What happened next surprised the both of them even more, as their master was apparently a pyromaniac as well. He had rubbed two rocks together and had created sparks which lit the straws on fire. Wang Yan was absolutely in awe of the fire that been created onto the straws, but Zhang Jian started to blow on, which created a lot of smoke. Poor girl who had been in awe a few seconds ago was coughing violently since she had inhaled a lot of smoke.
Zhang Jian laughed and said, "Cover your mouth, it's going to be hard to breath for some time." He then looked down and Cerberus and said, "You too Cerberus."
He then started taking careful steps towards the massive hive, each step seemed to be steady and calculated, as he didn't want to anger the honey bees. As expected, the master's plan worked since the bees started moving away once they came in contact with the smoke from the half-burnt straws.
Wang Yan had covered her mouth and Cerberus had tried his best to not inhale most of the fumes from the smoke, since it was getting hard to be breath.
After the bees had been forced to leave, the master quickly started collecting the honey from the hive with Wang Yan helping him, but there was one tiny set back that they had. The straw had burnt through, and Zhang Jian did not have more.
This was alarming since the bees suddenly started returning, Cerberus started barking to threaten the bees to stay back, but they taunted him, saying, "Bark all you want, it's not going to save you from us anyway."
Cerberus simply scoffed in response, considering he knew he was going to be well able to shield his master and his lady from their stings.
They all started running out of the cave and several times the bees tried to sting Wang Yan, but he deflected all of their attacks away, but in the haste, he forgot to be as careful about himself as well and once of the bees managed to sting him on his nose.
"Oh, hell it is going to swell up like a balloon." Cerberus exasperated
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After having carried the sack of meat on his back Wu Ming almost felt as if spine was going to shatter. He had asked the Black Phoenix for his help but he had refused, the ugly bird was really getting on his nerves now.
He could almost see The Black Phoenix laughing and spitting on him if his knees shattered right now, instead of helping him but just like always he had to calm himself down. They had almost made it back to their master's house, the hardest part of the journey was over. All he had to do was put up with his narcissistic partner for a thousand more steps, and then he could rest.
Ever since Wu Ming was young his mama had taught him to count his steps wherever he went. She had taught him to be faster and to be precise.
"Never take too many steps. Never take too less steps." His Mama whispered
Since if you took too many steps, you'd be too fast, and swift people usually make mistakes and they suffer from terrible losses. But if you took too less steps, you'd be too slow and slower people may anticipate attacks from their enemies but they would never be able to react fast enough.
Whereas if you took precise steps, you'd reach your destination in time while having enough energy to fight off a pack of wolves, all he had to do was take almost nine hundred and forty precise steps and he'd reach the hut.
Unknowingly Wu Ming had started to perceive his master the same way that he once perceived his mother, with utmost respect despite the fact that he had met him only a few months ago. One might call him a mama's boy, but he admired people with power that weren't inhumane. His unfaltering trust in Zhang Jian rooted from the fact that he had been humble to him. This is something you didn't expect from someone who was at the ascension stage. He considered most of the folks on the higher levels to be narcissists, and he had an example right in front of him at the very moment.
The Black Phoenix had taken every chance that he could get to annoy Wu Ming, on their way back. For instance, he had purposefully jumped into a puddle of mud which had resulted in splashes landing right onto Wu Ming's face.
He scoffed at the very moment, and stared at The Black Phoenix in an aggressive manner, warning him.
The Black Phoenix however was unaffected and started laughing at his misery.
'It seems that he gets his happiness by making others suffer.' Wu Ming thought to himself, which infuriated him to an extent but he knew what speaking up against someone on the ascension stage meant; death
Since all they had to do was flick their finger and the qi from that person's body would be sucked out.
Finally, they had made it back to the hut, after a thousand steps. Surprisingly Wu Ming's knee caps were still intact. When he entered the house, he noticed two pairs of shoes at the entrance.
"Seems like master's back already." He said to himself. Looking ahead he saw that the Zhang Jian was kneeling in front of Cerberus's kennel. This surprised him because he had never seen such a power person such as Zhang Jian kneeling in front of someone on a lower level than them.
He walked closer to him and before he could even react, he heard a loud snickering laugh. The Black Phoenix, of course. He just had to laugh at everyone's misery. Secretly Wu Ming wished that his master would kill The Black Phoenix and make dumplings from his meat. Anyway, the reason why master had knelt down in front of the kennel was because Cerberus seemed to have an immense amount of swelling on his nose, which honestly made him look like a clown. Or as if his nose had been replaced by a huge plum.
The Black Phoenix kept on laughing at Cerberus, so he started growling, warning him to stop otherwise things wouldn't look so good for him and his vassals. Only when his vassals were mentioned, the Black Phoenix stopped snickering.
Zhang Jian noticed the sudden change in his puppy's behavior so he shushed him patting his ears.
"Shush boy! What's gotten into you?" He then looked back and noticed one of the pheasants dancing around, almost as if it was happy to see them and apparently Cerberus did not like that much.
"Shoo, shush, leave Cerberus alone for a minute." He chuckled. It felt somewhat silly talking to a bird like that, but the pheasant seemed to understand, and quickly ran back and joined the rest of the pheasants.
Zhang Jian also noticed how Wu Ming was waiting for him, with a large sack on his back, 'Seems to me he's collected a large amount of meat.'
"Just give me a second Wu Ming alright?"
He then got back to applying a paste made up of medical herbs alongside a little bit of honey and vinegar on Cerberus's nose. Hopefully the swelling would go down after sometime, because he was clearly in pain and that hurt Zhang Jian very much. He couldn't bear the fact that his loyal companion had been stung because of him.
He then looked back and noticed Wu Ming with a massive smile on his face, he also had a huge bag on his back, which looked quite heavy to be honest. 'I wonder for how long he has been carrying this on his back,'
"That looks quite heavy, did you have to carry that on your back all the way until here?" He inquired
Wu Ming's face lit up even more as he answered, "Yes master. I brought almost ten different types of meat for you. Look."
Carefully, Wu Ming took out the different kinds of meat from the bag and showed it to him while looking extremely proud of himself. Truth being said, Zhang Jian was infact quite impressed by his steward's efficiency in handling such matters. He acknowledged his hard work and determination to deliver his fullest whenever a task would be given to him. He patted Wu Ming on his shoulder twice and said, "Good work Wu Ming. I'm really impressed by you."