Chapter 43

The night required keeping watch from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m., totaling ten hours.

Since the ones needing the training were Xu Qiao and the others, their wealthy teammate Qin Chi was directly excluded from the watch schedule.

Qin Chi sat on the sofa, smiling as he watched his young teammates seriously discussing the arrangements.

Xu Qiao suggested, “The captain needs to drive tomorrow, so he should rest well tonight. Meng Li and I will take turns keeping watch, and we can catch up on sleep in the back seat during the day.“

Sun Fushan protested, “But…”

Meng Li agreed, “Okay, Xu Qiao will take the first half of the night, and I’ll take the second half.”

Sun Fushan tried again, “I…”

Xu Qiao laughed, “That’s settled then. You guys go to bed early, I’ll keep watch from the roof.”

Handing over the task of restraining Sun Fushan to Meng Li, Xu Qiao went back to the bedroom, changed into her clean battle armor, and with a jump, agilely climbed onto the roof of the forest cabin.

Meng Li went to the bedroom.

Qin Chi said to Sun Fushan, “You go sleep inside, I’ll read a bit more.”

Sun Fushan, thinking of the opulent decor of the master bedroom, took out his own tent, set it up, and texted Qin Chi: [Your bed is too soft for me, I can’t get used to it. Sleeping on the ground suits me better.]

Sun Fushan also seriously suspected that if he really slept in Qin Chi’s bed, this teammate might just replace the entire bedding set.

Since Sun Fushan insisted, Qin Chi didn’t persuade him further and took his book into the bedroom.

Sun Fushan stood in the living room for a moment, thinking about tomorrow’s trip to the B-level danger zone. He glanced at the ceiling, shook his head helplessly, and turned off the light to enter his tent.

The left bedroom’s light quickly went out too. In the master bedroom, Qin Chi stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, looking at the area illuminated by the light spilling out.

A dragon of fire that had been stifled all day stirred restlessly.

Qin Chi closed the curtains and released it.
—-
The fire dragon roamed around the bedroom, then spat fire at him: [Why didn’t you dodge when she attacked you?]

As soon as the water appeared above his head, it sensed it. If it sensed it, Qin Chi surely did too.

Qin Chi said, “If I acted too capable, she might suspect my strength.”

The fire dragon retorted: [Then why aren’t you angry?]

Qin Chi replied, “She didn’t mean any harm, and I’m not as touchy as you.“

The fire dragon was so angry it forgot to spit fire.

Qin Chi sat on the sofa by the window to read.

The fire dragon said: [You read your book, let me wander around the forest. I promise to stay hidden and not be seen by anyone.]

The higher the level of the superpowered individual, the farther their spirit beast could travel alone, only returning when the connection could no longer be maintained.

Qin Chi said, “You also promised not to fight me for control of my body.“

With that, he retracted the fire dragon.

On the roof, Xu Qiao kept watch for a while before releasing her spirit beast to monitor the surroundings. She quietly reviewed the day’s training gains and occasionally experimented with new ideas by using her powers.

Low-level beasts and insects approached from time to time, but her spirit beast handled them without disturbing Xu Qiao or waking her sleeping teammates.

Xu Qiao was so focused she lost track of time until she heard a soft door opening below.

Then, Meng Li landed on the roof.

Xu Qiao glanced at her communication bracelet—it was five minutes to midnight.

Meng Li whispered, “Qin Chi seems to still be awake.” Despite the curtains’ excellent light-blocking ability, a sliver of light had seeped out.

Xu Qiao said, “Is he worried about me?”

Indeed, she was the weakest in the team, and if a powerful B-level beast attacked, she might not even be able to protect herself, let alone warn her sleeping teammates.

Meng Li had no answer; she rarely tried to guess her teammates’ thoughts.

Xu Qiao jumped back to the ground and looked towards Qin Chi’s room, only to find the window area completely dark.

Xu Qiao was indeed tired and went straight to bed.
—-
At five in the morning, Xu Qiao was woken by the alarm, washed up, and left the bedroom. She saw Sun Fushan packing up his tent, and Qin Chi, already in his battle armor, emerging from his room.

Xu Qiao curiously asked him, “Did you stay up reading until midnight?”

