Chapter 408: Filling Up The Liveliness
The best? What would that be?
Not even Boss Huang knew what the copper-faced man said. He was even more clueless about what the copper-faced man was trying to do. All he knew was that the Demon Infant had some kind of subtle connection with Tang Ling’s war seed.
After the copper-faced man extracted the seed from Tang Ling’s heart, he told Boss Huang to take care of the rest and left for the smithing room. Boss Huang was left alone with Tang Ling with his chest cut open and his beating heart exposed.
Take care of it? How the hell should I take care of this!?
Boss Huang ought to cry, but he failed to shed a tear. He suppressed the grievance and brought some anesthetic from his room to stop Tang Ling’s wound from bleeding. He then simply put a clean cloth over it.
Although Tang Ling’s heart was not hurt, it was still a grotesque scene to look at.
Even though the boss stopped the wound from bleeding, he did not need to sew the cut back together unless the copper-faced man did not want to return the seed to Tang Ling’s heart. Therefore, all Boss Huang did was cover the wound with a cloth.
…
“Done?”
The copper-faced man did not turn around when Boss Huang came into the smithing room. In front of the man was a transparent container that belonged to Boss Huang, but the contents were poured out and replaced by a light green liquid.
The crystalized Demon Infant was soaked in the liquid while the copper-faced man was holding a delicate-looking scalpel. It should have been one of Boss Huang’s collections as well.
After seeing the scalpel and his collection room opened, Boss Huang’s heart bled a river, but he could not vent his emotions. He asked with gnashing teeth, “How does it feel using my lousy collection? Are you happy with them?”
“Barely useful. This is all the Rebirth Liquid that I could concoct from your things.” The copper-faced man did not even look at Boss Huang. The scalpel in his hand easily cut through the crystalized Demon Infant’s forehead and exposed the jelly-like red dot underneath. He then carefully put the little seed inside.
Rebirth Liquid?!
Boss Huang’s face turned pale. He dashed into his collection room like a fierce gale. The collection room was the mysterious storeroom that Tang Ling had set his sights on.
In less than 2 minutes, Boss Huang’s pitiful cry wailed from the room, “I’m done! I’m so done! I’m going to die of poverty! I’m poor now!!”
The copper-faced man tilted his head slightly. If he did not have the copper mask covering his face, he would have probably frowned disgustedly at Boss Huang’s reaction.
“My top-tier Universal Source Stone is gone! Argh! My Level 7 vicious beast refined blood is gone too! Aaah! I can’t live with this!” Boss Huang’s shrieks and squeals continued.
The copper-faced man finally lost his patience and bellowed, “Shut up!”
Boss Huang was instantly silenced. Half a minute later, he walked out of his room with a sad and vengeful expression. A bleak and hopeless aura enveloped him whole. Even the icon of Monty on his pajamas looked sad.
“I don’t care! You must give me a reasonable explanation! You have no idea how hard it is for me to collect all these and how much effort I put in to search for everything! It’s not something you can simply use!” Boss Huang had a handkerchief with Monty’s icon on it and he bit it begrudgingly while complaining.
“Disgusting!” The copper-faced man saw Boss Huang’s reaction and commented from the bottom of his heart.
Then, before Boss Huang could further complain, the copper-faced man added, “In regards to all the wealth that you’ve collected through your calculative means, you’re just trying to compensate and re-”
“No! I’m trying to live a wealthy life!” Boss Huang responded strongly with an unusual look. He anxiously stopped the copper-faced man from talking and denied what the man said.
The copper-faced man did not want to argue, so he stated, “Everything will be fine. You don’t have to worry.”
“I don’t care!” Boss Huang turned away.
“This Demon Infant’s body is very valuable, but I only want the active substance inside. The substance can fill the liveliness that the war seed has lost through time. The rest of the boy is yours to keep.” The copper-faced man did not continue the previous topic. Instead, he shifted it back to the Demon Infant.
“How much could the leftovers possibly worth?” Boss Huang was still upset as if he was on the losing side, but his gaze was concerned.
“Class 3 superalloy with Dark attributes, but you might only get 150 grams or less after refinement.” The copper-faced man seemed to be more knowledgeable than Boss Huang.
“Oh? Hmm…It’s still a loss, a great loss!” Despite saying so, Boss Huang could not hold back the smile on his face. Only he knew whether or not he was on the losing side in this deal.
Thump!
A pouch was tossed at Boss Huang’s feet. He picked it up and opened it and his eyes shone brightly because there were 200 True Capital coins inside.
“Will it be enough? If it’s not enough, give the coins back to me first. I’ll owe you the full payment.” The copper-faced man sounded calm as if giving away 200 True Capital coins was something common.
“It’s barely enough, but since you’ve already prepared the money, there’s no reason for you to take it back.” Boss Huang smiled sinisterly and hugged the bag of money tightly.
The copper-faced man did not even look at the boss. He was looking at the little seed soaking in the red matter. Upon a closer look, the red seemed to have faded a bit.
…
It was 6 a.m. in the morning at Darkness Port.
