Lending a Hand

General Zou frowned deeply at this moment. He was a city guard general who had always lived in Jiang Province in the Northern Territory.

They hadn't experienced many monster tides to begin with, let alone the sight of such a giant monster appearing; they had never fought against it before.

After this exchange, I never expected the Bloodmane Spirit Bear to be so troublesome.

Just moments ago, they thought the opponent was nothing special, that they couldn't withstand a few volleys of fire, but they were proven wrong the next moment.

Upon realizing that the arrows were no longer causing damage, he immediately ordered a halt to the firing.

"Drink!"

He charged forward again, armed with a gun and riding a horse.

Another sharp and domineering spear thrust out in front of him, while the Bloodmane Spirit Bear opposite him also struck out with its palm.

General Zou had expected that the beast would suffer another devastating blow, leaving a gaping hole in its body.

When the spear tip actually made contact with the bear's paw, General Zou immediately realized something was wrong; the spear in his hand couldn't even pierce the beast.

Originally, relying on the foundation laid by the Wild Bull Breathing Technique, the power far exceeding that of a fourth-tier cultivator was indeed capable of attacking this Bloodmane Spirit Bear.

However, the Bloodmane Spirit Bear has now entered the second stage, which is its full-fledged, complete form. In the end, the spear can only barely manage to fight the bear to a draw.

Attack: Deals 301 damage.

As for the damage dealt to the Bloodmane Spirit Bear, it also plummeted to 300 points.

On the contrary, General Zou himself was hit by the backlash of this attack, and his health points dropped by 509 points.

Seeing that the Bloodmane Spirit Bear's originally brown pupils had turned blood red, Lister on the city wall understood that this was the activation of its Blood Contract skill.

His aura visibly strengthened once again, and at the same time, his injuries rapidly healed after the demonic beasts he had trampled to death under the Bloodmane Spirit Bear's feet.

General Zou's face turned extremely grim.

Governor Yang, who was standing beside him, was no longer as relaxed as before. He stared at the Bloodmane Spirit Bear in front of him with a gloomy expression, but he was helpless and could only keep asking the clerk beside him for help.

Are there any nearby cities that can send reinforcements?

"Your Excellency, apart from Jiangling Prefecture, the remaining cities of Jiang Province have all been attacked by demonic beasts to varying degrees, among which..."

Directly interrupting the clerk in front of him, Governor Yang went straight to the point.

"What about the reinforcements from Jiangling Prefecture? When will they arrive?"

"My lord! Have you forgotten? The Marquis of Courage and Resolve of Jiangling Prefecture is still in our residence."

"Without the intervention of Marquis of Courage and Resolve, no one in Jiangling Prefecture's army can be mobilized."

"Damn it! This Marquis of Courage and Resolve is such bad luck! He can't be trusted!"

At this point, Governor Yang had no more scruples and abandoned all pretense of being a governor, and began to curse directly.

"Quickly notify everyone to prepare for an emergency evacuation!"

"Once General Zou is defeated, have the residents of the inner city evacuate directly through the underground passage in the east of the city."

As expected, these border cities, having all experienced the monster tides, mostly had contingency plans.

Unfortunately, these backup plans are only available to residents of the inner city, which means that residents of the outer city are likely to face dire consequences in the end.

"Count Merrick, what are you doing?"

While instructing his clerks, Governor Yang noticed Lister's unusual behavior.

"I will go and lend General Zou a hand."

Seeing this, Lister knew that Jiangxia Prefecture was powerless to stop this wave of monsters.

Since that's the case, it's time for him to make his move.

He came along partly for the experience gained from the Bloodmane Spirit Bear.

Having gained little experience in over three months, he naturally wouldn't miss this opportunity.

At the same time, intervening at this moment can be seen as saving Jiangxia Prefecture from dire straits.

He gained the favor of Governor Yang and also sent a gift to the Great Chu Imperial Dynasty to facilitate his future actions in the Great Chu.

"You...? Go help General Zou!?"

Governor Yang gave him a look that said, "Don't joke with me," completely disbelieving that Lister had that kind of ability.

In his eyes, although Lister's aura was not weak, his actual strength was definitely mediocre, and he did not think he was stronger than Assistant Commander Li.

After all, it came from a small country like the Kingdom of Lucian, which seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

General Zou's strength can be considered the best in Jiang Province. Lister goes down there, let alone help, he might as well just die in vain.

