Chapter 144 - 111: Heavyweight Intel! An S-Class Extraordinary in the Core Area! Has the Bloodthirsty Vine Invaded the School?
"What... happened to him?"
Chen Chong was a little surprised.
Ning Feng was lying on the ground, unconscious. Not a single part of him, including his clothes, was unscathed. He was covered in countless cuts and caked in mud.
Dried bloodstains covered his face and arms, making it impossible to tell if the blood was his or someone else’s.
He was tightly gripping the rapier he always carried.
But now, only half of the blade remained. The other half was gone...
"I don’t know. Zhang Meng brought him in," Xu Jun said, looking completely baffled.
Zhang Meng quickly spoke up. "I don’t know either. When Huang Mao and I came over this morning, we found him lying there at the seventh-floor landing. We tried knocking on the Swordsmanship Club’s door, but no one answered. We had no choice but to bring him here."
Huang Mao added, "Yeah, Brother Chong. When Brother Meng and I saw someone lying on the landing, it gave us a scare. We thought a violent clash had broken out on the seventh floor while we were gone last night..."
Looking at Ning Feng’s wretched state, Chen Chong’s expression darkened. He already had a good idea of what had happened.
"Should we get Xinrou to come up and see if there’s a way to wake him?" Xu Jun asked.
"No need for that trouble. Let Jia Wen give it a try!"
Jia Wen raised his hand and pinched the pressure point under Ning Feng’s nose.
As he applied more pressure...
"COUGH COUGH... COUGH!"
He woke up.
Ning Feng weakly opened his eyes, looking completely lost.
After he made out the faces of the people gathered around him, he seemed to remember something, and his expression changed drastically.
"Quick... go save my sister!"
Xu Jun said, "Take it easy, man. What do you mean, ’save your sister’? What happened to you?"
"Cough... The Blood Python. We ran into the Blood Python. It killed so many people... from the school... almost everyone who went is dead. Our people were scattered."
Chen Chong’s brow furrowed. "Didn’t I tell you not to even think about hunting the Blood Python? Why did you still go?"
Ning Feng said, "It wasn’t our idea. It was Xiaoshuang. She ran off to the Sky Pit, ran into the Blood Python, and got trapped. The ones who escaped and came back told us where she was. My sister was worried about her, so she took people to rescue her."
"She didn’t want me to go at first, but Xiaoshuang is my sister too. How could I just sit at home and do nothing? In the end, everyone went except for Ah Yu and Xiaowu, who stayed behind..."
"You had people at home?" Zhang Meng was confused. "There was absolutely no one there when I knocked."
"Impossible. Ah Yu is a very light sleeper, and he was sleeping on the living room sofa. He definitely would have opened the door if someone knocked!"
"But there was no one. I was carrying you and planned to take you back to your room first. I knocked for at least four or five minutes, and no one came."
Ning Feng started to argue, but then a sudden thought struck him. "Could it be..."
Chen Chong said, "Mm. If I had to guess, they saw you hadn’t come back all night and went out looking for you. The jungle at night is nothing like the daytime. If they’re injured on top of that... let’s just hope they don’t run into any danger."
Ning Feng was stunned. After a long moment, he covered his face with a bitter smile.
But as he smiled, he began to cry.
"Xiaoshuang... It’s one thing for her to be mischievous usually, but this time she’s really caused a disaster..."
"To save her, everyone in our club went. I watched Xiaoliu die right in front of me, and I was powerless to do anything. The rest were scattered, and we don’t know if they’re dead or alive."
"That kind of monster... it’s not something humans can fight. I used every last bit of my strength to get back here, just to find Ah Yu and the others to get reinforcements, but now even they’re..."
"Chen Chong, I’m begging you, please help us. I’m not asking you to find everyone. At least... at least get my sister out of there."
"She’s the strongest, and she has an ability to protect herself. She must still be alive..."
Even though he covered his eyes with his hands, two streams of tears clearly traced paths down his face.
Grief and helplessness filled his expression, a stark contrast to his usual flippant demeanor...
He passed out again; whether from overwhelming grief or complete exhaustion, it was hard to say.
"Take him to the infirmary."
A laborer carried Ning Feng away on his back.
"Brother Chen Chong, are we... going?" Zhang Meng asked tentatively.
