Chapter Forty-Nine: The Enemy Must Not Be Spared

After leaving the rat demon’s burrow, Lin Qingyun swiftly hollowed out a tree trunk and slipped inside, now quietly observing the surroundings from its branches. As the three factions of demon beasts at the wildlife park organized their counterattack, chaos erupted outside.

Some of the new students, acting in unison, defended themselves within certain buildings, while others swiftly retreated—they had not come here for a desperate fight. Of course, there were also those fierce and unyielding; Lin Qingyun spotted one such area where a bald man, his figure towering at over two meters thirty, wielded a superior-grade iron staff. The staff glimmered with light as he, though forced out of the outer perimeter of the park, now stood atop a mobile building, hurling every attacking beast away, one after another, as if guarding a tournament ring—no matter how many came, he struck down just as many.

Naturally, this display provoked the wrath of the lion king demon, which roared and bounded several dozen meters to join the fray.

“So this is the infamous Zhen Qiang, who declared he’d be this year’s top combat student. The man certainly has a hard head, but he’s chosen the path of physical sanctification, so his body must have undergone extraordinary refinement, and perhaps his bloodline is a little unusual as well. Hm, even his healing after injury is abnormal—no wonder he dares to confront them head-on…”

Seated within the tree hollow, Lin Qingyun took out some food, content to play the spectator, occasionally murmuring his own commentary. Although the distance was great, and even he needed modern equipment to see clearly, he had come well-prepared. He carried the Creation Cauldron, capable of refining pills and serving as a storage artifact with its own inner space.

Modern storage artifacts were exceedingly rare—none could currently be crafted, for no great master of artifact forging had yet emerged. The few that existed were treasures in the hands of the powerful and the wealthy, all relics from ancient ruins.

Because Zhen Qiang was fighting atop a moving building, Lin Qingyun could clearly observe him through his devices; other directions were largely obscured, and the details were hard to make out—only the general situation could be seen.

In the end, Zhen Qiang was unable to defeat the lion king demon. He had already fought many beasts single-handedly, but he was tenacious; only after both he and the lion king were badly wounded did he retreat.

As night approached, the demon beasts of this region launched another assault, but the further out they spread, the more new students gathered. The beasts here were limited in number, and gradually, as they lost the advantage of numbers and terrain, their casualties mounted.

With nightfall came swarms of poisonous insects—even ordinary demon beasts feared them, and only by returning to their own territory and dens could they ensure some measure of safety. Thus, the large-scale battle finally ceased. Though skirmishes continued in small pockets, the main conflict had ended. The focus turned to healing wounds, regaining strength, and dealing with the poisonous insects.

After enjoying the spectacle, Lin Qingyun concealed himself within the tree hollow and began his cultivation. Since his rebirth, he no longer relied solely on pills and his tribulation physique to improve himself; now, whenever he had time, he meticulously honed his own strength.

Because of this diligence, the Dao Foundation he had forged during his recent rapid advancement—thanks to the Heaven-Searing Tyrant Blade and the Divine Thunder Tribulation—had become increasingly solid, his insights deepening with each gradual refinement.

He still took pills, but only to support his cultivation, not to forcibly raise his strength. Previously, his progress had been too swift, leaving no time to comprehend the subtle truths of the Heart of the Zither realm or clarify the mysteries of his foundation. Now, through careful reflection, he discovered the myriad marvels in the intricate forging of his ninefold Dao Foundation, appreciating the countless changes that occurred with every tiny improvement.

Time slipped by unnoticed in cultivation; in the blink of an eye, another day passed.

A faint buzz—his communicator regained signal with the dawn of a new day. The merit rankings were updated and brief communications were possible once more.

The rankings had shifted dramatically, and new information appeared: a warning that the practical trial emphasized unity in hunting demon beasts and strictly forbade targeting fellow humans.

Many would pay such a warning little heed, but Lin Qingyun immediately recognized it as directed at himself and those plotting against him.

He then saw the significant changes on the merit leaderboard. First place remained unchanged: Nangong Lingyue still held the top spot.

But second place had shifted—Chi Ziyang, previously third, had risen to second, while Zhen Qiang had fallen to third. The rest of the rankings had also changed considerably. Song Yichen, that fellow, still lingered in the top ten, whereas Lin Qingyun himself had dropped to one thousand one hundred sixty-fifth place. Had he not encountered several powerful demon beasts before meeting Xie Zhiqiang, he might have fallen past three thousand by now.

As for Chao-ge and Chu Qing, they had both improved somewhat; Chao-ge had climbed over a thousand ranks, Chu Qing by one hundred eighty-six. Yet their low starting positions rendered such progress less visible.

“Boss, Zhang Baole is anxious—he insisted I contact you. Are you alright?”

Seeing Chu Qing’s message, Lin Qingyun ignored it and did not reply. Chao-ge, for her part, hadn’t messaged that day, but her climbing rank suggested she too was fighting fiercely.

