Days of Consecutive Battles

Song Chen took a deep breath, removed his battle armor, and set it beside his warblade.

These two items, along with that iron box, were his greatest gains from this trip.

He glanced at his Killing Value.

[Current Killing Value: 3850 points.]

He was not far from five thousand now. At most, another half day of killing would be enough.

The next day.

Song Chen sat cross-legged inside a tree hollow and opened the panel again.

[Current Killing Value: 5210 points.]

He had finally reached five thousand. This was the first time he had possessed so much Killing Value.

Without hesitation, he opened the blade technique interface and began upgrading.

[Upgrading to the Grandmaster Realm requires 5000 points of Killing Value. Confirm?]

"Confirm."

In an instant, countless insights into blade techniques flooded into his mind.

The profound mysteries he had been unable to comprehend before now suddenly became crystal clear.

The killing moves he had practiced over and over yet never managed to grasp now all fell into place. It was as though his body had automatically drilled them thousands upon thousands of times, every move and every form carved into his bones.

He did not know how long passed before he opened his eyes.

Grandmaster.

C-Grade blade technique, Grandmaster Realm.

That meant his understanding of this blade technique now stood shoulder to shoulder with its creator.

Any move came at his fingertips; any variation followed his heart. With one slash, everything seemed to arise naturally.

He gripped the Thunderbolt Blade and gave it a light swing.

A blade gleam flashed. A slash mark half a meter deep appeared on the stone wall three meters away.

That had merely been a casual strike, without activating his vitality or adding any ability.

Song Chen smiled.

Another day passed.

That day, he got a little carried away.

Breaking through to Second Rank, becoming a blade technique grandmaster, gaining an A-Grade warblade and B-Grade battle armor—this string of gains had made him lose himself in triumph.

While killing mutated beasts, he encountered a Third Rank beast: an enormous Mutated Black Bear, with a Vitality Value of at least three hundred.

When that thing stood upright, it was over ten meters tall, its entire body radiating a terrifying aura.

Song Chen wanted to test his current strength. Instead of running, he charged in with his blade—and then reality taught him a harsh lesson.

A Third Rank beast was astonishingly fast. He slashed at it, but the Black Bear easily dodged and slapped him with a backhand.

His entire body flew away, snapping two trees before crashing into a thicket.

If not for his B-Grade Battle Armor, that slap would have taken his life.

He scrambled up and ran.

The Black Bear chased him across more than a dozen mountain peaks. In the end, he jumped into a river and drifted downstream for over ten miles before finally shaking off that big fellow.

When he crawled out of the river, he was covered in wounds and looked utterly miserable.

He lay on the riverbank, gasping for air. "Fuck... Third Rank... it's this fierce..."

It took him two days of recuperation before he recovered.

Most of the wounds on his body had healed, but the lesson remained carved in his heart.

The higher the rank, the harder it was to fight above one's level.

The gap between First Rank and Second Rank was tenfold, and the gap between Second Rank and Third Rank was also tenfold.

They might seem similar, but in truth, they were worlds apart.

There were only nine points between one and ten, but there were a full ninety points between ten and a hundred.

The gap was too vast. It could not be bridged with a good blade alone.

The seventh day after entering Vast Wild Mountain.

Song Chen appeared on the outskirts of Vast Wild Mountain again. This time, he was no longer floating on air.

He was like a precise killing machine, harvesting wildly through the mountain forest.

Peak Second Rank mutated beasts, one slash.

Mid Second Rank ones, one slash.

A group of Second Rank ones, a few slashes.

He even began actively seeking troublesome opponents: Mutated Lynxes, Mutated Poison Pythons, and Mutated Giant Apes.

Each had its own unique way of fighting, and each could teach him something new.

He killed from dawn to dusk, then from dusk until deep into the night.

When tired, he found somewhere to rest. Once recovered, he continued killing.

At dawn on the eighth day, he leaned against a large tree, breathing heavily.

Then he looked at the system.

[Current Killing Value: 5450 points]

Enough.

He had finally saved enough.

He took a deep breath and opened the system upgrade interface.

[Upgrading the system to the next level requires 5000 points of Killing Value. Confirm?]

"Confirm."

Light flickered.

The system interface was completely renewed.

[System upgraded]

[Unlocked B-Grade products]

[Killing Value acquisition efficiency increased by 20%]

Song Chen's breathing quickened. B-Grade products had finally arrived.

There was also the added effect of gaining 20% more Killing Value. Not bad, not bad.

He impatiently opened the shop, examined the products within, and quickly selected several items he was very satisfied with.

[B-Grade Spirit Energy Essence - 500 points/bottle]: Condensed from pure spirit energy. Greatly increases Vitality Value, with effects far surpassing Spirit Energy Blood Liquid. Suitable for Second Rank martial artists.

[B-Grade Battle Skill - Wings of Gale - 3000 points]: A movement-type battle skill. Can condense wings of wind for brief flight and greatly increase speed.

[B-Grade Ability - Eye of True Sight - 3500 points]: A mental-type ability. Can see through concealment and illusions, and perceive enemies' weaknesses.

Wings of Gale, Eye of True Sight.

He now had a blade technique, an offensive ability, battle armor, and a warblade.

What was he lacking? Speed and perception.

Wings of Gale could let him fly, making him more agile in the forest. Eye of True Sight could let him see through mutated beasts skilled at concealment and detect danger ahead of time.

Those two would perfectly make up for his shortcomings.

But for now, he still lacked Killing Value.

At noon that day, Song Chen accumulated three thousand points and immediately exchanged them for Wings of Gale.

[Confirm spending 3000 points of Killing Value to purchase Wings of Gale?]

"Confirm."

The method of circulating Wings of Gale was instantly etched into his memory.

He opened his eyes. With a thought, two pale cyan Wings of Wind condensed behind his back and gently flapped.

His feet left the ground, and he slowly rose into the air. The beginner-level Wings of Gale could not fly very high or very fast, but it was enough.

With Wings of Gale aiding him, Song Chen needed only three or four hours to accumulate another 3500 points.

He exchanged them again at once.

[Confirm spending 3500 points of Killing Value to purchase Eye of True Sight?]

"Confirm!"

A ray of light surged into his body.

He closed his eyes. When he opened them again, a faint golden gleam flashed in their depths.

Eye of True Sight, activated.

Everything around him became incomparably clear in his eyes.

A Mutated Lynx lurking in a tree canopy a hundred meters away was seen through by him at a glance.

He smiled.

The ninth day after entering Vast Wild Mountain.

Morning sunlight streamed through gaps in the canopy, casting mottled patches of light and shadow across the ground.

Song Chen walked out of the cave and took a deep breath.

Yesterday, he had kept killing until deep into the night before resting, mainly to save some Killing Value to increase his Vitality Value and upgrade Wings of Gale along the way.

The effects of the five-hundred-point-per-bottle Spirit Energy Stock Solution were even better than he had expected.

He used five bottles, and his Vitality Value soared from 10.8 to 15.4.

Among people his age, that already made him a monster-level existence.

After all, the full-score standard for the Vitality Value assessment in the Martial Arts College Entrance Exam was only ten points.

He hung the Thunderbolt Blade at his waist, wore the dark cyan battle armor, and filled the backpack on his back with Crystal Cores from the mutated beasts he had hunted over the past few days.

It was time to return.

Today was the ninth day. Tomorrow was the official Martial Arts College Entrance Exam.

He had to return to Anning City before five in the afternoon and complete the registration procedures.