Chapter 14 Swallowed Whole

"You never asked," Zhang Chu replied, feeling somewhat wronged by the accusation. Who would go around telling everyone they met that they were a martial artist?

"If I’d known, I wouldn't have needed to use my grandfather’s ID to leave the city..." Huang Lili felt as if she were dreaming. Of all the people she’d worked with in her ticket-scalping ventures, Zhang Chu was by far the most honest and unassuming, yet he turned out to be a level 1 martial artist. Judging from how he had just felled the armored wolf in a single blow, his martial skills must at least be at the elementary level.

If only Zhang Chu had said something sooner. A level 1 martial artist could have easily taken her out of the city with his martial artist’s card. In her panic just now, she’d even pressed the emergency distress button—something her grandfather had prepared for her. By now, they’d probably already received her distress signal.

"Don’t forget, ten percent commission," Huang Lili reminded him, though she didn’t feel shortchanged by the situation. The fright was real, but at least they’d managed to bring down a grade-one, low-tier armored wolf. The fresh pelt and core were both of high quality. Whether sold on the black market or at the Martial Artists’ Center, they could fetch enough for two Vitality Pills. She was already making plans—if she acted cute, Zhang Chu would surely let her have one.

"The pelt is yours, the core is mine," Zhang Chu said. He was quite adept at extracting the core, having practiced the procedure countless times in the virtual hunting grounds. Before Huang Lili could fully come to her senses, she saw Zhang Chu skillfully strip the armored wolf’s pelt and tuck it into his backpack, while the blood-red core disappeared into his own pocket.

"Are you sure you’re not losing out, giving me the pelt?" Huang Lili hadn’t expected Zhang Chu to be so generous. A pelt worth a Vitality Pill, and he just gave it away. But it wasn’t generosity that guided Zhang Chu’s actions—he simply didn’t want Huang Lili to set her sights on the core.

Just ten seconds earlier, when he’d extracted the core, a voice from the system had suddenly sounded in his mind.

“Ding! Host has acquired a grade-one, low-tier core. Vitality value is being appraised…”

“Appraisal complete. Vitality value: +30.”

Zhang Chu couldn’t quite fathom what the system was up to, but he was certain he’d just discovered a new golden opportunity. With Huang Lili watching, he couldn’t research it openly, so he gave her the pelt as hush money.

To his surprise, Huang Lili just shot him a grateful look.

"It’s getting late, we should head back," Zhang Chu said, slinging his backpack over his shoulders and retracing their steps.

"You’re actually a pretty good guy," Huang Lili murmured, a faint dimple appearing on her cheek as she quickened her pace to catch up.

They drove back, arriving at the gate of Binzhou City just in time. After returning the government vehicle, Huang Lili, still brimming with joy, insisted on inviting Jiang Ning out for hotpot. But Zhang Chu was in no mood for a meal. All he wanted was to get home and figure out what the system’s vitality appraisal really meant. With a perfunctory promise to have dinner with Huang Lili another time, he hailed a cab and headed for the Martial Artists’ Residence.

Barely had Zhang Chu left when another car pulled up in haste. Huang Wenzhan rushed out, scanning Huang Lili anxiously. "Lili, you scared your grandfather to death! I thought something had happened to you!"

"Grandpa, you have to cook tonight! I absolutely must thank my savior!" Huang Lili’s eyes sparkled.

"Savior? What savior?" Huang Wenzhan was baffled, half-wondering if his granddaughter had knocked her head while outside the city.

"I’ll tell you in the car," Huang Lili said, dragging him inside. Along the way, she recounted every detail of the day’s events.

Once home, Huang Wenzhan looked at her gravely. "Lili, what’s the name of this young man you mentioned? Where does he live?"

"Uh… I don’t think I ever asked," Huang Lili realized, somewhat embarrassed, that she still didn’t know Zhang Chu’s real name. What scalper would bother asking for someone’s name, after all? All she knew was his WeChat nickname: Balabala.

"Never mind. Just make sure you invite him to dinner tonight. Your grandfather has to thank him properly, or the consequences could have been dire," Huang Wenzhan said. He wanted to say more, but his phone rang. Seeing the call was from the dean’s office, his face turned green with anger as he stormed into the study. "What exactly are you people doing? Do I need to handle this myself? And that Li Feng—he’d better give me a personal explanation as to how a genius like Zhang Chu was ever expelled!"

Hearing her grandfather’s angry tirade from the study, Huang Lili tiptoed into her room. She took out her phone and quickly messaged Zhang Chu: "My grandpa says he wants to thank you for saving me today. Please come to our house for dinner tonight." She followed up with their address and house number. While she waited for his reply, she didn’t forget to list the armored wolf pelt on the Martial Artists’ Residence app, awaiting official confirmation and pickup.

Meanwhile, Zhang Chu’s phone was nowhere to be found. In the living room, he washed the armored wolf’s core clean and placed it on the table.

"System?" Zhang Chu called out silently. As expected, his information panel appeared before his eyes. "About that vitality appraisal you mentioned earlier—what exactly does it mean?" He was testing to see if the system could understand and respond to human speech.

A moment later, a white pop-up appeared on the blue system interface, explaining the vitality appraisal: "Vitality appraisal is the value derived from the system’s scan and analysis of a beast core. The host can consume beast cores to increase vitality."

Consume the core directly?

Zhang Chu’s first reaction was a wave of disgust.

The thing still carried a distinct scent of blood. But then he realized something: all the pills used by martial artists contained ingredients from beasts. The most critical component in a Vitality Pill, for instance, was precisely the beast core.

A grade-one, low-tier Vitality Pill could increase his vitality by 10 points. But consuming the core directly, the projected increase was 30 points. The difference was clear: ingesting the core was far more effective.

Zhang Chu hesitated a long while, then steeled himself and swallowed the pigeon-egg-sized core whole. The overpowering taste of blood nearly knocked him out on the spot. It took a swig of cola to recover.

“Ding!”

“Host has consumed one grade-one, low-tier beast core. Vitality +30!”

Immediately, his personal information panel appeared before him:

Name: Zhang Chu
Level: 1
New vitality: 30
Total vitality: 206.1/500
Martial Art: Sky Cannon (Grade-one, low-tier)
Martial Skill Proficiency: Elementary

“Damn, I’ve hit the jackpot!” Zhang Chu drummed the table in excitement, staring at the numbers on the digital panel.

There was a monthly limit of three Vitality Pills, but there was no cap on hunting beasts and extracting their cores—it all depended on his own abilities. And raw cores provided much more vitality than pills. The only catch: the core had to be fresh; damaged ones were useless.

And this was just a core from a grade-one, low-tier beast! Zhang Chu dared not imagine how much his vitality would increase with a grade-two beast core.

Such fortune called for celebration. After a quick shower, he slept soundly for hours. It was nearly dark when his phone’s chime woke him from a corner of the room. Reading Huang Lili’s long, heartfelt messages, Zhang Chu finally remembered he’d promised to join her for dinner.

"Fifteen minutes," he replied, knowing that if he didn’t show, Huang Lili would bombard him with endless messages.

He washed up, changed into a sharp outfit, bought some fruit and a case of milk at the neighborhood entrance, and finally arrived at the villa in Area A, ringing the doorbell with the address Huang Lili had sent him.