Qin Heng Was Just Too Strong

"Won!"

Qin Heng felt a surge of joy.

The Blood Claw Demon Wolf's size truly limited it; its flank defense was extremely weak.

Though this successful strike was not fatal, it instantly left the Blood Claw Demon Wolf half-crippled, unable to exert even half of its full strength.

"Awooo!"

The Monster howled in pain, wildly swinging its sharp claws to force Qin Heng back.

Qin Heng drew his blade and dodged the crazed Monster's frenzied swipes. Without the blade plugging the wound, blood immediately gushed wildly from the Blood Claw Demon Wolf's abdomen.

"Qin Heng, you're fucking incredible!!" Huang Jiancheng could not help shouting.

Everyone had originally thought the Blood Claw Demon Wolf would be the hardest one to deal with. With this squad's strength, they would have had to take care of the other Monsters first before joining forces to defeat it.

Yet Qin Heng had faced the Blood Claw Demon Wolf alone. Not only had he not been injured, he had seemed even more at ease than they were!

At that moment, everyone looked at Qin Heng in a new light.

This eighteen-year-old youth was not the combat novice they had assumed him to be.

He was a genius warrior with formidable strength and extraordinary combat talent!

"We can't let our guard down yet. I'll finish it off first, then come help everyone!"

Qin Heng did not relax. Instead, he continued circling the Blood Claw Demon Wolf and attacking.

The injured Blood Claw Demon Wolf was no longer agile. Driven only by its instinct to survive, it wildly swung its claws, trying to frighten Qin Heng away.

Qin Heng showed no mercy toward his desperately struggling opponent. Seizing an opening, he stabbed again, driving his blade in from the other side.

Squelch!

Blood sprayed out once more. This strike pierced straight through its heart. The Blood Claw Demon Wolf's body instantly stiffened, then slowly collapsed as its strength ebbed away.

A weak whimper escaped its mouth. It died unwillingly.

Qin Heng gripped the hilt and twisted it once, shredding the Monster's heart into pulp before pulling the blade free.

Sweeping his gaze across the battlefield, he saw that everyone's fights were different. Huang Jiancheng was evenly matched against a Black Dog; Wu Ruijie, Pang Jun, and Jin Wenxin were all losing to their Monsters and were at a disadvantage; Liang Yunkai was handling his opponent most easily; and Zhao Dongxing had gradually gained the upper hand after fighting a Monster alone.

Qin Heng darted toward Jin Wenxin, who was closest. Taking advantage of the moment when the wild dog Monster was tangled up with Jin Wenxin, he raised his blade and brought it down.

Squelch!

The huge dog head fell straight to the ground.

"Phew~"

Jin Wenxin let out a breath, then immediately gave a thumbs-up. "Qin Heng, you're the man!"

"Help the others!"

Qin Heng did not say anything else and charged toward the next Monster.

Squelch!

Squelch!

One strike, two strikes, three strikes...

Every time he moved, he targeted a place the Monster could not defend. Each blow dealt a fatal wound, without a single unnecessary motion.

Of course, he had only gotten such opportunities because the Monsters were being held back by his companions.

Even so, his clean, fierce kills still left everyone amazed.

One minute later.

The battle was completely over.

"That was really close. I almost got bitten in the neck just now..."

"Phew, I'm exhausted. We fought for less than five minutes, but it feels harder than two hours of training."

"Good thing we won. For one moment just now, I thought I wouldn't make it back."

Everyone finally relaxed, gulping down breaths of air.

"Senior Brother Zhao, how are you?" Qin Heng walked toward the injured Zhao Dongxing, opened his backpack, and took out some medicine for wounds.

Zhao Dongxing said, "I'm fine. No bones or tendons were injured, just flesh wounds. Put some medicine on them, and they'll heal in a few days."

Ignoring the sharp pain of treating his wounds, he gritted his teeth and asked Qin Heng, "Junior Brother Qin Heng, your... your combat strength seems a little off, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, aren't you a little too strong?" Everyone felt the same way, staring at Qin Heng as though he were a Monster.

If that Blood Claw Demon Wolf had been left to them, none of them would have been confident of winning. They would have found it difficult even to hold it off for three minutes. The best outcome would have been escaping uninjured and waiting for the others to rescue them.

But Qin Heng had not only held it off—he had even killed the Blood Claw Demon Wolf!

What was this supposed to mean?

Four Heavenly Dao Martial Hall students with over two years of training, and two recruits from the MS Group, had combat skills that were actually inferior to a newcomer who had just turned eighteen and only passed the Quasi-Martial Warrior assessment a few days ago?

Everyone found that a little hard to accept.

Feeling somewhat embarrassed under their stares, Qin Heng smiled shyly. "Luck, just luck. I happened to catch the Monster's weakness. That Blood Claw Demon Wolf couldn't spread its forelimbs apart and couldn't defend its sides, so I managed to stab it."

