8: Black fire ant queen

The morning sun rose, and all things came back to life.

In the abandoned chemical plant on the outskirts of Taian City, a Body Tempering Realm Nine Star Iron Lion Beast was enjoying its breakfast.

A Body Tempering Realm Four Star Blood-Toothed Pig.

The weak are prey to the strong; this is an eternal truth, and it applies just as well to fierce beasts!

Its lion claws were sharp, and the Blood-Toothed Pig was quickly gutted.

Blood soaked the ground. The Iron Lion Beast, in the middle of its feast, smelled something and let out a deafening roar toward the front!

It smelled the scent of humans!

Compared to its own kind, the Iron Lion Beast preferred devouring human flesh; not only did it taste more delicious, but it also made it stronger!

Spiritual power condensed and wove into red threads that danced across the sky. Watching the Iron Lion Beast repeatedly roar at him, Lu Yuan controlled the ghost puppet soldiers to launch the first attack.

The Blood Slaughter Soldiers raised their shields high, and twenty heavenly punishment soldiers aimed their spears at the Iron Lion Beast.

Zzzzt! Zzzzt!

Before the Iron Lion Beast could charge over, the blue light condensed by the Lightning Cut blew it to pieces!

"Too weak." Lu Yuan shook his head.

A fierce beast of this strength was far from being his opponent now. He picked up the demon crystal on the ground and continued exploring.

Kill fierce beasts and enhance his strength through the Blood Butcher Spirit Skill: Taste of Blood!

Then repeat the cycle, over and over again...

Lu Yuan tirelessly did the same thing, having effectively become a ruthless meat grinder for hunting fierce beasts!

After a morning of effort, his score went from three digits to four, reaching 1100 points!

...

"It broke a thousand!"

At the Tianhua City government building, Teacher exclaimed.

In an instant, everyone in the conference room turned their gazes toward him. Teacher scratched his head upon seeing this.

Compared to the other homeroom Teachers from the same school who were chatting and laughing, Teacher felt extremely bored.

The main reason was that there were no students from his class in the top hundred, so he couldn't join the conversation.

This was very awkward.

What Teacher didn't expect was that the one from his class to rush into the top hundred wasn't Qin Shousheng, but Lu Yuan, whom he hadn't held any hope for!

Upon learning that Lu Yuan was participating in the Martial Examination, Teacher had even been stunned for a moment!

"This Teacher is referring to Lu Yuan, who is ranked thirty-fifth, right?" Mayor said. While chatting with the three principals, he had also been paying attention to every move on the big screen's ranking list.

Lu Yuan had frequently caught his attention!

This candidate from Yunhai High School had seen his score soar all the way from 600 to 1100 points!

The scores of candidates in the city's top hundred generally rose very slowly, sometimes remaining unchanged for over ten minutes.

Only Lu Yuan's score jumped frequently, rushing from eighty-eighth to thirty-fifth in less than two and a half hours!

Hearing Mayor's words, Teacher, who was Lu Yuan's homeroom Teacher, nodded.

"Thirty-fifth place, that's not bad at all," Mayor praised, though he didn't pay much attention in his heart, his eyes full of the top ten candidates.

They were the hope for Tianhua City to continue to be preserved!

Especially Li Jinxue, who was leading by a cliff-like margin in points; if she could get into a top university with excellent grades, perhaps the provincial leaders would change their minds.

"Lu Yuan..."

Seeing this name, Principal of Yunhai High School frowned. He exchanged a glance with Teacher, and both sides saw the confusion and shock in each other's eyes.

Although Principal of Yunhai High School didn't say anything, his peripheral vision frequently glanced at Lu Yuan at thirty-fifth place on the big screen.

...

In Taian City, a Body Tempering Realm Nine Star Steel Rock Rhino crashed heavily to the ground.

Its tough rhino hide was riddled with holes, and its pride and joy, a rhino horn capable of striking with a force of a thousand jin, had been chopped off and discarded casually!

With the heavenly punishment soldiers on the left and the Blood Slaughter Soldiers on the right, Lu Yuan extracted the demon crystal of the Steel Rock Rhino with his bare hands.

Looking at the protective netting surrounded by barbed iron fences in front of him, as well as multiple wooden signs scattered and stuck into the ground.

Lu Yuan realized that he had unknowingly arrived at the center of Taian City.

[Danger, you have entered the fierce beast infestation zone!]

There were five skulls drawn on the wooden sign, with this sentence written in bloody red font!

The fierce beast infestation zone proved that the minimum level of fierce beasts ahead started at Body Tempering Realm Eight Star, and Qi Refining Realm beasts could be seen everywhere!

The purpose of the wooden sign was to warn candidates to proceed with caution, to avoid being torn to pieces by fierce beasts they couldn't defeat.

Risk is directly proportional to reward; hunting Qi Refining Realm fierce beasts yielded higher scores, with one star being as high as 200 points!

200 points—that would require hunting 20 Body Tempering Realm One Star beasts!

Without the slightest hesitation, Lu Yuan walked through the gap in the iron netting that had been left in advance and entered the fierce beast infestation zone.

Under the shining sun, the Blood Slaughter Soldiers and the heavenly punishment soldiers began a new round of slaughter!

While hunting fierce beasts, Lu Yuan encountered quite a few candidates.

