Dragon's Origin

It seemed impossible for Wang Sheng to refuse. He couldn't very well run around town shouting that Mei'er and A'Qi had nothing to do with him, could he? Even if he did, would anyone believe him?

Everyone envied Wang Sheng's boundless good fortune with women, but Wang Sheng himself could only swallow his complaints—it was all just a facade! Although if Wang Sheng nodded, whether it was the First Madam or the Second Madam, they certainly wouldn't refuse, Wang Sheng just couldn't bring himself to agree.

The girl in his dreams was getting closer and closer. Wang Sheng could almost smell her scent. How could he possibly fall for someone else at this time?

Oh well, he would just have to maintain the status quo for now! Wang Sheng wouldn't explain, but he wouldn't make any further moves with either of the women.

"Prepare some food," Wang Sheng instructed the two young maids behind A'Qi. "Also, tell Sister Qiangwei to spread the word that if anyone wants to know what happened inside, they'd better prepare some gold coins."

The two little maids bowed in unison and then withdrew, leaving only A'Qi and Wang Sheng.

Strangely enough, when they were fighting side-by-side in the Thousand Layered Land, they were quite in sync, but in this situation, being alone together was indescribably awkward. A'Qi kept her head down, not daring to look at Wang Sheng, and Wang Sheng wanted to say something, but couldn't seem to get the words out. It was exceptionally awkward.

Finally, the chef was quick, and Wang Sheng looked at the dishes that had been laid out. After coming out of the Thousand Layered Land, he had a great appetite, and this chef had been instructed by Wang Sheng for a long time, knowing Wang Sheng's tastes. Even before eating, Wang Sheng could smell how good the food was.

After first instructing the chef, Wang Sheng and A'Qi started eating together. Only after starting did Wang Sheng discover one thing about A'Qi that he liked.

Perhaps it was a habit from her days as an assassin, but A'Qi ate like Wang Sheng did in the military—wolfing down her food at a rapid pace, and snatching food aggressively, giving Wang Sheng a strong sense of returning to the army.

On a whim, Wang Sheng started competing for food as well. The awkward atmosphere between the two lessened considerably because of this meal.

"A'Qi, have you lived in the jungle before?" After eating and drinking his fill, Wang Sheng sat back to digest and casually started a conversation with A'Qi. "You seemed very comfortable in the Thousand Layered Land."

So far, the only people who could keep up with Wang Sheng in the jungle, aside from those with much higher cultivation levels, was A'Qi, who was able to keep up with Wang Sheng in the Thousand Layered Land with a not-so-high cultivation level. This made Wang Sheng particularly curious as to why.

"I lived there for a long time." A'Qi's face darkened, as if she had recalled some unbearable past.

A'Qi's reaction made Wang Sheng even more curious. A ruthless assassin who killed without blinking an eye actually had such a fragile side. Was this a little too fake?

"You lived in the forest since you were little?" Wang Sheng didn't care whether A'Qi was uncomfortable or in pain, and continued to probe to the bottom of things.

It wasn't that Wang Sheng was cold-blooded, but with a female assassin who had wanted to kill him before now following him around in this manner, he had to understand her background clearly, or he might be sold out and still be helping her count the money.

"We were a group of orphans who were trained as assassins from a young age." Hearing Wang Sheng's question, A'Qi's face darkened a few more degrees, but she didn't hide anything, quickly answering, "Starting from the age of five, after learning four years of basic skills, we, over a hundred nine-year-olds, were thrown into a jungle that was slightly worse than the Thousand Layered Land to train."

Nine-year-olds thrown into the jungle to train? This was too inhumane! Wang Sheng frowned directly. Even if it was training, they should at least teach everyone jungle survival skills before throwing them in, right? Just teaching some basic skills before throwing them in—what was that?

"At first, we were on the edge of the jungle, and then we slowly went deeper, until finally we were required to live in that jungle for a year before coming out." Since she had started talking, A'Qi didn't have any more reservations, opened the floodgates, and began to speak.

"From the age of nine to sixteen, a full seven years." The more A'Qi spoke, the more it seemed unrelated to her, and her tone became more and more calm. "I roughly calculated that there were about five hundred people in total, and in the end, less than ten came out."

What was the purpose of throwing a group of children into the jungle to train survival skills? Wang Sheng immediately thought of the Thousand Layered Land. The Xia family's goal back then was the Thousand Layered Land, and training this group of people was definitely to enter the Thousand Layered Land.

"Less than ten out of five hundred people?" Wang Sheng couldn't help but click his tongue. The Xia family was truly unscrupulous for the Thousand Layered Land. Even though the elimination rate of Wang Sheng's special forces on Earth was astonishing, it wasn't like this. Moreover, in the military, elimination was just elimination, while those who couldn't come out in A'Qi's story were definitely never coming out.

Using several years to train a few children, and without teaching them experience, letting them explore on their own—this was clearly treating human life like dirt. However, Wang Sheng wouldn't say anything about it. Wang Sheng wasn't a saint. These people had already died before he came to this world, and Wang Sheng was powerless to do anything about it. Even if he could, he wouldn't go looking for trouble.

"Then aren't you all treasures?" Wang Sheng became curious again. "If you want to enter the Thousand Layered Land, wouldn't having you make things twice as easy? How did you end up becoming an ordinary assassin?"

This was what Wang Sheng didn't understand. Someone like A'Qi, trained for so many years, could be considered a one-in-a-hundred jungle survival expert. If they wanted to enter the Thousand Layered Land, they should be treated well and served like a treasure, and then use them as the core to build a jungle exploration team, exploring the Thousand Layered Land bit by bit, right? Why did A'Qi end up as an assassin?

"When I was nine years old, I accidentally fused with a low-level Yuan Soul when I first entered the jungle." A'Qi said with some regret, "I was able to survive because of this. When the family discovered this a few years later, they determined that I had no potential for development, so they casually dismissed me. The other six who came out with me, the family seemed to have found the best Yuan Souls for them, and they have been cultivating, planning to explore the Thousand Layered Land when they cultivate to the seventh or eighth level, but they didn't wait until that time, and you appeared."

Wang Sheng's appearance was too strange, so that these jungle experts that the Xia family had carefully prepared hadn't even had a chance to be put to use before the situation became what it is now. However, he believed that in the past few years, the cultivation of those companions of A'Qi had also increased quite a bit, and the Xia family would soon put them into the Thousand Layered Land.

"By the way, I'm very curious." Wang Sheng asked A'Qi, "What kind of Yuan Soul did you fuse with that the family thought you had no future?"