Collection 1 Chapter 205 103-112

Chapter 103: Sky Burning Sword Art

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The man looked at Qin Feng without a single hint of fear, and he even had a goading expression on.

He was thinking that Qin Feng was only a G-tier ability user.

Qin Feng put his dinner plate into Bai Li's hands, and suddenly reached his hand out toward the F-tier aptitude user.

With a sneer on his face, the man raised his hand to stop it. "Boy, you think…" Before he could finish, the power on Qin Feng's fist suddenly surged forth and the man's arm instantly snapped with a cracking sound. The fist did not lose momentum and slammed hard into the man's cheek, taking all of his words and beating him back with them.

Plop!

Several molars were sent flying out of the mouth with that punch.

Qin Feng striked again. This time it was a slap and the man's head shifted to one side, his entire cheek having changed shape.

"Argh!"

One hit, and another row of teeth spattered out, along with foul blood, spat onto the ground.

"Your mouth stinks, it should be washed!" Qin Feng said coldly, withdrawing his hand! It was just two hits and almost all of his teeth were gone, this aptitude user was so enraged that one would understand why they sometimes referred to insanity as 'madness'.

Not only that, the aptitude user obviously did not come alone, and three or four people suddenly stood up from the table next to him to helped him up.

It was just that the beaten person was ever so furious, seeing Qin Feng turning his head to ignore the man as he took his plate from Bai Li. Then he continued to fill it up with food. At that moment, the man was unable to restrain his anger.

"I'm gunna kill you!" The man said with a garbled voice, but his eyes were filled with murderous intent and his body was rippling with inner force.

"Collapsing Blow!"

A huge wave of turbulence broke out. Even F-tier people would be seriously injured if this attack were to make contact with them.

It seemed as if Qin Feng had eyes at the back of his head, and with a step, he did not seem to be swelling with internal force, yet he negated the incoming force of the Collapsing Blow.

Bang! Qin Feng struck his foot out, connecting with the aptitude user's large belly.

After one kick, the aptitude user was sent tumbling along the aisle and he flew up to twenty meters, hitting the wall with a bang.

"Ahh!" The man grabbed at his stomach, coughing out large amounts of blood.

The three people who came to help all stopped and looked at Qin Feng with surprise. After all, they knew the strength of their companion. Collapsing Blow was an extremely strong and fast parallel training explosive move. Yet it was broken by the opponent.

Not only that, the man could not resist the opponent's kick at all so they could deduce that his internal force was stronger than their companion's.

"We didn't know who we were messing with! Uh, see you!" One of them counseled. They decided that meal time was over and went over with the other two to hoist up their companion, obviously going to go look for a doctor.

Qin Feng had lost his appetite, and the ground was covered in blood. The smell was overbearing and unpleasant.

"Forget this, we're going back to eat!"

Qin Feng left with Bai Li, and the people who witnessed all of this in the restaurant made a mental note to remember the two of them.

"Turns out, there are people like this who pretend to be weaker than they are to trick the stronger ones and wear a G-tier aptitude user badge. Do they intentionally want to get bullied?"

"Next time we see him, just hide!"

"Maybe he's looking for the crystal shell beast too!"

All of a sudden, these people began to fear the consequences of crossing Qin Feng.

***

He simply returned to their room with Bai Li and called room service. "One plate of chicken wings and legs. Okay, good!"

Bai Li's innocent eyes looked at Qin Feng. "Why did you fight him just now, is it wrong for me to eat chicken? Didn't you say I could eat whatever I want?" She pouted.

Qin Feng reached out to pinch the other's little mouth, so soft that others would want to take a bite. "You'll understand later!"

Although in actual fact people teasing Bai Li made Qin Feng extremely angry, remembering the scene from before only made his blood boil.

"What does that mean? Foxes get curious too!" Bai Li puffed her cheeks up angrily.

"Well, the question is too profound. Let's discuss something simpler." Qin Feng leaned over and sealed Bai Li's lips with his. It tasted really good, soft and bouncy!

He was inseparable from her. When the doorbell rang for the meal delivery, he reluctantly let go of Bai Li.

The door opened and the person pushing the dining cart was actually a pretty young woman in her twenties.

Liu Xue!

The combat uniform clad Liu Xue bore a cold expression, the F3-tier logo on her chest was the most eye catching thing.

"Sir, this is the food you ordered. By the way, you fought that other aptitude user tonight which has seriously affected the operation of my hotel and damaged many dishes. The damages will be placed on your bill. Do you have any problems with that, Sir?"

Qin Feng nodded. "None."

Money was not an issue to him, the aptitude user had his teeth punched out by him and crashed into the food. With so many witnesses, the food had to be replaced!

The dishes did not cost that much money, Qin Feng was willing to pay the price.

"That is good. Thank you for your cooperation. If you can, I hope Sir doesn't do something like this again the next time!" Liu Xue said politely, but there was a threat hidden in her tone. If Qin Feng were to start anything again, she would take action.

"So long as nobody starts anything with me!" Qin Feng said coldly, he was not one to quietly listen to threats.

Liu Xue said, dissatisfied, "If you did not take your wife out, it would not turn out like this. If she does not have combat effectiveness, put her in a safe place instead of actually bringing her out. Are things not troublesome enough for you!?"

Qin Feng was speechless.

"Miss. This is my own business."

"Hmph! Scumbag!" Liu Xue snorted, looking at Qin Feng with contempt and pushed the dining cart away!

Qin Feng was speechless, this Liu Xue was really unreasonable. Just how was he the scumbag? For the sake of Uncle Liu, Qin Feng did not want to push it.

The next day, Qin Feng got up and took Bai Li for a walk among the flowerbeds in the backyard of the hotel in the morning, at the same time holding the Verdant Emperor Saber while pondering deeply.

"Ancient warriors in the F-tier also have martial art skills. Perhaps I should practice today? Oh right, before rebirth, I also obtained Sky Burning Sword Art. I should try that!"

The requirements of Sky Burning Sword Art were also particularly high. The internal energy must be activated in a special method that activated the important acupoints in the body, showing the fire within the internal force, combining it with the sword art to activate a supernatural flame-based ability.

Qin Feng's heart jumped for a moment. "Since I have fire ability, combining that with Sky Burning Sword Art, I don't know how strong the effect will be!"

With that, Qin Feng called on his internal force and poured out the fire runes. In an instant, the Verdant Emperor Saber was ignited.

"Burning Sword Glare!" The most basic technique of the art exhibited by Qin Feng was extremely powerful.

"Once more! Lets make some fireworks!"

A ray of burning light like a semi-circle flared up, refracting light from the blade like a blooming flower of fire. It really was fireworks.

Chapter 104: Spatial Fracture

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Qin Feng wanted to keep training but his communicator started making beeping noises.

[Important announcement, a special ultra beast has appeared approximately 923 meters from your current location. Please take note! Please take note!]

Qin Feng looked at the prompt on his communicator and he momentarily froze.

It was here! The so-called special ultra beast was the crystal shell beast.

The beast had eaten some ores and passed by Han Town, the parties hunting the creature down would not give it the time to continue feeding. Moreover, the crystal shell beast was not just a beast capable of mining, it was an insectoid.

A flying insectoid.

Without the chance of finding more food, the largest source of energy in Han Town would be the spatial stabilizing device!

This would be how the tragedy of Han Town began. The crystal shell beast would eat the spatial stabilizing device, causing a rift to appear and plunging the entire town into chaos.

"If the crystal shell beast were immobilized, then Han Town wouldn't fall like it did in the past. If so, Uncle Liu probably wouldn't come with me this time around!" Qin Feng thought to himself.

However, after giving it another thought, Qin Feng decided that he would bring down the crystal shell beast.

"Even if it were for the crystal shell beast alone, the time spent coming here wouldn't be wasted. I can always come back again for Uncle Liu when I become stronger in the future. In this doomsday era, who would want to be drifters anyway? Han Town is Uncle Liu's home after all!"

