Chapter 81: The Dark Ability
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Though at this time, Zhou Hao and Qin Feng were very calm.
The sound was no longer densely packed, there was only one!
"Hey hey, looks like there's a straggler. You'll serve nicely to show my accomplishment!"
Zhou Hao's legs flashed and he quickly took down the giant bat.
Qin Feng had already killed the stipulated number of bats before they came out of the tunnel. Zhou Hao had managed to kill almost a hundred, but there were still another hundred G-tier ultra beasts he had to take down.
If they could no longer hunt in the mine, Zhou Hao might have to skip school tomorrow!
Just after Zhou Hao had slain the bat, another one flew out from the cave!
This time, even Zhou Hao found it strange.
"I'll go check it out!" Qin Feng gave prior notice before walking into the mine.
At this time, the dust in the mine had settled. The position fifty meters into the mine had been blocked off by the fallen rock debris.
However, there was a crack in the ground near the blockage.
It was no bigger than the size of two palms. The giant bats could not fly out of it but it could fold its wings and crawl out, though it would require some effort on their end.
Yet, the body of the bats were flexible, and another one popped out rather quickly.
Qin Feng immediately shattered its skull with a shot and pulled out the giant bat. After it was pulled out, another started to appear.
"Master, you want some fruits?" Xiao Bai was on the sidelines watching the show, not understanding the appeal of some little winged rats.
She was chewing on some bludcatarrh fruit, and the faint sweet breath that came from her made the crawling bat more agitated.
"Squeek!"
The bats that were blocked off also let out a collective harsh shriek. They had also smelled the bludcatarrh fruit.
"Qin Feng, what's going on?"
Zhou Hao had handled the previous bat outside and he walked toward him, coming upon this unexpected scene.
"Hahaha! These giant bats are so dumb. Quick, let me have a go, I happen to need about a hundred more and I can literally just take them on here one by one!" Zhou Hao excitedly exclaimed.
Qin Feng shook his head.
"It's better for them to have appeared from the trapped mine before killing them, the video won't approve it if you kill them like this."
Those who did not know the actual situation would have considered this fraudulent, and if it were a machine that was auditing it, there would be random spot checks.
Zhou Hao thought about this and felt that it made sense so he did not reject Qin Feng's suggestion.
For all the giant bats that appeared after, Zhou Hao fought them in person. In Qin Feng's spare time, he wielded the Verdant Emperor Saber, killing whichever giant bat that would appear.
Even if the second bat that came out knew that the giant bat before it was dead, it could not head back. There must be countless giant bats pushing against it, all tempted by the bludcatarrh fruit.
Not only that, there was still the possibility of a potential king figure among them.
Zhou Hao's hunting speed was fast, but killing one hundred was something easier said than done. After an hour, he had already run out of power, yet there were still thirty G-tier ultra beasts he needed to slay.
At this point, he had already exceeded the extent of his ability!
"Xiao Bai, give him a bludcatarrh fruit!" Qin Feng ordered.
Bai Li reluctantly rewarded Zhou Hao in a manner as if she were gracing him with a fruit.
"Just one! I'm not giving anymore!" Bai Li said.
"Thank you, little princes!" Zhou Hao said sweetly, taking the fruit and directly swallowing it.
Suddenly, a pure burst of energy surged through his body, merging into all four of his limbs. The previously sore and weak muscles became full of vigor as if they were being activated again.
Zhou Hao's physical strength had advanced into G3 tier!
"Come! Let's go!"
Zhou Hao once more launched himself into combat with the giant bats.
After half an hour, Zhou Hao reached his goal of thirty but it was obvious that the two did not intend to leave the area anytime soon.
"Kill them all! This is all money!" Zhou Hao already had an extra dagger in his hand, just waiting for the next giant bat to appear.
Qin Feng thought for a moment, before asking Bai Li for another fruit and handed it to Zhou Hao.
"You stay here and keep killing, I'll head over to see the other side!"
Qin Feng intended to end these giant bats.
Although for Qin Feng, these giant bats could not add too much benefit to him due to their strength only being G3 to G5 in tier, but they were in large numbers and they could strengthen themselves!
"Roger that!"
In the previous battle, Zhou Hao was made aware of Bai Li's strength, and the ability to instantaneously move was simply the perfect solution for a quick escape!
What he did not expect was that Bai Li's ability for instantaneous movement was an incredibly rare spatial ability.
At this time, Qin Feng and Bai Li had reached the other end of the tunnel, two hundred meters away.
Since reaching the power of an F-tier beast king, even movement within one kilometer could be achieved, two hundred meters was a piece of cake!
Qin Feng could already clearly hear the sound of giant bat wings flapping.
"This time, let's try out the power of the darkness ability!"
Qin Feng had been stewing in the library for a couple of days, reaping in great reward. The giant fireball he had managed to toss out earlier came from such.
Of course, previously when chasing down Viper, Qin Feng had already utilized fire ability. Yet, it was not as big as it was this time, clearly it was not just a slight improvement.
Qin Feng came from around the corner, directly behind the swarm of giant bats. Since they were all preoccupied with the bludcatarrh fruit that Zhou Hao was holding, they completely ignored the two.
Qin Feng's consciousness began to mobilize and dark runes spread from his body.
At this moment, Qin Feng was not shrouded in flames, nor would he be radiant. Quite contrarily, he would be shrouded in darkness and become more elusive.
A black sphere appeared in his hands, and then, it gradually became larger.
Runes kept flooding into the sphere, making the dark orb grow into a terrifying three-meter-wide orb which consumed everything within sight. Qin Feng's vision was shrouded in complete darkness, even his sight had become pitch black!
"Go!"
Under Qin Feng's command, the dark orb silently flew forward.
It was completely silent, there was no screech like when the fireball impacted against the giant bats, nor the sound of an explosion.
Under the amplification of the hellstone, the power of the dark orb reached its fever pitch of horror as it swallowed the giant bats in the blink of an eye.
Wherever it went, the giant bats landed one after another, completely drained of any vitality.
The dark orb advanced ten meters and as the bats were so condensed in a single area, it killed up to five hundred giant bats.
Qin Feng stared on and seemed to understand the power behind the dark runes.
"So this is the dark rune. No wonder my senior said that the strongest dark ability was called the Finger of Death. It's because dark runes represent death just as light runes represent new life!"
"Once more!"
Qin Feng would not just stop because of the ominous implications behind the dark runes. On the contrary, he did not believe in such a thing as a 'good' or 'bad' ability, it was only the person using it that was strong or weak.
The dark orb was gathered once more!
Without a word, without a sound, the swarm of giant bats was consumed.
Chapter 82: Wiping Out Giant Bats
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
However, Qin Feng's consciousness had its limits. After firing about ten dark orbs, he started to feel a bit weaker.
Even Qin Feng himself did not know how many giant bats he had killed by now. It was at that time that the giant bat swarm experienced a shock, giving up on trying to squeeze through the crack and instead started to turn around in retreat.
"Let's go!" Qin Feng's expression changed, he was losing power and his face was wane. Definitely not a match against a group of giant bats.
Bai Li quickly grabbed Qin Feng and brought him back to the exit of the collapsed tunnel.
Zhou Hao's dagger arm was starting to feel weaker!
Looking at the time, it was already 3am in the morning!
In these past few hours, Zhou Hao's kill score was equally huge, having killed up to eight hundred giant bats.
"No more?" Zhou Hao's arms were trembling, truly slaying ultra beasts until his arm was going to fall off!
"Don't deal with the bodies yet, let's go back to the car and get some rest," Qin Feng said.
"Okay, I will call my dad and let him know I'm okay!" Zhou Hao saw the messages on his communicator and quickly dialed back to tell his parents that he was well, but he would not be able to go back today.
"Eat the rest of the bludcatarrh fruit, you've just violently expended a lot of energy. Don't fall asleep just yet, meditate first!"
"Got it!"
Zhou Hao returned back to his off-road vehicle, this time realizing the benefits of having such a big space. The back seats could be retracted in order to make a huge space. Zhou Hao sat inside and began to meditate on his internal power.
In the blink of an eye, two hours had passed. Zhou Hao, who had been meditating his internal force, took a deep exhale. His eyes gleamed as he felt his exhaustion being swept away, obviously he had received a large gain.
"Haha, looks like I advanced again!"
A heavenly treasure, enough to speed up someone's progression. Zhou Hao now had the strength of a G4 tier!
In just one night, he was promoted nearly twice, Zhou Hao seemed to have uncovered the secret behind Qin Feng's strength.
Only in constant fighting, training yourself, adventuring and taking risks to retrieve treasures would one be able to make rapid progress.
Qin Feng was also done resting and the two began to sweep up their spoils. After all, this was a lot of money.
Qin Feng asked Xiao Bai to take him back into the depths of the tunnel and began to clean up the corpses of those beasts.
The number was beyond imagination.
He could not waste these materials, and had them all sorted out. In the end, he found the body of a beast king.
"I… I actually killed a beast king yesterday?" Qin Feng was very surprised.
The strength of this beast king during its lifetime was almost the same as the herbivorous giant rat king, but regardless of description it was still a beast king. Yet it had its lifeforce silenced by Qin Feng's dark ability and died here.
