Qi and Blood and Mental Power Break Through Together, Picking Up an Awakened-Level Monster

Satellite City No. 6.

Lu Xuan followed the rescue team back into the city and was assigned a private hospital room.

Satellite City was different from Jinling City.

Jinling City had expanded several times over from its original foundation. It was mainly built as a cluster of urban areas, with layers of defensive lines established one after another. Satellite City, on the other hand, looked more like a fortress city. It had only a single line of high-wall defenses, shaped like a steamed bun.

"Although the gains this time weren't great, my strength has increased tremendously."

"It was a blessing in disguise, at least."

Lu Xuan calmed himself and sorted through what he had gained this time.

There was no monster meat, special material, or spiritual herb—or else it had all been fed to the Bronze Gourd.

Unfortunately, the Bronze Gourd had only secreted a few drops of spiritual liquid even now.

Besides that,

his strength had broken through to Fifth-order Martial Artist, leaving him only one step away from becoming an advanced martial artist.

What surprised Lu Xuan most was that his Mental Power had actually broken through as well.

Its detection range had risen directly from fifty meters to one hundred meters, and the Psychic Power he could wield had grown even stronger.

He could even lift objects weighing five tons.

It was truly a qualitative leap.

"Could it be because of that Big Eyeball?"

The increase in his Mental Power made Lu Xuan realize something: the strange creature he had seen while absorbing the Qi and Blood Golden Elixir had not been fake.

It truly existed.

"What exactly was that monster?"

Lu Xuan frowned in thought. "Could my increase in Mental Power be related to it?"

The more he thought about it, the more possible it seemed.

After all, that Big Eyeball monster had appeared the first time he awakened his Psychic Power.

"Forget it."

Lu Xuan had originally wanted to concentrate his Psychic Power and see whether he could reproduce that thing again.

But when he recalled the other party's surging Mental Power,

a single glance had been enough to make his spirit collapse.

He put the matter out of his mind.

"I'd better recuperate honestly for a few days."

He calmed himself and consolidated his strength.

It was already May 30.

Nearly ten days had passed since the beast tide. By now, the entire Wilderness was filled with people hunting for treasure.

If he went out wearing the Ghost-faced Monkey mask, he would be a living target.

Without it,

his current strength would still make it difficult to obtain anything truly valuable.

"I wonder whether that heavily injured Awakened-Level monster mentioned in Future Mail has already been picked up by someone?"

An Awakened-Level monster.

To Lu Xuan now, it was practically a great tonic.

Even if he sold it for money, one would be worth tens of millions.

If he could capture it alive, its price could easily exceed a hundred million.

Before long,

Lu Xuan logged onto the Virtual Combat Platform and began fighting in the arena.

By day, he ventured into the Wilderness to hunt for treasure;

by night, he logged onto the Virtual Combat Platform to grind points.

That was the cultivation plan he had drawn up. He had to seize both strength and influence.

Over the next several days,

Lu Xuan cultivated on the Virtual Combat Platform. During that time, he fought more than a hundred battles without a single defeat.

His strength had been consolidated.

The current him could defeat his former self fifty times over!

Of his three Martial Skills, all except My Golden Spear Never Falls had reached the mastery stage. His movement Martial Skill in particular had advanced directly to perfection because of the insights he had gained from using it last time.

"Yellow-level Martial Skills are still too simple for me."

Lu Xuan exited the Virtual Combat Platform.

"If I want to cultivate higher-level Martial Skills, I can only hunt more monsters, exchange them for cash, and then use the money to buy Martial Skills."

With Psychic Power,

cultivating Martial Skills was as easy as drinking water.

Especially low-level Martial Skills. Lu Xuan only needed to glance over them once to master the basics.

He stood up,

changed his clothes, and completed the hospital discharge procedures.

He did not hurry out of the city. Instead, he bought some weapons in Satellite City.

Also,

Lu Xuan had to make sure whether the Monster Potion Company and the Xu Family were still hunting him.

He opened the Martial Artist Forum.

#Shocking! Someone witnessed the Ghost Face Martial Artist trapped in the beast tide—he has already fallen#

#Shocking! The Xu Family and Monster Potion Company have both issued wanted bounties—the Ghost Face Martial Artist must be captured alive or dead#

#Shocking! An escaped martial artist claims that the Ghost Face Martial Artist caused the beast tide. Will the authorities intervene and arrest him?#

Three eye-catching headlines.

Although they were not among the top five trending searches, they immediately caught Lu Xuan's attention.

"To verify whether I'm still alive, they want to drag the authorities into this?"

Lu Xuan smiled disdainfully. Having forgotten the pain once his wounds had healed, he said, "Those damn fellows from that day—I spared their lives, and they still dared to slander me. I'm already a Sixth-order Martial Artist now. Who can kill me?"

However,

he truly felt that he could now fight Seventh- or Eighth-order advanced martial artists.

As long as they did not gang up on him, he could not claim that he would kill them.

But at the very least, he would not end up in such a sorry state as last time.

After browsing for several minutes,

he came to a conclusion.

The Xu Family and Monster Potion Company were still hunting him.

