18: [Breach of the Will] and [Weapon Item]
Su Yuan pushed off the ground, scattering grass, and lunged forward, narrowly dodging a sharp claw.
“I got careless!”
Perhaps it was because killing the Wild Boar Demon earlier was too easy, Su Yuan’s mindset unconsciously inflated, and he didn’t even notice the monster approaching, almost falling into a dangerous situation.
Su Yuan looked gravely at the monster that had just ambushed him.
“It’s the Wolf Head Leader!”
Su Yuan recognized it at a glance.
This monster, as stout as a calf, with black fur all over its body and sharp claws and fangs, was precisely the elite-level mini-boss—the Gale Demonic Wolf!
The monsters in the Secret Realm had been explained many times by the teachers in his class, and he already understood them perfectly.
This monster, known as the ‘Wolf Head Leader,’ was very fast, with sharp claws and fangs.
Its strength far surpassed that of the Wild Boar Demon and the Crow Spirit.
The big bosses in the Secret Realm had already been cleared by the school, so the mini-bosses were the strongest combat power in the mountains at this time.
“I didn’t expect to encounter one so quickly!”
He had only just reached the mountainside, and the number of mini-bosses was already small, yet it just so happened to target him.
“What bad luck!”
Facing the giant wolf’s death stare, Su Yuan’s face inevitably showed a hint of apprehension.
“The Wolf Head Leader’s overall strength should be equivalent to a Martial Artist of the Second Realm.”
“Its speed and reaction are superior to mine, but ‘Zero-Frame Startup’ can increase my attack speed, so in that aspect, we can be considered evenly matched.”
“Furthermore, it also has a weakness,”
“The Wolf Head Leader’s strength isn’t particularly strong; it’s probably only comparable to a Martial Artist who has just entered the Second Realm, far inferior to my ‘Nine Oxen Strength’,”
“All things considered, the advantage is mine!”
Thinking this, Su Yuan’s Aura grew stronger.
There were cameras everywhere in the forest, so the current standoff between the two sides must have already caught the attention of the staff.
Perhaps the nearby teachers had already been notified and were on their way.
So there was no need to worry too much.
Additionally, he was always ready; once he felt incapable, he would immediately call for rescue.
The two sides faced each other in a tense atmosphere; Su Yuan’s gaze narrowed, ready to strike.
The Wolf Head Leader launched the first attack; its speed was extremely fast.
“Whoosh!”
Su Yuan only felt a black afterimage arrive in an instant, reaching him in the blink of an eye.
Fortunately, he was already prepared; ‘Zero-Frame Startup’.
The Fangtian Halberd in his hand, carrying immense force, smashed towards the afterimage; the halberd tip collided with the afterimage.
“Haha, die!”
Su Yuan was overjoyed.
Although this Wolf Head Leader was said to have a copper head, iron tail, and tofu waist, with a head as hard as steel,
He didn’t believe that a wolf’s head could withstand the ‘Nine Oxen Strength’.
Unfortunately, before Su Yuan could celebrate,
The afterimage had already dissipated, and the Wolf Head Leader had already appeared in another direction.
“This is difficult,”
Su Yuan quickly withdrew his halberd, preparing for the next ‘Zero-Frame Startup’.
His reactions couldn’t keep up with the Wolf Head Leader at all; his eyes couldn’t capture the opponent’s true movements.
His attack speed was also far inferior to the opponent’s.
Therefore, he couldn’t use halberd techniques in combat; only the opening move, with its item with affix power, could keep up with the opponent’s speed.
“Whoosh!”
Another afterimage arrived in an instant; although Su Yuan couldn’t see it clearly,
‘Zero-Frame Startup’ still predicted and collided with the afterimage in advance.
“Clang!”
This time, the Wolf Head Leader didn’t completely evade; it used its wolf claw to swat at the Fangtian Halberd, attempting to knock it away.
But the long halberd was imbued with ‘Nine Oxen Strength’; the Wolf Head Leader was completely unable to contend with it.
With a thud, the Wolf Head Leader flew backward.
After a flexible somersault in the air, it landed.
“Ow!”
Its wolf claws gripped the ground fiercely; the giant wolf let out an angry roar.
Its pair of wolf eyes stared intently at Su Yuan, a hint of apprehension subtly emerging within them.
Su Yuan remained calm, adapting to whatever came, holding his breath and waiting for the right moment.