"No wonder those bats started fleeing yesterday!" Qin Feng thought about the scene yesterday and believed it to be the reason.
In fact, the beast king died in a cruel way.
It came here with a large number of children and grandchildren but were all buried together. It tried to use sonic waves to get the bats to spread apart, but due to the lack of space, it ended up getting stuck in the center.
When Qin Feng let loose his dark ability, it tried to hide, yet there was no way to avoid it and was put to death while still standing.
"The darkness ability is really powerful!" Qin Feng thought, feeling elated.
He began to pick up the corpses from the ground, not only was there a beast king, there were also six more beast generals among the three thousand corpses.
Including Zhou Hao's number, it looked like the giant bats of Greenhill mine had just suffered a gigantic loss!
The fight did not take long, but collecting the rest of the bodies took up to three hours.
Zhou Hao's side gave him a full harvest, his car brimming with loot and Qin Feng's things were hanging off from the side. The number was absolutely terrifying.
By the time they returned to the city it was already 8am. With a huge load of goods, they went to the Wanzong equipment shop first.
It was the only kind of store that would be able to afford their goods anyway.
"You should check the goods first, we still have other things to do. You can transfer the money our way after you're done checking!" Qin Feng said.
Sun Yu nodded excitedly, previously he was still thinking that the quality of the things Qin Feng sold to him were quite low. Today, he found out that Qin Feng made up for that with quantity, and the quantity was staggering.
Not only that, Qin Feng harvested the materials from the giant bat king so it could be made into a cloak and a dagger.
Since the abilities of the giant bat king was to hide in the dark, the rune equipment made out of its wings had a certain concealment ability. Qin Feng did not need it but Zhou Hao did.
This would greatly increase Zhou Hao's survivability. In combination with his Obsidian Gale Legs' escape potential, it would be impossible for people to keep up with Zhou Hao.
After bidding Sun Yu goodbye, Qin Feng went to the ability certification hall.
It was eight in the morning and the hall had just opened its doors, yet there were people going about already. It was certainly busy here regardless of the time.
After all, the ability certification hall also posted missions, unless there were special certification machinations in the area, the frogmen, wolves and so on that Qin Feng had killed before could be certified at the hall, increasing one's points and acquiring something that they would not usually be able to buy.
Qin Feng and Zhou Hao had just appeared, which attracted the headhunters that stayed around the certification hall all year long.
Zhou Hao and Qin Feng were here the day before yesterday, and some people would not forget young men with such potential. Yet, they were wondering what these two were doing here.
Not only that, both of them were carrying combat backpacks.
"Am I just imagining things?"
"How's that possible, didn't they just apply the day before yesterday afternoon? In this case, it's only been two days!"
"Not two days! It's only been forty hours!"
Nobody was certain what was going on, until they saw that Qin Feng and Zhou Hao were indeed there for certification.
Zhou Hao took out two hundred giant bat tails and at the same time submitted those with the video.
[Beep Beep. Certification passed. Congratulations on obtaining the G-tier ability assessment. Join the house of ability users!]
Qin Feng's side displayed the same.
"Qin Feng, do you want to do the attack power certification? We can raise our ranks!" Zhou Hao said excitedly. He was thinking about how he had gone up to G4 tier in one go, which would surely shock a lot of people.
After obtaining the G-tier aptitude user badge, you no longer needed to hunt monsters to upgrade yourself. As long as there was enough data, the badge would rank up automatically.
Moreover, the higher your rank, the better your welfare.
"Don't need it yet." Qin Feng understood that the greater the power, the greater the responsibility.
Zhou Hao might have the strength of a G4-tier but he definitely did not have the experience of being one. He was afraid that later on Zhou Hao might be assigned to an area that was too dangerous for him.
He could not tell him that reasoning though.
"If you get to G4 now, how are you gonna get along with our seniors?" Qin Feng made a joke.
"Haaah! You're right!" Zhou Hao felt even more pleased after hearing Qin Feng's words.
The thoughts of getting a rank certification was instantly dispelled.
As the two turned around, they realized that they were surrounded by a group of people. In the next moment, they were enthusiastically promoting their organizations.
Chapter 83: Approaching the Frontlines
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Qin Feng and Zhou Hao had to struggle vehemently to finally get away from those people.
They were not going to join any silly organization.
The time was already past ten in the morning, it was no surprise that Zhou Hao too was late this time.
When Qin Feng arrived at school, the second course for rune writing was already underway. Qin Feng knocked on the door and when Cheng Chao saw him, he was undoubtedly rather angry.
"Go to the back and stand there for the rest of the class!" Cheng Chao said with a straight face.
"Yes, Teacher," Qin Feng nodded and stood where he was told without any complaints.
He drew strange gazes from the others in class, some of admiration, some of contempt and there were even traces of concern among them.
After all, Qin Feng's achievements in the gunslinging course were as good as the teacher's, in the end they were all students of the ability class. What they really wanted was to know how to control their abilities.
Everyone knew each other's power level, except for Qin Feng's. Most people speculated that Qin Feng's ability was not very powerful. In the future, he might be transferred to be a gunner. The most important point was that Qin Feng seemed like he really did not fit in!
The class resumed immediately so they no longer lingered on Qin Feng as they continued to concentrate on class.
Two hours into the class, after announcing that the class had ended, Qin Feng walked up to Cheng Chao's side.
Cheng Chao's face bore a serious expression, no longer concerned whether there were students around as he directly said, "Qin Feng, what's the matter? You're not even bothered to take my class now?"
"Teacher Cheng, I have something I want to talk about."
Qin Feng avoided the question. If it were not for the fact that it was Cheng Chao's class, he probably might not even be able to attend.
"What is it? Do you have a reason? You better give me a good reason, otherwise, don't even think about leaving today!"
Cheng Chao looked very displeased, Qin Feng really was too unrestrained and did as he pleased.
Yet Qin Feng still remained nonchalant. He had no traces of guilt nor fear.
Cheng Chao had not seen such a student for many years.
Qin Feng nodded and pulled out a palm-sized badge with a letter G used by the alliance engraved on it. "Teacher, now I can go out to help support the fight against the Corpse Corps!"
Cheng Chao looked at the aptitude user badge and his mouth opened up into an 'O' shape!
Those that were still in the class saw this and their eyes widened.
"An aptitude user badge. Qin Feng, you're already a certified ability user?"
"What?"
"Lemme see!"
At that moment, several people gathered around to gawk at Qin Feng's badge.
"That's probably a fake!" One of them said with uncertainty, in his heart he knew that it could not be true. After all, Qin Feng was a student that did not take class seriously!
At this point, Cheng Chao was also in disbelief. In fact, he was also unsure whether the badge was real or not, but based on his years of experience, he felt that the badge was not a fake!
"Real or not, you'll know after you verify it!" Qin Feng handed the aptitude badge to Cheng Chao.
Cheng Chao took the badge and flipped open his communicator doubtfully to scan the independent code below. That was something that could not be forged by anyone. Immediately, Qin Feng's information was displayed and it showed that his certification time was no more than just two hours ago.
Cheng Chao inhaled sharply.
For those who had recently awakened, reaching G-tier was not something surprising. For example, Cheng Chao knew that the Ancient Warrior class had a genius called Zhou Hao in it this year. Without any form of systematic training, he was able to punch out up to 500 points in one go.
Having such strength and being a certified ability user were two completely different things altogether.
After all, they had to kill two hundred monsters in three days' time. However, Qin Feng was in class yesterday.
"This. Wha-When did this happen? Why did you get your certification?" Cheng Chao did not know what to say. Qin Feng replied calmly, "Didn't I ask you before? So long as someone has reached G-tier they can go help hold back the Corpse Corps. Teacher, you agreed to this before."
Cheng Chao was speechless for a while, when did he agree to it? However, if one were to become a G-tier ability user, the person did have the ability to help out with the Corpse Corps.
"So you got certified in only two days' time? When did you have the time to kill so many ultra beasts?" Cheng Chao asked in astonishment.
"After school, all at night," Qin Feng said casually, those hearing this would surely not think that it was something casual at all.
The wilderness was extremely dangerous at night, and this was something everyone knew from the word going around, but now, Qin Feng did not just go out at night, he had also hunted down two hundred ultra beasts?
"You're a lunatic!" Cheng Chao was so shocked that he accidentally blurted out. He quickly came to and coughed politely to cover up his embarrassment. "Qin Feng, since you have a G-tier aptitude user badge, you can naturally go to the frontlines. However, Director Deng has already set off with the others, I'm afraid you won't be able to catch up with his team!"
Qin Feng took back the badge and nodded. "I own a car so I'll go by myself. Teacher, you don't need to worry."
Cheng Chao could not help but feel worried deep down. However, he knew that there was no way he could stop Qin Feng.
"Very well, I'll authorize your school leave, but you must return after one month. That's when the assessment is being held and you absolutely must attend!"
After one month, it would be the Five District Assessment, thinking of Qin Feng's strength made Cheng Chao feel a giddy sense of excitement.
What a lunatic, and a genius at that!
He had only been in school for a few days, yet he had reached G tier and even got himself an aptitude certification badge. When it was time to go to the Spring Hunting Ground, would he take down the four other sides and crush the other academies?
Things would turn in Chengbei's favor this time, no, it would overturn the outcome.
