Chapter 135: Energetic Reaction Ahead, Strong and Powerful
Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy
In the end, Wang Lu didn’t eat that stupid dog.
He didn’t want it because he was afraid eating him would affect his IQ.
Previously, with flowery words, Wang Lu claimed that dog meat was the best delicacy in the world… In fact, even though it was quite fragrant, it was not the first under heaven. Like the women in the beauty pageant, it was too difficult to really decide who was the first and the second. However, incredibly, that stupid dog really believed it to the point that it actually tried to bite itself—that was really painful...
Therefore, Wang Lu concluded that this dog’s IQ was in the same rank as that of Senior Sister Liu Li, and consequently, it was better not to eat it.
As for the previous five meat buns… alas, what’s gone could never come back, they were gone forever. He had been saving them for almost a year, in the end, it was all for naught.
In fact, when the dog began to talk, Wang Lu had basically dispelled any thoughts on eating that dog’s meat. It didn’t mean that he wouldn’t eat any intelligent creature—eating them could actually increase one’s power. If this were in the Clear Sky Peak, Wang Lu would’ve never softened his stance, however, rather than eating his meat, a talking dog undoubtedly has a higher value.
No matter how inconspicuous his look was, since this dog could rush through the black tide, it must have an enormous secret. And since it could speak, it was much better to fish information from it than eating him.
Therefore...
"Who are you?"
"Woof?"
"Where are you from?"
"Woof?"
"Are you native here?"
"Woof?"
"What’s your mom’s name?"
"Woof-woof."
"Damn, why don’t you answer?"
"Too tired. Woof."
And thus, Wang Lu realized that it was extremely difficult for this stupid dog to speak human language. If not for it getting almost cooked into fragrant meat inside the pot last night, it wouldn’t have even bothered to speak out. So much so that Wang Lu even began to think about learning the dog’s language in order to communicate.
And to make matter worse, after Wang Lu had used a few meat buns to coax it to speak, he found out that this stupid dog was indeed a stupid dog. Although it could speak human language and could sing a melodic song, for god’s sake, it couldn’t remember who it was or where it came from. When Wang Lu tried to push it for an answer, it began to anxiously bark and roll on the floor, revealing a posture that said its past was too unbearable to recall.
After later sighing that the lower IQ of this dog was too incurable, Wang Lu once again fished out his pot, bowl, and seasonings ready to prepare a meal. The dog, quite naturally, was unbelievably shocked. "What are you going to eat?"
"I’ll treat you a dog meat. Your welcome."
No matter how stupid this dog was, it knew there was only one choice between eating dog meat and keeping its life; its immediately shook his head. "Don’t want to eat."
"Then I’m going to eat it myself."
"Wait a minute, why would you insist on eating me? Aren’t we friends?"
Wang Lu gawked. "When did I make a friend with you, dog?"
The puppy was surprised. "I’ve eaten your meat buns, so now we’re friends for life."
"What the? Did you really eat meat buns? You obviously owe me that, you know?"
The little mutt thought for a moment before it straightened its chest and gave off his best impression of loyal look. "You’re right, I ate your meat buns, so I bear your kindness. Therefore, from now on, I’m your faithful little brother, I will do everything you tell me to."
Wang Lu inwardly exclaimed what a stupid dog. Even so, although he was a stupid dog, it has a high loyalty and natural affinity with the human; five meat buns could actually buy it.
"Okay then, now I want you to come to my bowl."
From then on, Wang Lu had a companion in his survival trip in the Savage Land.
Considering the IQ of the dog, it was definitely inedible. Since he couldn’t eat it, he could only keep it as a pet. Although this stupid dog could talk and sing, most of the time, it wasn’t that different to any other stupid dog. After it had recognized Wang Lu as its master, it would almost always run around him, jump all over the place, and shake its tail, revealing a pleasing-like foolish grin while secretly looking forward to getting another meat bun from Wang Lu… As a brainless pet, it was passable.
Day after day soon passed by and in the blink of an eye, it was already more than ten days. A man and a dog experienced the black tide together, wiped out a few dead spirits that wandered into their cave, and then continued to wander around the Western Mountain… During the day, they didn’t talk too many words, however, Wang Lu was getting a bit more familiar with this stupid dog.
This dog was really not a normal dog because a normal dog wouldn’t be this stupid. The claim that it didn’t remember where it came from or what its name was all true—it really didn’t remember… In fact, it only remembered what happened in the last few months, which was: it inexplicably appeared in the midst of the Savage Land. With its animal instinct, it fled from the dangers all around it, avoiding all those powerful monsters who preyed on the small and weak. When the black tide approached, it learned from the other monsters that huddled inside the cave.
