Slaying a Fifth-Rank Martial Artist

The first thing the Rift Scorpion did after bursting out of its cave was not attack, but lower its head to look at the corpses of its kin strewn across the ground.

Then it raised its head and stared at Li Zhengyang.

All eight eyes brimmed with killing intent.

Li Zhengyang raised his spear.

"I won't be covering your clan's funeral expenses."

The swarm leader let out a shriek, its tail stinger lashing out a dark green ray of venom.

Its range was twenty meters, with a coverage three meters wide.

Li Zhengyang darted left. The venom shot past his side and struck the rock wall behind him.

Sizzle.

Half the rock wall corroded into white smoke, the stone flowing downward like candle wax.

The venom really was vicious.

But if it could not touch him, it was worth nothing.

Li Zhengyang charged forward with Cloud-Shocking Steps, Blood Qi flooding the Dragon-Gallbladder Golden Spear. The glow from its three blood grooves drew afterimages through the rift valley.

The swarm leader's pincers snapped shut, clamping down on the spear shaft.

It was quite strong.

Li Zhengyang did not try to wrench the spear free. He released his right hand and drove a fist into the pincer joint.

A Martial Sect's full-force punch.

Crack.

The pincer broke.

Green blood sprayed from the fracture as the swarm leader screamed and staggered backward.

Li Zhengyang pulled back his spear and used the Twisting Formula.

The spinning spear tip drilled into a gap in the swarm leader's abdominal armor.

The swarm leader's body convulsed violently, its eight legs scrabbling wildly against the ground.

For the final strike, the Collapse Formula pierced straight through the center of its head shell.

The swarm leader fell.

The ground trembled.

Li Zhengyang crouched and dug out its Beast Core.

The swarm leader's Beast Core was as large as a goose egg, dark green and thick with spiritual energy.

A peak Fourth-Rank Martial Artist Beast Core was worth at least two hundred thousand on the market.

Together with the swarm leader bounty of two hundred thousand.

He finished cutting off the remaining tail stingers, dug out the Beast Cores, and stuffed them into his Space Ring along with the swarm leader's core.

On his way back, he found several stray scorpions that had not emerged from the caves along both sides of the rift valley and casually skewered them to death.

Forty-seven in total.

When he emerged from the rift valley, the sun had just passed noon.

Including the trip there and back, plus the fight, it had taken an hour and a half.

Li Zhengyang was covered from head to toe in green scorpion blood. His hair had clumped into strands, and the blood on his face had dried and cracked into patches.

As he walked, flakes of dried scorpion blood rustled down from him.

He returned to the fortress's north gate.

The sentries' first reaction upon seeing him was to raise their rifles.

"Who goes there?"

"Li Zhengyang, Sergeant Major, Edge-Breaking Sequence."

The sentry studied his face, then looked at the green gore coating his body.

"You..."

"Killed a few bugs."

The sentry slowly lowered his rifle, though his expression remained extremely strange.

When Li Zhengyang entered the fortress, people on the streets turned to stare.

A young man drenched in green blood swaggered toward the central district with a long spear still dripping blood over his shoulder.

When he passed the training grounds, two squads sparring there stopped in unison.

When he passed the cafeteria, three heads poked out from the windows.

"That man... isn't he the new officer who arrived this morning?"

"He went out alone? How did he end up like that?"

"Green blood... is that Rift Scorpion blood?"

"Impossible. Falcon Squad nearly got wiped out in the Rift Valley Zone last month."

Li Zhengyang entered the Quartermaster Department.

A short-haired female soldier sat behind the counter, sorting through documents.

Li Zhengyang tipped the contents of his Space Ring onto the countertop.

Clatter.

Forty-seven scorpion tail stingers, along with a peak Beast Core, piled into a small mountain on the counter.

The green blood had not dried yet and dripped down the counter.

The short-haired female soldier took two steps back.

"This..."

"A031, Rift Scorpion extermination. Forty-seven, including the swarm leader. Settle it."

The female soldier counted three times, her fingers trembling.

"Forty-seven ordinary specimens, fifty thousand each, totaling two million three hundred and fifty thousand. Swarm leader bounty, two hundred thousand. Total... two million five hundred and fifty thousand Great Xia yuan."

"Transfer it."

The payment arrived.

After leaving the Quartermaster Department, Li Zhengyang checked his phone.

1:40 p.m.

There was still over an hour until the meeting.

Enough time for a shower.

Just as he reached the public bathhouse entrance, his communicator rang.

"Sergeant Major Li." Song Qing's voice sounded somewhat unsteady.

"What is it?"

"Did you... go to the Rift Valley Zone alone just now?"

"Yeah."

"Cleared it out?"

"Cleared it out."

There was silence on the other end for several seconds.

"Commander Han said the meeting is canceled."

"Why?"

"He said formalism was meaningless and told you to come directly to headquarters."

"Fine."

Li Zhengyang showered first, then changed into clean clothes.

When he reached the headquarters entrance, he found that the atmosphere was somewhat off.

There were four additional Martial Sect-level guards at the door.

Inside the headquarters hall sat more than a dozen officers, all utterly silent.

Someone sat in the innermost chair.

He was around sixty, with white hair and beard, a lean frame, and a simple gray military uniform.

Han Tieshan.

The pressure of the Martial King Realm was not actively released, yet the air throughout the entire hall felt heavy.

Li Zhengyang walked in and stood at attention.

"Reporting in. Li Zhengyang, here for duty."

Han Tieshan did not look at him. He kept his head down, flipping through a file.

After flipping through it for quite a while, he closed it.

"You arrived less than two hours ago, and you already wiped out the Rift Scorpion nest?"

"I only came when the time was up. I didn't delay anything."

Han Tieshan raised his head.

"I read your file. Twenty years old, a Fifth-Rank Martial Sect, zero casualties during the Beast Tide at Fortress No. 13, champion of the Military District Selection Tournament."

"Commander Xiao sent you to No. 7, saying you were a promising seedling."

Li Zhengyang did not respond.

Han Tieshan rose to his feet, walked to the window, and looked north.

"Three hundred kilometers beyond the Northern Wasteland lies the territory of a Fifth-Rank Magic Beast. An Abyssal Giant Lizard is holed up there. That thing has already killed seven of my scouts."

He turned around.

"Do you dare go?"

Li Zhengyang asked reflexively.

"How much is the bounty?"

The corner of Han Tieshan's mouth twitched.

The staff officer beside him hurriedly flipped through the documents.

"The bounty for killing a Fifth-Rank Magic Beast is one million."

Li Zhengyang nodded.

Just as he was about to speak, the headquarters doors were pushed open.

A communications soldier ran inside, panting so hard he could barely catch his breath.

"Report! Two strangers have arrived at the fortress's south gate."

Han Tieshan frowned.

"Who are they?"

The communications soldier swallowed.

"Not sure. They don't look like military personnel."