"Yes, teacher!"
Then, Qin Feng left the classroom, leaving the other students in complete shock. The news quickly spread throughout the school. A student from the first grade had become a certified ability user and went to the frontlines.
But soon they discovered that Qin Feng did not do it alone. Zhou Hao from the Ancient Warrior class was also going as well, and some people were saying that Zhou Hao and Qin Feng were actually friends.
Surely, the friend of a genius was also a genius!
***
Since Qin Feng and Zhou Hao had fought for the whole night, they waited for each other to rest up before heading off into the wilderness.
The Corpse Corps business had everyone up about in a state of panic. Two days later, people within the colony had also begun to display signs of decay.
The overwhelming publicity had begun to shroud the entire colony, those with the ability to fight were all summoned and sent off to the field, and they were being paid a hefty sum for it.
Six o'clock in the evening, Qin Feng and Zhou Hao's cars that were going down the man-made road that had been opened up eventually reached the frontlines.
When he saw the crater made by the Hellstone again, he could hardly believe his eyes.
Chapter 84: The Power of the Knight King
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It was as if the place had become an entirely different world. The hilltops were unsightly, having become black as if scorched, and it stretched on for miles.
In the video previously shot by a drone, Qin Feng only saw a large number of the corpse corps but the area affected was definitely not so large.
Perhaps there had been a major change in the past two days, or perhaps that the video filmed was only the tip of the iceberg as it was the first form of media about the matter at hand.
It seemed that the situation was more of a crisis than initially imagined.
Qin Feng did not even have time to lament as a dark ray of light burst out from the top of the mountain in the distance. There were also eight rays of light that were surrounding the main one, reaching up into the skies.
And then, up in the air, a disc appeared.
"Rift! Spatial Rift!"
Qin Feng's and Zhou Hao's communicators were connected, which made it easy to contact each other for emergencies like this. It was Zhou Hao's frantic voice that came from the communicator.
"It's not a spatial rift, but a spatial passage!" Qin Feng exclaimed
The spatial passage opened up, and what quickly poured out were countless creatures. There were zombies and bone beasts, and the numbers were terrifyingly large.
The rift was only opened up for a few minutes, but several new figures had appeared. These people were equipped with gliding wings, well-equipped and their strength was definitely far from weak.
"Outta my way!"
One of the voices arrogantly called out before extending an earth-shatteringly huge palm outward, striking the ground below.
"Boom!"
After that one strike, the black light in the sky disappeared and the waves from the spatial passage began to stabilize.
Soon, a tall figure with dark runes covering its body appeared, and below its torso there was a thick black mist that resembled a warhorse made out of shadows. The upper body was clad in heavy knight-like armor and it held a pike in its hands.
"Clank!"
"Bang bang!"
The two began to exchange blows.
Qin Feng's eyes narrowed, he recognized the figure on the horse as the F-tier beast king he saw on the video. Even if he was a kilometer away, he could feel it. This beast king was in the F8 rank.
The one who was fighting with it was not a slouch either, he was an E-tier powerhouse.
The two of them were inextricably locked in battle and their fight gradually shifted from the mountain top.
It was at this moment a roar came from the horizon, reverberating through the air. Yellow, steaming artillery shells that were crossed in a perfect arc in the sky landed on the mountain top.
"Boom!"
The shells suddenly exploded, and the force of the vibration could be felt a thousand miles away. This was definitely the work of a powerful firearm user.
The remaining seven beams of light and one main beam of light in the sky became momentarily twisted, then were cut off. The originally stable spatial rift began to tremble before closing in on itself, causing the countless undead coming through to have their bodies crushed to death.
Up ahead came the sound of people cheering.
"Let's get into position first!" Qin Feng's voice rang out so that he could snap Zhou Hao out of his daze. The battle was quite entrancing for him. Zhou Hao, who had thought he had reached the big leagues, just realized that everything he had experienced up until this point was merely child's play.
The two cars started up again, and soon they saw the presence of the other people.
One thousand kilometers away from the edge of the Corpse Corps, assembled with traps and protective measures set up, the open ground was messy and full of domestic litter with tents of all shapes and sizes scattered around.
From time to time, the sounds of gunfire could be heard as a measure to prevent the corpses from wandering too close. Moreover, there were people moving about, some of their faces had blackened, apparently infected by the plague.
However, the body of an ability user was not weak. So long as they had left the area, they would recover from it.
"There are so many people!!"
For a moment, Qin Feng and Zhou Hao could not find anyone from Chengbei's advanced academies. However, Qin Feng did not come here to fight alongside those from the advanced academies!
"Let's find Xiao Jing first!" Qin Feng said. Xiao Jing was now part of Chengbei colony's garrison troop. Due to her talent and willingness to work hard, she had mixed in quite well with the rest of the troop after half a month, and had been promoted by team leader Li Wen to the rank of vice captain!
The world respected the strong, just because Xiao Jing just recently joined the garrison troop, it did not mean that she was to be underestimated. So long as she was strong, they would even make her a general!
While waiting for Xiao Jing to arrive, the surrounding people began to discuss among themselves.
"That firearm user from Dongling colony is way too strong, he is an E-tier firearm user who can take the enemy down from a thousand miles away!"
"If Liu Ba from the Xita district weren't in the front, he wouldn't have it so easy. Don't forget that his energy beams were reflected by that king tier knight, resulting in the death of more than a dozen aptitude users!"
"If you ask me, we should let the ability users move out!"
"What are they waiting for?"
Zhou Hao felt a sense of admiration. "That Liu Ba is really powerful!"
"It alright," If he really were powerful, they would not have been repelled, the enemy was just momentarily impeded. Not only that, Qin Feng knew that Liu Ba was pinned this time and he could be injured!
"Qin Feng, Zhou Hao!" Xiao Jing's voice rang out, and the two of them turned to the direction of the sound. They found Xiao Jing wearing a garrison troop's uniform, seemingly having grown more mature, raised in a manner that men would look up to. Heroic and dashing.
"Haha, Xiao Jing, you're exceptionally good looking in that outfit. I didn't find you this attractive before!" Zhou Hao blurted out.
Xiao Jing rolled her eyes, "Shut that witty mouth of yours, the situation is dire. I will go on patrol soon and I'll first arrange a place for you to stay!"
The frontlines must never be chaotic, if there were a crisis happening then it would also affect the support system.
The more they were pushed back, the harder it would be for them to escape.
Soon, Qin Feng and Zhou Hao were arranged to stay in a place further back from the frontlines. Two floating tanks were parked there with a tent set up in the middle, which became Qin Feng and Zhou Hao's temporary residence.
"You guys could make do with some food, and there's no need for you to keep vigil tonight. Tomorrow's the big siege!"
Xiao Jing gave some food to Qin Feng and Zhou Hao, though it was supposed to be a simple meal, what she gave them were all first rate ultra beast jerky.
"How are things looking now?"
"Not good."
Xiao Jing opened her communicator and passed the exact map location over to Qin Feng and Zhou Hao. "The Corpse Corps is getting closer to Chengyang City and has occupied three mountain tops. The occupied area resembles the word 'character'*, so the higher ups have coined these three mountains as Zimu Mountains.
There were already symbols marking the mountains, and not only that, there were also large and small colored dots. Among them, a dark-red dot was on the 'mother' mountain which was in the centre, representing an extreme degree of danger. The 'child' mountains were also in red, with the outermost one being orange.
This represented the numbers of the F tier and G tier ultra beasts respectively. The sizes of the dots represented strength. The huge dark-red dots represented the king-tier, but on the map, there seemed to be two of those king-tier dots.
*Translator's note: The occupied area resembles the Chinese character 品, meaning 'character'. The name Zimu Mountains is directly translated from 子母山 meaning 'Child and Mother Mountains' as the 口 character resembles a mother with two children when stacked together.
Chapter 85: Late night visit to Zimu Mountains
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"There are approximately thirty thousand G-tier zombies, however, we only have five thousand aptitude users here, and the thousands of F-tier mutated zombies are even deadlier as it would be extremely difficult to deal with their high movement speed and distinct aptitude!"
Qin Feng frowned unwittingly.
Zhou Hao, mouth wide agape, asked, "How many F-tier aptitude users do we have here?"
Obviously, G-tier aptitude users were not of great importance in this situation, and higher tiers would be their only hope left. However, the answer from Xiao Jing left Zhou Hao disappointed.
"There are more than one hundred of them, from the joint forces of Chenyang and the 4th district, and requests for backup are now being sent to other districts!"
Xiao Jing also sighed heavily.
Qin Feng knew that it was already an incredible number!
Many of the F-tier aptitude users had now taken up multiple roles, with Xue Xingfu as an example, being the team leader of the patrol team that had to protect the safety of the colony, it would be impossible to expect the leader's presence here.
"What about E-tiers? Wouldn't it be an easy task for E-tier aptitude users to destroy these zombies?" Zhou Hao could not resist the urge to ask as he greatly sensed the unfavourable situation and had on a worried expression.
Xiao Jing nodded as it had finally come to a piece of good news. "There are approximately ten E-tier aptitude users now, our Chengbei Colony has mobilized deputy mayor Lin Zheng, and also director Deng Nian from the university, ahh, yes, you should know them as you are students from the university!"
