025
Listening to the steady breathing coming from his arms,
Jiang Fu relaxed a little, too.
This place was still dangerous.
But with his soft, cuddly pillar of support in his arms, he felt more confident.
...Well, his pillar of support was asleep.
But her psychokinesis had recovered.
If any danger arose, she would probably wake up immediately.
Wait, psychokinesis?
Wasn't it spirit power?
Hmm.
It must be something more advanced than spirit power.
Once I get back,
I'll look it up on the Martial Artist Forum.
Jiang Fu took his phone with his spirit power and began checking the map.
Soon, he had determined his current location and the direction of Bin City.
"The city is southeast... I'm a hundred and thirty li from the Blank Zone!"
"I'm terrifyingly fast now! I'm practically Superman."
And that was after Jiang Fu had run several large loops instead of traveling in a straight line.
Otherwise, he would have gone even farther.
Jiang Fu reached out and adjusted the loose baseball cap on Shi Jiu's head so the wind wouldn't blow it away.
Then, using his phone's map, he chose a route that skirted Terror Valley.
He headed toward Bin City.
Speed multiplied by ten.
Explosive power multiplied by ten.
Jiang Fu moved so fast that his body seemed like an afterimage.
He swept across the wilderness without stopping.
At the same time, he grew increasingly cautious.
Whenever his spirit power detected a mutated beast or an unusual presence,
he immediately changed course to go around it.
Right now, Jiang Fu had his pillar of support in his arms.
But he wouldn't always be this lucky.
So he had to build up experience as quickly as possible.
...Experience in avoiding mutated beasts and being a sneaky bastard.
A competent sneaky bastard had to know how to conceal himself perfectly.
"I should only strike when I'm sure I can kill in one hit."
"Otherwise, I need to stay as far away as possible."
"I'm fast, but there must be things faster than me!"
"And then there was that wolf pack!"
The thought of those hundred-odd Silver Moon Wolves still left Jiang Fu shaken.
Luckily, Jiang Fu's neural reaction speed had been fast enough.
He had escaped before the wolf pack could close its encirclement.
Otherwise, being surrounded would have meant certain death.
Although Level 2 Silver Moon Wolves weren't as fast as Jiang Fu,
the Wilderness Area didn't just have level 2 wolf packs.
There were level 3, level 4...
And even more terrifying creatures.
Like the monster that had burrowed out of the ground in the valley Jiang Fu had named Terror Valley.
"A Silver Moon Wolf!"
Suddenly,
Jiang Fu's expression shifted.
A lone Level 2 Silver Moon Wolf entered the range of his spirit power.
This Silver Moon Wolf moved sluggishly.
Blood drenched its hind leg, and soft whimpers escaped its mouth.
Jiang Fu's eyes brightened slightly.
He immediately slowed down.
A lone Silver Moon Wolf?
Could I really be this lucky?
This was practically a windfall!
Just as the battle knife beside Jiang Fu began drifting forward,
an enormous creature, dark azure all over and with a wingspan of over ten meters,
suddenly swooped down from the sky.
Its sharp talons gleamed azure-gold as they sank viciously into the Silver Moon Wolf's lower back.
The Silver Moon Wolf let out a shrill, despairing scream.
[Species: Azure Flame Owl] [Level: 3] [Weak points: Throat, underside of abdomen] [Most valuable parts: Beak, talons, eyes]
"So fast!"
Jiang Fu's expression changed.
His spirit power hadn't caught where the Azure Flame Owl had come from at all.
The giant bird was incredibly fast.
It made no sound whatsoever as it flew.
By the time Jiang Fu's spirit power detected the Azure Flame Owl,
the giant bird's talons had already seized the Silver Moon Wolf's waist.
Thank goodness!
I wasn't its target.
Cold sweat beaded on Jiang Fu's forehead.
The Wilderness Area was far more dangerous than he had imagined!
The next instant,
just as the Azure Flame Owl spread its wings to fly away,
something unexpected happened!
An enormous grayish-yellow figure
sprang out of nowhere, equally silent.
It bit down on the Azure Flame Owl's neck.
It pinned the giant bird firmly to the ground.
