Chapter 121.2: Lord Junlin's fancy apology
At the border where countries T, M, and Y met, there was a gray area—a disputed region. At one time, all three countries claimed this land as their own, leading to continuous friction and conflict, which eventually escalated into a chaotic war.
The war lasted for ten years, and the original residents of the region, if they had the means, fled from this war-torn land. After a decade of turmoil, the three countries finally reached a ceasefire agreement, temporarily setting aside the dispute over the ownership of the land.
This area, once highly coveted, had now become an unregulated gray zone. After the original inhabitants fled and state control ceased, the region became a haven for criminals with nowhere else to hide.
Crime was rampant, and chaos prevailed. None of the three countries was willing to take on this hot potato. Over time, a region independent of the three countries was vaguely formed here.
Located in a tropical rainforest, this region was dotted with small villages and towns surrounded by dense jungle. Although the population wasn't large, the population density in the settlements was high, with the residents consisting of dangerous fugitives or destitute people with no means to escape.
Chaos, hunger, despair, hatred, and all kinds of extreme evil thoughts permeated this land, coupled with dangerous wildlife, spawning one of the most perilous regions in the world.
Only the most powerful Martial Artists dared to hunt in this region.
Lu Heng followed Gu Lingjun off the plane at the airport of a large city near the border of T country. After several transfers, they finally arrived in this region known as the "Land of Extreme Evil."
In this chaotic region, there was a village that no faction dared to provoke. This was because it was a settlement of Martial Artists who came there to practice hunting. The power of Martial Artists had long surpassed the realm of ordinary people.
Long ago, an agreement was made between Martial Artists and ordinary humans: aside from hunting mutated creatures, Martial Artists would not interfere in any affairs of ordinary society. Likewise, ordinary people would not think of provoking Martial Artists.
Gu Lingjun and Lu Heng's destination was this village.
In this village, the currency was something called "hunting points." The way to earn hunting points was simple: turn in the corpses of mutated creatures hunted here to the Global Exorcist Martial Artists Association stationed in the village. The association calculated the points and directly recorded them in the individual's name.
Hunting points could be used to exchange daily necessities, rent housing, and more. When leaving the village, they could also be converted into platform credits to level up on livestream platforms, or directly converted into money.
Gu Lingjun took Lu Heng straight to the association's base to register. The staff member handling the registration was also Chinese, and it seemed he had some rapport with Gu Lingjun.
The staff member, while swiftly handling the registration, said, "Little Martial Uncle Gu, after advancing to the Heaven-tier, you haven't been here for a while."
"Mm, been busy," Gu Lingjun replied.
"Sigh, makes sense. After reaching the Heaven-tier, it's more important to focus on inner cultivation. You won't be able to comprehend anything good in this place overflowing with evil thoughts." The staff member, knowing Gu Lingjun's boring nature, chatted happily by himself. "And what's this newcomer's name?"
"Zhou Yiheng."
The staff tapped a few keys, entering the name. "Please condense your psychic weapon," he said.
Lu Heng did as instructed.
The staff member hesitated. "This is... Yellow-tier? Are you sure you want to register?"
This village of Martial Artists was small, with limited resources. To prevent beginners from coming here for a day trip out of curiosity or for other reasons and wasting resources, the association had a rule: any Martial Artist who entered must accumulate at least 100 hunting points before leaving. Otherwise, they were blacklisted and banned from setting foot here again for ten years.
"I'm his guide," Gu Lingjun said.
The staff member glanced at Lu Heng in astonishment. Who on earth was this young man to have the Little Martial Uncle of the Gu family be his guide? It wasn't surprising that the staff was so shocked—being a guide was not an easy job.
Many powerful families sent their most talented young members to this dangerous region for training, often before they had reached their full potential. Those who walked out from this place would grow into independent Martial Artists in no time.
However, the region was too perilous. To prevent the geniuses from dying in a mishap during training, these families with profound backgrounds would dispatch experts to accompany them. These accompanying experts were responsible for clearing the area of overly dangerous mutated creatures, leaving suitable prey for the rookies to hone their skills.
These accompanying experts were known as guides. It was a difficult and often thankless job. The guide had to clear out all the life-threatening mutated creatures from an area but couldn't make things too easy, as that would defeat the purpose of the training.
Therefore, only family elders or those who owed a great favor to the family would agree to take on such a role. Not to mention that Gu Lingjun was a Heaven-tier Martial Artist at the top of the pyramid.
Gu Lingjun had naturally trained this way as well. Back then, his guide was his own father, the Gu family patriarch.
"Since you're personally taking charge, Little Uncle Gu," the staff member quickly regained his composure and rummaged through a drawer for a moment before tossing out a token, "then Area 101 is yours. The more dangerous, the greater the rewards!"
The larger the number, the more types of mutated creatures and the greater the danger. However, for a Martial Artist with excellent talent and a powerful guide by his side, this challenge was akin to facing the fierce currents before the Dragon Gate[1]—once you leap over it, you become a dragon.
While Lu Heng was on the brink of life and death, fighting danger…
Back in China, a storm was brewing online. A popular contestant from the National Martial Arts Exchange Conference was at the center of a fierce controversy, causing chaos across the internet. Fans and haters from all walks of life all jumped into the fray, with several trending topics on multiple platforms related to the contestant.
#EternalMoon: The most shameless self-promoter in the history of the National Ancient Martial Arts Exchange Conference#
The entire uproar was sparked by a post originally published on the official forum of the National Exchange Conference.
The poster started by digging into three aliases: EternalMoon, Idol, and SovereignGu.
In the end, the OP concluded that the so-called "local tyrant fan" and the accidental reveal of the alias were all deliberately orchestrated by EternalMoon himself. He had supposedly hired an online navy to promote himself, all for the sake of gaining attention ahead of the finals.
