"Thud!"
"Thud!"
"Thud!"
Jiang Lan gripped the Savage Bull's horn tightly with one hand and hammered its skull with the other.
With every punch, the Savage Bull's body shook violently, all four legs trembling.
As Jiang Lan's fourth punch landed, the Savage Bull finally buckled. Its front legs gave out, and it crashed to its knees.
"Rooo..."
A weak howl escaped the Savage Bull's throat.
But it was still a third-tier ferocious beast, with terrifying vitality. After kneeling for two seconds, the Savage Bull struggled to stand again.
Jiang Lan raised an eyebrow, released its horn, and stepped back half a pace.
The Black-Horned Savage Bull staggered to its feet, its bloodshot eyes fixed on Jiang Lan.
Anyone could tell that the Black-Horned Savage Bull was on its last legs.
Only its ferocious beast instincts kept it holding on instead of fleeing.
Jiang Lan didn't wait for the Savage Bull to attack again. He leaped high into the air, clasped his hands together, and slammed them into the center of its forehead.
"Thud!"
The Black-Horned Savage Bull's massive body stiffened as though struck by lightning.
A moment later, its four legs slowly buckled, and its entire body crashed to the ground, never to move again.
Shaking out his numb wrist, Jiang Lan muttered:
"That hide really is tough."
At the same time, he heard two people breathing rapidly behind him.
Jiang Lan turned and saw Bai Yu and Liu Shiyu standing a short distance away.
Bai Yu's expression seemed calm, but deep in her eyes was utter shock and disbelief.
As for Liu Shiyu, there was no question.
The girl's mouth hung open in an O, and she couldn't close it for the longest time.
Only after a long while did she speak, her voice trembling:
"A... a third-tier ferocious beast... you killed it all by yourself?"
Jiang Lan tilted his head toward the Black-Horned Savage Bull's corpse.
His meaning was obvious.
The corpse was right here. How could it be fake?
Liu Shiyu clearly knew it couldn't be fake, but she still couldn't believe it.
A third-tier ferocious beast!
That was a third-tier ferocious beast!
Even their teachers would give something like that a wide berth!
And Jiang Lan had killed it so effortlessly?
How long had it even been since Jiang Lan awakened his talent?
How could anyone be this absurd?
Beside her, Bai Yu stayed silent for a few seconds before asking:
"Are you hurt?"
"No," Jiang Lan said. "Give me a minute. I'll deal with the corpse, then we can go."
With that, Jiang Lan crouched beside the Savage Bull's corpse and began collecting its blood essence and Beast Core.
However thick its hide was, it was just a dead animal now.
After some effort, Jiang Lan successfully collected the blood essence and extracted the Beast Core.
The Black-Horned Savage Bull's Beast Core was dark red throughout and more than twice as large as a second-tier one, about the size of a ping-pong ball.
Jiang Lan didn't know how much it was worth, but he figured it certainly wouldn't be cheap.
He stood and was about to call the two girls over to leave when something else occurred to him.
Wait.
Besides its blood essence and Beast Core, the materials from the Black-Horned Savage Bull's body were probably worth quite a bit too.
After all, it was a third-tier ferocious beast.
After a brief moment of consideration, Jiang Lan picked up his long saber again and turned to the two girls behind him. "You two, come here for a second."
Liu Shiyu's expression changed abruptly, and her legs began to tremble.
An unpleasant thought had popped into her mind.
Had killing the third-tier ferocious beast made Jiang Lan greedy? Was he going to kill them both?
"J-Jiang Lan... I..."
Seeing her reaction, Jiang Lan looked utterly baffled. After a pause, he said:
"Come help me get the horns off... it's hard to do on my own. Check for any other valuable materials too. We'll cut them all off and take them back."
The Black-Horned Savage Bull weighed at least several tons. Although Jiang Lan felt he could just about carry it, there was simply no way to get a grip on it.
He could only settle for removing everything valuable.
Only after hearing Jiang Lan say that did Liu Shiyu let out a long breath.
He had nearly scared her to death.
If Jiang Lan really had decided to kill them out of greed, neither of them would have had any way to fight back.
After all, Jiang Lan had even killed a Black-Horned Savage Bull.
"Okay..."
Liu Shiyu and Bai Yu came over. The three of them worked for quite a while before finally removing both horns and some of the Savage Bull's hide.
There were still plenty of valuable parts left, but processing the corpse was far too difficult.
After struggling with it for over an hour, Jiang Lan decisively gave up.
"Forget it. This'll do for now. It's getting late, and we need to head back, or we won't make it in time."
Naturally, neither girl objected.
The three turned and headed back the way they had come.
The mood was rather quiet on the return journey.
Mostly because each girl was carrying an enormous horn and could barely see the path ahead, leaving them in no mood to chat.
The three walked toward the outskirts for about an hour.
Just as they were about to reach the edge of the Wilderness Zone, a signal flare suddenly shot into the sky and burst into a dazzling red light.
"Bang!"
Jiang Lan stopped in his tracks.
Something had happened.
He quickly judged the distance. It was probably only five or six hundred meters away.
Firing a signal flare meant someone was in danger.
Whether he knew them or not, they were all students from the same Academy. If he could save them, he should.
"Follow me."
With that, Jiang Lan ran straight toward the signal flare.
Bai Yu and Liu Shiyu exchanged a glance and followed close behind.
At Jiang Lan's speed, five or six hundred meters would only take a dozen seconds or so.
Even with the Wilderness Zone's difficult terrain and the load on his back, he reached the scene in under thirty seconds.
In the clearing ahead, three figures were desperately fighting a massive Red-Scaled Lizard.
Jiang Lan paused briefly when he recognized them.
It was Chu Yun and his two companions.
That was quite a coincidence.
A bloody gash marked Chu Yun's right arm. Grimacing in pain, he held the front line alongside Mo Han.
As for Lu Qingshan, he had just fired the signal flare and looked quite bedraggled himself, his glasses sitting crooked on his face.
He shouted at the two in front:
"Hold it off, my ass!" Chu Yun snapped through gritted teeth. "I can't hold on much longer!"
The Red-Scaled Lizard roared and swept its tail at Chu Yun.
Chu Yun hurriedly rolled out of the way, coating himself in dust.
Watching this, Jiang Lan shook his head.
It was only a second-tier Red-Scaled Lizard.
"Move aside."
His voice came from behind the three members of Group B.
Chu Yun whipped his head around. Seeing Jiang Lan striding toward them, his eyes instantly lit up.
"Bro!!!"
The word was so heartfelt that he nearly burst into tears.
Seeing a new target appear, the Red-Scaled Lizard immediately changed direction and lunged at Jiang Lan.
Jiang Lan kept walking, heading straight toward it.
The instant the Red-Scaled Lizard reached him, he raised his hand and punched.
"Bang!"
A huge dent caved into the Red-Scaled Lizard's head on impact. Its body slammed into the ground, twitched twice, and went completely still.
One punch.
Another one-punch kill.
Silence hung over the scene for two seconds.
Mouth agape, Chu Yun looked at the corpse on the ground, then at Jiang Lan.
"Bro! Holy shit!"
Jiang Lan: "..."