"Feng Qingmo, within 20 minutes, kill the 100 Reckless Bulls surrounding you. Ninety are Advanced Beast Soldier Level, and 10 are Elementary Beast General Level. If you die at any point, you will fail. If you don't kill them all within 20 minutes, you will also fail. This is your first time entering the Trial Tower, so you have one minute to prepare."
The electronic voice rang across the grassland, like thunder crashing overhead.
"Why is it one minute? Wasn't it five?" Feng Qingmo muttered. He made the most of his time to get used to exerting force with his body, and, most importantly, to adjust to his eyesight, which had just returned. He had grown used to using Spiritual Force to observe his surroundings. Now he had no Spiritual Force, but his eyesight was excellent. The results were much the same, but he still needed time to adapt.
The minute passed quickly. More than a hundred Reckless Bulls appeared in the distance. With 10 Elementary Beast General Level bulls leading them, the other 90 Advanced Beast Soldier Level bulls thundered across the grass on all fours, charging toward Feng Qingmo.
"Moo!"
The momentum of the charging herd made Feng Qingmo's scalp tingle. It was his first time facing a beast stampede. The bulls' horns, tinted a faint red, were exceptionally sharp and seemed to gleam with blood.
"Bring it on!" After the initial shock, a surge of excitement rose in Feng Qingmo. He charged forward. Each Reckless Bull was over three meters long, while Feng Qingmo stood only around 1.8 meters tall. As a result, only three or five bulls could attack him at once.
A sword's whistle rang out. Feng Qingmo unleashed his Micro-level footwork to its fullest, constantly shifting position as he thrust his sword again and again. Each strike pierced a bull through the eye or ear, taking its life.
His physical attributes were now 10,000 kg of strength and a speed of 150 meters per second. He was faster and stronger than the Advanced Beast Soldier Level bulls. Driven by his Micro-level footwork, he quickly cut down one bull after another, using the bodies of the others to block the attacks of the Elementary Beast General Level bulls.
He had little actual combat experience. Although his footwork had long since reached the Micro-level, he had only worked it out on his own. Facing the assault of more than a hundred bulls, his movements still had flaws. Several times, he nearly got caught by a horn, and danger closed in on him. Fortunately, most of the bulls were only Advanced Beast Soldier Level, so he could still hold his ground.
A few minutes later, his footwork gradually grew smoother. As the number of bulls dwindled, his Micro-level movements became more refined, and dodging grew easier.
Under the pressure of the encirclement, his swordsmanship, which had reached the Specialized level, gradually shed many useless feints and became simpler and more efficient.
Seven minutes later, the last Elementary Beast General Level bull fell, and he finally cleared the first stage.
Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, the corpses on the ground vanished in an instant. The electronic voice sounded again.
"Stage A cleared. Stage B will now begin."
"Kill the 100 Elementary Beast General Level Reckless Bulls surrounding you within 30 minutes. If you die at any point, you will fail. If you don't kill them all within 30 minutes, you will also fail."
As soon as the voice ended, 100 Reckless Bulls appeared several hundred meters away. This time, every one of them was Elementary Beast General Level.
Feng Qingmo took a deep breath and charged forward again, his steps alternating between fast and slow.
The strange shifts in his speed made the bulls at the front hesitate. The human had been in front of their horns one moment, but in the next, they had to turn their heads to follow him.
The hundred-meter gap vanished in an instant. With a flicker of his body, Feng Qingmo slipped between two bulls. His body exploded with force, and his sword flashed once, then again!
The first few bulls in the charge fell at once. Their bodies slid forward with the force of their momentum. Feng Qingmo shifted his step to avoid them, then plunged into the herd.
Though he no longer had Spiritual Force to assist him, he had just weathered a charge from a herd of bulls, and his concentration was absolute. As he moved, he dodged their horns and swung his sword again and again, using the simplest and most efficient technique to reap their lives.
"Not good!" Feng Qingmo's expression changed. He dodged a charging bull, but after it overshot him, its tail whipped around and cut off his escape route.
Two bulls were charging straight at him with their heads lowered, and another on his left was tossing its head to gore him.
"Fine, I'll risk it!" He thrust out his left hand and pressed his palm against the head of the bull goring him from the left. A burst of hidden force sent the bull staggering backward, and Feng Qingmo used the rebound to dodge right.
As he dodged, he turned sideways, presenting his back to the whipping tail.
The hidden force in his left hand had just burst out, but in an instant, he summoned another surge and concentrated it over the part of his back about to be struck.
With a soft thwack, the tail lashed his back, only to bounce off. His sword flashed rapidly, and the two bulls in front of him fell.
"It worked!" Feng Qingmo was delighted. He had been practicing for a long time, trying to work the Force Application Technique into his body's defenses, but he had never succeeded. Now, under the pressure of a desperate situation, he had finally managed to incorporate it into his defenses.
After successfully blocking that attack, he began to spread the hidden force over whichever parts of his body needed protection. Now he could face the charging herd with far greater ease.
His sword flashed again and again, and bull after bull fell. Their numbers dwindled steadily.
A little over ten minutes later, the last Intermediate Beast General Level bull fell. The electronic voice rang out once more, and all the corpses vanished in an instant, along with every trace of blood on the ground.
"Stage B cleared. Stage C will now begin."
"Kill the 200 Reckless Bulls surrounding you within 50 minutes. Of these, 190 are Elementary Beast General Level and 10 are Intermediate Beast General Level. If you die at any point, you will fail. If you don't kill them all within 50 minutes, you will also fail."
"From the looks of it, Stage C must be the hardest in every level..." Seeing the 200 Reckless Bulls appear several hundred meters away, Feng Qingmo formed a theory.
There were twice as many as before, but 10 of them were Intermediate Beast General Level. In terms of quality, they were worlds apart from the bulls in Stage B.
Feng Qingmo's Force Application Technique was only at 1.8 times. The virtual body's base strength was 10,000 kg, so it could reach only 18,000 kg at full power—barely comparable to a newly advanced Intermediate Warlord (whose minimum physical strength was 16,000 kg).
Intermediate Beast General Level monsters were usually stronger than humans, and bulls were renowned for their strength.
More than a hundred smaller Reckless Bulls charged toward Feng Qingmo, led by 10 enormous bulls whose horns were completely fiery red.
Feng Qingmo tried the same trick, moving forward early in an attempt to disrupt their formation. This time, however, it didn't work very well.
The Intermediate Beast General Level bulls in the middle were momentarily thrown off, but the bulls on both sides accelerated and closed in at the same time.
With no other choice, Feng Qingmo could only retreat at full speed. But no matter how fast he ran, he couldn't outrun the bulls' charge, and they soon caught up with him.
The 10 Intermediate Beast General Level bulls formed the inner ring, while the 190 Elementary Beast General Level bulls formed the outer one, surrounding Feng Qingmo. After killing seven Intermediate Beast General Level bulls and dozens of Elementary Beast General Level bulls, he was knocked down when a bull gored him in the back. The herd then trampled him to death.
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