Su Yuan's vision blurred, and he found himself in the midst of an endless tropical rainforest.
The air was humid and stuffy, the scorching sun was dazzling, and the sounds of various birds, beasts, and insects filled the surroundings.
"It's really hot here..."
"Yeah, it's also particularly stuffy. Look, I'm already sweating just after this short while."
Su Yuan turned his head and saw two students standing not far from him. Judging from their school uniforms, they should be students from Guangchuan City's Secondary School No. 11.
For students long accustomed to the plains of Guangchuan City, this environment was indeed challenging to adapt to.
"Hey, student over there, are you alone?"
Among the two, a tall and thin boy noticed Su Yuan and greeted him.
Seeing that Su Yuan was alone, the tall and thin youth invited: "It's fate that we landed together. How about we team up? Spending the night here with companions would be more convenient, don't you think?"
The tall and thin youth had just spoken when his green-haired companion immediately said: "Old Wu, why are you asking him to team up? With our Eighth Stage strength, it shouldn't be difficult to get into the top 200 and earn the White Card reward. Why bother with someone we don't know?"
The tall and thin youth lowered his voice: "Anyone daring to act alone is probably a master. Having an extra person could be beneficial."
Su Yuan had no intention of teaming up with anyone and smiled, saying: "Thanks for the invite, but I prefer acting alone."
As he spoke, Su Yuan opened the electronic map on his locator.
The map marked various information, including the density distribution of Star Beasts, and indicated the danger levels of each area with green, yellow, orange, and red.
According to the locator's tips, green indicated relatively safe areas without Sixth Stage Star Beasts.
Yellow indicated areas with Seventh to Eighth Stage Star Beasts.
Orange indicated areas with Ninth Stage Star Beasts.
As for red, it represented areas with Bronze-level Star Beasts!
Su Yuan quickly identified his location, in a yellow area at the southeastern corner of the entire rainforest.
"Not the best luck, it's nearly half a day's journey to the nearest red zone... I need to hurry."
According to the rules, to strive for the top three, one must target Bronze-level Star Beasts.
Su Yuan estimated that special students like Chen Jiujun and Fang Kun should have the ability to kill Bronze-level Star Beasts.
Among the remaining Ninth Stage students from the twelve secondary schools, some might also be able to kill Bronze-level Star Beasts.
So, even killing one Bronze-level Star Beast might not guarantee a top-three spot. To secure a top-three position and obtain the Green Weapon Card, he needed to seize every moment to kill more Star Beasts.
Seeing Su Yuan engrossed in studying the map, the green-haired youth hummed and said: "This guy is quite arrogant. From his Star Power fluctuation, he's only at the Eighth Stage yet he rejected us."
The tall and thin youth lowered his voice: "Those who dare to act alone are definitely masters. If we can bring him over, it would be even better."
"Eighth Stage isn't that strong after all..." Before the green-haired youth could finish his sentence, a clear wind suddenly blew.
Their vision blurred, and Su Yuan, who wasn't far away, quickly left like a blurred shadow. In an instant, he disappeared into the depths of the rainforest, completely out of their sight.
"This... such speed!" The green-haired youth came to his senses, swallowed hard, and was so shocked that he could hardly speak.
The tall and thin youth was also shocked. He had guessed Su Yuan had some strength but didn't expect him to be this powerful.
"This trial is indeed full of hidden masters. We should hurry too, or we might not even get the White Card!"
"Right, let's go quickly!"
...
After leaving the two behind, Su Yuan controlled his thoughts, and the wild wind around him gradually calmed down, leaving only a few strands of clear wind entwined around his legs.
Fully utilizing Wind Walking consumed a lot of energy, but for just hurrying, displaying only two or three-tenths of its power was enough, which could reduce consumption and still achieve a good acceleration effect.
With his left hand on the long knife at his waist, Su Yuan moved forward while staying wary of his surroundings.
