Ling Jiu arrived before an abandoned shop and heard a noise inside. Peeking through a shattered window, he saw a few kittens the size of toy poodles playing inside.
The kittens had fluffy, fire-red fur, and they were cute to the max. Girls would surely love them.
Nonetheless, Ling Jiu knew that they were not ordinary kittens but Firecats, which looked adorable when they were young but became blood-thirsty demons once fully grown.
"Should I kill them?"
A meow entered his ear while Ling Jiu mumbled to himself.
He looked sideways as a sharp pain hit his face followed by four bloody streaks.
"Damn it!"
Ling Jiu became furious, and he glared at the attacking Firecat.
It was one meter tall and two meters long with fiery-red fur as well as a pair of ruby eyes; that was the Firecat.
The Firecat was a Class 1 Direbeast. Not only were its movements as quick as lightning, but its claws were also incredibly sharp. Its combat strength was a notch higher than that of a Sabretooth Hound.
"How dare you scratch my handsome face! I'll kill you!"
Ling Jiu attacked it by thrusting his stone spear forward.
The Firecat dodged it easily and struck its claws at Ling Jiu's throat.
Its claws were so terrifyingly sharp that they could easily slit his throat open.
"Go to hell!"
Ling Jiu hissed, stomping his right foot on the ground. An earthen wall rose and blocked the Firecat's attack.
The Firecat leaped onto the earthen wall and easily scaled over it. Then it pounced on Ling Jiu, who greeted it with three pomelo-sized marbles.
True to its reputation as a speed-type Direbeast, the Firecat dodged the marbles. But little did it expect that the three marbles would make a one-eighty turn in the air.
The move shocked the Firecat, but it was too late to dodge.
Dush! Dush! Dush!
The three marbles hit the Firecat in its waist and abdomen, causing it to lose its balance in the air.
Seizing the opportunity, Ling Jiu gripped a stone spear in his hand and thrust it at the Firecat's belly, the softest part of its body.
The stone spear penetrated its belly, and the Firecat struggled for a moment before it dropped dead to the ground.
Ling Jiu breathed a sigh of relief. Speed-type Direbeasts were nasty because of their speed. Lucky for him, his skills were good enough to kill the Firecat.
He cut out the Firecat's heart, then shot a glance at those Firecat kittens in the shop and snapped his fingers.
Boom!
The shop collapsed instantly, swallowing those few kittens, which were too young. Those Class 1 Direbeasts and their hearts were of no value to him, but they had to die because they were Direbeasts.
"Help! Help!"
Ling Jiu moved on, but before he could make it far, he heard a distressed voice calling for help.
Following the voice, he ran over and witnessed something terrifying.
A python as thick as the thigh of an adult with patterns on its skin was wrapping itself around a teenager.
The teenager was trying to fight back frantically and calling out for help. However, the python was too strong for him, and his struggle was futile.
As the python squeezed tighter, the teenager's voice became weaker, and the bones inside his body crackled.
"Help-Help me!"
The teenager spotted Ling Jiu. Knowing that Ling Jiu was his last hope, he screamed at the top of his lungs.
Ling Jiu knew that he could not let the kid die. They could compete with and rob each other of their harvest later, but watching the other die without lending a helping hand was a no-no. It would reflect badly on a person's character and be detrimental to a person's career development.
"Eat this!"
Ling Jiu raised his hand, and the rocks formed a stone hammer in his hand. He wielded the colossal hammer and smashed down the python's head.
Dush! Dush! Dush! Dush!
Repeated blows smashed the python's head, forcing it to gradually ease up its squeeze, and the teenager escaped.
"Thank you so much for saving me!"
The teenager looked at the python with its smashed head. "I would have died if it weren't for you!"
"You're welcome. Just be careful next time!" Ling Jiu reminded the teenager, patting him on the shoulder.
He suddenly froze. The moment he lay his hand on the teenager, a few lines of text appeared in his vision.
Name: Fu Changan
Race: Human
Special ability: Gravity Manipulation (Awakened, replicable)
Gravity Manipulation? This chap's special ability is gravity manipulation! Holy moly, this is a terrific special ability! Not to mention, it complements my Earth-element Arcana well!
Ling Jiu could not have been more excited.
He had replicated Earth Manipulation, Shadowing, and other special abilities over the past six months.
With the exception of Earth Manipulation, he could not use Shadowing and the other special abilities on a whim. He was worried that others might find out and associate them with his special ability of replication.
However, it was a different story with Gravity Arcana. He was not afraid of being found out because it belonged to the Earth-element Arcana.
In fact, many Earth-element Arcanists would naturally acquire the Gravity Arcana once they reached the pinnacle of the Earth-element Arcana.
I am of the Earth-element Arcana. Even if I demonstrate the Gravity Arcana, no one is going to suspect me of my replication ability but think that it's just a natural ability that comes with the Earth-element Arcana.
With that thought in mind, Ling Jiu quietly replicated Fu Changan's Gravity Arcana. After some pleasantries, he left.
He wanted to find a relatively inconspicuous and safe place to assimilate the Gravity Arcana so that he would have one more ability up his sleeve.
What came in abundance in the county city were shops and residential buildings. Ling Jiu quickly found a safe and inconspicuous place.
Half an hour later, Ling Jiu was back on the street, resuming his hunt for the Direbeasts as if nothing had happened before.
There were many Direbeasts hiding around the place, but most of them were Class 1 Direbeasts.
With Ling Jiu's current strength, those Class-1 Direbeasts were no match for him. He killed a dozen Direbeasts along the way.
"Caijiapo Zoo!"
Ling Jiu ended up in front of a zoo. Hearing a heated fight, he followed the sound and arrived to see a group of people attacking a giant alligator-type Direbeast.
The ten-meter-long alligator-type Direbeast looked like a van.
Lumpy and hard scales covered its back, and one-meter-long spikes grew on both sides of its ribs. The Direbeast appeared extremely hideous.
"It's an Ironspike Gator, a Class 2 Direbeast!"
Ling Jiu immediately recognized the alligator. "These guys have guts! Aren't they afraid of that Class 2 Direbeast?"
As Ling Jiu pondered about it, he looked at those who were attacking the Ironspike Gator. It startled him to see Li Kai among them.
"Why is Li mingling with these people?" Ling Jiu furrowed his brows.
Li Kai aside, the other guys looked older. One was even a middle-aged man. If he was not mistaken, these people were either the Arcanists who had awakened independently or the rejected from the previous years.
Li Kai was with them?
"Come on, guys! This beast is getting weaker now!" a young man dressed in a sports suit shouted as he leveled up his attack.
He was a Fire-element Arcanist. His Fire-type abilities looked impressive with a fire spear, fire blade, fireball, and fire bullets at his fingertips. Plus, his range of attack was over three meters.
Apparently, he was a Level 2 Arcanist.