Yang Manli

Join my server! — https://discord.gg/smAesXp

Feel free to give ideas and talk with others.

***

Finally, after countless days of traveling, he arrived back at Steel Armor Shelter.

He unsummoned his mount from a distance and carried the little amount of mutant jerky he had left. It was only 12 pieces, but they should be able to give three or four mutant geno points.

Long Tian saved them for Qin Xuan, to serve as evidence.

Pulling out his exploration journal, Long Tian browsed through the pages and looked at the information written down.

It contained over ten mutant creatures and two sacred-blood creatures. As he browsed even further through the journal, many ripped pages were revealed.

Lower Valley.

That place was too much for the people of Steel Armor Shelter to know. He trusted Qin Xuan and her calculative mind, but not the rest.

Qin Xuan would foresee the dangers that is held in Lower Valley, but not the rest. All they would see is benefits and the large amount of sacred-blood geno points within Lower Valley.

Entering the shelter, Long Tian made his way over to the little hangout of Bullseye within the shelter.

The hangout was in an open space, but it was covered with large tents and some makeshift fences made of wood. It was rather impressive as it appeared rather well-made and charming. Qin Xuan, or any past Bullseye gang leader, must have hired professional carpenters for this.

He approached the entrance of the shelter and was stopped by two men at the wooden gate.

"Stop there buddy. Who are…" The armored man was going to say something, but paused as he looked at Long Tian carefully. He raised his eyebrows and smirked as he turned to look at his buddy. "It's that Long Tian guy that the Leader told us to keep an eye out for."

"Huh? That's him… he looks a little different from the drawings…"

The partner pulled out a paper scroll, unfurling it and revealing Long Tian's hand drawn portrait. He looked wild and attractive in the drawing, but after being out for 43 days and not being able to shower besides using the bodies of water in the wild to clean himself, Long Tian appeared rather dirty and less attractive.

But even this, his deep golden eyes glowed with vasts amount of wisdom. They were piercing and were as deep and vast as space itself.

Long Tian's eyes were quite noteworthy, and Qin Xuan had spread word about this. Even with his tiny discrepancy with the drawn portrait, the two guards were able to confirm Long Tian's identity solely through his unique golden eyes.

"Alright… you're welcome in. The leader told us that you're part of Bullseye, so welcome to the gang," the guard to the right said. He extended his hand and shook hands with Long Tian, noticing the remarkable firm handshake.

'Woah… he's strong…'

"Nice to meet you too!"

The other guard shook hands with Long Tian as well before they allowed Long Tian in.

"His handshake was strong." The right guard said in mild astonishment. "I think he's stronger than me."

"You think so?"

The left guard still had his hand up, agreeing with what the right guard said. They both looked at each other, quite stunned by Long Tian's presence.

"I knew it… the man the leader is into wouldn't be such a simple person!"

"Do you think he's from one of the four great families?"

"Hiss… could it be possible?"

The two guards turned to look at each other, shock written all over their faces.

…

Once inside, Long Tian looked around, noticing quite a few people moving about in various groups. Some trained their archery, others their close combat, and the last few out in the training grounds trained with their beast soul weapons.

"Are you new here?"

As Long Tian planned to look for Qin Xuan, he was stopped by a man. He looked at him up and down curiously before flashing a smile.

"Very manly," he said with a thumbs up. "So this is Qin Xuan's type…"

The man chuckled and extended out his hand.

Shaking his hand, Long Tian smirked, "Long Tian."

"Zhao Dong," the man responded. "Some friends call me 'Gambler'. Feel free to do the same."

"Do you know where-"

Long Tian looked around, ready to ask Gambler where Qin Xuan was. Yet before he could do so, he noticed a beautiful woman with attractive legs make her way over.

Everyone grew tense at the woman's arrival and Long Tian grew curious about the woman. He looked at Gambler, and even he was a little tense as he turned his head to the side, wishing to avoid eye contact.

"Shit, is she making her way over here?"

Gambler looked worried, turning from the woman to Long Tian. Drawing the connection, Gambler quickly skittered away.

"You!" The woman stopped in front of Long Tian, looking straight at him. Her eyes peered directly into his before slowly heading down to his dirty body.

With a disgusted face, she pinched her nose and waved her hand.

"Leave and shower. Come back when you are more presentable."

Long Tian didn't move, he stood there, looking at the woman in an amused way.

Seeing him not move, the woman frowned and raised her voice. In an authoritative tone, she said, "Did you not hear me?

Turn yourself around, go back to the Alliance, and shower. Listen to orders, I will not have someone as disobeying as you here."

"Who are you?"

Long Tian finally asked.

The woman looked at Long Tian deeply, her eyes studying him. A frown deeply pronounced on her beautiful face.

"A squad leader and subordinate and friend to Qin Xuan, Yang Manli," Gambler whispered to Long Tian from behind.

With the new information, Long Tian looked at the woman.

