A Sudden Change

Chen Daolin walked alone down a secluded alley.

His footsteps scraped against the ground with a soft rustle.

A shadow silently crept out through a window in the building overhead. A pair of gleaming green eyes stared coldly at him.

Whoosh! The wind suddenly picked up. The shadow shot forward, turning into a streak of black as it pounced on the human below. The faint glint of its razor-sharp claws sent a chill through the air.

Without even looking up, as if he'd foreseen the attack, Chen Daolin thrust out the long spear in his hand. It became a blur as it pierced the black shadow hurtling down from above, accompanied by a shrill rush of wind. The spear went all the way in, its tip bursting through the creature's head and sticking out the other side.

The shadow hung from the spear, twitching. It was a small Shadow Cat with gray fur. Chen Daolin's spear had gone through its eye, leaving a hole that oozed blood and made the sight look sinister and terrifying.

When warriors fought monsters, the battle might drag on—or end in an instant, with one side dead. It was always perilous.

"An H-Level monster, a Shadow Cat. Good at hiding, and extremely fast." Chen Daolin looked down at the corpse and murmured to himself. He used the blade of his spear to cut off the Shadow Cat's ear and put it in his backpack. He already had three ears in there: one from an Iron-Haired Wild Boar and two from Tiger Mastiffs. This was his first Shadow Cat.

Chen Daolin had gained some experience fighting monsters.

Creatures like Shadow Cats liked to hide in dark, secluded corners and launch sneaky attacks.

Their bodies were also poorly defended. Aim for a vital spot, and a single thrust was enough to kill them.

Of course, for many Quasi-Martial Artists, a Shadow Cat's speed made it a real headache.

With strength that put him among the best of the Intermediate Warriors, Chen Daolin found the weakest H-Level monsters hardly challenging. Perhaps a whole pack attacking at once could pose a threat.

"Next, I'll find a few monsters to test myself against. I won't get any stronger if I keep doing this." Chen Daolin was now brimming with confidence. Even if he really got surrounded by a pack of H-Level monsters, he could unleash the King Kai Fist and fight his way out.

After cultivating Genetic Origin Energy and further strengthening his body, Chen Daolin could now attempt to activate the King Kai Fist at more than triple power. With his current strength, activating the technique would let him dominate this town.

Of course, when he unleashed his strength, he tried to choose places with fewer surveillance cameras, so he wouldn't attract the attention of anyone with ulterior motives.

Elsewhere, Ji Xuan was also fighting several monsters at once. She swung her War Blade and shield, deftly dodging among four or five creatures. They seemed like marionettes under her control, every attack falling just behind her.

Ji Xuan's eyes were calm as she calculated the monsters' next moves. Her body kept shifting, making the most efficient movements, like a precisely programmed machine. She made each motion as detailed and refined as possible, leaving no openings.

Whenever her movements fell short, a mysterious force would appear in time to shift her body slightly. To anyone watching, she seemed to dodge the monsters' combined attacks with effortless ease.

Anyone who saw this would have doubted their own eyes. Fighting several monsters at once was far more difficult than facing a single one. Even an Intermediate Warrior could easily be injured or killed when beset by a pack of H-Level monsters.

Yet Ji Xuan's performance was enough to make anyone question reality.

She was like a butterfly, dancing nimbly among a pack of roaring, ferocious monsters, which couldn't lay a finger on her.

Such terrifying Movement Technique was beyond what an ordinary warrior could imagine.

Ji Xuan silently honed her Movement Technique.

Elsewhere.

As Chen Daolin passed a supermarket, he caught a strong smell of blood. He turned toward a half-collapsed wall on the north side of the first floor. Faint sounds of tearing and swallowing came from that direction. After a moment of silence, Chen Daolin turned and headed inside. As he approached the wall, the sounds of swallowing abruptly stopped, and silence fell all around. Chen Daolin's expression was cold, but he kept walking. A moment later, a gust of foul wind rushed at him. A huge shadow sprang from behind the wall—a vicious Tiger Mastiff. It opened its enormous jaws, blood and flesh still clinging to its sharp teeth, and lunged at Chen Daolin with a savage bite.

But Chen Daolin moved even faster. He sprang up like a compressed spring, and the long spear in his hand shot forward like a venomous snake, piercing the Tiger Mastiff's mouth with unerring precision and passing through its throat in a spray of blood. The Tiger Mastiff's heavy paw slammed into Chen Daolin's shoulder, leaving several clear gashes on his combat suit. Chen Daolin grunted and staggered. The Tiger Mastiff struggled for a few moments before dying. Ignoring it, Chen Daolin looked toward the corner where it had been. There lay the mutilated, shattered corpse of a young girl. Her lifeless eyes stared blankly upward, and one of her severed arms lay more than ten meters away.

