Slaughter! Tier-One Civilization Warrior (Monthly tickets)

"Mm." Fang Yu nodded. A flicker of nervousness crossed his heart, only to be replaced by excitement.

He had walked the martial path for years.

At last, he was going to truly fight a Primordial Star ferocious beast.

Hum! The aircraft descended rapidly. When it was still five or six meters above the ground, Fang Yu pushed off lightly with both legs and leaped straight out, landing on the ground like a nimble cat.

With Fang Yu's physical constitution, let alone five or six meters, he could have jumped from a platform over ten meters high without injury.

Besides, Fang Yu was wearing a full set of intermediate equipment. His combat boots and suit could greatly reduce the force of an impact.

"Crimson Flame Cat." Fang Yu looked at the cat in the distance.

It was called a cat, but it looked more like a leopard.

Its shoulders reached his waist. Black and crimson fur intertwined across its body, with the outlines of its muscles faintly visible beneath. It crouched on a rock twenty meters away, the tip of its tail swaying gently as it watched Fang Yu warily.

Most striking of all were its eyes. Its eerie green vertical pupils stood out against its black fur like two floating wisps of ghost fire, sending a faint chill through him.

Whoosh!

Gusts of wind blew from the other side of the rocks, carrying the smell of blood and rotting flesh.

"If you won't move, I will." Fang Yu moved like a gust of wind.

The Crimson Flame Cat instinctively retreated.

But.

As it retreated, Fang Yu came at it even faster. He crossed the twenty meters in the blink of an eye, driving the Crimson Flame Cat into a corner. It let out a low, hissing growl, but when that proved useless-

Whoosh!

The Crimson Flame Cat pushed off with its hind legs and lunged back at him.

It was known for its speed, and it burst forward like a streak of crimson lightning. Fang Yu only had time to see its front paw spread open, webbing between its five toes and its sharp claws gleaming coldly as they raked toward his neck like lightning.

It was astonishingly fast.

Fang Yu made no attempt to dodge.

Combat instincts honed through countless repetitions and combat techniques mastered down to the finest detail made him take just one step forward.

The step was short, only half a meter, just enough to bring him inside the cat's pouncing path. He swept his saber upward from below, its tip instantly lining up with the cat's throat.

The Crimson Flame Cat's eyes widened.

Its claws were already extended, but they couldn't reach Fang Yu. Its jaws opened, but its fangs couldn't bite him either. With its body lunging through the air, it had no way to change direction.

Pfft!

The sharp tip stabbed through its lower jaw. Fang Yu put all his strength into the blow, unleashing hidden force as the blade cut all the way through its tough hide and emerged from the back of its skull.

"Thud!"

The Crimson Flame Cat's momentum carried its body several meters farther. Fang Yu lowered his saber across his body, and blood streamed down the blade, dripping onto the ground.

Not far away.

The Crimson Flame Cat was still twitching, its limbs still paddling as blood poured out. Its eerie green eyes were still fixed on him, its pupils only slowly losing focus.

"Whew!" Fang Yu took a deep breath and looked down at his hand.

He was gripping his saber tightly.

Watching the Crimson Flame Cat, alive just a moment ago, die in an instant stirred waves in his heart. Even though he had rehearsed it countless times in his mind, truly fighting a ferocious beast to the death was different.

No wonder they say one life-or-death fight is worth more than ten years of striking a practice post, Fang Yu thought. Real combat is the only measure of a martial artist.

A martial artist's true strength wasn't measured by assessment results alone.

Only someone who could remain absolutely calm under the pressure of life and death, facing a vicious ferocious beast, and bring out their full strength perfectly... was a mature martial artist.

Whoosh!

Xia Yao landed on the ground and looked at Fang Yu. "Fang Yu, how did it feel to make your first kill?"

"With my strength..."

"I didn't need to dodge so far just now. I only had to move ten centimeters out of the way, then burst forward and cut in with one strike." Fang Yu analyzed the fight he had just fought. "I should have ended it more decisively to conserve my strength."

"That fight was barely a pass," Fang Yu said.

His words stopped the praise on the tip of Xia Yao's tongue.

"Little freak," Xia Yao muttered.

In her view, Fang Yu's performance had been nearly flawless. It was actually extremely rare to end a first fight so cleanly and decisively.

Even though Fang Yu far surpassed his opponent in both strength and technique.

Many martial artists still performed poorly in their first life-or-death fight. That was the point of practical combat training.

"All right."

"Wait a moment," Xia Yao said.

She drew a short blade from her leg, quickly and expertly cut the Crimson Flame Cat's pelt off as intact as possible, and put it in a bag she carried with her.

"How much is that pelt worth?" Fang Yu asked curiously.

"A few hundred Star Coins, I suppose," Xia Yao said casually.

"That little?" Fang Yu was stunned.

"Ferocious beasts below level 20 are completely worthless," Xia Yao said, shaking her head. "More accurately, ferocious beasts below level 40 aren't really worth much. Even the corpses of high-level ferocious beasts in their thirties... would be lucky to fetch forty or fifty thousand Star Coins."

"After all."

"If the Blue Moon Alliance wanted to, it could send out Earth Martial Artists to slaughter countless such ferocious beasts in a very short time."

"What's valuable is yao above level 40... Ferocious beasts above level 40, like our human Earth Martial Artists, have truly cultivated Star Power. Their bodies, pelts, and everything else undergo a comprehensive evolution, making them extremely tough. There aren't many of them, either, so killing one naturally pays well," Xia Yao said. "But yao also have intelligence close to that of humans, so they're hard to kill."

Fang Yu fell into thought.

Human martial artists underwent no fundamental improvement from level 10 to level 39, only successive improvements to their physical constitution... Becoming an Earth Martial Artist, however, was a fundamental transformation.

The same was true of the Primordial Star's ferocious beasts.

Level 40 was a threshold.

"When it comes to killing ferocious beasts..."

"The most important thing for us is earning Civilization Points," Xia Yao said. "The more we kill, the more Civilization Points are converted into corresponding Primal Points."

"As Civilization Points accumulate, they also gradually raise your Coefficient Score. Accumulate enough, and you can raise your Civilization Warrior rank, earning a promotion and privileges."

"On the other hand, in the wilderness, natural treasures often grow around the more powerful ferocious beasts."

"Those treasures are what really fetch a high price," Xia Yao said. "Sometimes, special medicinal herbs, fruits, or ores can be worth millions or even tens of millions of Star Coins."

"Every year, there are rumors like that on the Primordial Star: some martial artist squad gets lucky and finds a natural treasure worth over a hundred million, or an even more astonishing sum." Xia Yao sighed.

Fang Yu couldn't help nodding.

There were many such rumors every year. Like the "lottery rumors" in Xia Nation, they were hard to verify, yet they drew large numbers of martial artists into the wilderness, dreaming of getting rich overnight.

"Let's go find the next target."

"You need to become a Tier-One Civilization Warrior within two days," Xia Yao said. "Otherwise, you won't be able to leave the safe zone on the twentieth."

"Understood."

Three hours later, on the wasteland.

Another large Giant-Toothed Dog lay in a pool of blood.

"Fang Yu, aren't you tired, fighting like this without stopping? Aren't you afraid at all?" Xia Yao couldn't help looking at Fang Yu. The surprise she had felt at first had turned to admiration.

"I'm not tired."

"In three hours, I've killed fewer than twenty ferocious beasts and only just become a Tier-One Civilization Warrior. That's much slower than I imagined." Fang Yu shook his head.

"Xia Yao, let's keep looking for the next target."

"I'm only ranked third among the freshmen. I need to try to make a push for first."