With that finalized thought, Qin Feng had made up his mind. "Let's go. Let's go and see how mystical this crystal shell beast is!"

Qin Feng grabbed Bai Li, leaping over some houses and raced through the streets, rushing toward the location of the crystal shell beast.

As he closed the distance, more aptitude users began to appear. These people naturally heard the news and wanted to catch the crystal shell beast for themselves!

"Haha! I've traveled so far only to find it so easily. I didn't expect the beast to appear in town!

"This will be a pit of regret in the guts of those that went out to search for it!"

"By the time they get back, the crystal shell beast would be ours!"

"Lads, watch out for others!"

"Whoever wants to steal this from us, take them down!"

In the surrounding area, there were teams of three to five on guard against each other, their eyes filled with hostile intent. Field competition was a common thing!

Of course, those who had been running to the central square of the town found that the prompt on their communicators was showing that the crystal shell beast was about two hundred meters away from them. This made them very confused.

At this time, the F-rank aptitude users en-site numbered to more than fifty! Among them included Liu Zhengshan's daughter, Liu Xue.

"Where's the beast?" Everyone was puzzled. Only Qin Feng suddenly opened up the hidden gliding wings on his back.

Whoosh!

"Up!" Qin Feng took a step and suddenly jumped up to the height of three stories high. The gliding wings jittered as the energy system was activated, and the wind runes sent Qin Feng rocketing through the sky.

HIs actions naturally drew the attention of the people nearby, at the same time, they seemed to have realized something.

"In the sky!"

At this time, there were people within the gigantic spatial stabilizing device, they had received a prompt about the crystal shell beast that was getting closer.

Crink crink!

These people heard a noise and an alarm sounded throughout the entire spatial stabilizing device.

[The exterior of the spatial stabilizing device has been damaged, please repair it as soon as possible!]

Under the sunlight, the basin sized crystal shell beast was like a large diamond, reflecting a kaleidoscopic light.

As soon as Qin Feng flew closer to the spatial stabilizing device, he found the location of the beast.

The spatial stabilizing device was huge. It had a disc in the center that was fifty meters long. There were three channels connected to the disc, and they extended in three directions from the disc. The spatial stabilizing device was like a fan that had been fit above the entire Han Town.

And now, the crystal shell beast was on one of the fan wings, nibbling at the shell. It was located directly where the energy device was stored.

"Get off!"

Qin Feng's Verdant Emperor Saber pierced toward the crystal shell beast's direction. The crystal shell beast sensed impending danger and immediately opened up its wings to evade Qin Feng's attack.

At where it once was, translucent energy seeped out of a large hole. Even on the outside, Qin Feng could hear the alarm coming from within.

"Quickly! Empty the energy fluid for now so we can repair the external shell!"

"Open the top hatch!"

"Hurry! The spatial device isn't stable!"

The crystal shell beast circled the spatial stabilizing device and Qin Feng stood by the hole it made, refusing to leave.

At this time, a maintenance personnel had come out from the inside with tools in his hands. After seeing Qin Feng, he was a bit surprised.

"Who are you?"

"Do we even have time for this? Hurry up and fix the stabilizer!" Qin Feng barked.

Buzz! The crystal shell beast suddenly swooped down. It was indeed a special kind of ultra beast, while it did not have high strength it was high in value and also an F-tier beast. It still had some attack capabilities.

The outward appearance of the crystal shell beast resembled that of a beetle, a scarab to be precise. Its wings buzzed quietly and relentlessly. As the beast was transparent, it could assimilate other colors around it to hide its trace. That was how it got to the spatial stabilizing device without being detected when it passed through the air defense system.

In midair, the crystal shell beast disappeared instantly and when it appeared again it was already behind the maintenance staff who was holding a tool!

Qin Feng reached his opponent's side in a flash, swinging his Verdant Emperor Saber.

"Ahh!" The worker did not expect Qin Feng to be so fast, and he started to move forward, believing that he was about to be killed and tried to evade the attack, slipping and flopping onto the surface. Not only that, the tool fell off the spatial stabilizing device.

Clang!

Qin Feng's saber and the beast's wings collided with one another.

The wings of the crystal shell beast were as hard as steel. Although the Verdant Emperor Saber was made out of G-tier material, it was not enough to cut through its wings!

Of course, this time he blocked the beast from beheading the worker! When the worker saw this, he had yet to realize that this person had come to help. The real culprit behind the damage to the spatial stabilizing device was the crystal shell beast!

"Tools. The tools! I need to go get them!" The man hurriedly said and started to crawl away.

At this time, two people with gliding wings were flying up. Upon spotting the crystal shell beast, they hollered excitedly.

Rattatatat!

One of them was obviously a long-ranged gunner. When he saw the crystal shell beast, he fired immediately.

Qin Feng's expression turned sour.

A volley of bullets flew out, spitting sparks of flame and ignited the energy fluid instantly! The energy fluid was used to supply the spatial stabilizing device. Qin Feng's floating tank also used the same fluid.

It was extremely flammable.

Qin Feng kicked off and flew away, no longer caring about the crystal shell beast or the people after it.

"Retarded bunch!" Qin Feng had other viciously colorful choice words to use on those people at that time.

Boom!

Hundred meters up, there was a huge explosion! The energy tank of the spatial stabilizing device had exploded.

This was not like the small spark that exploded randomly in Chengbei colony. The entire huge spatial stabilizing device in the sky exploded into two sections, split apart right down the middle.

Chapter 105: Doomsday's Arrival

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Creak!

One of the blasted out fan wings of the spatial stabilizing device began to tilt, the circuits crackled and there were fewer and fewer connected parts.

"Run!"

The people below watched as the large spatial stabilizing wing fell and shouted out in unison.

Those within the buildings below did not expect a disaster like this to occur and it was too late to avoid it.

Even Qin Feng could not do anything at this point.

Boom!

The fan wing of the spatial stabilizing device crashed into a tall building, instantly causing it to crumble and fall.

Not only that, the spatial stabilizing device with two fan wings left slowly began to tilt, and the suspension device could no longer carry such a heavy object. Besides that, the device had just lost one of its corners and could no longer be held intact.

The rate of descent was getting faster and faster, people had absolutely no time to stop it.

"Xiao Bai, lets go!" Qin Feng shouted.

Bai Li appeared next to Qin Feng instantly and the two disappeared together. Amidst the chaos, nobody noticed Qin Feng.

Another explosion ruptured in the air and the huge stabilizing device crashed downward toward the central square.

The spatial stabilizing device was definitely the most sophisticated instrument and it was also of great value. However, this did not mean that it had sturdy defenses. Quite the contrary, in order to conserve energy, the device itself had almost no defense. After all, the town had a spatial alarm and a protective outer layer, but if there were an aerial threat, severe damage would be inevitable.

Nobody expected Han Town to be infiltrated by a crystal shell beast with a high stealth ability, and that the spatial stabilizing device would be destroyed by a brainless gunner.

Qin Feng did not know if the disaster in his previous life was caused by this, but he would have immediately killed the gunner if he had known something like this would happen.

The destruction of the spatial stabilizing device was an unexpected disaster.

Many were still at a loss, but the collapsing tower caused by the explosion caused the scene to be in total chaos.

The town's garrison troop and patrols appeared one after another. Not only that, a violent and most definitely angry figure had appeared.

It was the strongest person in Han Town, Mayor Shi Tianhai*.

"Who! Who did this?!"

Shi Tianhai could not believe it all. The spatial stabilizing device!

It was the foundation of the town!

He let out a cry of rage that was cut short as a rift opened up in place of the spatial stabilizing device. The rift seemed to have torn the sky apart, ripping straight through the sky toward the ground with a height of one hundred meters and a width of ten meters.

[Beep beep…]

Without needing to look at it, Qin Feng's communicator vibrated violently. Not only that, the whole of Han Town had received the news.

In that moment, a large swarm of monsters flooded out. Qin Feng, who was closer, turned pale at the sight. This was like what he saw in his past life, and it brought back those deep fears of such imagery.

