Heavenly Treasures

In the blink of an eye, Fang Yu, Bai Chen, and the others had spent several days in the Great Spirit Mountain region.

It was now two in the afternoon on August 23.

On a mountainside with an excellent view, the members of the Crimson Flame Squad took turns eating and resting as they chatted happily.

"Hahaha, that last fight was exhilarating."

"Especially Fang Yu. He was fierce when he unleashed his Dark Force, killing the little snakes just as quickly as the captain. At the end, he was even more ferocious, hacking one of the level 25 Two-Headed Ironwire Snake's heads clean off while it was still alive." Xia Yao wore an exaggerated expression. "Inviting Fang Yu onto the team was definitely the right choice."

"That's right. Without Fang Yu, our haul would've been a lot smaller," Bai Chen said with a smile.

Fang Yu smiled. "Stop praising me. Any more and I'll be flying up to the heavens. Besides, you've all helped me tremendously too. Just now, if the captain hadn't saved me and that Two-Headed Ironwire Snake had bitten me, I'd probably have been seriously injured, even with my combat suit protecting me."

Everyone laughed.

Fang Yu felt relaxed too. During his days at Great Spirit Mountain, he had gotten along well with his teammates. Their temperaments suited one another, they helped each other, and none of them had been injured so far.

Though they had known one another for only a few days, their bonds had grown increasingly strong.

Over the past few days, the Crimson Flame Squad had killed more than ten intermediate ferocious beasts and over a hundred low-level ones... It had been a tremendous haul.

The level 25 Two-Headed Ironwire Snake they had killed not long ago had earned them all a large number of Primal Points. Fang Yu had even overtaken Yan Hezhou once more to claim second place among the new students.

At the same time...

Fang Yu had also become the second new fourth-year student after Fan Xing to raise his Coefficient Score to 1.3.

My overall ranking has also shot straight up to somewhere in the 760s, Fang Yu thought. If this pace continues, it should be easy for me to break into the top 500 by the end of the practical combat period.

The total score was the base score multiplied by the Coefficient Score.

Fang Yu's base score was very high, and taking the base score assessment again on the final day of the practical combat period would raise it even further.

Now that his Coefficient Score had risen again, Fang Yu's overall ranking had naturally risen with it.

All this killing over the past few days hasn't improved my physical condition much, but my control over Dark Force has grown increasingly precise. Even at my limit, I can unleash 1.8 times my base strength, Fang Yu mused. I'm another step closer to using the Subtlety secret technique.

A person might struggle to learn from another's teaching, but experience could teach a lesson in one go.

In the wilderness, under the pressure of life-and-death combat, martial artists often improved their skills very quickly.

On the other hand...

Constantly surrounded by danger deep in the mountains and marshes, martial artists were too tense to find time to cultivate in peace, much less dare to forcibly stimulate their muscles and bones with Dark Force.

As a result, their progress in raising their life level slowed.

That was also why martial arts universities scheduled only two practical combat periods each year, each lasting just one month... Martial artists in their golden years still needed to focus on raising their life level.

After they had rested for quite a while...

"All right."

"Everyone should be about done resting." Bai Chen swept his gaze over the group. "We've been out for four days now, and we've collected quite a haul, including more than ten stalks of Red Star Grass. I just had Xia Yao estimate it, and our spoils this time should be worth close to 200,000 Star Coins in total."

"Split among us, that's no small sum."

Everyone's eyes lit up.

Not long ago, they had fought desperately to break through the ironwire snake swarm, with Fang Yu and Bai Chen unleashing their Dark Force without regard for the cost to attack the level 25 Two-Headed Ironwire Snake.

The main reason was to seize the dozen-plus stalks of Red Star Grass guarded by the swarm.

Fang Yu marveled inwardly as well.

Red Star Grass was a raw ingredient for Crimson Star Pills, so it was naturally quite valuable.

A single stalk was worth over 10,000 Star Coins.

By risking it all in that fight, each of them had earned tens of thousands of Star Coins, matching the proceeds of their hard hunting over the previous few days... That was the value of heavenly treasures.

Red Star Grass was actually among the less valuable heavenly treasures. Some rare treasures could fairly be called priceless, enough to make an Intermediate Martial Artist rich overnight.

Of course, such rare treasures were unlikely to appear in the Great Spirit Mountain region.

The denser the Star Power in a place, the greater the chance of heavenly treasures and rare wonders being born there... By the same token, places rich in Star Power were also where powerful ferocious beasts gathered, making them all the more dangerous.

"I'm planning to head back now and sell all the spoils from this trip first. What do you think?" Bai Chen asked.

"Sounds good."

"Carrying this much loot really does make it hard to move around."

"Let's go back, rest for a few days, and get some proper cultivation in before coming out to hunt ferocious beasts again." Fang Yu, Xiong Meng, Qin Yang, and Xia Yao all agreed.

"Good, then we'll head back right away," Bai Chen said decisively. "On the way back, everyone must stay alert. Don't let your guard down for a moment."

"Understood."

Fang Yu and the others nodded. A hundred-mile journey was only halfway done at ninety miles; until they were safely back in the safe zone, they could not lower their guard. That was a lesson countless martial artists before them had paid for in blood.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Led by Xia Yao, the group traveled through the mountain valleys, steadily making their way toward the Starry Sky Base.

After they had gone nearly ten kilometers...

"Stop," Fang Yu suddenly said.

"Stay alert," Bai Chen said even more urgently, keeping his voice low.

The two spoke almost at the same time.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Without the slightest hesitation, the five scattered in an instant, some hiding behind trees and others diving into the bushes.

