"Is that…?"
Jiang Shaoliu's personal Weibo page.
Ruo Feng tapped the link. What he saw inside surprised him, even made him doubt the authenticity of the link. "So, Jiang Shaoliu really is a vet. Well, how can a vet be so strong? You live and learn..."
The profile picture was the same photo of a bandaged monkey kissing his cheek. There were other photos too, showing him in a white lab coat, treating various monkeys and other critters. The animals seemed quite happy around him.
There was even a photo of Jiang Shaoliu sitting on the back of a big ostrich, hugging its long neck. The ostrich had turned around and touched its neck to Jiang Shaoliu's face in a seemingly friendly gesture.
Comments began pouring in from the livestream viewers who browsed the same link.
"Wow, he's so kind! He's not just posing for the photos, they are real."
"Aww, that elephant is kissing Jiang Shaoliu with its trunk. He's really a kind doctor."
"He looks so passionate about helping animals."
"Doctor Jiang, I've decided I don't like Chi Xiao any more. I'll unfollow his Weibo. You're my new idol and I want to be a vet too so we can protect animals together."
"Down with Yin Manshu, Bai Long and Chi Xiao as well as Lion Warrior! Jiang Shaoliu, you're the best!!!"
Ruo Feng chuckled as he read through the comments and Jiang Shaoliu's Weibo, but then the page suddenly crashed, showing a 404 error message.
Rui Feng frowned. "Did the military do this? Who else would have the resources to do this so quickly?"
After giving it a moment's thought, he looked up again and watched the opposite peak of the mountain.
Bang!
Jiang Shaoliu punched a powerful blast of extremely compressed air toward Yin Manshu.
The silvery chains flailed in the wind and her hair billowed backwards as the red-faced Yin Manshu squinted into the gale, the ridges of her eyebrows whitening with frost, before being thrown off her feet and rolling away.
Yin Manshu struck out with all her strength as she fell, swinging her chain in a circle around her, spreading blood-curdlingly frigid air in Jiang Shaoliu's direction.
Jiang Shaoliu pressed on and rushed around the long chain, the cold biting into his bones and slowing him down. Sidestepping around the chain, he leaped at Yin Manshu and rammed his fist toward gut.
With scowl, Yin Manshu retreated a few steps away with a flash of silver light from under her feet, her chain swirling around her like a set of dazzling, pale hoola hoops, ready to strike at Jiang Shaoliu again.
Jiang Shaoliu frowned and closed his eyes, clenched fists beaming with tightly wound, explosive energy.
"Jiang Shaoliu!" Yin Manshu stopped swinging the long chain and let it drop to the ground, glittering silver at her feet. She tilted her head slightly and stretched out her neck, like a proud swan: "I've underestimated you this far, but don't you forget how fast I am!"
Jiang Shaoliu didn't respond. He breathed in and out slowly, inspecting his internal condition.
Large amounts of air sprayed out of his pores with each breath, slightly inflating his combat suit and throwing up his hairs.
There was no gold or silver light on the stomach; it remained entirely bronze, like his rapidly bulging and contracting heart.
He was starting to feel a little hungry again, which amazed him. He felt like he would be fine not eating for ten straight days, but now his stomach was reminding him that he should eat something now.
"Is the second ring of the golden abyss finished?" Jiang Shaoliu muttered to himself and continued to check.
Jiang Shaoliu was inhaling heavily, the heavenly energy in the air immediately converted into true qi inside his body, running hot inside his meridians. The stomach and heart rings continued rotating slowly, glowing with a faint, misty, greenish-brown glow. The Great Sage's Formula gently pushed his true qi through the rings and out into the blood vessels, muscles, bones and skin… strengthening each and every cell.
"The stomach ring required so much food during the condensation process because it was being inhibited by the golden hoop, allowing it to absorb less true qi," Jiang Shaoliu thought. "Now the second ring has stabilized and doesn't need sustenance anymore. It can never be depleted and can be used to strengthen the body when things are calm."
With both life rings in full swing, he felt much stronger than before.
"What're you doing?" Yin Manshu glared at him coldly. "Jiang Shaoliu, you're ignoring me again!"
Jiang Shaoliu opened his eyes.
They were red, glowing, flashing green at the corners. Swirls of dust rose from the ground around him. Loud cracking sounds escaped his clenched fists.
"What is this?" Yin Manshu stepped back hesitantly. The end of her sparkling chain became heavy in her hand.
"I challenge you to a test of speed."
With a single step, Jiang Shaoliu closed in with Yin Manshu and threw his fist at her face.
With a determined face, Yin Manshu leaped to the side, a flash of silver beneath her feet.
"Too slow!" Jiang Shaoliu shouted and changed direction without reducing speed. Dust and rubble flew as the two fighters sharply traversed the air in parallel, the wind almost blowing away their hair.
To her surprise, before Yin Manshu could whip Jiang Shaoliu, his fingers closed around her neck.
They stopped at the same time.
Jiang Shaoliu raised his arm, and Yin Manhu's feet left the ground.
"You… You…" Yin Manshu's face flushed red, then purple as she strained to breathe. With shaking hands, she flailed the long chain at Jiang Shaoliu.
Her lifted his other arm and caught the chain, then yanked it from her grip and tossed it to the ground.
"Let… me… go!" Yin Manshu choked and pinched Jiang Shaoliu's waist as hard as she could. Her desperate kicks and punches quickly began losing their strength.
"Now do you want to surrender?" Jiang Shaoliu loosened his hand and gave her a chance to suck in a ragged breath. "Or I could throw you off the cliff. Your choice."
Breathing harshly, Yin Manshu felt a little better as her true qi flowed through her organs. "I'll kill you!" she screamed hysterically.
Jiang Shaoliu slapped her.
The frost disappeared from the left side of her face, leaving behind a clear, red handprint on her milky-white skin.
"Stop hitting me!" Yin Manshu's eyes were red as she kicked and squirmed in Jiang Shaoliu's grip. A trickle of blood escaped the left corner of her mouth.
"I see your parents have neglected to tell you this," Jiang Shaoliu said in a quietly angry voice, "so I guess it falls down to me to teach you not to fuck with people stronger than you."
Then he slapped her again.
Yin Manshu had nothing more to say. She burst into tears and ceased resisting, hanging limply in his grip.
"You get me now?" Jiang Shaoliu took a deep breath and looked at Lin Yuetao, who had been keeping Bai Long and Chi Xiao away from him this whole time.
"Now this is a Lion Warrior! Two on one and kicking ass!" Jiang Shaoliu laughed. He was about to put Yin Manshu down when he suddenly felt an irresistible urge to look up.
…
On the tall cliffs on the other side of Valentine Valley, Ruo Feng and his audience were stunned.
"Damn, how can you do that?" Ruo Feng muttered to himself, "Yin Manshu is such a beauty, I'd just give her a piece of my mind if it were up to me. You're one hard-ass vet!"
"Let her go! You shouldn't hit her!"
"He's just trying to help her recover from her cosmetic surgery lol. Jiang Shaoliu is such a kind doctor!"
"Ooh, that was kinda hot actually. Sorry, Chi Xiao, I don't like you any more. Give me a chance, Doctor Jiang! Be my baby daddy!"
…
On the eastern slopes of Liang Duan Mountain, Jiang Shaoliu looked up, squinted into the distance, and dropped Yin Manshu.