Chương 4

Ming Xuan Ji exploded forward like a bolt from a crossbow, her Qinggong pushed to its absolute limits. Trees blurred into streaks of green and brown as she wove through the dense forest, her body leaving faint afterimages that dissipated like mist in the morning sun. The wind roared in her ears, tugging at her black hanfu and whipping her ponytail wildly behind her like a banner of war. Her mind, frayed from weeks of isolation and the endless, mind-numbing grind, craved this.

She needed a raw, unbridled clash to drown out the doubts gnawing at her sanity like hungry rats.

'Finally,' she thought, a manic grin stretching across her face, an expression that felt foreign after so many days of blank, mechanical hunting.

'Something that might actually push me. Something that might actually make me feel alive again instead of just… existing between kills.' The monster's Qi signature pulsed ahead like a bonfire in the night, drawing her inexorably closer with every bound. It was stronger than anything she'd faced in the past month, a beacon of raw power that promised real growth instead of the easy, almost boring slaughter she'd grown used to. No more trivial kills that barely made her Dantian flicker.

This was the challenge her gamer instincts hungered for, the kind of fight that used to make her blood sing during live streams. As she closed in, she channeled her Qi, preparing her strongest available attack. Flames tempted her, the Yang energy begging to be unleashed. But the risk of igniting the dry underbrush and turning the entire forest into an inferno stayed her hand. She couldn't afford to burn down her hunting ground when she still didn't know how far civilization was.

Instead, she opted for ice, drawing on the Yin essence within her Dantian with practiced ease. [Frost-Demon Palm] coalesced in her right hand, a chilling aura radiating from her skin like winter's breath given form. Frost crystals bloomed on her fingertips, delicate and deadly. It was a close-range technique demanding direct contact, but its potency was unmatched, capable of freezing flesh and siphoning vitality to fuel her own growth.

The beast came into view through a break in the canopy: a colossal wyvern, easily the size of a two-story house. Its dark crimson scales gleamed like polished rubies under the dappled sunlight, and its bat-like wings folded tightly against a sinewy body. Its powerful hind legs ended in talons that gouged deep furrows in the earth with every shift of its massive weight. Its long, serpentine neck arched as it tore into the carcass of an elephantine monster, blood pooling in the trampled grass like a macabre painting.

The air reeked of iron and musk. This thing was an apex predator, and it had been feasting well.

'A wyvern?' Ming Xuan Ji's eyes widened in recognition, drawing from UBAO's bestiary with a rush of old familiarity. But this wasn't a digital game spawn; it was real. Its Qi was a turbulent storm of fire and earth aspects, radiating an ambient heat that warped the air around it like a desert mirage. It hadn't noticed her yet. Launching from a low branch, she rocketed downward, her palm thrusting forward like a spear aimed at the heart of a dragon.

The [Frost-Demon Palm] connected with its left wing in a burst of arctic fury that made the air itself crackle. Ice exploded outward, crystalline veins racing across the leathery membrane faster than thought, freezing it solid in an instant. The frost spread greedily, encasing a third of the wyvern's body in a glittering sheath, locking its shoulder and flank in unyielding cold. The wyvern reared back with a deafening roar that shook leaves from the trees. Pain and rage vibrated through the air like thunder.

Its massive head snapped toward her, golden eyes blazing with a feral, terrifying intelligence. This wasn't some dumb beast. This thing was thinking. But Ming Xuan Ji was already moving, her Qinggong carrying her in a fluid arc away from its counterattack. The beast's spiked tail whipped through the space she'd occupied a heartbeat earlier, splintering a nearby trunk into kindling with a crack like a gunshot.

The force of the blow sent splinters flying past her face, one grazing her cheek and drawing a thin line of blood.

'Got you grounded,' she thought triumphantly, circling the wyvern at a blur. With its wing frozen and useless, flight was off the table. She could harass it at her leisure, wearing it down without overcommitting, the exact strategy she used to kite bosses in UBAO when she was underleveled. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Her heart pounded with adrenaline, the thrill of a true fight banishing the mental fog of her isolation.

