hhnovel Chapter 75 : Chapter 75
Chapter 75 : Chapter 75
Chapter 75: This Girl Was Far Too Interesting
Once the meeting broke up, Wang Longcheng stopped Li Mu, then brought him and Wang Yinhuan back to his lounge.
After entering the room, Wang Longcheng walked over to the desk.
Wang Yinhuan, meanwhile, very obediently and sensibly stepped forward to pour water and prepare tea.
Judging from how practiced she was at pouring and brewing, she clearly did this sort of thing often. She was not some pampered young miss who had never done any work.
Wang Yinhuan poured two cups of tea, handed one to her father, and set the other on the table. Then she glanced at Li Mu.
Before she could even say a word, her face turned red again.
Wang Longcheng looked first at his daughter, then at Li Mu, and let out a bitter laugh.
“You probably noticed.”
“My daughter is basically a mimosa plant. Ever since she was little, she’s been terrified of being around other boys!”
“At this rate, even finding her a husband in the future will be difficult!”
“Dad!” Wang Yinhuan’s face turned even redder at once, and she shot her father an aggrieved look.
Wang Longcheng chuckled.
“All right, all right. I’ve mentioned Li Mu to you more than once already.”
“He’s not an outsider. Just think of him as an older brother.”
“No, wait, a younger brother. Yinhuan is a few months older than you.”
As he spoke, he looked at Li Mu.
“Uncle Wang, don’t worry. Whether the mission succeeds or not, I’ll bring her back to you alive and well.”
Li Mu naturally knew what Wang Longcheng was most worried about.
So he did not waste words and went straight to the heart of the matter.
Wang Longcheng nodded heavily.
“If Yinhuan’s safety is in your hands, then I’m more at ease than with anyone else. Otherwise, I would never have named you specifically.”
“This time, since I’m forcing you onto this mission, I ought to compensate you a little.”
“Isn’t it time to replace that weapon of yours?”
“Go to the Quartermaster Department and pick out a Special-Grade Weapon. Since you use a cudgel, that sort of weapon is a bit of a niche one.”
“If they can’t make one in time, and the Quartermaster Department doesn’t have it, then go find one outside.”
“No matter how much it costs, I’ll pay for it.”
Li Mu immediately felt the corners of his mouth lifting.
“Uncle Wang, are you rewarding me, or is this really for your daughter’s safety?”
“Hah! You little brat, do you want it or not?” Wang Longcheng glared at him irritably.
“Yes, yes, I want it!”
Li Mu grinned. Of course he wanted it. A Special-Grade Weapon started at two million.
In truth, once a weapon reached Special Grade, it became difficult for Li Mu to find ready-made ones beyond that.
The higher the grade of a weapon, the more likely it was to have very specialized properties.
Most of them had to be custom forged. Finding a finished weapon that happened to suit him perfectly depended entirely on luck.
“Get out of here. Just remember to come to the house for dinner tonight. Your Aunt Bai still has things she wants to tell you!”
Wang Longcheng said with a laugh and a curse.
“Got it!”
Li Mu smiled. Then he gave Wang Yinhuan a slight nod and deliberately said in a clear voice, “I’m leaving first, teammate.”
“Ah... mm!”
Wang Yinhuan had not expected Li Mu to suddenly address her, and her face instantly flushed scarlet.
Li Mu even felt as though smoke was practically rising from the top of her head.
Wang Longcheng was so exasperated. That little brat knew perfectly well his daughter was shy.
Was he teasing her on purpose? And right in front of him, no less.
Just as he was about to flare up, Li Mu arched a brow at him, turned, yanked open the door, and ran out.
Who said Wang Yinhuan was merely shy?
This girl was far too entertaining.
She was like a chameleon.
“You little bastard!” Wang Longcheng cursed irritably.
Then he looked at Wang Yinhuan again. “At this rate, if I count on you, will I ever get to hold a grandchild?”
When Wang Yinhuan was alone with her father, she was not nearly so exaggerated.
She merely pouted, turned her face to the side with haughty stubbornness, and ignored his lecture.
After leaving the Abyss, Li Mu directly called Zhang Zhiwei.