The interest surrounding EternalMoon's alias reveal hadn't even died down yet, and this new post only fueled the fire, drawing an enormous amount of attention.
Fans and haters alike jumped into the debate, and within a day, the thread was a mile long. Just as the back-and-forth seemed to be going nowhere, the next day, an explosive new revelation hit the forum.
#As an insider, I can't stand it anymore. EternalMoon is nothing but a vile opportunist who steals others' prey—here's the proof#
The main post included a screenshot showing a Martial Artist holding a spear, facing off against a mutated snake. The Martial Artist's face was mosaiced, making it impossible to identify them. The OP carefully compared this image with the mutated snake in EternalMoon's video, ultimately concluding that the two snakes were the same.
At first, some people suspected that the image was photoshopped. However, when the OP quickly followed up with a short video clip, those claims vanished without trace.
Guided by a few people with ulterior motives, the trend in the thread slowly shifted towards the matter of EternalMoon stealing someone else's prey.
"Hilarious! Did the mutated snake have your name written on it? Whoever kills it, it's theirs."
"Hehe, passerby can't watch it anymore. No, the mutant snake didn't have anyone's name on it, but it's a bit tricksy at this point in time."
"Agreed! Maybe the mutated snake was injured during the fight with that other Martial Artist, which is why it was taken down so easily."
"Upstairs, exactly! I feel something's off with EternalMoon's video. Even though this mutated snake is just Yellow-tier, snakes are notoriously powerful. It's impossible for a Yellow-tier Martial Artist to hunt it so easily. And besides, this EternalMoon is a nobody who popped out from nowhere."
A fan of EternalMoon raised doubts again.
"The officials inspect the psychic weapon imprints left on the mutated creatures to prevent cheating. Since EternalMoon was given a seeded contestant spot, it proves there's no issue."
"Ha, what a joke! Your precious EternalMoon secretly watched the spear li'l gege fight the mutated snake, noted its weaknesses, and only then managed to take it down easily. No wonder the video was so polished and perfectly shot."
"Moron! By that logic, any novice martial artist can just wait for an expert to expose a creature's weak points before striking."
"Are you stupid? The thought power left by an expert doesn't fade away in a day or two like it would for a Yellow-tier rookie. The conference already anticipated this, which is why they require that any mutated creature turned in must have mutated within a week of the video recording."
"Off-topic question: Can they really detect the time of mutation?"
"Answering Upstairs, yes."
"So, couldn't someone get a Yellow-tier martial artist to do it?"
"What Yellow-tier martial artist would want to train their competition? They're not saints!”
#I feel sorry for the martial artist li'l gege whose prey was robbed#
Two days later, another trending topic quietly appeared on the homepage. The OP claimed to have been a die-hard fan of EternalMoon, but after watching the drama unfold over the past few days, they were utterly disgusted and immediately switched from fan to hater.
Through careful analysis of the mosaiced Martial Artist's weapon and combat style, the OP claimed to have identified the victim of the prey theft: Zhou Yishu, the Martial Artist who ranked just behind EternalMoon on the popularity list.
In this new thread, yet another self-proclaimed insider emerged with more explosive details.
"I was at the scene that day. The mutated snake was already at a disadvantage, but somehow it suddenly seemed to have re-energized and escaped in a burst of speed."
"The answer is obvious: someone secretly provided the mutated snake with evil thoughts. The evil thoughts in the hearts of vile characters are very powerful—saving a mutated snake is nothing to them."
"I know Zhou Yishu; we were classmates in the foundation class. He has outstanding talent; a mutated snake isn't even a challenge for him."
"Zhou Yishu's fans really know how to pull others down, amazing; taking my Idol away."
"Ugh, how shameless! Just riding on EternalMoon's popularity."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, the styles above are really consistent, they must be navy. EternalMoon really knows how to promote himself; the navy services he bought are doing a great job."
#Zhou Yishu Should Be the Rookie King; That Masked EternalMoon Probably Hides His True Face So Tightly Because He's Too Ugly!#
This post unexpectedly enraged Junlin's fans. After all, Junlin was the most famous expert known for never showing his face. The title of this post certainly implied a jab at him.
The combat power of Junlin's fans was impressive; it didn't take long before they cornered the OP, forcing them to raise a white flag, apologize repeatedly, and claim they would request to have the post deleted. However, several days passed, and the post still hadn't been taken down. The furious Junlin fans would occasionally pop into the thread to confront the OP about not keeping their word, which only kept the post trending at the top of the homepage.
The die-hard fans of EternalMoon and Idol were all anxiously trying to contact the implicated party through various channels but received no response. Without their pillar, these fans were like a pile of scattered sand, utterly outmatched by the organized navy.
The tide of public opinion online began to be one-sided step by step. Passersby, unaware of the truth, gradually believed the accusations in those posts. The prevailing sentiment was that if what was being said wasn't true, then why hadn't EternalMoon come forward to refute it?
Zhou Yishu's contestant profile page was flooded with a wave of instigated passersby and many former fans of EternalMoon who claimed to have turned into haters. Within a few days, his vote count surpassed EternalMoon's, propelling him to the top of the rookie popularity list.
In response, Zhou Yishu posted a statement on his profile, urging netizens to vote rationally and suggesting that the issue surrounding the prey was merely a coincidence. He expressed his belief that EternalMoon was a noble Martial Artist. He hoped to gain recognition from netizens through his own strength rather than through the fallout of recent events.
In an instant, Zhou Yishu received unanimous praise and became the center of attention.
[1] 龙门: mythical Dragon gate where a carp can transform into a dragon.
Translator:
Zhou Yishu, can you be anymore fake? 🤢
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