Chapter 97: The Wisteria Came to Life, and the Foolish System Was Thrilled!

On the road, Zhang Chu became everyone’s darling.

Zhang Xueying was, after all, the admissions director of the Martial Dao Academy, and she carried herself with far more reserve.

The others were a different story.

Huang Lili spent the whole way showering Zhang Chu with praise; she was only a hair’s breadth away from offering herself to him outright.

"Brother Chu, was that ultimate move you used to wipe out that swarm just now a divine-gift combat skill or an innate combat skill?"

Hu Sanyi pressed on.

"What? He awakened both a divine-gift combat skill and an innate combat skill at the same time?"

Wang Peng blurted out in shock, nearly choking on his breath. This was practically cheating; comparing people really was enough to make one die of envy.

"Zhang Chu, let’s spar during this mission and see who can hunt more star beasts."

Fan Dayong roughly knew what Zhang Chu was capable of. A powerhouse who could obtain a telekinetic orb in a star-beast hollow tree was not so easily rattled by awakening dual combat skills.

But the sight of Zhang Chu slaughtering over a thousand star beasts by himself had already stirred Fan Dayong’s fighting spirit.

"The Martial Affairs Bureau and the Luo Institute still haven’t replied. We’ll take the long way around for now; don’t rush straight toward the coordinates of the Demon Suppression Tower!"

As the team leader, Zhang Chu deliberately chose a route with a higher degree of difficulty.

Through the map-sharing function on their perception glasses, Zhang Xueying quickly understood his intention.

He intended to use this chance to hunt star beasts and complete their trial.

The carcasses and cores of star beasts could fetch a very handsome sum.

The others, too, were rubbing their hands together.

In the eighty kilometers they advanced, the special operations squad encountered two waves of beast packs.

The first wave was triangular rhinos, with the strongest among them only at two stars.

"Go all out!"

Fan Dayong’s eyes immediately turned bloodshot, and his meteor hammer flashed so fast it seemed to leave afterimages.

He represented the Martial Affairs Bureau; he absolutely could not embarrass them.

Zhang Xueying and the others were not idle either, each unleashing their own trump cards.

With twin swords in hand, the world was theirs!

Zhang Xueying’s God-Slaughtering Sword Art was explosively fierce, heroic and dashing.

Triangular rhinos were old foes to Zhang Chu. In the Martial Arts Center’s virtual hunting grounds, he had simulated their slaughter no fewer than several hundred times.

He knew them like the back of his hand.

"Lightning vine entanglement!"

"Passive devour!"

A two-star star beast wasn’t even worthy of having Zhang Chu draw the Blazing Flame Sword.

One sweep, and hundreds died beneath his hands.

"Beep. Detected host has killed one two-star triangular rhino. Combat power plus ten, spiritual power plus ten."

"Beep. Detected host has devoured one two-star core. Combat power plus ten."

"Beep..."

All afternoon long, the system’s voice echoed again and again in Zhang Chu’s mind.

The second wave of star beasts was even more ferocious: Great Vajra, huge in size and built for brute force.

This time, it all depended on Zhang Chu’s area-clearing techniques, while Fan Dayong provided support at his side.

Zhang Xueying and Hu Sanyi were not yet dual-force warriors, so they could only stay in the rear.

By evening, the clouds in the sky blazed like fire, staining half the mountain red.

The six of them continued forward in a two-two-two formation.

"System, open the personal status panel."

That afternoon, he had hunted more than twenty-five hundred star beasts, most of them two-star.

With a thought, Zhang Chu brought up his personal status panel.

Name: Zhang Chu.

Level: five stars.

Combat power: 50180 out of 100000.

Spiritual power: 60005 out of 100000.

Seeing that his level had reached five, and that all manner of martial techniques and spiritual combat skills had risen to five stars as well, Zhang Chu wore a satisfied smile.

"What are you thinking about, smiling so happily?"

Zhang Xueying, who had quickly caught up, saw Zhang Chu grinning to himself and grew curious.

"Uh... mainly that I’m happy to be doing a mission with Sister Xueying."

Zhang Chu teased her.

"So many people are here. Stop spouting nonsense!"

Zhang Xueying’s heart skipped wildly, and she shot him a glare.

The others, however, paid them no mind.

This afternoon had been painful and joyful in equal measure. Fan Dayong in particular now only wanted a bed one point eight meters wide and two meters long so he could sleep the night away.

"We just got word that the Martial Affairs Bureau and the Martial Dao Research Institute have jointly formed a temporary command center."

