Chương 125: War God — Chapter 125

"With a current this fast... I wonder how that new student is doing?" Yan Zhaoxue stood atop a reef, gazing at the distant sunken ship. Entering this area meant stepping into the alligator snapping turtle's territory. Seeing that turtle wouldn't be simple. Blood crocodile packs roamed all around. That wreck was the Tailai, once part of Chishui Town's port fleet, carrying large quantities of yuan-power drugs and genetic yuan-fluid.

After it sank, between beast attacks and the corpses of martial artists who died here, the later rescue teams failed to salvage it in time. Many beasts devoured the bodies and drugs, mutating and evolving significantly. Compared to the three outer zones, this place was far more dangerous.

"Huh... beast corpses?" Several blood crocodile carcasses suddenly drifted out from the sunken ship. Yan Zhaoxue glanced at them. Her eyelid twitched. The blood crocodile bodies were carved up neatly, completely devoid of life aura. As if some powerful force had drained the life right out of them.

"This is...

'Butcher's Beast Dissection'?" One look was all it took. She instantly recognized the effect of a Secret Skill.

"This new student is impressive." Yan Zhaoxue felt a jolt of surprise. This Secret Skill was no easy feat to train. It required slaughtering hundreds or even thousands of beasts just to show results.

"And killing these E-rank Beasts in such an environment..."

"With the blood mist so dense... and still managing to kill so many?"

"Is this year's crop of new students really this high-caliber?" Yan Zhaoxue analyzed the situation and decided to head straight into the sunken ship. Having slain over a dozen E-rank blood crocodiles in such harsh conditions, the other party was surely running low on yuan-power by now. Most likely they'd hidden inside the wreck, waiting for rescue. Otherwise, trying to leave with the blood mist this thick wouldn't be easy. If they ran into other beasts, it would spell trouble.

"Hopefully they're inside the wreck..."

"If it's that alligator snapping turtle... under the blood mist's influence, it could very well reach peak D-rank. Close to 10, 000 life force points."

"Out in the open, I could kill it in a few spear strikes. But here in the water, its defense is boosted, and I'm using a training spear. I might not even break through its defense." Against this kind of defense-specialized beast, don't be fooled just because it's only peak D-rank level. With environmental bonuses, even a Fourth Realm Martial Artist would have a hard time. Not to mention, since this was only Secret Skill training, she hadn't brought her dedicated combat gear.

Saving one person and getting out would be easy enough. Elsewhere. Bone-Burning Water Tomb. Dao Sanxiao pulled his katana from a skeletal fish at least 40 meters long. He waved to the dozen-plus classmates behind him.

"Brothers, with our combined efforts, we got it done!" The students burst into excited cheers. The instructor watched this batch of second-realm new students with a gratified expression. Without a doubt, the group he led should count as the highest-caliber batch among all of Tiandu University's new students this year, right? Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Watch out." Lei Hao pointed at Dao Sanxiao.

"Now that this Skeletal Fish-Dragon is dead, it's all bone, no flesh. The Malevolent Qi is dispersing fast! Stop posing!" Dao Sanxiao chuckled, jumped down, caught his breath, and looked toward Lin Wujin, who was wiping down his spear.

"Your spear technique is formidable. I didn't expect it to be completely unaffected underwater."

"What Secret Skill did you train?"

"Thousandfold Weight," Lin Wujin said.

"Been training it over a year now. After releasing it underwater, my body feels much lighter, so the water barely affects me."

"No, no, it's definitely not just Thousandfold Weight." Dao Sanxiao shook his head.

"That Wolf Fang Spear Art you used earlier, even though it's at peak mastery, its power was completely different from what I've seen others use! Both the power and range far exceeded anyone else's!"

"Soaring Phoenix Spear Technique," Lei Hao said.

"It's a spear Secret Skill from the Dragon Spear Club, adapted from the spear techniques used by a renowned battle army centuries ago, the 'Soaring Phoenix Army.' The training method is quite demanding, but once mastered, it expands the power and yuan-wave range of any spear martial art you execute." Lin Wujin said nothing.

"All of you are impressive." Dao Sanxiao clicked his tongue and nodded.

"Every single one has trained one or two Secret Skills..."

"We still have time, and the blood mist on our side is gradually dissipating."

"Instructor, should we head to the reefs in the core zone and check out that alligator snapping turtle?" He turned toward the instructor.

"It's the third day now." The instructor thought for a moment.