“Hello, Young Master Zhang. Help me find a weapon, will you?”
The Zhang Group dealt in metal processing.
It belonged to the upstream side of the weapons industry.
Naturally, it was not difficult for them to find a high-grade weapon.
After asking around, Zhang Zhiwei really did manage to find a Special-Grade cudgel weapon.
The two arranged to meet at a location.
Li Mu had assumed that when they met, Zhang Zhiwei would take him to some sort of weapon market.
But the moment Zhang Zhiwei got out of the car, he pulled a cudgel from his Storage Ring and tossed it toward Li Mu.
Li Mu immediately caught it in his hand.
It felt heavy the moment it landed in his grip. It had to weigh at least two hundred catties.
Its entire body was silver, and both ends were formed in a single continuous pattern, like a rolled-up ghost face.
“Ghostface Cudgel. Two hundred and twenty catties. Forged from Silver-Radiance Crystal Iron.”
“There’s a throat bone from a Seventh Grade Ghostface Manboar inside it.”
“When swung, it produces a ghostly wail. The stronger the True Qi, the more penetrating the sound becomes.”
“It can shock and injure an enemy’s internal organs.”
Zhang Zhiwei explained.
Li Mu loved it so much he could barely put it down, and gave it a few experimental swings.
Sure enough, when he swung it, a strange keening sound cut through the air, almost exactly like the cry of a ghost.
Just hearing it was enough to make goosebumps rise and send a chill down one’s spine.
The sound had great penetrating power, but it stayed within a certain range rather than spreading too far.
And this was without Li Mu even using True Qi yet.
If he used True Qi, the eerie scream of the weapon would probably startle monsters when they least expected it.
And that penetrating quality was especially well suited to him.
The Heavenly Immortal Art now possessed the Bone-Piercing trait.
With the two combined, Li Mu felt that his armor-piercing capability was about to be maxed out.
“How much?” Li Mu asked Zhang Zhiwei after admiring it for a while.
“It’s nothing. Just take it.”
Zhang Zhiwei spoke casually, opened the car door, and got in.
Then he hit the gas and drove off.
“Hey! Where’s the receipt!?”
Li Mu was speechless. That brat really did not leave him even the slightest chance to pay.
It was not that Li Mu wanted to stand on ceremony with Zhang Zhiwei.
He could always repay the favor sooner or later.
But the problem was that the boy had not left him the damn receipt.
How was he supposed to get reimbursed by Wang Longcheng?
Li Mu did go to the Wang family’s house for dinner that evening.
Just as Wang Longcheng had said, Bai Tiewei gave Li Mu a long list of instructions.
Even though Li Mu had no receipt, Wang Longcheng still reimbursed him three million.
Li Mu was practically over the moon.
One Special-Grade Weapon and another three million on top of that.
That night, as soon as Li Mu got home, he handed two and a half million to his mother.
But Li Mu’s good mood was ruined by a phone call just before bed.
It was an unfamiliar number.
The moment the call connected, a deep voice on the other end questioned him harshly.
“Is this Li Mu?”
“Yes.”
“I’m Zhang Kang. First thing tomorrow morning, go talk to the people from the research institute and switch assignments with me.”
Zhang Kang spoke in a tone that allowed no refusal.
“No.”
Li Mu rejected him casually.
“What did you say?” Zhang Kang sounded as though he could not believe his own ears.
“I said no.”
“If you have a death wish, say that one more time!” Zhang Kang’s icy question seemed to be squeezed out through clenched teeth.
When they had been introduced earlier that day, Li Mu had clearly learned that he was the Deputy Commander-in-Chief’s son.
Yet even knowing his identity, Li Mu still dared to disobey his order?
He was simply tired of living.
Li Mu was annoyed now.
“What breed of idiot are you?”
“I answered clearly enough, so what the hell are you asking me again for?”
“If you ask me eight hundred times, do you think the answer’s going to change?”
“If you don’t have anything else to say, hang up. Ask me that again and I’ll beat the hell out of you.”
The other end of the line went instantly silent.
It stayed silent for more than three full seconds, and then Li Mu suddenly heard a huge intake of breath from the other side,
like the prelude to a furious roar.