"The Luo Institute sent news saying we should find a safe place to rest for tonight. They’re submitting a report overnight to the Spirit Realm cultivators at the Martial God Academy, and by tomorrow morning they’ll give us our operational plan."

Zhang Xueying hurriedly changed the subject.

At that, all their eyes lit up.

Right now, all they wanted was sleep.

"Fine. Then we’ll find a safe place and rest there for the night."

In a high-level forbidden zone, star beasts lurked everywhere, and there might even be packs of beasts above five stars.

Night operations were extremely dangerous.

For sheltering in the wilderness, Hu Sanyi was the most experienced.

After sending drones to scout the area, Hu Sanyi quickly marked a suitable place to rest.

A stretch of dense forest clung to a stone cliff a hundred meters high.

Midway up the cliff, there was a natural cave, and at its mouth lay a stone platform.

It was only twelve kilometers from the special operations squad.

The six of them raced toward the marker, and on the way they dealt with a few star beasts that hunted by night.

Using climbing ropes, they swiftly entered the cave fifty meters above the ground.

The cave was large enough, about fifteen square meters, and not cramped.

Zhang Xueying took a portable high-powered electric net from her storage ring and set it up on the stone platform at the cave mouth, forming a defensive barrier.

"We’ve been running all day. Everyone get some rest early; we still have a long march tomorrow."

Once everything was done, Zhang Xueying prepared to leave the cave.

"I’ll take first watch tonight."

"Let me do it."

Zhang Chu stopped her. "I’ll take the first half of the night; you take the second."

"I’ll take the second half!"

Fan Dayong quickly took the second watch shift upon himself.

Letting a woman stand guard, especially a martial cultivator, would make them a laughingstock if word got out and tarnish the Martial Affairs Bureau’s face.

"Be careful."

Zhang Xueying glanced at Zhang Chu, then found a comfortable spot and slowly closed her eyes.

In less than two minutes, a chorus of snoring rose and fell inside the cave.

After covering Zhang Xueying and Huang Lili with their coats, Zhang Chu tiptoed out of the cave.

He slid down the climbing rope and stood before a towering tree.

Good heavens, this poplar tree was at least five thousand years old. It was simply too satisfying.

The reason Zhang Chu had volunteered for night watch was that he had just realized the dense forest deep within this high-level forbidden land was home to countless ancient trees over a thousand years old.

This was practically a windfall delivered straight to his door.

"Double-speed domain!"

"Passive devour!"

"Beep. Detected host has devoured one twenty-thousand-year-old plant. Spiritual power plus four hundred!"

Hearing the system’s voice, Zhang Chu grew thrilled.

He swiftly ranged within two kilometers of the cave, searching for more trees over five thousand years old.

Within the fifty-minute duration of the double-speed domain, one thousand-year-old tree was aged into a twenty-thousand-year-old one.

Now that he had reached five-star dual-force warrior status, the number of passive devours had also increased to fifty per day.

One tree devoured, and spiritual power plus four hundred.

He roughly did the math.

Devour fifty twenty-thousand-year-old trees, and he could increase his spiritual power by twenty thousand.

Four hours later, it was nearly midnight.

Just as Zhang Chu finished devouring the eighth ancient tree and was about to move on, he suddenly heard a rustling behind him.

Damn!

Before he could react, a purple vine as thick as an arm shot out and wrapped him tight like a rice dumpling.

"What the hell is this? Has a plant become a spirit?"

At the end of the vine was a purple flower bud, constantly writhing like a head, seeming to have great curiosity about Zhang Chu.

As the bud drew closer and closer, a chill ran down Zhang Chu’s spine.

He had heard that when a demon beast broke through to the level of a spirit beast, it could awaken intelligence and even speak.

But he had never heard of a plant turning into a spirit.

Most crucial of all, he felt fine barbs on the purple vine piercing his skin, as if it were releasing some kind of anesthetic.

His eyelids grew heavier and heavier; his mind became hazy. With a dull thud, he collapsed bonelessly to the ground.

"All right, now I’m really in trouble. Did I just screw myself for good? Am I going to die here?"

At that moment, a dozen purple vines behind Zhang Chu began to slither forward like pythons, winding tighter and tighter.

"Beep. Detected host under attack by vine demon and being devoured. Initiate self-defense protocol?"

"Host, hurry and say initiate!"

Just as Zhang Chu felt his life force slipping away, the dumbass system finally noticed the problem, and it seemed extraordinarily excited.