Chapter 22 : Chapter 22
Chapter 22: Is That Li Mu, the One Wearing the Cape?
Just as Yin Changming was lost in thought, someone suddenly cried out in alarm, “A squad has already run into a monster!”
On the giant screen, a four-person squad had encountered a Yellow Rank, First Grade monster: a Spiderwolf!
Two people in that squad were Yellow Rank, Second Grade martial artists.
But when faced with that terrifying monster, one martial artist was wounded in a single exchange.
The squad fell into chaos, and only after an exhausting struggle did they barely manage to kill the creature.
They earned the first batch of points and made it onto the scoreboard.
In the Abyss, humanity’s greatest reliance was cooperation.
Monsters possessed fearsome physiques and were often far stronger than martial artists of the same rank!
Meanwhile, Li Mu, whom no one was paying attention to, had entered the Abyss for the first time.
He was in no rush to make it onto any scoreboard. He was being extremely cautious.
The area he had landed in seemed to be a ruined city.
Who knew what was hidden among the uneven stretches of broken walls and collapsed ruins, so Li Mu could only move carefully along the edges.
Just as he vaulted over a low wall, he stepped on something beneath his foot.
Crack!
Li Mu froze.
A normal branch should not have made such a loud sound. He looked down and realized it was a shattered bone.
A chill began creeping up Li Mu’s back.
He spun around abruptly.
On top of the low wall, a horrifying stitched-together monstrosity was climbing up onto the ledge, staring at Li Mu in excitement.
It had a wolf’s body and wolf claws, with four sharp spider legs growing out of its back, and two heads—one wolf head and one spider head.
A common Yellow Rank, First Grade monster: the Spiderwolf.
Its body was a full two meters long, and blue saliva of unknown origin dripped constantly from the corners of both the wolf head’s mouth and the spider head’s maw.
The way humans judged a monster’s grade was by measuring the intensity of the energy it released.
A creature like this had an energy level roughly equivalent to a human in the late stage of Yellow Rank, First Grade, which made it a Yellow Rank, First Grade monster.
Although Li Mu was still one realm higher than it, the bloodthirsty eyes of the wolf head, combined with the countless eerie eyes on the spider head, were enough to strike terror into one’s heart at a single glance.
The next moment, the creature leaped down from the wall in excitement and pounced straight at Li Mu!
Its wolf claws slashed out, and a massive claw-shadow came crashing toward him.
Li Mu had to admit that when a monster charged straight at him, the sense of terror really did hit its limit!
It was so fast and so ferocious that Li Mu was certain that if an ordinary martial artist had to face it alone, he would piss himself on the spot!
Li Mu instinctively wanted to flee.
But the decades of insight he had accumulated in Earth-Walking Nine Steps gave him enough confidence.
With a light spring of his body, Li Mu dodged the attack and swept out horizontally with the Thorn Staff in his hands.
First Shock of Flowing Cloud.
One of the spider legs nimbly blocked the blow, forcefully taking Li Mu’s strike head-on and knocking it aside.
Li Mu took advantage of the momentum to retreat half a step, then whipped around and struck back fiercely.
Second Shock of Flowing Cloud.
The Spiderwolf had been worrying that Li Mu might flee.
One spider leg swept in again, intending to block Li Mu’s attack a second time.
Meanwhile, the other spider legs were already stabbing toward Li Mu’s flanks, cutting off his path of retreat.
What it did not expect was that Li Mu had no intention of dodging at all.
His staff came smashing down, and with a crack, that spider leg shattered on the spot.
Li Mu immediately pressed forward.
This time, Li Mu poured true qi into his weapon like mad.
Third Shock of Flowing Cloud, layered with the Iron-Cleaving Form!
The staff came crashing down on its head, and with a crack, it smashed the wolf head’s skull to pieces.
The Spiderwolf instantly let out a shrill cry and began thrashing wildly.
But in the middle of its struggle, a sharp spider leg suddenly burst out through its abdomen.
Its blade-like edge flashed coldly as it sprang open and slashed toward Li Mu in flight.
Li Mu’s gaze sharpened.
This was the Spiderwolf’s dying counterattack, a move known as Death Slash.
In the early days, countless martial artists had died to this sudden attack.
Li Mu had been guarding against exactly this move.
He raised the Thorn Staff in his hand to block.
Sparks flew in all directions.
The Spiderwolf’s leg was smashed apart the moment it collided with the Thorn Staff.
Li Mu followed up with another blow directly onto the spider head, ending the Spiderwolf’s life for good.
[Victory! Victory Points +30]
Li Mu was stunned!
A First Grade Spiderwolf was worth only slightly fewer Victory Points than that red-haired instructor?
That meant that red-haired instructor had only been about as strong as this Spiderwolf.
