Chapter 117: Continue dropping the vest
Lu Heng's life has been quite fulfilling recently.
During the day, he skipped required classes when he felt like it and bunked elective classes like it was a mission—he never planned on being any kind of behind-the-scenes staff member for Zhou Yishu, anyway. Attending some classes was just to avoid drawing the counselor's attention and having them notify the Zhou family. In his free time, he either stayed at home practicing some knife skills or planning the lineup for his evening livestreams.
In the evening, he livestreamed on the platform without fail, absorbing thought energy to prepare for his hunts after eleven.
Today, Lu Heng was sitting in the living room, waiting to go out to eat with Gu Lingjun. He wasn't quite sure how it happened, but the two of them had become dining partners, going out to eat together every day. Having someone to eat with makes the appetite better anyway.
Just as they were about to leave, Gu Lingjun received a phone call. He apologized, told Lu Heng to wait a moment and disappeared into his study to take care of something.
The doorbell rang.
Lu Heng glanced towards the study, noticed there was no movement, so he went to open the door.
"It's Gu Lingjun's, right? Please sign for it."
Lu Heng took the package, intending to place it on the coffee table. But just as he took a step, the poor, battered box finally gave up and split open at the bottom. A velvet-covered square box tumbled out, hitting the floor so tragically that it spat out its insides.
This thing on the floor looks kinda familiar? Lu Heng picked it up doubtfully, and sure enough—it was his own watch, with his initials engraved on the back of the dial. During a previous hunt, he'd been attacked by a mutated crow that grabbed his wrist, and the watch had luckily taken the hit. His wrist was fine, but the dial was completely shattered, and the strap had also snapped.
At the time, Lu Heng had remembered that this watch was a gift from Mother Zhou on a certain birthday, a matching pair she'd gotten for him and Zhou Yishu. Just thinking about it had killed any motivation to get it fixed, so he'd simply tossed it into the trash can.
How did Gu Lingjun manage to find it, get it repaired, and even send it back? Lu Heng placed the watch back in the square box and stuffed it back into the package.
Actually, Lu Heng had been feeling something was off for a while now—his thought energy seemed a little too abundant. Throughout recent hunts, he'd never once faced the problem of his thought power running low, which was not normal for a Yellow-tier Martial Artist who wasn't live streaming hunts. Initially, Lu Heng had thought it was just due to his own strong spirit, but now it seemed there was more to it.
Thinking about it again, he realized that nearly eighty percent of the thought energy in his body came from the same source—pure and potent. And now, seeing this watch that was supposed to be discarded in the trash, the answer was suddenly clear: Gu Lingjun was a Martial Artist, and a much higher-ranked one at that. This powerful Martial Artist harbored intense positive feelings toward him, supplying him with such a terrific source of thought energy.
At that moment, the study door opened, and Gu Lingjun walked out.
"Your courier," Lu Heng said, all the while studying his expression closely.
"Mm."
"Oh, by the way, the package seems to be torn, and the stuff inside fell out," Lu Heng added. As expected, Gu Lingjun's eyes flickered in a quick blink—a telltale sign of guilt.
"What's inside?" Gu Lingjun's tone was calm.
"It's just a velvet square box. I didn't open it; I just stuffed it back in." Lu Heng saw Gu Lingjun's shoulders relax slightly again, and he laughed to himself. This time, this guy's personality is unexpectedly entertaining.
[How can you be sure that Gu Lingjun is Shi Kong? You didn't even ask me to confirm.] Little Assistant made an appearance.
[Aren't you proactively confirming it now?]
[Do you plan to settle down with him as a pair of husbands?]
[Nope.]
[Okay, I get it, it's a bit of fun between husbands.] Little Assistant replied, and then tactfully disappeared.
Originally, Lu Heng really planned to see just how long Gu Lingjun intended to quietly follow him at night. Then the two of them would play the game of "You don't know that I know you're a Martial Artist" and "You don't know that I know you know I'm a Martial Artist" during the day.
However, Heaven does not abide by the wishes of people.
After discovering Gu Lingjun's secret, Lu Heng was in a particularly good mood and decided to take him to a restaurant famous for their delicious pickled fish. But after skipping classes for so long, Lu Heng forgot it was the weekend, and the line for that especially delicious pickled fish was ridiculously long!
Lu Heng was a bit eccentric in this regard. After receiving a number that indicated there were still 50 tables ahead of them, he thought he would wait for half an hour to see if the calling speed was fast. But after waiting half an hour, he didn't want to waste the time he'd already spent waiting and ended up feeling that he absolutely had to eat this pickled fish.
Then the speed of calling numbers became faster and faster, and many of them were empty. Lu Heng was secretly pleased but forgot about the peculiarities of this world: 11 p.m. was the Hour of the Demons. Diners living farther away naturally gave up on the delicious food to head home for their own safety, leaving only a few locals and the two of them behind.
On their way back after dinner, Lu Heng looked at the empty roads, and his brain, still stuffed with thoughts of pickled fish, finally came back online.
The Hour of the Demons was approaching.
Gu Lingjun, focused on driving, didn't notice it either. Because for him, the concept of not being able to go out after 11 p.m. like ordinary people simply didn't exist.
Surely, they wouldn't be unlucky enough to run into a mutated creature, right? During regular hunts, he had to concentrate hard and use his thought power to locate prey; it was unlikely he'd just stumble upon something out of the blue. That's what Lu Heng thought to himself.
