Chapter 213: Still Not Strong Enough
BANG—
That one kick from Lin Yi.
Sent Wei Nan flying three to four meters.
Wei Nan, who had slammed heavily onto the ground, couldn’t get up for a long time.
"What the fuck... What are you doing?"
Wei Nan turned back and glared furiously at Lin Yi.
But then, he saw a black shadow flash before his eyes.
It was lunging straight for Shen Mengyi.
Lin Yi had no time to explain. The long blade in his hand, moving like a Spiritual Snake, shot after the black shadow.
His strike sliced down, yet it failed to harm the shadow in the slightest.
At this point, Zhou Qi, Sun Tao, and Shen Mengyi all snapped to their senses.
One by one, they all began to search nervously for any sign of the black shadow.
"Careful..."
Lin Yi quickly warned.
Zhou Qi whipped his head around just in time to see the black shadow pouncing toward him.
He held a long spear, and without dodging or evading, he thrust it directly at the shadow.
Just as the spear tip was about to pierce its heart,
the black shadow actually managed to forcibly change direction in mid-air.
Its body scraped past the tip of the spear.
SPURT—
Blood sprayed from Zhou Qi’s chest.
The immense momentum made him stumble, and he retreated several steps backward.
Fortunately, Sun Tao was quick to react, catching Zhou Qi with one hand.
When he looked around in terror for the black shadow,
it had already vanished without a trace.
And at that moment, Lin Yi charged over, blade in hand.
VMM—
With a sound of tearing air, the long blade sliced through the void, as if it had only cut through empty air.
But in the next instant, the black shadow appeared precisely where the blade fell.
PFFT...
The long blade seemed to have sliced open its body, and blood spattered out directly.
At the same time, the black shadow’s movements were impeded.
It then fell to the ground.
The corners of Lin Yi’s mouth lifted as he said coldly, "Bind..."
In the next moment, vines sprouted from the ground out of thin air.
They swept toward the black shadow.
They grew rapidly, and each vine was as thick as a finger.
Just as several vines began to wrap around the shadow’s limbs,
the shadow let out an enraged roar.
Then, it leaped, managing to jump free just before the vines could entangle its entire body.
"It’s a black panther?"
Shen Mengyi exclaimed in alarm.
In that brief moment when it was immobilized,
Shen Mengyi, Lin Yi, and the others all got a clear look.
It was a black panther, a beast that hadn’t fully transformed?
Lin Yi just had time to glance at its talent description.
It was clearly already at the 3-star realm...
"Be careful! Its speed is incredible, and it’s a demon beast!"
"A demon beast?"
A hint of vigilance flashed in their eyes.
They scanned the surroundings, searching for the black panther.
ROAR—
Suddenly, an angry roar came from above their heads.
Lin Yi quickly looked up to see a massive black shadow descending as if from the heavens.
The sheer power of its presence terrified them all, and its target as it fell was, shockingly, Shen Mengyi.
Before she could even react, it was about to smash into her in the blink of an eye.
But at that very moment, a figure lunged forward.
Just a second before the black panther would have crushed Shen Mengyi, he tackled her and pushed her to the side.
With a loud RUMBLE,
Wei Nan and Shen Mengyi fell to the ground.
At the same time, the black panther crashed down.
A venomous look glinted in its eyes as it glared fiercely at Wei Nan.
Just as it was about to continue its attack on Wei Nan and Shen Mengyi,
a layer of frost rapidly condensed on the black panther’s body.
This development left Wei Nan and the others completely astonished.
Although it wasn’t warm here,
it was definitely not cold enough to reach the absurd point of forming frost.
Even the black panther itself couldn’t help but look down at its own body.
The frost, spreading at a visible rate, soon encased the panther’s entire body.
Then, a layer of ice formed on top of the frost.
It grew thicker and thicker.
In no more than ten seconds, the black panther was completely frozen solid.
"Wei Nan, kill it..."
Lin Yi shouted.
Wei Nan instantly snapped back to his senses and leaped up from the ground.
Gripping his large saber, he charged straight up to the black panther.
With a swift motion, his blade fell, flashing with a cold light.
CRACK—
With the sound of shattering ice,
his blade sliced down, and the black panther’s head fell to the ground.
Its body, however, remained frozen solid.
There was no spurt of blood. Even the black panther’s shocked expression from before its death was still frozen on its face.
Only at this moment
did Lin Yi finally let out a long sigh of relief.
He reached into his pocket and gently patted Xiaoqi.
With the black panther dead, Wei Nan collapsed to the ground, his expression grave.
He stared at the ice sculpture before him, panting heavily...
"Holy shit, we finally fucking killed it!"
"That was too close! If it hadn’t been frozen just now, Shen Mengyi and I would have died here!"
Wei Nan said, still shaken.
But Lin Yi had no time for him now. He quickly turned back to check on Zhou Qi’s injuries.
Earlier, when they were ambushed by the Monkey Demon,
Zhou Qi had already been injured. And that last attack from the black panther
had left his chest a mess of torn flesh, bleeding profusely.
"How is it? Can you still hold on?"
Lin Yi came closer to examine Zhou Qi’s wound.
Zhou Qi just chuckled and nodded. "I was careless just now. I didn’t dodge in time. Otherwise... it wouldn’t have hurt me!"
