Chapter 237: What Earthquake?
In that very moment, Jiang He could not help thinking about the word ‘apocalypse’!
Over dozens of miles of land was reduced to wasteland, and the tremendous tremors rifts extended over fifty kilometers, with numerous mountainous bodies splitting apart. Upon it, every Feral in Mount Dadong was squealing in panic as they fled.
Yan Dehao was utterly frightened by the sight.
He was shaking even after they landed at the wasteland, wailing, “Jiang He, it really wasn’t me... I was just stamping the ground out of impatience, and then this happened.”
Jiang He eyed Yan Dehao.
‘This fool... is such an actor!
‘Don’t you know whether it was you who caused this whole mess?
‘If you really could crush the whole heritage site by causing an avalanche with your foot, why bother becoming an undercover agent at the Sky Demon Cult? You could have crushed them alone.’
“Oh, what a shame.”
Jiang He could not help shaking his head and sighing after a look at the rubble before him.
That sigh left the crying Yan Dehao promptly stop his tears, and he turned towards Jiang He in shock.
‘What a shame?
‘Aren’t you the biggest winner here tonight?
‘You managed to slay two cardinals, the Sentinel of the Left, Fifth Elder, several Holy Children, a handful of Decans and the Graywolf King, even retrieving the legacy items and tressures in the heritage site...
‘And you still look disappointed?’
He was not aware that Jiang He was regretting the loss of the Sky Demon Cultists’ corpses.
The Graywolf King’s corpse was collected, sure, just as the average high-ranked Feral corpses were too weak physically and in qi for him to retrieve them—even to feed his dog. On the other hand, the corpse of the two cardinals, the Sentinel of the Left, Fifth Elder, Holy Children as well as Decans were wasted, buried beneath the collapsed mountains.
He would definitely grow many blades of grave gra.s.s if he planted them.
After that, he would feed them to Dumbo and Trumbo, and definitely improve their ability greatly.
“Still, that doesn’t matter. The corpse may stay buried beneath ground, since both Dumbo and Trumbo had awakened earth-type powers anyway—I’ll call Cheng Dongfeng to send them here later, and they would dig those corpses out soon enough.”
After all...
Neither Dumbo nor Trumbo had been too far away from home, and certainly not Mount Dadong. What if they get lost on the way if he told them to get here on their own?
***
The Martial Arts Department (MAD) Lingzhou City.
Cheng Dongfeng rubbed his sleepy eyes, groaning as he entered Duan Tianhe’s office and found both Duan Tianhe and Ji Dongxu present, exclaiming in surprise, “Old Duan, Grandmaster Ji. What happened? Why aren’t you sleeping in the middle of the night?”
“Earthquake. Don’t you know?”
Duan Tian He gave Cheng Dongfeng a look. How could a martial arts grandmaster like you sleep so soundly?
Not even an earthquake could wake you up?
Nonetheless, considering Cheng Dongfeng’s personality and that the tremor in Lingzhou City was rather weak, it made sense that he felt nothing. Indeed, he would not notice much when he’s up, let alone asleep.
Duan Tianhe’s tone changed then as he said, “I’ve contacted the seismology center, and it seems that the epicenter is Mount Dadong. The data they provided is also weird—the epicenter is shallow and might not be natural, although they also determined that the tremors exceed level nine on the Richter scale at the most violent spot of the earthquake’s reach.”
Cheng Dongfeng promptly lost all drowsiness.
Mount Dadong?
An earthquake above level 9?
Fortunately, the epicenter was shallow, or the tremors would be far more severe if it was deep. Still, it did not matter all that much since the earthquake occurred at Mount Dadong.
Cheng Dongfeng could not help but laugh then, “Isn’t that cause for celebration? It would be even better if that earthquake buried those vermin... hold on, Old Duan, what do you mean, the earthquake might not be natural?”
He blinked and came to a realization before he finished.
If it was not natural... did that mean it was manmade?
And for some reason, Jiang He immediately came to mind.
He suddenly remembered that Zhou Yu called to ask about Jiang He’s whereabouts, and he even laughed at the time ‘could Jiang He have run off to blow up Mount Dadong?’
A strange look appeared on Cheng Dongfeng’s face then.
What the h.e.l.l!
Did Jiang He really do that? Did he blow up Mount Dadong?
His joke even became true?
“Old Duan... Did you manage to contact Jiang He?”
Cheng Dongfeng’s voice became rather hoa.r.s.e, and what Jiang He told him in the afternoon came to mind... That he would resolve the problem on Mount Dadong with a dependable solution.
But did blowing up Mount Dadong count as a dependable solution?
Hmm...
To Jiang He, it might.
Duan Tianhe shook his head, saying, “Deputy Zhou called him several times, and I could not reach him over an hour ago either.”
“Send someone to his house if he could not be reached?”
Cheng Dongfeng became fl.u.s.tered. “Didn’t Deputy Zhou say before, Minister w.a.n.g is going to talk to the Dragoncroc Emperor, and before they come to an accord, we must convince Jiang He to cultivate quietly and not start any trouble... and now he can’t be reached...”
Touching his chest, Cheng Dongfeng felt a little panicked.
Could Jiang He had started trouble?
“I did send someone, but once they reached Jiang He’s house, a dog wielding a sword chased them off.” Duan Tianhe laughed bitterly and feebly.
A dog wielding a sword?
It would be such a bizarre sight.
Nonetheless, he found it logical once he remembered that Jiang He owned that dog.
“Old Cheng, I know what you’re thinking, but this probably has nothing to do with Jiang He. He likes his bombs, but according to him, those are all just homemade bombs that wouldn’t be that powerful.”
“Moreover, if we could feel the tremors here at Lingzhou City over a hundred and fifty kilometers away, the yield must have been horrific, and we could see the explosion from here since it’s night.”
After hearing out Duan Tianhe’s logical a.n.a.lysis, Cheng Dongfeng couldn’t help nodding and feeling much relieved.
Nonetheless, he would go to Jiang He’s house just to be sure—the risk of being beaten up was fine even if it was past four in the morning now.
Still, Cheng Dongfeng’s phone rang just as he rose to his feet.
He whipped out his phone, shuddering once he saw the caller ID, and throw the phone away immediately.
“What?”
Duan Tianhe and Ji Dongxu appeared a little puzzled.
“It’s Jiang He!”
Cheng Dongfeng took a deep breath before picking up the phone carefully again, muttering to himself, “Am I being too nervous? Maybe Jiang He is calling me to ask about the earthquake after getting jolted awake?”
He answered the call.
Over on the other end, Jiang He’s voice spoke, “Were you sleeping, grandson?”
The entire office fell into awkward silence at the word ‘grandson’.
Cheng Dongfeng laughed out loud after seeing Duan Tianhe and Ji Dongxu’s weird stares, changing the topic, “Jiang He, is something the matter? Oh, right, did you know about the earthquake?”
“Jiang He?”
***
Back at the rubble that was Mount Dadong.
Jiang He frowned.
Old Cheng was really inflated!
He was calling me grand-master in the afternoon, and now he’s calling me directly by name?
But now was not the time to mind such things.
“Earthquake? Was there an earthquake in Lingzhou City?”
“Yes.”
Cheng Dongfeng answered. “The seismology center told us that the epicenter is Mount Dadong, but it seems that the tremors are limited to that area, so it’s not a problem.”
“Nonsense.”
Jiang He barked. “Who told you that the epicenter is Mount Dadong? The seismology center? Are they trying to be funny? What earthquake? It was only a heritage site collapsing... what does that have to do with earthquakes?”