"Jin Fang. Would you mind coming with me to help get the new hires acclimated to their environment?," Daria asked.
"I’ll meet you in our courtyard after you’re meeting with father-in-law," Daria told Zhen Yan before kissing him on the cheek. "Don’t take too long."
"Of course dear," Zhen Yan with a nod and easy smile.
Once Daria, Jin Fang, Farisia and Corriandis left, Zhen Yan proceeded to readjust his posture and face before opening the door to the main courtyard.
"Father! We have ret-whoa!"
"Why does it smell/look like a butcher’s shop in here?"
"Oh thank goodness, you’re back."
When Zhen Liu and his family returned to the estate, they were greeted with the sight of a blood bath, both literally and figuratively.
The normally pristine open air courtyard was filled with tables topped with tubs, knives, and the various viscera and flesh of some giant creature. Manning each of this chopping stations were several of the clan’s elite warriors, Zhen Liu’s uncles and his grandfather, complete with apron. It was honestly shocking to Zhen Liu, as he never expected his dignified looking elders to look like butchers...until his brain registered the monstrously large reptilian-like head with a pair of huge horns, being processed by his grandfather.
"Is...is that a Hill Crusher Dragon? A fourth tier, Hill Crusher Dragon."
"Yes," Patriarch Zhen Shi replied as he finished cutting through one of the dragon’s horns, "yes it is."
________________________________________________
The name "Hill Crusher Dragon" was a bit of misnomer, since this species of aether beast were closer to lizard than dragon, but the amount of dragon blood was just enough to give them an absurd amount of brute strength and naturally dense Teraqi aether. This gave members of the species naturally tough bodies, to the point that they could easily reach grade three without trying, four with some effort, five if they were lucky.
No flight though, but they could run for days.
Combined with the fact that they looked as if someone took an Ankylosaurus, a bison, mixed them up, and gave them the disposition of an angry badger covered in fleas, made Hill Crusher Dragons an absolutely awful opponent to deal with, even if the challenger had the strength of an Aether Grandmaster.
Worst still, Hill Crusher Dragon flesh is so tough that one needs at least the strength of an Aether Master to cut through it, and the strength of a Grand Master to cut through the bony plates.
The Zhen Clan has had dealings with butchering these beasts before, they universally agreed that it sucked.
________________________________________________
"Some nobleman from one of the neighboring kingdoms came to Stone Claw with his kid about two days ago," Zhen Liu’s Third Uncle answered while stripping the hide from a chunk of flank, "the two of them needed materials for something called a Marrow Crystallization Pill, which apparently needed the innards and core of an Teraqi dragon beast."
"So they hunted down a Hill Crusher and sent it to us to butcher," Zhen Yan finished, "but it would normally takes only one of us, and about a day, to process an order . Why is it all hands on deck?"
"Normally it would take us about a day to process an order like that," First Uncle answered while washing a giant piece of liver with alcohol, "but the nobleman had really deep pockets, and decided to order not only order the express butchering, but also a complete body butchering. He apparently wanted to, and I quote, enjoy the fruit of our most glorious hunt, by feasting on this most dangerous beast."
"How deep exactly?," Zhen Hai asked, now curious himself.
Without anyone saying a word, the people butchering the dragon parts pointed towards a wooden chest about as big as a fully grown boar. The man closest to the chest to proceeded to open it, showing that the inside was full of gold bullions from top to bottom.
Zhen Liu wasn’t entirely sure of the monetary value of that gold, but his brain told him: more than a Ferrari, less than a mansion...and more than what he stole from the Marquis.
’That’s seriously a fuckton of gold, who is this new rich guy?’
"Now that you understand what we’re dealing with here, take up a knife and help with the cutting. If we can finish it by tonight, the nobleman said he’d pay extra," the Fourth Uncle mentioned while removing the nerves from a rib piece.
Zhen Yan merely nodded in confirmation before taking an offered apron and knife, and making his way to a station. Zhen Liu and Zhen Hai were about to offer to help as well, but got stopped by the patriarch.
"There’s no need for you two to help with this kind of work yet. Just go back to training for the time being. Xiao Hai, once you have finished breaking through to Master, come back to my office."
"Of course, grandfather. Thank you," Zhen Hai said with a bow and a cupped fist.
"Xiao Liu, I’m not sure what your formula entails, but we have acquired an aether puppet that could be of some use to you, make sure to care for it thoroughly."
’Another proto-kaijin chance? Wonder how this one will turn,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself, as he verbally and physically thanked his grandfather as well.
As the two young masters left the courtyard to return to their respective quarters, Zhen Hai waited until they were out of earshot to ask Zhen Liu a question.
"Hey, how come you’re keeping your power level suppressed and a secret? Wouldn’t now be a good time show off, prove your doubters wrong, get some well earned respect from the uncles?"
Evidently, the heroic battle freak could also be surprisingly insightful.
’Sheesh, no wonder grandpa gave him access to his personal formula.’
However, Zhen Liu had a response ready to go.
"Now’s not the time. If word gets out that the cripple, turn resurrect, somehow broke though Master level literally a month or so from said ressurection, people are gonna gunning for my ass harder than before."
"But... you’re a one man army...and what does ’gunning’ mean?"
"Oh that’s, uh...slang. That my master used. It meant ’to go after in earnest’. Basically, if people knew about me, they’d probably send more assassins."
"Oh," Zhen Hai went in realization, "that’s fair."
The two cousins eventually parted ways as they left for their respective parts of the estate, although they did agree that when Zhen Hai breaks through to Master, Zhen Liu would announce he had done the same.
When asked why, Zhen Hai responded, "Well...if one of us broke through to Aether Master, there’d be scrutiny, if it’s both then it’s not as big as a deal."
With no good way to counter that logic, Zhen Liu just agreed and went on his way.
________________________________________________
As Zhen Liu made his way back to his room, he decided to finally ask his brain buddy a question that’s been bothering him.
’Hey...head voice, I just remembered something.’
’When I [ate] that Desire Core, you said that there would be side effects based on the [Desire] of the core, right? Like, I’d ended up acting funny or my thought patterns would change, right?’
’Well, it’s been a couple days now, and I haven’t felt any different, aside from that first day. Is it possible that I lucked out?’
’Are you sure?,’ Zhen Liu asked again as he opened the door to his room, ’Because my pattern of thinking hasn’t really changed since then, and you have a habit of-oh.’
"Hmmm? Oh hi Xiao Liu."
Zhen Liu had been all set to go on a tirade against his brain voice about him getting messed with, but stopped when had saw Jin Fang sitting on his bed with a mandolin in her arms...wearing a shirt that gave her a very generous amount of cleavage. The sight of the former confused him, the sight of the latter caused his brain to go full stop.
"I was about to practice playing a bit. Did you want me to go?," Jin Fang asked with a weirdly(incredibly) cute expression.
Zhen Liu couldn’t help but involuntary gulp as his brain was raging between several decisions, some more salacious than others.