24: Chapter 24 Crisis Rescue

This day, Qingluan was carrying Qin Ce as they skimmed low over a forest, overlooking the area below in search of suitable prey.

Suddenly, Qin Ce's gaze sharpened.

About one kilometer to the southeast, a group of students was fleeing in a panic, and close behind them was a dark, dense swarm of wolf spiders!

Sickle Wolf Spiders!

The group of Sickle Wolf Spiders chasing them numbered at least thirty!

Each wolf spider was the size of a millstone, its eight legs as sharp as sickles, emitting a teeth-gritting "click-clack" sound as they moved. Their scarlet compound eyes flashed with a bloodthirsty gleam, clearly having marked this group of students as prey.

Qin Ce's pupils constricted slightly.

What concerned him more was the cold, elegant figure running at the very front of the group—it was Wang Xuan.

"Monitor! They've caught up!" Zhou Min cried out with a sob. Her Fire Lizard was the slowest and had fallen to the back, and a strand of spider silk narrowly grazed the tip of its tail.

Wang Xuan's face was pale, but her eyes remained relatively calm. She glanced back at the closing swarm of wolf spiders, then looked at her exhausted teammates and their Pet Beasts, and gritted her teeth: "Run to that pile of rocks! Use the terrain!"

But everyone knew that given their current state and speed, being caught was only a matter of time.

...

With an order from Qin Ce, Qingluan gripped his shoulders and flew rapidly toward the southeast at treetop height.

The wind whistled in his ears, and the scenery on the ground retreated rapidly.

Along the way, Qin Ce quickly identified them with Nine-Star Insight:

[Fierce Beast]: Sickle Wolf Spider, [Grade]: Black Iron High-grade, [Potential]: Black Iron High-grade, [Attribute]: Dark, Poison, [Talent]: Bone Reinforcement, Bone Sickle Goldification, [Skill]: Sickle Slash, Venom Spray, Web Bind, [Status]: Hungry, Excited, Greedy, [Weakness]: Fears fire, chest-abdomen connection is fragile, weak eyesight and sense of smell, [Evolution Opportunity]: Consume high-order Dark and Poison energy.

Black Iron High-grade.

No wonder Wang Xuan and the others were in such a sorry state.

A single Sickle Wolf Spider was already difficult for them to handle easily, let alone a swarm of over thirty rushing at them! Even a Bronze Rank Beast Tamer would find this troublesome.

Seeing the wolf spider swarm getting closer and closer, those sharp sickle-like forelimbs nearly reached the male student at the tail end of the group!

Just then, a clear and resonant bird cry came from the sky!

Everyone instinctively looked up and saw a cyan shadow descend from the sky like a meteor, carving an arc in the low altitude with extreme speed, steadily blocking the path between the fleeing group and the wolf spider swarm.

"Monitor, do you need help?" Qin Ce asked, hovering in mid-air with the help of Qingluan, looking at the shaken Wang Xuan and the others.

"Qin Ce!"

Wang Xuan looked up and saw the figure in the air, a flash of surprise in her eyes, then she shouted anxiously: "Quick! Go to the base and call the instructors to save us! We found a hidden underground cave over there and accidentally disturbed an uncleared wolf spider nest! There are many of them inside, mostly Black Iron Mid-grade and above! We can't handle them at all!"

The other students saw Qin Ce as a savior, but hearing Wang Xuan's words, despair shrouded their hearts once again.

Call the instructors?

It would take at least ten minutes to go back and forth; they would likely have been swallowed by the wolf spider swarm long ago!

At this moment, Qin Ce shook his head. He scanned the disheveled crowd and the approaching wolf spider swarm behind them, his tone calm but carrying a reassuring steadiness: "It's too late. They aren't slow, and you can't outrun them. I'll handle this."

Qingluan dove and placed Qin Ce ten meters in front of Wang Xuan's group.

"Qin Ce? Why are you..." Wang Xuan stopped, both surprised and anxious, "Leave quickly! There are too many of these wolf spiders; you can't handle them alone!"

"The monitor is right!" a boy with a bloody face shouted, "The eight of us couldn't beat them; we almost died in there!"

