On the third day after Qian Renxue left, Lu Yuan went to the North Combat Zone as usual.
His first match that afternoon was still against Xu Heng.
They had fought too many times already and had mostly figured out each other's habits. The moment Xu Heng saw Lu Yuan's spear tip shift right, he knew Lu Yuan was probably planning to seize position from the left. When Lu Yuan saw Xu Heng's shoulder dip slightly, he could also guess that Xu Heng was preparing to close in.
After fighting for around fifteen minutes, Xu Heng caught an opening when Lu Yuan withdrew his spear. He immediately drove his Second Soul Skill into the inside of the spear's momentum and pressed a palm against the shaft.
"Stop."
Shao Ping spoke from the edge of the field.
Xu Heng immediately released his grip.
Lu Yuan had been about to pull back and open the distance again, but upon hearing that, he could only retract the Piercing Spear.
"Just one match today?"
"You won't need three matches every day from now on either."
Shao Ping closed the record book in his hands.
Lu Yuan looked at him.
"What do you mean?"
"The North has taught you nearly everything it can."
Xu Heng had just taken two steps when he heard that and stopped again.
"So I'm graduating already?"
Shao Ping glanced at him.
"Why don't you train with him until level 20?"
"Forget it, then."
Xu Heng left without hesitation.
But Lu Yuan did not move.
Half a year ago, he could not last long against Xu Heng. He still could not win now, but he had become more familiar than ever with the fighting styles Xu Heng and Du Chuan commonly used. If they kept fighting, it would only come down to who ran out of stamina first.
Shao Ping tucked the record book beneath his arm.
"Starting tomorrow, the mornings will remain the same, but the afternoon arrangements will change."
"Change to what?"
"Outside the City."
Lu Yuan paused.
"Soul Hunting?"
"Not to find you a Spirit Ring."
Shao Ping said, "You're only Level 14. Your Second Spirit Ring is still a long way off. First, learn how to deal with real Spirit Beasts."
As he spoke, he glanced at the people who had yet to leave the field.
"No matter how hard the people here fight, they'll stop in the end. Spirit Beasts won't."
The following afternoon, Lu Yuan met Shao Ping outside the North Gate Exterior.
Besides him, there were also two Spirit Hall Spirit Masters responsible for watching over them. Neither said much to Lu Yuan. They only inspected his short knife, Injury Medicine, and Water Pouch.
Shao Ping handed him a simple map.
"Thirty li north of here is a Soul Hunting Area commonly used by Spirit Hall. Most of the outer region is populated by Ten to Hundred-Year Spirit Beasts, though Two to Three-Hundred-Year Creatures occasionally wander in."
Lu Yuan glanced over it.
"How many do I need to kill?"
"Not one."
"Then what am I going in for?"
"To come out alive."
After saying that, Shao Ping mounted his horse.
Lu Yuan watched his back, put away the map, and followed after him.
More than two hours later, the group entered the forest.
This place was completely different from the training grounds.
There were no marked boundaries on the ground, nor was anyone standing nearby waiting to call a stop. The shrubs stood taller than Lu Yuan's waist, and beneath the fallen leaves, half-buried, bleached Beast Bones could occasionally be seen.
After entering the forest, Shao Ping spoke noticeably less. He only told Lu Yuan two things.
Do not touch anything unfamiliar.
When you hear movement, determine its direction first.
After they had walked for a while, the shrubs ahead and to the left suddenly shook violently.
Lu Yuan stopped.
Shao Ping did not move.
"You handle it first."
The instant he spoke, a gray-black shadow shot out from the shrubs.
It was nearly two meters long, with thick limbs, two tusks curling outward from its mouth, and a row of short, hard Black Spikes growing along its back.
An Iron-Backed Jackal.
Lu Yuan had seen one in an illustrated guide before.
The one before him was not especially large, and the spikes on its back had not completely darkened. It should have been less than a hundred years old.
But it gave Lu Yuan no time to continue observing.
It paused for only an instant after landing before lunging straight at him.
The Piercing Spear landed in his hand.
Lu Yuan did not use Piercing Edge for his first strike. He simply sent the spear tip toward the Iron-Backed Jackal's chest.
On the training grounds, this sort of direct thrust would usually be avoided.
