22: Chapter 22 Absorbing Essence Blood, Astonishing the Crowd

"Roar—!"

The male Thunder Tiger was already a broken mess. In its fury, it began to attack wildly, spitting out bolt after bolt of blue lightning from its mouth.

The more critical the moment became, the more cautious Lu Wu grew. He dodged the incoming lightning while swinging his blade, unleashing fiery Saber Qi.

The Thunder Tiger's spirit was willing but its flesh was weak. It tried to harness the lightning to take flight again, but its severe injuries disrupted the flow of its power.

With all four limbs broken and a massive amount of blood flowing uncontrollably, the Thunder Tiger's life force was draining at a visible rate.

"Awoo..."

Finally, with a loud thud, the male Thunder Tiger collapsed powerlessly. Its large head slumped to the side, eyes wide open, dying with its grievances unaddressed.

Others might not have known, but Lu Wu saw it clearly.

The direction the Thunder Tiger was looking before it died was actually where the female Thunder Tiger was located. Even in its final moment before death, it was still thinking of its mate.

"Over there... it's also settled." Lu Wu flew high in the sky and saw the situation on the other side at a glance.

Here, Chen Xing had already finished the battle.

The female Thunder Tiger's power was no match for him; a few Light-Speed Punches had beaten it to death.

"I heard tigers possess a Pure Yang Body, so why did you have to switch to Evil Qi to Cultivate? No wonder you're so weak. This tiger blood is probably useless to me too." Chen Xing shook his head slightly.

Yao Beast blood generally had miraculous effects because it contained a large amount of Yao Power, which could temper a person's Physical Body.

Yao Beast blood of different attributes had different effects on Ability Users of different attributes, which was one of the goals of hunters.

"Right, attributes?" Chen Xing's heart stirred.

"It seems the battle over there is settled, I might as well give it a try." Thinking of this, he raised his hand, and light shone out, extracting the Essence Blood from the female Thunder Tiger.

Chen Xing placed this drop of Essence Blood on his forehead and then closed his eyes, feeling a strong impact.

Violent, Yin-Evil, fierce... various powers surged, but they were quickly suppressed by the S-rank Divine Light, unable to stir up even the slightest wave.

Under the System's Second Law, the lightning and Yin-Evil attributes formed a perfect compatibility with his Light Element.

Whoosh!

Within moments, the power of this Yin-Evil Thunder Tiger's Essence Blood was completely absorbed by Chen Xing, and his cultivation level rose slightly.

The focus of this item's improvement was not on cultivation level, but on the Physical Body. However, for the current Chen Xing, the effect was truly insignificant.

After all, every single cultivation resource the academy had provided these past few days was better than this thing.

What he lacked now was not resources, but time.

"That should do it." Chen Xing possessed startling arm strength; he carried the Thunder Tiger with one hand and walked toward the other side.

"We can wrap things up now." Seeing this, Lu Wu shouted, calling Li Tan and the others back while he himself landed on the spot.

Within moments, Li Tan arrived with his people.

"Where is Brother Chen? Why was he nowhere to be seen just now?" he asked.

"He's coming." Lu Wu raised his head slightly, pointing his chin toward a direction to the side.

In the dense forest, a figure slowly emerged. Surprisingly, he was actually carrying another Thunder Tiger in his hand!

Li Tan and the other two were dumbfounded. They were just about to go and deal with the remaining one, and it had been delivered right to them?

"Brother Chen, was this... solved by you alone?" Li Tan pursed his lips, seemingly unable to believe it.

"Yes." Chen Xing nodded without any concealment.

"This..."

Everyone gasped, suddenly feeling as if their worldview had been refreshed.

The Thunder Tiger that several of them couldn't take down together had been handled by Chen Xing alone in such a short time?

"Old Li, didn't you damn well say he was a support?" Zhou Chen's expression was strange.

"How was I supposed to know?" Li Tan glared at him.

"So you had him play support for several days?"

"Holy crap, how can you blame me? The problem is he didn't say a word, so I thought he really only knew those few moves!"

"Then I don't know, explain it to him yourself." Zhou Chen chuckled.

"Get lost!" Li Tan glared.

He looked at Chen Xing, his tone changing as he said cautiously, "Um... little brother, if I may ask, which Family or Sect do you belong to? Ah, I don't mean anything else, I'm just curious. It's fine if you don't want to say."

"No Sect, no affiliation." Chen Xing said bluntly.

However, the crowd didn't believe these words at all.

You don't have a single drop of blood on you, you're completely uninjured—you probably finished the battle in a crushing manner, didn't you?

If you didn't come from a famous Sect, who could have such combat power?

Of course, just as Li Tan had said, it was just a question out of curiosity. If the other party didn't want to say, they wouldn't force anything.

In reality, Chen Xing had already been honest.

"These Thunder Tigers belong to everyone. Everyone contributed, so let's find a place to divide them up," Lu Wu spoke up at this moment.

"Yeah, once this beast is dead, its territory will be occupied by other Yao Beasts, and the smell of blood will attract other predators. Let's find a cave first." Zhou Chen nodded.

"I'll go scout around. There might be other hunting teams nearby, which is the most lethal thing." Li Tan was as cautious as ever.

The group scouted the surroundings, and after confirming it was safe, they left with the two Thunder Tigers.

After traveling for a while, they found a relatively hidden cave and began to divide the Thunder Tiger's treasures, such as the tiger skin and tiger blood.

"Big Chen, did you really kill this by yourself?" Xia Qinger quietly approached and whispered beside him, her face filled with surprise.

"What about it?" Chen Xing asked.

"Nothing, just a bit surprised." Xia Qinger kept her hands behind her back, her bright, watery eyes darting around.

She said, "Your combat power is so strong, why haven't you made a move these past few days and were willing to play support for them in the back?"

Chen Xing didn't answer and asked instead, "Do you like going to the front to fight?"

Xia Qinger nodded, almost blurting out, "Of course!"

"Why?" Chen Xing asked again.

"Because... I don't want to hide behind people. I... I want to have the ability to protect others. I don't want to be a burden." Xia Qinger pursed her lips.

"Who do you want to protect?" Chen Xing suddenly became curious; there was likely a story here.

"Well... it's not about protecting anyone specific, I just... don't want to be protected by others anymore." As Xia Qinger spoke, she unconsciously clenched her fists.

"When I was ten, my home was raided by bandits. My parents sacrificed themselves fighting the thugs to protect me. Back then, I could only stand in the back, watching them fall before me."

"So... I don't like hiding behind others. I want to stand in front of someone for once and protect them," Xia Qinger said seriously.

Chen Xing was speechless. Watching one's parents die before one's eyes—what kind of sorrow and pain that must be. She was also a pitiful person.

Lu Wu walked over, stood inconspicuously in front of Xia Qinger, and said, "The items are divided. How much do you want?"