Chapter 165: Next Stop: Dadazhala

"666! I give this move by Teacher Ling's ex-wife a full score!"

"Terrifying! Absolutely terrifying! Exactly how blind was Teacher Ling back then to choose this elder sister as his girlfriend?!"

"This isn't even a matter of being blind anymore! I think Teacher Ling must have been bewitched by a ghost back then, and it had to be an eighth-tier ghost at that!"

"You can't see this ex-wife's face clearly, but her figure is undeniably scorching hot! Just her chest alone..."

"The person in front had better keep talking if you have a death wish! Don't you remember that Teacher Ling's ex-wife is even stronger than Teacher Ling? Oh, right, she also seems to have a massive army of badass subordinates!"

"Putting that aside, isn't Teacher Ling's ex-wife a bit too possessive? They've already broken up with Teacher Ling, what business is it of hers whether the guy finds a new love?"

"What do you know? Maybe Teacher Ling's ex-wife still deeply loves Teacher Ling, and they were only forced to part ways due to some worldly reasons?"

"What kind of worldly reason would make her lay siege to her own husband? Oh, I should say 'annihilate' instead! Did Teacher Ling dig up her family's ancestral grave?"

"I completely understand Teacher Ling's ex-wife! I wouldn't want other women crawling into my bed either!"

"What this old lady doesn't want, none of you bunch of scumbags can snatch away! That's precisely the mindset!"

"Women are super petty! Did you think being strong means you wouldn't be petty? Big mistake! High strength only makes the manifestations of pettiness much more diverse!"

"Supreme Golden ID 'Guardian of the Firmament' gifted the streamer a World Destroyer! At the same time leaving a message: The message from the kid in front hit right home for me! Let me tell you all, back in the day, the old hag Natural Guardian was way more overbearing than Ling Mo's girlfriend. Rumors say she once personally turned her love rival into..."

"Supreme Golden ID 'Guardian of the Firmament' has been muted for three hours by 'Natural Guardian'! At the same time leaving a message: You old bastard! Telling you not to talk nonsense! An intercontinental missile will arrive at your house in thirty seconds!"

"Did you all only pay attention to the romance and feud between Teacher Ling and his girlfriend? Don't you think the most pitiful one is Sister Kay? If I were her, I'd be weeping bitterly right now!"

"I can't help wanting to shed a tear of sympathy for Sister Kay! Being targeted by Teacher Ling's ex-wife means her future is looking rather grim!"

"Streamer, streamer! I wouldn't be surprised at all if one day during your stream, you suddenly get evenly divided into sixty-four pieces!"

"I think Sister Kay is being wronged here! She's merely Teacher Ling's apprentice, yet Teacher Ling used her as a prop to anger his girlfriend! If she carefully explains things, it shouldn't be too big of an issue, right?"

"I feel like... Teacher Ling's ex-wife doesn't seem like the most reasonable person."

"Sister Kay deserved to be beaten! During the stream, I saw her secretly rubbing against Teacher Ling's chest!"

"Rubbing against him isn't allowed either?"

"I'll just rub against it and won't go in, I'll just go in a tiny bit, I promise not to move once I'm in, I'll just move twice—what the hell do you mean, twice?! You're still one time short!"

"..."

At this moment, Ling Mo and the other two stood on a high slope, all of them staring blankly at the large house that had been blasted into a pile of ruins, not saying a single word.

It was impossible to tell what kind of methods Ling Mo's girlfriend had planted inside the house, but the building was blown up thoroughly. Every single wooden plank was smashed to pieces from the inside out, and the remaining charred stumps were blackened beyond recognition, completely unusable. Not only was the main structure of the ground-level house completely destroyed, but even the foundation beneath it could not escape unscathed, turning into a crater three meters deep. Watching those fragmented pieces of timber burning inside the pit, Catherine said wistfully, "Master, I feel like I got a really raw deal just now..."

"A raw deal? You're quite the optimist, is this even a matter of getting a raw deal?" Vayne gloated and said, "If the difficulty of your original life was ten, then the difficulty of your life right now is at least ninety-nine! Think about it carefully, you should feel honored; you might just be targeted by the number one expert in the world!"

Catherine's expression turned ugly as she looked at Ling Mo with an intensely pained look. Ling Mo glared at Vayne and then said, "Don't listen to Vayne's nonsense! That just now was merely a phantom projection of my ex-girlfriend, with not much independent judgment. We're live-streaming right now, so her true self can definitely see this and certainly knows you're just my apprentice; she won't give you a hard time."

