Skeleton Soldiers were rather weak dimensional creatures. They had slow Speed, medium Strength, and weak Constitution. They had been taught in school how to deal with them. A typical high schooler who wasn't too terrible at cultivation had no trouble dealing with one or two Skeleton Soldiers.
Although Zhou Wen had never fought with a real Skeleton Soldier before, he could tell that they were much weaker than Vigor Ants. He didn't know how much Strength or Constitution it had, but its Speed was at a max of 3.
Controlling his blood-colored avatar to rush over, Zhou Wen met the Skeleton Soldier as it struck down with the club but due to its extremely slow speed, it was reduced to scattering bones by the blood-colored avatar before it could even land a hit.
Ding!
Amidst the pile of broken bones, a dimensional crystal dropped. Upon scrutiny, it was a Skeleton Soldier Crystal.
Zhou Wen was pleasantly surprised. The chance of an Essence Energy Skill Crystal dropping was very low. To have one drop almost immediately meant he was very lucky.
Unfortunately, the Skeleton Soldier's Essence Energy Skill is supposedly Skeleton Palm. It can only boost some Strength and its effect isn't very strong. Besides, it's typically a low Rank 1 Essence Energy Skill. Zhou Wen recalled the information he learned from school and felt somewhat disappointed.
Getting the blood-colored avatar to pick up the Skeleton Soldier Crystal, caused it to instantly transform into a gray stream that bored into the blood-colored avatar's body.
Zhou Wen also felt a cold aura go from his phone to his palm. Then, it circulated through his body, forming a strange Essence Energy circulation path.
Obtained Essence Energy Skill: Skeleton Palm (Rank 1). Expends 1 Essence Energy.
Skeleton Palm expends 1 Essence Energy per use. It uses much less than Vigor Divine Fist but is much weaker. It should be one of the weakest Essence Energy Skills. Zhou Wen knew that typically, the stronger the Essence Energy Skill, the more Essence Energy it used. Something that only expended 1 Essence Energy was definitely weak.
Since it wasn't convenient to test the might of Skeleton Palm, Zhou Wen made the blood-colored avatar continue walking deeper into Ancient Sovereign City.
Zhou Wen didn't know why Guide Ancient City would be renamed as Ancient Sovereign City in-game. Based on what he knew, Guide City was an ancient city with a long history. In ancient times, it had the names of Yingtian and Shangqiu, and its history traced back to the mythical times of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.
Emperor Zhuan Xu of the Five Emperors had once set up his capital here before moving it to Diqiu. The leader of the Three Sovereigns, Suiren was born here. Likewise for Emperor Ku of the Five Emperors and his son, Xie of Shang.
A name like Emperor Ku was probably unfamiliar to the average person, but Emperor Ku was the underlying archetype in which Emperor Dijun was depicted in the classic text of mythic creatures, Classic of Mountains and Seas.
These were all myths and no one knew if they truly existed. However, after the dimensional storms, Guide Ancient City became a dimensional zone, and to date, it hadn't been fully explored.
A few years ago, powerful humans at the Epic stage stormed deep into Guide Ancient City, never to return. From that moment forth, no one dared to venture deep into it.
Over the past few decades of evolution, the strongest human was only at the half-step Mythical stage. In fact, that only meant the peak Epic stage. The disappearance of such an expert spoke volumes of how terrifying the deep depths of the ancient city were.
Thankfully, the dimensional zones seemed to have powerful restrictions, making it difficult for the dimensional creatures to rush out of the zone's confines. Otherwise, human society would probably be in pandemonium, and wouldn't be as calm as it was.
Summoning the Mutated Vigor Ant, he charged deep into Ancient Sovereign City with it. From time to time, Skeleton Soldiers would charge up to him only to be easily slain by him and the ant.
However, apart from the first Skeleton Soldier encounter, no other crystals dropped. The drop rates of Skeleton Soldiers were lower than Vigor Ants.
In the game, Zhou Wen tried the might of the Skeleton Palm, and unsurprisingly, it was much weaker than Vigor Divine Fist. It boosted his Strength by about 10–20%, making it significantly weaker than Tian Xiangdong's Lightning Fist.
However, there was a pro to Skeleton Palm. It had a mildness to it, and the amount of motion required when delivering it was minimized. It was agile and quick, unlike Vigor Divine Fist which required open and exaggerated actions.
Skeleton Palm is more suitable for fusing with Inch Punch. However, Skeleton Palm is too weak. Even if I fuse it, the damage against the Silver-Winged Flying Ant will be limited. As Zhou Wen was in thought, he sensed someone walking towards him.
There were quite a number of students gathering for the combat test. However, Zhou Wen had chosen a corner, so anyone who walked over was highly likely to be looking for him.
Thankfully, there weren't many Skeleton Soldiers, so the Mutated Vigor Ant was more than sufficient to handle them, making it possible for Zhou Wen to divert his attention. He looked up and took a glance.
Believing that it was Li Xuan, Zhou Wen was surprised when he identified the person. It was An Jing who he hadn't seen since she had defeated him in one move.
An Jing was a girl who didn't have the modern interpretation of beauty. She didn't have a sharp chin, double eyelids, or a high nose. She looked more like a classic beauty with a petite nose and a slight chubbiness to her face that wore a sharp, masculine air. She had feline-like eyes and her gaze was firm and forceful.
She was taller than Fang Ruoxi and was almost Zhou Wen's height. To men, a woman this tall exuded a suppressive feeling. It was especially so with An Jing's demeanor that automatically warded off strangers. Boys with slightly weaker willpower might not even dare to look her in the eye.
An Jing walked straight to Zhou Wen and, without waiting for him to say a word, she threw a USB drive at him.
"What's this?" Zhou Wen caught it and asked An Jing in puzzlement.
"Uncle Feng got me to give this to you." An Jing glanced at the phone Zhou Wen was holding and said in a seemingly mocking tone, "However, I think Uncle Feng's painstaking actions were for nothing. Anything, no matter how good it is, is a waste when given to someone who wallows in self-misery."
Before Zhou Wen could say a word, An Jing turned and walked a few steps before pausing. Without looking back, she said, "In the future, don't you say that you're from the An family. Our family does not want such a weakling like you."
With that said, An Jing walked off without turning back. Once she had left the warning zone, she left in a car with a military license plate.
Zhou Wen stared blankly as the military vehicle left. Only then did he shake his head and mutter, "I'm not from your family to begin with. Neither did I plan on rubbing off some of your family's glory. Perhaps you guys are overthinking things."
Placing the USB drive into his pocket, Zhou Wen continued grinding the Ancient Sovereign City dungeon and kept killing Skeleton Soldiers.
Even if nothing good dropped, it allowed him to familiarize himself with the environment inside Ancient Sovereign City.
Although the school had provided them with the information and a map of the ancient city, the map was only limited to the vicinity around the northern city gate. On the one hand, the map wasn't complete and on the other hand, it was to prevent the students from venturing too deep into the ancient city for fear of any mishaps.