Qin Chi replied, “Yes, I got used to reading every day. I didn’t have time during the day, so I read a bit more at night.“

Xu Qiao and Sun Fushan were speechless.

Meng Li came down from the roof, her face fair and eyes clear, showing no signs of fatigue.

After enjoying the delicious breakfast Qin Chi had prepared, they packed up the forest cabin, and the four of them set off for the B-level danger zone in Huangshi.

Officially hidden surveillance devices monitored the boundaries between different danger levels. If a high-level beast entered a low-level danger zone, the devices would automatically identify and report it to patrol teams. However, these devices could break or be avoided by beasts, so they couldn’t completely prevent accidents.

Considering that all three had just been promoted to B-level, the team decided not to venture deep into Huang City but instead practice in the eastern area near An County.

Qin Chi finally put on his helmet without anyone reminding him.

A B-level wild boar, resembling a small mountain, charged forward with great momentum. According to the order, Meng Li was the first to step up.

Meng Li tried to control the boar’s movements with wind powers, but the B-level wild boar was too strong; her wind had little effect. She attempted to stab the boar with a wind blade, but the boar’s thick skin and strong defense were so formidable that it didn’t even cut through.

Not wanting her teammates to wait too long, Meng Li switched to her more proficient fire abilities. Several fireballs exploded on the boar, igniting its fur.

Since they wanted to keep the boar’s skin for points exchange, Meng Li controlled the boar with a ring of fire and released toxic mist into it.

The boar ran in circles, slowing down until it finally collapsed to the ground, exhausted.

Meng Li retracted the fire and drove a wind blade forcefully into the top of the boar’s head.

Sun Fushan watched enviously; with poison as support, fire as strong attack, and wind for mobility, Meng Li still had the potential to become the strongest B-level ability user.

The second B-level creature they encountered was a large centipede—high sensitivity, high defense, high attack, and poisonous!

Sun Fushan’s earth spikes couldn’t penetrate the centipede’s shell, so he could only keep using earth walls to block the centipede’s attacks and the poison it sprayed. Meanwhile, Meng Li took the opportunity to control the wind to blow away the drifting toxic mist, preventing harm to the three spectators.

Realizing he couldn’t defeat this creature in a short time, Sun Fushan released his spirit entity just as the centipede turned. A green-shelled turtle, larger than an off-road vehicle, fell from the sky and landed heavily on the centipede’s back.

The centipede tried to flip over, but the green-shelled turtle stood firm. Taking advantage of the centipede’s restricted movement, Sun Fushan simultaneously condensed three large earth blade axes and managed to chop the twenty-meter-long black centipede into four segments in one go.

The centipede writhed in pain, with its still three-meter-long head trying to burrow into the ground to escape.

Just as it began to dig, the earth around it bulged outward, and a row of earth spikes pierced through the wound until they finally extracted the crystal core from the centipede’s mouthparts.

Sun Fushan confidently declared, “Burrowing? No way!”

Xu Qiao cheerfully remarked, “Such a big one; just the shell can be exchanged for a lot of points.”

High-defense beasts may be difficult to defeat, but they are therefore more valuable!

With their teammates feeling excited, Sun Fushan was even happier. He carefully stored the twenty-meter-long trophy, placing it in a corner designated for beast corpses in the spatial crystal core.

The team continued forward, and Xu Qiao eagerly awaited her opponent, feeling both excited and nervous.

However, after exploring until eleven o’clock in the morning, apart from some low-level beasts, the team did not encounter any more B-level beasts.

Meng Li suggested, “It might be related to being close to An County; the patrol teams likely focus on clearing high-level beasts in this area.“

Xu Qiao replied, “That’s fine; safety comes first. If we stay for another hour, we can head back.”

It would take at least three hours to return to the urban area of An County from here, and they would need time to clear any beasts blocking the road. The flying vehicle would take off at five o’clock sharp, so to avoid delaying tomorrow’s work, the team had to plan their schedule carefully.

Qin Chi suddenly stopped, looking ahead. “There are beasts ahead, and quite a few of them.“

The four of them quickly formed a formation.

Two B-level gray wolves sprinted toward them, the strong wind from their speed blowing their long fur backward. Behind the two wolves, three similarly-sized giant wolves closely followed.