Liang Yunkai muttered, "Luck alone couldn't pull that off. It was clearly combat instinct at work."

Zhao Dongxing and the others all nodded in agreement.

Besides basic strength and combat training, another major deciding factor in a warrior's actual combat ability was combat instinct.

People with good combat instinct could remain calm in intense battles, analyze the strengths and weaknesses of both sides, and thus defeat their enemies.

Those with poor combat instinct, no matter how outstanding they were in training or how pretty their flashy moves looked, would immediately lose their composure once a real fight began. They would flail about wildly, wasting strength and possibly even putting themselves in danger.

Qin Heng's combat instinct was clearly excellent. Combined with his greater strength, only slightly inferior to the Blood Claw Demon Wolf's, that was why he had been able to win.

If his strength had been even a little weaker, or his instincts a little worse, he might already have been a corpse.

Everyone kept praising Qin Heng, and their attitude toward him grew better and better.

Those who had previously been somewhat skeptical of Qin Heng's strength no longer had the slightest doubt. They had fully recognized the fact that he was a peerless genius.

"Alright, stop praising me. Hurry up and collect the Beast Ears, then let's get out of this blood-soaked place."

Qin Heng was nearly floating from all the praise, so he hurriedly spoke up to interrupt their praise session.

Eight Monsters meant eight ears. Including the one from before, they had nine in total—enough for three people to complete the assessment requirement.

They had been in the wilderness for less than an hour, yet their efficiency was already this high.

"Qin Heng, take three first. The remaining six can be split one apiece among us," Huang Jiancheng suggested.

Passing the assessment was the main goal. Three Beast Ears per person were enough; any more would be useless.

"Mm, we still need twelve more. Three days will definitely be enough." Qin Heng accepted the Beast Ears, wrapped them in sealed bags, and stuffed them into his backpack.

Huang Jiancheng added, "Let's also strip the valuable stuff off these beasts. It'll sell for quite a bit."

The Beast Ears had to be handed over to the Supervising Examiner for evaluation, while the materials from the Monsters belonged to them.

For example, a single claw from a Blood Claw Demon Wolf could sell for 1,500 yuan on the market. Six sharp claws together would be worth 9,000 yuan.

Although it was only a subadult and its claws were not of great quality, meaning the price might be discounted somewhat, selling them for 5,000 to 6,000 yuan would still not be a problem.

Qin Heng came from a poor family. Back in his poorest days, he had wished he could split a single cent in half to spend it.

Although his circumstances had improved somewhat now, he still could not waste anything. Anything valuable had to be brought back!

Everyone began dissecting the Monster corpses on the spot.

Under Huang Jiancheng's guidance, Qin Heng broke off the Blood Claw Demon Wolf's claws, knocked out its longest pair of fangs, and put them into his backpack.

The Monsters' bones and meat could have sold for quite a bit too, but they could not carry that much, so they could only leave them behind.

After they finished packing up, Huang Jiancheng said, "We need to leave quickly. The smell of blood here is too strong. It might attract stronger Monsters, or even Ferocious Beasts."

One of the rules of wilderness survival: never stay in one place for too long, especially somewhere where a battle had taken place.

With the spoils secured, Qin Heng and the others swiftly left the battlefield and continued deeper into the Wuping Mountain Range.

Just after they left, another group arrived at the place where they had been.

Wang Peng led Qian Feilong and the others up the hillside. Seeing the blood-soaked Monster corpses scattered all over the ground, his expression turned extremely ugly.

"Nine Monsters... They actually killed them all?" Wang Peng found it hard to believe Qin Heng and the others could have done this.

Qian Feilong stepped forward and inspected them one by one, eventually stopping before the Blood Claw Demon Wolf's corpse, which had been stripped of its claws.

"Young Master Wang, this Monster was a Blood Claw Demon Wolf, one of the best among canine Monsters. Judging by its size, it was in its subadult stage. Its claw strength was around 1,700 kilograms. Even I would need to put in some effort to take it down."

Wang Peng immediately asked, "Does Qin Heng's little squad have the ability to kill something like that?"

Qian Feilong decisively shook his head. "Those ordinary Heavenly Dao Martial Hall students definitely couldn't. The two from the MS Group probably don't have the strength either, or they wouldn't have waited until today to take the assessment."

"So what you mean is..."

Qian Feilong guessed, "A master probably happened to pass by and saved them."

As for Qin Heng... he was completely outside the scope of consideration.

Someone who had just passed the Quasi-Martial Warrior assessment, even if his punching strength had barely reached 1,000 kilograms, could not possibly possess the strength to kill a Blood Claw Demon Wolf.

Wang Peng curled his lip and said irritably, "Damn it, that kid's lucky..."

Then he waved a hand. "Let's go, follow them. That expert won't keep following them forever. Once it gets dark, find an opportunity and kill them all!"