Nine Star Burden

Chapter 182: Stirring Trouble

“Do you feel better?” Jiang Xiao asked as he hurriedly approached her.

“Yeah,” Han Jiangxue said as she sighed, seemingly feeling guilty and blaming herself for losing control of her own emotions. She remained silent and continuously began to absorb the Star Power in the surroundings.

Jiang Xiao could obviously tell what she was trying to do. As an Awakened, he was relatively sensitive to the Star Power around him. At this moment, Han Jiangxue was continuously absorbing and devouring the Star Power around her like she was a black hole.

Jiang Xiao shut his mouth at the right time and collected some Savage Star Beads. However, to his bewilderment, only one savage came out of the tunnel, despite the ruckus that his team had created.

Could it be... that the room that we just passed was their lair?

Jiang Xiao did not enter that room in the end and did not get to see how large and what it was like in detail. All he knew was that the cries coming from inside were extremely melancholic and would make others shudder.

Jiang Xiao continued to step forward and fumble, only to discover a ray of light. Is this another exit?

Is this all?

Oh my god. It’s no wonder Han Jiangxue lost control of herself. How many savages did she burn? How much vitality did Nostalgia replenish her with?

Jiang Xiao wanted to return, but he suddenly found it hard to breathe as thick fumes of smoke seemed to attack him from behind.

Han Jiangxue pushed Jiang Xiao out of the cave and the two of them began coughing violently while taking deep breaths of fresh air in the Dimensional Space. They finally felt better.

On the other side, Li Weiyi and Xia Yan had already scurried out of the cave. Li Weiyi put away his shield after realizing that the sounds of roaring could no longer be heard. In the end, thick fumes of smoke surged towards them, forcing them to retreat.

They wondered if the savages in there were burnt or choked to death by the smoke.

Li Weiyi’s voice telling them that he was safe came from the invisible earphones as the team members exchanged information with each other. They got ready to rest for a while before entering again to collect their battle spoils.

Jiang Xiao took the opportunity to turn to Han Jiangxue and say, “I have a bold idea.”

Han Jiangxue looked at him silently.

She kept her guard up.

She didn’t expect to hear anything good from him after hearing what he said.

“How did you feel just now?” Jiang Xiao asked curiously.

Han Jiangxue thought about it and said, “I felt like I was full of energy and like my blood was boiling. As if I was filled with endless energy. I haven’t tried any stimulants, but maybe that’s how they’d feel.”

“How was your rationality?” Jiang Xiao asked again.

Han Jiangxue frowned and thought about it carefully for a long time before asking, “My body was particularly agitated and stimulated, but I could still stay rational. Didn’t I put you down gently?”

Jiang Xiao nodded. Except for the fact that she had grabbed his shoulders tightly at the start, she could restrain herself well at other times.

In this case, does my idea not work or did I not nurse her enough?

“What do you have in mind?” Han Jiangxue asked curiously while pushing Barren Wind into the tunnel, hoping to disperse the smoke inside as quickly as possible.

“Humans are still rational, after all. But what about Ape Ghouls?” Jiang Xiao asked, seemingly rather interested. He continued, “They have low IQs, but they’re very brutal and beasts by nature.”

Han Jiangxue raised her brows and agreed with him. “Do you want to do it?”

“Shall we go play with the Ape Ghoul Kings?” Jiang Xiao asked with excitement.

All of a sudden, Xia Yan’s voice could be heard in the earphones. “Xiaopi, tell me I didn’t hear wrongly.”

Jiang Xiao said, “The Ape Ghouls all have the Star Technique, Brutality, right?”

Li Weiyi answered, “Yes.”

Jiang Xiao said, “I think I can give an Ape Ghoul a Blessing to the point of going crazy. Brutal and violent creatures like these beasts who love to fight can never calm down under my Blessing. During normal circumstances, they can’t even suppress their desires for a battle.”

Han Jiangxue’s eyes glistened and she asked, “Do you want to send them into an internal battle so that we can all benefit?”

“It’d be best to drive an Ape Ghoul King crazy and make it assert its dominance. Regardless of whether it gets ripped apart by its subjects or the other way round, it would be good for us.” Jiang Xiao continued excitedly, “As long as the first punch is launched, the battle will basically not stop. Once Brutality is activated, they’ll turn their backs on each other.”

The guardians, examiners, and Jiang Xiao’s teammates all heard his words.

The examiners looked at each other in shock and dismay. Although they were curious about Jiang Xiao’s idea, they didn’t make any comment.

Blessing was a Brass Quality Star Technique and it would be impossible for the Ape Ghouls to reach the state of insanity that Jiang Xiao had mentioned.