This was what she'd missed: strategy, risk, the dance of combat where one slip could end everything. The month of easy kills had made her complacent. This was real again. The wyvern pivoted, its remaining wing flaring in a futile attempt to intimidate. It opened its maw, flames gathering in its throat like a forge's heart. A torrent of fire breath erupted, a scorching wave of crimson inferno that turned the earth black and ignited the nearby bushes with a deafening whoosh.

The flames rolled toward her in a tide of destruction. It was a massive Area of Effect (AOE) attack. When the fire neared her, Ming Xuan Ji didn't flinch. She'd tested her limits against lesser flames during her long weeks of grinding. The [Heavenly Demon Raiment] shimmered, its indestructible fabric absorbing the heat with ease, leaving her feeling no more than a warm summer breeze against her skin. She emerged from the flames untouched, her hanfu pristine. The sight seemed to enrage the wyvern further.

It lunged, jaws snapping shut on empty air as she danced aside, her body moving on pure instinct honed by thousands of hours of virtual combat. She retaliated with a rapid series of [Echo Strike] palms to its flank, each blow sending vibrations deep into its body, disrupting its Qi flow and making it stagger. The wyvern roared, swinging its massive tail in a wide arc that forced her to leap high into the air to avoid being crushed.

Landing flawlessly on its back, her feet finding purchase on the frozen scales, she drove her palm into the base of its skull with everything she had. [Demonic Echo Palm] boomed inward, the vibration ripping through muscle and bone with a sound like thunder trapped inside flesh. The wyvern bucked violently, nearly throwing her off as blood sprayed from its mouth. But it wasn't dead yet.

With a final, desperate surge of power, the wyvern slammed itself against a massive tree, using its own body as a weapon to crush the pest on its back. Ming Xuan Ji was forced to leap clear, the impact shaking the ground hard enough to make her stumble when she landed. Breathing harder now, she felt her Qi reserves dipping for the first time in weeks. The wyvern's eyes locked onto her, and for a moment, she could have sworn it was studying her patterns the way a player studies a boss.

It opened its maw again, but this time no fire came. Instead, it inhaled deeply, distorting the air as it pulled in ambient Qi from the forest itself, preparing an ultimate attack. Ming Xuan Ji didn't give it the chance to cast. She exploded forward in a burst of speed, her body a black streak against the green, and slammed both palms into its chest with every ounce of Qi she could muster. [Demonic Chain Palm] connected in a rapid series of strikes, sending cascading shockwaves through the wyvern's massive frame.

The frozen section of its body shattered under the assault, ice and scales exploding outward in a glittering rain. The wyvern's roar turned into a choked gurgle as its chest caved in. It collapsed with a final, earth-shaking thud, its eyes glazing over as the last of its life drained away. Golden essence, richer than anything she'd absorbed before, poured into her. The Heavenly Demon Scripture devoured it greedily, converting it into pure power. Her Dantian swelled, the warmth expanding until it was almost painful.

Bones creaked and realigned. Muscles tightened. Meridians widened with a sensation like liquid fire racing through her veins. She had leveled up. Significantly. But more than that, she felt something new settling into her mind, a fragment of knowledge from the Scripture that hadn't been there before. A deeper understanding of how to balance Yin and Yang in combat. The system was rewarding her for pushing her limits.

Ming Xuan Ji stayed on her knees for a long moment, breathing heavily, the adrenaline slowly fading to leave behind a bone-deep exhaustion. The fight had been close. Closer than she wanted to admit. If she'd been a little slower, or if the Raiment had failed for a second, she would have died here alone. The thought should have terrified her. Instead, it made her laugh, a short, sharp sound that echoed in the sudden silence of the clearing.

She stood up slowly, brushing dirt and wyvern blood from her flawless hanfu as the artifact cleaned itself. Looking at the massive corpse, the crimson scales still gleaming even in death, she felt a strange mix of pride and melancholy. This had been a real fight. A real victory. And she had won it alone. With a single thought, she stored the entire wyvern in her [Void Storage Ring], the massive body vanishing into the white space. It joined the thousands of other corpses she'd collected over the past month.

One day, when she found civilization, she would have a fortune in materials. Or she would use them herself to become even stronger.