The first wave of assault were fast-moving blood-thirsty beetles. The battering buzz of wings continuously sounded out, and they pounced upon those that were still running around and began their feeding frenzy.

It was an F-tier insectoid beast. Not only that, it was an F5-tier insectoid beast and they came in groups!

The F-tier aptitude users in the central square were the first ones to bear the assault.

"Open fire! Suppression fire! Don't let them come any closer, retreat!" Someone shouted among the crowd.

A gunner was quickly caught up by the attacks, he wildly fired his submachine gun. However, the speed of these blood-thirsty beetles were too fast. Kill one and another one would replace it.

Soon, the gunner was knocked to the ground by a blood-thirsty beetle, and at the next moment, three beetles were pressed against each other and a one-meter-long tube protruded from the beetle's mouth into the body of the gunner.

"Ahhhh!!!"

The gunner screamed, but the blood in his body was quickly sucked away and he no longer had the strength to struggle.

Such a scene was happening everywhere.

Qin Feng's eyes swept around and he saw Liu Xue's figure. He could not prevent Han Town from getting zerged by insectoids, so naturally he had to stand out to help Liu Xue.

At this time, Liu Xue was fighting while retreating. There were two blood-thirsty beetles on her tail and were refusing to be shaken loose. In order to not be injured, Liu Xue could not just make a desperate run for it.

It was at that moment when a huge fireball roared out from the side, centering on the blood-thristy beetles.

Boom!

The blood-thristy beetles were immediately flung away, bursting into flames and landing on the ground, no longer moving.

Liu Xue looked in surprise at the direction from where the flames came. She knew that someone had used the fire to help her, it was just that she did not expect that someone to be Qin Feng out of all people.

Qin Feng took a few steps toward the remaining blood-thristy beetle, brandishing the Verdant Emperor Saber.

"Burning Sword Glare!"

Fire runes were wrapped around the Verdant Emperor Saber, suddenly adding a full meter to it. It looked like it had doubled in size. The flames of the blade licked at the blood-thristy beetle and sliced it in half in a flash!

There was no blood coming from the wound, but instead a meaty fragrance.

"Thank you!" Liu Xue quickly said.

"No time for thank yous, go back quickly. The situation doesn't look good!" Qin Feng hurriedly said.

"Right!" Liu Xue gave a hard, affirmative nod. This time, other than the huge rift that had opened up in the center of town, there were smaller rifts opening up all over the place. Liu Xue would naturally be anxious.

Who knew what was going on right now?

Qin Feng and Liu Xue continued their retreat and at this time, Liu Xue looked at Bai Li in surprise. She thought that Bai Li was just an ordinary person, but the other party was not a slouch in terms of speed and seemed to be able to keep up with relative ease, with not a trace of panic on her.

Now, even Mayor Shi Tianhai had run away without a trace.

When the crack had appeared, the surroundings were filled with a chaotic crowd of fleeing civilians. Cars crowded the main road and had been blocked by a car accident. Nobody was getting out.

"Ahh!" Someone cried out, having been bitten on the leg by a black steel bug.

"Save me, please, save me!" He was asking for help from those around him, and after seeing Qin Feng and Liu Xue, he immediately yelled.

"Captain Liu! Captain Liu, save me!"

As the captain of one of Han Town's patrol branches and a young, powerful woman with beautiful looks, everyone in town recognized her.

Liu Xue hesitated for a moment, but stopped, taking out her energy gun and blasted the man's foot.

The black steel bug loosened its mandibles and the man was released. His foot looked like it was almost bitten off and was desperate for a while. Then he saw Captain Liu and he felt that there was still hope. He quickly grabbed onto Liu Xue's heel.

"Captain Liu, you can't leave me behind. It's too dangerous here, and we can't leave the town. Let's find shelter and wait for rescue!"

Translator's note: Mayor Shi Tianhai's name in Chinese characters '石天海' directly translates to mean 'Rock Sky Sea'. An undoubtedly ambitious and badass name.

Chapter 106: An Abundance of Retards

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Due to the risk of invasion from the spatial rift, there was a combination of underground shelters, reinforced car parks and military-grade, large-scale underground bunkers beneath every city in order to ensure that people could take refuge when all hell broke loose.

And it was during such a situation that Liu Xue was somehow bogged down by indecisiveness!

This happened as a group of people stumbled upon Liu Xue and started gathering around her.

"Those in the patrol team, squad leader Liu's over here!"

"Quick, go over to the leader's side, we'll be under her protection!"

In mere moments, a crowd had materialised around Liu Xue!

As if the timing could not be any worse, a pissed off group of blade mantises were crawling quickly toward the cluster of human beings. Some let out blood-curdling screams at the sight of the monsters, more courageous ones chose to run for it and the rest, whose legs went limp as the predators approached, shrunk behind Liu Xue's frame. There was even someone who was pushing Liu Xue forward, as if presenting her as a sacrifice into the gaping jaws of the blade mantises.

However, it quickly became apparent that these G3-tier blade mantises were not that powerful of a foe. With a few swift strikes from Liu Xue, they went down like the bugs they were and the mass of people were protected. However, this only caused the group of people surrounding her to grow ever larger.

It seemed that this group of people intended to get Liu Xue to escort them to the underground shelter at the nearby supermarket.

Seeing the current situation Liu Xue was in, Qin Feng finally understood how she died in the previous life!

"Liu Xue, think about your parents. They're both regular civilians. If you choose to stay here at this time, who's gonna take care of them in the days to come?" Qin Feng asked bluntly.

A look of unease flashed across Liu Xue's face though it was obvious that Qin Feng's words precisely mirrored her worries.

How could she leave her defenseless parents behind? It was impossible.

At the same time, it was these people that clung on stubbornly to Liu Xue, refusing to let her go.

"Are you even human? How can one be so selfish? Why on earth would you let the squad leader go?"

"Yeah, in such a crisis, letting her go would put our lives on the line!"

"I'm pretty damn sure that Liu Zhenshan's place has got an underground shelter. There's still gonna be plenty of time left for her and her parents after these bugs are dealt with first!"

A commotion spread like wildfire amongst the people.

Qin Feng sneered viciously and silenced the crowd by delivering a powerful kick to the side of a car, scaring the wits out of the protesters.

"Not one more word from any of your mouths!"

Qin Feng roared coldly.

The power from his mere threat was enough to cause dizziness among some in the crowd.

"If you want to live, stop spewing nonsense. On your feet and keep up with me. Whoever that dares to give stray orders will be struck down without mercy with this gun in my hand!"

Qin Feng produced an energy blaster and pointed it in the general direction of the crowd.

Seeing the gun alone was more than enough to stun the masses. However, some who noticed the G-tier aptitude user badge pinned on Qin Feng's chest started giving disdainful looks. It was apparent that they were not taking Qin Feng seriously.

"Who even are you? Ya think ya can protect us? Well, aren't you a cocky one?"

"Damn right! We were talking to our squad leader. How dare you butt into our discussion!"

"Squad leader Liu, is he your underling? Isn't he planning to abandon us? Just who does he think he is…"

As Han Town was a relatively small place, some of these people literally watched over Liu Xue as she was growing up, hence explaining why they rightfully felt that they deserved her protection. After all was said and done, these people felt a lingering fear in their hearts, fear that Liu Xue would run off. This was why they clustered around her, clinging onto her stubbornly, refusing to let her go.

Qin Feng's expression darkened and he said out loud in a cynical tone, "Liu Xue, it matters little to me whether or not you want to stay or if you want to leave with me. I still have a rune equipment waiting for me back at uncle Liu's place so I will have to go back there regardless. If that were not the case, I wouldn't have saved you back then. If you feel obligated to stay and protect these people, then by all means go ahead. In fact, I'll notify your father of your death in advance when I meet him!"

Liu Xue was shaken to the core by Qin Feng's words.

From the time Liu Xue spent with Qin Feng, she already understood how pivotal his role was for their survival. If the group were left with her alone to fend against the enemy, there was no doubt that their days would be numbered. Even if one could successfully escape, the chance to live and see another day was miniscule. Their lifeline laid within Qin Feng.

