Li Ziyu stood at the foot of the city wall, straining to lift his neck and gaze up at the towering wall built entirely of granite.
The city wall was several hundred meters tall.
Its length stretched beyond sight.
It resembled a giant dragon coiled there, enclosing the entire Xujiang City within.
Atop the city wall,
countless soldiers patrolled while carrying weapons, their resolute faces radiating surging blood-and-qi power.
Li Ziyu also saw various howitzers, tanks, and other weapons arranged along the edge of the city wall.
Although Thermal Weapons had almost no effect on ferocious beasts,
they had not become completely useless.
When facing an assault by a Beast Tide, these Thermal Weapons were still the main force responsible for clearing out the ferocious beasts.
This city wall
somewhat resembled the wall from an anime he had watched in his previous life, one about fighting giants.
"Tsk. With defenses like these, I guess no ferocious beast could break in, right?"
Li Ziyu surveyed the enormous structure before him and sighed.
However, when he saw the city wall nearby
and the enormous claw mark hundreds of meters long and several meters deep,
Li Ziyu fell silent.
"I take back what I just said."
This world was indeed more dangerous than he had imagined.
"Hey! What are you doing?"
Just as Li Ziyu was gazing up at the city wall and musing,
a patrol squad carrying rifles approached him from the distance.
All of them wore standard-issue combat uniforms and had resolute faces.
The squad leader in particular had eyes so bright they were almost frightening, staring at the steel saber in Li Ziyu's hand.
"I'm a student from No. 3 High School. The Martial Arts Exam is coming up, and I want to leave the city to familiarize myself with the wilderness."
Li Ziyu answered honestly.
Judging from the squad leader's gaze and the aura radiating from him, the man was definitely a formal martial artist.
Although Li Ziyu had not yet decided whether to take the Martial Arts Exam, using it as an excuse to leave the city did not count as a lie.
The squad leader looked Li Ziyu up and down.
After seeing his youthful face, the squad leader's tense expression visibly relaxed.
His gaze also moved away from the hand holding the steel saber.
"The wilderness is dangerous. If you don't have a formal martial artist leading you, I don't recommend leaving the city alone."
"Besides, without special authorization, if you aren't a formal martial artist, you can only leave the city once a month."
The squad leader reminded him.
Li Ziyu was stunned. Non-formal martial artists could only leave the city once a month?
This was truly the first time he had heard of that rule.
After all, the memories he had inherited contained no record of ever leaving the city.
But after thinking about it, he understood.
It was meant to protect ordinary people's safety.
At the same time, it prevented people whose strength was neither here nor there, who had yet to become martial artists but whose confidence had swelled, from recklessly leaving the city and throwing their lives away.
After all, the wilderness was full of ferocious beasts.
If someone was not a martial artist, going out there was basically the same as delivering food.
Other than martial artists who made money by hunting ferocious beasts and selling their materials, ordinary people would not think of leaving the city.
If they wanted to visit another city, there were specialized forms of transportation.
After speaking with the squad leader for a few more sentences,
the squad leader tried to persuade him several times.
Seeing that Li Ziyu was determined to leave the city, he said no more.
He waved his hand, signaling the soldiers on the city wall to open the gates.
Clack, clack, clack.
As the soldiers on the city wall moved, three gates made of solid steel opened one after another.
Li Ziyu left the city smoothly.
"Captain, you really let that kid leave the city? You're not going to persuade him again?"
"He's so young, and he isn't even a formal martial artist. Wouldn't it be extremely dangerous if he encountered a ferocious beast?"
Of the three-man squad,
one of them looked at the sun sinking halfway into the distance, then glanced at Li Ziyu's back, which was about to disappear from sight, and could not help speaking.
"That boy has more of a mind of his own than you imagine. More persuasion would be useless."
"There are some things people won't understand no matter how much others advise them. They have to hit a wall themselves first."
The squad leader shook his head and sighed.
Watching Li Ziyu's back as he carried a steel saber in his left hand and a sack over his right shoulder, a trace of pity appeared in his eyes.
"Judging by his clothes, his family is probably poor. He must want to hunt ferocious beasts outside the city and make money selling their materials."
"Too bad he doesn't understand his own strength and has underestimated the danger of the wilderness."
"The best outcome would be for him to return injured and empty-handed."
"Once my blood and qi improve, I'll have to go to the Martial Arts Association and get certified as a martial artist."
"Otherwise, it'll be difficult to leave the city freely."
After choosing a direction, Li Ziyu advanced cautiously.
The certification standard for a first-level formal martial artist was blood and qi reaching 1.5 and Combat Power reaching 170.