After the guardian heard Jiang Xiao’s words, his expression changed immediately. Any violent actions of the Ape Ghouls would increase the difficulty in maintaining their defense.

Jiang Xiao’s method was rather feasible and the battle-enthusiastic Ape Ghouls didn’t have to be nursed too greatly. They would just begin fighting on their own unless there was an Ape Ghoul King to suppress them. They would then retreat cowardly and obey.

The guardians did not think that Jiang Xiao would be able to drive the Ape Ghouls crazy with his Blessing. They simply felt disgusted with his thoughts. Regardless of what means he resorted to, Jiang Xiao’s goal was to make the Ape Ghouls fight each other.

The Awakened could do that easily!

As long as there were no other creatures around, the Ape Ghouls would not team up against the outsiders, and any minor conflict would cause them to get into a fight!

A small group of Ape Ghouls would be fine, but if it was a large group...

The guardians had painstakingly balanced the distribution of monsters in the Arsenal and scattered them into various areas for the sake of the examination this time.

The students were not considering the distribution of monsters. They wanted the medals and Star Beads and didn’t care about anything else.

A soldier asked, “What’s this kid’s name?”

Another soldier replied, “I’m not sure. I’ll go check on it.”

The soldier said in an uncomfortable manner, “Teams, pay close attention to Team No. 76. They’re very likely to be the first to ask us for help.”

When the team of guardians searched for information about Jiang Xiao, Xia Yan and Li Weiyi had already dashed into the tunnel with Burning Flame activated. They quickly harvested some Star Beads. But to her dismay, the bodies were destroyed beyond recognition and it was hard for them to identify the corpses.

However, that didn’t matter at all. As long as Jiang Xiao scanned them, he would able to identify the Star Beads.

According to Xia Yan, they could also bring the Star Beads back for identification. However, they only managed to obtain five damaged bright-yellow weapons. It was unknown if the remaining weapons had been crushed by Li Weiyi’s Star Power or burned by Han Jiangxue’s flames.

Han Jiangxue emptied Sky Smasher and dropped two corpses. Seeing that Jiang Xiao was cleaning the Star Bead, she said, “Hand it to me, I’ll go back and clean it up.”

Jiang Xiao handed the Star Bead over to her, but he seemed to have discovered something. He moved his hand towards Han Jiangxue’s forehead and touched the camera on her headband. He said, “There seems to be something. I’ll wipe it for you.”

While talking, Jiang Xiao winked at Han Jiangxue with his left eye.

She stared at him composedly and reached out to grab the Star Bead.

Regardless of whether Han Jiangxue had gotten the hint or not, Jiang Xiao immediately absorbed the Star Bead in his hand, after which the “Nostalgia” and “Dawn” in his Star Map both turned into Gold Quality Level 0 (1/10).

After getting all of the battle spoils, Jiang Xiao finally knew the exact gains his team had made.

In addition to all the spoils that they had previously obtained, the team harvested a total of 17 Silver Quality Star Beads from the Swordsmen, Female Archers and Spearmen, one Silver Quality Savage Sorcerer Star Bead, three Brass Quality Savage Star Beads, and eight weapons. They had scored a total of 80 points.

“Let’s go all the way to the West. The task point is at the South and the further we deviate from the direction, the more likely we are to find the Ape Ghoul King,” Jiang Xiao said merrily.

With excitement written all over her face, Xia Yan asked, “Ape Ghoul King? Each one is worth 300 points. That should be enough for us to enter the top eight, right? We’ve been toiling for so long and we’ve only obtained eight weapons that give us 80 points.”

Jiang Xiao shrugged his shoulders and said, “If the Ape Ghoul King can help us tear up some Ape Ghouls, we’ll secretly pick up the corpses and get medals while it feeds on the Star Beads. We’ll gain more points that way.”

Xia Yan also began to get excited. She turned to Han Jiangxue and asked, “How does that sound? Xuexue?”

A little hesitant, Han Jiangxue looked at Jiang Xiao. “This suggestion is very dangerous.”

Jiang Xiao said, “I have been in the snowfield for a month, but I’m not here to go through the motions with you guys. I want to go to the semi-finals.”

Han Jiangxue looked at Jiang Xiao silently and finally nodded.

“Yay!” Xia Yan cheered happily and continued, “Come on, Xiaopi, let’s stir some trouble!”

Jiang Xiao nodded profusely and exclaimed, “Yeah, stir trouble, stir trouble!”

At the same time, the soldiers of the guardian team looked at the split-screen and listened to the sounds coming from the earphones. Their faces grew increasingly sullen.