Qin Ce didn't look back, just said calmly: "You guys retreat first; let me try."

"Try?" Zhou Min stamped her feet in anxiety, "How can you try? You'll die!"

Others nodded in agreement. They admitted that Qin Ce was strong, but the scene before them was no longer something that could be solved by individual bravery. If Qin Ce stayed, he would likely die in vain.

Wang Xuan also looked at Qin Ce anxiously, about to persuade him again.

But Qin Ce had already moved.

Qingluan flew up from above his head, emitting a clear, long cry.

At the same time, Qin Ce communicated with Qingluan through his mind.

"Wind Blade, area coverage."

Qingluan spread its wings completely, and cyan wind elements gathered crazily around its body.

The next second, dozens of crescent-shaped Wind Blades poured down like a rainstorm!

Such high-frequency Wind Blade release was entirely dependent on the absolute control of wind elements from "Nine-fold Azure Sky". This was also something Qingluan could only unleash after reaching Black Iron Mid-grade and having sufficient energy support. Of course, while each Wind Blade was less powerful than a single-target Wind Blade, the coverage area was extremely wide.

"Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft—!"

The Wind Blades fell into the wolf spider swarm, instantly splashing a field of dark green blood.

The seven or eight wolf spiders rushing in the front were sliced into pieces by the Wind Blades, and the wolf spiders behind were knocked off balance, their formation in chaos.

"This..." Everyone in Wang Xuan's team was dumbfounded.

The eight of them had fought bitterly for a long time and only barely managed to kill two or three wolf spiders. And with one move, Qin Ce had taken out seven or eight, and even disrupted the entire wolf spider swarm's charge?

This gap in strength was just too large!

But what shocked them even more was yet to come.

Qin Ce himself moved.

He didn't stand there commanding, but charged into the wolf spider swarm like a leopard! With the blessing of wind-type energy, his speed was extremely fast, weaving and maneuvering between the wolf spiders.

Every dodge was perfectly timed to avoid the sickle slashes; every strike was fatal.

He held a short blade, his figure like the wind, following the gap opened by Qingluan to charge in. With the addition of wind-attribute energy, his speed and agility far exceeded those of the same rank, and his strikes were precise and ruthless, specializing in attacking the wolf spiders' compound eyes, joint connections, and other weak points. Although he couldn't harvest them on a large scale like Qingluan, under the suppression and cooperation of Qingluan, every strike he made inevitably took away a wolf spider's combat capability, with astonishing efficiency.

"He... he is also this capable in combat?!" a boy said with a trembling voice.

"And even fiercer than our Pet Beasts..."

"Is this really a freshman who just awakened two months ago?"

The students watched Qin Ce moving through the wolf spider swarm as if there was no one there, and complex emotions welled up in their hearts.

On the first day of school, they were disdainful of this civilian freshman;

Later, Qin Ce dumped Wang Yu and the others, and they were alienated while in awe;

These past few days, Qin Ce's hunting efficiency was astonishing, and they were envious and jealous.

But until this moment, witnessing Qin Ce crushing the wolf spider swarm that they were helpless against with absolute strength, that sense of estrangement suddenly dissipated.

Replacing it was a heartfelt admiration.

This is a world where strength is respected. When the gap becomes so large that it is uncatchable, jealousy turns into looking up.

...

"Don't just stand there!" Wang Xuan was the first to react, "Ranged Pet Beasts, support Qin Ce! Melee Pet Beasts, protect the flanks!"

The students woke up as if from a dream and released their own Pet Beasts one after another.

Ice Crystal Butterflies, Blood-Eating Wolves, Fire Lizards... although they were all black iron rank, under focused fire, they could also cause quite a bit of trouble for the wolf spiders.

The battle situation was completely reversed.

Qin Ce focused on attacking, Qingluan suppressed from the air, and the students assisted with finishing blows.

The number of the wolf spider swarm decreased at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Fifteen minutes later, of the thirty-plus Sickle Wolf Spiders, only the last five remained struggling desperately.

"We won..." Zhou Min murmured.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, joy of surviving a disaster appearing on their faces.