However, there’s a reason I dare to speak so recklessly.

The man and woman conducting the interview each coughed at the same time—the sound was so crisp and so synchronized! It was obviously intentional. Then, as before, the man spoke first: “Student Lillian Clark! Hmm... your interview isn’t finished yet! If you don’t have any questions, can you come to work tomorrow? And you—yes, you—come to work tomorrow too! Remember, don’t be late.”

“Eh!” Even if this interview uncle called in security guards armed with AK47s to throw us out, it probably wouldn’t have surprised Lillian Clark as much as this. She had just turned her gaze toward me, and I hurriedly raised my hand and shouted, “Second Uncle!”

Chapter Ten: Riding the Wind Across the Nine Heavens

At this, no matter how cheerful Lillian Clark was, she couldn’t help but blush. Hitting someone’s nephew in front of their elder—even if I’m her boyfriend, she can’t just do that! Don’t you agree?

But taking advantage and then playing innocent also depends on the time and place, right? So I quickly nodded and mumbled in agreement, not daring to contradict Second Uncle, and sneakily introduced both sides. That woman next to Second Uncle was, of course, my Second Uncle’s wife. “Don’t get the wrong idea! Just because I introduced her specially, don’t go thinking she’s a mistress... That’s really not cool of you!”

No matter how you look at it, Lillian Clark is a likable person. My Second Uncle’s wife... uh, my Second Aunt took her hand and, smiling, asked a few questions that were quite unbefitting of a company supervisor. As for me, I’d already been left to the side, and had to pour three cups of coffee for the guests myself, serving each of them in turn. What followed, naturally, were some clichéd and melodramatic scenes.

After leaving the company, I had to argue with my girlfriend that I was a new-generation, well-rounded young man who didn’t want to rely on family connections, but wanted to work hard on my own and so on. Anyone else wouldn’t have believed it, but Lillian Clark had no choice but to believe—after all, I’m her boyfriend!

After pulling out all the stops and treating her to a warm dinner, I sent Lillian Clark home and once again headed up Mount Shu.

Sure enough, this time it was cold and deserted, and I was all alone—no one came to bother me. I contacted a few friends, but none of them responded, except for Ivy Dance, who replied with a text saying she was doing a quest, without even mentioning what kind of quest. With nothing else to do, I decided to go level up! Just six more levels and I could learn Sword Escape, and then I’d be able to fly on my sword.

I checked the red jade gourd filled with blood bees—the number of blood bees was full again. This thing is pretty powerful, but its HP is too low; I lose a few in every battle, and they recover slowly. Otherwise, it would be the perfect tool for grinding monsters!

I casually bought some wound medicine and Qi-restoring pills at a small pharmacy in Chengdu. Now, using the Green Fang Ghost Arrows consumes true Qi. As for mana, I haven’t learned any useful spells yet—just Sword Shadow, which lets me send out a sharp sword energy to damage enemies when I don’t have a flying sword. But its damage is so low it’s almost useless, so buying mana-restoring pills is pointless for me.

I’m not a particularly hardcore player, so there’s no way I’ll make it onto the leaderboard. Right now, the highest level in Mount Shu is already over level twenty, but I, Drunken Blue Ox, won’t remain unknown forever!

Leaving Chengdu, I obediently picked yellow-furred wolf demons one or two levels higher than me to fight. These monsters are fast and strong, but they don’t have any long-range attack spells, so they’re really easy for me to bully. First, I slap the red jade gourd to release 108 blood bees, then use the Qingcheng Sword Technique, wielding the Green Fang Ghost Arrows with great skill.

Over the course of three days, I killed hundreds of yellow-furred wolf demons, and my level shot up to eighteen. At first, this kind of grinding was fun, but after a while it got tedious. The only consolation was that my merit points increased a lot. Based on the monsters’ levels, each one gives about one to five merit points. After working so hard, I’ve accumulated 1,076 points, but compared to the quest I got from Julia Bennett to accumulate 100,000 merit points, I’m still a long way off.

Although I don’t really care about Julia Bennett’s Demon-Slaying Flying Sword, if I give up this quest, my relationship with Julia Bennett will become extremely bad. Since I still need to get by in Qingcheng, offending this short headmaster would make life very difficult.

“Forget it! I don’t even know what these merit points are for anyway, so I’ll just keep accumulating them.”

Recently, while killing wolf demons in the outskirts of Chengdu, I slowly discovered a very strange phenomenon: every day at noon, there’s a patch of forest where suddenly no living creatures can be found—not even the more ferocious monsters and evil spirits, nor harmless crickets and grasshoppers. This phenomenon is quite intriguing.

After leveling up today, my curiosity became irresistible, so I took advantage of the timing and went there to lie in wait. After fighting yellow-furred wolf demons for so long, aside from two black dog nails and a dirt talisman that were still useful, everything else was junk, which I sold to the NPC buyer.