"That's great, I thought that these monsters would invade into the Colony!" Zhou Hao felt relieved.
On the contrary, Qin Feng did not seem at all relieved by that particular news.
"What was with the black lights and the stable spatial passage earlier on?"
Xiao Jing let out another sigh unintentionally.
"I was about to mention this, the F-tier beast king that all of you are looking at now is not only the Emperor Knight that was seen earlier on, there is another extremely powerful Dark-Robed Ripper that is also an F-tier, it is able to open the spatial passage and release even more zombies, the number of zombies is now increasing daily!"
It was extremely taxing to open the passage externally, however, it could be easily opened from within.
Qin Feng had already figured out the root cause of all these, it was most probably caused by the giant beast that had lost one of its hands after being cut down by Xiao Bai.
He could have started by releasing the Dark-Robed Ripper, and used it to open the passage that had allowed monsters to enter.
Whereas the owner of the skeletal hand was either too powerful to enter, or perhaps it did not want to consume his own energy to travel through the spatial passage.
If he were to enter into the suppressed space, it could restrict his powers to that of below one ten thousandth.
"Well then, just kill the Dark-Robed Ripper!" Zhou Hao became impatient as he spoke.
Xiao Jing shook her head.
Qin Feng kept an emotionless expression. "If killing it were viable, what else do you think could possibly stop Liu Ba?"
Xiao Jing forced a smile and nodded. "Yes, the ten aptitude users that came earlier thought that they were capable of capturing the king and ignoring the pawns so they went straight up to the Zimu Mountains, however, they were attacked by the Dark-Robed Ripper and lost most of their combat power; with the presence of the Emperor Knight, four of them were heavily wounded, and now there are only a few E-tier ability users left!"
Zhou Hao who was just feeling slightly relieved earlier on felt that the situation had become dire once again.
As time passed by, most of the capable fighters had been eliminated by the enemy.
Qin Feng knew with certainty that the situation had become intense!
Dark-Robed Rippers were named after those man-like creatures that existed within the rift, this intellectual ethnic group was more horrifying than the others with their great abilities, which also explained how they got their name.
Their bodies were covered in blood that would absorb energy and persist through long periods of combat, and they would release dark abilities to attack their enemies.
They were the greatest enemy of the human race.
"What is the colony doing besides just observing? Are there any other plans?" Zhou Hao asked.
Xiao Jing replied, "The higher management did announce a battle plan, however it serves no purpose!"
Xiao Jing lowered her voice when she spoke as it would be better to keep a low profile when discussing such contents.
"The higher management has decided to install an internal space stabilizing device to prevent the rift from destroying internally. However, the zombies here all have to be killed before the installation, and as the colony does not have such internal capabilities to do so; hence, the situation now is at a deadlock!"
The space stabilizing device was a highly valuable device as presence of such a rift would pose a threat to every colony and the community that was within its range, and it was for this reason that the stabilizing devices were installed; and as time went by, the colony was gradually formed around the area to prevent others from destroying the device and also to ensure that it did not go to waste.
However, it was obvious that any colony that was formed would be situated on top of a volcano that might erupt at any time.
"Damn, how could that be!" Zhou Hao was angered by the inappropriate decision made by the authorities of the Chengyang area.
Qin Feng had sunk deep into his thoughts.
"In other words, they would still perform the attacks, have those aptitude users recovered?" Qing Feng asked.
Xiao Jing was surprised by Qin Feng's analysis and continued saying, "Yes, they have recovered from their wounds and will resume combat tomorrow, both of you must get enough rest and be extra careful during the combat tomorrow."
"I am heading back now, there is still stuff to be taken care of!"
Xiao Jing waved and left, while Qin Feng noticed the dark circles under Xiao Jing's eyes and realized that she had not gotten enough rest.
"We will also head back to rest, let's continue the combat tomorrow!"
"Alright!"
Both of them had been busy round the clock for two consecutive days to obtain the G-tier aptitude user badge, they were exhausted by the task, and Zhou Hao headed back to the tent to rest after he had his meal.
The night light shrouded the area as intense spotlights were turned on to light up the surroundings and prevent the Corpse Corps from closing in, while the garrison army was constantly guarding the area.
The wind at night was brisk, while the beastly roars from the zombies could still be heard once in a while.
Qin Feng who was sleeping in the tent opened his eyes.
He looked at his wrist and saw that it was already 10 o' clock!
Qin Feng woke up and headed out into the dark where nobody would notice his presence.
Qin Feng walked toward the left side of the Zimu Mountains, it was known as the Dazi Mountain, while the other smaller one was known as the Xiaozi Mountain.
Every flower and plant on the mountains had died and were black in color, it was this particular scenery that had added on to the spookiness of the surroundings. Qin Feng had only headed out for fifty meters but it felt as if he was a thousand miles away from the base, and it was like he had entered the mouth of a giant beast.
"It all started because of me, I will contribute as much as I can in this!"
Qin Feng walked into the mountain.
Night time was the most favoured time for the ultra beasts, the zombies would also gain extra combat power without the hateful sunlight.
Although the zombies might be strong, Qin Feng was stronger.
Being a dark ability user, Qin Feng also felt that the dark night was when he was able to conquer.
"Xiao Bai!"
Qin Feng lightly shrugged while Bai Li in her small fox form jumped down from his shoulder and landed on the ground, then it turned into a human being.
Moonlight shone upon her body, and she seemed like a beautiful fairy that had descended upon the world.
Chapter 86: Extreme Slaughter
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Put on your clothes!" Qin Feng was rather frustrated as he said.
"The weather is not bad today, I shall wear this dress!" Bai Li was being picky with her choices as she finally took out a dress and put it on.
Qin Feng did have a lot to ask Bai Li but he did not ask earlier on as Zhou Hao and Xiao Jing were around.
"Xiao Bai, you dealt with the beast whose arm you broke, what is the probability of his appearance?"
Although Qin Feng knew that it would be difficult for powerful races to get into the area, he was still a little worried.
At the end of the day, it was an S-tier presence after all.
Bai Li shook her head. " It is impossible, the ability of the person is too powerful and there would be space restriction, which was why it was only able to extend one of its hands, and it was easily crushed by me!"
"That's great!" Qin Feng felt relieved.
Bai Li pouted and felt upset. "Master, I do think that you should not be here, the zombies and the broken arm giant beast share a similar aura, they are definitely here to capture you!"
Qin Feng had the same assumption and it became even more valid as it was brought up by Bai Li.
"This will prove that my assumption is right, the Dark-Robed Ripper works for the broken arm giant beast, along with the Emperor Knight, there might be chances of winning if both of us were to face against them!"
Qin Feng, being an extraordinary F-tier now, had an internal strength compression amount that was higher than normal human beings, combined with his physical strength, Qin Feng believed that he would be able to go up against a normal beast king by himself.
It was because he himself was also a beast king in the human form!
However, Bai Li did not show mercy as she said, "Master, you can't beat them."
Qin Feng pinched Bai Li's little nose.
"Why do you not have faith in me!"
"Master, you are still weak, but, it is okay, I can protect you, and help you escape!"
Bai Li did not mention defeating the both of them by herself, as she also lacked such powerful capabilities.
Qin Feng was speechless. "Let's go, you shall not act this time, and there will be no energy core for you!"
Qin Feng drew out his Verdant Emperor Saber and was ready for combat.
Bai Li could not understand why Qin Feng would deprive her of food but the energy cores from zombies were not that powerful, and she was not fond of them!
However, she still had the responsibility to remind her puny master.
"Master, stop heading in that direction, they must have received orders from that person to capture you, as soon as they have you, they will kill you and extract your ability core, and the Hell Stone will return to its owner, you must not seek your own death!"
"Can't you just have even the slightest faith in me?" Qin Feng was annoyed.
"The television taught us to be practical and realistic!"
Qin Feng was speechless once more, what had Bai Li been watching recently!
She needed more guidance!
However, Qin Feng had a sudden mischievous idea in his head.
"Xiao Bai, you shall address me as hubby from now on, and not master, as human beings would not address each other this way!" Qin Feng grinned as he said.
'Since you don't believe in me, I'm going to take advantage of you!'
"Oh. Alright, Master… eh, Hubby!" Bai Li nodded and suddenly her eyes widened. "Be careful!"
All of a sudden, a zombie appeared in the dark and came out from behind a giant tree while it roared and pounced toward Qin Feng.
Qin Feng waved the Verdant Emperor Saber in hand and slashed the zombie as if he was cutting a watermelon, the zombie that was about G5-tier was immediately slashed down by Qin Feng's saber.
When faced against such a zombie, it would only take one slash from Qin Feng to take it down.
"Alright, time to get serious, since I am still weak, I should be getting stronger, and not fall back, it's not like I have anywhere else to escape to."
Qin Feng became serious and was focused on killing the zombies.
Before he was reborn, Qin Feng had been through difficult times to battle his way through before he made it as an A-tier aptitude user.
Since things had become much smoother now, how could he be fearful of such a small hindrance.
If so, he would not be the Qin Feng that had survived through difficult times!
The zombie fell on the ground and Qin Feng continued to rush forward and cut off its skull with his saber, an energy core appeared from within.
"Absorb!"
