The Komodo Dragon spotted Ling Jiu and his company, but it lost interest after a glance. It saw them as three weak puppies. Not worth a d*mn.

  So it ignored them.

  But what the Komodo Dragon did not expect was that one of the puppies attacked it.

  And this puppy was none other than Ling Jiu.

  Ling Jiu performed Teleportation to come in front of the Komodo Dragon in an instant and ruthlessly stabbed it with a meter-long silver spear.

  ROAR!

  The Komodo Dragon roared, swaying its head, and easily avoided Ling Jiu’s attack.

  “That’s fast!”

  Ling Jiu was secretly shocked.

  The Komodo Dragon looked cumbersome, but with a simple sway of its head, it moved much quicker than the Class-Six Direbeasts he had encountered before.

  This was a Class-Seven Direbeast.

  In terms of strength, speed, agility, and defense, this Direbeast completely topped Class-6 Direbeasts. It was completely not in the same league as Class-Six Direbeast.

  ROAR!

  After dodging Ling Jiu’s attack easily, the Komodo Dragon opened its mouth, wanting to swallow Ling Jiu alive.

  Ling Jiu disappeared again. And when he reappeared, he was to the left of the Komodo Dragon. This upset the Komodo Dragon. ‘Is he targeting my eyes?’ The Direbeast thought.

  ROAR!

  The Komodo dragon was furious, raising its right claws to grab Ling Jiu.

  Just when Ling Jiu was about to teleport himself away, the Komodo Dragon’s giant claws halted, its immense body frozen in place.

  Immediately afterward, Ai Yuhe’s heavy breathing sounded in his ear. “Hurry up, I can’t hold it for long, Ling Jiu!”

  “Got it!”

  Ling Jiu aimed at the Komodo Dragon’s eye and pierced it with his spear.

  If the Komodo Dragon had any weakness, the eyes were the only weak spot where it had the weakest defense.

  But to Ling Jiu’s surprise, as soon as the spear pierced into the Komodo Dragon’s eyeball, it stuck and could not go in further.

  As a Class-Seven Direbeast, the Komodo Dragon’s musculature was tough, preventing the spear from penetrating further.

  \r \r \r

  “This is a Class-Seven Direbeast!”

  Ling Jiu was secretly surprised, but he was not slow either. He performed Tungsten Form, raised his fist, and punched on one end of the spear.

  In a horrific burst of power, the spear penetrated and disappeared into the eyeball.

  The intense pain caused the Komodo Dragon to break free from Ai Yuhe’s Dimensional Shackle with terrifying energy and groaned frantically.

  Ling Jiu quickly teleported himself a hundred meters away and then made the silver spear extend inside the Komodo Dragon’s head.

  The excruciating pain caused the Komodo Dragon to cry continuously; its groan sounds like rumbling of thunder in all directions.

  Its sharp claws banged the earth frantically. Its tail wagged around like a steel whip, cutting off trees in the surroundings while the earth trembled violently.

  “It is really terrifying when a Class-Seven Direbeast goes mad!”

  Ling Jiu took a breath as he returned beside Ai Yuhe and Ling-er. “Its death is certain. We just need to wait to reap the fruits of victory!”

  “It was a close call just now!”

  Ai Yuhe gasped a few times. “Your teleportation ability saved you. Otherwise, the Komodo Dragon would have smashed you to your death.”

  “Don’t put yourself at risk next time, brother!” Ling-er looked worried.

  “Don’t worry!”

  The Komodo Dragon was so tough that it could still struggle for a few moments before it dropped dead to the ground even though his head had been smashed into a paste.

  “We have got our first Class-Seven Direbeast!”

  Ling Jiu looked at the body of the dead Komodo Dragon and was pleased with his achievement.

  One Class-Seven Direbeast was equivalent to 100 Class-Six Direbeasts.

  That meant this Komodo Dragon was worth one million points.

  “One million points!”

  “So easily?”

  Ai Yuhe and Yang Ling-er murmured to themselves, feeling it surreal.

  “Take a short break, and then we will move one to another Class-Seven direbeast!”

  Human ambition was endless. Once it was triggered, there was no turning back. Since Ling Jiu had hunted his first Class-Seven Direbeast, he had set his eyes on Class-Seven Direbeasts as his target.

  Go hunting for Class-Six Direbeasts again? He was not interested anymore.

  An hour later, the trio found a second Class-Seven Direbeast.

  It was a Mastiff-Headed Scorpion-Tailed Lion, seven or eight stories tall at shoulder level, having a body length of forty to fifty meters, and a steel pin-like mane, looking extremely ferocious.