At the sight, Chen Daolin's heart jolted, and he fell silent. This was the fate every warrior had to face—and perhaps it would be his fate one day, too.

In this Killing Field, where humans and monsters fought, the hunter could become the hunted at any moment. One stroke of bad luck, and you could be buried here forever.

This was a world of brutal, undeniable reality. The war between humans and monsters had gone on for many years, and it would continue into the future. As a human warrior, Chen Daolin would one day venture into the wilderness and face all kinds of vicious monsters. Perhaps that would be the true test of his strength.

Chen Daolin took a deep breath and cast aside his distracting thoughts. He cut off the Tiger Mastiff's ear, then carried the girl's body outside and pressed the distress button on her Communication Watch. What a poor girl. The Tiger Mastiff had probably bitten her arm, leaving her no chance to send a distress signal. Otherwise, she might not have died so horribly.

A bloodstained photograph fell from her arms. Chen Daolin glanced at it, picked it up, and tucked it back into her arms.

"May you rest in peace."

By the time Chen Daolin left, his expression had returned to normal, but his eyes were filled with cold killing intent.

Only now did Chen Daolin truly understand: when humans and monsters fought, it was kill or be killed.

Under the cover of night, the fighting in the town continued. Every Quasi-Martial Artist's performance was being transmitted by camera to observers from various organizations outside.

"Ugh, that Quasi-Martial Artist is hopeless. He actually missed with that slash."

"Idiot. He's so careless he didn't even notice the monster coming up behind him."

"He's dead. He's going to die... Ah, forget it. Switch to another camera."

"Now that one's good. He's got some talent."

"That one's promising, too."

The burly man from the Thunder Martial Arts Hall watched the screen, visibly excited. Onscreen, a young girl was being surrounded by a pack of H-Level monsters. It was Ji Xuan. His eyes lit up. "Impressive, impressive! That's Micro-level Movement Technique. She's only eighteen, isn't she? And she's already reached the Micro-level! I have to—have to recruit her into our Thunder Martial Arts Hall." Even Wang Heng, the Thunder Martial Arts Hall's Jiangnan branch director, was astonished by the girl's astonishing talent for Movement Technique.

He had even resolved to recruit Ji Xuan at any cost, even if she had already signed with the Extreme Martial Arts Hall.

Ji Xuan's physical fitness was impressive, but that alone wasn't remarkable. What was astonishing was that she had mastered Micro-level Movement Technique at just eighteen.

In actual combat, physical fitness was only one factor. Movement Technique, blade technique, and awareness were all important, too.

Movement Technique was extremely important in battle. According to conventional wisdom... through training, it could be divided into three stages: solid fundamentals, proficiency, and effortless mastery!

Those were the first three stages of Movement Technique. Above them... was the Micro-level!

The Micro-level meant being able to control one's strength and body with extreme precision, dodging in the most refined way while using the least effort. Every movement and evasion seemed to have been calculated by a computer!

Many Warlord-Level warriors couldn't do it!

That was why Ji Xuan mastering Micro-level Movement Technique at eighteen had left Wang Heng so shocked.

But Zhuge Tao, the director in charge of the Extreme Martial Arts Hall, hadn't noticed any of this. His attention was focused entirely on his daughter, who was with Han Lei. He was furious. "Qingqing's gone too far. When she gets back, I'll have to give her a serious talking-to."

As for Ji Xuan and Chen Daolin? He had already forgotten all about them.

He was even beginning to feel dissatisfied. He had clearly told the two of them to keep an eye on his daughter, yet they had still let her leave and go off on her own with Han Lei.

The night slowly passed...

Ji Xuan continued honing her Movement Technique and combat awareness.

Chen Daolin continued roaming about, following his instincts and swinging his long spear.

The Quasi-Martial Artists continued fighting monsters throughout the town.

Dawn was approaching.

In a desolate, secluded underground parking lot in Closed Town, a dusty gray head suddenly poked out. It belonged to a giant rat the size of an ordinary wolfhound. It quickly scanned its surroundings, a hint of humanlike intelligence in its eyes, then squeaked.

Anyone present who knew their monsters would have recognized it as an Elementary Beast General Level monster among the rat species—the Gray Fur Rat King.

At its call, one gray rat after another, each as big as a house cat, crawled out of the ground. Most were H-Level Gray Fur Rats, though a few were their G-Level and F-Level kin. They squeaked in a dense, chaotic chorus, then poured toward the outside like a tidal wave under the leadership of the Beast General Level monster, the Gray Fur Rat King.

Outside Closed Town, gray rats also poured out of sewers, holes in the ground, and basements, forming a gray tide as they attacked every living thing nearby.

The military camp outside spotted the swarm at once, and piercing alarm bells rang through the night.