Moreover, the Xu Family seemed to have sacrificed a Qi and Blood Martial Master to give that barely surviving Martial Dao Grandmaster another breath of life.

"No wonder they're all hunting me."

Lu Xuan put away the forum data screen. "So he came back to life."

But so what?

He, Lu Xuan, was not afraid.

The sky gradually darkened.

Night fell, and Lu Xuan walked out of the city.

"I hope that heavily injured Awakened-Level monster hasn't been picked up yet."

His figure slowly disappeared into the dim Wilderness.

Somewhere in Tai Xuan Lake.

A treasure-hunting squad moved stealthily through the night.

They stopped one after another beside a cliff at the mouth of a river flowing into the lake.

There were six of them.

All of them were at least Fifth-order Martial Artists.

The strongest was an Eighth-order Martial Artist. He walked at the front, crouched down, then looked back at his teammates and asked:

"Old Six, you really saw a heavily injured Awakened-Level monster?"

"Would I lie?"

Old Six was short and had a sharp, simian face. He curled his lips and stammered, "I—I saw it c-clear as day... Its its belly had a huge gash ripped open. It was terrifying. It was practically dead."

"Listening to you talk is damn exhausting!"

The boss glared at him impatiently. "You go down first."

"Huh? I-I-I..."

"What are you huh-ing about? Hurry up. If you waste time, you won't get a single cent!"

Old Six wanted to resist, but his strength was lacking. He could only obediently walk forward.

He crawled to the edge of the cliff and stuck his head out to look.

The wind of astral energy whipped up from below, tearing his hair into disarray. Old Six shuddered in fright, and his bladder began to ache.

"I-I didn't think it looked this scary in the daytime... Why does it look like there are ghosts at night?"

Old Six felt around and climbed down the cliff.

A Fifth-order Martial Artist would not die from a fall of a hundred meters. Even if there were spikes below, they would find it difficult to pierce the protective qi and blood around his body.

Martial artists were ultimately no longer ordinary people.

The six members of the treasure-hunting squad leaped down the cliff one after another.

Under the moonlight, on a branch jutting from the cliff wall even higher up, Lu Xuan sat alone like an eagle.

He tilted his head and stared at the treasure-hunting squad, the twin pupils of his Ghost Face glowing with an eerie radiance.

"Someone has already discovered it?"

His Psychic Power probed downward, and he hesitated. "Four Fifth-order Martial Artists, two Sixth-order ones, and one Eighth-order... Well, I'll watch and see what happens first."

With such a lineup, Lu Xuan truly had nothing to fear.

But they had no grudge against him, after all. It was not as though he could kill people and seize their treasure for no reason, could he?

He was a reasonable man.

A cautious man, too.

If he could lie low, he would never use brute force.

With that thought,

his figure dropped rapidly, catching up with the treasure-hunting squad.

After the Great Cataclysm, the terrain had undergone enormous changes.

This place had once been a plain, but now cliffs crisscrossed the land. The slightest misstep could send someone plummeting into a loot box.

Time passed bit by bit.

After they had descended three hundred meters,

"Roar!"

Suddenly,

a monster's roar came from the bottom of the cliff, wrapped in fierce astral wind that shook sand and stones loose from the precipice.

Looking down,

they saw that the treasure-hunting squad was already locked in fierce battle with the monster.

It was a Swamp Salamander. Its bloody maw hung wide open, and the surrounding river water and mud churned with its boiling qi and blood. Even with a chasm-like wound split across its belly, its combat strength remained formidable.

Despite being surrounded by six people, it still held its ground with ease.

The treasure-hunting squad was not flustered in the slightest, either. They worked together in orderly fashion, constantly dragging and luring the salamander away from its comfort zone.

But they had overlooked one point.

This was an Awakened-Level monster, which meant it possessed an awakening talent of its own.

Sure enough, in the next moment,

Buzz-buzz—!

The underground river surged. The cavern spewed out a massive flood, sweeping across the entire bottom of the cliff like a giant dragon. The six members of the treasure-hunting squad were startled by the sudden turn of events and hurriedly circulated their qi and blood to resist it.

The salamander took the opportunity to dive, its dozens-of-feet-tall body rolling over.

Rumble!

The river water churned and slammed against the cliffside.

The splashing water burst out like spears, stabbing toward the six trapped members of the treasure-hunting squad from every direction.

The boss reacted quickly enough. He immediately took out a shield and circulated his Spiritual Energy to block them.

But just then,

a whirlpool suddenly formed in the river, and the salamander's enormous maw lunged out.

"Not good!"

For an Awakened-Level monster to break through their defenses was like punching tofu.

One punch, and it exploded.

The six still tried to split their attention and free their hands to defend themselves.

But how could the salamander give them even half a chance?

With one bite, it swallowed them all.

"Your belly's already split open, and you still want to swallow people?"

Lu Xuan stopped hiding.

His Psychic Power controlled a boulder weighing several tons and sent it crashing down. At the same time, countless throwing knives rose into the air. A long blade stood horizontally, then slashed straight toward the salamander.