Night’s Nomenclature

“That girl must be the girl who can manipulate the force field that appeared in the Outer World.” Li Shutong looked at Qing Chen with a smile, “I felt the change of the force field when I entered the door. This kind of ability is indeed very rare. She’s also quite polite and pretty.”

“Master, is there something wrong with the last part of what you said?” Qing Chen asked calmly, “Is this what you should focus on?”

“You see…” Li Shutong sighed: “Your Master is getting old…”

“Stop, please stop right there,” Qing Chen raised his hand to stop Li Shutong from continuing, “I can already sense that nothing good is coming out of your mouth.”

Li Shutong raised his eyebrows and said, “When I was in Forbidden Land 002, I envied your persistence and how those old guys spoiling you with all the goodies they had. They don’t need to care about your growth and only had to offer you the treasures they had. At that time, I was dying to experience what it must be like to have grandparental love…”

“Sure enough,” Qing Chen said helplessly, “We really don’t have any emotional entanglements. We are just benefiting from each other at the moment, so stop thinking about that.”

At this time, Qing Chen suddenly thought of something, “Master, everyone’s force field is unique. She once told me that it is like a person’s fingerprint or DNA. If she meets the real ‘Li Shutong’ again, she will definitely recognize you.”

Yangyang’s ability was like the humanoid radar. It could completely ignore the changes in one’s appearance.

So next time when she meets Li Shutong, she will recognize him for sure.

That was exactly how Qing Chen fell for her ability!

“You shouldn’t have come back,” Qing Chen said seriously.

Li Shutong didn’t look at Qing Chen’s eyes, but walked towards the kitchen, “Well… what’s wrong about a caring master checking up on his disciple’s girl?!”

“Master,” Qing Chen’s eyes widened, “I didn’t say anything…”

At this moment, there was a knock on the door.

Qing Chen went to open the door, and suddenly saw Yang Yang standing at the door, holding a basket of fruit in her hands.

“What’s this for?” Qing Chen was a little surprised.

“I didn’t know that Uncle was at home just now, sorry for leaving so abruptly. Here’s some fruit as an apology,” said Yangyang. She stuffed the fruits into Qing Chen’s arms and ran away again.

Looking at the girl’s back then at the fruits in his arms, Qing Chen was inexplicably surprised.

Li Shutong said with a smile, “Fresh fruits in the city aren’t cheap. A catty1around a pound of fruit is worth ten catties of synthetic meat. The little girl is quite generous. Generally, people outside of the top three districts won’t choose to buy fruits, unless it’s for special occasions.”

“Although the fruits in the Outer World are also getting expensive, at least most people can still afford them,” said Qing Chen, “I remember that my favorite season used to be the Summer. I could eat half a watermelon myself, and it was cheap back then. A big melon would only cost ten yuan.”

Li Shutong sighed and said, “I didn’t think of it when we were in the wilderness before, but I realized later that Qing Yiyi was also very generous for giving you so many apples. Their family will go to pick apples every autumn. A carload of apples can sell for a handsome sum of money in the city.”

“I see,” Qing Chen said.

“By the way,” said Li Shutong, “The Qin family has already returned to City 18. They followed my instructions to find Su Xingzhi, but Qin Yiyi didn’t return with them.”

“Where did she go?” Qing Chen asked.

“Her father Qin Cheng told Su Xingzhi that on the way back, Qin Yiyi went off in the middle of the night by herself,” Li Shutong explained, “She left a letter saying that she’s going to the Firepit in the Southwestern Snow Mountains.”

Qing Chen recalled the girl with a bag of apples. Smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

“Master, is that what you have been doing today?” Qing Chen asked.

“No,” Li Shutong shook his head and said, “Su Xingzhi can arrange them very well, so I don’t need to worry about it much.”

“Then what have you been doing, Master?” Qing Chen wondered.

“I went to see which car is the best for you,” said Li Shutong, “It can’t be too attractive, but still has good performance. It’s a difficult job. Say, this is actually the first time I went to buy a car myself.”

Qing Chen was puzzled, “Master, what have those time travelers told you? What else did they say a father needs to do for a child?”

“Oh,” Li Shutong replied after thinking for a while, “They said a lot of things and were all different. Though most of them mentioned that a father needs to buy his son a house, a phone, and a car.”

Qing Chen nodded, “That is similar to the values of the Outer World.”

Li Shutong glanced at him, and said, “Someone also told me that there’s a saying: Spare the rod, spoil the child.”

Qing Chen: “???”

Who the hell told Li Shutong this?!

“That time traveler… What’s his name?”

Li Shutong was silent for a while and said, “Are you planning to kill him after returning to the Outer World?”

“That’s a good suggestion.”

“Also,” Li Shutong said, “It has been confirmed that Liu Dezhu has become an awakener. Are you certain that he’s loyal to you? If you are certain, then I will tell Lin Xiaoxiao and Ye Wan to get rid of him as soon as possible. Although he’s still not yet a high-level awakener, having such a person beside you can still be dangerous.”

“There’s no need to get rid of him. I have him convinced already.” Qing Chen said, “In fact, even if he isn’t fully loyal to me, I can’t kill him just because of this kind of thing.”

“It’s good to be kind, but it’s not good to be too kind,” said Li Shutong.

“Master, what level is Liu Dezhu after awakening?” Qing Chen asked.

“Level C.”

“Level C?” Qing Chen was shocked, “How did he become level C all of a sudden? Why can he skip levels F, E, and D?”