Lin Qingyun knew Chao-ge well—she was not one of those who chanted about equality but demanded special treatment. She truly never regarded herself as a woman; in battle, she was no weakling. Though she could not match the true combat geniuses, she was undeniably a talent in her own right.

In truth, anyone who made it into Haicheng University out of millions of candidates was no slouch; the differences only emerged after enrollment.

The fresh release of merit data once again spurred the new students on to compete and fight.

Lin Qingyun couldn’t speak for other places, but in his spare moments, he would watch the battles here. For now, the lion king demon’s main opponent was Zhen Qiang, who led hundreds in relentless combat.

Zhen Qiang never cared for others’ fights—he spent all day fixated on the lion king. If the lion king didn’t appear, he would slaughter its underlings, even storming in to force a confrontation.

With Zhen Qiang holding the front, the hundreds of others organized themselves to hunt the lion king’s followers.

Other directions saw scattered groups, but teams were beginning to form.

Besides Zhen Qiang’s front, Lin Qingyun found something interesting at the rat king’s side: old classmates and acquaintances were all there.

Yesterday he had missed this in the chaos, but now he realized that Zheng Haoyue was the organizer, along with Li Daoze, Mao Yiqiang, and the others, all gathered together.

Since they were all from Haicheng University, it was only natural they would band together in these early days.

This group turned out to be quite effective; with the Haicheng University student council’s thirty-some members as the core, joined by hundreds from other schools, they had begun to systematically clear, attack, and defend their area.

Though only three days had passed, their operation was already well-organized.

Their attack efficiency was astonishing—no wonder Zheng Haoyue’s ranking kept rising. He seemed to be both commanding and fighting, but in truth, he was using everyone to secure the greatest benefits for himself.

Undoubtedly, his ultimate goal was to slay the strongest beast kings.

Initially, Lin Qingyun had hidden here, taking advantage of the Xie Zhiqiang incident to keep a low profile and diminish his presence, waiting for the coming upheaval and opportunity.

But he had not expected to discover Zheng Haoyue, Li Daoze, Mao Yiqiang, and the others, nor that they had assembled such a formidable team.

Clearly, neither Li Daoze nor Mao Yiqiang had the ability to organize this—it was Zheng Haoyue’s handiwork.

On the surface, he seemed fair, but from what Lin Qingyun had recently observed, all the people Zheng had duped into joining him appeared to benefit, but in the end, he would undoubtedly use them to seize the greatest rewards.

These hundreds would be exploited and, in the final reckoning, many might miss their chance.

Given Zheng Haoyue’s calculating, patient, and sinister nature, he would not come away empty-handed.

“That won’t do…” Lin Qingyun muttered. He had no intention of letting a schemer like that profit in peace. Even if, decades later, Earth faced a crisis requiring unity, there would still be those within who needed to be dealt with. The so-called ‘all for one, one for all’ was only a general rule—scum remained scum.

“When danger and opportunity come, those rabid fans he’s manipulated and who lack the sense to think for themselves—I’ve already eliminated some, and I won’t let the rest off, either.”

Muttering to himself, Lin Qingyun checked the time and found there was still a window. He began to lay his plans.

Even though he was powerful—far beyond this year’s new students—since Zheng Haoyue had hundreds at his side, Lin Qingyun couldn’t simply barge in and eliminate them all like he had those brainless fans.

After several hours of observing their attack patterns and scouting their positions, Lin Qingyun discovered something else: Zheng Haoyue had prepared reserved escape routes for himself and the core student council members.

Several Haicheng University students, part of Zheng Haoyue’s inner circle, guarded these routes at all times.

Another day of conflict ended; the outskirts of the wildlife park had been cleared, and the demon beasts were forced to retreat further. The initial wave of attacks had become nothing more than a last-ditch struggle.

They had been sent here by the powers that be to give the new students a taste of blood and battle, but without a solid foundation, resistance was futile.

At this rate, within three days, the area would be completely wiped clean.

For now, though, the demon beasts could still mount some resistance, especially the sand rats, which were primarily active underground and at night. In recent battles, most of their efforts had gone into directing other beasts within their territory.

Inside his Creation Cauldron, Lin Qingyun had already stored a batch of common herbs, and he now spent half a day gathering wild specimens, especially within the sand rats’ domain.

He then slipped out quietly, found a hidden chamber deep underground, and began refining pills.

This time, he set out to craft a pill that would drive the sand rats into a frenzy; by design, the scent left by these pills would attract both crazed sand rats and other beasts to the vicinity of Zheng Haoyue’s team.

Such pills were simple to make—less than two hours and Lin Qingyun had quietly finished two batches.

He then slipped back into the sand rats’ burrows and, at several key spots, crushed the pills.

As the pills shattered, a cloud of vapor spread through the tunnels, and Lin Qingyun slipped away, vanishing into the darkness outside.