  It apparently was a strong lion, but it had the head of a dog and a scorpion tail with a hook glinting in greenish light. Besides, it had exposed fangs in its mouth.

  The Mastiff-Headed Scorpion-Tailed Lion was not only powerful but also very agile and extremely venomous.

  It was stronger than Komodo Dragons in terms of combat strength but with slightly less defense ability than Komodo Dragons.

  Ling Jiu teleported himself to the front of the Mastiff-Headed Scorpion-Tailed Lion and stabbed it with a metal spear. But the Direbeast opened his mouth and roared like thunder.

  ROAR!

  The rumbling roar produced waves of horrible shock waves visible to the naked eyes in the void.

  Ling Jiu felt his brain was going to explode, and his ears hummed. He could not help covering his ears with a painful expression on his face.

  ROAR!

  The Mastiff-Headed Scorpion-Tailed Lion roared again, raising its giant claws to strike at Ling Jiu. At that very moment, Ai Yuhe and Yang Ling-er intervened.

  “Dimensional Shackle!”

  “Flaming Spear!”

  The Mastiff-Headed Scorpion-Tailed Lion was instantly subdued in place, its claws just inches from Ling Jiu. It was a close call.

  Meanwhile, the purple, almost transparent Flaming Spear had nailed the Mastiff-Headed Scorpion-Tailed Lion on the head.

  The spear did not penetrate the Mastiff-Headed Scorpion-Tailed Lion’s defense, but in the blink of an eye, the flame had spread to the Direbeast’s head.

  This was not an ordinary flame but a special fire with a temperature as high as 7000°C. The Mastiff-Headed Scorpion-Tailed Lion was groaning in pain.

  “What the heck? It knows how to perform Lion’s Roar[1]!”

  Feeling dizzy, Ling Jiu shook his head and called out at Ai Yuhe. “Get your Dimensional Shackle ready!”

  “Aye!”

  Ai Yuhe regulated her breathing. The next moment, the Mastiff-Headed Scorpion-Tailed Lion was confined in place again.

  “Die!”

  Ling Jiu did the same thing, raising his sharp spear to thrust into the eye of the Mastiff-Headed Scorpion-Tailed Lion, and then hammered the spear.

  Amid the horrifying sound of bone cracking, the spear punctured and disappeared into the skull of the Direbeast.

  At last, the Mastiff-Headed Scorpion-Tailed Lion ended up like the Komodo Dragon earlier. It struggled for a long while before breathing its last.

  “Class-Seven Direbeasts are really nasty!”

  Ling Jiu looked at the Mastiff-Headed Scorpion-Tailed Lion that had fallen dead to the ground. “It is so different from Class-Six Direbeasts in terms of speed, strength, and agility.

  “Starting from Class-Five Direbeasts, strength of a Direbeast of one class higher is exponentially greater. There is a qualitative difference between the Class-Six and the Class-Seven Direbeasts.”

  Ai Yuhe shook her head. “Let’s just hunt Class-Six Direbeasts from now on. Class-Seven Direbeasts are too dangerous, not worth the while.”

  “The major reason is that we are not in the same league as our prey. The gap between Level Five arcanists and Class-Seven Direbeasts are too huge,” said Yang Ling-er.

  [1] a Shaolin kung fu technique https://youtu.be/q7wOiGnjJHQ

  Chapter 113: Besieged with Direbeasts, Ling Jiu is the Target

  As much as Ling Jiu could punch above his weight— killing Class-7 Direbeasts as a Level-5 arcanist—there was still an absolute difference between them. In other words, the hunting process was extremely dangerous.

  Even so, Ling Jiu still did not give up the idea of hunting Class-7 Direbeasts. Since he had Celeste as his bodyguard, there was nothing to be afraid of.

  Keep the ball rolling!

  As Ai Yuhe and Yang Ling-er could not convince Ling Jiu otherwise, they could only follow.

  For the rest of the day, the three of them worked together sincerely in hunting Class-7 Direbeasts. The journey was full of danger, with Ling Jiu encountering a few near misses; he walked away unscathed.

  By the time they wrapped up their hunting, they had six bodies of Class-7 Direbeasts in the Dimensional pocket. This was their harvest for the day.

  “Six Class-Seven Direbeasts are worth six million points, plus the three hundred and forty Class-Six Direbeasts we killed yesterday, we have gained nine point four million points!”

  Ling Jiu chortled. “On average, each person gets three million points. Even if we do nothing tomorrow, getting into top three spots will not be a problem.”