The Azure Flame Owl let out a mournful cry.
Its enormous wings beat frantically, whipping up powerful gusts of wind.
It struggled to escape those terrifying, gaping jaws.
But the very next moment,
Crack!
The sound of snapping bones rang out.
The massive creature's teeth bit straight through the Azure Flame Owl's neck.
The tier 3 mutated beast, the Azure Flame Owl, instantly went still.
[Species: Blood-Eyed Golden Tiger] [Level: 3] [Weak points: Anus, throat, belly] [Most valuable parts: Its entire body is a treasure]
...Jiang Fu had already taken off.
Its entire body was a treasure?
I'd have to survive to collect it.
Jiang Fu finally understood.
That Silver Moon Wolf hadn't been a windfall at all.
It had clearly been a trap laid by the Blood-Eyed Golden Tiger!
A windfall, a pitfall!
The two words even looked rather alike.
And usually, they showed up together.
"Damn it! Mutated beasts can scheme and play dirty, too?"
Jiang Fu couldn't help swearing.
A powerful mutated beast wasn't the problem—a scheming one was!
That Blood-Eyed Golden Tiger was the sneaky bastard of the mutated beast world!
At the moment, the Blood-Eyed Golden Tiger's attention was entirely focused on the Azure Flame Owl.
It paid no heed to an insignificant ant like Jiang Fu.
Jiang Fu hurriedly accelerated, putting distance between himself and the terrifying Blood-Eyed Golden Tiger.
Suddenly,
a sleepy murmur sounded. "Worth money..."
Her voice was heavily nasal; she was clearly still dreaming.
Jiang Fu: "..."
He instinctively glanced down.
The girl in his arms wore a peaceful expression, her eyes still closed.
Sure enough.
Even asleep, his soft, cuddly pillar of support could sense what was happening around her.
Jiang Fu didn't respond.
He continued racing toward Bin City.
As the sun sank westward,
the number of mutated beasts in the Wilderness Area rose sharply.
Jiang Fu dodged, stopped, and ran, ran, ran the whole way.
There were scares, but no mishaps.
Finally, forty minutes later,
he reached the edge of the Blank Zone.
Jiang Fu put away his phone.
He also tucked the battle knife that had been following him into his backpack.
His feet never stopped moving throughout.
He quickly crossed the Blank Zone, which stretched thirty li in a straight line.
He returned to the entrance of District Nine's Safety Passage.
By then,
the sun hung far off in the western sky.
The land was painted gold and red.
Many martial artists converged from every direction, returning to the city through the Safety Passage.
"Holy shit... is that... wait, are those two students?"
The blue-and-white school uniforms were too conspicuous.
The surrounding martial artists spotted a boy in a Ninth High School Uniform coming from the Blank Zone behind them, carrying a girl in the same uniform.
Their attention immediately shifted to the pair.
"Judging by their age, they really are students!"
"Are students this wild nowadays? They actually dare go into the Wilderness Area in their school uniforms!"
"They're probably a young couple who just became martial artists and went to check out the Blank Zone."
"The boy's pretty thoughtful, carrying the girl all the way..."
"It's good to be young!"
Hearing the conversations around him,
Jiang Fu's old face flushed slightly, and he instinctively looked down at the support in his arms.
Shi Jiu had already woken up.
He was half-lounging with his eyes narrowed, looking utterly relaxed as he leaned against Jiang Fu's chest.
"Backer... Ah, no, Classmate Shi, how are you recovering?"
Shi Jiu lazily yawned and said quietly, "I gave you an Abyss Fruit... and now you want to leave me behind?"
Jiang Fu hurriedly said, "No, no!"
Actually, this was pretty nice, too.
Jiang Fu stopped being coy.
Holding Shi Jiu, he quickly entered the Safety Passage.
On the other side of the passage.
The guards on duty couldn't help freezing when they saw Jiang Fu.
"Those two high school students actually both came back!"
"No wonder Jiang Fu left in such a hurry. He went after his girlfriend, apparently..."
"What good luck! They both came back standing... Ah, I suppose one came back lying down and one standing!"
"Wait, why does that backpack look so familiar..."
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