The energy core shrunk in high speed and its energy disappeared within a split second.
"There is not much energy from these zombies!"
Qin Feng kicked away the zombie skull, and he blended in with the dark and continued to move forward.
Zombies that were lower-tier would roam around the outer areas, and as they moved to the inner part of the Dazi Mountain, the zombies would be of higher-tiers; soon, they would be able to see the mother mountain from afar behind the Dazi mountain.
Qin Feng knew that the Emperor Knight and the Dark-Robed Ripper were preying on the top of the mother mountain.
"No matter what, I will kill both of you!"
Qin Feng put on an austere expression.
Now that he had come out from the barrier of darkness and revealed himself, he was surrounded by F-tier zombies that had also felt the presence of a human being, and they immediately rushed toward Qin Feng without any hesitation.
"Roar!"
They could even hear the blood flowing within his veins and they could not wait to feast on their dinner.
"You shall die!"
The Verdant Emperor Saber was waved, while icy cold lights were reflected under the moonlight that shone upon it.
Poof!
A zombie skull flew up high as it was decapitated from a direct hit.
There were more zombies that came after it as Qin Feng landed a kick onto one of it and flipped over to slash two other zombies that were beside it.
"Roar!"
A zombie let out a roar and waved its palm toward Qin Feng's back.
Qin Feng turned around and waved his saber!
Poof poof poof poof!
All the four zombies that flanked Qin Feng were all decapitated.
In a split second, a total of seven F-tier zombies were hunted down by Qin Feng.
Qin Feng immediately felt a pleasant feeling throughout his body after cleaving the skulls and absorbing the energy cores from within.
It was the feeling of physical transformation.
F1-tier!
Qin Feng felt a huge transformation take place within his physical body.
"In my previous life, I was only able to achieve such physical capabilities by achieving E-tier, this shows that absorbing abilities has allowed my physical body to have the strength equivalent to ancient warriors that have gone through intensive parallel-training!"
With this thought in mind, Qin Feng could not resist the burning fire in his heart!
Swoosh!
All of a sudden, a black shadow dashed toward him at great speed!
Qin Feng reacted and swiftly ducked out of the way.
The shadow of the attacker blended into the dark surroundings.
"Army-tier!"
It was obviously an elite among the zombies.
The size of the beast soldier was slightly smaller than ordinary zombies, it had dull and dark coloured flesh that covered its dry bones, as if blood was burnt out from its body all of a sudden, and without any decayed parts on its body, it could move around at high speed.
Also, Qin Feng could clearly feel the black runes that were on its body.
Obviously, it was an assassin in the dark.
"This might work well with others but it has no effect on me!"
The army-tier dried corpse took advantage of the dark to hide itself, and it could be difficult for others to notice it. However, being a dark ability user himself, how could these tricks work on Qin Feng?
"Die!"
Qin Feng pursued further at great speed.
Once again, the army-tier dried corpse dodged and hid behind Qin Feng, thinking that he did not notice its actions, it raised up its dried palm and revealed its black sharp piercing nails.
Swoosh!
As its claw landed, the result was not as expected, where the enemy would die and become its food.
Ding!
The Verdant Emperor Saber clashed with the black nails and flashing lights immediately sparked from the impact.
Slash!
Qin Feng's Verdant Emperor Saber became swift and illusory as he slashed three consecutive times at incredible speed.
Triple slash!
Martial skill!
Crack!
The nails of the army-tier dried corpse cracked and broke off, while another slash that followed landed directly on its neck.
Chapter 87: Knight's Spear
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Poof!
A skull was tossed high up in the air.
The body of the army-tier dried corpse slightly trembled before it fell onto the ground and died completely!
Qin Feng drew up his Verdant Emperor Saber and halved the skull of the dried corpse, revealing the energy core that was within, it was double the size of the energy cores from the zombies that Qin Feng had encountered earlier on.
"Not bad!"
Qin Feng was very satisfied and quickly absorbed the energy core.
Then, Qin Feng continued the intensive slaughter, without him realizing it, time passed by quickly and it was already 3 o' clock early in the morning, and Qin Feng had managed to take down two hundred F-tier zombies!
With the progress that Qin Feng had, he could eliminate all of the zombies in the surroundings within a day.
It was impossible for any of the F-tier aptitude users to achieve this as they did not have the endless supply of physical energy, not to mention the limited amount of internal strength, it was only Qin Feng that had such a valiant capability.
However, when Qin Feng was about to continue on, a flow of horrifying energy rose from the ground.
Qin Feng immediately turned his head toward the direction from where it came!
He was actually already at the foot of the mother mountain, at such a close distance, he could clearly see through the dark, there was a channelling light that was darker than the surroundings rising up from the ground.
The dark light was projected upward and it was connected to the sky, forcefully destroying a section of the sky, and the intersection point had torn the space apart.
Powerful energy gushed toward the direction of the intersection and formed into a passage.
The silvery edge of the passage was clearly seen in the dark night.
It was a spatial rune that was being forcefully opened up.
"Dark-Robed Ripper!"
Qin Feng knew that the Dark-Robed Ripper had started taking action!
"Beep beep beep beep, alert! Alert…"
Qin Feng received a hasty alert from his communicator.
It was probably not only Qin Feng, everyone else that was close to the area would have received the alert.
However, Qin Feng was the closest in terms of distance.
Qin Feng noticed that after the main black beam had risen up, three of the surrounding black beams were missing. Also, the rift was slightly smaller than the one that was seen in the afternoon.
The smaller sized light beams might not be from the Dark-Robed Ripper, it was most probably its subordinates from the Corpse Corps that had been assisting him, where three of them were eliminated by the E-tier gunner.
However, the giant black beam along with five other accompanying smaller ones had still created a rift that should not be belittled.
Soon, batches of zombies rushed out from the passage, and most of them were black corpses, while some of them were bright red in color, as if their bones were ignited with fire.
General-tier fire corpse!
Qin Feng's face darkened as his effort throughout the night was not only wasted, it had even triggered a replenishment of an army that was even more powerful.
It was truly infuriating!
It was at that moment, a wild roar was heard from the horizons!
"Bastard!"
The roar was like a sudden clap of thunder, and a bomb then zipped across the sky.
Vroom vroom vroom!
From the attack, Qin Feng knew that it was Lu Heng, the E-tier gunner from Dongling colony!
However, the Corpse Corps seemed to be prepared as a steel spear was launched from the dark!
"Emperor Knight!"
Qin Feng was shocked as he looked up, he saw that the Emperor Knight was situated halfway up the slope, and the knight was only five hundred meters away from his position.
Qin Feng's face contorted.
"Shadow!"
Qin Feng immediately hid himself within the shadows and hoped that the Emperor Knight had not noticed him.
The long spear was aimed at the two bombs that were in the air, and the bombs exploded immediately.
"Change of course!"
Another roar was heard from a far-off distance and without any signs, a strong flow of will energy transmitted through and the bombs that were in the air changed their direction and were redirected back toward the black beams that were on top of the mountain.
The Emperor Knight not only had its spear, it was also equipped with a shield.
The war horse that it was riding on was like a spectre formed by black runes as it travelled at ghost speed and went faster than the bombs, even intersecting at a path up ahead that was along the course of the bombs.
Boom!
Suddenly, a strong explosion was heard and the spark had illuminated the entire mountain top!
The Emperor Knight that was protected by the powerful shield was not harmed at all.
"Damn! Let's see if you can take this!"
Lu Heng was extremely furious and started pelting bombs around the area but the Emperor Knight intersected every attempt of the bombings and his effort was all in vain.
Lu Heng would not be able to succeed in blocking on his own!
Qin Feng had already retreated to the foot of the mother mountain, he was near to the centre of the triangular positioned mountains, and the location was in a valley.
It was at that moment, a whistle was heard from afar, then, another silenced echo was heard from hundreds of meters away.
Qin Feng immediately stopped in his tracks and turned around, running at high speed!
After a hundred meters of running, he was able to see something on the ground.
It was the spear of the Emperor Knight.
The body of the spear was black while the head was a dull-blue color, it was shining with lights that were similar to stars in the sky; obviously, it was not any other ordinary equipment.
"It is star steel!"
Qin Feng had gained widespread knowledge before he was reborn but there were some things that he knew of but were not attainable by him!
Star steel was one of them.
"Xiao Bai, get that for me!" Qin Feng commanded immediately.
Xiao Bai hesitated and blinked, she said, "Mast… hubby, you will never get to use it even if you can get away with this spear because it has been bonded with the Emperor Knight!"
Therefore, upon being summoned by the Emperor Knight, it would immediately return to the hands of the knight.
However, he did not summon the spear when he was in battle with Lu Heng.
"Weapon spirit bond?" Qin Feng knew about such a special weapon but he did not expect an F-tier emperor to own such a precious weapon. "Well, can this bond travel through space?"
Weapon spirit bonds could be categorised into levels as well.
"It would be impossible for it to travel through my space!" Bai Li said confidently.
"Well that's good enough, take it, even though I might not be able to use it now. If I have to, I will break off one of its limbs, or maybe kill it, then I might be able to use it in the future!" Qin Feng replied.
Bai Li did not reject him this time and nodded, feeling that her master could be smart at certain times!
