A purple aura surrounding Feng expanded and contracted, knocking the Yiut away and down to the ground. Beng wanted to help but he was too exhausted after pushing his body through it's utmost limit. He could only look up and see how the fight would go.
[Feng used his skill, the Heavenly Demon Spirit. The Yiut got knocked back but he is still on the floor.]
A second later, Feng rose up to his knees but could not stand fully. There was blood all over his body, and he was breathing heavily because of the accumulated damage he received from the Yiut. His right eye was a glowing purple flame that constantly blew to the side. He looked like a demon.
Beng could see there was also a small purple translucent baby on Feng's back, and that he stopped bleeding.
[Heavenly Demon Spirit... I'm not sure what this skill does but I'll learn later. The Yiut stopped using his skill after that attack, I need to kill this beast now!]
The Yiut started to get back on to his feet, but Feng had already made his way to it and did a downward slam attack with both of his hands on top of the Yiut's head.
*Boom!*
It only briefly disorientated the beast.
"ππ³π³!"
The Yiut counterattack and slashed Feng 2 times. He responded by gouging out both of the Yiut's blue eyes and blinding it. The Yiut went into a blinding frenzy and attacked everywhere, but Feng was nowhere near it as he backed off.
The Yiut changed his trajectory and caught Feng by surprise, holding him down once more.
[Shit! I thought the Yiut wouldn't see me, but to think it's ability to sense blood would allow it to discover my location...!]
"BENG! USE YOUR SKILL! ITS BELOW YOUR LEVEL! WE CAN'T PROLONG THIS FIGHT ANY LONGER!"
Beng Hun quickly opened the system. He saw that his new skill was,
"Heaven's Void Step".
Beng Hun didn't have time to understand his ability, so he rushed out and tried to close the distance between him and those two as much as possible. Beng Hun was still recovering, so his pace was a bit slower than usual. This caused him to panic and fasten his pace as a result, reversing the slowness.
But as soon as Beng saw that the Yiut started to go for Feng's neck and bite it off, he stood still and screamed:
"πππΌπππ'π ππππΏ ππππ!"
Nothing happened. Beng Hun's mind started racing. He was trying to figure out why his skill didn't go off.
[Heaven Void Steps.... how do I make it work?! Feng Shu just called out his ability, and I copied him but it did not work out for me. Damn the heavens!]
As the Yiut was a few centimeters left of biting out Feng's throat, he punched the Yiut's nose, directing it's mouth elsewhere.
[Heaven's Void Step... Heaven's Void Step... Void Step... Step... Step? STEP!]
It gave enough time for Beng Hun to make it a breakthrough.
[If I couldn't use it when I stood still, that means I have to use my skill before I take a step!]
Beng Hun intuition was right. Before he took a step, he shouted:
"πππΌπππ'π ππππΏ ππππ!"
Beng Hun's feet started to glow black. When he landed his feet, a shockwave came from Beng Hun and knocked only the Yiut straight up high in the air.
Feng was amazed but didn't hesitate and punched it as it went down, hitting the beast's stomach and tearing through it easily.
<50 EXP gained. Splitted between Beng Hun and Feng Shu 70% each.>
[Holy shit, we did it! But I think I lost too much blood...]
Feng Shu's Heavenly Demon Spirit went away. He immediately collapsed to the floor from exhaustion. Beng Hun rushed over to help.
"Feng Shu!"
Beng Hun started to hear him snore. He checked for injuries on his body but they now turned into scars.
[Okay. I think he is fine for now. I must let him rest.]
Beng Hun looked over at the corpse of the Yiut. There was an option to "loot." He pressed on it and three things went to his inventory.
<100-Year Ginseng x 4>
[Wow, I'm not sure what these does but I'll tell Feng Shun later when he wakes up. I will sleep too.]
[13 hours later]
Feng Shu opened his eyes and saw Beng Hun doing pushups. He let Beng Hun finish his set before talking.
"You saved my life Beng Hun. I didn't think I would survive after punching it."
"What do you mean Feng Shu? You were contesting with that Yiut! You were strong, I would not have survived that confrontation."
"But that move of yours was very strong, it gave us the opportunity to kill that beast."
They let out a deep breathe and laughed. Even though they were just in a life or death situation, both of them enjoyed it. It was stressful, but Beng Hun knew he needed to get into fights to grow stronger. He needed the experience necessary to be better.
His hard work also rewarded that feeling of getting stronger because of how he progressed with his pushups and eventually leveled up at that last moment, saving Feng Shu with his skill. Going beyond his limit, working hard. It felt better than being lazy.
Feng Shu on the other hand felt basically as the same as Beng Hun. But he also figured that hard work will not always work out for them, as they almost died because Beng Hun didn't finish his pushup quest for a long time. If he had finish it faster, they probably wouldn't have struggled as much as now. He thought about it long, and realized that they also have to work smart.
"Beng Hun, thank you for enlightening me."
"Huh?"
"Even though you did those pushups and tried your best to improve and get better everyday, we could've done it in a more optimal way. I know I said that you have to work hard, but now I truly believe we must also combine that with working smart."
Beng Hun thought about this and agreed. He knew that if they endlessly did something that would be pointless and inefficient, then hard work was useless.
They would try ways to justify in many ways that it was indeed useful, even though in their hearts they knew it wasn't. But, if they combined that with working smart, then less problems would arise. Combining these two ideas would result in tremendous results!
"Feng Shu, I thought about it. If I had worked smarter and harder, then I would have done pushups way faster and completed the quest. I could have done the "okay pushups" from the system, resulting in less time for me needing to rest and doing more pushups over time."
Feng Shu stayed silent for a few seconds and nodded.
"You're right Beng Hun. I told you to do that because I would have thought we had all the time in our hands. We definitely have to think about many of the situations in the future. But, you also tried to push yourself too hard and caused some blood to come out when you fell. If you were working smarter, you probably would have listened to me and not try anything stupid."
Beng Hun was embarrassed. He had forgotten about that mistake that caused the Yiut to sense them.
"Sorry..."
"And you have to build your foundation up. Doing my exercises with perfect form will yield better results compared to 'okay' pushups. You can't just use the idea of working smarter to justify being a bit lazy and doing the movement in a worse way because its easier. In my world, they say 'less is more."
Feng Shu sighed. He thought he had the idea down. But the combination of working smart and hard started to baffle him after talking with Beng Hun. Something so simple would be so confusing at the same time.
Beng Hun also felt the same way.
"Well it is fine. No need to complicate it. We shall work hard, but make adjustments along the way if we need to. Cannot half-ass it after all like I said, but we can look for better routes. This time, it was an exception."
"half-ass indeed!"
Beng Hun suddenly remembered about the loot option.
"By the way Feng Shu, there was an option to loot on the Yiut. I do not know what loot means, but it gave me some stuff for my inventory!"
Feng Shu immediately got up and went to go loot.
<100-Year Ginseng x 4>
[A bow?! I've read so many chinese cultivation novels that I thought I would've gotten a sword or something...]
"What did you get Feng Shu?"
"I got 2 Qi Condensation Pills, 4 100-Year Ginseng, and a wooden bow."
"Same thing as me Feng! But I received a gauntlet instead of a bow."
"I was thinking a sword or a saber, but I guess this will be a fun experience. Let's check what these do. By the way, what is our new quest?"
"We have to do 50 pushups, 1 pull up, and 100 squats."
"Oh. Well, let me teach you those. The pull up will be quite hard for you so it will take a bit longer than the pushup. But nothing like a little hard work aye?"
Beng Hun made a fist, resting together with his palm, in front of his chest. He smiled.
"I will be in your care."