Chapter 129: I Have to Go There!

This group looked like a search-and-rescue team, yet every one of them was armed, and their grim expressions made it clear that they were not people to be trifled with. The man leading them, however, had handsome features and a calm, upright bearing that inspired trust at a glance. Although Zhang Ning suspected they might be some kind of special armed-police unit, there was no way they could verify his identity here by checking household records or anything of the sort. Since he had done nothing wrong, he felt he could still ask them for help.

When Captain Xing heard Zhang Ning’s words, he was filled with anger and helplessness, yet his expression remained unchanged. “Come over here first, child. This area is off-limits.” As he spoke, he quietly made several hand signals with one hand held behind his back.

His men also approached Zhang Ning with friendly smiles. “How old are you, little brother? Who do you have up on the mountain?”

Zhang Ning froze for a moment, then his heart tightened. He was not really an eight-year-old child. Judging from the situation, these people did not seem to be a search-and-rescue team at all. Rather, they appeared to be stationed here to prevent anyone from going up the mountain and causing trouble. Zhang Ning instinctively sensed as much. But whatever they were doing, and whatever their mission might be, he did not care.

He put on a solemn expression. “Sorry for causing you trouble, but I have to get through!”

Facing these people, he had no intention of deceiving them as he had deceived the young woman at the inn’s front desk. Deception would never work here. If he ran straight up the mountain, would he not expose himself immediately? So he simply spoke openly, without concealing anything at all, leaving the police officers opposite him staring at one another in bewilderment.

Zhang Ning was no armed terrorist or wanted criminal. His sudden declaration merely seemed strange; it did not make them wary. Only Captain Xing felt an ominous premonition.

At his signal, the team members hurried forward. Zhang Ning drew a deep breath, then covered three steps in two. In the eyes of those men, he seemed to glide over the ground like a skater, slipping straight through their line of defense.

Several of the team members had already closed to within half a meter of Zhang Ning, nearly close enough to seize his arm. At such a distance, even elite armed-police officers from the Special Security Group could each take on five ordinary men. Yet they could not catch a mere child who had undergone no rigorous training?

Impossible!

Several of them could not believe what had happened and thought they must be dreaming. Most of the others reacted quickly, their pupils contracting sharply.

An ability user! This child had to be an ability user!

Only in the presence of an ability user could they become like mice before a cat, toyed with so helplessly. Ability awakenings did tend to occur more often among the young, but… could a child this young truly awaken one?

Whatever the members of the Special Security Group were thinking, Zhang Ning was of course no ability user. He had merely used the agile footwork unique to the Xuanming Palace to evade their encirclement. Against these people, who were clearly within the category of “ordinary humans,” he had actually been forced to use Butterfly Flash several times.

Fortunately, although Zhang Ning had only just arrived in this world and could not possibly have restored his cultivation within a few hours, he could still make use of his techniques. That was why he had managed to evade them so smoothly.

After getting past them, Zhang Ning was astonished to discover that his Attention Points had increased.

That was right—he had attracted attention!

Zhang Ning understood at once. For an instant, he wanted to earn enough Attention Points first, exchange for everything he needed, arm himself to the teeth, and only then go rescue his Master.

But that was obviously impossible. He had already come this far. Besides, rescuing someone was like fighting a fire; who knew what might happen if he delayed even a moment longer? And this was his revered Master. If anything truly happened to him, especially if Zhang Ning had indirectly caused it, then even a thousand deaths would not atone for his guilt. He could only follow his Master into the grave.

In the blink of an eye, Zhang Ning had made his decision. He continued charging up the mountain and used the ten Attention Points he had just earned to unlock the first compartment of his system storage. From it, he took out a bracelet.

The storage compartments had originally all been gray and required years of charging to remain open. Unlocking the first compartment required the fewest Attention Points; the cost increased exponentially with each compartment farther back.

The first compartment happened to require ten Attention Points. The item Zhang Ning had stored inside was the “Fairy’s Tear,” a gift from his Fourth Senior Brother, Han Zhifei. It allowed plants to draw naturally close to him.

The elegant name had been chosen by Zhang Ning later. At the time, his Fourth Senior Brother, in his typically blunt and unromantic fashion, had merely given him a crystal refined from the bloodline of a blue sprite. Zhang Ning had later ordered his subordinates to turn it into a bracelet so that he could wear it for amusement. Who could have imagined that before the next wilderness livestream even began, he would truly find himself in danger in the wild?

Under the circumstances, activating the storage compartment that held it was unquestionably the most cost-effective choice. The item required no internal energy to activate, and even in Zhang Ning’s current mortal body, he could wear and use it without the slightest strain.

Zhang Ning made up his mind and charged straight up the mountain. Captain Xing, however, had not developed the same instinctive distance from him as the other team members merely because of his “identity.” In Captain Xing’s view, no matter how powerful an ability user Zhang Ning might be, he was still only a child.

What was more, even other ability users kept their distance from the Laughing God. If this child encountered him without knowing anything about the situation, then even as an ability user, he would most likely be doomed.

Captain Xing hardened his heart, drew his pistol, and fired two shots into the air. Then he shouted at Zhang Ning, “Sir ability user! Even if you are an ability user, you cannot go up the mountain! It is dangerous up there!”

The team members around Captain Xing, who had always admired him, immediately stared at him as though he had gone mad.

He had fired at an ability user. Did he not want to live?

Although the ability user’s young age truly inspired pity, and there was indeed danger on Jingying Mountain, every ability user who awakened gained power overnight and ceased to recognize anyone. Some even denied their own kind, believing themselves to be higher life-forms rather than human beings. Very few ability users were exceptions.

This particular ability user was a highly malleable child, but children’s likes and dislikes changed faster than anything, and his personality had not yet settled. He might well prove ignorant and ungrateful. By firing warning shots, Captain Xing might have been trying to protect him, but who knew whether the other party might casually strike him dead?

Every ability user was treated as an honored guest by the great powers. If one of them died at the hands of another, under ordinary circumstances no one would come forward to demand justice. Guo, meanwhile, looked at Captain Xing as though he were seeing him for the first time. Earlier, he had believed that Captain Xing’s devotion to principle would lead to a bright future. Only now did Guo understand that principle could sometimes drag a person straight into danger.

While Captain Xing watched Zhang Ning’s back anxiously, Zhang Ning had already taken out the Fairy’s Tear, put it on, and reached the edge of the mountain forest. Hearing Captain Xing’s shout, he felt apologetic, but he had no intention of angering those police officers any further.

“Thank you!”

Zhang Ning waved and walked into the woods.

Wherever he passed, vines retreated and branches shifted aside, as though respectfully welcoming their king back into his domain. The sight left everyone, Captain Xing included, staring in stunned silence, too shaken for words.

This child was a plant-type ability user?

Even someone completely ignorant of the subject would understand, after giving it a moment’s thought, how rare and precious such an ability was.