The First Order

Chapter 684: Your expertise

After Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin returned to the campsite, they sat in front of the campfire the Great Hoodwinker had built and remained there in silence.

The Great Hoodwinker wanted to say something to the two of them, but when he realized they did not look too happy, he went back to cooking.

All of a sudden, Yang Xiaojin asked in a whisper, “Did you copy your jumping rope skill from me?”

Ren Xiaosu nodded blankly and said, “Mhm, my Skill Duplication technique randomly picks a skill to copy. I don’t know what skill I’ll get either.”

“Then what other skills have you copied from me?” Yang Xiaojin asked.

“Nothing else,” Ren Xiaosu replied.

Yang Xiaojin seemed to let out a sigh of relief.

However, Ren Xiaosu immediately added, “But I know that you also have a skill like singing nursery rhymes.”

As soon as he said that, Yang Xiaojin’s mouth twitched. She did not expect this side of her would get discovered by Ren Xiaosu just like that.

Yang Xiaojin then said, “But I still don’t understand why you would suddenly start jumping rope.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at the campfire before him and said numbly, “I don’t know either....”

Initially, Ren Xiaosu thought the palace’s so-called punishment would require him to help or save someone.

Weren’t all the palace’s quests like that?

But he could never have expected that the moment the gifting was completed, the palace would make him and Yang Xiaojin jump rope together. If it were not completed, his Strength and Dexterity attributes would get lowered.

Attributes were way too important to him. It could be said that the reason why “Old Xu” was so powerful now was all due to his attributes.

As such, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin jumped rope together for half an hour. Moreover, it was Ren Xiaosu who did the jumping while Yang Xiaojin and a tree acted as the pillars on either side.

This was also what baffled Cheng Yu’s assistant the most. When it came to jumping rope, shouldn’t it be the girl doing the jumping? Why did he see the guy jumping then?!

Cheng Yu’s assistant’s spying had definitely not escaped Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin’s counterreconnaissance. So this made Ren Xiaosu even more downcast. Not only did he embarrass himself in front of Yang Xiaojin, he even embarrassed himself in front of an outsider!

Seeing that the punishment quest was going to last for another seven days, Ren Xiaosu wondered just how much more trouble his palace would cause him.

Of course, it was not all bad today. At the very least, Yang Xiaojin’s superpower had advanced to another level. Ren Xiaosu was already looking forward to Yang Xiaojin’s fire support in the future. After all, she was already so strong even though she was using a bolt action rifle. In that case, wouldn’t she become even more fearsome now?

They would be entering the Sacred Mountains in another seven days, so it was indeed a good thing that they could increase their powers before that.

Ren Xiaosu asked the Great Hoodwinker next to him, “Did anything happen while we were away?”

The Great Hoodwinker responded, “Nothing much, actually. Other than Cheng Yu’s assistant tailing you two, everyone else obediently stayed behind at the campsite. However, I realized that the young man to our 8 o’clock and the young woman to our 9 o’clock are probably acquainted. Although they pretended not to know each other, the two of them made eye contact. They might both be from the same consortium.”

Ren Xiaosu looked out of the corner of his eye. The young man and woman turned out to be the two people he suspected might be supernatural beings.

The Great Hoodwinker continued, “However, it’s very normal to have someone you can trust tagging along when going to a place like the Sacred Mountains with such a large group of people. After all, it’ll only work if you have someone trustworthy to take turns keeping watch at night. Otherwise, you won’t even know how you died if something happens. There’s a total of 31 people here, and five or six groups likely exist within the team. There won’t be many lone wolves for sure.”

While they were resting at the campsite, the Great Hoodwinker had been scrutinizing everyone. And everyone else was also examining the others. But to the Great Hoodwinker’s relief, no one seemed too interested in him as their guide. Their attention was mainly focused on Cheng Yu and the other hitmen. And Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were also not in the scope of their observations either.

At this moment, Cheng Yu stood up and said to everyone, “Although we haven’t reached the Sacred Mountains yet, it’s not necessarily safe down here either. So we should have some people keeping watch during the night. Everyone, I plan to divide all of us into two groups. One group will keep watch in the first half of the night while the other will keep watch in the latter half. How about that?”

This was supposed to be a very normal request, but no one responded. Everyone just calmly looked at Cheng Yu.

In fact, the people with their own teammates within this larger group had already discussed the night watch order. If Cheng Yu made any further arrangements, it would very likely disrupt their original plans.

Therefore, no one wanted to accept Cheng Yu’s arrangements.

Cheng Yu waited for a dozen seconds, but in the end, only two people responded to him. The others kept busy with their own matters and did not even look at him anymore.

The Great Hoodwinker said softly to Ren Xiaosu, “The people who responded to Cheng Yu might be the Anjing House members that he had arranged to be in the team. They’re probably here to back him up and give him the necessary support.”

Yang Xiaojin nodded.

Sensing the awkward atmosphere, the Great Hoodwinker continued, “It’s actually not that easy for the Anjing House to send everyone into the Sacred Mountains to trouble the Pyro Company...”

As he said that, the Great Hoodwinker was surprised to see Ren Xiaosu suddenly stand up and walk to the center of the campsite.

Cheng Yu looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, “What? Is something the matter?”

Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, “Since everyone seems to be quite distracted, I’ll put on a little talent show for y’all to watch. ‘Before the door grows a vine of grapes, tender green leaves that have just sprouted. A snail carrying its heavy shell, inching slowly towards the top...’[1]”

Cheng Yu was confused.

Everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu in shock. The Great Hoodwinker and Yang Xiaojin were both stunned!

Weren’t they just discussing who should keep watch during the night? How did it end up with someone singing?!

After he finished singing the nursery rhyme, Ren Xiaosu returned to Yang Xiaojin’s side and sat down expressionlessly. Yang Xiaojin asked in a whisper, “So you’ve copied my Nursery Rhymes Singing too?”

“No.” Ren Xiaosu said ashen-faced.

Next to them, the Great Hoodwinker tried to ease the atmosphere. “Future Commander, your singing sounds very pleasant.”

“Enough, stop flattering me already.” Ren Xiaosu was on the verge of breaking down. Just how many times did the palace have to mete out punishments every day?

During the journey, everyone was trying to determine the strength and character of the others based on their behavior. Not many of those who were present were truly amateurs, and their investigative instincts and judgment were all top-notch. However, everyone suddenly realized they could not get a read on Ren Xiaosu at all.

No matter how they looked at him, they just could not understand anything about him.

However, this sudden turn of events saved Cheng Yu from embarrassment. The awkward atmosphere allowed him to skip over the topic of who should keep watch during the night.

Then the young man the Great Hoodwinker had been paying close attention to at the campsite said with a smile, “Since we’re all going into the Sacred Mountains together and will be facing battle with the Pyro Company in the future, why don’t we all share our expertise so we can assign duties according to our capabilities?”

After saying that, the first person he looked towards was actually Ren Xiaosu. The young man smiled and said, “So, what’s your expertise?”

Ren Xiaosu snapped, “Singing nursery rhymes.”

[1] https://youtu.be/bZqlwL_g1bs | The Snail and the Oriole

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