Chapter 93

The Mental Shock she can currently unleash is limited, so she naturally needs to target the most effective objective.

The giant launched attacks from various parts of its body at the tiny insect, but narrowly dodged them all.

The newly grown wings are not only wind-resistant, but also capable of right-angle turns, gliding, and Instantaneous Direction Change —all basic abilities. When combined with the occasional Gravity Silk, they are incredibly agile.

So much so that during this 'air battle', a long-absent notification sounded from the control panel.

[Mastered 'Movement Technique - Advanced Movement Technique lv7', Skill Points +5]

The beast's head remained in the eagle's position, seemingly able to spontaneously choose the species most restrained by the Wen Jing.

With a sharp cry, a bird's sharp beak pecked at her, so fast it made a whistling sound.

Instead of retreating, Wen Jing advanced, condensing the Energy-Shaping Weapon in his hand to its maximum intensity, emitting a dazzling light.

"Break!"

The longsword collided head-on with the bird's beak. In the instant the air exploded, a Wind Blade condensed behind the enemy's head and slashed straight forward.

Finally, there are the Energy Pulse emitted by the Wen Jing.

Wen Jing unleashed his full power, launching a relentless attack that the giant's head could hardly withstand. A large gash was sliced open at the back of its head by a Wind Blade, and a line was 'drawn' in one of its eyes by an Energy Pulse.

But she didn't stop; she immediately focused all her energy and unleashed her strongest Mental Shock.

"Cracking--!"

The eagle's head feathers bristled, and it emitted a sharp cry.

This sound was like a horn, simultaneously triggering a response from other parts of the beast giant, instantly causing all the beasts to roar in unison.

Unlike before, this time Wen Jing was met with a mental counterattack from the other party.

If her own mental power is characterized by 'control and command' and contains a strong personal will, then the Beast Titan's counterattack mental power is pure chaos and shock.

Because of the qualitative change in mental power brought about by the characteristics of [Basic Hive Mind], Wen Jing's mental power was superior to his opponent's in terms of quality, but in terms of quantity... the opponent's mental power seemed to be endless like a waterfall.

If her mental strength is broken by the opponent, it means she will lose consciousness.

However, Wen Jing's purpose was not to fight the opponent using Mental Shock.

In a higher-dimensional Mental Vision, the fog was completely dispelled by this spiritual collision.

The tiny insect, driven only by its instinct to devour, had no further awareness to see what was on the bone; it pounced and began to gnaw.

Now it's her turn!

*

"Huff... huff... huff..."

A sharp, hoarse whistle echoed intermittently across the wasteland, its different pitches faintly discernible.

With each sound, the beast giant's enormous body shrank a little.

From snakes forming hands, elephant legs, and a bear's back, to a rhinoceros on the shoulder, and finally an eagle's head projecting a mental attack.

With each part disappearing, the Mental Shock and pressure Wen Jing decreases.

The Skill Points on the panel are constantly increasing.

70, 71, 72...

It wasn't until the very last moment, when the eagle's head vanished into the wind, that she realized what the skeletons she had devoured in her Mental Vision were.

It wasn't another oracle bone script as Wen Jing had anticipated, but rather a bone flute, or rather, a bone whistle.

Why do the Wilderness Beast that appear in this world always seem to emerge from the wind?

It was the 'wind' that blew the bone flute.

This heralded the beginning of hunting in primitive civilization.

She had previously misunderstood because of the oracle bone inscriptions she saw on the altar. Now it seems that these traces of civilization that can increase Skill Points are not necessarily writing, but could be in various forms and styles.

With this realization, a notification appeared on the panel in Wen Jing's consciousness:

[Gained Trait: Howl of the Hunt (Convertible)]

She naturally understood the additional 'convertible' effect of this characteristic: she could retain this characteristic or further Digestion it and convert it into Skill Points.

Wen Jing's thoughts stirred, and he immediately sensed the effect of this characteristic.

This is a form of psychological attack.

It can intimidate and suppress enemies whose mental strength is weaker than hers; the greater the gap, the stronger the effect.

It can also be very effective in interfering with enemies whose mental strength is stronger than hers.

Remembering the price of the "spiritual secret techniques" in the Integral mall, which often cost tens of thousands of Integral, Wen Jing immediately decided not to convert.

"Call..."

The physical beast-giant had long since vanished into the wind, and the spiritual bone flute had its last hole swallowed up by the tiny insect.

Wen Jing's Skill Points increased to 315. Subtracting the 70 Skill Points he already had, it was actually less than last time, but he also gained a mental power secret technique this time.

The next moment, a strange shattering sound resounded simultaneously on both the spiritual and material levels.

The phantom of a beast roared on the stone wall, the golden tassels and seashells on the rope swayed, and the world began to distort.