With this in mind, Liu Xue brushed off her indecisiveness and replied quickly, "Qin Feng, I'll listen to what you have to say. Those who still treasure their lives, follow us! My place isn't too far away! It's only three blocks down so get your act together!"

"This…"

The people started panicking at the sudden change in plans. Their worries, however, were briefly interrupted by the rumbling ground. Soon after, the cause of this ruckus introduced itself as a massive snail making its way around the corner of the street.

That thing was at least four to five meters tall, reaching almost two stories in height. Right in front of its shell appeared two heads, oozing out and shrinking back in at an alarming frequency. It was evidently able to absorb humans into its gut effortlessly given its size.

It did not take a university graduate to recognise the beast that was making its way toward them, for illustrations of it were widely taught during high school.

"Steel-back Snail!"

"A double-headed mutant at that! It's a beast general!"

In the blink of an eye, chaos erupted among the masses.

Everyone present understood the ferocity of beast generals that were able to hold off against ten combatants at any given time. No matter how skilled Liu Xue was, resisting, let alone defeating this double-headed snail was practically impossible.

"Screw this! Run for it!"

The group ran like madmen away from the incoming attack.

Run as they might but it was all futile. Despite it being a snail, the beast was able to crawl at an alarming speed, moving significantly faster than your average human being.

The surface beneath its foot seemed to have turned into a wave of sorts, enabling it to glide across the ground swiftly like a hovercraft.

These people still had to avoid the cars that formed obstacles in their escape path. This however, posed little hindrance to the double-headed Steel-back Snail as it crushed anything and everything in its path.

The double-headed steel-back snail outstretched one of its heads, and with its maw wide open, gobbled down one of the fleeing men into its gut.

"Arghh!"

The man let out a helpless wail but was quickly silenced as he disappeared into the abyss that was its gut.

"Bastard!"

Liu Xue raged as she struck the enemy with her palm.

"Subzero Slammer!"

While the force from her palms impacted like a raging river, it somehow slipped off from the steel-back snail's body and the beast shrugged off the attack unfazed.

The enemy's body was coated in a slippery layer of mucus. Liu Xue's attack merely scratched the itch of the beast.

From Qin Feng's point of view, Liu Xue's impulsive attack was basically presenting her as takeout dinner for the snail. Seeing how little regard she had for her own life, he was at a loss for words.

"Han Town truly is blessed with an abundance of retards!"

Qing Feng yelled out before rushing forward into the fray. As soon as he grabbed hold of Liu Xue's clothes, he pulled back with all the strength he could conjure up.

His immense strength sent Liu Xue flying back into the background. A mere millisecond later, a meter-wide jaw snapped shut above where she once stood. If not for Qin Feng, her head would have been turned into snail feed in an instant.

Despite seeing what would be its meal escape, the double-headed steel-back snail paid no heed to Liu Xue and instead contorted its grotesque, soft body and shifted its fury onto Qin Feng instead.

Qin Feng smiled wryly and raised his arm above his head, revealing a shining sword.

"Flaming-tree silver blossom!"

In an instant, a fan-shaped jet of flame shot forth from Qin Feng. In the midst of the flames, the Verdant Emperor Saber shimmered in silver, just like a green flower within a firestorm.

Booom!

With a single attack, the tables had turned. The situation in which Liu Xue seemed so powerless against the enemy had now shifted in humanity's favour as both skulls of the steel-back snail plopped onto the ground.

Thud! Thud!

Two heavy skulls rolled across the ground, leaving a trail of transparent mucus-like substance. It was the blood of the snail.

Once again, the Verdant Emperor Saber shone in the light before it swung down, slicing the tip of the enemy's skull off cleanly. Not long after, two goose egg-sized azure crystals appeared in Qin Feng's hands.

These were the enemy's ability cores.

Chapter 107: Not All Efforts Were Fruitless After All

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Why aren't you moving? Are you planning to stay there forever?"

Qin Feng snapped coldly. Still, he could not get past Liu Xue's mannerisms and how she dealt with things.

How hesitant and irresolute!

"Ah! Right, right!"

Liu Xue hastened to keep up with Qin Feng's pace. It was at this moment that her admiration and respect for Qin Feng had solidified.

It was not just that. The civilians who were in hiding moments ago all came running out and trailed behind Qin Feng.

With Qin Feng taking point, all was right with the world.

These insectoids did not pose too much of a threat to the group. Qin Feng slashed through them effortlessly while leading the way forward until they reached Liu Zhenshan's equipment store.

The store was currently in tatters, with glass shards littering the ground. Within the store itself were three blade mantises that somehow snuck their way in, unwelcomed of course.

Lying motionless on the ground, were two corpses. Liu Xue felt as if her heart had been ripped out of her chest and thrown off a cliff, down into a bottomless abyss.

Even before Qin Feng could make his move, Liu Xue rushed forward and killed off those mantises with a few strikes from her palms.

The good news was that neither of these two corpses belonged to Liu Zhenshan. Instead, one seemed to be Liu Zhenshan's storekeeper while the other was presumably a customer, a G-tier aptitude user at that.

It was a shame, his fate dictated that he would lie here forever!

"Go to the basement first!" Qin Feng ordered.

"Right!" Liu Xue marched to the front and took over in leading the way even though Qin Feng had complete knowledge about the building's layout. While he followed the girl closely, the people behind him had other ideas in mind. Their eyes lit up at the sight of the abandoned store and picked up one or two pieces of loot as they went along their way.

These combat equipment did a pretty good job at resisting attacks from ultra beasts. Though, in normal times, they were worth at least ten thousand yuan a piece and could reach up to a hundred thousand for a really good set, hence explaining why nobody bought these items.

Qin Feng paid no heed to the greedy bunch. Following Liu Xue, they arrived at an underground parking space where a secret door was found.

At that moment, the door seemed to have been locked from the inside. Liu Xue rapped her knuckles loudly on the door.

"Dad, mom, are you still inside?"

"Liu Xue, little Xue's back!" Qiao Yan exclaimed in a delighted tone. Soon after, the heavy and impenetrable steel door groaned open, revealing the scene inside.

Apart from Qiao Yan and Liu Zhenshan, there were three other women and a man, all of whom were employees of the store. They too ran out to check out the commotion.

The locked space was dimly lit but the thick, reinforced steel door gave everyone a sense of security, something hard to come by these days. Even before Qiao Yan could celebrate her daughter's return, the civilians from the other side swarmed into the safe space like rats down their burrow.

Although the basement was a mandatory facility, it was quite obvious that it was not designed for public use. The total floor space available was a mere hundred square meters and with the addition of twenty-odd people, the place became packed to the brim in the blink of an eye.

"Quick, shut that door up!" Someone from the group urged.

Qin Feng ignored them.

"Uncle Liu, where'd you place the equipment that I wanted refined?"

Back then, Qin Feng was confident that he could have stopped the tragedy from occurring and so he did not take with him the item in question. However, things rarely went according to plan as he had learnt later on. Still, he did not wish to let a beast-king-tier item slip out of his grasp that easily.

Liu Zhenshan appeared stunned, followed by his expression changing for the worse.

"Bad news, it's still inside the decomposition furnace!" Liu Zhenshan replied.

Qin Feng's brows furrowed before he continued, "It's alright Uncle, we'll retrieve it later on. Be rest assured, as long as I'm here, I will do my best to guarantee your safety. What's more is that the situation outside has taken a turn for the worse. We'll need food supplies, and I'm afraid the rations here are not enough to support a group of this size!"

Liu Zhenshan's expression turned dead serious upon hearing Qin Feng's words. His teeth remained tightly clenched before decisively saying, "Alright, I'll go with you!"

"Honey! I beg of you, don't go out there!" Qiao Yan immediately blocked Liu Zhenshan's path and turned toward Qin Feng with teary eyes.

"Young man, how much money do you need? I'm willing to pay whatever price you state but please, don't let my husband go out there!"

