I am the Clone of a Death Row Inmate-Chapter 129 - 127: Picking Peaches

Liou Wenxin had once explained to Su Ze that so-called Storage Rings were actually made from the fruit of a fifth-rank Spiritual Plant, the Qiankun Wood.

That fruit was a natural material for crafting storage items.

Since the fruit of the Qiankun Wood could be made into a ring, it could of course also be made into an earring.

Therefore, that wooden earring could also be a storage item!

Su Ze’s eyes instantly lit up. Whether it was a high-rank wondrous item or a storage item, it was a treasure!

"Where is the treasure?" he asked Mr. Ya.

Mr. Ya pointed to a patch of black soil in the Thousand Heroes Tomb and said, "Right here. At this spot. It’s about fifty centimeters inside, at a slight upward angle."

Although Mr. Ya’s mysterious skill allowed him to enter the black soil and take a look, he obviously didn’t have the ability to bring anything out with him.

Now, it was up to Su Ze to do the digging.

Mr. Ya was a Butterfly Stage evolver, but he had no offensive skills. Relying purely on the physical strength of his Butterfly Stage body was not enough to break through the black soil.

As for Su Ze, his only means of digging was a single skill: Needle Strike.

Luckily, it was only fifty centimeters deep. If it had been buried more than ten meters deep, Su Ze had no idea how long he would’ve been stuck there poking at it with his finger.

But fifty centimeters was no easy task. Even if one of Su Ze’s Needle Strikes could pierce about ten centimeters, he couldn’t clear the fifty-centimeter depth with just five consecutive strikes.

He had to carve out a hole wide enough for his arm to fit through. Only then could he keep digging deeper to reach the earring inside.

After all, Needle Strike wasn’t a ranged attack. He couldn’t just fire off five consecutive strikes to create a fifty-centimeter-deep hole from a distance.

’Time to dig. There’s no other way!’

Su Ze activated "Ant Power" and began frantically jabbing at the patch of black soil Mr. Ya had pointed to.

However, Ant Power only lasted for ten seconds. After it wore off, Su Ze had to stop and wait for the skill to cool down.

Once the Ant Power Skill’s cooldown finished, he unleashed another round of frantic jabbing.

Half an hour later, Su Ze’s finger was red and swollen. Completely exhausted, he was forced to stop and rest.

Using "Ant Power" and "Needle Strike" repeatedly placed an extreme burden on his body, but luckily, his "Regeneration Body" allowed for rapid recovery.

After a short rest, the swelling in Su Ze’s finger subsided, his stamina returned, and he was back in peak condition to start another round of frantic jabbing.

Three hours later...

Su Ze collapsed onto the ground, panting from exhaustion.

’This is brutal work.’ Even with his powerful physique and astounding stamina, he was thoroughly exhausted.

After all that work, he had finally dug a hole just wide enough for his arm to pass through. However, he had only gotten a little over thirty centimeters deep; it would still be a while before he reached his target.

...

「Meanwhile, less than a hundred meters directly above Su Ze and Mr. Ya.」

Three students from the Lin Hua Noble Academy were hunting for treasure in the Thousand Heroes Tomb, with a crew-cut, middle-aged, Butterfly Stage man following closely behind them.

The leader of the trio, a male Cocoon Stage student, held a metal chain. The other end was fastened around a Treasure Hunting Mouse they had caught.

The Treasure Hunting Mouse scurried ahead, its nose twitching as if sniffing for something.

A female student in a short skirt said excitedly, "Tao Qian, this Treasure Hunting Mouse is amazing! We always find good stuff when we follow it!"

Tao Qian, holding the Treasure Hunting Mouse’s leash, chuckled and shook his head. "We haven’t found anything that valuable. It’s all been low-rank junk."

Just as he spoke, the Treasure Hunting Mouse suddenly began to squeak, "SQUEAK SQUEAK!" It started rapidly pawing at the ground, but the black soil was too hard. It wasn’t something a creature with the rock-bottom combat power of a second-rank Treasure Hunting Mouse could break through.

Tao Qian looked at the crew-cut man behind him and said, "Mr. Jee, there must be a treasure down there."

They had never seen the Treasure Hunting Mouse this excited since they’d caught it.

The crew-cut man nodded. "Then let’s go down and take a look."

The group walked out of the Thousand Heroes Tomb’s black soil area.

Among the four of them, the one who had mastered the Earth Escape Skill was surprisingly not the crew-cut Mr. Jee, but Tao Qian.

However, he could only take one person at a time with his Earth Escape. He proceeded to take the others underground in batches.

...

Su Ze had no idea that because he had thinned the layer of black soil, the fluctuations of evolutionary power from the wooden earring had been detected by the Treasure Hunting Mouse.

Just as Su Ze, now fully rested, was about to get up and continue digging, Mr. Ya suddenly warned him, "Someone’s coming!"

The next moment, four people and one mouse appeared in the tunnel.

The Treasure Hunting Mouse shrieked, "SQUEAK SQUEAK," in the direction of the hole Su Ze was digging. It lunged forward with all its might, only to be held back tightly by its chain.

Su Ze frowned and pulled back his hand. ’Here comes trouble,’ he thought. ’The Lin Hua Noble Academy has a notorious reputation; they’re probably not here just to take a look.’

Mr. Ya summoned his yellow evolutionary glow, putting on an air of profound mystery. "You need something?"

Mr. Jee stepped forward, a yellow evolutionary glow also enveloping him. However, it was obvious his glow was far more dazzling than Mr. Ya’s.

