Chapter 41
Chapter 41: The Little Brat’s Dad Destroys the Food So the Little Brat’s Mom Cannot Eat
The seven people watched Jiang Tea Tea slice three three-headed giant pythons in half with only a tree branch. Their eyes were wide, their mouths open big enough to stuff in eggs. They looked at her in total disbelief.
Now she was fired up. It wasn’t enough for her to kill a dozen three-headed giant pythons. She even wanted to wipe out their nest?
Cheng Xiao Ting stuttered so much his question didn’t come out smoothly. He asked: “Sister Tea, you want me and Yan Yu to go lure more three-headed giant pythons over? Lure a whole bunch of them for you to kill?”
Jiang Tea Tea nodded at the two of them and said: “Yeah. Killing one is still killing. Killing a hundred is also killing. Since we’ve already started, we might as well go all the way and enjoy it.”
All the essence in a three-headed giant python was in its gallbladder. She had already crushed three snake galls and absorbed the useful organic “fertilizer” into her body. She felt a lot lighter.
Since they refused to leave while she stayed behind, she might as well make use of them. They could farm points, she could eat snake galls. It was a win-win. No one would lose.
She glanced at Cheng Xiao Ting and asked: “What, you don’t want to?”
As she spoke, Jiang Tea Tea snapped the tree branch in her hand in half without even looking. She casually flung the broken half toward Orange Sparrow’s direction.
The half-branch brushed past the corner of Orange Sparrow’s eye and shot straight into the joint where a three-headed giant python’s head and body connected behind him. It pierced right through. The python that had been about to strike Orange Sparrow recoiled in pain and quickly pulled back.
Orange Sparrow turned his head. His heart pounded like a drum. He shouted: “Sister Tea, thanks!”
Jiang Tea Tea held the remaining half of the branch and said: “You’re welcome. You four stand back-to-back and be more careful.”
Orange Sparrow answered: “Got it!” He ran over to Zhang Yan Zhou and Huang Da Zhuang, and they all moved closer together.
The four of them gathered in one spot, supply packs on their backs. No matter if they were in beast form or human form, they stood back-to-back and scanned everything around them.
Cheng Xiao Ting took a deep breath and said: “Alright, we’ll go lure them.”
As soon as he finished talking, he tossed his backpack toward Orange Sparrow and the others. His human form shifted into a wolf. He activated his wind-type supernatural ability. His body shot forward like a gust of wind.
Yan Yu refused to fall behind. He turned into a red, fluffy big fox. The moment he activated his blink step supernatural ability, he flashed ahead of Cheng Xiao Ting and ran even faster than him.
Sui Xuan Chu rolled his shoulders and grinned at Jiang Tea Tea: “Let’s go, roommate.” He gathered his supernatural ability. Lightning coiled around his hand as he shouted at her and hurled it toward a three-headed giant python.
The bolt split into three in midair and fell onto the three-headed giant python’s three heads, one bolt per head. The python’s heads were all charred by the lightning.
Jiang Tea Tea dropped the half-branch in her hand, jumped into the air, and landed on a tree. She broke off another branch, stripped away all the small twigs, leaving only the main branch, and charged straight at the lightning-struck python.
On the battleship, Ye Ying was watching the live video feed. Seeing Jiang Tea Tea fighting three giant serpents with a simple branch, he clicked his tongue and said to the commanders of the other twenty-nine army corps: “Look at this pure human girl. She’s insane. Tell me which one of you idiots could use a tree branch to pierce the armor-like scales of a three-headed giant python and slice its flesh all the way to the gallbladder?”
The other twenty-nine army corps commanders were also watching. They looked at Jiang Tea Tea’s clean and sharp movements as she opened up the three-headed giant pythons and gutted them. Compared to her, even the students they had trained themselves suddenly seemed not so impressive.
Someone snorted and said: “We can’t do what that pure human girl is doing. And you, Ye, you can’t either. Quit yapping.”
Another commander said: “Yeah, Ye. So what if the students you trained are tough? A squad like this shows up and you won’t shut up about it.”
One of them laughed loudly and said: “Listen up, Ye. Those eight members of the ‘Kill the Other Twenty-nine Military Academies’ squad, I’m calling dibs for my Eighth Army Corps.”
Someone from another army corps mocked him: “Oh, oh, Eighth Army Corps, you’re not scared your tongue will get sprained from bragging? The Commander in Chief just docked you ten points. Your army corps also lost ten points. Did you forget?”
The Eighth Army Corps commander snorted: “Dock them then. What else are points for? They’re meant to be deducted. We’ll just earn them back later…”
Another commander suddenly shouted: “Hey, hey, wait, wait, look at that dragon clan kid who uses call lightning, Sui Xuan Chu. His file says his ability is Level S2, but from the way he calls lightning, he looks stronger than that. Maybe he’s more than just Level S2.”