  He held up a cup of Sprite from the 2020 collection with a big smile on his face. “Toast to our harvest today!”

  “Are you sure it’s okay, Ling Jiu?”

  Yang Ling-er frowned, appearing worried. “The Class-Seven Direbeasts attacked you several times today, and you even burped up blood!”

  “Don’t worry. Your brother, I, is as hard to kill as a cockroach.”

  Ling Jiu patted on his chest with a smile. “I’m still alive and kicking. I can still hunt a few more Class-Seven Direbeasts!”

  “You might as well be.”

  “Come, come, you’ve got to try this, the paw meat of the Violent Demon Bear, a Class-Seven Direbeast. You won’t get to eat this every day!”

  After dinner, the three of them returned to their respective rooms. Ling Jiu lay on the bed, looking at the wounds in his belly, and forced a smile.

  One wound stretched from the left shoulder to the right hip, almost splitting him in half diagonally.

  If he had not taken the Turbellaria Healing Potion, which had enhanced his self-healing ability tremendously, he would have definitely died of serious injuries.

  After an afternoon, his wound had basically healed, leaving only a faint scar on his body. Even so, Ling Jiu was still not happy about it.

  The healing speed was still too slow to his liking, as it was too slow compared to Senju Hashirama[1]’s almost instantaneous self-healing ability. “I think I need to replicate a special self-healing arcana!”

  Ling Jiu murmured, then took out a small notebook and wrote down a self-healing ability.

  The night passed uneventfully.

  Early the next morning, the three of them had breakfast. As they were about to continue hunting, they received a call from the camp commandant.

  \r \r \r

  “The training camp is under attack by Direbeasts. All trainees are to return to base immediately!”

  “The training camp?”

  “The training camp is under attack by Direbeasts?” The three of them looked at each other. “What Direbeasts would dare to attack the training camp? They must have a death wish!”

  “It doesn’t matter what Direbeasts. Since the camp head orders us to return to their aid, we had better hurry.”

  The three of them immediately flew the maglev vehicle towards the training camp. Along the way, they met many other trainees who were rushing back to base in their maglev airships.

  By the time they approached the training camp, they saw a sea of Direbeasts swarming towards the camp and encircling the fortress from all directions.

  Roars, cries and screams formed rolling sound waves echoing over the fortress. It looked like a scene of a heavy dark cloud looming and crashing down on everyone’s heart.

  This was not the first time Ling Jiu had seen Direbeasts besieging a city. But the scale of the siege this time made the siege of Lantian Base City look like a child’s play.

  It was Bloodgorger Bats, Class-6 Direbeasts, that had started the siege last time. But this time, there were the Titan Monitor Lizards, Titan Python, Goldenback Bullwolf pack, and Goldenhorn Ants, each of which was Class-Six Direbeasts.

  There were even Class-Seven Direbeasts, the Mastiff-Headed Scorpion-Tailed Lion, in the mix.

  And directly above the beast tide, a Class-Eight Direbeast of over 100 meters long with a fiery red body and white stripes on the back was hovering around.

  That one was the Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon that Ling Jiu had encountered before. It was the Direbeast that guarded the Divine Spring of Life on Mount Kosciuszko.

  “Don’t tell me it is this bugger that starts the beast tide! What does it want?”

  Ling Jiu’s heart sank as he looked at the vicious energy of the Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon as it directed the tens of thousands of Direbeasts to besiege the training camp fortress.

  Could it be because of me that this thing set off this beast tide?

  “Is this Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon the one that occupies Mount Kosciuszko?” Yang Ling-er couldn’t help but look at Ling Jiu.

  Ling Jiu nodded.

  “It comes for the Ginseng of Life?”

  “Likely.”

  Ling Jiu flashed his palm at Yang Ling-er. “But it makes no sense to talk about this now. Let’s ward off the beast tide!”

  “OK!”

  Ling Jiu tucked the airship away, then teleported Ling-er, Ai Yuhe and himself for a number of times, and finally came up the wall of the fortress.

  At this moment, many trainees were standing on the wall, relentlessly fighting off those Direbeasts. Among them were Shi Gang and his partner Dylon, Zhou Ji and Christopher.

  “You all are back, Ling Jiu!”

  Shi Gang wiped the blood from his face as he called out breathlessly.

  “Yes, we are back!”

  Ling Jiu gave a smile.

  “Let’s fight!”

  Shi Gang grinned. “Let’s see who kills the most Direbeasts. What do you say? My black flame is made for this kind of battle scene where many Direbeasts gather. I can burn many of them to hell. Don’t say I didn’t tell you.”

