Chen Daolin and Ji Xuan arrived at the Black-scaled Demon Wolf's corpse to harvest its materials, both in good spirits.
During this month of "life-or-death adventures," the students' monster kills didn't count toward their Battle Achievement Points. So even if they killed a Lord-level Monster and sold it, they could keep hunting freely as long as they didn't undergo a title evaluation and become a God of War. They wouldn't graduate from the Training Camp otherwise.
"Tsk, tsk. Eighteen Elementary Lord-level monsters, five Intermediate Lord-level monsters, and two High-level Lord-level monsters. The materials must be worth nearly thirty billion altogether, and it hasn't even been a week." Chen Daolin was amazed by his own hunting efficiency.
He'd earned more in one week than an ordinary High-level War God would in a year.
That was mainly because Australia was teeming with monsters. In human-inhabited regions like Europe and Asia, it was hard enough to hunt even one Elementary Lord-level Monster.
Many God of Wars would rather hunt high-level Beast General-level monsters than risk fighting an Elementary Lord-level Monster.
Most importantly, Chen Daolin's strength was absurdly overwhelming. And with a High-level War God–class Spirit Reader who could control weapons with telekinesis to launch unpredictable attacks, they'd managed to kill so many Lord-level Monsters.
"The Training Camp warned us not to hunt several High-level Lord-level Monsters in the same area, or we might attract a King-level Monster. But we've been hunting here for so long without anything unusual happening. There shouldn't be a King-level Monster around, right?" Chen Daolin wondered.
He was still a little worried. He decided that once they killed the last High-level Lord-level Monster, the Great Strength Demon Ape, they would leave the area immediately.
The sun blazed overhead.
"Yah! Yah!"
A flurry of shrill cries came from the dense woods. Apes of different colors climbed through the trees and ran across the ground. Beneath an enormous tree so wide it would take ten people to encircle its trunk, with a canopy that blotted out the sky, lay a Great Ape eighteen meters tall. Its black fur stood up like a forest of steel needles. It scratched its chin, eyes half closed, and gave a soft snore as several smaller ape monsters groomed its fur, much to its delight.
"Gah."
The Great Strength Demon Ape suddenly opened its eyes and looked in one direction.
A shadow shot out from the distant woods like an arrow, moving with incredible speed. By the time the ape monsters along its path reacted and tried to stop it, he was already nearly upon the Great Strength Demon Ape.
"Roar!" An angry bellow rang out.
The Great Strength Demon Ape sprang to its feet and pounded its two vat-sized fists against its chest. The booming thuds sounded like rolling thunder, like war drums pounding. Every ape in the forest went into a frenzy, surging toward Chen Daolin like a flood and lunging at him one after another.
"Angry? Good. Let that anger build. Come on, fight me!"
Chen Daolin moved like lightning, ignoring the ordinary ape monsters as he charged straight at the Great Strength Demon Ape. He thrust his spear casually, and several apes fell dead, blood spraying from their wounds.
The Great Strength Demon Ape gave Chen Daolin a long, deep look, then suddenly turned and fled. Its body became a streak of Flowing Light and shot out of the forest amid violent sonic booms.
"What?"
Chen Daolin had never imagined the Great Strength Demon Ape would be so cautious. It seemed to have sensed something, because it had run without even fighting him. There was no way he'd let the materials he'd nearly secured slip away. With an angry shout, he turned into a streak of Flowing Light and gave chase.
Boom, boom, crack, crack—the Great Strength Demon Ape charged through the trees like a bulldozer, smashing countless trunks along the way as branches and leaves filled the air. It vanished into the distance, leaving a trail of destruction behind.
Ji Xuan saw this from another direction and froze for a moment. Then she chased after them, but she was far slower than the man and ape ahead, and could only follow at a distance.
"Yah! Yah!" As the Great Strength Demon Ape raced along, it let out deafening roars that carried far into the distance. Dozens of kilometers away, two green lanterns suddenly lit up in a pitch-black cave at the bottom of a mountain ravine. The rustle of a huge creature moving echoed from within. Then a rank wind rose, and a colossal beast shot out of the cave, streaking toward the sound of the Great Strength Demon Ape's cries.
By then, Chen Daolin was getting impatient with the Great Strength Demon Ape's endless flight. He also had a vague sense that something was wrong, so he decided to end the chase quickly.
"King Kai Fist, five times!"
A tremendous force surged from within Chen Daolin and flooded his entire body. His spirits lifted. He stamped his right foot hard against the ground, which exploded beneath him. Through the flying dust, a streak of Flowing Light shot forward, racing toward the Great Strength Demon Ape hundreds of meters ahead at astonishing speed.