Since it was winter, the sky remained dark, but the unique chilliness of the sea at dawn had blanketed the entire Darkness Port with the sea breeze.
Tang Ling’s body clock was always accurate, and he had woken up ten minutes ago.
He was looking at Boss Huang who was in a delightful mood. The boss had a bright smile and was looking as kind as he could while holding a bowl of porridge of some sort and being determined to feed him.
Tang Ling was as confused as he was in doubt.
“Come on, I made this for you. It’s good for your recovery.” Boss Huang was persistent as he tried to shove that spoon with porridge into Tang Ling’s mouth determinedly. However, Tang Ling tightly shut his mouth and refused to eat.
How could he eat without a doubt? How could he not be confused? He woke up with intense pain on his chest and his shirt was bloody. There was even a piece of bloody cloth beside him.
He undressed and found a freshly sown scar on his chest. To his confusion, he could not wrap his heads around what happened and could not find the words to describe it. What happened? Why would he have a fresh scar on his chest? The thought alone sent chills down his spine.
On top of that, Boss Huang had made him porridge! However, the rice was still hard and the water looked nothing like boiled food.
“Are you eating or not?” Boss Huang was losing his patience. If Tang Ling had not been the reason for his scrumptious payment last night, he would never have tried to suck up to the kid.
“I’m not eating if you don’t tell me what happened.” Tang Ling pointed at his scar.
“Fine. If you don’t want to eat, don’t!” Boss Huang answered haughtily.
“I won’t smith anymore.”
“Don’t touch the hammer if you don’t want to smith.”
“I’ll purposely lose in the Hell Ledge Challenge.”
“Whatev-” Boss Huang’s haughtiness did not last three minutes. He quickly switched a different approach and put on a smile. “Fine, I’ll talk. Please don’t lose.”
“What happened? Did I get ripped apart? What the hell?” Tang Ling felt extremely wronged.
“Actually, how do you feel about me? As a person, me, Huang Dao, your beloved Boss Huang, who do you think I am?” Boss Huang suddenly looked dismal.
“Skip to the point!” Tang Ling could not keep up with Boss Huang’s self-aggrandizing bullsh*t.
“Okay, fine. The point is that I’m a man who tends to keep a low profile. I never like claiming credit for my work and I’m not greedy for merits. I suddenly realized how to use the Demon Infant body and it’s good for your war seed, so I did it.
“I had to work the whole night to finish up everything. I didn’t even care about my tired body when I extracted the war seed from you. I was afraid that you’d be hurt and out of love and protection, so I stayed on despite my exhaustion. I made porridge for you and you suspect me? You threaten the great me?!” Boss Huang blurted everything out in a single breath.
His words were not entirely true, but they were not exactly a lie either. Although he was not the one who performed the operation, since the copper-faced man requested him to take credit for everything, he had to. Otherwise, it would not make sense.
As a matter of fact, the cell regeneration serum could heal one’s injuries quickly and even if it would leave a scar, it would not be that obvious. However, under normal circumstances, cultivators were unwilling to overly rely on cell regeneration serum to heal. They would rather replenish their bodies with sufficient nutrition and energy to recover naturally.
After all, the effect of the cell regeneration serum might defy even logic, but from a certain aspect, it exhausted the potential of the cells.
Tang Ling always got hurt, but due to his background, he only used a handful of cell regeneration serums. He relied mostly on a large amount of food and his transformation to recover his body.
Therefore, both the copper-faced man and Boss Huang agreed to not use the cell regeneration serum on Tang Ling to heal the wound after the operation. As a result, a reasonable excuse was necessary.
Is he for real?
Tang Ling sized the boss up from top to bottom with a dubious gaze. He did not buy a single word that came out from the boss’s mouth. However, the Demon Infant’s body was gone and when he tried to call the little seed, the little seed did not respond. That was a first.
Tang Ling clearly felt the seed inside his heart, but it seemed to be in some kind of deep slumber. That was also the first time ever since his little seed had gained consciousness. The little seed’s condition felt slightly different as well.
Tang Ling could not put the difference into words, but it felt like a baby always sleeping because of the lack of liveliness. Now, the little seed’s liveliness felt a little more concentrated and was no longer scattered that easily.
He did not know whether feeling that way was right or not. What would happen after the little seed woke up? The feelings were proof that Boss Huang was not lying about the little seed.
“I’m not lying.” Boss Huang did not look guilty at all.
Tang Ling frowned as he tried to recall what happened last night. He seemed to have dreamt of the copper-faced man smashing him into bits.
Soon enough, Tang Ling denied the thoughts because why would the copper-faced man appear in his room? Why would the copper-faced man help him? Moreover, it was just a dream. Could it have been…real?
Despite being baffled by doubts, Tang Ling did not press the question. Boss Huang might be a sleazy bastard, but if he decided not to talk about it, no one could make him spill a word.
“I don’t want your porridge. I want Ding Ling’s cooking.” Tang Ling ceased the questions about his chest, but he still rejected the porridge with furrowed brows.
Just when Boss Huang wanted to argue more, the street outside Dvesha Moha started to get clamorous.
It was just a little past 6 in the morning, so what could have caused the noise?