Fueled by competitiveness, everyone started working as if they had been injected with chicken blood.

However.

Ideals are thin, but reality is cruel.

Half an hour later...

"Can't do it... really can't..."

The Guard Captain felt like his lungs were going to explode, and his arms felt like they were filled with lead, completely unable to lift them.

He looked in despair at the youth nearby who was still tirelessly swinging a pickaxe.

For this half hour, he had been gritting his teeth to compete with this youth, wanting to see who was better.

Who would have thought that while the youth looked thin and weak, the pickaxe felt weightless in his hands, and he could easily smash hard rock with every strike.

Pick after pick!

He didn't stop at all!

He didn't even lose his breath!

"Is this... is this even human?" The Guard Captain was on the verge of a breakdown, "This is simply a Demonic Beast in human skin!"

He couldn't keep up at all!

His side had squeezed out their last drop of strength, while the other side seemed to be just warming up!

Besides, the pickaxe in his hand was also quite unusual.

At first, he just thought it looked special, but what about in reality?

He had just been smashing hard frozen rock with this thing for ages, and yet the tip of the pickaxe didn't even leave a white mark!

As a Black Iron Rank Professional, he considered himself knowledgeable.

He trembled as he pulled out a Black Iron Rank fine steel dagger from his pocket and struck the pickaxe hard.

Zing—!

Sparks flew everywhere.

The fine steel dagger chipped directly, but the black pickaxe remained clean as new, without even a scratch!

This shocked him and confirmed his suspicion.

To be able to easily chip a Black Iron Rank fine steel dagger, this pickaxe had to be at least Bronze Rank!

After he shared this discovery, everyone tested their own tools to varying degrees.

But the results shocked them even more!

Whether it was axes, pickaxes, or even masonry trowels, they were all Bronze Rank items!

What kind of expenditure was this?!

If one had such Materials, shouldn't they be forging weapons and equipment?

Why use them to forge these tools?!

What kind of wealth could afford such squandering?

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Just as they felt their scalps tingling, soft white beams of light suddenly descended from the sky and landed on them.

Warm power instantly surged into their bodies, relieving their sore muscles, and their previously depleted stamina was restored.

"Heal... Healing Spell? A priest?"

Minister Wang Fugui and the others were stunned and looked over.

Not far away, a group of poorly dressed city residents were rubbing light orbs at them.

"You... what are you doing?" Minister Wang Fugui was confused, "We aren't injured."

"Oh, don't move, don't move!" The young priest leading them said hurriedly, "Just cooperate and let us practice our skills to grind proficiency!"

"Grind proficiency?" Minister Wang Fugui blinked, clearly unfamiliar with the term.

"Yeah!" The young priest said helplessly, "Nobody else needs us, so we have nowhere to cast our Healing Spell!"

"It just so happened that we saw you lot were so weak, looking like you were about to die."

"Might as well use you to practice."

Hearing this, Minister Wang Fugui and the others flared up with anger.

We were just resting here, how were we weak?

Where were we weak?

Where were we about to die?!

"Too much bullying!!" Minister Wang Fugui's blood rushed to his head, "Who's weak? Who can't do it?"

"I am in great health!!"

After saying this, he stood up forcibly and kicked the people beside him, "Get up! Keep working!!"

To maintain their self-esteem, everyone crawled up from the ground and threw themselves back into work.

However, less than half an hour later...

Thump! Thump!

Minister Wang Fugui and the others collapsed again.

This time, they were truly exhausted.

Minister Wang Fugui rolled his eyes back, his tongue lolling out, and he lay on the ground like a pile of mud, unable to move even a finger.

The others were also lying everywhere, foaming at the mouth with unfocused eyes.

They had to admit now that they had been rash.

If they wanted to work, wouldn't it have been better to just follow their own pace?

Why were they so stubborn, insisting on keeping up with that group of "animals"?

Now, their hands and feet were numb, and their Soul felt like it was about to have Soul Emergence!

Dang!

Dang!

Dang!

A crisp sound of a gong suddenly came.

Immediately after, Li Erniang's loud voice pierced through the entire construction site.

"Stop! Everyone stop!"

"Time to eat!!!"

Following Li Erniang's deafening "Time to eat," the Professionals who had been working tirelessly on the site like perpetual motion machines instantly stopped their work.

"Charge!!"

"Eat! Eat!"

"This time I'm eating two big bowls! Nobody stop me!"

...

Rumble...

Everyone swarmed toward the food shed, with a momentum as if they were all starving ghosts reincarnated!

Watching this chaotic scene, the exhausted Minister Wang Fugui sneered, his Face full of disdain.

"Hmph, mud-legged people are just mud-legged people." Although he couldn't work as well as others, his mentality remained highly superior, "Look at how they act like they've never eaten before!"

A guard beside him who was also exhausted swallowed, twitched his nose, and said, "Minister, to be honest, this food smells... really good!"

That strange aroma drifted on the wind and drilled into his nostrils, as if it had hooks, making his cravings crawl out of his throat.

"Good my ass!" Minister Wang Fugui's stomach also growled, but he still maintained his Face and said dismissively,

"That's because you're hungry! Everything smells good when you're hungry! Understand?"

"No matter how good it smells, can it be better than the Eight Treasure Duck at my mansion? Can it be better than my Emerald Jade Soup?"

