[No signal]
"Shit!"
Jasper looked around and saw that there were hills. With all his power, he ran up and in mere seconds, he was at the top of the tallest tree on the tallest hill.
1 bar of signal.
"Hey, Martin, come find me. Follow the river beside the school and we'll eventually meet. Bring me clothes. ASAP!"
He then tapped [Send] to a contact nicknamed [Bastard who peed his pants in middle school].
Sending…
Beads of cold sweat formed on Jasper's forehead. Will it be sent, or will the battery die first?
Sent!
0%
Shutting down…
"Phew…" Jasper wiped the sweat on his forehead.
It's not like he couldn't get home by himself, but he would not go home naked! There are lines that shouldn't be crossed.
Fortunately, the message was successfully sent. It was to his childhood friend Martin.
Martin is one of the few people who stayed as his friend even when everyone learned that Jasper wasn't enlightened. They have been together since primary school.
Meanwhile, Martin was in front of a grave, holding a flower.
"Jasper… I swear I'll avenge you!" he placed the flower in front of the tombstone.
Ding!*
Wiping his tears, Martin looked at his phone.
[1 unread message from Chihuahua who can't cultivate]
He then saw the message and almost threw away his phone.
"A g-ghost!"
It was the era of cultivation. The possibility of ghosts was higher than ever.
"No! This must be from Dereck and his gang! They must have stolen his phone and now they're messing with me after two months since they killed Jasper!"
Dereck was the delinquent leader.
Martin's chest heaved up and down. Nerves popped out of his neck.
"This is the day I avenge you, Jasper!"
Martin was only at the first stage of the Body Tempering Realm and knew that he couldn't deal with a group of cultivators within the same cultivation stage. Furthermore, it is said that Dereck have reached the second stage and that is the reason why Jasper died by his hand.
However, because Jasper was just a non-cultivator and Dereck showed some potential albeit small, both the school and the justice system showed favoritism and declared that there was not enough evidence. They only punished him by making him and his gang clean the school for two months!
Maybe now they have free time that they came to find trouble with Martin?
Those bastards!
Thus, Martin replied: [Okay. Will be there.]
"Ahahaha, you all want to meet me in a more secluded area, right? Well, let's see who will not see the day of tomorrow!"
Martin then went to get another friend, Justine. Explaining the situation, Justine almost went mad.
"I'll go with you!"
Both of them then sneaked into the room of Justine's father and 'borrowed' some firearms.
"Dad's gonna kill me…" Justine's shoulders slumped, thinking about the consequences this would bring.
"We're going to kill those bastards who killed Jasper first! Your father will understand!"
Justine nodded, "Yeah, Dad was pretty sad when Jasper disappeared. He went out with his friends to drink to soothe his sadness."
'They must be celebrating…' Martin thought, 'His father is biased against non-cultivators and hates Jasper's guts for it and how Justine was still friends with a non-cultivator.'
"Yeah, many are sad that Jasper disappeared. Let's give them peace!"
"Yes!"
The two were already walking down the river the message told them to. They are also familiar with this particular river. It's where Jasper brings his bullies to have an all-out fight because not many people come here.
"If only I knew Dereck's gang picked on Jasper again, I should've come!" Justine said.
"We can't do anything about it. It was graduation day and we were out with our families."
Martin consoled Justine.
It was already dark when they went out and out there outside the town, there was no sign of humans except for the electric poles.
Thus, Martin and Justine could only rely on flashlights.
"How much farther did that bastard Dereck plan to take us?"
"Is it a prank?" Justine gave a possibility which made Martin's face scrunched up.
While feeling frustrated about this possibility, he looked far ahead and that's when they noticed a figure from far ahead.
"A beast!?" Justine almost jumped in fright.
"Idiot! We are not that far from town. The rangers should've already cleared this place of beasts!"
"Then what's that?"
As the figure got closer, it seemed to noticed them as well and it ran. They noticed the figure was just a man- a naked man with a snake around his neck.
They thought it was a beast at first. But it was much worse!
"A pervert!"
Justine shrieked.
