"Avoid him? Why?"
Hearing this, Su Yang frowned slightly. He suddenly remembered that Zhang Tai seemed to have said something similar back in the car.
He just hadn't paid attention at the time, but now that Lou Xueer brought it up again, he figured he must have missed some piece of news.
Lou Xueer looked equally surprised. She stared at Su Yang for a few seconds, and seeing that he wasn't faking it, she said:
"It's probably all over the school by now."
"You actually don't know?"
"Liu Chaofeng has publicly announced a challenge against you."
Su Yang paused, realizing that Liu Chaofeng certainly held a grudge.
Yet right now, he had zero interest in Liu Chaofeng.
Too weak.
Completely lacking in challenge.
"Well, it looks like I, the challenged party, am the last to find out."
Su Yang chuckled self-deprecatingly, then turned around to harvest the Howling Sky Wolf.
With a single swipe of his saber, he sliced open the wolf's belly, extracting a crystal the size of a fingernail.
Then he set to work cutting away the useful materials from the beast's body.
Seeing this, Lin Ziyin pursed her lips and turned away.
"Brother, take your time harvesting your prey. Until we meet again."
Seeing Lin Ziyin leave, Mo Rufeng called out a quick farewell and immediately followed after her.
Su Yang didn't stop them. Deep down, he pondered their actions. While the male student's words had been harsh, they weren't entirely unreasonable. He had been so caught up in the thrill of the hunt that he completely neglected his surroundings; if he were ambushed by a monster beast, he would be in real danger.
It seemed he still had a lot to learn.
He cut off the wolf claws and fangs, packed them into his backpack, and pressed on.
Along the way, he occasionally encountered some low-tier monster beasts.
Through trial and error, Su Yang roughly figured out his own combat power.
Relying purely on his movement techniques and the Chasing Wind Saber Technique, he could fight monster beasts two or three tiers higher than himself.
There was no helping it—the Chasing Wind Saber Technique wasn't even ranked, so the combat power it could unleash was naturally quite low.
However, the moment he used the Mountain-Splitting Fist or Fire Dance Silver Snake, those monster beasts couldn't even withstand a single blow and were instantly annihilated.
Yet his own energy consumption was equally massive, which ultimately wasn't very cost-effective.
"It looks like once I accumulate a few more feedback points, I'll have to exchange them for a breathing technique."
Su Yang thought to himself.
Only with a breathing technique could he quickly prolong his battle endurance.
Beyond that, he also needed to find a suitable First-Tier martial skill.
As for upgrading the Chasing Wind Saber Technique, Su Yang thought about it for a long time and ultimately decided against it.
The tier of the Chasing Wind Saber Technique was simply too low; wasting so many feedback points to upgrade it wasn't worth it at all.
"Master, can you give that carcass to Xiaohuo as a treat?"
Just as Su Yang was calculating, the Fire Qilin suddenly communicated with him via telepathy.
Su Yang's eyes lit up. Right, almost forgot about that!
With a thought, he saw a ball of flame flash from the top of his head.
Almost instantly, the corpse of the Howling Sky Wolf was reduced to ashes.
Su Yang was dumbfounded; this speed was simply heaven-defying.
He hadn't even managed to see the flame's attack form clearly.
The ball of flame danced a few times in front of Su Yang's chest and then vanished.
With this discovery, he was no longer in a hurry to hunt high-tier monster beasts. Instead, he began searching for food for the Fire Qilin...
Two hours later, dusk was falling.
Su Yang stood facing a Howling Sky Wolf,
controlling the Fire Dance Silver Snake to find the optimal attack angle.
"Go."
This time, facing a First-Tier Eighth-Layer Howling Sky Wolf, Su Yang unleashed sixty percent of the Fire Dance Silver Snake's power.
Boom...
The flames consumed the target, and the Howling Sky Wolf only had time to emit a single roar before falling silent.
"Looks like the force was still a bit too strong; fifty percent should be about right."
Su Yang silently summarized the experience.
Excessive power not only wasted spiritual energy but completely destroyed the monster beast's carcass, leaving the Fire Qilin with nothing to consume.
During a break, Su Yang once again pulled up his interface.
First, he looked at his attribute panel.
His feedback points had reached 1,000.