"Ma'am, please calm down. I assure you that nothing will happen to Uncle Liu!"

Liu Xue came in and patted her mother on the back as if to give her more assurance. "Mom, what Qin Feng said is correct. Don't worry too much, it's the least you could do to maintain our morale. He's a seasoned veteran and without him, we would not have made it back here alive. Now it's our turn to wait here patiently for their return, alright?"

Liu Zhenshan continued with a beaming expression, "A businessman must be a man of his words! It's just a journey to a place a few steps away and the material we're retrieving is worth up to a billion yuan! I cannot afford to lose this deal so you best stay out of my way!"

With these words, Qiao Yan lost the argument. She had no choice but to be ushered back into the basement by Liu Xue.

"Xiao Li, you stay here too, I'll leave this place under your care now!"

Qin Feng left Xiao Bai inside the safety of the basement. Knowing that Qin Feng was not going to wander too far off, it nodded its head while flexing its paw back and forth, a gesture of waving goodbye.

"If there are any hiccups, ring me up!"

Qin Feng smiled and replied, "Of course! Relax, I'll call you when the need arises!"

In actuality, the distance between the two was not going to be too far apart. Both of them could still communicate telepathically but owing to Bai Li's curiosity toward anything novel, even using the communicator came as something extremely fun.

Without any more words exchanged, the steel door clamped shut. And thus, the duo that was Qin Feng and Liu Zhenshan marched forward toward their destination.

"Let's go! The smelting facility's right behind the backyard. We'll go up there from this position!"

Liu Zhenshan led the way and Qin Feng followed behind cautiously. Qin Feng worked here for half a month before his rebirth so it was not surprising that he already knew the layout of the land here.

Soon, they went into the elevator of the car park which brought them up onto the surface.

The landscape above ground was in a complete mess. Though, this area did not seem to have been ravaged by the insectoids. Evidently the spread of insectoids was guided by the main trunk road so places away from it were relatively unaffected.

However, when Qin Feng arrived at the doorway of the smelting facility, his expression darkened.

The smelting facility was an essential spot. Liu Zhenshan had always been here, forging rune equipment, so no one was allowed to get too close. The items stored here, regardless of whether it was material made from ultra beasts or automated machinery, were all of extremely high value. It followed that the defense system built in place was extremely robust.

So how was it possible that there was a massive half-meter-wide hole on the reinforced, anti-looting door?

The anti-looting door was now like an optical illusion to Qin Feng. Taking aim, his foot smashed against the area right around where the door handle was, kicking the entire door frame down. The scene within was enough to make Qin Feng gouge out his own eyes.

All types of materials littered the floor but evidently, the racks which once held the most prized ones were now empty shells.

Clinging onto the side of the massive smelting furnace, was a crystal-like see-through beetle the size of a gallon bucket.

"Crystal armor beast!"

Liu Zhenshan yelled out in astonishment.

Who would have thought that this creature would appear here out of all places.

On second thought, it should not have been too surprising. The crystal armor beast was interrupted by human activity when it had just started feeding on energy fluids. However, since the crisis hit, nobody cared about where the grubby creature went.

And for now, within the entire Han Town, was there an even better material than what Liu Zhenshan originally had in store?

It should be kept in mind that the material within the smelting furnace that Liu Zhenshan was forging, was an F-tier beast king item.

The reason why the crystal armor beast snuck its way here was no coincidence.

While the forging process within the furnace was already completed, it was still radiating an immense amount of heat. The beetle was left with no other choice but to wait it out, until the furnace cooled down before chomping its way in to obtain the prize within.

However, it never crossed the armor beast's mind that the pesky humans who once interrupted its feeding process, would turn up here again.

"Nice, this fella fell into our laps willingly!" A smile cracked across Qin Feng's face and without hesitation, a beam of darkness enveloped the crystal armor beast's body.

Dark Shroud.

The beast lost all its senses for a moment.

Qin Feng once again unleashed his ability.

"Dark ray!"

"Hellfire!"

Zoom! Zoom!

A series of explosions followed. The crystal armor beast simply could not withstand Qin Feng's attacks which had been blessed and enhanced by the dark stone. A few seconds later, it collapsed lifelessly onto the ground. It had been weakened to such a degree that it failed to dodge the incoming hellfire attack, which instantly carbonised its brain, killing it right then and there.

The culprit that caused the destruction of Han Town had now been taken out by Qin Feng's own hands.

Chapter 108: Xiao Bai takes action!

"Wha-", struggling to produce any coherent form of speech, Liu Zhenshan was shocked to the very core after witnessing Qin Feng unveil his true strength.

Back then, Qin Feng set the bar for himself as an F-tier ancient warrior after being provoked by others. As for the moment though, it seemed that he had long surpassed what they had originally labelled him as.

Qin Feng, in all aspects, was practically an ability user!

There was however, one distinct thing that caught Liu Zhenshan's eye and he just could not wrap his head around it. How and why was the hue produced by Qin Feng's ability pure black in color?

Still, remembering the Hellfire attack released by Qin Feng in the second half of his attack, Liu Zhenshan concluded that somewhere along the way, some mutations must have occurred among the fire runic ability users so he stopped giving it more thought.

He busily shuffled over and started operating the smelting furnace again, switching on the rapid cooling process. As icy cold water rushed down the sides of the furnace, so did the interior temperature of the furnace drop. It was not too long before the hatch of the furnace popped open, revealing the prized material floating within.

"Old pal, this is it!" Liu Zhenshan passed the item over to Qin Feng. The result of the decomposition process produced three distinct types of energies, compressed into a physical form. One of them was compressed into a block around the size of three clay bricks but weighed over a hundred kilograms!

"This is really good stuff! It must be a mineral from an alternate dimension. We named it the sunken black stone. It's an extremely robust material, offering good resistance against attacks for its user. Prime stuff to make shields out of, but I'll admit that it'd be pretty interesting to make weapons with it. You know what they say, offense is the best form of defense and I don't think weapons made from it will wear out anytime soon, haha!"

Agreeing with the old man, Qin Feng nodded.

"Uncle Liu, I've transferred the funds over to you. Though, I wonder how much longer it'll take if I let you upgrade this runic equipment right here?" Qin Feng questioned.

"Right now, huh?" Liu Zhenshan did not expect that Qin Feng was still ruminating on upgrading his equipment. The insectoids were breeding like crazy out there right now so was it not better to leave the place as soon as possible?

Qin Feng nodded and replied, "Uncle Liu, keep in mind that the store is located right at the heart of the city. While the insectoids have now infested the entire place, their presence is still unevenly distributed. If we evacuate right now, the chances of a successful escape is high but so is death!"

Liu Zhenshan was visibly confused by Qin Feng's statement.

Qin Feng's statement was true. During the initial stage, when the insectoids came crawling out from the spatial rift, their innate instinct was to hunt and feed. This stage was the most chaotic and the worst time for one to evacuate the city. In one moment, you could evade a group of slow-crawling insectoids but end up in the jaws of a bloodthirsty broodmother in the next instant. Stories of how people met their demise in a similar fashion were commonly passed on among the survivors.

Thus, the chances of dying were far from being out of the equation yet.

However, as the insectoids consolidate their occupation of this area, only the high-tier beasts would remain as the weaklings slowly die out. Different species would obviously live in different sectors of the city as they too, were territorial in nature. The chances of surviving the evacuation at this stage were the highest so long as they could maneuver between the insectoids' territories undetected.

This was common knowledge taught in textbooks in his past life.

Still, only a handful from the past lived to tell tales of such endeavours.

Qin Feng continued, "Also, as long as Han Town remains under enemy control, the spatial rift will continue expanding. Soon, even those from Fu City will move over and encircle us. It's wiser to stay put and wait it out. At least it's a better plan than to make a blind escape with no immediate plans at hand. We now have more than twenty people in that basement. Instead of making camp in that cramped space, we can have more breathing room if we hole up in an abandoned hotel. We'll last longer that way too. For us to be able to do that though, my weapons must be lethal enough to protect the group. Since we already have the core of the crystal armor beast, let's upgrade the weapon right now!"