Hearing Ling Mo's words, Catherine felt somewhat reassured, only to see Vayne curl her lips and say, "Forget it, Master, I'm certain that the ex-wife still deeply loves you! From now on, even if the ex-wife knows Senior Sister is just your apprentice, solely because you once uttered the three words 'current girlfriend,' she'll definitely hold a grudge against Senior Sister in her heart! Senior Sister is bound to suffer enough hardship in the future!"

Ling Mo found it somewhat amusing: "You've only met her once, yet you already understand the kind of person she is? So certain? Oh, wait, strictly speaking, you haven't even met her at all!"

"Of course I understand! Even though I've only seen her for this short moment, I know this ex-wife and I are the exact same kind of person!" Vayne looked somewhat displeased with Ling Mo's attitude, puffed out her chest, and said loudly, "I will never betray the person I love, but at the same time, the person I fall in love with will always be mine! If he stops loving me, then I'll use every means possible to make him love me again. If I can't do that, then I'll slaughter every woman he has ambiguous ties with, so that he can only love me alone!"

"what kind of logic is that?" Catherine shivered and rebuked, "Slaughter everyone he likes, and he'll like you back? What if it backfires and makes him hate you even more?"

"That doesn't matter either," Vayne's gaze became somewhat hollow as she chuckled coldly, "I can't win his heart anyway, so just getting his body in that case wouldn't be bad either. I'll tie him up first, and if he still doesn't behave, I'll just have to research which kind of preservative works best..."

Frightened by this thorough declaration of possession, Catherine swallowed hard. Looking at the slightly distorted expression on Vayne's face, she said in a panic, "You—you-you-you-you... don't assume everyone is as twisted as you! I believe the ex-wife at most has a little bit of petty female jealousy and could never be twisted to your extent, right, Master? The ex-wife must be a reasonable and easy-to-talk-to person, right?"

Facing the hopeful gaze cast by Catherine, Ling Mo fell silent for a moment, his head involuntarily turning to the side: "Speaking of which, we came out too in a rush, those stored foods have all been completely wiped out..."

What does turning your head mean?! Look at me and answer me!

Catherine felt the corners of her eyes grow moist once again. Before she could say anything else, Ling Mo walked over, patted her on the shoulder, and said, "Alright, I won't scare you anymore. Rest assured, she definitely won't come looking for trouble with you, especially since you plan to live a normal life in the future. That will distance you even further from our circle, and you won't be in any danger."

Hearing these words, Catherine finally put her mind completely at ease. She let out a long breath, looked around, and belatedly said, "Speaking of which, we escaped the explosion just now, but where is Panpan? Why can't I see a trace of it? It couldn't have been caught up in that explosion, could it?"

"Don't worry, Panpan is a typical magical beast that is very smart yet extremely cowardly," Ling Mo waved his hand, signaling Catherine not to worry. "Due to some historical reasons, I actually quite like giant pandas. Back when I lived in the Magical Beast Rainforest with my girlfriend, I often played with Panpan. Sometimes she would get jealous that I spent too much time playing with Panpan, and she would frequently discipline Panpan openly and secretly, making Panpan extremely afraid of her. Just now, the moment her aura appeared, Panpan scurried deep into the jungle in sheer terror. At this point, it's probably already starting to forage for food."

Damn it, it's just a bear, and the ex-wife gets jealous of it too? Master, are you sure she'll really let me off? No way, staying by Master's side is too dangerous, I really want to go home!

As Catherine was thinking this, she heard Vayne say with great regret, "What a pity, I wanted to hug it and rub against it. At least Senior Sister got to hug it once, and I didn't even get a single hug! Master, shall we go into the forest and look for it?"

"No," Ling Mo dismissed Vayne's suggestion, saying, "In the rainforest, if we bump into each other by fate, we can play for a bit, but there's no need to go out of our way to search for it. Besides, didn't I just tell you? All my food reserves were blown to pieces; I'm afraid I won't be able to treat you to anything delicious."

"Sigh." Catherine let out a regretful sigh and said, "It seems those foods weren't meant to be ours. What should we do next? Continue downstream along the Thanatos River? How much longer until we reach Scarborough Fair?"

"To correct you, that waterfall is the end of the Thanatos River. The river section downstream of the waterfall, although connected to the upper reaches, is no longer the Thanatos River."

"Why?"

"Past the waterfall, the water in the downstream section returns to normal and no longer possesses that kind of inexplicable suction," Ling Mo said. "As for why, I honestly don't know. Perhaps some scholars can come and conduct research to draw a conclusion."

Vayne asked curiously, "Does that mean the Thanatos River is actually a discontinuous river? Then where does its upper reach lead to? Where does it originate?"