Although he wasn't afraid of direct combat with ordinary Bronze-level Star Beasts, the rainforest was fraught with dangers, and the dense trees obstructed his view. If he was ambushed by any Star Beast, it would be easy to suffer a hidden loss.
Getting injured wasn't a big deal, but it could lower his efficiency in hunting Star Beasts.
Before he had walked far, Su Yuan noticed a dense rustling sound in the waist-high bushes on both sides, indicating that something was rapidly approaching.
"Here they come!"
Su Yuan looked up and saw a relatively sparse open space not far ahead. He immediately leaped over, drew his long knife, and alertly gazed around.
At that moment, the rustling sound became more intense, and the surrounding vegetation was successively knocked down. Then, three gigantic snakes covered with yellowish-brown spots emerged from three different directions and spat out clumps of yellow-green miasma at Su Yuan!
[Poison Miasma Giant Snake]
[Grade: Ordinary]
[Type: Snake]
[Element: Poison]
[Talent: Enhanced Toxicity]
[Six Dimensions: Strength F, Agility E, Defense F, Constitution E, Spirit F, Star Power F]
[Skills: Miasma (Ordinary), Poisoned Teeth (Ordinary)]
"Three Eighth Stage Poison Miasma Giant Snakes. Their synchronization is quite good."
Su Yuan's expression remained unchanged. The clear wind entwining his legs suddenly intensified, surrounding him with a powerful wind element. The three clumps of yellow-green miasma approaching were dispersed by the surrounding wild wind before they could reach him.
"Too bad they're still too weak."
Seeing their miasma being blown away, the three Poison Miasma Giant Snakes immediately coiled their bodies and opened their mouths wide, ready to launch a simultaneous attack.
Su Yuan placed his right hand on the long knife, looked at the snake directly in front of him, took a step forward, and his figure moved like a feather in the wind, quickly reaching the snake's front and slashing with his knife.
A flash of cold light, and the snake's head flew.
A large amount of yellow-green venom splashed out but was blown away by the wild wind around Su Yuan.
Turning around, Su Yuan saw the other two Poison Miasma Giant Snakes had launched themselves at him, moving at an incredible speed.
However, no matter how fast they were, he was faster!
Wind Walking, full power!
With a burst of wind power, Su Yuan's figure blurred and slipped through the two Poison Miasma Giant Snakes.
As they slightly brushed past each other, the two Poison Miasma Giant Snakes were severed into two segments, falling to the ground, their severed bodies still twitching madly.
Su Yuan, with a flick of his long knife, severed the heads of the three Poison Miasma Giant Snakes to thoroughly end their lives.
Examining the new E-3 standard long knife he had just bought, Su Yuan saw that though killing the Poison Miasma Giant Snakes had only taken a moment, a small part of the blade had already been corroded.
"A newly bought long knife, over twenty thousand dollars..."
Su Yuan painfully sheathed his long knife and took out his multi-function locator to take photos of the three Poison Miasma Giant Snakes.
One Eighth Stage Poison Miasma Giant Snake was worth 50 points. Three of them were 150 points.
Not much, but every little bit helps.
The recognition was quick. In half a second, the points on it displayed from 0 to 150.
After the recognition, Su Yuan skillfully took out another small knife to extract the Star Cores from the three snake corpses and put them into his backpack.
"Earning points and hunting Star Cores at the same time, feels great!" Su Yuan felt quite pleased.
Though Eighth Stage Star Beasts offered limited points, the extracted Star Cores could be directly converted to White Cards, with one Star Core equating to a White Card worth 10 Star Dust.
The density of Star Beasts in the Secret Realm was much higher than in the Great Barbarian Mountain Area. In this short period, he had already encountered three Eighth Stage Star Beasts.
At this rate, even with just two days, he might be able to fully level up to Great Success's Gray Flame Strike!
After tidying up, Su Yuan didn't rest much and hurried towards the nearest red zone on the map...