As soon as she raised her hand, the Emperor Spear was placed in her space, and the Emperor Knight immediately sensed it.
"Roar!!!"
The Emperor Knight let out a furious roar and gave up in protecting the Dark-Robed Ripper, he immediately rushed toward the location where Qin Feng was at.
"Xiao Bai! Run!"
Bai Li immediately disappeared along with Qin Feng and left no traces behind.
At the same time, Lu Heng that was at another end felt overjoyed at the unexpected turn of events.
Although it was uncertain why the Emperor Knight left, it was a once-in-a-blue-moon moment that he had been waiting for.
"Now die!"
Lu Heng let out a roar in anger, and triggered a series of bombings; without the presence of Liu Ba, Lu Heng was less apprehensive and went ahead in releasing firepower that tripled from those that were released in the afternoon.
Boom boom boom boom boom!
Loud explosions were constantly heard as the mountain top was almost levelled by all the destruction.
The space passage was interrupted by the bombings and disconnected once again, while many of the Corpse Corps were ripped apart.
Corpse Corps that had just entered were being bombarded and heavily wounded by Lu Heng, however, the rift lasted for quite some time and some of the zombies had spread across to other areas.
Chapter 88: Only Made It Retreat?
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Emperor Knight was frantically in search of something in the middle of the Zimu Mountains but turned up empty handed.
In a fit of rage, the knight leapt and charged toward the human's encampment.
As he came closer, the aptitude users' communicators vibrated in a violent manner.
"Retreat, retreat quickly!"
"Low-level aptitude users, leave immediately!"
"It's a King-tier, a King-tier is charging in!"
The camp descended into chaos.
At this juncture, a brilliant light appeared within the darkness.
"Great timing!"
An old-sounding yet powerful voice appeared. Innumerable amounts of runes exploded glaringly in the sky; turning the dark night into day.
The old but stout figure of a man emerged a hundred meters away from the camp.
"It's the Dean of Chengbei University, the light-elemental ability user, Dengnian!"
Dengnian was a light-elemental ability user. His power was tremendous, but so was his age.
He was the champion of Chengbei colony. His absence from the previous battle had caused quite a stir among Chengbei Colony. They were afraid that something had happened to him.
After all, there were creatures like the Ghoul Assassins in the Corpse Corp that could take Dengnian's life.
But now, as the Emperor Knight charged onward, Dengnian was delighted and sprung into action.
He released streaks of light turned into projectiles that aimed for the knight.
"Hahaha, so nice of you to be here, stay awhile!"
The E-tier ability users began fighting the Emperor Knight.
Bzzt!
Qin Feng's communicator went into a frenzied vibration.
It was Zhou Hao.
Qin Feng took the call.
"Madman! Where are you? Where did you go!"
"I went jogging!" Qin Feng just got his Starsteel Spear. He was joking around since he was in such a good mood.
"Well, don't come back to the camp just yet! The Emperor Knight is charging toward the foothills. I'll move your car, you be careful out there!"
"But I'm already back!"
Qin Feng did not think that Zhou Hao would actually believe his words. He thought that it was funny.
Any other person would have doubted Qin Feng, thinking that he ran off on his own!
Qin Feng strode toward his tent. Zhou Hao had tied up the ropes and was ready to push Qin Feng's car away. He was looking around and saw Qin Feng walking toward him. He hastily waved his hand.
"Run now, or we won't even know how we died!" Zhou Hao started the engine.
Qin Feng and Bai Li went in the hover car. She followed him into the car without changing back her appearance.
Although Qin Feng was able to lure the Emperor Knight down the foothills and caused a commotion while he was at it, it was still a good move given the whole situation. It was now up to the E-tier aptitude users to do their jobs.
The battle started from three in the morning and was still ongoing at the break of dawn. The encampment they had set up had been reduced into rubble.
"Listen, it's quiet now!"
"Have they finished the fight?"
"How does it look ahead?"
They were anxious to know.
Qin Feng was still taking a wink in his hover car. Although his power had increased overnight, he would never forget to train. Now that there were no more ancient warriors for him to hunt down, he was working hard on his internal qigong to prevent his internal forces from dropping.
At that moment, there was a knock coming from his car window.
"Qin Feng, come out for a while!" There was a hint of joy in Zhou Hao's voice.
Qin Feng did not know what had happened but he still opened the door.
"What's up?"
"Haha, look, I've gathered our party members!"
Qin Feng noticed that there were people around Zhou Hao. It was Li Yaoyao and Lu Meng.
Not only that, there was a G-tier symbol in front of Lu Meng's chest. She had also become an aptitude user.
"Qin Feng, you're finally here!" Lu Meng was overjoyed. "Yaoyao said that she saw you in campus last time. We haven't seen you for the past few days!"
"Mengmeng!" Li Yaoyao shyly nudged Lu Meng. Although she had good feelings toward Qin Feng, she was still a reserved girl.
"I don't really go for classes." Qin Feng answered calmly.
"I guess with your abilities, you won't even need to attend classes. Even your friend is now a G-tier aptitude user!" said Lu Meng. She glanced at Zhou Hao with a tinge of jealousy.
This little man was a year younger than her, he was even her junior, yet he was already a certified G-tier aptitude user.
Indeed, she had spent a considerable amount of money to get all the help she needed to kill two hundred ultra beasts to become a certified G-tier aptitude user.
Zhou Hao was a little unhappy. "I went through the G-tier test on my own. Who knows how many ultra beasts I've killed!"
"Are you saying I was cheating? Junior, are you still thinking about hanging around in our school? Don't you know how great Big Sis Mengmeng is in the school?" Lu Meng chided with both hands on her waist.
Zhou Hao almost broke into laughter. He was one point eight meters tall, and Lu Meng was about one point five. Her height was only up to his chest, how could she call herself Big Sis Mengmeng?
They were about to get into an argument when Qin Feng interrupted them. "Have they finished the fight? What's the outcome?"
Both of them stopped quarrelling after Qin Feng's interjection. Finally, Li Yaoyao had a chance to join in on the conversation.
"They're done fighting, the E-tier fighters have made the Emperor Knight retreat!"
Qin Feng furrowed his brows. "They didn't kill it?"
"How could they! That knight has a shield that is probably equivalent to a golden runic gear. It could even block out Dean Dengnian's light projectiles. It was like a group of people beating up a tortoise."
Qin Feng was speechless when he heard this.
These people were trash!
The Emperor Knight's main battle skill was his defenses. Qin Feng was immediately reminded of the Starsteel Spear that had been stored away by Xiao Bai.
How he wished to have that gun for his own.
"Qin Feng, why don't you join us for the day!" Li Yaoyao proposed.
Qin Feng's thought was interrupted, yet he shrugged decisively.
"Did they change the battle plans today?" he asked.
Too many F-tiered zombies had appeared last night, as well as the Ghoul Assassins and Burning Ghouls. Qin Feng felt that if he were to continue to conceal his real powers, there would be no end to the killing.
If they were not killed off completely, the dark runes on their bodies would spread uncontrollably.
The day was already bright. They could see the dark clouds gathering on top of the Zimu Mountains. It seemed to be spreading wider.
They could still afford to wait but not the frail children in the orphanage.
"They haven't updated it!" said Zhou Hao.
As soon as he finished speaking, they saw a drone turn back. All of their communicators beeped in unison shortly after that.
The map had been updated.
Qin Feng looked at their faces. Their expressions were grim.
As expected, a bigger threat had appeared!
After the spatial rift had been opened up last night, approximately two thousand F-tier zombies managed to slip in while they were fighting the Emperor Knight. Their original camp was destroyed and had to be moved further back!
"Zhou Hao, you should join them today. I'll be heading to Zone F!" said Qin Feng.
"Umm, alright!" Zhou Hao nodded. He was aware of Qin Feng's true power. He must have his own reason for being confident about going to Zone F.
Chapter 89: The Male Idol of the Campus
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
However, that confidence he had was not enough to persuade Li Yaoyao and Lu Meng.
"Qin Feng, you're going to Zone F? It's too dangerous out there!" Li Yaoyao tried to talk him out of going. Even if Qin Feng were powerful, there was now way he could be that great.
Lu Meng was obviously skeptical as well.
"Qin Feng, do you really plan on going? Maybe I can give you a laser cannon or something!" said Lu Meng.
Qin Feng smiled gently.
"Thanks, but that won't be necessary!" Qin Feng knocked on the car door. "Xiao… Li, come out now!"
Bai Li did not turn back to her own self last night, and Li Yaoyao had only seen her in her fox form. She knew that it was called Xiao Bai, so Qin Feng had to change his way of addressing her as caution.
Pa-tak! The hover car door opened up. A long-haired girl walked out from the car.
The girl had long, silky smooth hair that glittered in a silvery hue. Her face was refined and petite, about the size of a palm. Her foxy eyes could hook a soul, yet they carried a hint of innocence. She had a tiny nose. Her cherry-red lips were supple.
She was wearing a colorful bohemian dress and a sunhat. She looked more like a tourist than someone who was going to war.
As soon as she stepped out of the car, she locked onto Qin Feng. She greeted him with a smile.
"Hubby, do you think I look good in this dress?"
Qin Feng turned stiff. At this moment, he regretted playing the prank on her yesterday.