Someone replied: “You’re right. This red-black dragon clan boy, his teamwork with Jiang Tea Tea is pretty good. Compared to him, even the thousand dragon clan students in our academy don’t look as good.”
Another commander laughed: “They’re excellent, sure. But all you can do is look and drool. When the Supremacy Tournament is over, I’ll swallow my pride, go kneel in front of the Commander in Chief, cry on the floor if I have to. I don’t care. I’m going to snatch them for my First Army Corps.”
The other twenty-nine army corps commanders: “???”
If kneeling and crying was all it took to grab good seedlings into their own army corps, it wasn’t that they didn’t know how to kneel or didn’t know how to cry.
Ye was too naive, too childish. The Commander in Chief would rather deduct their points than pay them any attention. It was obvious he wanted to keep all the good seedlings to train himself.
Women already held important positions in the army corps and in every field. There were countless examples. The Commander in Chief did not look down on women at all. When he saw a good seedling, he was more tempted than they were.
Back in the Commander in Chief room, Chong Ming stared at the video feed and asked Cai Xi Chao in a low voice: “Minister Cai, still no supernatural ability fluctuations at all?”
Cai Xi Chao’s eyes were locked on her own screen. Her fingers moved so fast on the virtual keyboard that they left afterimages. She reported: “Commander in Chief, there are still no supernatural ability fluctuations on her. But there is some unknown substance moving.”
Chong Ming tilted his golden eyes slightly and asked: “What do you mean?”
Cai Xi Chao hurried over in three steps that became two and two that became one. She dragged her virtual keyboard and holo projection screen along with her and stopped beside Chong Ming.
She pointed at the holo projection and said: “Commander in Chief, please look. There are eight dotted lines here. Eight different-colored dotted lines.”
She continued explaining: “Each dotted line represents one squad member of the ‘Kill the Other Twenty-nine Military Academies’ squad, showing the distribution of their supernatural ability spiritual power and their heart rate.”
“This one is Huang Da Zhuang’s line. He is a canine family Beastman male. He doesn’t have any supernatural abilities. But when he faced three giant pythons at once, even though he was brave, his fear pushed his heart rate to two hundred beats per minute.”
“And this strong, typical red-black dragon clan male, Sui Xuan Chu. His lightning element affinity supernatural ability isn’t Level S2. It’s Level S3. He already knows the split lightning style. Clearly, he’s been hiding his true strength.”
“For the others, their supernatural abilities and heart rates all show big fluctuations. But this pure human girl, Jiang Tea Tea, is different.”
“Her body temperature is lower than a normal pure human’s. Her heart rate is also lower than a normal pure human’s. A normal pure human’s heart rate ranges from sixty to one hundred beats per minute. Her heart rate stays between thirty and sixty.”
“Facing so many three-headed giant pythons, she has no fear, no terror. Her heart rate stays in that thirty to sixty range the whole time. Also, the twig branch she uses to cut open the three-headed giant pythons is covered in a layer of unknown substance.”
“I checked the database. I cannot find what this substance is. It’s invisible to the naked eye. I only picked it up by tracking changes in the wind, the air, the humidity, and the surrounding aura.”
Chong Ming watched the lines and the way the unknown substance collided with the supernatural abilities on the screen. His golden eyes darkened as he asked: “Is it possible that her supernatural ability is a mutation?”
Cai Xi Chao paused and answered: “I’m sorry, Commander in Chief. I have no research experience in mutated supernatural abilities. You should ask Institute Director Li. He specializes in supernatural abilities and their mutations.”
Hearing that, Chong Ming did not move his gaze away from the screen. He just flicked his finger slightly backward.
Cai Xi Chao left the holo projection up and quickly returned to her seat in the Information Department. She led her team to monitor not only the whole Primitive Tropical Planet in real time through the surveillance system, but also the Capital Planet and the major other planets.
On the planet, the smell of blood where Jiang Tea Tea and the others fought was overwhelming. Three-headed giant python corpses were scattered everywhere. The other students who had run away were all drawn toward this area.
They saw how well Jiang Tea Tea and Sui Xuan Chu worked together. They were jealous and envious. Who would have thought a pure human with no supernatural ability could be this ruthless, this strong in a fight?
Cheng Xiao Ting and Yan Yu led a group of three-headed giant pythons back. The long fur on their bodies was soaked and clumped with water and blood.
A wolf tribe Beastman and a fox half-Beastman ran all the way here and then flopped onto the safest ground they could find. They lay down like dogs, tongues hanging out as they panted hard.
Jiang Tea Tea turned her head and looked at the three-headed giant pythons trailing behind them. There were more than a hundred of them. Each one was fatter and thicker than a water barrel. They were all adults, not a single youngling among them.
She swallowed hard. If the conditions allowed it, and if there weren’t surveillance systems everywhere, she would have eaten more than just the best snake galls. She would have devoured all of these giant python bodies too.
