"Beast Tide?"
Lin Feng stood in the line, his ears perking up.
The burly man continued shouting. "According to our scouts, this Beast Tide is C-Rank in scale, with more than ten thousand beasts expected."
The line erupted in commotion.
The C-Rank Beast Tide had last occurred eight months ago. Nearly two hundred people had died at the Sixth Defense Line, and three sections of the city wall had collapsed.
"All soldiers with the rank of Sergeant Major or above, report to the Command Center for a meeting at once! Everyone else, return to your posts, check your equipment, and stock up on elixirs!"
As soon as the burly man finished speaking, the soldiers around them began to stir.
Lin Feng didn't follow the crowd toward the Command Center.
He turned back to his tent, picked up Mountain Splitter, and headed west of the Base Camp.
On the way, he ran into Zhang Qian.
"Sergeant Major Lin! The Command Center's to the east. You're going the wrong way!"
"I'm not going."
"Huh?" Zhang Qian hurried after him. "Commander Li called this meeting himself. Every Sergeant Major has to be there..."
"Get me excused."
Lin Feng didn't look back. He kept walking.
"Just tell them I have diarrhea."
Zhang Qian froze in place, mouth hanging open for a long moment.
Diarrhea?
The Beast Tide was coming. The whole defense line was on Level Two alert, and a Sergeant Major was telling him he had diarrhea?
But Lin Feng was already far away.
Zhang Qian stamped his foot and could only steel himself to run toward the Command Center, trying to figure out how to explain this to Commander Li.
Lin Feng left the Base Camp and headed straight for the nearest E-Rank Rift under military control.
The Beast Tide would arrive in three days.
Three days.
For everyone else, it was time to prepare for battle. For him, it was time to grind monsters.
The Exotic Beasts in a Beast Tide were too mixed up, a real hodgepodge. They weren't good for grinding individually.
Rifts were different. The Exotic Beasts inside respawned in fixed patterns, and they were densely packed and all the same species. They were practically custom-built experience dungeons.
In three days, he would push his strength to a whole new level.
Two military guards stood at the rift entrance. After checking Lin Feng's Sergeant Major insignia, they let him through at once.
"Sergeant Major Lin, would you like us to arrange a support team?"
"No."
"You're going in alone?"
"Yeah."
The two guards exchanged glances but didn't stop him.
A Sergeant Major had the authority to do as he pleased.
Lin Feng plunged into the rift.
The moment Mountain Splitter left its sheath, the System Panel lit up in the corner of his vision.
[Current Martial Path Points: 0] [Steel of the Blade: 134/500]
Time to get to work.
On the first level, eight Iron-Armored Centipedes were crouched in the rock crevices on either side of the passage.
Lin Feng didn't even slow down. Mountain Splitter swept left and right, and the centipedes' shells were hardly any sturdier than papier-mâché against an A-Rank War Blade.
Two swings.
The eight centipedes were chopped into sixteen pieces.
[Defeated E-Class Exotic Beasts: Iron-Armored Centipede ×8, gained Martial Path Points ×400] [Steel of the Blade: 142/500]
On the second level, twelve Cold Crystal Scorpions charged at him in a semicircle.
Lin Feng didn't retreat. He unleashed Lost Trace Step, leaving afterimages in his wake as he charged straight into the center of the swarm.
Mountain Splitter flashed again and again, each strike cutting precisely into the gaps in the scorpions' belly plates.
Six seconds.
All twelve scorpions were dead.
[Defeated E-Class Exotic Beasts: Cold Crystal Scorpion ×12, gained Martial Path Points ×600] [Steel of the Blade: 154/500! Second stage activated: Armor Piercing effect! Ignores 100% of the opponent's defense!]
Lin Feng gripped the blade and felt the change.
A sheen almost too faint to see had appeared along its edge. As he swung, he could hear a deep hum in the air.
He found a jutting rock and slashed at it.
The rock split down the middle, its cut face perfectly smooth.
"Armor Piercing."
Lin Feng licked his dry lips.
Before, when fighting E-Class Exotic Beasts, he'd relied on Mountain Splitter's superior material to hack through them.
Now that Armor Piercing was active, every strike came with penetration.
An Exotic Beast's shell? Wastepaper.
He picked up the pace.
The third, fourth, and fifth levels.
He cut down whatever he came across, and didn't neglect the Magic Cores, either.
He was moving too fast. Digging out Magic Cores would waste time.
All he needed now were Martial Path Points and more talent levels.
[Defeated E-Class Exotic Beasts: Rock Armor Lizard ×3, gained Martial Path Points ×150] [Defeated E-Class Exotic Beasts: Blood-Claw Giant Lizard ×2, gained Martial Path Points ×100] [Defeated E-Class Exotic Beasts: Iron-Spined Black Python ×1, gained Martial Path Points ×50] ...
System notifications rang out without pause as his Martial Path Points piled up at a furious pace.
The sixth level of the rift.
At the end of the passage crouched a Black-Armored Spider King, enormous, with sticky strands hanging from all eight legs.
Peak E-Class.
Before, Lin Feng would have had to work for it.
But now?
He strode forward and brought his blade down on the spider's head.
The Armor Piercing effect, combined with Mountain Splitter's A-Rank might, cracked the hard black shell in an instant.
The spider didn't even have time to screech before its brains splattered across the ground.
[Defeated E-Class Exotic Beasts: Black-Armored Spider King ×1, gained Martial Path Points ×80] [Steel of the Blade: 168/500]
He'd cleared the entire E-Rank Rift, from beginning to end.
Lin Feng checked the system.
[Current Martial Path Points: 2130]
More than two thousand points.
Enough.
First, he'd level up.
"Put 400 into my realm."
[Consumed Martial Path Points ×400] [Realm increased: Martial Artist Rank 4 → Martial Artist Rank 5!]
A hot current flooded his body, followed by the familiar dull pain of his bones rearranging. Lin Feng leaned against the rock wall and waited half a minute for the heat to fade.
He clenched and unclenched his fist.
Good.
"Add another 500."
[Consumed Martial Path Points ×500] [Realm increased: Martial Artist Rank 5 → Martial Artist Rank 6!]
This time, it hit hard. It felt as if his meridians were being burned from end to end, and his teeth ground together with a grating crunch. It took more than a minute for the pain to fade.
Martial Artist Rank 6.
A month ago, he'd been a Martial Disciple Rank 5. Now, he'd made it this far.
[Remaining Martial Path Points: 1230]
Lin Feng checked his remaining points and thought for a moment before pouring 500 into Mountain-Breaking Slash.
[Mountain-Breaking Slash (501/1000), power greatly increased]
Then he poured all the remaining 730 into Lost Trace Step.
[Lost Trace Step (731/2000), movement speed significantly increased]
Lin Feng stood and stretched his arms and legs.
A Martial Artist Rank 6 body, the Armor Piercing talent, an A-Rank War Blade, and two advanced Martial Techniques.
With that setup, he was already above average at the Sixth Defense Line.
But it still wasn't enough.
The Beast Tide would include large numbers of C-Rank Exotic Beasts.
C-Rank—that was the level of Martial Ancestors.
He could handle D-Rank Exotic Beasts without much trouble, but C-Rank? He still fell short.
Three days. Two and a half remained.
Lin Feng left the rift and glanced at the sky.
It was only afternoon.
He turned and headed for the Second Rift.
Before you continue