Hearing the commotion behind it, the Great Strength Demon Ape glanced back instinctively. The moment it saw the streak of Flowing Light, both eyes bulged in terror. It let out a strange cry, its steel-hard muscles swelling, then pumped its legs like a windmill and ran for its life with every ounce of strength it had.
But the speed difference between Chen Daolin and the Great Strength Demon Ape had never been large. Now, with the King Kai Fist sending his speed soaring, he far outstripped it. Both of them broke the sound barrier, and the few hundred meters between them vanished in the blink of an eye. After only two or three seconds, Chen Daolin was behind the Great Strength Demon Ape, a cruel smile on his face.
Just as Chen Daolin was about to intercept the cunning Great Strength Demon Ape, the space ahead suddenly opened up. The ape abruptly turned and swerved to the side. By the time Chen Daolin reacted, he had already rushed hundreds of meters past it and had nearly slammed into a mountain. He hurried to a stop and spun around, staring at the speck a thousand meters away, his expression darkening.
"I got played by a monkey?" Chen Daolin gritted his teeth, irritated. "I refuse to believe I can't catch you today!"
Chen Daolin steeled himself. His figure blurred and vanished from where he stood as a sonic boom rang out.
From a high vantage point in the distance, two streaks could be seen racing over the mountain range: a large black one in front and a smaller gray one behind. The distance between them visibly shrank.
One thousand five hundred meters.
Eight hundred meters.
Five hundred meters.
Three hundred meters.
A smile appeared on Chen Daolin's face.
A smile appeared on the Great Strength Demon Ape's monkey face too.
Chen Daolin's expression changed. Without hesitation, he turned and ran, unleashing his full speed. He was even a little faster than before.
"Gwaaah—"
An eerie, chilling cry rang out, full of fury. The next moment, a streak of blue light appeared in the sky. As it faded, it revealed a giant serpent more than two hundred meters long and as thick as a water tank. Blue scales covered its long body, and its triangular head had a pair of narrow, cold eyes. Strangest of all, its enormous body floated in the air as if unaffected by gravity, and a pair of broad, powerful blue wings sprouted from its back.
"Yah! Yah!" Seeing the giant serpent, which resembled a blue divine dragon, the Great Strength Demon Ape started waving its arms and squealing like a bullied puppy that had found its master.
"Roar!" The blue serpent seemed to understand the ape. Anger showed plainly in its eyes. It loved to sleep and had been resting in its cave after eating its fill. It hadn't expected an outsider to enter its territory and hunt down one of its underlings.
Though it was a newly ascended King-level Monster, the Winged Snake King was as intelligent as a human. It instantly grasped what had happened. Without a second thought, it became a streak of Flowing Light and flew after Chen Daolin.
"Gwaaah—"
Its piercing, strange cry echoed across the sky and resounded for nearly a hundred kilometers. Countless monsters in the area stopped what they were doing and crouched on the ground, trembling. It was the instinctive awe they felt toward a "king" at the pinnacle of existence, one whose very life was on a higher level than theirs.
"Just my luck. I actually provoked a King-level Monster." As Chen Daolin ran for his life, his mind raced as he tried to figure out how to escape his predicament.
"It can fly, and it's faster than me... Wait, no. Why can't it catch up?" Chen Daolin had been panicking and focused only on running. But when he glanced back, he saw the King-level Monster flying behind him was falling farther and farther behind.
"It can't fly as fast as I can run on the ground." Chen Daolin realized what was happening and felt a surge of relief.
That was only natural. Chen Daolin's physical abilities were already a little above those of an Intermediate War God, and not much slower than a High-level War God. The King Kai Fist boosted every physical attribute—strength, speed, reflexes, defense, and more. Combined with World Destroyer's 2.8-times force amplification, he could unleash fourteen times his strength. With such a massive boost to his speed, he was practically a monster. No War God could match him anymore. Although the Winged Snake King's flight speed far exceeded that of a High-level War God, it couldn't draw on the ground for a burst of speed like a creature using its muscles. It could only rely on its natural flying speed, so it was no surprise that Chen Daolin had left it behind.
The Winged Snake King behind him noticed this too. It was astonished that the human warrior could run faster than it could fly, but since he couldn't fly and could only rely on his body to run, he was still just an ordinary human warrior—not a being on its level. The Winged Snake King was confident it could kill him.
The Winged Snake King dropped to the ground. Its long body coiled and sprang forward like a released spring. With a boom, its speed surged, and it shot nearly a kilometer ahead in an instant—far faster than before. Still not satisfied, it used an ability it had gained after reaching King level. A light, buoyant energy emerged and enveloped its body, increasing the Winged Snake King's speed yet again as it furiously chased after the human running ahead.
"Damn it!" Chen Daolin immediately noticed what had happened, and his heart sank.
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