*

Realizing the maze had changed and they hadn't found the golden wheat knot, the five-person team, under Jiang Zhi's observation, changed their target and went to the seashell knot they had seen.

As time and space shifted, the five people who appeared inside the cave, after regaining their composure, immediately discovered the treasure on the stone platform not far away.

"It's a rare treasure!"

All five were pleasantly surprised and instinctively wanted to take action.

Jiang Zhi observed the seashells carved beneath the stone platform and spoke through the Mental Link: "Wait a minute..."

Brown and another member of the Operations Department stopped and looked at Jiang Zhi, but the other two chaebol scions who had paid to join the team did not.

Their understanding of the Rope Knot Maze came from their previous exploration.

In the previous guide, the Rope Knot Maze was all about encountering enemies or serendipitous opportunities; there was no mention of a 'shop' at all.

The opportunity has now presented itself, and more importantly, it's not the kind of 'limited-time, unlimited' Golden Guyu we encountered during our last exploration, but rather two limited quantities of rare treasures.

In this situation, the two naturally intended to take it without hesitation, and even tacitly agreed to take it from the left and the right respectively.

I said wait--

Jiang Zhi furious and hesitated whether to intervene and stop the two.

The next moment, the two had already touched the rare treasures on the stone platform.

Suddenly, a strange change occurred. The stone platform abruptly moved, opening its two large mouths and lunging at the creature in front of it.

"Ah!!"

The two had retreated as fast as they could when the incident occurred, but because they were too close to the stone platform, they were still bitten by the mysterious giant mouth.

In an instant, bird feathers flew everywhere, scales shattered, and blood splattered.

Both were seriously injured in a single Wilderness Body and hurriedly fled to their teammates.

Even though one person had already thrown back the fruit they had just grabbed out of fear, the big mouth persisted relentlessly.

After they left the stone platform, new mouths materialized from the void beside them and chased after them, biting them.

Jiang Zhi its tail, and two clusters of flames burned towards the huge mouth, but they only burned in the void and did not touch the solid object.

A thought suddenly struck her, and she turned her gaze to the seashell Brown was carrying—

"Click..."

Everyone in the cave heard a strange cracking sound.

The surrounding world seemed to have been paused; the mysterious giant mouth, the stone platform, and the rare treasures that the two tycoon scions were fighting over all blurred and merged into a Chaos.

The five people present were expelled from this space-time without any power to resist.

*

Having had experience before, Wen Jing skillfully followed the sense of repulsion to escape the Ancient Wilderness and return to the material universe.

Although she appeared to have returned empty-handed this time, only she knew how much she had gained.

Unexpectedly, as soon as she appeared in the registration center's plaza, she saw emergency lights flashing, and emergency robots and staff gathered not far away, putting two injured people into medical vehicles.

While registering with the staff who rushed over, Wen Jing curiously glanced over there.

Brown and Jiang Zhi, both from the Operations Department, appeared to be unharmed, while two other team members, who clearly came from wealthy families, were injured.

... They don't seem like the type to rush to the front lines in a battle, so how did they get so badly injured when everyone else was fine?

Could it be because of her? That can't be.

Wen Jing pondered for a moment whether he should feel guilty, but quickly dismissed the idea—even if they were fighting when time and space shattered, the monsters should have been unable to attack.

Jiang Zhi, Brown, and the others over there heard the commotion and saw her.

"Are you alright?" Wen Jing asked politely upon seeing this.

"It's nothing, just a little accident," Jiang Zhi nodded to her in reply.

Brown, standing to the side, seemed hesitant to speak, but after glancing back at his seriously injured and unconscious teammate, he decided to remain silent.

Seeing this, Wen Jing also maintained a somewhat curious expression, but did not take the initiative to ask any more questions. After registering, he left.

She would never do something like returning to the crime scene to observe and thus expose herself!

*

Unexpectedly, the very next day, Wen Jing was stopped by a staff member on her way home from class and asked to cooperate with the college's Mission Department's investigation.

After confirming the other party's identity, she followed them to the agreed location, where the meeting room prepared by the Mission Department was already quite lively.

Wen Jing opened the door and walked in, where he saw Ji Shuang and two others who had teamed up with him before, Song Zhi, and five mentors who appeared to belong to the Mission Department.

Two of them, Wen Jing, recalled seeing the school leaders when they received awards during the grade rankings.

"The last student has arrived." A school leader nodded to her and introduced himself, "I am Zhuo Rong, the director of logistics. The main reason for inviting you all here is to understand the forced regression phenomenon that occurred during the Student Council's last team exploration."

Upon Wen Jing this, Wen Jing frowned in confusion and glanced at Song Zhi.