Slaying the Earth Dragon King

Screech—boom—

First came the piercing, shrill sound of air being torn apart, followed by the explosive roar of the sound barrier being forcibly broken.

Amid exploding air and sweeping shockwaves, a long spear pierced through the vital point of an advanced Lord level monster.

Before this, the Beast Generals and low-level Lords surrounding that Lord had already been slaughtered clean.

"My exertion has improved again." Lin Qingyu silently assessed the condition of his body. "It should now have reached the average level of a Councillor."

Before reaching the Immortal-grade, living beings with souls had to control their bodies through the process of will—consciousness—body. Lin Qingyu was different. His will had fused with his body, and the strength of his will was Immortal-grade to begin with. When he controlled his body, the two modes of will—body and will—consciousness—body functioned simultaneously. Not only did they not interfere with each other, they enhanced each other, since the will behind them was the same.

As a result, his control over his body far surpassed that of ordinary people and even most geniuses.

Even without relying on an inheritance, he could raise the Base Amplitude of both his body and Mental Power to one hundred with enough time.

The basic exertion of any Immortal body could reach one hundred. Yet the state of fusion between Lin Qingyu's body and will was an ability that could only possibly be attained at a level higher than Immortals, even higher than Venerables.

Climbing from below was difficult, but descending from above was comparatively easy.

"With my amplitude reaching the level of an ordinary Councillor, brute strength comparable to Planetary level 4, and a domain, no one else on Earth should be qualified to fight me except Hong, Thor, the two Beast Emperors in the sea, and the Moyun Vine on Mist Island." Lin Qingyu calculated his combat strength.

His genetic level was fifty times that of an ordinary person. A martial artist at the peak of high-level War God could reach a force of five hundred thousand kilograms. Without factoring in exertion, his brute strength alone could reach twenty-five million kilograms.

One had to know that although breaking through from Apprentice level to Planetary level counted as a leap in life level, it was an early-stage leap, so strength generally only increased by around four times from Apprentice level to Planetary level.

Therefore, the minimum strength of a Planetary level 1st stage martial artist was two million kilograms.

Of course, as they cultivated, the strength of Planetary level 1st stage experts would also increase.

In the Original work, the strength range of Planetary level 1st stage martial artists was two million to four million kilograms. Mental Masters were slightly weaker, but more agile.

Below the Immortal-grade, the gap between every minor level was twofold. In other words, the brute strength of Planetary level 2 was only around four million to eight million kilograms.

With his twenty-five million kilograms of strength, he had naturally stepped into the realm of Planetary level 4.

Of course, Planetary level experts on Earth generally possessed methods to amplify their combat power as well. However, aside from Lin Qingyu, even Thor, the strongest among them, only had a sevenfold amplitude, while the amplitudes of the other Planetary level experts were mostly between four and five times.

Lin Qingyu's combat power amplitude had now reached five times, and he was steadily advancing toward an even higher level.

As Lin Qingyu calculated his own strength, he used his powerful Mental Power to control flying knives, cutting off valuable materials from the bodies of the monsters he had slain and placing them into a backpack held aloft by Mental Power.

Even while thinking about himself, Lin Qingyu did not forget that his purpose in coming out was to save money to buy manuals. The targets he chose were all high-level Lords. High-level Lords generally had low-level Lords serving as subordinates, so aside from the materials from the high-level Lords themselves, he still collected some of the most valuable materials from the low-level Lords.

Of course, he had no interest in taking materials from ordinary Beast Generals. Taking them would only waste time and energy.

Mental Power possessed the ability to search across a wide area, so Lin Qingyu could easily locate Lord-level monsters living in the Wilderness Zone.

After finishing the material extraction, he stepped onto his Mental Power Weapon and headed for his next target.

Boom—

Another blow like a meteor crashing into the earth sent a massive tiger-like monster, with a gaping hole in its body, collapsing before Lin Qingyu.