Not long ago, the cave where it stayed was infiltrated by the black tide. Aware of the impending crisis, it didn’t wait for the dead spirits to come in; it immediately ran out of the cave, desperately fleeing in the dark. By sheer coincidence, it crashed into Wang Lu’s cave and was almost reduced to a pot of fragrant meat.
In addition, this dog was indeed much more powerful than the average dog. Although its height was only about a foot, its strength, speed, especially its set of canine teeth that was comparable to tiger or wolf—wrong, even those fierce animals would be bitten to death in two or three rounds if they encountered this dog.
This little mutt was small and stupid, but if graded according to the Spirit Sword Sect’s grading standard, it would belong to the second level high-rank beast. Moreover, that didn’t account for the other special abilities that this mutt might have.
Any other average monster would always have some kind of special ability as their capital to survive. Like the stone and wood apes that he encountered at the Small Clear Sky Peak, which have an abnormally tough skin, and the ghost monkey that was good at illusion and bewitching. This stupid dog didn’t remember its ability; in their first two days of wandering together, Wang Lu was only able to discern one: it has an extremely good digestive track.
There was nothing to eat at the Savage Land. Although the meat on some of the monsters seemed edible, even Wang Lu wasn’t interested in eating them to challenge the poison resistance limit of his body… However, this mutt happily ate them.
This day, Wang Lu and the stupid dog cooperated to hunt and kill a rather large monster—Wang Lu used his Non-Phase Sword Art to tangle it while the stupid dog shredded its throat to pieces with its bite. Afterward, that monster’s corpse rapidly decayed and turned into half solid half liquid puree-like substance, which extraordinarily stank.
Wang Lu felt that even a lump of excrement seemed more edible than that pile of thing, yet, the stupid dog’s saliva immediately flowed down, and it started to gobble it up.
"You even eat this kind of thing… Could it be that your real identity is a fungus?"
"Woof?"
"Forget it… Just finish it."
After it had satiated, the puppy started to happily roll on the ground. Meanwhile, Wang Lu began to gnaw one of the few meat buns left and, looking depressed, fondly remember all sorts of delicacies in the Spirit Sword Mountain.
Realizing that Wang Lu was awfully silent, that pet dog tactfully stopped playing around; it tilted its head and then asked, "Are you unhappy?"
Wang Lu snappily threw the remaining half bun on that dog’s face. "Who can be happy if they have to eat this thing everyday?"
That puppy cocked its head and furiously worked its poor brain, trying to understand its master’s mood. After a while, it said, "If you really want to eat, I know something good."
"Oh?"
"I want to eat it before, but I can’t beat that guy, so I can’t… That guy is genuinely good stuff, it would be amazing to eat it. That thing is really good, I can smell it; very different from the others." The puppy’s words were jumbled; it couldn’t correctly describe what it wanted to convey, and it could only reveal a look of regret. However, during its talk, the stupid look on that dog’s face gradually faded away, replaced by a hint of ominous, fierce, and greedy look.
The puppy licked its mouth and asked, "Do you want to eat that thing?"
Wang Lu went silent for a while, and then the corner of his mouth arched up, revealing a mouthful of teeth.
"Of course."
Three days later, the black tide descended on the Western Mountain as usual.
The night before, the monsters in the mountain had burrowed inside the ground, shivering in fear. The black tide’s infiltration of the area was omnipresent. A few unsuspecting monsters among them were surprised when they found out the black tide had followed them inside their hidden place, and thus, they were completely swallowed by the dead spirits that not even their skeletons were left behind. What about on the ground? Even the most powerful monster on the Western Mountain didn’t dare to appear on the ground while the black tide was still there; that was not an area where living things could stand.
However, on these monsters’ forbidden area, a man and a dog stood quietly on the peak of a hill like two stone carvings, allowing the darkness to swallow them.
This man and the dog was naturally Wang Lu and his new pet dog. Three days ago, the stupid dog told Wang Lu that there was something truly wonderful to eat. Wang Lu didn’t ask what it was, and he didn’t even try to communicate with the dog after that. Just three days later, when the black tide was about to arrive, instead of going back to their cave, they climbed a small hill.
The food that the mutt said was obviously one of the dead spirits within the black tide, and it was a very formidable one at that. Although the extent of its power was still unknown, its Primordial Chaos Force must certainly be very strong. In other words, the harvest that they could gain by killing it would definitely be of the best quality. As a freeloader, this stupid dog must have a very keen instinct on food. Its nose could perfectly discern what was tasty and what was bad to eat.