Zhou Hao looked at Qin Feng in disbelief. His eyes were filled with accusations. "Madman, you animal! How could you do this to Xiao Bai."
Li Yaoyao and Lu Meng were both in shock as well.
"Alright, let's go!" Qin Feng quickly grabbed her and took her away.
He could not care less about how other people looked at him, but Zhou Hao's eyes made him flustered and red in the face.
He felt guilty, like a man who had kidnapped a young girl!
To think about it, Xiao Bai was only born about a month ago, she was technically still a baby!
"Come on!" Bai Li went to Qin Feng's side. She puckered her lips in protest. "My shoes are uncomfortable, why don't you carry me!"
Qin Feng was helpless. He had always carried her on his shoulder so she did not walk much, and she had become lazier. She knew that she was going to the battlefield but she was not allowed to fight. She would rather Qin Feng carry her.
"Come on!" Qin Feng had to squat down. Bai Li wrapped her hands around Qin Feng's neck before he carried her into the wilderness.
At this moment, Qin Feng had already attracted quite a crowd, especially since he was carrying a beautiful young lady around.
"Qin Feng!" Li Yaoyao went ahead to chase after him but he was too fast. He appeared to be using his internal force. Li, as a water-elemental aptitude user, was unable to catch up to him.
For a moment, there was a sense of jealousy within Li Yaoyao's disappointment. She was in a bad mood.
She had no place to vent her frustrations and saw Zhou Hao, who was still looking at Qin Feng. His face was filled with disapproval. She could not help but chided, "Junior Zhou, are you just going to leave him be? It's dangerous enough for him to go into the wilderness, but to take a girl along with him, don't you think it would be more dangerous?"
Zhou Hao waved his hands hastily. "They're not in danger!"
She was a powerful beast king! She could take away the bat king's Bloodcatarrh Fruit single-handedly. That was how powerful she was.
Li Yaoyao protested," Look at how she is dressed. The girl probably doesn't know how to battle. Wouldn't she just tie Qin Feng down?"
Zhou Hao's eyes went blank. Now, he realized that Li Yaoyao was not concerned about Bai Li. She was more concerned about Qin Feng.
"Why do I smell jealousy?"
Lu Meng elbowed Zhou Hao in the gut. "Watch your mouth, Junior Zhou. Don't say anything that you're not supposed to!"
Lu Meng gave Zhou Hao a warning look.
Li Yaoyao felt embarrassed. Her eyes went red for a moment.
Right at this time, a person approached them and saw Li Yaoyao and Lu Meng.
"We're going to restructure our teams soon. I heard that your previous team got disbanded, why don't you join us?" A gentle voice sounded.
Their eyes lit up when they looked at the approaching man.
He was a six-footer that did not appear to be exceptionally strong but he was gentle and elegant. A pair of gold-framed spectacles made him look scholarly.
"Senior Gao! I… I can?" Li Yaoyao was nervous.
The man in front of them was the male idol of Chengbei University. He was the most powerful one amongst the Year 3 students, Gao Lingfeng.
He was a wind-elemental aptitude user with astounding capabilities. Although he was still studying in the campus, it was said that his abilities had reached F-tier. If he were to agree to it he might become a teacher there.
"Of course, that's why we're here!" Gao Lingfeng revealed a gentle smile.
Li Yaoyao was very excited.
Gao Lingfeng possessed very powerful capabilities. If she were to fight alongside him, she would surely reap a high reward, be it in the loots or her contribution to the battle.
"But…" Li Yaoyao glanced at Lu Meng beside her.
The teams were formed by grouping the students according to their years so that they could look out for each other in the wilderness. At first, Li Yaoyao and Lu Meng were on the same team as Wang Kai, Jiang Wenxuan, and Yuhai.
But a month ago, the five-man team disbanded after they had encountered some trouble in the wilderness.
Now that there was a new mission assignment, Lu Meng would be left alone if Li Yaoyao were to quit the party.
"Yaoyao, what are you still waiting for, go now! It's a great opportunity and you'd regret it if you don't join!" Lu Meng immediately whispered. Gao Lingfeng could actually hear her. There was still a gentle smile on the corner of his lips, but his eyes had traces of a scheming mind.
"Lu Meng can also come with us!"
She quickly waved her hands. "Oh no, I've still got matters to attend to. You guys better get moving!"
Gao Lingfeng's smile turned stiff.
"Alright then, you be careful now, Mengmeng." Li Yaoyao made up her mind and went toward Gao Lingfeng.
She accepted Gao's invitation because she herself was rejected by Qin Feng. Li Yaoyao felt a smug release now that Gao Lingfeng came to invite her personally.
"Hmph, that ungrateful Qin Feng, I'll ignore him from now on!"
There were words hanging by Gao's lips, but after seeing Li Yaoyao's expression and Lu Meng's 'go for it!' hand gesture, he gave up inviting her again and left with Li Yaoyao.
Only Lu Meng and Zhou Hao were left.
"Junior Zhou, why don't you come with me. I'll protect you! Or the zombies will surely eat up your tiny frame!" Lu Meng boasted.
Zhou Hao was speechless. "I wonder who they will really eat up! Forget it, since you're pretty cute, I'll lend you a hand!"
Zhou Hao did not know anyone else so he formed a group with Lu Meng.
Qin Feng had no idea what happened as he had brought Bai Li away from the gaze of the crowd and had once again stepped into the battlefield.
The dead trees provided cover for them to vanish from the eyes of the public.
Amidst the great mountains, the tiny human beings appeared non-existent
Chapter 90: Dark-Robed Entity
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"As expected, there are more of them today!"
As Qin Feng sensed the increased presence of the F-tier zombies, he became enraged.
"Kill!" There was no hesitation in him. He started to slay away.
He soon killed all the zombies that were surrounding him.
Bai Li was wielding a dagger. With reluctance, she collected the energy cores from the zombies' head and placed them in a combat backpack.
Qin Feng slaughtered away and was able to finish off all the F-tier zombies in the surrounding area in just one hour.
"Let's go deeper!"
He did not feel tired since he had the absorption skill. He could sustain in combat longer than anyone else. Even though the zombies provided very minimal energy, it was enough for him to recover!
However, as he went closer to the mother mountain, the Corpse Corps became even more menacing.
Suddenly, a person in black robe came into sight.
He was taken aback and quickly hid behind a large, dead tree.
'Is that the Dark-Robed Ripper?' A thought flashed across Qin Feng's mind.
However, he did not sense the aura of a beast king. He did not even sense danger.
He carefully observed the situation once again. He noticed that although this dark-robed entity was strong, its surrounding aura was only at the level of a beast general.
"Hang on, could it be the Dark-Robed Ripper's assistant?"
When Qin Feng first arrived at the encampment, he saw the Dark-Robed Ripper channeling dark energy pillars. There were eight other energy pillars that were supplementing it that made the spatial passage twice its size!
But on the other night, only five dark pillars appeared. It was either because these dark-robed entities needed to recuperate or they were finished off by an E-tier gunner.
The Corpse Corps obviously needed no rest, so the second scenario was the only possibility.
'That means that these dark-robed entities are not as strong as we thought!'
Strong or not, Qin Feng decided to test it out.
He started to approach the dark-robed entity silently.
"Shadow Cloaking!"
Qin Feng melded into the shadows and quickly reached behind the dark-robed entity.
They were only ten meters apart.
Suddenly, the dark-robed entity turned around.
Its hood was facing Qin Feng. Qin Feng could immediately witness a horrific scene.
It was actually a black skeleton underneath the dark robe. Within the eye sockets of the skull were a pair of eyes lit up in emerald flame.
Luckily, Qin Feng was unfazed. When he saw that the dark-robed skeleton had seen him, he charged ahead without hesitation.
"Die!"
The Verdant Emperor Saber in his hand made a perfect arc.
At that moment, the dark-robed skeleton raised its finger and launched a dark beam at Qin Feng.
Bzzt!
The beam landed on Qin Feng's body.
He could clearly sense that it was an ability that belonged to the dark runes. Its ability was to lower the body's vitality and make them feel weak. From there, illness would come in, followed by death.
However, Qin Feng had the dark stone that made him immune to any dark abilities. His enemy's ability had no effect on him.
Clang!
His Verdant Emperor Saber landed on the skeleton's neck, producing a metallic clang.
The dark-robed skeleton realized that its dark abilities were useless against Qin Feng. It reached out its skeleton hands and wanted to grab Qin Feng.
Qin Feng dodged to the side. He had quite a scare when he saw the darkened finger brushing past his side.
That finger was infectious. Those who were scratched by it would turn into a zombie.
"Another slash!"
Qin Feng raised his saber once again and started to slash at his enemy endlessly.
"The Verdant Emperor Saber can't cut its skull!"
Qin Feng was agitated. Even though it was a good weapon, it was still made using F-tier materials. The weapon could no longer keep up with him.
Bzzt!
Another beam shot out from the dark-robed skeleton's finger. Qin Feng evaded it and the dark beam hit the dead tree behind him.
Poof!
The large, dead tree instantly turned into ashes.
Qin Feng was shaken but he did not show it on his face. He raised his hand as well.
"Do you think you're the only one who knows how to use abilities?"