"Slaughtering Lord-level monsters is no challenge at all. But what time is it now? It's about time to head back." Lin Qingyu calculated the time. "If I were a freelance martial artist, the materials I've gathered would already be enough to buy the World Ending manual. Unfortunately, I'm with the military, so I'm still a little short. But whatever. At worst, I'll come back tomorrow and grind through another morning. I should collect the materials first."

Just as Lin Qingyu stepped forward, intending to dissect the corpse of the high-level Lord he had just killed, the ground beneath his feet suddenly began to tremble.

Immediately afterward, an Earth Dragon several meters thick and dozens of meters long just in the portion above ground burst out from underground. Roaring in fury, it swung its massive body at Lin Qingyu at the speed of sound.

"This is... the Earth Dragon King?" Having read the monster encyclopedia, Lin Qingyu recognized the King level monster attacking him at a glance. "Did I kill too many Lord-level monsters?"

However, the Earth Dragon King's ambush did not frighten Lin Qingyu. Without the slightest hesitation, he swept his spear horizontally.

Compared with the Earth Dragon King's several-meter-thick body, Lin Qingyu's spear looked like a slender chopstick, as though it could be snapped with a casual twist.

Yet when that "chopstick" collided with the Earth Dragon King, it was the seemingly ferocious Earth Dragon King that was sent flying backward.

Its body, over a hundred meters long, was smashed into two sections, then forcibly ripped from the earth by the tremendous force, leaving behind a massive crater.

The upper half of the Earth Dragon King's body let out a miserable howl as it struggled to burrow back underground.

The intelligence of a King level monster was no worse than a human's. The Earth Dragon King understood that a human who could sever it in two with a single strike was absolutely someone it could not afford to provoke. If it wanted to survive, it had to flee underground as quickly as possible.

Underground was its home ground. Even against an expert stronger than itself, it might be able to use that advantage to escape.

"Only Planetary level 2, yet it has such powerful cellular activity?" Based on the force generated when the Earth Dragon King collided with him, Lin Qingyu easily judged its approximate strength. "They say the Earth Dragon King mutated from an earthworm. It seems that claim is not entirely baseless. Trying to escape underground? Unfortunately, you ran into me."

As the Earth Dragon King desperately burrowed into the earth, several flying knives broke through the sound barrier and plunged underground, directly piercing through its head.

Lin Qingyu's Mental Power cultivation was no weaker than his martial artist cultivation. Its level alone was enough to suppress this Earth Dragon King. Factoring in amplitude, the Earth Dragon King truly had only one path left: death.

If the Earth Dragon King had not been lucky and possessed such strong bodily vitality, Lin Qingyu could actually have killed it in a single blow.

"Earth may be precious, but there are no truly strong experts here yet. In terms of space, it really is too small for me. Killing a King level monster didn't even make me use my domain. No wonder Thor and Hong slowed down considerably after becoming the first- and second-strongest." As Lin Qingyu dissected the Earth Dragon King's corpse, he pondered.

"If I want to keep improving, I'll inevitably have to leave Earth and enter the universe. At present, the only known path from Earth into the universe is through Bata and the Meteorite Star. Although the Meteorite Star cannot fly, Bata can seize and repair the Black Dragon Mountain-81 in Dead Zone No. 12. Looks like I'll need to make time for a trip to Australia."

He had no intention of constantly following the "Plot" of the Original work, much less any desire to let Earth fall into danger.

By entering the universe a few years early, many things would not have to become as thrilling and perilous as they had in the Original work.

As for the future World Beasts? Although he was wary of them, he was not so afraid that he lacked the courage to face them.

Lin Qingyu had always held one belief: someone worthy of being called a "protagonist" was not outstanding because he was a protagonist. Rather, he became a protagonist because he was outstanding enough to rise above everyone else.

Of course, Lin Qingyu would obtain Meteorite Star's inheritance, and he would also find a way to nurture Luo Feng.

Whether Luo Feng was the "protagonist" or not, the fact that he was from Huaxia Country—and was a genius of Huaxia Country—was enough for Lin Qingyu to help nurture him.

He was a direct-line Councillor of Huaxia Country. Wasn't it only natural for him to nurture a genius from Huaxia Country?