Kill the Red-Eyed Rabbit, Level Up!

Li Ziyu stood at the foot of the city wall, craning his neck as he gazed up at the towering rampart built entirely from granite.

The wall rose hundreds of meters high.

Its length stretched beyond the horizon.

It was like a colossal dragon coiled there, encircling all of Xujiang City within its embrace.

On top of the wall.

Countless soldiers patrolled, weapons in hand, their stern faces radiating surging blood-and-qi power.

Li Ziyu also spotted various howitzers and tanks positioned along the wall's edge.

Although thermal weapons had minimal effect on ferocious beasts.

They weren't entirely useless.

When facing a Beast Tide assault, the main force for clearing out the beasts was still these thermal weapons.

This wall.

Somewhat reminded him of the walls in an anime he'd seen in his past life, one about fighting giants.

"Tch, with defenses like this, probably no beast could break through, right?"

Li Ziyu studied the massive structure before him and sighed with emotion.

But when he noticed on the wall's side.

A massive claw mark, hundreds of meters long and several meters deep.

Li Ziyu shut his mouth.

"I take back what I just said."

This world was indeed more dangerous than he'd imagined.

"Hey, what are you doing here!"

Just as Li Ziyu was marveling at the wall.

A patrol squad carrying rifles walked over toward him from a distance.

They all wore standard combat uniforms, their faces resolute.

Among them, the soldier who looked like the squad leader had eyes so sharp they were startling, his gaze fixed on the steel blade in Li Ziyu's hand.

"I'm a student from No.3 High. The Martial Arts Exam is coming up, and I want to go outside the city to get familiar with the wilderness."

Li Ziyu answered honestly.

From the squad leader's eyes and the aura radiating from him, this man was definitely a formal martial artist.

Although he wasn't sure he actually planned to take the Martial Arts Exam, using that as an excuse to leave the city wasn't exactly a lie.

The squad leader looked Li Ziyu up and down.

He could sense that after seeing his youthful face, the man's tense expression visibly relaxed.

His gaze also shifted away from the steel blade in Li Ziyu's hand.

"The wilderness is very dangerous. Without a formal martial artist leading you, I wouldn't recommend going out alone."

"Also, if you don't have special paperwork and aren't a formal martial artist, you can only leave the city once a month."

The squad leader warned.

Li Ziyu was taken aback. Only once a month if you weren't a formal martial artist?

He really hadn't known about that rule.

After all, from what he remembered, he'd never left the city before.

But thinking it over, he understood.

It was to protect ordinary people's safety.

And also to prevent those whose strength was middling—people who hadn't become martial artists yet but were already overconfident—from going out on their own and getting themselves killed.

After all, the wilderness was now crawling with ferocious beasts.

If you weren't a martial artist, going out basically meant offering yourself up as a meal.

But aside from martial artists who hunted beasts and sold materials for a living, ordinary people wouldn't think of leaving the city either.

If someone wanted to go to another city, there were dedicated means of transport.

He exchanged a few more words with the squad leader.

The squad leader tried to persuade him a couple of times.

Seeing that Li Ziyu was determined to leave the city, he didn't say more.

He waved his hand, signaling the soldiers on the wall to open the city gate.

Clank, clank.

With the soldiers' movements on the wall, three solid steel portcullises lifted one after another.

Li Ziyu smoothly exited the city.

"Captain, you really let that kid leave the city? Not going to talk him out of it?"

"He's so young, not even a formal martial artist yet. If he runs into a ferocious beast, won't that be extremely dangerous?"

Within the three-man squad.

One of them looked at the sun half-sunk into the distance, then at Li Ziyu's back about to vanish from sight, and couldn't help speaking up.

"That young man has more conviction than you think. No use trying to persuade him."

"Some things—no matter how much others advise you, you won't listen until you've hit the wall yourself."

The squad leader shook his head and sighed.

Watching Li Ziyu's retreating figure—a steel blade in his left hand, a sack slung over his right shoulder—a flicker of pity showed in his eyes.

"Judging by his clothes, his family's probably not well-off. He's trying to hunt ferocious beasts outside the city, sell the materials, and make some money."

"Too bad he doesn't know his own strength, and he's underestimating how dangerous the wilds are."

"Best case, he gets hurt and comes back empty-handed."

"Looks like after I boost my blood energy, I'll have to go to the Martial Arts Association and get certified as a martial artist."

"Otherwise, freely leaving the city won't be easy."

Picking a direction, Li Ziyu advanced cautiously.

The certification standard for a first-rank formal martial artist is blood energy reaching 1.5 and Combat Power reaching 170.