The most important reason for Qin Feng to come to this decision however, was that considering Liu Xue's personality, it was very unlikely that she was willing to evacuate the place by herself. Instead, she would insist on dragging along with her the deadweight that was twenty-odd people or she would die trying.

If that were the case, only God knows what would happen to such a large crowd.

He had seen this scenario repeat before his very eyes too many times for him to quantify. These comrades that stood shoulder-to-shoulder with you would send you toward death's embrace if their own lives were threatened.

Qin Feng refused to let harm be done toward Uncle Liu under his watch.

Liu Zhenshan was obviously moved by what Qin Feng had to say!

"You're right. Let's do it. After all, forging a weapon shouldn't take too much time. Three to five hours is what I need!"

Still, for Liu Zhenshan to make such a risky decision, Qin Feng's combat ability played a crucial role in the process. His strength was unrivalled, and was much stronger than Liu Xue. With such a strong ally by his side, nothing was to be feared.

In fact, his worst fear was Qin Feng running off by himself!

Qin Feng nodded in satisfaction upon hearing Liu Zhenshan's words. He said, "I also have a few other materials which need to be broken down. Give me a moment, I'll have my girlfriend deliver them to us!"

Qin Feng switched on the communicator and requested for Bai Li to deliver the goods over. The "goods" in question, was the spear of the Emperor Knight.

Receiving Qin Feng's orders, Bai Li soon emerged from the underground shelter.

While she did not know the exact route to get to Qin Feng's position, she could sense his presence and roughly make out which direction she had to take. Without using spatial manipulation, she effortlessly followed the path from the underground car park and soon arrived above ground.

The moment she stepped foot outside, a group of humans could be seen fleeing from insectoids, retreating back into the hotel.

"Man, f*ck these bugs!"

"Which motherf*cker was it that shattered the space stabilising device?!"

"We're totally screwed so what's the point of saying all that?"

"No, these critters are having a feeding frenzy outside. Let 'em stuff their bellies first before we go out! We gotta find a place to barricade ourselves in. Say, this hotel's a pretty sweet spot!"

"Just hurry up, find something to block the windows and doors! Lock this place down!"

These were all F-tier aptitude users with a lifetime of experience in survival. They were lightning fast in finding stuff to blockade entry points into the building and soon, the entire place turned into a makeshift fortress.

While they were running about setting up defenses, Bai Li cheekily appeared in front of these ragtag defenders.

However, Bai Li ignored these people and so did they in regards to her appearance, with the exception of a single member from the group who noticed her presence immediately.

That person was the ancient warrior whose entire row of teeth were knocked out by two blows from Qin Feng's fists a few days ago.

His eyes nearly popped out of its sockets as she entered into his vision.

"Hey, ain't that the kid's sweetheart?" The man walked over in long strides, blocking Bai Li from proceeding any further.

Bai Li's brows furrowed, flashing a look of disgust at the man.

"Haha, little missy, since your husband's out there feedin' the bugs, how 'bout you follow me? Service me well and I'll protect ya. How does that sound? Now, you're more than entitled to reject my generous proposition but do know that I could just toss ya out and turn ya into juicy bug-feed."

Bai Li rolled her eyes and imitated Qin Feng's signature cynical laugh.

"I'll have you know that my husband's in the backyard. I don't know what you're talking about, bug-feed and all. How laughable."

A jolt ran down the man's spine, if he had one, upon realising that Qin Feng was still alive.

Still, Bai Li's attitude was more than this ancient warrior could handle. In the next moment, he bellowed with rage, "Who cares if he's in the backyard. I'll f*ck you right here and now. He can kill me if he wants but I'll die with a great smile on my face!"

Immediately after, the man reached out with his thick arms to grab hold of the girl. He was aiming to cover up Bai Li's mouth to prevent her from screaming. An image flashed across his mind with the girl on her knees begging for forgiveness as his toothless mouth curved into a wicked grin.

Bai Li stepped backward in the nick of time and stated loud and clear, "While my husband forbids me from using violence, if you provoke me any further, I swear to God I will rain his fury down upon you!"

"Haha, big words missy. Come on, touch me all you want!"

Bai Li's eyes glimmered and a cunning smile broke across her face.

"Since you've invited me to, sure thing!"

Without hesitation, she lifted her feminine arm high above her head before bringing it down onto the man's face like a whip.

While Qin Feng held back on his attacks, the same could not be said for Bai Li.

That smack alone sent her opponent flying meters back, smashing open the windows which he had barricaded mere moments ago. This ancient warrior dropped like a sack of potatoes onto the ground outside the hotel. Bugs roaming around the surrounding area immediately swarmed over and turned the toothless sex-offender-to-be into an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Bai Li cackled wryly.

"You don't have the balls to feed me to the bugs, literally and figuratively!"

She then walked off in her high heels as if nothing had happened.

Chapter 109: Upgrading the Verdant Emperor Saber

None of the ancient warrior's comrades stepped in to diffuse the situation. Was Qin Feng's slap to that person's face, not also a slap to the dignity of the entire team? Revenge would normally be sought afterwards but there was a reason why this was not the case.

Aptitude users could be perfectly described using the ever-changing weather as an analogy. You may be riding high today, strong as ever but come tomorrow, you could just be eating dirt to get by!

It never crossed any of these people's minds that Bai Li would possess such great power.

"She, she's an aptitude user!"

"Sh*t, comrade number three's dead!"

"Just what kind of a sh*tshow did he get into last time?"

It did not take long for these ability-users to quiet down. Now, the hotel was dead silent.

Present on the scene was a total of six aptitude users, half of them being close friends of the now-deceased warrior.

"Say, should we just run for it?" One of the gunners asked as he shifted around uncomfortably.

The lady looked as fragile as a porcelain flower vase but was strong enough to wipe out a battle-hardened man with a single blow. If she alone were this strong, it was hard to imagine just how much stronger this Qin Feng person was. Now that they have pissed off his girl, it was a pretty wise decision to leave the scene.

"No, you've all witnessed just how strong she is. With Armageddon happening outside, she's surprisingly calm for a lady to be travelling alone. There must be some trick up her sleeve, some kind of a trump card. It's gotta be safer if we could just call for a ceasefire with them. Going outside isn't an option!"

"Yeah, we'll stay!"

The other half of the team were not particularly close with the late-ancient warrior and co. They merely banded together to wait out the storm, a pact of convenience. As they had not offended Qin Feng, there was no reason to go. In fact, they were relieved upon learning of his existence!

"Hmm, let's check him out later on. We'll introduce ourselves and by extension, secure the safety of our group!"

"Well said!"

The others seemed to have reached a consensus.

Meanwhile, Bai Li had finally arrived at the smelting facility where she handed the spear over to Qin Feng.

He then passed the weapon carefully over to Liu Zhenshan.

"This is the one I was talking about!"

Upon receiving that spear, the old man's face glowed with excitement.

"Star steel!"

"That's correct."

Qin Feng nodded.

As the Emperor Knight had died, so did its contract with its spear. The spirit residing within the spear dissipated over time hence it was not as effective in Qin Feng's hands. In its current state, it would be far better to harness the power of its material, then to forge a new weapon out of it with the Verdant Emperor Saber.

In the next moment, it seemed as if the spear had turned into hot steel as Liu Zhenshan struggled to keep it within his grips.

"You want to use this to upgrade your own weapon? Wouldn't that be a tad bit too wasteful?" Liu Zhenshan asked with a confused look.

To his question, Qin Feng shook his head as he replied, "I'm using it on my own weapon so how would it be wasteful?"

The old man had held in his arms the Verdant Emperor Saber in previous occasions and so he understood that it was forged from a G-tier ultra beast. However, a piece of star steel was of an S-tier rarity and could easily produce an A-tier runic equipment.

Though, that piece of equipment would be so powerful that even Qin Feng would find it hard to make good use of. On second thought, perhaps upgrading his personal weapon would be the best choice for Qin Feng after all.