On their previous black tide, a few dead spirits rushed into their cave, and the dog’s eyes immediately shone. First, it bit to death a group of will-o’-the-wisps—no one knew why this seemingly ethereal wisp could be killed by a dog’s bite. Those wisps thus exploded and dropped many lumps of bright jade.
As for the other several strange creatures, the dog seemed to have no interest in them. Afterwards, under Wang Lu’s command, it coordinated with him to bite them one by one, yet none dropped anything worth. However, the good thing that it let him keep in mind was at least ten thousand times better than the will-o’-the-wisps
Based on the stupid dog’s IQ, he doubted that it truly understood the meaning of ten thousand, however, the good thing in its eyes must be definitely a very good thing.
And that good thing hid within the black tide. Thus, in order to kill that thing, they naturally had to step into the black tide and actively look for it.
This was not a suicide mission. Although Wang Lu even had to lose a hand in the face of an onslaught from the black tide not long after he came to the savage land, nearly one year later, it was not the same anymore. Although he was yet able to completely resist the most headache-inducing part of the black tide, which was its toxicity, currently by a special method, he was able to ignore it for a short time. When he brandished his sword, the Non-Phase Sword Art’s sword defense had doubled than nearly a year ago. More importantly, after experiencing the "baptism" of the black tide dozens of time, Wang Lu had begun to become familiar with the countless of despaired creatures in the darkness. When the black tide arrived, there would be no light and no sound. Even if there were a huge army of skeletons marching on the mountain, they would not emit any sound; it was impossible to detect them. However, this year’s many battles had made Wang Lu’s perception even keener. Especially when he was in the middle of the black tide where the dead spirits roamed, he could even clearly sense the existence of the dead spirit near him.
And the dead spirits were no longer mysterious to him, in fact, he didn’t feel afraid of them at all.
When the last ray on the earth was obscured by the darkness, Wang Lu closed his eyes and immediately sensed clearly the existence of the innumerable dead spirits that had suddenly arrived; he knew that the time has come.
"Doggy, show the way."
"Woof."
In the dark, the barking sound of the stupid dog was especially conspicuous. But equally striking was Wang Lu’s scolding voice.
"Dumb dog, speak don’t bark."
"On the left."
A man and a dog immediately moved to the left. The small hill that Wang Lu deliberately chose was in the middle of the Western Mountain; they could advance to any direction from there. Once that food appeared within the black tide, they could rush to its location from the hill the quickest.
During their descent, they encountered countless will-o’-the-wisps. However, with his spiritual treasure Sword of Mount Kun, Wang Lu formed the impenetrable three feet sword defense, which firmly locked those dead spirits outside this circle of defense, regardless of whether they were tangible or intangible.
The stupid dog comfortably walked within the sword circle of defense. It barked and then moved its nose. "Front, it’s in the front."
The smell of the most delicious thing in the black tide was firmly engraved in one of the few memory spaces of that stupid dog, making it unable to forget it. Sensing that that delicious food was near, the little thing madly moved its limbs, leading Wang Lu to the direction of the food.
At the same time, more and more dead spirits began to gather. In this black tide, it might have been a very long time for them to meet such a daring challenger. Thus, the surrounding dead spirits became even more attracted to them. However, despite these gathering of dead spirits, which seemed like mountains of corpses and seas of blood, no one seemed able to penetrate this three feet sword defense. The dead spirits continued to crash into it, yet they were constantly bounced back by the Non-Phase Sword Art, causing them to make a silent, twisted growl. If this was in the past, it might be enough to make Wang Lu tremble in fear, but this time, it seemed like a joke.
The dumb dog laughed wildly without care. "Hahaha, weak, really weak."
Wang Lu coldly scolded him, "Don’t waste your limited brain power on this, just focus on showing the way."
Currently, Wang Lu was still able to easily block all of the attacks, but only because those powerful dead spirits in the black tide have yet to appear. However, their time to hunt wasn’t much; after Wang Lu had knocked some sense into that stupid dog, it calmed down and continued to find the source of the smell. Then it locked that delicious food’s position.
"At the front, ahead of us. The smell is strong and powerful."
With that, saliva began to drool out of the little mutt’s mouth as it crazily raced ahead. Arching up the corner of his mouth into a sneer, Wang Lu immediately followed it.
A moment later, he finally experienced that strong and powerful smell.
"... Dumb dog, you f*cking tricked me."
Strong and powerful? No wonder...
Just ahead of them, within the dark, ten giant creatures, each the size of a small hill, were ferociously staring at them.