With the system at his side, none of this was difficult for him.

Li Ziyu swore it absolutely wasn't for that monthly five-thousand-yuan subsidy.

Treading through weeds that came up past his calves, Li Ziyu crouched low and carefully made his way to the edge of a small raised mound.

He glanced back and could still make out the outline of the city wall.

No matter how confident and firm he'd sounded in front of that squad leader.

In truth, he was a bit nervous too.

After all, this was his first time leaving the city.

Around the outer perimeter of the city wall, formal ferocious beasts basically never appeared.

And being close to the wall meant he could call for help if anything happened.

So Li Ziyu made sure the city wall stayed in his line of sight.

It was dusk now. Looking up, he could still see half the sun in the distance.

The sky was draped in fiery red sunset clouds, spilling onto the mound in front of Li Ziyu, turning the half-meter-high slope a gleaming gold.

It also made Li Ziyu feel warm all over.

Just then, a rustling sound of something gnawing on plants came from beneath the mound.

"The sound of serrated teeth chewing plants—definitely a Red-Eyed Rabbit, no doubt!"

Li Ziyu's eyes lit up.

He quickly gripped his steel blade with both hands, fully on guard.

His gaze locked onto the basketball-sized hole at the bottom of the mound.

At that moment.

Two flashes of crimson light flickered in the dark hole.

Then a Red-Eyed Rabbit hopped out, poking its head forward step by step.

It was a creature that looked similar to the rabbits from his past life.

But its size was countless times larger than a rabbit's.

About the size of a Golden Retriever.

And its two eyes glowed with a bright red light.

Red-Eyed Rabbit

Li Ziyu watched the rabbit grinding its teeth, its blood-red eyes filled with savagery, and couldn't help feeling a strange sense of unease.

He had no idea what kind of creature ferocious beasts really were.

Rabbits, which were gentle as could be in his past life, here weren't just unafraid of humans—they were violently irritable.

Not like rabbits at all.

Thinking this, Li Ziyu's hands didn't idle.

His whole body tensed, and he leaped down from the mound.

Before the rabbit could react, the steel blade in his hands slammed down with a heavy thud, smashing into the Red-Eyed Rabbit's head.

A sound of bones cracking followed.

Blood splattered everywhere. The red-eyed rabbit's head was instantly smashed inward, red and white spilling all over the ground.

It didn't even have time to let out a scream before it hit the ground.

Headshot!

Ding. Killed red-eyed rabbit. Qi and blood +0.001.

"Holy shit, that felt good!"

"As expected, the stronger the creature, the more qi and blood you get from killing it! Haha!"

Hearing the system prompt, Li Ziyu felt nothing but pure bliss, his entire body and mind at ease.

He sensed a warm current deep inside him, surging from the core of his body out to his limbs and bones.

Even his strength seemed to have increased by a few degrees.

This was the sign of qi and blood rising!

Killing ferocious beasts was way faster than killing mosquitoes or rats.

Not only was it more impressive, but the corpses of the beasts he killed could also be sold for money!

Killing two birds with one stone!

Li Ziyu couldn't help clenching his fists. He quickly crouched down and, in a few swift motions, stuffed the red-eyed rabbit's corpse into his burlap sack.

Ferocious beast meat was a great tonic. Even a low-grade red-eyed rabbit like this could sell for several thousand yuan.

Squeak squeak.

Another red-eyed rabbit's cry rang out.

Red-eyed rabbits were pack animals. This earthen slope was home to more than one.

"Red-eyed rabbits are not only violent-tempered but also very vengeful. This one's probably here to settle a score."

"A family should stay together. Let me send you all down to reunite."

Bang bang bang bang!

Li Ziyu followed the same method, crouching by the cave entrance, waiting for the rabbit.

Every time a red-eyed rabbit came out, he blew its head off.

Ding. Killed red-eyed rabbit. Qi and blood +XX.

In the span of an hour, dozens of red-eyed rabbits lay dead on the ground.

Even Li Ziyu had to marvel.

The reproductive ability of ferocious beasts was truly insane.

No wonder the Great Xia military often sent martial artists to clear out the Wilderness Area, yet the wild beasts there never seemed to run out.

By the end, even Li Ziyu's burlap sack couldn't hold any more.

When he killed the last red-eyed rabbit—

Name: Li Ziyu.

Realm: Unranked (+).

Combat Skill: Basic Blade Technique (+).

System: Martial God System.

Function: Can absorb all things to enhance qi and blood. Other functions await the host's own discovery.