5: Fighting a third-tier martial artist and snatching a seventh-tier beast!?

After bidding farewell to the people from the Martial Unification Bureau, Jiang Hao quickly distanced himself from the manor. He had only run a hundred meters when he heard:

A loud "Boom!"

Then, the very air began to heat up.

He turned his head to look.

The captain from earlier, who had been acting all brooding with a lollipop in his mouth, was now enveloped in violent currents of Qi, hovering fifty or sixty meters above the ground.

His hands moved continuously in hacking and sliding motions, flinging out wind blades one after another with the elegance of an orchestra conductor.

His opponent was a white-haired elder who conjured a pillar of fire with a stomp of his foot. While blocking the attacks, the elder also threw fireballs everywhere to create chaos.

Jiang Hao watched with envy: "If only I had an elemental talent. Mages are the eternal gods!"

The manor's buildings and walls were being destroyed as the rest of the Martial Unification Bureau members engaged in their own fights.

Overall, the Martial Unification Bureau had the advantage in numbers and strength.

Jiang Hao complained: "Are they in such a hurry? They started fighting as soon as they went in?

What happened to the secret operation of infiltrating the manor?"

Sensing that the suspected Fourth-Rank powerhouse from the 'Sacred Beast Society' was trading blows evenly with the brooding captain, Jiang Hao prepared to slip away first.

After all, Jiang Hao hadn't forgotten that the short man had driven toward the woods earlier to do who-knows-what.

His Peak Third-Rank physique gave Jiang Hao terrifying endurance and speed.

Combined with sprinting through secluded paths, he soon reached the woods from before.

Jiang Hao exhaled and stepped into the forest.

After walking about a kilometer into the depths of the forest, his figure suddenly blurred and vanished from the spot.

"Nine Flashes of an Instant!"

On the ground where Jiang Hao had just been standing...

An arrow that looked like it was made of white jade was embedded in the ground, and a nearly hundred-meter radius around the arrow was frozen solid.

"Damn it, an 'Ashe' archer, huh!" Jiang Hao cursed under his breath.

If his perception from his spirit hadn't allowed him to sense the killing intent in advance, he might have been crowd-controlled.

Although that ground-freezing arrow wasn't much to Jiang Hao...

The best way to deal with an archer was, of course, to close in and cut them down!

Jiang Hao charged in the direction the arrow had come from, continuously using "Nine Flashes of an Instant" to dodge arrow after arrow.

Seeing that the surrounding trees couldn't hinder Jiang Hao's movement Martial Skill and that he was about to be in her face, the archer grew a bit panicked.

The young woman shooting the arrows gritted her teeth and prepared for close-quarters combat. She could see that although Jiang Hao's movement and perception were good, his internal Yuan power fluctuations were only at the Second-Rank.

And she was the second-in-command of the Yunlan City branch of the 'Sacred Beast Society'!

As a Peak Third-Rank, she was confident she could finish Jiang Hao in a few moves and then escape with the 'Sacred Beast'.

She knew something might have gone wrong at the stronghold.

But it didn't matter.

As long as she brought the soon-to-awaken 'Sacred Beast' to the headquarters in Yunxiao Prefecture...

And met that cheap father of hers who had reached the high ranks, she would be rewarded with Sacred Blood and promoted to the Fourth-Rank!

Unfortunately, her thoughts were beautiful, but reality was harsh.

When she reached out to block Jiang Hao's punch, intending to give this damned youth a surprise—

Her hand broke!

To be precise, her right hand was hit as if by an overloaded heavy truck, and flesh and blood flew everywhere.

The feeling of the air being compressed made it difficult for the woman to breathe.

The smile on the woman's face vanished.

But the grin on Jiang Hao's face widened.

Originally, Jiang Hao wasn't sure he could defeat this 'Frost Archer'.

After all, Jiang Hao hadn't brought a weapon.

The saber techniques he took pride in couldn't be used.

And as a miserable warrior with short reach, he could only rely on his movement to kite and look for a chance to use Collapse Fist for a one-hit kill.

To his surprise, the woman actually stopped to fight him in close quarters!

And she even tried to catch his punch with one hand.

Jiang Hao "beat the dog while it was down," landing punch after punch on the woman's body.

The "Bang!" "Bang!" sounds were like someone repeatedly throwing grenades into an empty field.

The wind from his punches kicked up the dust on the ground, swirling through the air like a certain Family dancing at a village entrance.

The woman was like a ragdoll, completely powerless to fight back.

The Yuan power shield on her body was about to give out.

"Blegh—"

The woman coughed up a large amount of blood and was then hammered to the ground by Jiang Hao.

