Report In? Let's Go Kill to Our Hearts' Content First

Fortress No. 7 was twice the size of Fortress No. 13, but the atmosphere was completely different.

What stood welded atop the walls were not watchtowers, but heavy spiritual-energy artillery emplacements—one every fifty meters, their dark muzzles aimed at the northern wilderness.

When the transport aircraft landed, a line of people was already waiting on the tarmac.

At their head stood a female officer in her forties. She had short hair, a perfectly pressed uniform, and major's insignia on her shoulders.

She stood ramrod straight, a file tucked in one hand.

"Li Zhengyang?"

"Here."

"I'm Song Qing, combat staff officer of Fortress No. 7, responsible for processing your transfer. Commander Han asked me to tell you that there'll be a meeting at headquarters at three this afternoon. The commanding officers of every battalion will be there. You were specially transferred by the military district, so by protocol, you need to introduce yourself."

Li Zhengyang jumped down the gangway, Dragon-Gallbladder Golden Spear in hand, and looked around.

"Where's the mission hall?"

Song Qing froze for a moment.

"Didn't you hear what I said? Three this afternoon. Headquarters. Meeting."

"I heard you. What time is it now?"

"Ten in the morning."

"Five hours. That's enough time for a killing run, right?"

Song Qing pressed her lips together and took a deep breath.

"Have you not figured out the situation? Commander Han is in the Martial King Realm, and he doesn't have the best temper. You dare skip a meeting he arranged?"

"I never said I wouldn't go. I said five hours is enough for a killing run. I'll be back before three. Neither thing will be delayed."

Song Qing stared at him for three seconds.

"The tallest building in the central district. First-floor lobby."

"Thanks."

Li Zhengyang slung his spear over his shoulder and ran toward the central district.

Song Qing stood on the tarmac, watching his retreating figure jog away. Then she muttered to the communications officer beside her.

"Did the military district send the wrong person? Does he look like some specially transferred elite to you? He looks like he's rushing to a market."

The mission hall was several times larger than the one at Fortress No. 13.

An electronic display stretched from floor to ceiling, densely packed mission listings constantly scrolling and refreshing.

Li Zhengyang stood before the screen and scanned Zone A.

Every mission in Zone A was marked red, signifying high risk.

[A031: Hunt a Rift Scorpion swarm of Fourth-Rank Magic Beasts. Estimated number: 30. Location: Northern Wilderness Rift Zone. Reward: 1,000,000.]

Fourth-Rank, Martial Spirit Rank.

He was now a Fifth-Rank Martial Sect.

A Martial Sect fighting Martial Spirit Rank Demonic Beasts was the same as when he had used Martial Spirit strength at Fortress No. 13 to slaughter Second Rank and Third-Rank Martial Artists.

A complete dimensional crush.

But the numbers were there—around thirty, not one or two stragglers.

Fourth-Rank Magic Beasts had their own social structures, territorial instincts, and leaders.

When invaded, they would counterattack as a group.

If thirty of them pounced at once, even if each individual one could not defeat him, the drain on his stamina would still be troublesome.

Still, with the physique granted by the Indestructible Golden Body, stamina was hardly a problem.

"A031. I'll take it."

The attendant at the counter was a bearded sergeant, cracking sunflower seeds.

Hearing someone wanted to take a Zone A mission, he looked up. A sunflower seed shell fell from the corner of his mouth.

"Who are you?"

Li Zhengyang slapped his sergeant major insignia and Martial Warrior certification card onto the counter.

The bearded sergeant picked up the certification card, examined it, then looked at Li Zhengyang's face again.

"Just transferred here?"

"Arrived today."

"You arrived today and you're taking a Zone A mission? Brother, do you know what Rift Scorpions are? Last month, six men from Falcon Squad went in. When they came back, their captain was missing his right leg."

"What was his strength?"

"Sixth-Rank Martial Spirit."

"Then that was normal."

"Normal?"

The bearded sergeant opened his mouth.

"So you're going alone?"

"Alone."

The sergeant's bag of sunflower seeds dropped to the floor.

Li Zhengyang ignored him after that and tapped the counter.

"Register it."

The bearded sergeant hesitated, then entered it into the system and hit confirm.

"Leave the fortress through the north gate and go twelve kilometers north. There's a military marker at the entrance to the Rift Valley Zone."

"Got it."

Li Zhengyang picked up his spear and left.

The crowd behind him erupted.

"Does bragging not get taxed anymore?"

"Forget him. We'll see whether he comes back tonight."

"He's either a lunatic or a dead man."

After leaving the fortress through the north gate, the wind over the wilderness was far colder than at Fortress No. 13.

The ground beneath his feet was cracked, gray-brown gravel stretching all the way to the horizon.