  “Then, don’t hold back.”

  Ling Jiu guffawed as he cast out a silver metal, which turned into a spear later. He then lunged at the sea of Direbeasts and went on a rampage.

  WHOOSH-WHOOSH-WHOOSH!

  Where the spear went, the Direbeasts fell. He killed like harvesting wheat. Dozens of Direbeasts fell under the spear in the blink of an eye.

  “Holy cow!”

  Shi Gang could not help but swear at seeing what happened. The ruthless killing had apparently shocked him. Not wanting to be left behind, he focused his eyes as he made his move.

  The black flame turned into a fire dragon, which plunged into a dense area of Direbeasts and fire spread rapidly.

  BAM-BAM-BAM!

  The Direbeasts in that area went up in flames in the blink of an eye, spreading the fire as they ran around frantically. This caused the other Direbeasts to catch fire.

  The black flame was spreading to a larger area, and a large part of the Direbeast tide turned into a sea of fire instantly.

  “Let it burn!”

  Shi Gang burst into laughter with excitement. “Let the fire burn. Burn them to hell!”

  “Badass!”

  Ling Jiu marveled at the scene.

  Shi Gang did not bluff; his black flame was indeed born for this kind of battle scene. The more the Direbeasts, the more vicious the fire burned.

  “Let’s kill these Direbeasts together!”

  Shi Gang was proud of himself. Being able to show off his skill in front of Ling Jiu made him happy.

  “All right!”

  Ling Jiu nodded. Just when he was about to start the killing, he felt a chill behind his back. As he looked up with slowly, he saw three pairs of bitter eyes flying across hundreds of meters while staring at him all the time.

  “The Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon!”

  Ling Jiu managed to say these words as he realized the Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon had found him.

  ROAR!

  The Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon roared in rage above the beast tide. As it flicked its tail, a beam of light swept toward him.

  “D*mn it!”

  [1] Naruto reference https://naruto.fandom.com/wiki/Hashirama_Senju

  Chapter 114: Convergence of Sword, Nativity of a World of Trees

  “D*mn it!”

  Seeing the Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon coming after him, Ling Jiu immediately ran for his life.

  He could kill Class-6 Direbeasts within the snap of a finger and go up against Class-7 Direbeasts, but run off like a scalded cat in front of Class-8 Direbeasts.

  More so because this was a Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon, which was ranked 64th in the list of Direbeasts.

  “Run!”

  “Run immediately!”

  In fact, not only Ling Jiu, those trainees who saw Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon on the wall also went in a panic.

  “A Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon!”

  “It is a Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon!”

  “A Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon is coming. Run! It is going to kill us!”

  “Stop it, beast!”

  When everyone was in a panic, someone suddenly shouted as a stream of light rose into the sky, intercepting the Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon in a flash.

  His hair was gray, but he moved with his back straight and was full of energy, exuding toughness and courage. He was the camp commandant.

  “The Camp Commandant!”

  “It’s the Camp Commandant!”

  “The Camp Commandant is here!”

  The trainees were overjoyed at seeing the sudden appearance of a figure,

  They did not know how powerful the camp commandant was, but since he was the strongest person in the training camp, he should be able to stop the Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon.

  The camp commandant had lived up to everyone’s expectations. Faced with the Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon, his body suddenly swelled and grew into a sixty or seventy-meter-tall giant in the blink of an eye.

  He then raised his right fist and hit one head of the Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon.

  BANG!

  The blow sent the Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon flying out and crash-landing several hundred meters away.

  Feeling dizzy, the Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon shook its heads.

  ROAR!

  It let out an earth-shaking roar, the sound waves of which were visible to the naked eyes as they swept in all Directions.

  The weaker Class-4 and Class-5 Direbeasts were screaming in pain as they bled through their orifices.

  \r \r \r

  The more powerful Class-6 Direbeasts felt dizzy, and their ears rang.

  Ling Jiu and other trainees standing on the wall felt their heads were about to explode, and their brains went blank.

  The glass of some maglev vehicles parked in the center of the fortress burst into pieces.

  Such a powerful roar.

  The camp commandant frowned a little at seeing what happened. He stepped out and appeared abruptly behind the Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon. With the flick of his wrist, he grabbed its tail and swung it around his arm.

  The Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon was flung away like a cannonball. It was sent flying for a thousand meters in the air before crashing to the ground.

  “Awesome!”

  “The Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon couldn’t even fight back! Terrific!”

  “Isn’t that a Class-Eight direbeast, ranked sixty-fourth on the direbeast list?”

