From 'not afraid of the cold' to 'needing the cold'.
After collecting the spoils, Wen Jing left the underground area and came to the surface.
More than two months later, she returned to the Backflowing Waterfall that had once given her the 'freeze-drying shadow'.
Just like before, glistening droplets of liquid water are flowing upwards due to the strong winds, creating a unique spectacle.
In Wen Jing pale, worm-like form, Wen Jing carefully used her forelimbs to approach a water droplet—if she were in her smaller worm form, she would have 'sucked' the water droplets towards her.
Moreover, even if she gets frostbite again this time, her current physical strength should be able to withstand it.
The moment the sharp forelimbs touched the water droplet, silently, a large number of ice crystals spread upwards along the point of contact, forming a layer of ice.
"Very good!"
Faced with this situation, Wen Jing was startled and overjoyed.
Although most of my body was frozen this time, last time half of my body was directly freeze-dried and disappeared!
Now she felt that although the extreme cold seemed to have frozen her body, the actual damage it caused was negligible, because her core was converting and absorbing the extreme cold.
Wen Jing decided to call it the ' Extreme Cold Core '.
Furthermore, increasing the strength of the Extreme Cold Core can raise the upper limit of the Ice Domain.
"All that planning over such a long period of time was worth it; this is truly a great success!"
With the conquest of the Reverse Waterfall, a corner of the gate to the deeper parts of the underground world was lifted before Wen Jing.
However, she did not rush to explore further, but instead steadily absorbed the extreme cold energy.
Moreover, although she had wiped out the Frost Vein Spider clan, there was still an enemy on the surface of the underground world that she had yet to defeat—
It's a new day, and the newly crowned subterranean overlord unleashes its Howl of the Hunt at the Cold Flame Jellyfish floating in the air.
An invisible spiritual force impact spread outwards from her, and due to the difference in spiritual force, many ordinary Wilderness Beast that did not have time to react were directly knocked unconscious.
Even the smallest, most primitive Wilderness Beast in the local food chain, like the Stingy Worm, were instantly killed on the spot by the shockwave.
She was able to do this not only because Wen Jing's mental attributes improved after consuming the Spider King, but also because after nearly three months of focused study, she finally mastered the Complete Explanation of Mental Power Basics given to her by Dean Fu.
After mastering this skill, she gained a full one hundred Skill Points. As a complete system of mental power application techniques, the Skill Points given was naturally much higher than the first three levels of the Pagoda Secret Scroll.
The enhancement brought by this secret technique is similar to a mental version of the Energy Amplification Method, which can leverage the power of Wen Jing's mental skills.
As the primary target of the Howl of the Hunt, the flame-like energy within the translucent bodies of the Cold Flame Jellyfish suddenly erupted, spreading its color across their entire bodies, resembling a burst of multicolored fireworks in the air.
A chain reaction occurred, but the jellyfish spontaneously gathered together, raising their drooping tentacles and joining hands with their companions.
It quickly formed a dense, impenetrable net, descending upon the culprit.
It looked as if colorful clouds in the sky were pressing down, and the Wilderness Beast that had barely survived the impact of the Howl of the Hunt were now trembling under this power, frantically hiding in the underground layers.
Wen Jing, who caused all of this, remained arrogantly in place.
Beneath her feet, icy blue threads spread out, forming an impregnable circular fortress within the Ice Domain.
Numerous jellyfish tentacles descended, and every creature touched by them—except for other jellyfish—had its energy drained.
Unfortunately, this was within Wen Jing's domain, where not only every bit of energy, but even every single molecule was directed towards her.
Conversely, even though Wen Jing's combat power inside the domain was nearly ten times stronger than outside the domain, she still couldn't inflict much damage on the jellyfish.
They were arguably the most troublesome enemies Wen Jing had ever encountered.
During her first attack on the jellyfish, she discovered the meaning of its [ Phase-Change Body ] attribute.
Whether it's a physical attack or an energy attack, when it hits the jellyfish, its body will become ethereal, as if it has entered another dimension, greatly reducing the damage.
It is immune to a large amount of damage and has no weaknesses in terms of recovery.
Because jellyfish also have a [ Symbiosis Network ] characteristic.
Not only will attack one, but a whole horde will follow, and they share the same vitality!
No matter how powerful the enemy, as long as you can inflict damage, there is a way to counter it. The troublesome ones are those where fighting them is essentially pointless.
No wonder even the Spider King chose to retreat when it encountered the Cold Flame Jellyfish. After all, its ever-expanding Ice Domain was in its lair in the crypt, and it would be quite a challenge to face such a cheating species on its own soil.
Fortunately, Wen Jing is different from the Spider King; she possesses both Ice Domain and a wide-range mental attack.