"Your tasks are all complete, so you can go take a look. But no one's cleared the blood mist over there. That turtle will be affected by it. It might very well be at peak D-rank."

"In your current state, even if you all attacked together, you couldn't break through the turtle's defense."

"We know, we're just going to look." The group exchanged glances and smiled.

"Take a look at just how strong this peak alligator snapping turtle is. What do the rest of you say?"

"I want to go see too."

"There's still time. No other squad could be faster than us, right!"

"The top fighters among the new students are all here in our group!"

"I wonder how Wang Xian's squad and that taboo-talent Goddess Ye's squad are doing..."

"One of them is in Poison Vine Ghost Alley, the other over in Town-Suppressing Water Marsh... The marsh terrain is the most disgusting!" The group listened as the new students chattered away.

"Wang Xian's side probably isn't making fast progress, right? The blood mist is such a hassle... If Senior Chi hadn't led us around it earlier..." Dao Sanxiao looked at the many new students.

"We'd probably still be trapped in the blood mist right now."

"Hard to say..." Lei Hao frowned.

"When Senior Chi led us away, the blood mist concentration wasn't that high yet. His secondary field is plant pharmacology. He noticed something was off right at the start and came early."

"For the other squads, the blood mist has probably already taken full form by now. They might not have been able to hold on and already left early." Everyone thought it over and felt that was a real possibility. So they packed up and immediately set off for the core zone. However, halfway there—"Old Lu!" The instructor leading them flicked his finger, shooting out a water arrow. The water arrow exploded up ahead. Lu Tiesheng turned around to look at the students behind him, surprised.

"Old Jia? What are you guys doing here?" Instructor Jia walked up, astonished.

"I should be asking you the same. I've never encountered blood mist in the Jade Fall Pool before. I figured you'd have left early. Why are you here? How's your squad doing?"

"Not bad!" Lu Tiesheng laughed heartily.

"These kids took down the zone elite over on our side. We're looking for someone now, figured we'd check out the other zones."

"You weren't affected by the blood mist?" Dao Sanxiao stepped forward from behind.

"Was that Vortex Giant Octopus taken down by Wang Xian? Under the blood mist, the elite monsters got quite a bit stronger, right?" To be able to withstand the blood mist and lead new students to kill a strengthened elite beast, aside from Wang Xian, no one else could pull that off.

"It wasn't him." Lu Tiesheng's expression grew grave.

"Wang Xian, that kid, got separated from us. We're currently searching everywhere..."

"Your squad's quality is that high?" Instructor Jia was stunned. He glanced at the students behind Lu Tiesheng.

"They're all still in decent shape? Don't tell me you didn't have any blood mist on your side?"

"We did." As if recalling something, Lu Tiesheng spoke with a touch of pride.

"Speaking of which, we have Wang Xian, that kid, to thank for it..." He briefly explained the situation. Instructor Jia and the students behind him listened in complete silence.

"So that's how it is..." Lei Hao looked enlightened.

"He directly cleared out the source of the blood mist, using Shadow Water Tree sap to resist it... So once the blood mist was cleared, the elite beasts didn't get strengthened too much. No wonder you could take it down together even with Wang Xian absent."

"Isn't this bro just way too awesome..." Dao Sanxiao said, speechless.

"So even when he's not around, he can still influence the whole squad. And honestly, the value of this kind of key intel is insane, isn't it?" Instructor Jia, standing to the side, thought to himself that "insane" doesn't even begin to cover it. This was extraordinary intel. Reported to the military, it could be exchanged for a massive amount of battle merit. To put it bluntly, this kind of blood mist formation had never happened before. If it appeared elsewhere, they'd now have a way to deal with it.

Indirectly, who knows how many martial artists this could help? Normally, intel like this only came from the Martial Arts Research Institute! The two groups continued forward together. All the way to Town-Suppressing Water Marsh. But when they arrived, they found the marsh had transformed into a field of ice! That massive Venom Stinger Jellyfish was also completely frozen, its corpse shattered into chunks. Both squads sucked in sharp breaths.

"So this is the power of a taboo talent?" Dao Sanxiao looked toward several figures up ahead. There stood the taboo-talent bearer, Ye Miyue, along with Su Wan, who specialized in sound-rhythm martial arts, leading a team of over ten people as they tidied up. Behind them, their female instructor wore a completely dumbfounded expression. Since this squad was basically all female, their instructor was also female. But at this moment, she was clearly just as shocked by the taboo talent.

➤ Next: Tiger Sha Three Blades Slay the Crocodile Head!