Chapter 39
Chapter 39: Anything Can Be Eaten-A Three-Headed Giant Python Is Nothing. Kill It and Eat It!
“Reporting, Commander-in-Chief! Third Legion also requests unconditional priority recruitment of Classmate Jiang Tea Tea!”
“Her adaptability, decisiveness, physique, courage-these are exactly what Third Legion values. Please approve, Commander-in-Chief. After the championship, let her come to Third Legion. We will give her the highest-tier training plan.”
“Reporting, Commander-in-Chief! Fourth Legion-”
“Reporting, Commander-in-Chief! Fifth Legion-”
The twenty-nine legion commanders argued like dogs fighting over a single bone. They shouted offers, shouted insults, and tried to drown each other out.
Chong Ming let them finish.
Then he spoke, voice cold.
“Adjutant Ai. Twenty-nine legion commanders, leading by example with zero discipline.”
He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to.
“Deduct ten points from each legion’s total score. Deduct ten points from each legion commander personally.”
Adjutant Ai answered without hesitation. “Yes, Your Highness.”
The twenty-nine legion commanders froze.
“???”
They’d seen a good recruit and tried to snatch her. That was normal. That was tradition.
How was that “zero discipline”?
Ye Ying, listening to the real-time score updates through his earpiece, nearly choked.
In the blink of an eye, twenty-nine legions had each lost ten points-and their commanders had each lost ten.
And because of that, his own First Legion ranking had jumped from the bottom straight back to First.
The shock hit so hard his mind went blank.
What in the world had those idiots done?
—
“Rope’s secured.”
Up on the ship, Sui Xuan Chu gave the rope a hard tug to test it, then turned to Ju Que.
“Ju Que,” he said, “you’re feline beastfolk. Best climber. Lightest body. You go first and test it.”
Ju Que swung his pack onto his back. “Got it. Hold it steady.”
Sui Xuan Chu nodded. “Go.”
Ju Que shifted into beast form-an orange big cat with thick, fluffy long fur. In human form he weighed over a hundred pounds, but as a beast he was only around thirty. Easier on the rope. Easier on the anchor.
The orange cat hooked onto the rope with paws and claws, then slid down in a smooth line.
Moments later, he reached the treetops, released the rope, hopped onto a nearby branch, shifted back into human form, and crouched beside Jiang Tea Tea.
He called up to the ship to report he was safe.
Sui Xuan Chu got the confirmation and signaled Cheng Xiao Ting.
Cheng Xiao Ting understood instantly. He turned and shouted to the cadets gathered at the hatch.
“Dear classmates! Seniors! Our squad has a safe descent line-a rope!”
“No ten points. No eight points. Five points per person, and you can slide down safely, avoid the python cluster, and reach the treetops below.”
“We’ll keep it up for thirty minutes. First come, first served. If no one wants it, we’ll go down ourselves and you’ll be on your own-”
“We’re going down as a group of five,” a beastfolk squad called, trying to bargain. “Five points each is expensive. Cheaper?”
Cheng Xiao Ting pointed at the misty death beneath them. “Look. If you jump, you’re feeding three-headed giant pythons.”
“With our rope, you don’t feed them, and your clothes won’t even get wet.”
“And this rope was set up with someone’s life on the line. Five points isn’t expensive.”
He spread his hands like a salesman. “If you think it’s expensive, think of it this way: forfeiting costs ten points. This costs five. You’re saving five points.”
The beastfolk squad fell silent.
Then they moved.
One by one, they paid and slid down.
Five people. Twenty-five points earned.
Then another squad came-ten people-fifty more points in the blink of an eye.
The idea spread like fire.
Dragon clan cadets and bird-type beastfolk had an epiphany: if a rope could earn points, then carrying people could earn points too.
They started shouting offers, transforming, hauling guests down.
No one yelled about being treated like insect clan anymore.
No one wanted to forfeit and pay ten points for the instructor’s luxury flyer.
Everyone would rather pay five.
Then Ju Que’s voice came through to Sui Xuan Chu, sharp with urgency.
“Sui Xuan Chu-tell Cheng Xiao Ting and Yan Yu to bring Cheng Lin Yue and Zhang Ting Zhou down. Several three-headed giant pythons are moving toward us. This spot isn’t safe.”
“Understood,” Sui Xuan Chu said. “Now.”
He called the others down fast. As soon as they cleared, he untied the rope from his waist, gripped it, and jumped.
While he descended, a bird-type beastfolk was flying a guest down when a three-headed giant python burst from the river-three mouths snapping.
The bird-type beastfolk jerked upward, barely dodging.
The guest screamed and slipped off his back, falling into the river.
The python missed the bird and snapped toward the falling student instead.
“Fuck!”
Sui Xuan Chu’s eyes flashed. Lightning gathered.
A bolt slammed down with a thunder crack, striking the python.
One of its heads charred black. It shrieked and recoiled toward the river.
The student splashed into the water and got caught in the current, dragged toward the waterfall.
Sui Xuan Chu yelled at the bird-type beastfolk, furious. “You damn bald eagle! That’s your guest! You took his points-go save him!”
The bird-type beastfolk dove hard, chasing the student being swept toward the edge.
At the last possible moment, he grabbed the student and shot upward-
-and a three-headed giant python launched from beneath the waterfall and snapped at empty air right behind them.
Sui Xuan Chu used the rope’s tension and momentum to land on a branch near Jiang Tea Tea.
Jiang Tea Tea’s ears twitched. Her eyes sharpened.
“Jump down,” she said. “More than ten three-headed giant pythons are coming.”
She untied the rope, grabbed it, and dropped from the branch.
Sui Xuan Chu didn’t hesitate. He followed.
They hit the ground in the jungle-wet, rotting, heavy with decay. Every step sank into soft muck, as if the earth itself were swallowing them.
Jiang Tea Tea loved it.
Organic fertilizer everywhere. If conditions allowed, she’d root right here and become Skywood, drinking in the soil’s nutrients and the essence of sun and moon.
But conditions didn’t allow.
And besides…
Her gaze flicked toward the direction the pythons were coming from.
She wondered what a three-headed giant python tasted like. Eighty, ninety meters of meat-would it be… nourishing?
Food delivered to your door shouldn’t be refused.
Ahead, cadets who’d landed in the forest screamed, sprinting through the trees.
“Run! Run! Three-headed giant pythons are coming!”
More than a dozen massive bodies surged through water, leaf rot, and undergrowth, drawn by heat-chasing living targets.
“Forfeit! I’m forfeiting! I’m not dying in a three-headed giant python’s mouth!”
A cadet smashed a forfeit beacon. Red smoke rose.
An instructor team appeared with ghostlike efficiency and dropped a thermal isolation shield. The pythons couldn’t sense the cadet anymore and slid past, hunting the next warm body.
Jiang Tea Tea slowed.
Then she stopped entirely.
She turned to Sui Xuan Chu and the others, her voice calm-and thrilled.
“You go first. I’ll bring up the rear.”
Her eyes gleamed.
“I’m going to kill these three-headed giant pythons.”