Despite her incredible speed and attack power within the Ice Domain, its greatest strength actually lies in defense. As long as she remains within its range, she is virtually invincible.
Mental attacks are the only way to damage jellyfish without bypassing their [ Phase-Change Body ] effect, but the damage is still spread evenly across the entire species.
A single Howl of the Hunt is not enough to defeat the jellyfish.
Thus, Wen Jing launched a protracted war.
If once doesn't work, then try again.
Using the defenses of her Ice Domain, she unleashed Howl of the Hunt against the jellyfish once a day.
Wen Jing injures the other party once a day, while the other party cannot harm her. With this ebb and flow, even if the combined health bars of the jellyfish clan are very long, they will eventually be worn down by her!
This happened so many times that the jellyfish swarm seemed to have become too lazy to bother with her anymore.
After a perfunctory attack, the jellyfish swarm gradually rose into the air and dispersed.
Daily Quests (1/2)
Wen Jing ticked a box in the daily routine of the Ancient Wilderness world, then shrunk to the size of a small insect, arrived at the side of the great rift, and plunged headfirst into the reverse-flowing waterfall.
In the ' Compressed State ', the surrounding cold water droplets flowed towards the small insect one by one.
In just a breath...
She was frozen solid into a lump of ice, and it kept growing bigger.
However, thanks to the Gravity Silk and the upward wind, Wen Jing's body did not sway wildly like a kite, but remained steadily fixed in the air.
The little insect absorbed the extreme cold energy here with all its might, looking very much like a scene from a martial arts drama where the protagonist practices martial arts under the impact of a waterfall, except that everything is upside down.
With the absorption over this period, her domain has expanded from the initial one hundred meters to two hundred meters, and the Extreme Cold Core has also doubled in size compared to the beginning.
Around 6 p. m., after completing its second task of the day, the insect broke out of the ice and returned to its nest nearby.
*
The next day, Wen Jing surprisingly did not follow his daily routine.
After leaving the villa, we headed to the newly built venue of the Red Earth Academy, which was built half a year ago, to participate in the class ranking competition for second-year students.
Upon entering the venue, one is immediately struck by an atmosphere of enthusiasm, excitement, and tension.
" Wen Jing is here!"
Suddenly, someone shouted from the crowd, immediately attracting the attention of the students nearby.
Normally, Wen Jing, who had specifically trained to minimize his presence, wouldn't be so easily found, but the situation is different now.
Because, amidst the fervent, admiring, or envious gazes of the other students...
This time, she headed towards the judges' section.
Chapter 129
"Huh? Why did Wen Jing go to the judges' panel?"
The students who witnessed this scene were first stunned, and then erupted into an uproar.
Although everyone knew she would definitely win the grade-level ranking competition, everyone else was still a student, so why was she the only one on the judging panel?
"What else could it be? There must be a reason!" Wen Jing's classmates, who were close to him, crossed their arms with a sense of superiority.
"What's the reason?" someone nearby pressed.
"It's almost time, we just need to wait for the dean to announce it."
They wanted to keep the reason a secret for a while, but the other students weren't stupid and quickly figured it out.
"Tch, anyone could guess... it's because Wen Jing's compatibility has already exceeded 60%!"
"She already had a 47% compatibility rate during the Freshman League. Given how frequently she travels between servers, it's definitely over 60% now, which means she can't participate in the virtual reality ranked matches."
Sure enough, when the logistics director from the judges' stand came out and announced the schedule for the second-year ranking competition, he mentioned this matter first.
"This year's ranking competition for second-year students, based on the current 99.99% participation rate, will be held in a virtual reality environment to ensure fairness and efficiency."
"Because only Wen Jing's compatibility exceeds 60%, he is not suitable to participate in the virtual reality ranking competition..."
"Therefore, after deliberation, the college has decided to hold a special match for her. Based on past performance, the top 500 students in this grade-level ranking competition can choose to challenge Wen Jing. The winner will move up one place in the rankings."
"At the same time, Wen Jing can also challenge any contestant in this ranking. If he wins, he will take the opponent's place, and the ranking of the challenged contestant and all subsequent contestants will be moved down one place."
"If any student ranked below 500 wants to challenge Wen Jing, they can submit an additional application to the academy."
After the explanation, everyone, whether they had thought of this before or not, suddenly understood.
There's no way around it; Ocher Soil has never produced anyone like Wen Jing before, someone who achieved 60% compatibility during the first year-end ranking competition.
Normally, this level of compatibility is at the level of elite third-year members of the Student Council.
Because his skills are beyond the standard, Wen Jing is currently unable to participate in virtual reality competitions.
The virtual reality environment has a 60% compatibility limit. This doesn't mean that Awakened cannot use the virtual reality environment if their compatibility exceeds 60%, but rather that if they kill other Awakened within it, it will truly severely damage the other person's mental body.