One had just entered the Butterfly Stage, while the other had been established in it for many years; there was a clear gap in their power.

Mr. Jee asked, "What did you find?"

Mr. Ya sneered, "None of your business."

Mr. Jee glanced at Su Ze, then back at Mr. Ya, and asked, "What school are you from?"

Both Su Ze and Mr. Ya were wearing standard-issue military training uniforms, which made it obvious they were here for training. However, Su Ze was young and looked like a student, whereas Mr. Ya was clearly too old to be one, not to mention he was a Butterfly Stage evolver.

So, Mr. Jee guessed that Su Ze must be a genius student from some academy, and Mr. Ya was his teacher, assigned to protect him.

Mr. Ya maintained his cold, aloof tone. "None of your business."

Mr. Jee’s brow furrowed in displeasure. He had originally intended to ask for clarification. If they were also from a major academy in Lin Hua Country, he would have had to show them some respect and could have offered to share the treasure his mouse had found.

If they were students from the Dongli Kingdom, however, he would have just sent them packing.

Since they refused to cooperate, Mr. Jee dropped the polite act. He pointed to the Treasure Hunting Mouse and said, "The thing you’re digging for was located by our treasure-hunting beast long ago. Seeing as you’ve put in some effort digging, I can compensate you with a vial of second-rank extract."

He held out his hand, and the female student behind him took a vial of extract that glowed with an orange evolutionary light from her backpack and placed it in Mr. Jee’s hand.

Mr. Jee held out the extract, his tone calm yet commanding. "Take the extract and leave."

Su Ze stared at Mr. Jee’s old face, a surge of anger rising within him. ’I’ve been digging so long my hands are about to fall off, and these people think they can just waltz in and reap the rewards? The absolute nerve!’

He shook his aching hand and asked, "And if we don’t leave? What do you plan to do? Attack us?"

Tao Qian, standing behind Mr. Jee, said coldly, "And so what if we do? We’re merely protecting our property. You’re trying to steal something that belongs to us, and you refuse to back down even after we’ve warned you. It would be perfectly legal and justified to kill you."

The male and female Pupa Stage students behind him chimed in, "Exactly! We asked for your identities, but you wouldn’t say. You’re probably spies sent by the Defilers!"

Mr. Ya was so furious he dropped his superior act and started cursing. "If you want to rob us, just say it! Why beat around the bush? You want to act like a saint while you’re playing the whore?"

The girl in the short skirt trembled with rage. No one had ever spoken to her so crudely. She shrieked, "Who are you calling a whore?! You low-class peasant! One look at you and I can tell you’re some low-born bastard from Luofan Country! Even if you reached the Butterfly Stage, you’re still a low-life! Everyone from your Six Nations are just filthy peasants! Your parents, and your ancestors, they’re all worthless scum no better than pigs and dogs—"

Before she could finish, Mr. Ya blurred, appearing in front of her in an instant. He moved so fast that even Mr. Jee didn’t have time to react.

SLAP!

Mr. Ya landed a solid slap right across her face.

Although Mr. Ya had no offensive skills, his body was still that of a Butterfly Stage evolver. Even without using any skills, he could easily overpower the Pupa Stage girl.

The force of the slap split her skin open and knocked out half of her teeth.

The girl shrieked in pain and broke down, crying hysterically.

Mr. Jee was shocked that Mr. Ya had dared to strike first. He certainly wasn’t going to hold back. His palm suddenly expanded, descending on Mr. Ya from above like a great net.

Mr. Ya used Earth Escape and instantly reappeared beside Su Ze, causing Mr. Jee’s attack to hit nothing but air.

Mr. Ya gave Su Ze an apologetic smile. "Boss, I was too impulsive."

The girl’s insults toward his parents had caused him to lose control and teach her a lesson on the spot.

His parents were always the deepest, most painful wound in Mr. Ya’s heart.

Su Ze gave him a thumbs-up. "That was a great hit!"

’If I could have reached her,’ Su Ze thought, ’I would’ve gone up and smashed her damn head in myself.’

Just then, Mr. Jee charged toward Su Ze and Mr. Ya.

Su Ze said hurriedly, "Let’s retreat for now! We’ll go back for reinforcements."

Su Ze wasn’t the type to take a loss lying down, but he knew the two of them would have a hard time dealing with Mr. Jee.

Human evolvers were different from beasts; they didn’t have massive, clumsy bodies. The hit-and-run poison tactics Su Ze and Mr. Ya favored wouldn’t be very effective against a Butterfly Stage human.

’My plan is to leave first,’ he thought. ’We’ll let them dig out the wooden earring, then use Mr. Ya’s superior mobility to come back and snatch it from them. If that doesn’t work, we’ll get Pei Wuhua for backup. We might have to give up some of the loot, but there’s no way I’m just going to swallow this humiliation.’

But Mr. Ya shook his head. "Leave this guy to me. Boss, you just take care of the small fry."

"We both worked so hard for that earring. They’re not taking it from us!"

"What are you going to do?" Su Ze asked in alarm.

"Don’t worry about me. Not even a Saint-level expert could kill me."

As soon as he finished speaking, Mr. Ya charged at Mr. Jee, grabbed him, and activated his Earth Escape Skill, forcibly dragging the man away with him!

In an instant, only Su Ze and the three students from the Lin Hua Noble Academy remained in the tunnel.

Su Ze understood. Mr. Ya had forcibly dragged Mr. Jee away precisely to create this situation for him.

Because Mr. Ya trusted that even in a one-on-three fight, Su Ze could easily crush these three clowns.