But the Iron-Backed Jackal charged directly into it.
The spear tip pierced flesh, but after entering less than half an inch, it was blocked by hard bone. The Iron-Backed Jackal howled in pain, and its front claw was already swiping down along the spear shaft.
Lu Yuan immediately released his left hand and dodged to the side.
Rip.
The claw tips grazed his sleeve and tore three gashes into it.
Lu Yuan retreated several steps and steadied his grip on the spear shaft.
It did not probe, nor would it actively avoid the spear tip when it saw it.
The Iron-Backed Jackal only wanted to bite the person in front of it to death.
When it lunged a second time, Lu Yuan no longer blocked it head-on.
He shifted half a step to the right and lowered the butt of his spear, forcing the Iron-Backed Jackal's body to tilt slightly when it landed. The moment it turned its head, the Yellow Spirit Ring beneath Lu Yuan's feet lit up.
Piercing Edge!
The Piercing Spear shot out fiercely from the side.
This strike targeted the base of its front leg.
The spear tip plunged straight in.
The Iron-Backed Jackal let out a miserable cry, lost its balance, and rolled into a nearby tree.
Lu Yuan did not pursue it.
If this had been the training grounds, someone would probably have called a stop by now.
But the Iron-Backed Jackal beneath the tree had barely steadied itself before dragging its injured front leg upright again.
Blood covered its mouth, yet the look in its eyes as it stared at Lu Yuan became even fiercer.
Its third lunge was more chaotic than the first two, and more vicious as well.
This time, Lu Yuan did not hold back.
He twisted aside to avoid the tusks, swept the spear tip upward from below to knock aside the Iron-Backed Jackal's head, then drove it forward with the motion.
Pfft.
The Piercing Spear stabbed into the side of its neck.
The Iron-Backed Jackal's body suddenly stiffened. Its front claws carved several deep furrows into the ground, and only after quite some time did it finally stop moving.
Lu Yuan stood where he was with the spear in hand, breathing a little heavily.
A pale white Spirit Ring slowly formed above the corpse, but none of them stopped.
Shao Ping walked over and glanced at Lu Yuan's torn sleeve.
"Why did you take the first strike head-on?"
"I wanted to test its strength."
"Did you find out?"
"I nearly took a claw to the body."
Shao Ping nodded.
"Just remember it."
He did not say anything else. Raising a hand, he gestured for them to continue.
Lu Yuan shook the blood from his spear tip and followed the others deeper in.
After what had just happened, he was clearly much more cautious. When he heard grass and leaves rustling again, he did not immediately draw his spear. Instead, he looked at the ground first.
A string of tiny footprints crossed the edge of the mud. They were only palm-sized, and several cracked hard-shelled fruits were scattered nearby.
"Wind-Tailed Rat," Lu Yuan said.
Shao Ping did not turn around.
"Age?"
Lu Yuan crouched down to examine the depth of the prints, then compared them with the bite marks on nearby tree roots.
"Hard to say. It should be under fifty years."
"Then leave it alone."
Along the way, Shao Ping did not stop specifically to teach him. Whenever they encountered something, he would ask a question. What Spirit Beast had left those traces? Was there danger nearby? If they really fought, where should he defend first?
If Lu Yuan answered incorrectly, Shao Ping corrected him directly.
If he answered correctly, they kept walking.
Lu Yuan instead felt that this method stuck in his mind more firmly than sitting indoors and memorizing illustrated guides.
After walking farther ahead, the two Spirit Masters at the front suddenly stopped.
One of them crouched beside a broken branch and touched the split with his hand.
"It broke not long ago."
Shao Ping walked over and took a look.
Clear dragging marks covered the ground, stretching deeper into the forest. The bark on several nearby short trees had been violently scraped away by something, leaving large patches of fresh white wood.
Lu Yuan saw it too.
"This doesn't look like something under a hundred years."
Shao Ping gave a quiet grunt.
"That's why we're not going that way."
As he spoke, he crossed out a small area ahead on the map and turned to change routes.
Lu Yuan was about to follow when a layer of gray light suddenly flashed before his eyes.
He stopped.
The Gray Text did not appear deep in the forest, nor did it fall upon those tracks.
It was above Shao Ping's head, even though he had already walked several steps away.
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