Lin Qingyan jumped down from the boulder, stepping lightly from stone to stone until she reached Jiang Yuan.
"Just okay."
"If I'd made a move, it wouldn't have taken me that long."
She sounded full of herself.
The future Empress Qingyan never admitted defeat.
"Yes, yes, you're amazing."
Jiang Yuan agreed absentmindedly. Seeing his increased level and the 16 merit points on his record card, he couldn't help smiling.
Sure enough, killing monsters was the fastest way to level up!
Seeing his expression, Lin Qingyan grew annoyed. She resolved to find a chance to show him how powerful she was and give him a good shock.
"What should we do with these beast corpses?" Jiang Yuan asked.
"Leave them. You're not thinking of hauling them away, are you?"
"It feels like such a waste..."
"You can take them with you," Lin Qingyan said mockingly. "Or you could start a fire and eat them now. Then they wouldn't go to waste."
"..."
Who knew she could be so sharp-tongued?
The two continued deeper into the Abyss, agreeing on some rules along the way.
"When we run into beasts, we'll take turns fighting them. Whoever gets the kill keeps any dropped equipment and materials."
"The other person can only watch from the side. No interfering or stealing the other person's experience."
They wanted to avoid coming to blows over experience points.
"Come to think of it, Lin, aren't you a healer? Can you kill beasts on your own?"
"What about you? I've never seen an ordinary Assassin class deal forty thousand damage at LV2."
"Looks like we both have plenty of secrets."
As they talked, they suddenly darted in opposite directions.
"Whoosh!"
A sharp, one-meter-long black spike shot out of the ground.
"Rumble..."
The ground ahead suddenly shook violently. The earth and rocks split apart, and a giant lizard, two meters tall and covered in sharp spikes, crawled out.
[Abyssal Monster]: Earth-Splitting Lizard. [Grade]: Common. [Level]: LV6. [Skill]: Fire Spikes. [Remark]: A creature with some intelligence, both low and cunning. It likes to launch surprise attacks from underground.
"My turn this time."
Lin Qingyan put both hands in her jacket pockets and stepped forward.
Looking at her beautiful figure from behind, Jiang Yuan couldn't help wondering what gave her the confidence to venture into the Abyss alone.
Lin Qingyan stood ten meters from the beast. She wore only casual jeans and a black hooded jacket, but her lovely figure was impossible to conceal: long legs, shapely hips, and a waist slim enough to fit in one hand. The glimpse of her snowy-white neck beneath the black jacket was especially captivating.
But Abyssal Beasts didn't care whether you were beautiful or ugly. To them, all humans were food.
"Hiss..."
The Earth-Splitting Lizard let out a shrill sound and slammed its thick forelimb against the ground. The earth trembled, and a crack raced toward Lin Qingyan.
Lin Qingyan lifted her head. Her long black hair fluttered in the wind. Beneath her baseball cap, her stunning face remained calm, her dreamlike ice-blue eyes carrying a trace of disdain and an air of authority.
Her cherry lips moved.
"Stop."
The crack spreading toward her feet seemed to have heard a divine command. It halted instantly!
The Earth-Splitting Lizard visibly froze, tilting its head in confusion.
Jiang Yuan's eyes flickered.
Lin Qingyan spoke again.
"Freeze."
The temperature around the Earth-Splitting Lizard suddenly plunged. Ice spread from its limbs until it was completely encased.
"Shatter."
Clang!
Like a crystal breaking, the ice around the Earth-Splitting Lizard shattered into countless pieces. Its health bar emptied.
Even as it died, the lizard had no idea what had happened. It was completely bewildered.
"That feels a little like a Spell Speaker's abilities..."
Jiang Yuan watched Lin Qingyan's level-up effects appear and thought to himself that her class had to be at least Epic grade.
Lin Qingyan bent down and picked up a bracelet from among the ice fragments.
"Pretty lucky. It dropped equipment, though it's only Common."
She tossed it aside.
Jiang Yuan was taken aback. "You don't want it?"
"Common equipment isn't worth picking up for me." Lin Qingyan glanced sideways at him, her expression proud. "If you want it, you can have it."
Jiang Yuan really did bend down, pick it up, and put it in his inventory.
Rich people really knew how to waste money. Even Common equipment could sell for tens of thousands.
Only a fool would pass it up.
When he looked up again,
Lin Qingyan was no longer there.
The girl's cool, commanding voice rang out in the distance, as if ordering the heavens and earth.
"Thunder Strike."
Arcs of lightning appeared in the sky. A bolt crackling with destructive energy crashed down.
Only then did Jiang Yuan realize what had happened. "It's my turn!!"
[God Speed]
He crossed hundreds of meters in an instant, reaching the spot where the lightning had struck.
Looking at the Earth-Splitting Lizard, charred on the outside and tender within, Jiang Yuan turned to Lin Qingyan. "Lin, don't you think it's a little unfair to break the rules we agreed on?"
Seeing Jiang Yuan appear as if he'd teleported, Lin Qingyan's face flashed with shock, and her expression turned slightly awkward.
She turned away and said haughtily, "You already killed so many Iron-Headed Wolves. So all these Earth-Splitting Lizards should be my prey."
"You even took my equipment. If you don't like it, go kill monsters somewhere else on your own."
Empress Qingyan never played fair.
"So that's how it is." Jiang Yuan's face took on a kindly smile. "All right, all right."
Suddenly, the ground somewhere nearby stirred, and an iron spike shot out.
Lin Qingyan's clear eyes flashed. Her cherry lips parted. "Thunder..."
Before she could finish,
Jiang Yuan appeared above that spot in an instant and punched downward.
Boom!
The hard ground caved in over an area five meters across, crushing and flattening the Earth-Splitting Lizard beneath it.
[ Ding, you killed an Earth-Splitting Lizard. EXP +50 ]
"You!"
Lin Qingyan was furious and immediately looked elsewhere. But whenever she noticed a beast's movements, Jiang Yuan would kill it even faster than she could say "Thunder Strike."
His teleport-like speed and absurd single-target damage made him a monster-killing machine. No beast ever survived long enough to take a second punch.
After he stole seven or eight kills in a row,
Lin Qingyan finally snapped.
"Bind."
This time, her attack wasn't aimed at a beast. It was aimed at Jiang Yuan.
Jiang Yuan felt an invisible force wrap around his limbs and body like ropes, pinning him in midair.
Lin Qingyan looked at him coolly. "I've put up with you again and again because we're classmates. Don't make me get serious."
Jiang Yuan smiled.
"If that's how it is..."
Under Lin Qingyan's astonished gaze, terrifying waves of vitality burst from Jiang Yuan's body, shattering the invisible restraints and dropping him to the ground.
A layer of crimson ripples covered him. The handsome young man's black hair fluttered as he rolled his neck and flexed his fists, his pale golden eyes reflecting Lin Qingyan's figure.
"If neither of us will back down, then let's fight."
Lin Qingyan's eyes narrowed.
"Just what I was thinking."
She didn't think she'd lose.
Beneath the Abyss's gloomy sky, surrounded by beasts in a dangerous landscape, the young man and woman stood facing off, tension crackling between them.
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