438: Chapter 340 438: Chapter 340 Jiang Tang heard the expressions of fear from the nine girls, which reminded him of when he was in university, overhearing some classmates chat about how their girlfriends loved to watch horror movies when they went to the cinema.
For instance, ghost films and the like, which the girls enjoyed watching but would scream at certain scenes.
The boys’ favorite part was when their girlfriends, in a moment of fear, would cling to them, granting their wishes for a moment of closeness and warming their feelings for each other.
Back then, he could only listen in because, being quite shy, he had a crush on a certain goddess, but only from afar.
One of the reasons he dared not confess his feelings to her was that too many had already done so.
The goddess was a wealthy and beautiful girl pursued by numerous rich heirs, and he, a boy from an average family, lacked the confidence to compete for her affection.
Of course, his circumstances were better than some of the poorer students, and aside from the goddess, there were many beautiful female students, too.
Apart from his secret love for the goddess, it seemed he accomplished nothing else during his university years.
Forget having a girlfriend; even holding a girl’s hand was a privilege reserved for physical education classes.
Perhaps his shyness was why he didn’t, like the other boys, get a girlfriend and move out to live on his own.
Jiang Tang felt a bigger reason was that he was a commuter student.
Spending all his time on the road, perhaps his parents were a bit strict with their only son.
Not allowed to have a girlfriend before reaching adulthood, the benefit of his parents’ strict control was that he managed to get into a top university, but the downside was that, once in university, his parents said he still lacked independence and could not have a girlfriend as it would disrupt his studies.
Finally, after graduating from university, he felt he had at last gained the freedom to live his own life, to find a job that could support him, to no longer be under his parents’ control.
With his diploma in hand, he dreamed of leaving his parents’ oversight to work in a distant big city, thereby embarking on a life of freedom and the pursuit of his own happiness.
At 22, still single without a girlfriend, he harbored a secret he felt was even more embarrassing than the girls found, that he was quite effeminate.
Just as he was contemplating ending his virgin life, this wish had not yet been fulfilled when he suddenly died and found himself in the Cultivation World.
Embarrassingly enough, in the Cultivation World, he was still a virgin, having adapted to life there for several years now.
Even faced with nine blossoming beauties, he dared not make any rash moves.
He longed to establish a harem, to live a carefree life in the Cultivation World, yet he didn’t want to be lewd.
Moreover, he had a brother-in-law, a significant third wheel, by his side.
The thoughts in Jiang Tang’s mind were fleeting; with a wave of his hand, he isolated the nine girls from the outside noise, preventing them from hearing the terrifying sounds.
Once the girls could no longer hear the horror, they began their normal exploration.
As for Dugu, a fellow man, he was not so lucky as to have Jiang Tang block out the sound for him and suffered under the barrage of strange noises.
He felt a bit envious that these girls could act coquettishly and justify their fears boldly.
If, as a man, he couldn’t explore as boldly as Jiang Tang, not only was his Cultivation falling behind, but if he showed such effeminate characteristics, he would despise himself.
Staying by Jiang Tang’s side felt like an immense pressure, not because of any pressure emanating from Jiang Tang himself, but because Jiang Tang was simply too excellent.
Even playing the role of a little brother seemed somewhat unfitting next to him.
Fortunately, he shamelessly claimed the status of a brother-in-law, acting as an oversized light bulb, assisting his sister in her pursuit.
Regrettably, Jiang Tang treated every girl the same, especially Xuanyuan Mengting, who appeared even more special in his heart.
Yet, as her brother-in-law, he couldn’t help much.
It seemed with him around as a big light bulb, Jiang Tang was excessively proper.
With beauties around him, there was no embracing to the left or right.
Isn’t he being too much of a gentleman?
Sometimes he wondered if Jiang Tang had issues with his gender?
But his demeanor towards the ladies was even better than other men’s; this wasn’t a gender confusion issue.
Could it be extreme shyness?
As Dugu pondered this, it seemed this man couldn’t exactly be described as bad, nor entirely fickle either.
Considering Jiang Tang’s gentlemanly behavior in front of the nine women, he, a man without a partner and slightly older, had no right to criticize others as paragons of virtue.
Jiang Tang had already extended his powerful Divine Sense hundreds of miles around, exploring dozens of mountains, each of which seemed to echo the same sound, as if one voice traveled hundreds of miles.
Yet, it also didn’t seem to come from the mountains; it was as if it was coming from beneath them, through hundreds of miles.
Jiang Tang felt his intuition couldn’t be wrong; he then lowered his Divine Sense about 100 meters from the mountain peak but found nothing unusual.
So, he probed deeper into this mountain without discovering anything extraordinary.
Jiang Tang was certain this was no coincidence; this was the scary noise mentioned by the farmers and hunters that came at night.
The sound didn’t quite seem human, yet it had a somewhat human-like quality to it.
With no distinct odors detected, Jiang Tang boldly speculated, could this possibly be some sort of soul?
With this thought in mind, he didn’t just search on one mountain; he scoured the whole area around it.
In his mind, Jiang Tang recalled seeing other Demonic Beasts on the other mountains during the day.
Only one mountain, which was a bit taller, had just a few small animals, capable of leaping far, like monkeys that came to pick fruit from this large mountain.