Book 1: Never Giving Up – Chapter 147: Cold Frost 1
The expansion of their team greatly increased their strength once again. They could crown themselves the unofficial overlords of the first region. After all, under normal circumstances, the exam candidates would not usually gather into groups that were too large. Points were still the primary motivation. With too many people, the number of points would also decrease; there wouldn’t be much point in forming an alliance.
Jin Ling’er, Su Chen, and Wang Doushan set off, charging at any participant they ran into.
If their opponents were weak, they would just charge forwards. If their opponents were actual opponents, the three of them would conceal their strength. Su Chen and Wang Doushan both would explode with strength at just the right moment, and Jin Ling’er would also subdue a few of them. With their strength and number of allies ever-changing, their opponents suffered complete defeat. How did this happen?
They cheerfully cheated people out of their points, sweeping through the entire region. Wherever they went, their enemies would flee from them with all their might.
The trio hunted points, relaxed and comfortable. Unbeknownst to them, their friendship also began to improve.
Jin Ling’er was still upset with Su Chen at first, but as their teamwork progressed, she began to feel that he wasn’t so bad and did in fact possess some poise. Although they had agreed to take turns harvesting points, Su Chen would always leave the strongest person to her. Everyone knew that under normal circumstances, the strongest person would also possess the most points.
If there were any extra individuals after divvying up the points, Su Chen would do his best to give their points to Jin Ling’er as well, causing Jin Ling’er’s favorable impression of him to greatly increase.
Human relationships were often strange like that. Su Chen had taken her points back then, kicking her out of the top 10. Now, all he was doing was giving her some of those points back, and she had already next to forgotten everything that had happened. They were getting along as though they had been friends for years.
After some time, Jin Ling’er had regained all of the points that she had lost. She had earned the most points in this period of time – this plan of concealing their true strength had the benefit of giving them a much wider range of targets to choose from.
Of course, they couldn’t completely avoid any tough battles.
After hunting most of the morning, they finally met their first real adversary in the afternoon.
It was Blood Demon Zhong Ding.
Blood Demon Zhong Ding was from the Bloodriver Clan.
The Bloodriver Demon was an ancient Demonic Beast that possessed frightening amounts of strength. During the Illustrious Divine Dynasty, several Bloodriver Demons wreaked havoc on the human race’s territory, forming a barren wasteland hundreds of kilometers wide. Tens of thousands of people died. Finally, the Illustrious Divine Dynasty had sent out four Light Shaking Realm cultivators. After a fierce, three-day battle, they wiped them out completely.
In this battle, they obtained the Bloodriver Demon bloodline.
It was gifted to three clans for their meritorious services. The Zhong Clan was one of them.
Blood Demon Zhong Ding was the most outstanding descendant of his generation. After his Bloodriver Demon bloodline was awakened, he obtained a blood-sucking ability. He could drain his opponents of their blood, recovering his physical strength and Origin Energy. He could also consume the blood to generate a blood clone with powerful combat prowess. Finally, he could freely teleport around his clones with his true body.
However, just like Jin Ling’er, Zhong Ding couldn’t create too many blood clones. That would result in great injury to him, and could be considered one of his limitations.
In this battle, Jin Ling’er controlled an exam candidate. When adding on Su Chen and Wang Doushan, it was a four-on-one battle. Blood Demon Zhong Ding created three blood clones, teleporting back and forth between them. He was probably the most difficult opponent to land a hit on. His Blood Demon Needles and Black Fiend Hands were both top-notch Origin Skills, leaving the three flustered for quite some time.
That all changed when Su Chen discovered his limitations. He decisively switched to a more fluid battle style, avoiding any forceful confrontations and preventing him from being able to suck their blood and recover. The moment they did this, they put Zhong Ding at a disadvantage. Although his three blood clones were powerful, they expended a large amount of energy. As soon as he lost his ability to recover energy through battle, these clones became his greatest burden.
In the end, Zhong Ding was forced to give up and flee. Even so, his strength was really impressive. Although he couldn’t beat the trio, they had no way of keeping him tied up either. In the end, their fight was in vain as they received no benefits.
As they watched the Blood Demon disappear into the distance, the three of them had no desire to chase after him. They sat down and sighed.
Wang Doushan shook his head and said, “Motherfucker, we couldn’t beat him even when taking him on four-on-one. A Lord-class bloodline truly is formidable.”
“Lord-class?” Su Chen asked. “There’s a ranking system?”
“You don’t know?” Jin Ling’er piped up. “Oh, right, you’re from a clan without a bloodline. Obtaining an average Demonic Beast’s bloodline is enough in most cases. You probably won’t encounter those with higher class bloodlines very often. You do know the ranking of Vicious Beasts, right?”
Su Chen nodded his head. “Vicious Beasts are divided into high, medium, and low tiers. There’s also the peak-level. The four tiers are all equivalent to various layers in the Qi Drawing and Blood Boiling Realms.”
“That’s right. Demonic Beasts are divided into high, medium, and low tiers. Any higher and they’re considered lord-class beasts,” Wang Doushan said. “Blood Demon Zhong Ding’s bloodline is from the Bloodriver Demon, which is a lord-class Demonic Beast.”
“So that’s how it is. Does that mean that above a lord-class beast are the Demon Kings and Demon Emperors?” Su Chen asked.
“That’s right!” the two of them simultaneously responded.
Blood Demon Zhong Ding’s Bloodriver Demon bloodline was from a lord-class Demonic Beast, while Wang Doushan and Jin Ling’er only possessed bloodlines from high-tier Demonic Beasts. They were a tier worse than the Bloodriver Demon, so it was unsurprising they were inferior to Zhong Ding.
Su Chen remembered that Wang Doushan had mentioned that Ji Hanyan and Wang Doushan possessed bloodlines of similar grades. He said, “Do you think Blood Demon Zhong Ding is stronger than Ji Hanyan?”
“Ji Hanyan also possesses a lord-class Demonic Beast bloodline, but Zhong Ding can’t compare to her at all,” Wang Doushan shook his head and sighed. “Although Zhong Ding is an expert with a lord-class bloodline, Ji Hanyan is a genius that only appears every five hundred years. Not only has she awoken two bloodlines, but even if she only had one, Zhong Ding still wouldn’t be her opponent.”
When Su Chen heard this, he was rendered speechless.
Earlier, Wang Doushan had claimed that Ji Hanyan was only stronger than him because she had awoken two bloodlines. It seemed this brother of his was boasting of having strength way beyond what he was actually capable of.
Jin Ling’er suddenly said, “You want to know how strong Ji Hanyan is? That’s pretty easy. Just test it out for yourself.”
Su Chen was startled and was about to say something when he saw that Jin Ling’er was staring daggers at something behind him.
He turned around in surprise to find that a person was charging towards them at high speed.
It was a woman wearing a blue robe. She was extremely beautiful, but her face was as cold as ice.
She charged toward the trio, the wind whipping around her and generating a violent vortex around her. As she moved, the frigid wind became like a tornado, roiling towards them.
“It’s Ji Hanyan!” Wang Doushan yelled.
Even though she was far away, the woman had already lifted her hand, sending a palm strike rumbling towards them.
The rumbling turned into a deafening roar. A moment later, a frigid hailstorm loomed over them.
It swallowed the three of them up like a tsunami as the wind screamed around them.
The Frostbird had always possessed an overbearing personality. She didn’t waste any time on words, engaging them instantly.
Frostbird White Ice Fists!