"Are you a girl!?" Martin scolded and shouted at the naked man, "Stop or we'll shoot! We have guns!"
The naked man replied, "It's me!" they weren't far away. It didn't take time for the naked man to reach them. When they were just meters apart, the naked man stopped running as he gladly looked at them.
"It's good that we found each other!" Jasper sighed in relief, "I was getting worried you didn't receive my message and I have to walk home naked."
Justine and Martin looked at each other before turning back to the naked man.
"Who?"
"..." Jasper raised an eyebrow and took a step forward, "What do you mean, who? It's obviously me!"
"Don't take another step! We're serious about shooting you!" Justine warned.
Seeing that they were not joking, Jasper frowned, "What the fuck are you on about? It's me, Jasper! Have you forgotten me after just two months!?"
"Jasper?" Martin gritted his teeth in anger, "I don't know how you know him but assuming the identity of our recently dead friend is low!"
'Wait, do they seriously not recognize me?' Jasper was as confused as they were.
"I haven't mentioned it but after your unique cultivation, your face and body structure are much different than before. You look more exquisite and refined."
"Ah, is that what happened? Why only mention it now?"
"Apologies. I only saw your previous looks once and got used to your new look, falsely thinking that's your look since the beginning."
"I see… now, that's a problem." Jasper then turned to his friends and was startled by their current state.
Martin had the gun pointed at him while Justine was on the ground. Both were shivering in fright as their faces were deathly paled.
"D-d-d-did I hear that right? The snake just talked!" Justine asked Martin, waiting for his friend to deny what he heard.
"Impossible…" Martin felt like fainting as his knees were uncontrollably trembling, "Only beasts at the Golden Core Realm have enough intelligence to speak human language…!"
Oops… Nyx didn't think he would cause this much trouble. That was indeed true. Looking at these kids, they shouldn't be at the Qi Refining Realm. It's natural for them to react like this as it would mean certain death.
"Uhm—"
Bangbangbang!!*
A series of gunshots were fired aimed at Jasper when he tried to speak.
Martin panicked at Jasper's slightest movement and let loose, emptying the handgun's magazine.
"Ikkk–!" Justine curled up and covered his ears.
Although firearms are somewhat outdated in the enlightened era, it is still effective against Body Tempering Realm and up to Qi Refining Realm cultivators. The firepower of a gun is still greater than any cultivation skill they have in store.
Thus, among the weaker cultivators, guns were still a threat and could kill.
However, what they were up against was a beast at the Golden Core Realm. They don't expect to kill it, but that's the only thing they have. Hopefully, this might give them some time, right?
Thinking this was their chance to escape, Martin turned around and grabbed Justine.
"Justine, let's go…!"
"Hey!"
But before Justine could stand up, Jasper's voice made their bodies stiff.
"That hurt like hell!" Jasper winched. The bullets were unable to penetrate either his or Nyx's skin.
If he hadn't gone through the hellish cultivation method in the past two months, Jasper would've reacted more.
Nyx, on the other hand, ignored the bullets. He was once in the Nascent Martial Spirit Realm. His physique is tougher than most beasts in the Golden Core Realm. Not to mention that beasts are physically tougher in the first place.
What's shocking is that Jasper was unharmed, as Nyx was. This shook the snake.
'What level within the Body Tempering Realm did he reach? His body may be stronger than Qi Refining Realm Cultivators at the middle stages. This is unheard of!'
The pair of friends just looked at Jasper with disbelief.
Even the naked man is in the Golden Core Realm? They are dead, super dead!
"Alright, enough of this farce," Jasper thought of how he could prove his identity and easily figured out how.
He pointed at Martin.
"Martin, you cheated on our finals in Math because you slept through the night when you planned to cram." his finger then pointed at Justine, "Justine, you're a nerd who thinks you're cool by drinking a lot. You go out to mixers at least twice a month because you can only talk to girls when intoxicated!"
"???"
Question marks popped out of both Martin's and Justine's terrified faces. They remembered the conversations and were sure that they had only told Jasper and each other this.
In other words—
"You ate the memories of our dead friend!"
"Fuck off!" Jasper cursed at their reaction.