Li Mu reacted at once and hung up with swift precision.
“What an idiot.”
He had no idea what happened on Zhang Kang’s side after that, but Zhang Kang did not call again.
Li Mu went to sleep in peace.
Early the next morning, in the Teleportation Array Area of the Pearl Military District,
the surrounding soldiers quickly moved aside under the escort of a large number of guards.
They watched the commotion from a distance.
In front of the Portal, every major figure of the military district except the Commander-in-Chief had gathered.
The two two-man teams began checking their equipment and medicine.
Whenever the Abyss-Suppressing Army went out on a mission, once the mission grade had been reported, the corresponding medicine could be collected free of charge.
Hemostatic Pills, Pain-Suppressing Pills, Last-Effort Pills, and the like were all standard issue.
Ordinarily, taking them had little use. They were for saving your life when the crucial moment came.
“After teleporting over, you may use your warhorses to travel, but once you enter the Fourth Grade area, you must dismount.”
“To the two escorts: if combat breaks out, end it quickly! You must not get bogged down in battle!”
“Deputy Commanding Officer Wang and I will remain in contact with all of you throughout the mission.”
Liao Feng gave his final instructions.
“Understood!”
After the others responded, they all walked toward the Portal.
To teleport to the same location, two people had to maintain physical contact.
Li Mu very naturally took hold of Wang Yinhuan’s hand.
Wang Yinhuan’s breathing caught for a moment, and she reflexively shrank back a little.
But the force was too weak to break free from Li Mu’s large hand.
At once, her face reddened all the way to the tips of her ears.
On the other side, Zhang Kang stared at Li Mu with a gaze that looked ready to devour him alive.
From the moment they met today, Zhang Kang had wanted nothing more than to kill Li Mu with his eyes.
The previous night, Wang Yinhuan had filled his thoughts.
He had wanted nothing more than to drag her over and ravage her on the spot.
He had to go on this mission with Wang Yinhuan. He needed to create an opportunity.
After thinking it over again and again, he had decided that the best choice was to make Li Mu play the villain.
If Li Mu went to the research institute’s people and recommended himself for Jiang Linlin’s team, then Jiang Linlin would choose Li Mu, and Zhang Kang could be paired with Wang Yinhuan.
That perfect little plan had been ruined by Li Mu’s single sentence: “No.”
And on top of that, Li Mu had cursed him out.
The man deserved to die.
At that moment, Zhang Kang hated Li Mu to the core.
His lust had already eaten into his brain. In his fantasies, as long as he could go on the mission with Wang Yinhuan, he might well take her for his own somewhere in the middle of the operation.
The thought alone thrilled him.
But the prize that had been almost within his grasp had been snatched away by Li Mu.
His hatred reached its limit.
The moment Li Mu saw that look in his eyes, he wanted to laugh.
Not only did he not let go of Wang Yinhuan’s hand, he even raised it slightly, making sure Zhang Kang could see it even more clearly.
Zhang Kang’s eyes nearly split with fury, but Li Mu had already pulled Wang Yinhuan into the Portal.
There was a flash of white light.
The two of them appeared in a broad stretch of wilderness.
There were no building ruins here, only black crystalline fragments scattered all over the ground.
The earth was cracked everywhere, filled with broken twigs and leaves.
Strange towering trees were scattered sparsely across the landscape; dozens of meters could pass without a single one in sight.
And almost all of them were withered.
Li Mu first carefully surveyed the surroundings.
Only then did he feel a faint pressure in his hand.
He realized he was still holding Wang Yinhuan’s hand.
He quickly let go.
Li Mu opened his watch and checked the map.
“More than a hundred and twenty kilometers. We’ve got a long ride ahead.”
As he spoke, Li Mu summoned Yaogu.
Wang Yinhuan gave a small “oh,” then took out her own Horse Token as well.
But Li Mu said, “If we ride two horses, how am I supposed to protect you? What if a monster appears and your horse gets spooked and runs off?”
“Ah?” Wang Yinhuan stared at Li Mu blankly.
“What do you mean, ‘ah’? Get on this one.” Li Mu pointed to the spot in front of him.
Wang Yinhuan instantly turned scarlet...