He reached into his pocket and took out the journal he had written and passed it to Yang Manli.

"The exploration took a little longer than expected, hand that over to Xuan." Once the book was handed over, he took out another bag from behind him and passed it over as well. "This is a gift to her, please hand it over to her as well."

After handing both items to the stunned woman, Long Tian turned to leave.

"Wait!"

Yang Manli was confused and angry after receiving the items. She wasn't an errand girl, that was the job of other people to do!

She lifted her head up from the two items and looked at Long Tian, finding that he was already gone. Fuming, Yang Manli could only turn to glare at the people in the surroundings before stomping away.

Huffing in anger, Yang Manli entered a luxurious tent. Inside, was Qin Xuan sitting down on a well-polished chair with a cup of water in her hand.

Hearing movement at the entrance, Qin Xuan turned her head.

Upon seeing Yang Manli standing at the entrance angrily, Qin Xuan chuckled. She placed down her cup of water and leaned over her table as she looked at her friend in amusement.

"How was he?"

"Terrible! No manners at all."

"Was he impressive?"

"No! He was dirty, and he had many wounds as well. His leg and arm appeared broken as well…"

"Broken?"

Qin Xuan stopped smiling and put on a thoughtful look before turning back to Yang Manli. She noticed the things in her hands and grew curious.

"What is that?"

"He asked me to give this to you," Yang Manli huffed as she passed the bag of jerky and book to Qin Xuan. "I don't get it. You've met him for a couple of months and suddenly he's so important… why?"

Qin Xuan listened to Yang Manli complain as she received the bag and book. She opened the book and began reading, her free hand grabbing a jerky from the bag.

Taking a bite and reading through the detailed journal, Qin Xuan smirked.

Raising her gaze, she passed the bag to Manli.

"Because of this, Manli."

Yang Manli looked at Qin Xuan's smiling face and softened her anger. She grabbed the bag and reached in, pulling out a jerky before biting into it.

"Mutant purple-eyed beast meat eaten. One mutant geno point gained."

Freezing at the voice in her head, Yang Manli turned to look at Qin Xuan. A look of incredulous surprise on her face.

"Mutant meat?"

Qin Xuan nodded her head. "From more than one creature."

"More than one?"

Seeing Qin Xuan wave the jerky in her hand, Yang Manli realized that the two jerkies they were eating were different. Not only in appearance, but also texture.

"If that isn't enough, look at this…"

Passing the journal over, Yang Manli was shocked once more as she looked at the things within the journal. The various creatures and areas explored. There was even a detailed map at the beginning with all the marked areas.

"This…" Yang Manli looked at Qin Xuan with a look of disbelief. "The creatures and terrain explored is way more than what was expected for a single month! This would take at least a year of work, seeing the detailed descriptions of both creatures and lands."

Nodding, Qin Xuan was also surprised.

But less than Yang Manli was.

After all, she knew beforehand of how impressive Long Tian was. His potential and intelligence was on another level.

Yang Manli gritted her teeth and closed the book.

She seemed to be struggling with something, shaking her head. "It's still not enough," she muttered in denial.

Qin Xuan sighed, understanding her friend's struggle.

"My great-grandfather also approves of him."

"What…?"

"Long Tian is the most apt person to become the new leader of Bullseye for when I am gone. He will also be the person who the Qin Family will sponsor."

Yang Manli stumbled back and smiled wryly.

"This… even Demi-God Qin…"

Seeing her friend give up her resistance, Qin Xuan smiled and decided to tease her friend. "I thought you liked strong men? Why don't you seduce him, maybe he can hand the spot over to you if you convince him? He's very attractive, even I find myself charmed by him sometimes."

"Charmed…?" Yang Manli recalled Long Tian shabby appearance and terrible odor. The only thing that really stuck to her were his golden eyes that seemed to glow. "That garbage of a man? Humph… he must have bewitched you!"

Qin Xuan chuckled before lowering her head towards the journal.

"Originally, I planned on sending him under you, but seeing this… he might do better as a squad leader himself."

"A squad leader? That's too much for him."

"You're right. He's too impressive for a role like that. I will need him to act solo for a while then."

Yang Manli felt envious at this moment hearing Qin Xuan talk about Long Tian's impressive capabilities.

"Send him under me! Even if he will be working solo, he will need to cooperate with a group every now and then."

Resting her hand on her hand, Qin Xuan smiled. "Alright. He will be under you for… four months."

"Four months? That's enough!"

Yang Manli smirked, already thinking of all the hardship she will be pushing Long Tian to do.

Seeing the smile on her friend's face, Qin Xuan shook her head.

***

"All better now…"

Stretching his body, Long Tian was glad to feel that his leg and arm were better now. He visited the hospital, and after a quick check, he was fixed up in no time with some medicine.

He was recommended a week of rest to let his body heal.

Something he planned to do.

He went straight home and whilst taking the medicine, he practiced his .