"It’s fine, I can still hang in there..."
Lin Yi looked at Zhou Qi; his voice was clearly much weaker.
Without a second thought, he took out two small medicine bottles from his Storage Ring.
One was for treating external injuries, the one Tang Qinru had left for him back at his home in the Old District.
It was for him to treat himself if he got hurt.
Lin Yi wasn’t sure how effective it was.
He opened the cap and poured it directly onto Zhou Qi’s wound.
Then, Lin Yi opened the other bottle. "Drink this!"
Zhou Qi nodded, took the medicine bottle, and gulped it down.
Only then did Lin Yi stand up.
He looked at the headless corpse of the black panther, his brow furrowed into a knot.
"Looks like the situation here is even more serious than we imagined!"
"And these demon beasts are smarter and more cunning than the ones in the Old District. They’re good at using the terrain to target us. No wonder the guards outside made us sign a life-and-death waiver!"
"How is this a mission? We’re clearly just here to be an extra meal for these demon beasts!"
Now, they all realized the dangers of Jail City.
No wonder Tang Qinru and the others looked so shocked when they heard Lin Yi had enrolled in Xingwu University.
This is just a mission for new students.
The missions will only get more numerous and more difficult from now on.
Jail City will become their main battlefield during their university years.
Lin Yi turned and glanced at their surroundings.
Finally, his gaze fell on Zhou Qi.
"How are you doing? Can you still go on? If you really can’t..."
"I can. We’ve already come this far, how could I give up halfway?"
"The medicine you gave me to drink and the one you put on the wound are both working well.
The bleeding has already stopped, and I feel like the wound is about to heal!"
"Don’t worry, I won’t hold you guys back!"
Zhou Qi got up from the ground and said to them with a light chuckle.
Wei Nan frowned. "Hold us back my ass! We came here together, so we’re leaving together!"
"If you can’t hold on, just say the word. I’ll carry you on my back to finish this mission!"
Zhou Qi looked at Wei Nan intently.
A flicker of gratitude showed in his eyes.
Lin Yi smiled. "Alright then, let’s divide up the work."
"When we encounter a demon beast, I’ll take care of it, but I’ll leave the last blow for whoever hasn’t completed the mission yet."
"The sooner we finish the mission, the sooner we get out of here!"
"The road ahead is long and difficult. After we get back, we still need to focus on raising our realms!"
"Otherwise, we’ll die here sooner or later!"
The others nodded repeatedly in agreement with Lin Yi’s words.
This trip to Jail City
had made them all realize just how weak they still were.
Back in the Old District, reaching the 1-star realm was already enough to be considered a Martial Arts genius.
And they hadn’t thought anything of it.
Even when they came to the New District, they all believed their own talents were quite good.
But once they actually got here, they found it was completely different from what they had imagined.
Even if the realms of most of the local students were just propped up by medicine,
that was still a part of their strength.
You could even say the competition started from birth.
Some people were born in the New District, while others were born in the Old District.
Their cultivation methods were different, but they all strived for the same goal.
That goal was to become stronger...
Therefore, it was only after arriving in the New District that they truly understood.
Talent alone was useless; family, background, and money were all indispensable.
And after entering Jail City, they truly realized
that nothing was more important than increasing their strength.
Thus, Lin Yi’s words
brought them all to a consensus.
After leaving this place, only by desperately cultivating and continuously raising their realms
could they make a name for themselves at Xingwu University.
Otherwise, they would be drowned by batch after batch of local students.
And one day in the future, due to their own insufficient realms,
they would die a miserable death in this [Jail City].
After resting for about ten minutes, the group’s stamina gradually recovered.
Lin Yi’s eyes were deep as he gazed into the depths of the forest.
"Let’s go. We’re still short three demon beasts."
"Let’s go. Finish the mission early, go back to sleep early.
Old Zhou, how are you? Can you walk on your own?"
Wei Nan walked up to Zhou Qi.
Ten minutes of rest seemed to have done Zhou Qi good; he no longer looked to be in serious trouble.
Even the wound on his body seemed to be slowly healing.
"No problem, I can walk freely now!"
Wei Nan smiled and nodded. The group followed Lin Yi’s lead and continued deeper into the forest.
...
BOOM—
「On the outskirts of the forest.」
A 2-star Demon Beast didn’t even have a chance to resist
before Wei Shang killed it with a single punch.
His bracelet immediately displayed the words ’Mission Complete’.
However, Wei Shang didn’t even glance at it.
He raised his head and looked into the forest.
"It seems they’ve been gone for a while. Although I haven’t seen any signs of a fight along the way,"
"my intuition tells me they’re in this forest!"
Feng Lei glanced back at him.
"Then what are you waiting for? Let’s hurry and catch up to them. Don’t wait until something really happens, or we won’t be able to explain ourselves to Old He!"
"Mhm!"
Wei Shang nodded lightly.
The next moment, the two of them were seen sprinting into the forest at an extremely high speed.
In the blink of an eye, they vanished from sight.
「Not long after they had just left.」
A person in a black robe walked out from behind a tree.
His robes were somewhat tattered, and the brim of his hood hid half of his face.
His gaze was fixed on the direction where Wei Shang and Feng Lei had just left.
After a long while, a hoarse voice sounded out.
’People from the Town Martial Department... Why have they come to Jail City?’