Chapter 683: Penalties
Translator: Legge
While everyone was still setting up their tents and starting a cookfire, Ren Xiaosu ditched the Great Hoodwinker and led Yang Xiaojin into the mountains.
Cheng Yu, who was in charge of leading the team, frowned at the sight. It was only the first day, yet there were already people moving around on their own? Was that young couple so afraid of loneliness? Was seeking pleasure all they could think of at their age?
They were in the middle of a war!
But on second thought, these two C-rank hitmen might not even be able to make it out of the Sacred Mountains alive. Moreover, they did not look like supernatural beings either, so it would not matter how hard they fought. What they could achieve would still be very limited in the end.
Cheng Yu refocused his attention on the suspected hitmen from the consortiums. He had to pay attention in case they turned against him.
However, Cheng Yu still called his assistant over in the end. “You’re the most skilled at combat. Go follow those two and see what they’re up to.”
His assistant nodded and said, “Alright, you can count on me.”
Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had already arrived at another mountainside. After making sure no one had seen them, Ren Xiaosu said, “I can conjure up a sniper rifle with my power. Would you like to give it a try?”
Yang Xiaojin shook her head. “No. What’ll you use if you give it to me?”
“I can conjure two rifles, but the second one’s no use to me,” Ren Xiaosu replied. He had made such a wise choice to copy Xu Xianchu’s superpower.
The shadow clone was not only one of Ren Xiaosu’s greatest helpers, it was also directly linked to the palace. As a result, every time Ren Xiaosu unlocked a weapon, he would get two sets. This made Ren Xiaosu feel like he had taken advantage of the palace.
As he spoke, he took out the black sniper rifle from his storage space. Yang Xiaojin looked at it curiously. “Why is your superpower so strange? It’s like a treasure chest with all kinds of items in it. What special traits does this black sniper rifle have?”
Ren Xiaosu said, “Its effective range is over 2,600 meters, and there’s no need to manually reload. There’s also many different bullets to choose from and no need for an additional flash guard to be attached. I call it the black sniper rifle.”
“It can suppress muzzle flash without a flash guard?” Yang Xiaojin muttered, “Then it’s pretty apt that it’s called a black sniper rifle. It’ll be very suitable for covert operations.”
Yang Xiaojin listened as Ren Xiaosu detailed the black sniper rifle’s attributes to her. She was particularly interested when he mentioned the bullets did not need to be manually reloaded and the muzzle flash was automatically suppressed.
But right as Yang Xiaojin took the additional black sniper rifle from Ren Xiaosu, the long-awaited voice from the palace suddenly said, “The black sniper rifle has been detected to be compatible with the target’s power. Would you like to gift it to the target?”
Ren Xiaosu was stunned. First, he was very happy the palace had finally spoken again. Second, the palace sounded exceptionally pleasant today. It was actually allowing him to gift the black sniper rifle to Yang Xiaojin?
However, Ren Xiaosu turned wary. After all, his stingy palace used to demand a lot of money from him just to open up some storage space. So why was it being so generous all of a sudden?
Ren Xiaosu asked in his mind, “And what’s the price to pay?”
“The host will accept being punished for a duration of seven days. The choice of penalty will be random.”
“What’s with this random penalty thingy? Are you trying to cause trouble again?” Ren Xiaosu asked, “Can’t you just tell me what the punishment will be?”
Seeing that they would only be entering the Sacred Mountains seven days later, the palace probably did not want anything to happen to him either. Therefore, the punishment duration was set for exactly seven days. In that case, this was not an unacceptable outcome.
But not knowing what the punishment would be, Ren Xiaosu felt a little uneasy. Who knew what the palace was really up to?
Seeing Yang Xiaojin holding the black sniper rifle so tightly like she really wanted it, Ren Xiaosu clenched his teeth and said, “Gift!”
However, Yang Xiaojin suddenly frowned. It felt like her power was being controlled externally as her own sniper rifle materialized and turned into an apparition.
Slowly, that sniper rifle’s apparition started merging with the black sniper rifle. The palace had turned the black sniper rifle into Yang Xiaojin’s power!
Ren Xiaosu was also stunned. Back when Xu Xianchu was showing off his black cauldron, Ren Xiaosu thought he might have unconsciously bestowed it on him. Because he kept making others take the blame for him, the palace decided to compensate Xu Xianchu with a black cauldron.
But Ren Xiaosu was not very sure at that time. After all, no one in this world could add to the superpowers of others, right?
But now, Ren Xiaosu was finally sure he was the one who had given that black cauldron to Xu Xianchu.
Ren Xiaosu had already found the palace to be extremely magical. It was even more magical than most of the powers supernatural beings possessed in this world. Others would only have one superpower to speak of, while the most powerful ones thus far might wield two superpowers at the same time.
But it was different for Ren Xiaosu. He had so many superpowers even he felt it was abnormal. Ren Xiaosu found it terrifying just thinking about how he could replicate other people’s superpowers and enhance them stronger for himself. Of course, this was also the reason why he had always been hiding his superpowers from everyone. If anyone were to find out about it, he would be in great danger.
But now he realized he could bestow powers upon others too.
Being able to bestow superpowers to supernatural beings was like a divine gift from the gods. It was like he was naturally at a higher level than others.
Moreover, Li Shentan said before that he was unable to hypnotize him. During the battle in Luoyang City, a superhuman had tried to dictate his fate but was met with backlash instead. It seemed like a lot of supernatural beings were unable to deal with him in their encounters.
Other supernatural beings, such as Luo Xinyu, could only activate her Shadow Door power about a dozen times per day at most. But Ren Xiaosu, whose mental strength never seemed to run out, could open it whenever he wished.
Wang Congyang’s steam locomotive only had four carriages, but his had sixteen. If Wang Congyang found out about this, he would probably die of anger.
All of this seemed to be telling Ren Xiaosu that he was no average person.
But Yan Liuyuan’s power was clearly able to affect Ren Xiaosu. In that case, could Yan Liuyuan be at the same level as him? Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled.
But before he could think further, the punishment was meted out.
At this moment, the assistant Cheng Yu had sent to tail Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin was slowly creeping up on them. He did not dare to approach them rashly either. If Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were hiding their strength, wouldn’t it be very dangerous for him to get too close to them?
He was on the other side of the mountain where he took out his binoculars to observe them in the distance. However, he was stunned by what he saw. Then he turned around and returned to the campsite.
When Cheng Yu saw his assistant returning, he asked, “Why are you back so soon? Did you see what they were doing?”
The assistant hesitated for a moment before saying, “I did, but it was such a strange sight. I don’t know how to describe it.”
Cheng Yu frowned. “Why? Was it something weird?”
“Yes, it was way too weird.” The assistant said, “The two of them were actually jumping rope on the mountainside!”
Cheng Yu was confused. He had thought of the possibility that his assistant might catch them getting intimate, or that the two of them were plotting something. He predicted many possibilities of what they could be up to, but he never expected they would actually sneak out of the campsite just so they could jump rope together!
As Cheng Yu imagined that scene, the mental image killed him!
When Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin returned to the campsite with dark expressions, they felt like Cheng Yu was giving them strange looks.