Everyone nodded secretly.

That's true!

Their Minister was a man of refined taste; this construction site's communal food at best just had a bit more oil, how could it compare to the delicacies in the mansion?

But even though he said that, Minister Wang Fugui's cravings were indeed hooked.

"Alright, help me up." He snorted and used the strength of others to barely stand up.

"Go, follow me to take a look. I want to see what kind of pig slop has infatuated these mud-legged people!"

However, when they dragged their heavy steps to the food shed and saw what was in the workers' bowls, everyone was dumbfounded!

The superiority on Minister Wang Fugui's Face completely vanished.

The guards behind him, who had just been echoing his words, had their eyes nearly popping out!

"This... what is this?!"

In the big bowls that the workers were holding, it wasn't the coarse rice porridge or mixed grain rice they had imagined.

It was a type of grain, full and crystal clear, emitting a faint white light like pearls!

"Spirit... Spirit Rice?!" Minister Wang Fugui exclaimed.

He wasn't unfamiliar with Spirit Rice.

Although Spirit Rice was very precious to commoners, costing 100 silver coins per jin.

With his net worth, he could still afford it.

However, he couldn't afford to eat it every meal; only on holidays or when entertaining guests did he cook a small pot.

But here... these mud-legged people were eating it out of big bowls?

And the Spirit Rice in the bowl was piled up like a small mountain?!

Look at the meat in the bowl.

Pieces of golden, fragrant meat, clearly not ordinary meat!

"This is Demonic Beast meat! And at least Silver Rank!"

The Guard Captain was knowledgeable, and while his heart recognized the origin of the meat, drool immediately came out.

He had once been lucky enough to eat Bronze Rank Demonic Beast meat, and could never forget it.

So he recognized it instantly.

However, the Demonic Beast meat in front of him was clearly more tempting and fragrant than the Bronze Rank meat he had eaten!

That was why he was certain it was Silver Rank.

"Slap!" A crisp sound.

It turned out that Minister Wang Fugui had suddenly struck, hitting the Guard Captain's hand down!

Just a moment ago, the Guard Captain had been unable to resist reaching for the meat in someone else's bowl!

"Have you never eaten meat or something?" Minister Wang Fugui scolded, "You've been with me for so long, look at your lack of dignity!"

The captain looked embarrassed, but felt very unconvinced.

Is that ordinary meat?

That's Silver Rank Demonic Beast meat!

Have you ever eaten it?

But he didn't argue.

Because he saw many people finish their meal and take out a purple, glowing thing from their bosoms to gnaw on.

The skin of that thing was like purple jade, the flesh like glaze, and every bite was juicy and fragrant.

Now, he couldn't understand it either, just feeling that the fruit was extraordinary, but unable to say what it was!

"What is that again?" Minister Wang Fugui also felt his brain wasn't enough, "Jade?"

"That's not right! What jade from around Flower City haven't I seen? But I've never seen this! Besides, you can't eat jade!"

"Could it be some kind of fruit?"

"That's even more wrong!"

"What fruit can grow like this?"

Just then...

Hum! Hum! Hum!

In the crowd of people eating, familiar lights suddenly shone.

"Hahaha! I awakened too! Is this the power of Spirit Rice with fruit?!"

"I made it too! I'm a Professional now!"

"Long live the City Lord!"

...

One, two, three, four...

Before long, one after another, nearly a thousand beams of Awakening light shot into the sky!

Seeing this scene, even if Minister Wang Fugui and the others were fools, they would have reacted.

What natural talent?

What miracle?

It was all eaten out!!

It was this Spirit Rice, this meat, and that purple fruit!

All the Spiritual Qi contained in this food had forcibly piled this group of ordinary people into Professionals!

No wonder!

No wonder!

No wonder these people were dying two days ago, but in the blink of an eye, they became Professionals!

With such food provided, even a pig could become a Demonic Beast!

Let alone humans?

"Gulp..."

Everyone's swallowing sounds were uniform.

What Eight Treasure Duck? What Emerald Jade Soup?

Compared to the food in front of them, that was pig slop! It was trash!

At this moment, even Minister Wang Fugui thought so himself!

"Quick! Line up quickly!"

Minister Wang Fugui's eyes were green, with no trace of the previous restraint and arrogance, pushing away the people supporting him and impatiently rushing into the food line.

He wanted Spiritual Qi too, he wanted to Awaken too!

These mud-legged people could do it, why couldn't Minister Wang?

"Move out of my way! Let me eat first! I'm here to help!"

"I want some too!"

"Me too!"

...

For this bite of food, for the chance to Awaken, the people who were exhausted to death just now exploded with amazing potential, squeezing into the line.

The people being cut off were unhappy and wanted to say something, but Minister Wang Fugui and his group had long-standing prestige in Flower City, so they didn't say it.

So soon, it was Minister Wang Fugui's turn to get food.

He held his bowl and forced a very reluctant smile at Li Erniang, who was serving the food.

"Ma'am, it's my turn."

Even he felt that the sentence he said was very awkward.

After all, normally, he wouldn't even glance at someone like Li Erniang!

But now it was different; he was here for food, so he barely showed a good Face.

However, when Li Erniang saw him, her original smile disappeared instantly.

Clang!

She directly picked up the big wooden lid and covered the wooden bucket of rice tightly.

"Gone!" she said coldly.