“That’s just how awakeners advance.” Li Shutong explained, “A cultivator’s release of potential is directional and slow, but the path is also longer and more stable. An awakener, on the other hand, is very different. They may awaken as a level C, and it might be stuck there forever, since they don’t have a stable growth method. Even if they want to, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what they need to do to advance.”

If Qing Chen wanted to advance a level, he could just cultivate, and after accumulating enough skills and experience, he could complete the next life-and-death challenge.

But Liu Dezhu was different, he couldn’t replicate the situation again.

Li Shutong sighed, “There used to be a very vicious family. Once the family noticed a new born son had great potential, the family members knew that this child could become a powerful superhuman, so they made a plan to hire assassins to kill a close family member every once in a while. Since the child didn’t know about this, he kept looking for the murderer with hatred. In just three years, he got to level B. Later he found out about the plan and was overwhelmed by the truth, so he awakened again, becoming a level A superhuman.”

Qing Chen silently turned his head to look at Li Shutong.

Li Shutong said, “Why are you looking at me like this?! Don’t look at me all of a sudden I’m talking about this kind of thing… Do you want me to pick up the rod?!”

“Ahem, Master, don’t get me wrong. You must have misunderstood me. Speaking of which, this method of advancement is a bit costly to friends and relatives,” said Qing Chen, “Is there anyone who is particularly talented?”

“Of course,” Li Shutong said, “I’ve seen people getting to level A as soon as they awaken.”

“In the history of the Federation, which awakener had the best talent, or, I just want to know how powerful can an awakener be?” Qing Chen asked.

“I know someone who went from an ordinary person to a demigod overnight,” Li Shutong said.

“An awakener can become a demigod?” Qing Chen was surprised, “Who is it?”

Li Shutong smiled, “You will know in the future, because you’ll definitely meet him.”

Qing Chen silently digested the information, and he suddenly asked, “Master, do you want me to attend school so that I can have a few more years of carefree life?”

“Yeah,” Li Shutong replied plainly, “I was afraid that your tense nature will take away the fun in life for you. When I was your age, all I did was fool around, but in retrospect those were my happiest days.”

However, Qing Chen shook his head and said, “Master, school’s only half a day anyways. If you don’t let me go do something meaningful, I will go crazy. Besides, I can’t be carefree anymore.”

Li Shutong said, “A young person like you shouldn’t set too many goals for yourself. When I was your age, I fought with people in the city every day. My martial brother and I were Knights at that time. He just went through the second life-and-death stage challenge, and I just passed the first one. After returning to the city from the Qingshan Great Cliff, he insisted on taking me to test my physical fitness, but he tricked me to beat up the Black Dragon Gang’s prince. We ended up being chased for more than 30 km, running from the ninth district all the way to the seventh.”

Thinking about the scene being painted in his head, Qing Chen could already see how miserable his master must be at that time.

He asked, “Why did you beat the prince of the Black Dragon Gang?”

“At that time, our Master told us to go to fight in the black market’s underground fight club to gain combat experience. But the fighters from the Black Dragon Club added plaster into their gloves and ended up beating the daylights out of my martial brother,” Li Shutong said emotionally.

Qing Chen was stunned: “Are superhumans allowed to participate in the underground fighting matches? At that time, your martial brother had gone through the second life-and-death stage, so he should have been an E-level superhuman. Shouldn’t it be a piece of cake for him?”

For some reason, he was having a lot of fun listening to his master’s experience of being beaten when his master was young.

This made his master more like a normal human being.

“Of course superhumans can participate. It’s more exciting for superhumans to fight each other. They get paid more and the wagers go higher as well. There are even D-level participants.” Li Shutong continued, “Boxing matches are divided into divisions, just like the ranking system for superhumans.”

The highest division in the fighting clubs was the Land Cruisers, which corresponded to the D-level superhumans.

The lower level to that would be tigerweight, corresponding to level-E.

After that, there would be middleweight, lightweight, featherweight, and bantamweight.

The divisions weren’t dependent on weight but on the fighter’s strength and experience.

However, all fighters needed to start fighting from the bantamweight division. Fighting opponents from each division upwards until the new fighters lost, which then would set them at that division. This would only be held on the first night a new fighter fought.

The prize money of each division incremented by leaps and bounds. The appearance fee of the bantamweight division may only be a few hundred yuan, and the fighters would not receive any dividend from the wagers. For the middleweight division, the appearance fee would be in the tens of thousands of yuan, and they would receive a dividend payout as well.

Of course, the price of losing once might be death.

After explaining this, Li Shutong stood up from the sofa.

“Let’s go. I’ll let you see for yourself what City 18’s nightlife looks like.”

Qing Chen followed his master. Before his master had brought him to the Qingshan Great Cliff, and now, his master was going to take him to experience fighting in a black market fight club.

In fact, all this seemed to be like bringing him on a journey that his master once took.

…

…

Yangyang, who was quietly hiding downstairs, watched Li Shutong and Qingchen leave.

Then she got into the Luoshen Building quietly and went straight to the 132nd floor.

Knock knock knock, Yang Yang knocked on Zheng Yi’s door.

Zheng Yi was just about to leave to take after school classes. After seeing Yangyang outside her apartment, she was a bit taken aback, “Yangyang, why are you here?”

As she spoke, she glanced at the door behind Yangyang, which was tightly closed.

Yangyang smiled and said, “Let’s rent together!”

• 1around a pound