The two sides faced each other again, and the scene grew eerily quiet.
Even the shouts of classmates that occasionally echoed through the mountain seemed to have vanished.
“Whoosh—”
A gentle breeze blew, rustling the leaves.
Just then, the Wolf Head Leader moved; an afterimage flashed through the bushes.
“Whoosh!”
Su Yuan quickly turned his head, his gaze hurriedly searching for the giant wolf’s trace.
“Whoosh!”
The afterimage flashed past on the other side again.
The Wolf Head Leader seemed to have learned its lesson, no longer pouncing directly.
It circled around Su Yuan, looking for an opportunity to exploit a weakness.
“Whoosh!”
A wolf claw grazed Su Yuan’s shoulder, the accompanying gust of wind stinging his face.
Su Yuan felt a faint premonition of danger.
Although he narrowly dodged this time, he hadn’t even managed to activate ‘Zero-Frame Startup’.
His true strength was only at the fourth layer of the First Realm; his vision and reactions were completely unable to track the Wolf Head Leader.
“Whew!”
Su Yuan calmed himself, his gaze sweeping through the forest.
“The staff monitoring the cameras should have already reported the situation here to the teachers; the teachers might already be nearby!”
Safety, at least, was not a concern.
“It’s just a pity; this trial has only resulted in seven monsters killed so far, and I haven’t picked up any item with affix fragments, item with affixs, or Cultivation Techniques,”
“Such a precious opportunity, if I were eliminated here, it would be too regrettable.”
Su Yuan gritted his teeth.
He was truly unwilling to be eliminated like this, but he couldn’t perpetually guard against a thief.
Prolonged defense inevitably leads to loss!
If he allowed the Gale Demonic Wolf to continue circling, waiting for an opportunity to find his weakness, then Su Yuan’s defeat would only be a matter of time.
So, if he didn’t want to sit by and wait for death,
“Then I must lure the snake out of its hole!”
Su Yuan made up his mind.
“Whoosh!”
The demonic wolf’s afterimage flashed past from the side.
But this time, Su Yuan’s movement was a beat too slow; by the time he turned his head, he seemed to have lost the demonic wolf’s trace.
He feigned panic, turning in circles to search, exposing his back to the Wolf Head Leader.
“Whoosh!”
A scraping sound first came from the ground behind him, followed by the familiar whoosh of wind.
“It’s coming!”
Su Yuan’s lips curved into an arc.
That’s right, the exposed back was actually a deliberate weakness to lure the demonic wolf into attacking.
And the demonic wolf, indeed, fell for the trick!
“Swish!”
Su Yuan’s ‘Zero-Frame Startup’ counter-halberd, which he had been preparing, struck.
As he turned, the Fangtian Halberd in his hand, though moving later, arrived first.
With a “bang!”,
Forget about a copper head, iron tail, and tofu waist; the wolf’s head exploded like a watermelon, directly shattered by the steel halberd, imbued with ‘Nine Oxen Strength’, in a single strike!
Wolf fangs, eyeballs, and brain matter splattered everywhere!
The scene was quite bloody.
“Whew—”
Su Yuan let out a long breath; he hadn’t expected his ‘feigned weakness to lure the snake out of its hole’ tactic to go so smoothly!
Combat, indeed, sometimes relies not only on strength,
But also on brains!
As the demonic wolf died, its scattered body parts slowly dissipated.
A huge warm current surged into Su Yuan’s body.
“This is the experience from killing monsters!”
“Killing an enemy above my level this time, it seems I gained a lot of experience!”
Su Yuan quickly looked at his Martial Dao panel, only to see that his progress, which was originally at 21% of the fourth layer of the First Realm, had suddenly jumped to 40%.
Killing the Wolf Head Leader, an enemy above his level, actually increased his progress by 19 points.
“Awesome!”
Feeling the surge in his Cultivation, Su Yuan’s heart swelled with excitement.
“I wonder if there will be any drops this time…”
This was his first time killing a mini-boss level monster, and Su Yuan was genuinely a little expectant!
As the demonic wolf’s massive corpse completely disappeared,
A fragment, emitting a faint white glow like jade, appeared.
“Haha! It really dropped an item with affix fragment!”
Su Yuan’s face was filled with pleasant surprise.
He quickly ran over and picked up the item with affix fragment.
This was his first time touching an item with affix fragment; it felt warm and subtly radiated heat in his hand.