Then he checked the Fire Qilin's panel. Everything else was unchanged, but its fan count had risen to 112, and its advancement progress had become 500/1,000.
That seemed much faster than the Jade Qilin.
There was no helping that, though; the Jade Qilin's advancement requirements were inherently much higher than the Fire Qilin's.
With a thought from Su Yang, over a hundred Howling Sky Wolves appeared before him.
Quite an imposing sight.
"When I have enough strength to lead tens of thousands of monster beast Grandmasters, I suppose my emotional value points will overflow to the max, right?"
The thought alone brought a smile to Su Yang's face.
After resting, as darkness slowly fell, Su Yang didn't return to the base; instead, he found a hidden cave and crawled inside.
Though the supply camp outside had inns, Su Yang had asked around, and the cheapest ones cost thirty thousand for a single night.
He couldn't afford it—he genuinely couldn't afford it.
The next morning, after waking up and eating some carried dry rations, Su Yang prepared to set out again.
Today, he intended to test the Fire Qilin's combat capabilities.
Unfortunately, it seemed many martial artists had left the city for trial hunting today; in less than an hour, he had already encountered two groups.
Then he suddenly remembered today was Saturday, and surely plenty of students were taking advantage of the holiday to head out of the city for trial training.
Even so, without the protection of experienced martial artists, most would only operate in the outer perimeter.
Not dwelling on it, he picked a random direction and pressed on.
Upon encountering the first Howling Sky Wolf, he directly summoned the Fire Qilin.
Su Yang saw a blur before his eyes as the Fire Qilin transformed into a ball of flame and charged forward.
That First-Tier Ninth-Layer Howling Sky Wolf didn't even have time to react before becoming the Fire Qilin's meal.
Su Yang drew in a sharp breath. This little guy was simply too freakish.
After these two days of fighting, he had a fairly good grasp of his own abilities.
When using the Mountain-Splitting Fist or Fire Dance Silver Snake, he could instantly kill First-Tier Eighth-Layer monster beasts.
First-Tier Ninth-Layer ones took a bit more effort, but still didn't pose much of a challenge.
As for Second-Tier beasts, he wouldn't dare boast just yet.
Of course, if it came down to a pure fist fight, he wouldn't shy away from anyone.
He had thought he was already freakish enough.
Never had he imagined the Fire Qilin was even more abnormal than him.
That was a First-Tier Ninth-Layer Howling Sky Wolf just now, yet it had been instantly slaughtered like that.
Su Yang shook his head. Freakish it was; no matter how abnormal, it was still his own spirit beast.
When he thought about it, he was probably the bigger freak after all.
However, he didn't plan on using the Fire Qilin anymore for now; otherwise, he wouldn't have anything to do himself, and how was he supposed to improve?
By afternoon, a sudden change occurred.
Packs of Howling Sky Wolves and Pangolins continuously emerged.
In just one hour, Su Yang felt he had killed more than he had all morning.
Even stranger was that these monster beasts had no desire to prolong the fight; the moment they found an opening, they bolted down the mountain.
How could Su Yang let meat delivered right to his mouth slip away? Eventually, when he simply couldn't keep up, he had no choice but to summon the Fire Qilin again.
He killed until exhaustion finally set in, forcing him to find a slightly secluded spot to rest.
Looking at the frantic stream of monster beasts fleeing down the mountain, a look of puzzlement crossed his face.
It was as if some terrifying monster existed further up the mountain.
Could that colossal beast really be at Zone 31?
After resting for a while,
he checked his panel.
His own feedback points had reached 2,800, while the Fire Qilin's advancement progress had hit 695/1,000, and the Jade Qilin's advancement progress stood at 1,800/5,000.
At this rate, both the Fire Qilin and Jade Qilin would need another week to advance.
Yet there were still more than twenty days left until the martial arts examinations, so he wasn't too anxious.
After resting and replenishing his energy, Su Yang pressed deeper into the mountains.
If that colossal beast had truly appeared, he wanted to see if there was any hope of slaying it with his own hands.
Even if that failed, letting the Fire Qilin have a hearty feast would still be a win.
He had barely walked a few miles when faint human shouts echoed from ahead.
Su Yang concealed his presence and observed quietly.
Before long, a female voice drew closer, heading straight for the cave where he was hiding.
Hearing the voice clearly,
Su Yang frowned slightly.
Han Jing?