  What happened stunned the trainees. This was the strength of the camp commandant, who crushed the Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon completely crushed.

  “I will deal with the Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon and leave the remaining Direbeasts to you all!”

  The camp commandant flew over, grabbed the Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon that he had beaten its brains out, and flung it into the distance.

  “The camp commandant is so badass. He grabbed the Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon as if it were a loach. He is violent!”

  “I would have been at the top of the leaderboard if I am as strong as Camp Commandant!”

  “Stop daydreaming. Let’s fight!”

  BOOM!

  The trainees were in high spirit, lunging out to kill the Direbeasts as if they had smoked dope.

  They were excited at seeing how the camp commandant beat the Three-headed Frostfire Scaled Dragon. Now, they just want to go on a killing spree, slaughtering the Direbeasts.

  Zhou Ji had split into three and came in front of three Class-6 Direbeats, three pairs of his eyes bursting with dreamy silverish light.

  The next moment, these three Class-6 Direbeasts froze while Zhou Ji shouted something in his mouth. “Ultimate Alchemy!”

  The next second, the color of the heads of the three Class-6 Direbeasts changed; their bodies of flesh and blood had turned into silver lumps—they had been metalized.

  With the wave of his hand, Zhou Ji tucked the three corpses away and moved on to the next three targets.

  While Zhou Ji hunted and killed the Direbeast in silence, Christopher Adam was extremely violent.

  He sped up from a far distance, and when he approached a Direbeast, his speed had reached an exaggerated level.

  He was bursting through the air with an ear-shattering sonic boom and a ring of shock waves behind him.

  Christopher plunged into the beast tide, thrusting through the Direbeasts.

  Blood was shed everywhere he went. Be it Class-4, Class-5, or even Class-6 Direbeasts, he penetrated them all and killed one Direbeast after another.

  It was an extremely bloody scene. Everyone watched on with their jaws dropping to the ground.

  This was Christopher’s supersonic arcana, his way of killing the Direbeasts, a Direbeast-reaping weapon.

  On the other hand, Hirano Hatake, who was wielding a silver samurai sword, jumped up and down in the sea of Direbeasts freely.

  The sharp samurai sword slashed through the throats of the Direbeasts. Hirano Hatake looked like a martial arts master. Killing the Direbeasts seemed like an art for him. It was effortless.

  “That is how powerful the top guys are. They are all killing machines!”

  “By the way, how does Ling Jiu kill the Direbeasts?”

  The trainees looked at Ling Jiu in unison. Ling Jiu had occupied the top spot four times in a row, steadily surpassing the second place by over one million points every week. All the trainees knew how powerful Ling Jiu was.

  But no one had ever seen how Ling Jiu killed the Direbeasts. They were all curious and looked over at him.

  Ling Jiu flew, came above the beast tide, and then took out a piece of silver metal. The silver metal was divided into two and two into four.

  In just a few breaths, the silver metal had split into hundreds of silver spears, many of which were hovering around Ling Jiu, glinting under the sunlight.

  “Convergence of Sword!”

  Ling Jiu pointed a finger in the air.

  Hundreds of silver spears formed a barrage of arrows, shooting at the sea of Direbeasts.

  The spears pierced through the bodies of the Direbeasts down below amid the horrifying flesh-cutting and bone-cracking sounds.

  “Oh my gosh!”

  “Holy moly!”

  “Badass!”

  “A group attack skill?”

  “No wonder he dominates the leaderboard every week. Who can still compare to him with this kind of killing efficiency?”

  “It is nothing short of terrifying!”

  It shocked all the trainees, who finally understood why Ling Jiu had been dominating the top spot all this time. His killing was amazingly efficient.

  Everyone killed one Direbeast at a time, but Ling Jiu killed hundreds in one move. There was simply no comparison.

  Kill.

  Kill.

  Kill.

  As more trainees joined the battle, more Direbeasts fell. The thing was, there seemed to be an endless amount of Direbeasts coming in a steady stream.

  Half a day had passed, and the trainees were exhausted, retreating onto the wall and catching their breath.

  They had exhausted their Gene Arcana and physical energy too much and needed a rest badly.

  Zhou Ji and Christopher, like other trainees, had returned onto the wall to catch their breath.

  But to everyone’s astonishment, Ling Jiu did not take a rest. He was still fighting the steady stream of Direbeasts.

  Seemingly having not enough fun of killing with his Convergence of Sword, he tucked the silver metal away and took out a blood-colored wood instead.

  “Wood Release: Nativity of a World of Trees!”