Triggering his consciousness, thousands of flame runes emerged on top of the flaming starglobe right next to the diamond starglobe.
"Hellfire!"
Flames were hurled out from Qin Feng's hand, hitting the dark-robed entity.
It was like an oil barrel had been ignited, erupting into a fiery explosion. The skeleton's robe burnt furiously.
"Arghhh!" The dark-robed skeleton wailed in agony. The soul fire within its skull pulsated frantically, demonstrating its pain.
The zombies were afraid of light. They were also afraid of fire as well!
Especially Qin Feng's flame that carried dark runes. It could also burn away soul energy. Even the dark-robed skeleton was not spared.
Qin Feng seized the chance and launched multiple attacks.
Ka-chak!
Finally, the dark-robed skeleton's neck was severed. The skeleton collapsed in scattered pieces.
At this moment, Qin Feng could clearly sense that his absorption ability was throbbing. Immediately after that, the soul fire within the eye sockets of the skull that had not quite vanished completely was forcefully pulled out. It turned into an energy that melded into Qin Feng's body.
Qin Feng could feel that his consciousness was rapidly increasing!
"Killing the dark-robed skeleton had actually increased my consciousness level?"
Not only that, the increase in consciousness was no lower than the time he killed He Li.
He could also sense the increase in his level of consciousness. When he absorbed He Li's consciousness, his consciousness level was at G5. But now, his consciousness level had increased tremendously to about G7.
"What a wish come true!" Qin Feng smiled joyfully. After collecting the spoils of war, he once again went in search of dark-robed skeletons.
While Qin Feng was slaughtering away here, in Chengyang city where the aptitude users of the five great areas had come together, some of the most powerful people in Chengbei colony were gathered inside an armored car.
The armored car was like a trailer. There was a room inside. There were screens hanging on the wall and the images on the displays kept changing.
They were images from the recon drones.
Other than the guards, there were four other people who were all E-tier aptitude users.
E-tier light elemental ability user, the Dean of Chengbei University—Deng Nian.
E-tier ancient warrior, Deputy Mayor of Chengbei Colony—Lin Zheng.
E-tier gunner, Commander of Chengbei Colony garrison troop—Han Jian.
E-tier beastmaster, Commander of the Wilderness Rangers of Chengbei Colony—Yang Sanhu.
Each of these four people could stomp their feet and the whole of Chengbei Colony would feel the quake.
But now, all four of them were troubled.
"It's looking bad!" Yang Sanhu said in a low voice as he glanced at the display. He spent most of his time in the wilderness. The mortality rate of the rangers was always on the rise but that had also trained his fiery pair of eyes.
Just one glance and he could assess that they were in a dire situation.
But then again, if the situation was great, they would not be sent here.
Chapter 91: The Attention of the Colony's Higher Ups
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The battle that had waged on last night as well as the spatial passage that was opened up for quite some time had resulted in the large increase of the Corpse Corps. Chengyang city once again requested for reinforcements from the large colonies.
Even the commanders of the garrison army and the wilderness rangers had been moved to the frontlines.
There were now at least sixteen E-tier aptitude users in the frontlines.
"I've become old!" Deng Nian sighed.
Last night was a rare chance. How could he let the Emperor Knight escape!
It really left Deng Nian in distraught.
"Hmph, what a useless bunch of people!" Lin Zheng exclaimed in a grim manner. The colonies were disunited. They were afraid of getting injured and their teamwork was lacking.
It was the reason why their plan to surround the Emperor Knight had failed.
Not only that, Lin Zheng was wounded.
It was really enraging.
Beep beep beep!
There was a beep from the device. A map had been refreshed.
"Huh!"
Yang Sanhu turned his head and looked at the map with furrowed brows.
"Show me the same map from three hours ago!" Yang Sanhu said.
The operator immediately opened up the map from three hours ago. There were obviously more red blips compared to the one now.
Especially in a certain area.
"There are two hundred less F-tier zombies. Did an army go in for the kill?" Yang Sanhu asked in confusion. Two hundred zombies were not that many, but it was odd for two hundred zombies to suddenly disappear from one place. Moreover, they were F-tier zombies.
There were also a bunch of G-tier zombies in the surroundings. It would be difficult to suddenly barge into the Zimu Mountains.
"Get the drones to feed images from this area!" ordered Yang Sanhu.
After that, the drone circled around and was able to pinpoint Qin Feng who was still in combat.
***
Behind the Dazi Mountain, Qin Feng's Verdant Emperor Sabber was like the scythe of a Grim Reaper, harvesting the lives of his enemies.
"The third one!"
"Die!!!"
As he slashed away with his saber, the third dark-robed skeleton had perished in Qin Feng's hands.
Its consciousness melded into Qin Feng's body rapidly. His power was increasing by leaps and bounds.
At this moment, Qin Feng could feel everything around him with great clarity. His consciousness had permeated hundreds of meters and he could 'see' everything around him clearly.
Not only that, the elemental core of the diamond starglobe was revolving endlessly. The brilliant elemental particles within it started to vibrate before turning into a whole new form.
A new combination that was previously unknown and could not be understood had turned into a whole new ability!
"Dark beam!"
The new ability that Qin Feng had learnt was the same ability that the dark-robed entity had used against him.
It was probably because the dark-robed entities had used this ability multiple times against him. His body and consciousness were able to recall this ability.
However, the ability was not too helpful given his situation.
Qin Feng was immune to the dark beam but at the same time, the Corpse Corps that were made up of zombies were also immune to it.
"Perhaps, can this ability be changed into a fire ability?"
As he thought about this, he started to recollect his consciousness. He was able to quite fortunately discover a fire version of this ability in the fire elemental core.
This meant that Qin Feng now possessed another fire ability, the fire beam!
As Qin Feng became excited of the prospect of testing it out, he sensed something from his consciousness. He unwittingly looked up and saw the unmanned drone flying above him.
He frowned at the sight of the drone.
His strong consciousness meant that he was able to discern that the unmanned drone was pointed at him. Not only that, the drone was taking only images of him even though it was circling the area.
Did he cause a ruckus by killing too many enemies?
Still, Qin Feng had no intention of hiding his kills. He was also recording his own kills that could be used to exchange for rewards.
However, it was probably best for him not to reveal any abilities!
Qin Feng ignored the drone and set forth once again in search of the dark-robed skeletons within the Corpse Corps.
Within the commanding car, Yang Sanhu and the others had turned their attention completely to Qin Feng.
"It's him!" Han Jian called out unexpectedly.
"You know this guy? Who is he? From which colony?" Yang Sanhu quickly asked.
The ability that Qin Feng had demonstrated was really startling.
Even an F-tier mercenary squad had to hunt in packs. They also had to be cautious while moving so that they would not be surrounded by the zombies.
In a stark contrast, Qin Feng was strutting away as if he wanted the zombies to come for him!
"He's from our Chengbei Colony, but he should not be this powerful. With his capabilities, he should be at least an F-tier by now, but…" Han Jian was hesitant to continue.
The rest of the people had actually turned their attention to him.
"But what?" asked Yang Sanhu.
Han Jian shrugged. He could not believe it himself.
"This person is called Qin Feng. He's sixteen years old this year. He has just been injected with the awakening serum recently. A fortnight ago he made some huge achievements in the plantations!"
"Only sixteen?" Yang Sanhu was shocked.
Even Deng Nian's and Lin Zheng's hearts skipped a beat.
Youth meant potential!
It would be great if they could get someone like him under them.
Of course there were disadvantages as well. Someone with his potential could become a threat.
"You're saying that this person is called Qin Feng?" Lin Zheng furrowed his brows. He felt that the name sounded familiar.
Deng Nian, too, was surprised.
He had seen the student's name list this year, and of course he had special care toward the ability users. There were only twenty names on the list. As an E-tier ability user, Deng Nian had astounding consciousness. His memory was almost photographic. He recalled that there was really someone named Qin Feng in the new ability user class.
Could it be a coincidence?
Han Jian who was now looking at the monitors let out a sigh.
"That should be him. It really is him. Who knew that he would have so much growth in such a short period of time. Wang Cheng and I previously tried to recruit him into the garrison and the Tiger Flame Troop but he rejected us. Said he wanted to enrol in Chengbei University. Old Deng, is this true? Don't keep this a secret now!"
Deng Nian laughed at his words.
"Should be, he's a student in our ability user class!"
For a moment there, Deng Nian was proud.
After all, such a high-potential student was hard to come by. Moreover, he had rejected the other two commanders and enlisted himself in the university instead. That made him exceptionally delighted.
"What a great seedling!" Deng Nian exclaimed. The more he saw the more satisfied he became.
On the other hand, Lin Zheng's expression was grim. There was viciousness in his eyes.
He finally recalled who this Qin Feng was!
A few days ago, Jiang Shaoyang had mysteriously disappeared after pursuing a dark martial artist. Lin Zheng's Eagle Clubhouse was even investigated as a result. That made him suffer quite a huge loss.
Was that dark martial artist not Qin Feng? Even the descriptions matched.
'Previously, I never would've guessed that this was the person who had killed Jiang Shaoyang. Now that I see it, how could it be impossible. He's really got the capability of an F-tier!'
Engrossed in his thoughts, Lin Zheng could not wait to finish Qin Feng off!