[Ahhh, damn this high-tech Interstellar Space era. Satellites blanket every planet with life. They really won’t let a monster eat a full meal.]
“Watch out!” Sui Xuan Chu lunged to Jiang Tea Tea’s side, grabbed her arm, and pulled her out of the path of a striking three-headed giant python. He yelled: “Roommate, are you trying to die? What are you spacing out for?”
She couldn’t tell him she wasn’t spacing out at all, just hungry and thinking about claiming all this “fertilizer” for herself and having a feast.
Jiang Tea Tea answered: “I wasn’t spacing out. Come on, let’s fight.”
She finished speaking and shot forward again.
Sui Xuan Chu hurried to summon his lightning. Bolts crackled and fell again and again on the three-headed giant pythons.
Jiang Tea Tea moved like a lightning afterimage. This time, she no longer bothered to slice the pythons open slowly. The branch in her hand struck straight at the position of the snake gall.
She hooked out the snake gall in one move, then yanked the branch back hard. Each time, she cut a three-headed giant python in half at the waist.
Under Sui Xuan Chu’s lightning strikes, the three-headed giant pythons were already sluggish, with only a few breaths left in them. When Jiang Tea Tea cut them in half and dug out their galls, they died even faster.
One three-headed giant python, two, then ten… Under Jiang Tea Tea and Sui Xuan Chu’s teamwork, within less than an hour, over a hundred three-headed giant pythons had been gutted of their galls and cut in half.
The giant python corpses piled up into a small mountain. The stench of blood filled the sky. Jiang Tea Tea’s body was splattered with giant python blood. She was red from head to toe.
Huang Da Zhuang stuck up his thumb at her, not just one but both hands. He said: “Sister Tea, you’re amazing. You’re too awesome. You’re my forever god.”
Cheng Lin Yue nodded quickly and said: “Right, right, right, Sister Tea, you’re ridiculously strong. Your body is insane. When we get back to the academy, I have to give you a full physical exam and figure out how you became this powerful.”
Cheng Xiao Ting and the other Beastmen looked at Jiang Tea Tea with stars in their eyes. They truly accepted her now. They were willing to listen to her and were willing to be her little brothers.
Jiang Tea Tea tossed away the blood-soaked branch and said: “Stop flattering me. Hurry up and find a place to rest. I’m exhausted.”
Huang Da Zhuang changed into his dog form and turned his back to her. He barked twice, then said in his human voice before fully shifting: “Sister Tea, sit on my back. I’ll carry you.”
Jiang Tea Tea’s eyes lit up. She swung her leg over and sat on his back like riding a horse. She said: “Nice. Thanks, Big Dog Huang.”
In beast form, Huang Da Zhuang couldn’t speak. He answered her with two happy barks: “Woof woof.”
Sui Xuan Chu had also spent a lot of supernatural power. Cheng Xiao Ting had to help support him as they walked.
The eight of them headed toward the deeper parts of the forest, and the other students followed behind them.
As they left, Jiang Tea Tea turned and pinched a spiritual power hand seal. She flung it at the pile of more than a hundred three-headed giant python corpses.
[We’ll come back and eat later.]
After taking care of so many three-headed giant pythons, they kept walking. They walked until it was almost dark and finally reached a slightly drier patch of jungle. They decided to set up camp there.
Jiang Tea Tea had a tent in her pack. She set it up quickly. Before crawling into the tent, she told the others: “If you find something to eat, you guys eat first. Save whatever is left for me. I’m going to sleep for a bit. Unless the sky is falling and the ground is collapsing, don’t wake me up.”
Everyone understood how tired she must be after killing so many three-headed giant pythons. They answered one after another: “Alright, you sleep. We won’t wake you. We’ll protect you.”
“Just sleep. This is still a three-headed giant python gathering area. We killed so many of them that it’s safe for now. No large Aberrant Beasts will come here. Just sleep.”
Jiang Tea Tea took off her school uniform jacket and crawled into the tent. Inside, she picked up a branch and used magic spells to create a copy of herself. The fake Jiang Tea Tea lay down and “slept” there.
Then she gathered her spiritual power again, formed an invisibility hand seal, and quietly slipped out of the tent. She gritted her teeth and formed a teleportation seal.
The spell used up a large amount of spiritual power, which also tugged at the pain in her stomach, but in the next moment she appeared right at the pile of three-headed giant python corpses.
Still invisible, she pressed a hand over her stomach and stared at the mountain of food in front of her. She took a deep breath. The thick smell of blood lingered in the air.
[Smells so good.]
She immediately transformed into her true form, a tiny Green Tea Girl tree. But before she could sink her roots into the mountain of food, she heard Chong Ming’s great golden dragon voice echo in the air:
“Deputy Officer Ai, take samples from the cuts on these three-headed giant pythons. After you finish sampling, destroy all of the giant python corpses.”