Wan Dong

Although he had Wang Meng, a deadweight, tagging along, and the blood from the wound on Wang Meng's back had attracted plenty of hungry monsters, Luo Zhe still dealt with them all with relative ease.

There was no helping it. In this Monster Town, where even the strongest monsters were only at the Primary Beast Soldier Level, Luo Zhe—a War General Level martial artist—was like a max-level character returning to a beginner village to slaughter everything in sight.

He cut the left ear from the Tiger Mastiff Hound's corpse on the ground. It was the seventh monster he had hunted.

Generally speaking, hunting three monsters was almost a sure guarantee of passing. Luo Zhe had hunted seven, so he was certain to qualify!

Luo Zhe's original plan was to hunt enough monsters, then seriously hone his blade techniques and movement skills. After all, until now, he had only trained with the dojo's neural response testing equipment.

Although Luo Zhe had always been on high alert and thrown himself wholeheartedly into every training session, he still couldn't help thinking, They're only rubber bullets. It's no big deal if I get hit. The results were still somewhat inferior to real combat. That was why he wanted to replace training with actual fights.

A single Beast Soldier Level monster posed little threat to Luo Zhe. Even the fastest Shadow Cat couldn't touch him before he killed it with a single strike. But if he made up for quality with quantity and let several monsters surround and attack him, the training would naturally be more effective.

But now he had Wang Meng with him, and Wang Meng was injured. If anything went wrong, it wouldn't be a joke.

After weighing it over, Luo Zhe gave up on using the monsters for practice.

Monsters could think, too. They weren't like game mechanics, where they wouldn't attack unless you struck first. The Shadow Cat monster Luo Zhe had encountered earlier, for example, had even tried to ambush him.

There were too many unknowns. That was the main reason Luo Zhe abandoned the idea.

Wan Dong, the gloomy young man with a purple birthmark on his face, was striding arrogantly down the street with a Ghost Moon Blade in hand. Monster blood stained his clothes.

Ever since the assessment began, he had been searching for Luo Zhe.

Among the 1,680 Quasi-Martial Artists taking the Martial Artist Combat Assessment, only Luo Zhe and Luo Feng were close to Wan Dong's strength. They might even be stronger. As for Ma Xiao, who had also been recruited early by the Thunder Martial Arts Hall, he was a firearms prodigy. He was skilled with guns, but his physical fitness wasn't particularly high.

Though Wan Dong knew full well that he was clearly weaker than Luo Zhe, he felt no pressure. He wasn't even nineteen yet, while Luo Zhe was already twenty-one. It was only natural for there to be a gap in their abilities.

Even so, Wan Dong wanted to give it his all and compete against Luo Zhe and Luo Feng, to see who was the best among this batch of Quasi-Martial Artists!

But Luo Zhe's whereabouts were always hard to pin down. Especially after he teamed up with Wang Meng, he began avoiding streets with lots of alleys to prevent any mishaps, and only wandered around the broad, open squares. So even after searching the town for ages, Wan Dong still hadn't caught so much as a glimpse of him.

Suddenly, Wan Dong's gaze sharpened as he looked into the distance.

Two figures were walking slowly down the street, sneaking glances around like students slipping out to visit an internet café, afraid they might run into their homeroom teacher.

Suddenly, a spotlight shone on the street ahead of them. In that instant, Wan Dong recognized one of them as Luo Zhe—the very person he had been searching for so long.

Wan Dong was overjoyed. He immediately shot forward, his speed surging as he covered more than ten meters in the blink of an eye.

Luo Zhe and Wang Meng were making their way down the street. Three Quasi-Martial Artists had appeared near the dilapidated three-story villa where they had been staying, and it seemed that seven or eight Tiger Mastiff Hounds were chasing them.

To keep them from leading the danger their way, Luo Zhe had no choice but to leave the villa with Wang Meng ahead of time and look for somewhere safer.

As they went, Luo Zhe carefully watched their surroundings, afraid a dozen Iron-Haired Wild Boars might suddenly come charging out of some corner. That really would be a disaster.

Fortunately, the way was quiet. Aside from a Shadow Cat that had been hiding in a corner and tried to ambush them, they hadn't encountered any other monsters.

Suddenly, the sound of something cutting through the air came from the street ahead. Luo Zhe immediately turned toward it, raising the War Blade in his hand as his nerves tensed. A figure was charging toward them at high speed.

But in the pitch-black night, with no spotlight to illuminate the way, Luo Zhe could barely make out that the figure rushing toward them was human-shaped.

"Stop!" Luo Zhe shouted urgently. "Or I'll attack!"

The two sides were now less than a hundred meters apart. At the other person's speed, they would be in front of them in the blink of an eye.

But the other person showed no sign of slowing down, still charging straight at them. To ensure Wang Meng's safety, Luo Zhe didn't dare take any chances. He sprang into motion and swung his War Blade. The blade flashed like the moon, and in a lightning-fast strike, his Blood Shadow Battle Blade was about to land on the other person.

He was careful not to put too much force behind it and kill the person with a single blow. He used only about three thousand kilograms of force.

At that moment, the other person raised his Ghost Moon Blade to meet the attack. With a clang, he staggered half a step back and blocked the Blood Shadow Battle Blade, then immediately tried to counter with a horizontal slash, forcing Luo Zhe to let go of his blade.

"Hmph!"

Feeling the other person's move, Luo Zhe instantly understood what he was trying to do. Seeing that he wouldn't take a hint, Luo Zhe unleashed more than eight thousand kilograms of force and brought his blade crashing down on the Ghost Moon Blade!

"Ugh!" The other person grunted. He and his blade were sent flying five meters. He rolled across the ground several times before coming to a stop.

Luo Zhe could faintly smell blood. That blow had clearly made the other person cough up blood, but he felt no guilt whatsoever.

Pitying your enemy was the greatest disrespect you could show your own life!

Besides, in an environment like this, the other person had shown no sign of slowing down and had charged straight at them. If he had been harboring ill intentions, Luo Zhe and Wang Meng's lives would have been in serious danger. The best defense was to snuff out danger before it could take root!

"Brother Zhe, you're amazing!" Wang Meng hurried over from behind. Looking at the figure lying on the ground, he praised Luo Zhe. "Those two strikes just now almost made me piss myself! Your swings were way too fast. I hadn't even reacted yet—I just heard two clanging sounds, and then he went flying!"

Luo Zhe didn't turn around. He kept his eyes fixed on the figure on the ground. "Get up. I didn't hit you hard enough to kill you."

Wang Meng also turned to look at the figure on the ground. After a moment, following two heavy gasps, the figure got back to his feet and replied in a muffled voice, "Luo Zhe, you really do have the best physical fitness among us. I'll remember that strike."