Ling Mo glanced at her and said, "As for this, you'd better not know."

"Tch, stingy."

Ling Mo ignored Vayne's complaint and pondered for a moment before saying, "I originally intended to treat you to one last delicious meal and then bring our trip to the Magical Beast Rainforest to a perfect close. Now that the meal is out of the question, sending you out just like this feels a bit regrettable. Tell me, Catherine, is there anything else you want to do?"

"Go see the Elven race!" Catherine and Vayne said in unison.

"Why are you joining the fun?" Ling Mo glared at Vayne.

Vayne argued logically, "Didn't they say the Elven race lives inside the Magical Beast Rainforest? I have at least a quarter of elven blood, so isn't it normal for me to care about my own kin?"

Ignoring her, Ling Mo looked at Catherine and asked, "What about you? Why do you want to go to the Elven race?"

Catherine was stunned for a moment and said, "Reasons? There really aren't any. I just heard that the Elven race is the most noble, beautiful, and elegant race in the world, so I really want to go take a look, that's all."

"Just to satisfy your curiosity?" Ling Mo shook his head and said, "I can't take you to the Elven race. If we went there and told them a reason like visiting monkeys at a zoo, it's hard to say if I'd be in trouble, but you definitely would be. That bunch of stubborn old folks are not easy to deal with. Let's pick something else."

"I see..." Catherine pondered silently. It made sense indeed, so she didn't insist further. After thinking for a moment, she said, "Then, can we go to the 'Centaur Tribe' that Master has mentioned several times? That is... right, the 'Dadazala' tribe, whose chieftain is named Kasa Brandon."

Ling Mo's expression turned somewhat peculiar: "How did you think of going there again?"

"Same reason, still curiosity," Catherine said matter-of-factly. "I've heard Master mention it several times. This tribe has discovered quite a few special creatures and is also very hospitable. Besides, back when I was live-streaming in the Northern Orc Empire, I heard old orcs there talk about how back when the Orc Empire was founded and they made a blood alliance witnessed by 'Tengri,' the biggest regret was that the Three Great Silver Bloodlines failed to attend, which has always been the greatest regret in the hearts of many old orcs. And the 'Centaur' race happens to be one of the Three Great Silver Bloodlines, so isn't it normal to want to go take a look?"

Seeing that Ling Mo was still hesitating, Catherine quickly said, "Master, we're about to leave the Magical Beast Rainforest, and it's unlikely we'll come back for adventures anytime soon. Once we get to Scarborough Fair, my streaming popularity will surely revert to its original state. Let's just treat it as a perfect finale for my stream and go take a look, shall we? There are also many viewers from the Orc Empire in the live-streaming room; they must really want to see this legendary race, right?"

A massive wave of comments expressing the desire to see it surged across the bullet screen, especially from a bunch of IDs with typical Orc Empire styles. Their tipping was as free as water, and within just a few dozen seconds, seven World Destroyers were sent:

"Viewer 'Ivan Ivanovich Hellscream' gifted the streamer a World Destroyer! At the same time leaving a message: Teacher Ling! Please be sure to visit the Centaur Tribe! When I was young, I received kindness from the Centaur race, but I've never been able to thank them. Please give me a chance!"

"Viewer 'Katyusha Maslova Doomhammer' gifted the streamer a World Destroyer! At the same time leaving a message: Teacher Ling! My great-grandmother originated from the Centaur race! Please let me pay homage to my ancestral land!"

"Officially verified ID 'Thrall Durotanovich Ulyanov' gifted the streamer five World Destroyers! At the same time leaving a message: Mr. Ling, on behalf of the Warsong Clan of the Orc Empire, I eagerly look forward to you visiting the Centaur Tribe. If you can create an opportunity for us to converse with the Centaur Chieftain 'Kasa Brandon,' we will fully support your promotion of martial arts within the territory of the Orc Empire! Please do consider it!"

"..."

Taking advantage of the brief moment of Ling Mo's hesitation, the popularity in the live-streaming room skyrocketed from over 1.7 million to a terrifying 3.2 million. An unknown number of Orc Empire IDs flooded into the chat room, crazily spamming the screen. Seeing the soaring enthusiasm of the viewers in the room, especially the promise made by that official ID, Ling Mo finally nodded reluctantly and said:

"Alright, we'll head to the Centaur Tribe next, but the time we stay must definitely not exceed one day! Their customs are a bit strange..."

(Note 1: Tengri is the Mongolian word for "Eternal Blue Sky," representing the supreme deity.)

(Note 2: Absolutely do not look up what Ulyanov means! Those who report me won't get any luck!)