But outside the Abyss, Li Mu would not have many chances to defeat others over and over again.
Inside the Abyss, however, every monster he killed counted as one victory.
Which meant he could gain points much faster.
And there was one more crucial point.
Before awakening a talent, martial artists could only cultivate through their own efforts.
So their progress was very slow.
But once they entered real combat—especially battles of life and death—their advancement would accelerate tremendously.
Some geniuses could even reach the level of Fifth or Sixth Grade teachers before ever entering university, or even higher.
That was also why martial universities and ordinary academic universities widened the gap between them so quickly.
Many students in ordinary academic universities would spend their entire lives stuck at Second or Third Grade.
The overwhelming majority never even reached that, remaining at First Grade or below, merely nourished by spiritual energy and physically stronger than ordinary people on Earth.
Without hesitation, Li Mu added all thirty points to Divine Weapon Art.
[Consumed 30 Victory Points. Strengthening ‘Divine Weapon Art’ successful.]
[Divine Weapon Art: Grants weight to a weapon. Current weight: 100 jin.]
Li Mu hefted it in his hand.
As expected of the Celestial Immortal Art. Even at Second Grade cultivation, after reforging his body, it had made him this strong.
Even without Divine Weapon Art, the Thorn Staff already weighed sixty jin.
Even without using Mountain-Bearing Art, Li Mu could still barely swing one hundred and sixty jin, though it felt very heavy in his hands.
But if he used Mountain-Bearing Art, then it became extremely light and nimble.
With a staff weighing one hundred and sixty jin crashing down, that Spiderwolf probably would not even have been able to endure the Second Shock of Flowing Cloud.
Li Mu flicked his cape.
After the Spiderwolf had died, a stream of invisible energy had flowed into the cape.
Li Mu had clearly felt it.
He set off once more, moving quickly toward the edge of the red zone.
First Grade monsters were still a little too weak for Li Mu.
If he moved toward the red zone, he might run into an early-stage Second Grade monster.
Then he could see how many Victory Points it was worth.
And along the way, Li Mu’s score also began to accumulate rapidly.
Because other teams had to split their points among four or five people.
Although they killed monsters quickly, their scores rose slowly.
Li Mu, however, was taking all the points alone.
Even though he was cautious and killed monsters more slowly, his score was still rising very fast.
Up above, outside the Multimedia Hall, the Blackwater High School students had gathered outside the building in groups, watching the giant screens inside through the transparent glass.
Some of them had even started playing cards on the spot.
“Our school only came here to make up the numbers anyway.”
“If leaving early were allowed, I’d already be back at school pounding the training posts. I don’t want to be part of the background scenery here.”
“Do you think Li Mu will stand out? Didn’t he already break through to Second Grade?”
“He’s the only Second Grade in our school, not in every school.”
“Out of nearly four thousand people, almost half are Second Grade. How could it be that easy?”
“Wait!”
At that moment, one student who had been facing the hall suddenly threw down the cards in his hand, slowly stood up, and stared fixedly at the screen inside.
“Is that Li Mu—the one wearing the cape??”
At the same time, Yang Yourong shot to her feet.
She grabbed Chen Jiaqi beside her.
“Jiaqi, hurry and look! Is that your cousin?”
“It is! It is!!”
Chen Jiaqi clenched her fists excitedly and pointed at the screen.
That was definitely Li Mu.
Back at home, the two of them had taken turns playing with Li Mu’s Thorn Staff and his cape.
Of course they recognized them.
“Big Aunt! Big Aunt, hurry and look! Cousin made the rankings!”
“That means he’s already broken into the top hundred!”
“My cousin is freaking amazing! Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh!!”
Chen Jiafeng jumped up and down excitedly, covering his mouth as he even started imitating monkey calls.
Fortunately, the area around them was as noisy as a stadium, so no one paid any attention to how worked up they were.
But Yang Suying, who was seated there, had gone pale despite her excitement.
The others all noticed that something was wrong with her.
“Sis, what’s wrong?” Yang Yourong asked.
“Why is Mu all alone? Where are his teammates?”
Yang Suying’s voice carried even a trace of fear.
The others immediately stopped shouting as well, only then realizing that Li Mu really was alone.
On the entire screen, there were only three people acting solo.
The first-place Zhang Zhiwei.
The second-place Lu Chenfeng.
Aside from those two, everyone else was moving in teams.
And now Li Mu was also acting alone?
“Could it be… they’re all dead?”
Yang Suying grabbed her younger sister’s hand and, still in shock, finally voiced the question she feared the most.
Everyone else was celebrating Li Mu’s entry into the top hundred.
Only she was worried that her child had no one to look after him and was facing the monsters of the Abyss all by himself.