Meng Li instructed, “I’ll take two with the captain; Xu Qiao, you handle one alone, and Qin Chi, keep watch!”

Sun Fushan cheered while using the earth around the five wolves, causing three heavy arena-like walls to rise up with a rumble.

The startled B-level wolves had lost their speed to break through the earthen walls and didn’t have enough space to take a running jump.

The three teammates jumped into their respective “trial arenas.”

Xu Qiao had not yet landed when the opposing B-level gray wolf lunged at her. A torrent of water, as thick as the wolf’s body, shot toward her, causing the gray wolf to turn its head to dodge and leap back to the ground.

Taking advantage of this moment, Xu Qiao steadied herself and shot three water arrows at the gray wolf in one breath. The wolf dodged two arrows but was pierced by one that shot through its ear.

The gray wolf let out an angry howl and lunged at Xu Qiao again.

Xu Qiao sidestepped to avoid the attack, and another water arrow grazed past the wolf’s neck.

The wolf’s skin was not as tough as the wild boar’s, and Xu Qiao’s water arrows had also increased in strength through her continuous attempts to break through Qin Chi’s wind circle during combat.

This arrow buried deep into the gray wolf’s neck. As the wolf landed on the ground and Xu Qiao retracted the water arrow, blood spurted out of the wolf’s wound like a fountain.

The gray wolf staggered around, unable to launch a new attack, and collapsed on the ground.

Only then did Xu Qiao look up.

Qin Chi stood atop the tall earthen wall, giving her an approving glance before flying over to the adjacent trial arena.

Xu Qiao felt quite satisfied with her performance as she neatly extracted the crystal core and carefully peeled off the entire wolf hide.

After that, she flew over the earthen wall and landed beside Qin Chi.
—-
In the trial arena below, Sun Fushan was fending off two B-level wolves. He used his abilities to block one wolf while attacking the other with earth spikes, managing both tasks with precision.

Xu Qiao turned to look for Meng Li and found that as soon as she landed on the earthen wall, Meng Li had already finished her battle; she had killed one wolf, while her fire scorpion spirit entity used its tail sting to kill the other.

Suddenly, sounds of beasts running wild came from the forest ahead.

Xu Qiao looked up and saw an imposing snow wolf, four meters long, shimmering with a translucent glow under the sunlight.

This was a spirit entity.

As Xu Qiao looked at it, the snow wolf spirit hesitated, stopped, and raised its head to look at her.

A falcon spirit swooped down from the sky and landed on a tree next to the snow wolf.

A camouflaged off-road vehicle soon followed, and five mercenaries dressed in battle armor jumped out as the doors opened.

The leader, without a helmet, had short silver hair, a striking demeanor, and exuded pride and confidence.

Meng Li landed beside Xu Qiao, her helmet slightly obscuring her frown, clearly recognizing the former schoolmate, Zhao Feng.

She whispered to Xu Qiao, “It seems those five wolves are their prey.“

Xu Qiao replied, “If the wolves are unharmed, whoever kills them gets the spoils.”

Qin Chi remained silent atop the earthen wall nearby, while Sun Fushan, who had just flown up, glanced between the opposing group and Xu Qiao. Hesitant to speak due to his stutter, he opted to remain still.

In this standoff, the snow wolf spirit returned to Zhao Feng’s side, nuzzling against the palm of his hand before looking back at Xu Qiao, whose face was obscured by her battle armor.

Xu Qiao frowned. Did it recognize her?

Zhao Feng lowered his gaze, a flicker of irritation passing through his eyes. Where did she get an A-level battle armor, and how did she dare to come into a B-level danger zone?

After a moment, he raised his head and asked with a smile, “Did you all kill those five wolves?”

Sun Fushan stood tall and replied confidently, “Yes!”

As he spoke, he reminded his teammates and then restored the three trial arenas back to flat ground, revealing the five wolf corpses—some skinned, others dead by various means.

Zhao Feng understood; at least two of Xu Qiao’s teammates were B-level in strength, and one of them was a wealthy individual who spent generously.

He exchanged glances with his teammates before turning to walk toward the off-road vehicle.

The snow wolf spirit looked back longingly.

Zhao Feng rubbed the top of the snow wolf’s head and communicated mentally, [Wait a little longer; today is not the best time to meet her.]