Chapter 54 - Chapter 54: Chapter 54: Huge Changes
Chapter 54: Chapter 54: Huge Changes
Translator: 549690339
After teasing and chatting, Jack Clark and Justin Welan caught up with the lively group. A crowd of ‘youngsters’ frolicked through the sea of lotus flowers.
When Crystal and the others had taken nearly all their pictures, it was already noon.
Everyone found a somewhat fancy restaurant in the scenic area to solve the lunch problem, and as for the bill, it was generously taken care of by Justin Welan.
After lunch, the afternoon was free to spend.
The summer sun was blazing, so Justin Welan together with Laurant Quartley and Sawyer Levin found a fishing spot under the shade of a lakeside pavilion. Crystal and the others girls went off somewhere else.
As for Jack Clark, he crossed the walkway over the lake to a small island in the middle. A large tree was planted in the center of the island, its shade covering more than ten meters around it.
Underneath the tree, a lawn was spread out; the lush grass and gentle breeze making it a perfect place surrounded by lotus flowers.
This spot was ideal for a nap.
However, just as Jack was about to close his eyes under the tree, another figure came and sat down next to him: it was Freya Louise.
After sitting down, she brought out a simple easel from her backpack and set it up, followed by a folding drawing board, paintbrush, and portable color palette.
Her not-so-large backpack looked like a treasure chest, surprisingly devoid of cosmetics or anything girl-related.
Curious, Jack asked, “1 didn’t expect you to have this hobby. How well can you paint?”
The young girl pursed her lips lightly and laughed, modestly responding, “It’s fine, 1 guess. It’s been my hobby since I was young.”
Feeling a touch drowsy, Jack lounged lazily and said, “Then go ahead and draw, I’ll take a nap.” He then closed his eyes and fell asleep under the gentle breeze.
The girl tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, glanced at Jack laying on the grass, then took off her shoes, sat cross-legged, held a paintbrush in her hand, and then started looking around for inspiration.
In a somewhat blurry state, Jack did not wake up until around 2 pm.
As he opened his eyes, the girl was still sitting cross-legged beside him, completely engrossed in her painting.
The painting on the easel was in its final stages, featuring vivid green lotus leaves and white and pink lotus flowers in full bloom, giving off an authentic feel.
Even an outsider like Jack found Freya Louise’s painting pleasing.
After looking at it for a while, Jack closed his eyes again. This time, however, he wasn’t sleeping but was sinking his consciousness into his Heavy Armored Beast Avatar.
On the chaotic stone-banked riverbank, a 1.7-meter-long, crocodile-looking creature, even more ferocious than a real crocodile, was slowly moving from a burrow under water.
With continuous growth and slaughter, the dark Unique Beast gradually became more dominant and fierce, gradually accruing an aura of ferocity and tyranny.
Under Jack’s control, the Heavy Armored Beast began its hunt of the day…
“Jack… Jack…”
While Jack was wreaking havoc on the rivers as the Mutated Beast, he vaguely heard someone calling his name and reopened his eyes.
Seeing him awake, Freya Louise waved her phone: “The Class Leader is calling for a gathering.”
“What time is it?” Jack was still a bit groggy.
“Four thirty.”
“That soon.” Jack sat up and was handed a painting.
The young girl’s mouth curled into a light laugh: “I’m giving you this painting as a memento of today’s outing.”
“…Thank you.” Jack took a brief pause and then accepted it. Looking at it in his hand, he realized he had mistaken it for the initial lotus painting that Freya had been working on.
On the A3 paper, there were blue skies, white clouds, and a small island in a lotus-covered lake.
Under the shade of a tree on the island, a youth was taking a leisurely nap, with a girl seated close by, capturing the beautiful lakeside view on her easel.
In the painting, whether it was the lotus leaves, the island, or even the figure of the boy was clearly visible, as if they were all real and jumping off the page. J ack Clark exclaimed, “What impressive drawing skills.”
The girl who was packing up turned her head to look at him, a smile in the corners of her eyes. She then folded the easel and put it in the bag, carefully stowing away the color palette as well.
After about ten minutes, the two of them gathered with a crowd of cheerful youths at the entrance of the scenic area, concluding the day’s visit.
Monday.
Jack was about to go to his cultural class as usual, but the moment he walked into the classroom, he sensed something was amiss.
The classmates were whispering to each other, discussing something quietly.
Jack sat down at his seat, then tapped the shoulder of Justin Welan who was in front of him. He curiously asked, “Mr. Willard, what happened?”
Justin turned around and asked surprisingly, “Jack, don’t you know?”
“Know what?” Jack was confused.
Justin lowered his voice, “The news last night, the official report states that Koroya has been occupied. The local cultivators have overpowered the present rulers.”
“Also, the cultivators revealed their affiliation with the Evil God Sect. They claim they want to establish an earthly divine nation for some God named Akunus.”
“Currently, the Federation is discussing a proposal to send military troops to crush these Evil God Sect Cultists. The military expedition is likely to take off by the end of the month.”
“Um… these big events don’t seem to have anything to do with us, do they?” Jack felt puzzled.
He hadn’t heard about all this, partly because he was not in the habit of watching news, but majorly because he spent his time on cultivation and transforming into a Unique Beast for hunting after returning home the day before.
“It doesn’t.”
Justin nodded and said, “But given the pressing international situation, shouldn’t we respond correspondingly too? After all, we are the future buds of the Federation.”
J…, Jack was speechless.
Initially, Jack thought all this was too distantly related for the students to worry about.
However, within a couple of days, as the Federation passed the proposal to send troops to Koroya, rumors started surfacing in the school.
It was stated that the authorities of the school were studying whether to send some freshers along with the Federation’s troops to Koroya for late-period practice.
Jack didn’t pay attention to those rumors. As always, he only focussed on attending school, cultivation, controlling the Heavy Armored Beast’s feeding, and was steadily increasing his strength every day.
October 31st.
In the Personal Cultivation Room, Jack’s muscles were slightly swollen, he seemed to have conspicuous Elephant lines on his body. Frightful oppressive breath emanated from him, making him appear like an enraged elephant.
Suddenly, Jack sped up causing a raging wind to blow as he rushed in front of the Tester. His punch sped out with the force of a cannonball.
Bang!
Under the fierce power released, the air was directly blasted. The strength tester set in the wall vibrated so violently that the numbers on it began to climb crazily.
Finally, it stopped at a terrifying number – 7000 kilograms.
It had been almost a month since he had broken through into the Second Layer Heaven. Although the Dragon Elephant Power was slow in advancing, the Avatar was continuously evolving and growing.
At this point, Jack’s physique attribute had reached more than 130 points, and his strength attribute had even crossed over to 140. This was equivalent to being fourteen times that of an average person.
With his terrifying physique, his basic arm strength alone could reach an astonishing 1200 kilograms, far exceeding the Second Layer Heaven’s limit of 800 kilograms.
With the enhancements of True Strength and the impact carried by the Burst of speed, his Full-Force Strike could cause a dreadful force of seven tons.
In such a situation, even if a huge elephant were in front of him, its skull would be smashed by a single punch, its body overturned. Jack seemed like a humanoid beast.
Whoosh!
Jack exhaled, slowly suppressing the bubbling Qi Blood inside his body. Seeing the data on the tester, he broke into a smile..