"Count Merrick, I appreciate your kindness on behalf of the people of Jiangxia Prefecture, but you should come back to the inner city with me as soon as possible."

"The monster tide usually lasts for about half a month. If you leave the city as soon as possible, you'll still have plenty of room to survive."

While Governor Yang was still trying to persuade them, the Bloodmane Spirit Bear suddenly launched another attack.

A slap landed on General Zou, and the next moment General Zou, along with Assistant Commander Li, was sent flying and crashed into the city wall.

Ultimately, there was a one-level difference in overall strength. If it weren't for the fact that General Zou was much stronger than the Bloodmane Spirit Bear, he wouldn't even have been qualified to fight this Bloodmane Spirit Bear. Now, at least he has exchanged a few blows.

Moreover, thanks to the city guards, they managed to force out the second stage of the Bloodmane Spirit Bear, saving Lister a lot of trouble.

At that moment, Lister slowly walked to the end of the city wall, and under the watchful eyes of Governor Yang and the recently recovered Assistant Commander Li, he jumped down.

The monsters immediately swarmed towards Lister's side, but before they could get close...

A massive, ring-shaped blade of light flashed past, instantly cleaving the demonic beasts surrounding Lister in two, their scalding blood splattering onto the sand.

This left Governor Yang and Assistant Commander Li looking at each other in bewilderment, both realizing that they had indeed underestimated this envoy from a small country.

Congratulations on slaying the Spotted Vessel Wolf! You have gained 9 experience points.

"Congratulations..."

A long list of experience reports was collected, but even though he had killed nearly a hundred monsters with a single strike, his actual experience points were only a few hundred, not even a thousand.

Such low-level monsters are nothing to Lister's current experience.

The Bloodmane Spirit Bear also sensed Lister at this moment, and its blood-red eyes slowly moved away from General Zou.

Compared to General Zou's near-death state, Lister in front of him was clearly a greater threat.

He raised his hand and struck at Lister with a palm strike. Lister, without saying a word, raised his sword and charged to slash back.

Watch out!

General Zou's reminder came from afar, and the Bloodmane Spirit Bear suddenly quickened its movements.

But the next moment, everyone was stunned.

Lister's seemingly ordinary slash was actually astonishingly sharp, cutting straight into the bear's flesh as if without any resistance.

Attack: Deals 1409 damage, plus 70 additional true damage.

With 40 points of base strength, plus 30 points of additional strength, and a 150% bonus to swordsmanship, even if Lister Merick's swordsmanship skill itself isn't high, the base damage is around 1500.

But after these passive effects are stacked, this strike can deal at least 7000 damage.

Even with the Bloodmane Spirit Bear's two skills stacked to more than double its defense, a single strike still took away nearly 1500 points of his health.

If he truly possesses the Yellow Court Saber Art Visualization Method, this strike would deal massive true damage, enough to take away most of the Bloodmane Spirit Bear's life in a single blow.

[Bloodmane Spirit Bear Health: 8654/20313]

The Bloodmane Spirit Bear cried out in pain again and withdrew its paw, but it was too late. Half of the paw dangled from the cut, clearly half-useless.

If it hadn't noticed something amiss and quickly retracted its paw, that half of the bear's paw would have already been cut off.

"Roar~!"

The Bloodmane Spirit Bear let out a series of agonizing cries. When it looked at Lister, who was holding a blade, again, a rather human-like expression of confusion flashed in its eyes.

What was clearly just an ordinary slash in its eyes, and the human in front of it should have been slapped away, actually almost lost its own blow.

After this encounter, both the human and the bear came to a standstill.

Lister was in no hurry to make a move, and the Bloodmane Spirit Bear in front of him also dared not make a move again.

But it couldn't resist and, after staring at Lister for a while, finally made its move again.

The Berserk Assault was unleashed once again, but unfortunately, it was too slow for Lister.

Before its first attack could hit, Lister had already slid behind it and decisively struck again, slashing at its back.

Attack: Deals 1448 damage, plus 72 true damage.

Even with the Pseudo Yellow Court Saber Art Visualization Method, the 1% true damage is already making Lister feel extremely satisfied.

While launching the attack, his desire for the Yellow Court Saber Art Visualization Method rose once again!