“Although it’s just the lowest-grade white item with affix fragment, its market price can still reach around two thousand.”
Two thousand could buy a lot of exotic beast meat.
It was almost comparable to his father’s monthly salary.
Su Yuan carefully placed the fragment into the inner pocket of his combat uniform; four item with affix fragments were needed to synthesize one inscription.
As for whether to synthesize or sell,
Su Yuan hadn’t decided yet.
Seeing no other monsters nearby, he continued up the mountain.
As he delved deeper into the mountain, the distance between classmates also grew wider.
A mere forty to fifty students, placed into the vast [Langlang Mountain], were as inconspicuous as a mud ox entering the sea.
However, since they were following the same route,
Su Yuan soon encountered a three-person team from his class; after half a day, meeting classmates brought a pleasant surprise, like meeting an old acquaintance in a foreign land.
“Wow, Yuan-ge, you’re not even in a team; how many monsters have you killed?” a boy asked.
“Six or seven, I guess,”
Su Yuan didn’t hide it, “What about you guys? How’s your record?”
“We also have six; divided among us, each killed three… Yuan-ge, you’re so lucky; all your kills are your own!” one person said enviously.
For the same distance up the mountain, everyone encountered roughly the same number of monsters.
If Su Yuan included the Wolf Head Leader, that would be eight monsters.
However, in a team, monster kills had to be evenly divided, which was one of the reasons Su Yuan was unwilling to team up.
“It’s also about seeking wealth in danger; I almost got eliminated just now!” Su Yuan said truthfully.
“Indeed!”
“Especially with our strength, we can only team up,” the other person sighed.
Su Yuan still remembered this person’s initial inscription.
He recalled it should be the green-grade ‘Charge into Battle’,
Which could increase one’s combat power when in a crisis or predicament; it was a decent inscription.
But compared to Su Yuan’s, it was far inferior.
“Which way are you going?… Alright, I’ll go this way!”
The two sides exchanged a few pleasantries,
Then went their separate ways again.
Su Yuan chose another small path and not far after, he encountered another Wild Boar Demon.
With experience, he now killed it more easily.
After walking for a while longer,
Branches and leaves rustled in the foliage, and two black wolves emerged from within.
These black wolves were smaller than the Wolf Head Leader; these two were ordinary Black Wolf Demons.
Su Yuan breathed a sigh of relief.
Ordinary black wolves were comparable in strength to Wild Boar Demons, only differing in being faster and less powerful.
They posed no threat to Su Yuan at all.
‘Nine Oxen Strength’ combined with ‘Zero-Frame Startup’ easily killed the two monsters.
Watching the two black wolf corpses dissipate,
Su Yuan was about to leave when his gaze swept past and suddenly stopped.
“Is that…”
He saw that where the black wolf had been, there should have been nothing, but now,
A weapon like an iron rod suddenly appeared!
“Could this be… an item with affix?!!!”
Thinking this,
Su Yuan’s eyes widened suddenly, and a wave of excitement surged through him; he quickly ran over and took the iron rod in his hand!
It felt slightly heavy in his hand,
Heavier than his fangtian halberd, and he didn’t know what material it was made of.
It looked like it was forged from some kind of black gold, with faint Dragon patterns subtly appearing in the black gold, clearly indicating it was no ordinary item.
A surge of spiritual energy poured into the iron rod,
The iron rod immediately emitted a green glow.
“It really is an item with affix! And it’s a green-quality item with affix, one grade higher than white!”
Su Yuan was overjoyed.
Regardless of whether he was in the Secret Realm, he immediately burst into several hearty laughs.
“I never thought such an ordinary Black Wolf Demon could drop such a good item!”
“It’s just a pity that this weapon is an iron rod; if it were a sword or a halberd, that would be great!”
After the initial excitement, he couldn’t help but feel a little regret.
Su Yuan had never considered using a staff-type weapon, so it seemed he could only sell it.
It probably wouldn’t be easy to sell either.
Among the eighteen types of weapons, those who used staffs were actually relatively few.
“Whether it can be sold and for how much, the most important thing is to look at the inscription’s effect!”
Thinking this,
Su Yuan immediately injected spiritual energy to summon the iron rod’s inscription panel… [Some chapter titles are irrelevant to the chapters, and even the inscriptions in the chapter titles do not appear in that chapter. Please don’t mind; it’s purely my twisted sense of humor.]