Some of them were loners like him, while others had formed temporary teams; every candidate had a cultivation of at least Body Tempering Realm Five Star.

"Damn, this is so awesome, the score is just shooting up!"

"Leave some for me, I only have 500 points; I'm still quite a few points short of a top-tier university!"

"In your dreams, you need points, but I don't? Whoever kills the beast gets the points!"

"So lively?"

Seeing twenty or thirty candidates gathered together in front, occasionally letting out laughter and profanities, Lu Yuan walked over.

The surrounding temperature gradually rose. From a dark and damp cave entrance, ants the size of a fist with black and red skin were crawling out incessantly.

Lu Yuan recognized at a glance what kind of fierce beast this was.

Black Fire Ant, a type of fierce beast that loves magma, which can cultivate up to the Qi Refining Realm Peak.

There were about three or four hundred Black Fire Ants densely packed on the ground, but their strength was only at the Body Tempering Realm Five Star to Six Star.

"Damn, I told you not to laugh so loudly, now another one has come to steal our points!"

Seeing Lu Yuan arrive, a candidate who had awakened an Earth Attribute Combat Class cursed and grumbled.

Lu Yuan knew why they were so happy; killing one Black Fire Ant could earn 60 points. Although the points weren't high, the sheer number made up for it.

These Black Fire Ants were not strong; it was equivalent to getting free points. Anyone would be unable to help but laugh out loud.

Feeling the wariness of the surrounding candidates, Lu Yuan was unconcerned, but he felt curious in his heart.

Didn't they say the minimum strength of beasts in the infestation zone was Body Tempering Realm Eight Star? Where did these Black Fire Ants come from?

"Awesome, this is so awesome!"

The candidate who had complained about the laughter being too loud and attracting Lu Yuan waved his fists, his fists wrapped in yellow mud and sand taking out one Black Fire Ant with each punch.

In less than two minutes, he had killed five or six of them, adding over three hundred points!

Squeak, squeak, squeak—

That candidate suddenly looked up and discovered a giant Black Fire Ant the size of an elephant, with foul-smelling liquid constantly dripping from its mouth, appearing above his head!

It swallowed him in one bite, and he didn't even have time to let out a scream!

Black Fire Ant Queen!

Lu Yuan looked at this terrifyingly large Black Fire Ant, and it was shockingly a Qi Refining Realm Three Star fierce beast!

Squeaking sounds intensified. Discovering that its kin had suffered heavy casualties, the Black Fire Ant Queen burned with rage, and twenty or thirty Body Tempering Realm Peak Black Fire Ants crawled out of the cave entrance!

"Run!" Some candidates reacted and fled in a panic.

The situation reversed in an instant!

The hunters became the prey. Some candidates let out shrill screams as their legs were bitten off at the waist by the Black Fire Ants.

Seeing such a bloody scene, some candidates turned pale and tremblingly pressed the protection device on their wristbands, thus avoiding being turned into food by the Black Fire Ants.

And the price was giving up the Martial Examination!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Lu Yuan focused on controlling Blood Butcher to face the Black Fire Ant Queen. Of this group of Black Fire Ants, it was the strongest; if he solved it, everything else would be easy to handle!

Clad in the armor of blood, Blood Butcher swung the serrated chain blade in its hand, accurately stabbing it into the Black Fire Ant Queen's leg.

Szzzt—

An ant leg as thick as an arm, mixed with green blood, was flung away!

The Black Fire Ant Queen let out a painful squeak and sprayed black flames at Blood Butcher, yet they were all easily blocked by Blood Butcher!

"Ah, who is he, he's so fierce!" The expressions of the candidates who had activated their barriers, lost their eligibility for the Martial Examination, and were waiting for rescue were colorful.

They could tell that, fortunately, Lu Yuan had intercepted the Black Fire Ant Queen in time; otherwise, they wouldn't even have had time to activate their barriers and would have long since become the Black Fire Ant Queen's meal!

They had thought Lu Yuan would also activate his barrier, after all, he was facing a Qi Refining Realm Three Star fierce beast.

Who would have thought Lu Yuan was so fierce, controlling the wolf-headed, human-bodied monster to trade blows with the Black Fire Ant Queen, and even injuring the Black Fire Ant Queen!

Squeak, squeak, squeak—

Seeing that it couldn't defeat Blood Butcher, the Black Fire Ant Queen changed its strategy and summoned its subordinates to try to surround and attack Blood Butcher!

The Body Tempering Realm Peak Black Fire Ants that had been chasing the candidates turned back and surrounded Lu Yuan from different directions.

"He has to activate his defensive shield now, right?" the nearby candidates thought.

He could win one-on-one, but Lu Yuan definitely had no chance of winning against many; twenty-plus Body Tempering Realm Peak Black Fire Ants were no joke—just their flame-spraying would be enough to give Lu Yuan a hard time!

"Comparing numbers?"

Lu Yuan scanned the swarm of Black Fire Ants surrounding him and flicked his fingers to summon the ghost puppet soldiers.

Fifty Blood Slaughter Soldiers beat their long knives against their shields, their fighting spirit soaring!

Twenty heavenly punishment soldiers aimed their spears at the Black Fire Ant Queen, their pupils emitting a bloodthirsty light!

"Then let's see who has more!" Lu Yuan declared resolutely, and in a breath's time, the space beside him was filled with ghost puppet soldiers!