"Alright, let's get down to business then!"

The entire spearhead was forged out of pure star steel, so there was no need to refine it, nor was a separation process necessary. The only thing they needed to do was to melt it and reform its shape.

"Bai Li, you head back first! We'll be back in no time!" Qin Feng said.

"I don't want to go back. That place is stinky!" Bai Li rebutted grumpily.

It seemed that after Qin Feng had left the shelter, the people there could finally let out a sigh of relief. Many of them, after finally surviving the arduous journey were drenched in sweat. There were even some that had emptied their bladders out of fear when they got attacked halfway through the journey. All those bodily fluids, trapped within a small, unventilated space would soon turn the entire place nauseating to say the least.

However foul the place smelled, no one dared to grumble about it. What right did they have to do so?

Suddenly, the sound of gunfire broke the silence and soon, more guns started joining in as if a war had begun outside.

"What's happening?"

Qin Feng's brows furrowed.

Bai Li remembered the group of people she bumped into on her way here and replied, "Hmm, I saw around seven humans over at the hotel while making my way here, and oh, right, one of them has been fed to the bugs!"

Qin Feng had no idea what Bai Li was referring to when she said "fed to the bugs". Was she the one who fed the person to the bugs? Anyway, with so much noise from the battle outside, it was bound to attract a great deal of insectoids over.

If that were the case, Liu Zhenshan could be in big trouble!

"You stay here and protect Uncle Liu at all costs. Should the situation call for it, do not hesitate to release your strength. Use whatever tricks you have up your sleeve but you must stop those bugs from harming the old man. Understood?"

"Oh ho, aye aye!"

Bai Li nodded her head and sat back down in the room.

Qin Feng exited the smelting facility. Opening up the reinforced steel front door, he discovered that there already were bugs littering the corridor leading to where the old man and Bai Li were.

Five blade mantises and more than ten black steel bugs.

Qin Feng had only appeared for a mere second and yet these black steel bugs had started swarming over in an attempt to overwhelm him.

Slam!

Qin Feng yanked the door shut in a hurry. He could only face these critters after ensuring their passageway to Liu Zhenshan was thoroughly blocked.

The bugs crawled with alarming speed toward Qin Feng and came so close that he could count the razor-sharp fangs inside the many jaws that were gaping open, ready to tear out a piece of his own flesh.

"Hellfire!"

The air around Qin Feng started burning with raging intensity, turning him into a moving ball of flame.

The bugs hurled themselves at Qin Feng regardless of the fire, like how moths would fly fearlessly into a campfire.

"Screech!"

A sharp screech echoed down the corridor, accompanied by the pungent smell of burning bug flesh.

Qin Feng held his breath as the flames burned ever stronger, repelling these bugs away from the building.

The insects were sent flying from Qin Feng's ingenious attack. It did not matter if it were a blade mantis or a black steel bug, they would all collapse onto the ground and curl up into a roasted stinking mess.

As the hotel and the equipment store had connecting back alleys, Qin Feng walked over to the hotel but to no avail as the door had been locked from within.

However, Qin Feng was able to peer through a transparent part of the door to see that there was a large build-up of bugs within the building.

"Damn it, we can't hold this floor any longer! Go up! All of you! Regroup upstairs!"

The sea of bugs was growing denser by the second!

Bang! Bang!

Sensing a presence beyond the door, some of the bugs near the locked door started attacking it instead, trying to get to Qin Feng who was standing outside.

Clink!

An emerald green arm sliced open the door from the inside like a hot knife through butter, cutting through the main points in which it was secured.

With a grunt, Qin Feng kicked down the large door.

Thud!

As Qin Feng's attack power was now soaring through the roof, he managed to bring down the door with just one hefty kick. On the other side of the door, the force exerted by the kick was enough to crush the hungry blade mantises to death!

Squelch!

A loud crunch could be heard as the large door collapsed onto the floor. Qin Feng was then met with the gag-inducing stench which insectoids naturally produced as well the smell of their fresh blood.

It seemed that Qin Feng had stirred up a hornet's nest!

Black steel bugs washed over him, like a dark wave trying to drown out Qin Feng.

"Hellfire!"

Qin Feng activated his consciousness, allowing his ability to burst out as fire runes danced about in the air.

A wall of fire had materialised in front of Qin Feng.

While none of the bugs physically made it through the blazing wall, their painful wails as they writhed about in the inferno filled the room.

Hellfire was no ordinary fire attack, for it burned not flesh, but the enemy's soul. Still, it was more than enough to turn these low-level bug beasts into crispy carbon.

However, to Qin Feng's surprise, the emerald-green streak appeared once again. This time, it was hurdling toward Qin Feng himself, which made it all the more terrifying.

Qin Feng spun his body, barely escaping the cutting blade.

Crack!

The wall behind Qin Feng was split open in an instant, allowing a thin ray of sunlight into the room.

"Beast general!"

Qin Feng turned over to be greeted by a pair of razor-sharp forelimbs of a massive mantis.

The beast general of the blade mantises stood at a height of almost two meters tall. Its massive forelimbs were able to strike at anything up to a distance of two meters at the speed of lightning.

Once a blade mantis was locked onto you, there was no escaping the fate of being dismembered into multiple chunks of flesh and bones. Their forelimbs were their best weapon after all.

Swish!

The blade mantis general attacked once more.

In such a small space, Qin Feng had little to no room for dodging attacks!

"Shadow!"

Qin Feng vanished into thin air as he took to the shadows for temporary refuge.

Losing its target so suddenly, the blade mantis general was visibly in a daze.

Qin Feng jumped back roughly ten meters before reappearing!

"Dark ray!"

A beam of darkness hurdled toward the blade mantis general's body.

Chapter 110: Alliance

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The beam of darkness encapsulated the blade mantis, trapping it within a pocket of dead air. Under the effects of the hell stone, the dark ray exerted a greater amount of pressure than ever seen before.

The body of the blade mantis general shrunk at an alarming rate, drying up like a parched tree as the death of its cells accelerated. Its abdomen, which was once jade-green had now turned into a sickly shade of yellow.

"Hiss!" The blade mantis struggled to keep on its feet swaying side-to-side like a bobo doll.

"Fire beam!"

Qin Feng once again let loose a ray of fire.

The beast general widened its beady eyes, turning around in an attempt to escape its fiery death.

However, its body had been weakened significantly after enduring Qin Feng's previous attacks, no longer possessing the agility it once had.

Pop!

The fire beam exploded right around the enemy's abdomen, blasting deep-green bodily fluids into every corner of the room, including the ceiling.

Within the mass of fluids, there appeared to be tiny orbs of light which were likely the cells of the general which had all experienced a rapid aging process.

After successfully dealing with the beast general, the other creatures, being intimidated by the grand show of force had no choice but to fall back, else they would face the same fate as their leader. However, as the number of bugs was overwhelming while the floorspace remained limited, the crowd inched forward slowly in terror!

"Hellfire!"

Qin Feng unleashed his consciousness with explosive power. The flames literally spread like wildfire, burning with unrivalled intensity, turning the entire floor of the hotel into a sea of fire.

With nowhere to go, these bugs became trapped in an oven, awaiting their fate of being engulfed by Qin Feng's fire.

It was only after a full three minute, when none of the bugs outside the building dared to enter did Qin Feng start to gradually turn down the flames.

He had killed over a hundred of these creepy crawlies in one go.

Apart from piles of gray-ash littering the charred floorboards, there were also tiny beads the size of a human thumbnail. It seemed that these were the energy cores of the freshly-slain insectoids.

Of course, there were only a handful of these beads laying around as most insectoids were pretty weak; only a fraction of them possessed energy cores, unlike the undead corpses that possessed individual cores.

"Retrieve!"

Making use of his consciousness, Qin Feng collected all the energy cores which came flying into his palm.

From killing more than a hundred of these guys, Qin Feng merely harvested a grand total of thirteen energy cores, including one from that beast general he took down.

Alongside the cores, Qin Feng tucked away the blade mantis general's slicers into the spatial rune equipment.