Jiang Hao estimated there was still a chance for her to be resuscitated, so he prepared to go up and deliver the finishing blow.

Her face covered in blood, the woman pleaded for mercy:

"Don't kill me! My father is in the society—"

"Collapse Fist!"

Jiang Hao watched the cultist, who could no longer be resuscitated, and sat heavily on the ground.

"Ha... ha..."

Jiang Hao felt his hands trembling slightly, but when he thought of the atrocities committed by the 'Sacred Beast Society'...

Plus, this woman clearly wasn't an ordinary member.

Thinking about the unfinished words the woman just said.

He immediately contacted the Martial Unification Bureau to report it!

I don't care what background you have, go take it up with the Xia Country Martial Unification Bureau!

Of course, Jiang Hao explained everything as: 'Encountered by chance, fought back with all my might.'

He claimed the woman was already in poor condition, suspected of being heavily injured, and he had killed her by a stroke of luck... After resting for a bit, Jiang Hao saw a large tent nearby. He walked over, ready to open a loot box.

He pulled open the tent and saw a lot of daily supplies inside, looking like they had just arrived recently.

They were piled up in a heap.

He figured that short man, a peripheral member, was likely delivering things to the woman.

Refusing to give up, he searched further and found a transparent box containing a snake-like exotic beast with a pale gold surface.

It looked quite small, at most about 2 meters long.

It was emitting Second-Rank Yuan power fluctuations.

Jiang Hao looked closely; it seemed this snake beast had suffered heatstroke.

So, Jiang Hao kindly opened the box to let the little snake cool down so it wouldn't suffocate.

Then, he used a Collapse Fist to turn the snake's head into a bloody mist.

[Ding! Congratulations to the Host for instakilling a Seventh-Rank opponent, gaining 500 points!]

[Ding! Congratulations to the Host for completing an instakill across multiple ranks, gaining an additional 500 points!]

[Ding! Detected a Seventh-Rank Exotic Beast's life crystal!]

It can be converted into 5,000 points. Would you like to convert it?]

???

Jiang Hao looked at the headless little snake with a face full of confusion.

What's the situation?

This thing is a Seventh-Rank Exotic Beast?

And what the hell is a life crystal?

"No!"

Jiang Hao barely managed to compose himself and refused.

If he hadn't reported it, he would have just used the crystal.

But the people from the Martial Unification Bureau would be here soon. Thinking about the recent Blue Alert and the city-wide clearing of low-rank exotic beasts...

They were clearly looking for this fellow!

However, Jiang Hao wasn't worried about the crystal being confiscated. Because Xia Country had a clear regulation:

"All gains from an exotic beast killed by a Martial Artist alone belong to the Martial Artist themselves."

You could distribute it to your own people afterward, but it required the Martial Artist's consent.

As for Jiang Hao...

He planned to find out exactly what this life crystal did before deciding whether to convert it into points.

"A thousand points, that's enough for my spirit and physique to break through to the Fourth-Rank!"

Jiang Hao said proudly: "With my Rapid Adaptation talent, I can go 'smurf' in the Second-Rank zones for a few rounds, then I can go harvest leeks in the Third-Rank!"

"Five points per kill, hahaha!"

Still, Jiang Hao planned to go home and add his points first, keeping a low profile for now.

Before long, footsteps sounded.

Jiang Hao looked at the newcomer.

Was it that brooding captain from before?

Jiang Hao greeted him: "Hello, Captain Qin!"

Qin Tianyu, with the lollipop in his mouth, nodded:

"Not bad, kid. You even managed to counter-kill a Third-Rank Martial Artist."

How about joining the Martial Unification Bureau after graduation?"

Jiang Hao looked innocent:

"I've already promised someone I'd get into the strongest school in Xia Country, Shenzhou Martial Arts School."

"How about I recommend a few of my high school classmates to you, Captain Qin?"

Captain Qin took out the lollipop and walked toward the corpse: "Never mind, I was just speaking casually."

Captain Qin carefully looked at the corpse, which had been beaten into a mosaic, then looked at Jiang Hao, who had a face like a 'good citizen'.

His mouth twitched as he threw away the lollipop and asked, "Find anything else?"

Jiang Hao immediately led Captain Qin to the tent and pointed at the headless snake: "There's a little Second-Rank snake here that I killed.

But this snake is so small, can it still be traded for money?"

Captain Qin looked at the little snake, remembered something, and immediately grabbed it for a closer look, then used a wind blade to cut open its abdomen.

A transparent crystal the size of a ping-pong ball fell out.