Chapter 18: Sky Demon Sect
“This shouldn’t be possible!”
Jiang He rejected the thought, muttering, “Even if someone awakened beast taming powers and could control Ferals, they didn’t have to massacre the scenic route or attack the village, right?
“How is that different from having a death wish?
“But that figure was clearly a human… or maybe it’s an evolved monkey?”Jiang He took out two peas and held them in his fist as he walked another round over the mountaintop. However, he didn’t find anything, and only climbed down the mountain leisurely then.
Su Ze regained consciousness by the time he returned to Baitugang village.
He looked miserable: his nose was broken and his eye socket bruised.
Nonetheless, he had calmed down this time, and even dropping cold sweat when he remembered what happened before.
He opened his mouth and asked hoarsely, “Li Fei, did Jiang He kill eight rank one Ferals alone?”
“What do you mean?”
Li Fei was naturally upset. “Jiang He and I killed eight rank one beasts together. Are you trying to steal the glory, commander?”“I…”
Su Ze was unhappy as well, but he took a deep breath and quietly said, “Relax. The Bureau has a merit system, and your accomplishments are going to be yours. You are Jiang He’s schoolmate, fellow villager and have a good connection with him. How much do you know about him? Is the power he awakened really beast taming?”
“Of course!”
Li Fei nodded. “But I think the Bureau made a mistake in ranking his superpowers. There’s no way he’s a class-C—he has to be a class-B!”
“What?!”
Su Ze, Wang Siyu, and Liu Xue were all stunned at that.
Su Ze’s face fell, and he couldn’t help pressing, “How would you know that?”
“From his beast taming ability!”
Li Fei replied, since that was what Jiang He himself said: Ferals that could be tamed would be allowed to live or otherwise killed.
It was such a simple, violent beast taming technique that restored the rule of natural order and profoundly unfathomable. How could a class-C master that?
“But it makes sense if he’s a class-B.”
Su Ze, who had been unconscious during the action knew nothing at all about what happened in the mountain. Considering the matter carefully, he only spoke after some time, “If he really is a class-B beast tamer, the Western Xia province would have a powerful support. You should know that our leader is a class-B superhuman too.”
Duan Tianhe, team leader of the National Special Case Management Bureau, Western Xia province division was a rank-six pinnacle martial artist who could match class-B superhumans. If he improved to the next level, he would become a grandmaster.
A martial arts grandmaster would be an elite even in the rankings across the country.
And grandmasters were equivalent to class-A superhumans in ability… they naturally would have different strengths and shortcomings, but there had yet to be a class-A superhuman discovered in the country.
“By the way, how did Jiang He kill the eight rank-one Ferals?” Su Ze couldn’t resist asking—a class-B beast tamer would have been able to control a Feral directly and have them kill each other, but Su Ze was still curious.
“Hmmm…”
Li Fei mused for a moment before asking, “Jiang He said that he killed any Ferals that don’t listen to him. First, he punched the black cat standing in our way, and then punched two more wild dogs and one wild cat before splitting another wild dog’s head with a kick. In the end, with my help, he clubbed all the other Ferals to death.
Su Ze: “…”
Wang Siyu: “…”
Where was the beast taming in that??
Nonetheless, that was when Liu Xue suddenly yelped and turned towards a corner of the darkness, exclaiming, “Jiang He is back!”
In the night, Jiang He was walking toward them unhurriedly, metal pole in hand.
“Mister Jiang!”
Su Ze was the first to greet him.
He looked especially funny with his bruised nose and face, but he was serious when he said, “Mister Jiang, I’m sorry for what happened before. Allow me to apologize.”
“Oh?”
Jiang He did a double take.
Was this dude for real?
He was now tamed after a beating?
Nonetheless, Jiang He waved him off.
“It’s alright,” he said, before handily throwing the alloy pole he was holding to Li Fei while adopting a serious tone. “The problem in the mountain hasn’t been resolved—the rank two Feral is probably an evolved wild dog, and it seemed to be controlled by a person…”
He then described the ‘figure’ that sat on top of the wild dog, and Su Ze became even more solemn.
After thinking for a while, he then cried out hoarsely, putting weight in every syllable, “The Sky Demon Sect!”
“It seems that their fingers had reached Xibei as well, and are here to stir trouble now that the elites are all gathered at Mount Dadong. If Mister Jiang is right, that person would be a superhuman who has joined their sect, and possessed the ability of beast taming… Mister Jiang, being a fellow beast tamer and having encountered them, what do you think about his powers?”
Eh?
Scratching the back of his head, Jiang He simply laughed. “Nothing special, I guess.”
‘What do you mean I’m a beast tamer too!?
‘And how am I supposed to tell what his abilities are?’
Jiang He had assumed that his identity as a martial artist would have been exposed after he punched eight Ferals to death. So, why would this bunch still believe that he’s a beast tamer?
Su Ze breathed a long sigh, but it turned out that he was being relaxed. “Since Mister Jiang is a class-B beast tamer, other beast tamers certainly wouldn’t matter.” He smiled. “By the way, have you trained in the martial arts?”
His sudden change of attitude which made him so respectful left Jiang He slightly embarrassed, but he nodded regardless. “Just a few days of training. It’s a family tradition, nothing too important.”
It was unnecessary to hide such things anyway.
Being a beast tamer was his cover, just as being a rank-three martial artist barely revealed his trump card. Jiang He had the feeling that just letting on that bit of information wouldn’t matter.
Hehe.
Su Ze grinned impassively.
That’s being excessively humble!
That being said, he was a rank-two-advanced martial artist in his own right who had gone through untold battles. How could being knocked out in punch be insignificant in that respect?
Both Li Fei and Wang Siyu looked suspiciously at Jiang He as well.
They had never heard about him having some martial arts of family tradition, even though that might not be certain since martial art legacies could be secretive. In fact, not many people were aware of the existence of martial arts before the revival of qi.
“Oh, right!”
Li Fei exclaimed then, and then asked hesitantly, “Su Ze, what’s that… Sky Demon Sect you mentioned before?”
Su Ze shook his head and smiled bitterly. “I don’t know that much either, only that they had surfaced when Spirit Qi first returned. They have people all over the globe wreaking destruction—they are a demonic cult, and one of the seniors of our Eight Trigrams School had even killed one of their martial arts grandmasters.”
Pausing, Su Ze pointed beyond the night skies and lowered his voice. “I’ve only heard the seniors of my school mentioning it, but the origins of their sect could probably be traced to beyond the skies!”
“…Oh, damn!”
Li Fei jumped, unable to hold back from exclaiming, “Aliens???”