A dozen or so seconds later...

Rustle... A faint sound came from the woods ahead. Six human martial artists were advancing cautiously, watching the dense mountain forest around them.

Suddenly, they stopped too, sensing something amiss.

"Dong Qi?" Xia Yao called tentatively from behind a tree.

"Xia Yao?" The short, slight captain at their head was startled as well. "Your squad is here?"

"Captain, there's no need to be so tense. They're classmates of ours." Xia Yao breathed a sigh of relief. Only then did Fang Yu, Bai Chen, and the others emerge from their hiding places.

Xiong Meng and Qin Yang, however, remained out of sight.

"Zhang Tao?" Fang Yu was surprised to spot someone he knew in the other group: Zhang Tao, who had come along with him from junior college.

Had he joined a martial artist squad too?

"Fang Yu?" Zhang Tao was quite surprised.

Seeing that there were several familiar friends in each other's squads, the other martial artists on both sides became less wary and began talking from more than ten meters apart.

Fang Yu also learned about Zhang Tao's situation from him.

He had managed to join a martial artist squad... But his squad was not as strong as the Crimson Flame Squad, so most of the time they only dared hunt ferocious beasts along the edges of the safe zone.

That was the norm for most martial artist squads.

Squads like the Crimson Flame Squad, which dared venture dozens of kilometers into the wilderness, were in the minority.

"You've really collected a lot of loot," Zhang Tao remarked. "No wonder your Coefficient Score has risen so fast. It looks like first place among this year's new students is bound to go to either you or Fan Xing."

"The practical combat period only started a few days ago. It's too early to say anything for certain," Fang Yu said with a smile. "Your ranking isn't low either. If you work hard, you've got a shot at the top ten too."

"Yeah, I really am working hard." Zhang Tao nodded firmly.

If he had not wanted a shot at the top ten in Coefficient Scores, he would not have risked joining a martial artist squad and entering the wilderness... Wang Mo, for example, stayed in the safe zone hunting low-level ferocious beasts and took no risks at all.

The two squads chatted for a while longer.

Dong Qi and Zhang Tao's squad left first... Only after they had gone well out of sight did Qin Yang and Xiong Meng emerge from hiding. Throughout the encounter, Qin Yang had kept his hand on his bowstring, ready to fight at any moment.

"Captain, do we have to be that cautious?" Xia Yao could not help asking.

"It never hurts to be careful," Bai Chen said softly. "The alliance and the school have both strictly forbidden us from killing one another."

"The Starry Sky Base has penalties too."

"But does that mean there's been any shortage of killings between martial artists in the wilderness?"

"I've seen it with my own eyes," Bai Chen said in a low voice. "It wasn't even a fight over treasure. They deliberately robbed someone and even tried to silence the witnesses."

Fang Yu's heart tightened.

The Starry Sky Base had clear rules: the punishment for killing members of one's own martial artist squad was terrifyingly severe, so members of the same squad could maintain a basic level of trust... But if the fighters merely belonged to the same civilization, killing one another still incurred a penalty, though a much lighter one.

Only a certain number of Primal Points would be deducted, and at worst, their Civilization Warrior rank would be lowered.

The Blue Moon Alliance's laws explicitly forbade killing one another, but as long as the killing took place outside the Starry Sky Base's safe zone, without surveillance or audio or video recordings, it could not be directly proven.

As a result, martial artists on Primordial Star frequently killed one another over treasures or grudges...

"As I always say."

"In the wilderness, you can place a certain amount of trust in your teammates," Bai Chen said gravely. "Apart from them, stay on absolute guard against every other martial artist. We don't go looking for trouble or rob others... But we must never let anyone do us harm, either."

"Let's go."

The group continued on their way.

Almost at the same moment...

In a mountain forest several kilometers from the Crimson Flame Squad...

A bloody battle had just ended.

"My hand!" A tall, middle-aged martial artist lay on the ground, wailing in agony. One of his arms had been severed, and blood gushed from the wound.

Not far away, a female martial artist lay gravely injured on the ground, gritting her teeth as she held on. A blade had cut a massive wound across her abdomen.

It was a bloody sight.

"Fourth!"

"Fourth Brother!" Several other civilian martial artists on their team were overcome with grief and rage as they glared at the six young martial artists standing around them.

All six young martial artists held weapons, and two of them were archers. They looked at the civilian martial artists with amusement, like cats playing with mice.

"I already told you, all you had to do was take out your treasures and let us inspect them," the black-clad young man at their head said with a soft sigh. "We only want heavenly treasures. We can return the rest of the ferocious beast materials to you, and everyone would be safe. Why wouldn't you agree?"

"This is robbery." A scar-faced man who looked to be in his thirties struggled to suppress his grief and anger. "And you call yourselves martial arts university students."

"If we hadn't hunted down the strongest ferocious beasts and cleared away the hidden threats for you, could you have gathered those heavenly treasures in peace?" The black-clad young man looked at him, his voice gentle instead. "It's only fair for you to hand over the heavenly treasures as payment."

"But you just had to draw your weapons on us and try to kill us, forcing us to fight back in self-defense." The black-clad young man looked regretful. "Why did you have to let things come to this?"

"You shameless bastard!!" the scar-faced man roared in grief and anger.

"Alas!"

"Inferior martial artists will always be inferior martial artists, so ill-mannered. Since you can't keep a civil tongue, you'll have to pay for it." The black-clad young man sighed.

The next moment, his voice turned icy cold. "Fan Xing, go cut off that foul-mouthed inferior martial artist's legs."

"Yes, Captain." Fan Xing leaped down from where he stood above them.