As he was doing so, a menacing figure appeared in the shattered door frame linked to the safe passage outside.

"Cough cough!"

The man clenched tightly onto his belly, looking at Qin Feng with an expression that was a mixture of relief and fear.

"Mr. Qin, thanks for saving our lives!"

This man was one of the guys Qin Feng lobbed a round or two back at in retaliation.

Qin Feng raised his brow and replied, "You guys are making too much noise! You'll only serve as the dinner bell for these bugs!"

The man smiled bitterly and apologised, "I'm sorry but my energy equipment's run out of juice!"

The energy blaster he was holding was indeed silent, as opposed to the usual humming it produced. While its effect was deadly, it guzzled too much energy and was extremely costly to operate, hence the majority of gunners stuck to using traditional lead bullets and explosive rounds on the battlefield.

While there was a saying that gunners were typically money bags, failing to budget properly could burn a massive hole in their pockets, meaning a comeback was near impossible after being drained of money and resources.

"Hmm!"

Qin Feng nodded in understanding.

The great hall on the first floor was too wide of a place to defend, with glass doors surrounding the entire vicinity. While one could reasonably hold off G-tier ultra beasts, the same could not be said for F-tier ones. From what Qin Feng observed, these people had at most poured insect-repelling powder around the place. Facing a large number of insectoids as was the case moments ago, their defensive measure was obviously insufficient.

After dealing with this threat, Qin Feng turned and left, paying little attention to these people whom he had just saved.

"Mr Qin!"

Seeing that Qin Feng was about to leave, the man called out urgently with a hint of desperation in his voice.

And yet, Qin Feng's feet did not stop!

The man started explaining in a hurry, "Mr Qin, we stumbled onto something interesting on the second floor and I just thought that you may want to check it out! After all, this is also a safe haven for you to fall back to. Uh, right! Strength in numbers! Perhaps it would be best for us to cooperate!"

This man obviously did not want Qin Feng to leave.

After all, men of such power were few and far between.

Qin Feng was a fire ability user and the energy he could unleash was something which no ordinary F-tier user could match.

Hearing what the man had to say, Qin Feng stopped in his tracks.

"What are you referring to?"

"Sir, you'll understand when you come and see for yourself!"

A suspicion arose in Qin Feng's mind that these guys could be up to no good. But even if he was persuaded to go upstairs, was there anything these guys could do to stop him from leaving?

With that in mind, Qin Feng followed the man to the entrance of a safe passage!

On the other end of the passageway up the stairs however, was a heavy bed frame barricading against outsiders, leaving a small gap that was no more than half a meter-wide for humans to be able to barely squeeze through. Littering the stairway up to the makeshift barricade were carcasses of a variety of insectoids.

So this was how they stopped the bugs from entering the second floor!

It was such a simple defensive structure that if not for Qin Feng's unexpected arrival, it would have collapsed in no time against these unrelenting bugs.

Squeezing past the shoddy barricade, two men entered into Qin Feng's view on the other side. According to Bai Li's report, there were seven people around here and one of them was fed to the bugs.

If his math were correct, that meant three casualties from the bug assault just now.

"Mr Qin, my name's Wang Chen. We've had a bit of a misunderstanding back then but since everybody's on the same boat, I hope that we can let bygones be bygones!"

Wang Chen said as his hand remained pressed onto his belly.

Qin Feng, who could achieve such magnificent feats using his consciousness alone naturally had a pretty good memory. A single glance was just what it took for him to recognise the companion of that aptitude user who had toyed with Bai Li.

Could it be that the person who Bai Li said was "fed to the bugs" was none other than this guy's friend?

Considering Bai Li's looks, it did not take a genius to be able to imagine what would have happened if such a girl were walking across such a disordered place, where laws and morality were as good as dead.

Still, Bai Li had her own ways to defend herself.

Qin Feng's expression darkened as he stared at Wang Chen coldly in the eyes.

The man felt a wave of fear creeping up his spine as his smile became more and more forced.

Unbeknownst to both of them was the fact that the entire incident was entirely a result of Bai Li's doing.

After Bai Li sent the man flying out the window, the fresh meal attracted a large group of hungry insectoids over for the feast. This happened when the men were only halfway through building their defensive perimeter. Naturally, they would open fire to kill off those bugs to prevent a potential breach but unfortunately, that only attracted an even larger group of creepy-crawlies to their position.

It was only after witnessing firsthand just what Qin Feng was capable of, that ideas for revenge were quickly abandoned.

What was more, the remaining two of the group had no grievances with Qin Feng and were in fact, elated to meet Qin Feng in person.

"Nice to meet you, Mr Qin! My name's He Ling, this man over here's Zhao Xiang!"

"Oh, just call me Qin Feng!"

"No no no no, we'll stick to Mr Qin! We are now nothing but a small team of defeated soldiers with no leader to guide us! I sincerely hope that Mr Qin can help us out. As long as we can survive through this, I swear I will repay the debt to you no matter what!"

These insectoids were too overwhelming. It did not matter that they were F-tier aptitude users. They could not hold their ground even when teamed up against an F-tier blade mantis general. The unexpected arrival of Qin Feng however, greatly boosted their morale again after a brief moment of staring death right in the eyes.

A nerve popped on Qin Feng's forehead.

He was no hero who had come to save the day.

Still, his mind returned to the supposed heroine that was Liu Xue. On second thought, the addition of a few more aptitude users might not completely be bad news, considering the fact that there were now more than twenty people to protect in the underground shelter.

"Hmm, alright!"

"You are okay with that, Mr Qin?" He Ling found it difficult to believe Qin Feng's answer.

"We really appreciate it, Mr Qin!" Zhao Xiang hurriedly thanked their saviour.

"Thank you!" the superficial smile Wang Chen wore on his face was now exchanged with one that reflected his genuine emotion.

"Oh right, before I forget, what's the reason that you led me up here?" Qin Feng reminded Wang Chen.

Wang Chen hurriedly replied, "Mr Qin, I have not fooled you! Come over here and take a look!"

Wang Chen led Qin Feng to a nearby window.

Chapter 111: The Terrifying Broodmother

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

As Qin Feng was facing the bugs on the first floor alone, Wang Chen, driven by fear, had completely sealed away the safe passage thereby blocking themselves in from the blood-thirsty monsters below. It was only after seeing the insectoids' miraculous retreat into the distance was the entrance opened back up as he wanted to meet Qin Feng downstairs as soon as possible.

However, it was right at that moment prior to their meeting when Wang Chen discovered something that was so scary that it solidified his resolve to offer a truce with Qin Feng.

Wang Chen led Qin Feng to the window where a sniper rifle was leaning against the windowsill.

"Mr Qin, it's in that direction!"

Qin Feng peered through the scope after confirming that he was pointing the rifle in the right direction.

The massive black rift remained floating in the sky above Han Town from which insectoids would fall out from time to time. However, a noticeable change was that the number of bugs entering this city had grown sparser than during the initial stage of the infestation.

The cars that once roamed the busy streets had now been exchanged with these God-forsaken bugs. Dark-red, almost black colored patches could be observed smeared across the town's surface, on cars or on the walls to name a few places.

While they were only standing on the second floor of the building, Liu Xue's influence and standing in Han Town earned them the strategic location that was the hotel. The window Qin Feng was standing at overlooked the once flourishing street that ran through the central business district and right across the road was a massive skyscraper that was once a trade center.

However, stuck between the two grand buildings was a massive spider web.

Resting on the web, was a colossal spider that could easily send chills down the spine of anyone who dared to look at it.

Qin Feng froze as his eyes met the herculean arachnid.

"It's a beast king!"

The distance between the two buildings was at least seventy to eighty meters wide. Just how was it possible that there was a spider web this big?

Looking closely, each individual spider silk had at least the thickness of a hemp rope. The gigantic eight-legged beast on the other hand, had a body that was at least three to four meters long, the size of a minivan. That was excluding eight of its legs that stretched up to more than ten meters long each.

Chapter 205 - 103-112

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