Chen Chong was silent for a long moment.
"We’re going!"
Xu Jun slammed his hand on the table, as if he’d just had a shot of adrenaline, filled with a mix of righteous anger and hot-blooded excitement.
"Alright! Brother Chong is flying into a rage for a beauty, so I’ll go with you! We killed the Giant Catfish, and we won’t back down from a giant python either!"
Chen Chong was utterly speechless.
"You’re overthinking it. Even without this whole mess with the Swordsmanship Club, I was planning to make a trip to the Sky Pit."
"Really?"
"Let’s go!"
The group grabbed their gear and headed out immediately.
The Tiger Striped Dog quickly followed.
Only the black Lion-headed Goose was left, squatting by the grassy field.
In its uncannily human-like eyes, the reflection of Chen Chong’s departing figure was mirrored.
Although it didn’t know what its master was going to do, it could sense a fluctuation of negative emotions.
’Master seems to... need help?’
’Should I keep guarding the house and patrolling?’
The door slowly closed...
...
"Faster!"
In the dense forest, the Tiger Striped Dog sprinted ahead.
Chen Chong, Xu Jun, and Wang Biao followed close behind.
Jia Wen, Zhang Meng, and Huang Mao had fallen behind but were desperately trying to keep up.
WOOF—
The running Tiger Striped Dog let out a bark.
Chen Chong knew what that meant. It had smelled blood. They couldn’t be far from where the Blood-tooth Python had appeared.
If the Blood-tooth Python was just ahead, it would be extremely dangerous for the whole group to rush in suddenly.
’I’ll be fine. I’m confident I can survive a surprise attack, but I can’t say the same for the others...’
"Ah Jun, Wang Biao, you guys follow Hu Zi. I’ll go scout ahead!"
Without waiting for them to reply, Chen Chong bent his knees and then powerfully pushed off the ground.
He pushed the effects of his Jump Enhancement to the absolute limit.
As dirt flew, Chen Chong leaped ten meters into the air, launching himself forward at incredible speed.
Everyone’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
"What the fuck!"
"Holy shit!"
"Damn!!!"
Xu Jun, Zhang Meng, and Huang Mao all cried out in unison.
The three of them couldn’t believe their eyes. They froze for a second as if they’d seen a ghost, almost tripping and falling flat because they weren’t watching where they were going.
As members of the team, they had long known about the existence of Ability Cards and were even aware that Chen Chong had more than one ability.
That had been the key to hunting the Unihorn Catfish.
But they had no idea Chen Chong had an ability that let him jump so high!
It looked like he was taking off from a standstill.
The visual was spectacular, and the impact was absolutely intense!
...
BANG!!!
Chen Chong crashed to the ground like a meteorite, snapping a tree trunk as thick as a bowl upon impact and tearing up the top layer of soil for several meters around.
"Cough cough..."
’My first time jumping with full power, and I couldn’t even keep my balance in mid-air. Good thing I have Rock Body Transformation, or that would have been serious.’
Chen Chong picked himself up, shaking the dirt off his body.
He marveled internally at the exaggerated effect of Jump Enhancement. It was also his first time using Rock Body Transformation in an emergency.
’To fall from that high and feel no impact at all... As expected of an A-Level ability. It’s even stronger than I anticipated.’
’To actually get injured, I’d probably have to take damage far beyond this threshold.’
’With this ability as a safety net, I won’t have to worry about being unable to withstand the impact of a full-power jump, even in an emergency...’
As for the stamina drain after using it, his rapid recovery quickly replenished it, making it almost negligible.
’With a little more practice, I should be able to master it completely.’
Chen Chong leaped again.
This time, he didn’t use his full strength, only jumping five meters high.
As he got used to landing, he steadily increased his power, jumping higher and higher through the dense forest...
Gradually, he launched himself with full power again. A ten-meter-high jump, covering a hundred meters in a single leap.
This time, Chen Chong didn’t crash. He had completely mastered Jump Enhancement...
...
BANG!
Chen Chong dropped from the sky. The immense impact drove his feet deep into the soil, almost past his ankles.
’The smell of blood is so thick. Are these the outskirts of the Celestial Pit?’
Gazing at the gigantic trees ahead that blotted out the sun and pierced the clouds, he knew he had arrived at the Blood-tooth Python’s lair!
...