Qin Hao followed the sounds of fighting. Since he was concealed in the shadows, neither Huang Tianlong nor Liu Qianqian saw him at all.
Huang Tianlong had been hunting demonic beasts the whole time, so he naturally had a great many Monster Cores.
After refining them, Huang Tianlong had reached Apprentice Ninth Rank.
Liu Qianqian, on the other hand, had been tied up by Qin Hao for three hours at the start. Then she had been injured by a Stone-Spike Bear and come down with a fever, losing another day. As a result, she had developed more slowly.
Liu Qianqian was only at Apprentice Fifth Rank, and even that was because he was strong to begin with, allowing him to advance so quickly.
At that moment, Huang Tianlong had transformed into a King Kong and was keeping Liu Qianqian on the defensive.
Liu Qianqian had only been able to fight Huang Tianlong for so long because she was using Ice Spike Assault, a ranged attack skill.
Even so, she was still at a disadvantage.
Huang Tianlong's King Kong form seemed to have a powerful physique, as well as tremendous speed and explosive power. Liu Qianqian's ice spikes could not hurt him at all.
As time wore on, Liu Qianqian's stamina, spiritual power, and other abilities continued to decline, causing him to come close to letting Huang Tianlong get within striking distance several times.
Huang Tianlong grew stronger as the fight went on, while Liu Qianqian had run out of strength. He had not eaten anything since leaving Qin Hao.
She had no time to find food and had been hunting demonic beasts nonstop to increase her strength.
Qin Hao watched from the shadows for a long time and saw that Liu Qianqian was close to her limit. She was being utterly brutalized.
Huang Tianlong stopped attacking and said, "Beauty, how about this? Leave all your Monster Cores behind, and I'll let you go. What do you say?"
Liu Qianqian could finally take a break, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hmph! You think you've got me in the bag? If I want to run, you can't stop me."
After catching her breath for a moment, Liu Qianqian hurriedly unleashed Ice Spike Assault, attacking Huang Tianlong frantically before fleeing in one direction.
Unfortunately, those Ice Spike Assaults were not worth a damn.
Huang Tianlong threw a single punch, and they all broke into chunks of ice. Then he leaped fiercely in the direction Liu Qianqian had fled.
In just one second, Huang Tianlong landed in front of Liu Qianqian.
Startled, Liu Qianqian hurriedly ran the other way, but Huang Tianlong leaped again and blocked her path once more.
This time, Huang Tianlong quickly unleashed his skill, Mighty Tremor, and slammed a fist into the ground.
The impact instantly knocked Liu Qianqian to the ground. By then, Huang Tianlong was already beside her, a dagger pressed against her fair neck.
"Well? Since you're a beauty, all I want are your Monster Cores."
"You... you weren't using your full strength at all during the fight just now!"
Liu Qianqian said in great surprise.
"To deal with someone at Apprentice Fifth Rank, of course there was no need to go all out."
Qin Hao watched everything from the shadows, speechless. He thought the girl had it coming; he had told her to stick with him, but he just had to refuse.
With no other choice, Liu Qianqian handed Huang Tianlong all the Monster Cores from the twenty advanced first-rank demonic beasts she had spent the whole night hunting.
"Mm, not bad! You can go!"
Huang Tianlong took the Monster Cores, then turned and left.
Liu Qianqian stamped her feet in anger. Of those twenty Monster Cores, he had planned to keep ten for himself and use the other ten to repay Qin Hao's favor.
Qin Hao had given her ten intermediate demonic beast Monster Cores, and she had said she would pay him back twenty.
Last night, she had thought it would be nice to simply give Qin Hao ten advanced Monster Cores instead.
Unfortunately, she had run into an expert on her way back to find Qin Hao.
"Sigh, I was hoping to mooch a meal, but now... sigh!"
"Grrr~"
No sooner had Liu Qianqian finished speaking than her stomach growled loudly.
Hiding in the shadows, Qin Hao pressed his right hand to his forehead and shook his head helplessly. Then he left Liu Qianqian alone and went straight after Huang Tianlong.
Hmph, damn monkey, how dare you rob one of my people? I'll rob you every time I see you.
With that thought, Qin Hao soon caught up to Huang Tianlong.
Huang Tianlong had found a relatively secluded spot and sat down cross-legged, preparing to refine the Monster Cores he had just stolen.
Just as he took out the Monster Cores, a surge of energy suddenly rippled through the shadow behind him, and then...
Huang Tianlong took a heavy blow to the back of the head and passed out.
"Hmph, damn monkey, how dare you rob one of my people!"
Qin Hao gave Huang Tianlong another kick, then searched him and took every Monster Core he had.
There were fifty Monster Cores in all.
Intermediate tenth-rank Monster Cores (x16), advanced first-rank (x25), advanced fifth-rank (x4), advanced sixth-rank Monster Cores (x4), advanced seventh-rank (x1).
After taking the Monster Cores, Qin Hao left.
He did not go looking for Liu Qianqian because she had left, and he did not know where she was.
Besides, Liu Qianqian did not want to stick with him, so there was no need to look for her.
Back in the cabin, Qin Hao immediately began refining the Monster Cores.
He had originally planned to hunt demonic beasts, but he had robbed fifty Monster Cores.
And just like that, the day came to an end. After Qin Hao finished refining them, he went out to look for ingredients. It was time for him to cook again.
Honestly, Qin Hao felt very happy during these days of the college entrance examination.
Every day, he got to eat meat, along with all kinds of wild vegetables from the mountains and forests.
Meanwhile, Huang Tianlong, whom Qin Hao had knocked unconscious, finally woke up.
One look at the sky told him that a day had passed.
He had been unconscious for half a day, and on top of that, his head hurt terribly.
"Fuck! Which bastard dared to sneak attack me?"
As he spoke, Huang Tianlong angrily punched down a large tree beside him.
The livestream happened to capture the scene.
"I thought Huang Tianlong had slept for half the day, but it turns out someone knocked him out."
"Yeah. So far, the strongest is Huang Tianlong at Apprentice Ninth Rank, followed by Ye Feng at Apprentice Seventh Rank. Then it should be the mysterious Qin Hao, and only after him comes Liu Qianqian."
"So who was it? Even Huang Tianlong was no match for them?"
"Yeah, could there be another hidden dark horse, just like Qin Hao?"
While the commentators and the netizens watching the livestream discussed the dark horse who had knocked Huang Tianlong out, Qin Hao had finished gathering ingredients and returned to the cabin.
Then, as usual, he lit a fire and cooked.
Just then, the livestream also switched to Qin Hao.
"It looks like the mysterious Qin Hao is cooking again!"
"Yeah, every time I see him make something delicious, I can't wait to get into the examination grounds and find him so I can taste his food!"
The bullet comments read: "Although Qin Hao is a beast, the food he makes really does look appetizing."
"You bet. After our goddess Qianqian ate his food, she wolfed it down without caring about her image at all."
"Sigh, what a shame. That beast Qin Hao actually won't stick with our Qianqian."
"Exactly. That beast Qin Hao made our Qianqian go hungry."
The two commentators: "..."
This was actually quite normal. After all, Qin Hao's first impression on the netizens had come from tying Liu Qianqian up for three hours, leaving them with the impression that he was sleazy, lustful, and lewd.
As a result, the netizens did not think very highly of him.
At that moment, the feed switched to Liu Qianqian.
Liu Qianqian was having a bit of luck and had finally found a wild fruit.
So she was wolfing it down.