With the system at his side, these were not difficult for him.
Li Ziyu swore he definitely was not doing it for the five-thousand-yuan monthly subsidy.
Stepping through weeds that came past his calves, Li Ziyu hunched over and cautiously reached the edge of a small raised mound.
He looked back and could still see the outline of the city wall behind him.
Though he had sounded so confident and resolute before the squad leader,
in reality, he was a little nervous too.
After all, this was his first time leaving the city.
Formal ferocious beasts basically would not appear around the outer perimeter of the city wall.
Besides, he was close to the wall, so he could call for help in time if anything happened.
Thus, Li Ziyu made sure he could keep the city wall within his line of sight at all times.
It was dusk. Looking up, he could still see half the sun in the distance.
Fiery-red evening clouds hung across the sky, casting their glow over the mound before Li Ziyu and turning the half-meter-high mound golden.
They also warmed Li Ziyu from head to toe.
Just then, the rustling sound of something gnawing on plants came from beneath the mound.
"The sound of a toothed creature eating plants. It's definitely a Red-Eyed Rabbit!"
Li Ziyu's eyes lit up.
He hurriedly gripped the steel saber with both hands and readied his entire body.
His gaze fixed tightly on the basketball-sized hole beneath the mound.
At that moment,
two crimson glints flashed through the pitch-black hole.
Then a Red-Eyed Rabbit hopped out, poking its head forward one step at a time.
It was a creature that looked much like the rabbits from his previous life.
However, it was countless times larger than an ordinary rabbit.
It was about the size of a golden retriever.
Its two eyes also glimmered with a scarlet light.
Red-Eyed Rabbit
Watching the Red-Eyed Rabbit grind its teeth, its scarlet eyes filled with savagery, Li Ziyu could not help feeling a little strange.
He had no idea what kind of creatures ferocious beasts actually were.
Rabbits, which had been incomparably docile in his previous life, were not only unafraid of people here but also incredibly violent.
They were nothing like rabbits at all.
Though he thought this, Li Ziyu's hands did not stop moving.
Every muscle in his body tensed as he leaped down from the mound.
Before the rabbit could react, the steel saber clenched in both hands slammed into its head with a bang.
The sound of bones cracking rang out.
Blood sprayed in all directions. The Red-Eyed Rabbit's head was smashed inward in an instant, red and white matter splattering across the ground.
Before it could even let out a cry, it collapsed on the spot.
A headshot!
Ding! Killed Red-Eyed Rabbit. Blood and qi +0.001.
"Holy crap, this feels great!"
"As expected, the stronger the creature, the more blood and qi you gain after killing it! Hahaha!"
Listening to the system notification, Li Ziyu felt wonderful, his whole body and mind refreshed.
He felt a warm current surge from deep within his body toward his limbs and bones.
Even his strength seemed to have increased by several points.
This was the sign of improved blood and qi!
Killing ferocious beasts was much faster than killing mosquitoes or rats.
Not only did it have more style, but the corpses left behind by ferocious beasts could also be sold for money!
It killed two birds with one stone!
Li Ziyu could not help clenching his fists. He quickly crouched down and, in just a few moves, stuffed the Red-Eyed Rabbit's corpse into the sack.
Ferocious beast meat was an extremely nourishing food. Even a Red-Eyed Rabbit that had not reached any grade could sell for several thousand yuan.
Squeak, squeak.
The cry of another Red-Eyed Rabbit rang out.
Red-Eyed Rabbits were social animals. More than one lived on this mound.
"Red-Eyed Rabbits aren't just violent-tempered—they're also extremely vengeful. This one must have come to avenge its companion!"
"A family should stay together. I'll send you all down to reunite."
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
Li Ziyu repeated the same method, crouching by the mouth of the hole and waiting patiently for the rabbits to emerge.
Whenever a Red-Eyed Rabbit came out, he blew its head off.
Ding! Killed Red-Eyed Rabbit. Blood and qi +XX.
After an hour, dozens of Red-Eyed Rabbits were already lying on the ground.
Even Li Ziyu could not help sighing.
The reproductive ability of ferocious beasts was truly formidable.
No wonder the Great Xia military often sent martial artists to the Wilderness Area to clear out ferocious beasts, yet the beasts in the wild still appeared in an endless stream.
By the end, Li Ziyu's sack was almost unable to hold any more.
When he killed the final Red-Eyed Rabbit,
Name: Li Ziyu. Realm: Ungraded (+). Combat Skill: Beginner Saber Technique (+). System: Martial God System. Function: Can absorb all things and increase blood and qi. The remaining functions await the host's discovery.
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