"Brother Ping, hit that damn tree!"
"My ass can't take much more!" Su Zhe clutched his backside as he ran at full speed. For some reason, the trees seemed especially fond of his ass, constantly whipping it with their thin, dry branches.
Jianping carried the case on his back, his sword constantly blocking attacks from the incoming tree trunks. He said nothing. Meng Xi stood beside him, able only to watch in silence, her face deathly pale.
She didn't know why so many tree demons had suddenly appeared in the secret realm. By cultivation realm, every one of them was at the Dripping Water Realm. How could students who had just enrolled possibly hold them off?
If it had been an ordinary class here instead, they would probably have been beaten to death by the tree demons already.
"What on earth happened? Why did Canglan change the secret realm without any notice at all?!" Meng Xi's eyes seemed to dim. She blamed herself for being no help at all; even the information she had given them earlier had been wrong. She had put her newly formed team in danger.
Suddenly, Jianping spoke in a cold voice. "Meng Xi! Run! I can't hold on much longer. These tree demons have too many ways to attack!"
Meng Xi froze and didn't move. Looking at Jianping's frail body shielding her, she was filled with frustration.
"Go, now!" Jianping's expression grew increasingly fierce, as if he were suppressing something, but he wasn't afraid of the tree demons.
His roar instantly brought Meng Xi back to her senses.
"Condense!"
Suddenly, an indifferent voice rang out, and the surroundings seemed to fall still.
Even Jianping froze for a moment and looked toward the voice. Li Chen was walking among the tree demons, green light gathering in his hands as he soothed them into calm.
For a moment, only Su Zhe's screams continued to ring out.
Li Chen raised his eyes, his face somewhat pale. As he arrived, he had seen with his own eyes the auras floating from the tree demons constantly flowing toward Jianping and the others. He realized that it wasn't the tree demons who wanted to kill them; Jianping and the others had unconsciously absorbed the energy from their bodies, which was why the tree demons had attacked them.
Just now, he had used his ability to gather the energy drifting through the woods into his hands and then transfer it to the tree demons, bringing about the moment of calm.
"Go!" Li Chen looked a little tired as he spoke to Jianping and Meng Xi.
Jianping understood at once. He grabbed the still-dazed Meng Xi and ran toward the exit.
Watching the two leave, Li Chen stayed where he was, instead watching with interest as a tree demon chased the screaming Su Zhe.
In his eyes, the aura above Su Zhe's head was growing more and more concentrated. What should have been a thin aura now seemed to grow steadily fuller as the tree demon continued to chase him.
This should be Get Stronger by Eating's ability. Constant movement means he's constantly expending energy, and his talent, Get Stronger by Eating, lets him grow stronger by eating. He doesn't realize he's constantly absorbing the energy inside that tree demon, so the cycle keeps repeating. Li Chen watched without intervening, because he knew Su Zhe was doing quite well in his current state. At least, watching from the side, he saw no problem with it.
He also wanted to see Su Zhe's limit. Perhaps he could break through from the Dripping Water Realm to the Looking River Realm today.
But Su Zhe was the one suffering for it. He watched helplessly as his ass was battered again and again. He had no idea how he had offended the tree demon that had chased him for several blocks. All he knew was that it kept going for his ass!!
"Chen-ge, help!!" Su Zhe had long since noticed Li Chen, who had rescued Jianping, standing among a group of motionless tree demons and watching him, but not coming to his rescue.
Li Chen smiled without speaking and silently watched Su Zhe take his beating.
He had also noticed that the tree demon seemed to have a particular fondness for Su Zhe. It only hit his ass and didn't try to kill him; it was just playing around.
And so, the man and the tree ran all over the place under Li Chen's watch.
Su Zhe: "Help! Chen-ge!!"
Li Chen: "..."
After an unknown amount of time, Su Zhe lay sprawled on the ground, unable to run another step, his eyes seemingly on the verge of tears. Li Chen walked over.
He gathered a soft green light in his hand and patted it into the tree demon that was still whipping Su Baozi's ass.
It instantly went still.
Su Zhe raised his eyes, looking as though he had nothing left to live for.
Li Chen smiled and said, "I was out of strength just now."
Su Zhe: "..."
Beside the altar, Jianping hugged his case and sat silently on a skeleton without a word. Luo Lin was comforting Meng Xi, seemingly because of what had just happened.
Just then, Li Chen walked over to them with Su Zhe, who was holding his ass.
"How is everyone? Are you all right?" Li Chen asked calmly.
Luo Lin nodded slightly. The flush had faded from her face. This place was very safe; the tree demons almost never came near it, only watching it silently from a distance.
She said slowly, "Instructor Yu is already on the way. It seems the same thing happened on the other islands. They were attacked by unknown monsters."
Li Chen frowned. It wasn't hard for him to guess that the academy had probably arranged this long ago.
"Roughly how much longer will it take?" Li Chen asked.
Luo Lin shook her head. She didn't know how much longer it would take either, because when she had used her student badge to send a distress signal just now, she had discovered they weren't the only ones who had sent one.
There were fifty people in the special class, making ten small teams, each stationed on a different island. Even Instructor Yu couldn't rescue everyone in an instant.
Just then, Su Zhe said seriously, "Chen-ge, I've noticed that my body seems to have gotten a lot stronger!"
"Looks like that beating I took paid off after all!"
Li Chen smiled. Of course there was an improvement. After taking such a brutal beating, Su Zhe would be furious if he hadn't improved.
With that, Li Chen looked at the altar. Because of what had happened to the others just now, he hadn't yet examined it carefully.
He had a persistent feeling that the altar had something to do with him. He didn't know why he felt that way, but ever since seeing how the tree demons had treated him, he had been suspicious.
He slowly followed his earlier route, the red lines hidden among countless skeletons guiding him.
Something unknown was hidden beneath the bones.
Li Chen stepped onto the bones, his expression somewhat indifferent, and murmured, "What exactly is drawing me in?"
Before he could go any farther, a figure suddenly fell from the sky and slammed into the ground like a meteor.
Rumble!
In an instant, dust billowed and shattered rocks flew everywhere. A figure slowly rose from the deep crater.
An oppressive aura swept over them like a torrent. Jianping and the others instantly rose and assumed defensive stances.
Su Zhe stared wide-eyed at the figure, then looked up at the height of the sky and muttered,
"Holy crap, that's a fucking human meteor!!"