The air carried a dry, bloody stench, though there was no telling which Demonic Beast had left it behind.

Li Zhengyang sped up.

With the full physical capabilities of a Martial Sect unleashed, he covered twelve kilometers in under eight minutes.

The entrance to the Rift Valley Zone was a massive fissure running east to west, over ten meters wide and too deep to see the bottom.

A military marker stood beside the rift, sprayed with large red words: Fourth-Rank Magic Beast Activity Zone. Solo Entry Prohibited.

Li Zhengyang jumped down beside the marker.

The rift was not that deep—just over thirty meters. Its bottom was covered in gravel and the dried bed of a dark river.

Both rock walls were densely covered in caves of varying sizes. The largest could fit an entire truck.

Rift Scorpion nests.

The files said that Rift Scorpions were Fourth-Rank Magic Beasts of the arthropod type. They lived in groups and excelled at ambushes.

Their tail stingers contained deadly venom. Anyone below the Martial Master rank would die from poisoning, while a Martial Sect's combat strength would be cut in half after being poisoned.

They had a leader. The leader was three times the size of an ordinary individual, and its tail stinger could fire venom up to twenty meters.

The moment Li Zhengyang landed, the gravel beneath his feet trembled.

Twenty meters away, rustling came from the first cave.

Then the second. The third...

The scorpions were coming out.

Gray-brown carapaces. Eight legs. Bodies about the size of calves. Their tails were raised high, the stingers glowing a ghostly green.

One.

Two.

Five.

Ten.

Rift Scorpions poured endlessly out of the caves lining the bottom of the rift.

They did not attack immediately. Instead, they formed a semicircle and trapped Li Zhengyang within one section of the rift. Their tails rose in unison, while their pincers snapped open and shut with a dense clattering sound.

They were waiting for their leader's command.

Li Zhengyang counted them.

Eighteen.

There were still more hiding deeper in the caves.

"Not enough."

He took the Dragon-Gallbladder Golden Spear from his back and poured Blood Qi into it.

All three blood grooves lit up at once.

Dark golden radiance burst across the rift floor, illuminating the gray-brown gravel in brilliant light.

The scorpion swarm stirred.

The foremost scorpion charged first. Its eight legs tore across the ground at tremendous speed, and its tail stinger lashed over its back, carrying a stream of green venom.

Li Zhengyang stepped aside. The venom grazed his shoulder and flew past, landing on the rock wall behind him with a hiss. The stone corroded into a fist-sized pit.

The venom was no joke.

Collapse Formula.

One thrust pierced through the scorpion's head shell, the spear tip bursting out through its abdomen. A Fourth-Rank Magic Beast's carapace was little more than paper before an S-Rank weapon and Martial Sect Blood Qi.

He pulled out the spear.

The second scorpion pounced.

A horizontal sweep.

The spear shaft slammed into the scorpion's body, sending the entire creature flying over ten meters before it crashed into the rock wall. Half its carapace shattered.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The entire scorpion swarm moved.

More than thirty Rift Scorpions surged in from every direction.

The bottom of the rift was only so wide. Dozens of huge insects packed tightly together, so dense there was barely anywhere to place a foot.

Li Zhengyang did not retreat.

Cloud-Shocking Steps unfolded beneath his feet, and his body darted through the scorpion swarm. The Dragon-Gallbladder Golden Spear whirled up and down, every strike taking one scorpion away.

Collapse Formula pierced skulls, Twisting Formula shredded organs, and sweeping strikes cleared the field.

Scorpion blood was green. It splattered across the rock walls, the ground, and even coated his face.

Several scorpions lashed their stingers at him.

The Indestructible Golden Body activated automatically, and a faint golden glow surfaced across his skin.

The venomous stingers struck his body without even breaking the outer layer of his skin.

The defensive power of a top-grade Earth Rank body cultivation technique against the stingers of Fourth-Rank Magic Beasts?

It was a scratch at most.

He killed for ten minutes.

The bottom of the rift fell silent.

More than thirty scorpion corpses lay strewn everywhere, and the air was filled with a pungent, fishy stench.

Li Zhengyang shook the fragments of scorpion legs hanging from his spear.

The leader still had not appeared.

He walked deeper into the rift.

He stopped in front of the largest cave.

The entrance was three meters high and four meters wide. Heavy breathing came from inside.

"Come out."

The breathing paused for a beat.

Then a piercing shriek came from within the cave.

The ground shook.

A Rift Scorpion of absurd size charged out of the cave.

Ordinary individuals were calf-sized. This one's carapace was several shades darker, nearly black, with an oily sheen across its surface.

Its raised tail stood four meters high, its stinger glowing with dark green fluorescence.

Fourth-Rank Peak, close to Fifth-Rank.