The ear-splitting sound of tires screeching against the paved road filled the air. A black shadow fell from the sky, landing just two or three meters away from the car. If Gu Lingjun hadn't reacted so quickly, the vehicle would have been crushed flat by the huge force.
At this moment, the figure in the driver's seat had already vanished.
Given the situation, Lu Heng couldn't care less about whether to drop his vest himself or wait for Gu Lingjun to drop his own vest. The black shadow that suddenly appeared was a mutated cat, standing about half a person high. Mutated cats were practically the top predators among the urban mutated creatures. Cats are born hunters, but their attack power was limited due to their small size, which kept them from being too dangerous.
However, a mutated cat, having broken through the size limitations, became extremely dangerous. It had no shortcomings, be it speed, skill, or strength. To reduce the chances of such terrifying predators appearing, a special law had long been passed requiring that all pet cats undergo institution testing to make sure they carried no mutant genes.
Only it's not that easy to control stray cats in the city. After several large-scale captures and subsequent gene testing and neutering at relevant institutions, the population of stray cats had significantly decreased. But cats are elusive creatures, often appearing and disappearing without a trace, so there were always a few that slipped through the net. Among those that slipped through the net, there would inevitably be some mutant cats.
Just like the black cat in front of him, with its muscular body and bright red eyes instead of the usual emerald green, it moved with a speed that was like the wind, making it difficult for Lu Heng to catch a clear glimpse of its form. This was not a mutated creature he could handle; if it were up to him, he would probably have his heart ripped out by the mutated cat's first strike. Lu Heng was very self-aware.
Nevertheless, he still got out of the car, clenching his psychic weapon in his hands, just in case other small mutated creatures tried to take advantage of the crisis.
Gu Lingjun wielded his Tang sword as he dealt with the mutated cat. Seeing Lu Heng get out of the car, he said, "Follow me."
"Okay." Lu Heng understood that he should be leading the mutated cat to the small park.
He had been worried about losing track of the pair of one man and one cat, but he soon realized that Gu Lingjun was intentionally controlling the speed of both the mutated cat and himself, even deliberately slowing down his own strikes a bit.
"Pay attention."
Lu Heng immediately understood when he heard Gu Lingjun's voice ringing out. The other man was imparting some hunting techniques, which was simply a blessing from the heavens to Lu Heng, who had never undergone formal training.
During the chase and fight, Gu Lingjun successfully led the mutant cat to a nearby small park. Lu Heng obediently stayed at the edge, within the designated safety zone equipped with protective measures for the livestreaming team.
This was a kind of on-site teaching that countless Martial Artists would pay a fortune for but couldn't obtain, starting right then.
Gu Lingjun kicked the mutant cat hard in the waist, sending it flying several meters away. Seizing the opportunity, he gripped the hilt of his Tang sword with both hands, trying to split it into two pieces. The Tang sword condensed by thought power effortlessly split into two.
This high-level Martial Artist can actually change the number of his psychic weapon! Although it can be seen from the condensed form that the two Tang swords were weaker than the original one, this scene violated the theory of Martial Arts textbooks that Lu Heng had read before, and made him gape.
With the left blade held horizontally in front and the right blade poised to attack, Gu Lingjun charged forward.
Lu Heng realized that Gu Lingjun was instructing him on the techniques of using dual-wielded weapons. After a moment of thought, he pulled out his phone to start recording, preparing to save the footage for further study.
"With dual-wielded weapons, one hand can focus on defense while the other focuses on offense."
Gu Lingjun's left blade blocked any gaps in his defense, as the mutated cat's sharp claws struck against the blade, producing a deafening sound. As the mutated cat's claws were exhausted, Gu Lingjun swung his right blade, striking fiercely and piercing through the mutated cat's right paw.
The mutated cat let out a shrill cry and leaped back several meters by pressing on its hind legs.
Although Gu Lingjun was clearly overpowering the mutated cat, he didn't go too hard on it to ensure Lu Heng could learn. The two were so absorbed in their roles as teacher and student that they didn't notice the passage of time.
Just as Gu Lingjun felt it was time to end the fight, his decisive strike fell short as the mutated cat vanished into thin air. Looking down, he saw the black cat arching its back and hissing at him.
The Hour of the Demons was over.
The black cat flicked its tail and attempted to escape, but Gu Lingjun swiftly grabbed it by the scruff of its neck.
"What should we do with this cat?" Lu Heng asked as he walked over.
Although this cat would turn into a man-eating monster at midnight, and he didn't know if it had killed anyone before, Lu Heng asked himself if he could bear to kill a stray cat that had no power to resist.
"Give it to the association; they will handle it," Gu Lingjun replied.
After dealing with the black cat, Lu Heng returned home and lay down to rest, only to discover another big news breaking on Weibo. It was the number one trending search.
#Look at what I caught on camera: Lord Junlin is in S City#
The video was blurry, and one could barely see the contents, but it showed a car parked on the street. A man was tangled in a fight with a mutated creature in front of the vehicle. After moments, another man got out of the car, and then the two led the mutated creature out of view down the street.
The top comment read: The poster needs to get their eyes checked. Don't pass off just anyone with a Tang sword as Lord Junlin. Everyone knows Lord Junlin never collabs with others when hunting!
Translator:
Ngl, I totally thought those claw marks from the last chapter were left by Lord Junlin! Lol
Gu Lingjun: Since when does hunting with my Ah Heng count as collabing with others?
Thank you for the update 😊
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