Chapter 123

Under Xu Jingming's powerful suppression, it took only slightly more than ten seconds.

All twelve second-rank Iron-Haired Pangolins fell.

Blood pooled like a small stream, seeping down and staining the surrounding tender green grass a vivid red.

"Slain twelve second-rank Iron-Haired Pangolins, total 276 energy points gained—not bad."

Xu Jingming nodded slightly.

No wonder it's a Demon Cave—there are many ferocious beasts.

He hadn't deliberately hunted along the way.

Just killing the ferocious beasts he happened to encounter, he'd already gained over 400 energy points.

"Once we enter the middle region of the Demon Cave, the ferocious beasts' ranks will rise, and the efficiency of harvesting energy points will increase further."

Roughly speaking, this month alone, I should get at least thirty thousand energy points.

I wonder if I'll be able to upgrade my energy rank by then."

Currently, the Deep Blue system panel shows about 13, 00 energy points; if another thirty thousand still can't trigger an upgrade,

then Xu Jingming will have to raise his level first.

Unfortunately, the Deep Blue system only responded to his question on the first day.

At all other times, it was like a frozen machine, mechanically reporting only the energy points gained from slaying ferocious beasts.

Otherwise, he could've just asked the system directly whether energy could be upgraded, and how many points were needed...

Precisely because of this, Xu Jingming felt the Deep Blue system's intelligence was even lower than the most basic AI on Blue Star.

No, he couldn't even say it was lower.

It was utterly incomparable!

The Deep Blue system had absolutely no intelligent elements!

"If someday I learn the system's origin, I'll definitely complain to its creator."

Xu Jingming shook his head.

He then pulled an A-grade alloy dagger from his space ring, preparing to collect the ferocious beast materials.

"Let me help you."

Song Qiuyun stepped closer, pulling out her own dagger and crouching beside Xu Jingming.

"By the way, Jingming, you're different from any other lightning-attribute adept I've met."

Swish—

The sharp dagger sliced cleanly through the pangolin's razor-sharp claws.

Amid the gushing blood, this young lady of the Song family showed not the slightest discomfort.

"Oh? How so?"

Xu Jingming looked intrigued, his dagger already severing another claw.

"Other lightning-attribute adepts always use their abilities recklessly."

But you're extremely restrained, using your energy with great caution."

Song Qiuyun smiled lightly.

Lightning!

The first impression it gives is wildness! Unrestrained!

Most lightning-attribute adepts leave others with the same impression.

But Xu Jingming is different; though he still feels powerful and sharp to her,

he seems to lack the arrogance and wildness typical of lightning-attribute adepts.

Of course,

if Jiang Chu had heard her thoughts after witnessing Xu Jingming use "Thunder Extreme State" to kill five people in succession,

she'd be utterly baffled.

Xu Jingming? Restrained?

Can those two even be linked?

Xu Jingming smiled faintly at this, offering no further explanation.

In truth, he could've used Purple Thunder Divine Lightning to slaughter this entire group.

But Purple Thunder Divine Lightning's power is excessive against a group of second-rank beasts—it's like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Moreover, after Purple Thunder Divine Lightning strikes, these second-rank beasts with weak defenses would mostly be charred and carbonized.

There'd be no way to harvest their materials afterward.

Thus, for beasts below third rank, he usually kills them with his spear.

It conserves energy and increases slaying efficiency.

This is experience he's gathered from over two months of traveling the wilderness.

After all, the longer his endurance lasts, the more beasts he can kill...

With Xu Jingming and Song Qiuyun working together, they finished collecting the ferocious beast materials in under three minutes.

Of course,

the materials from Iron-Haired Pangolins aren't just their claws—they also have their iron-like bristles!

But collecting those bristles is too tedious; it would take over an hour to finish.

Their goal entering the Demon Cave is to slay as many beasts as possible and accumulate points.

Naturally, they wouldn't waste time collecting materials.

So they only collected the most valuable claws.

Notably, this group of Iron-Haired Pangolins,

according to the smart bracelet's judgment, were all slain by Xu Jingming alone.

As a result, he earned 1, 00 points.

After eliminating this group, the two continued toward the Demon Cave's central region.

Along the way, most of the ferocious beasts they encountered were slain by Xu Jingming.

Song Qiuyun's direct involvement was actually quite limited.

Yet even so, when night fell to eight o'clock,

the sky completely darkened, and they found a cave to rest in,

Song Qiuyun still felt utterly exhausted, her muscles aching.

Her fitted battle suit, clean and neat at dawn,

was now stained not only with ferocious beast blood but also soaked in sweat, leaving her body sticky and damp...

On the other side, Xu Jingming, seated cross-legged on the ground, sat with his back perfectly straight.

His sharply defined, resolute face showed not a trace of fatigue.

"Jingming's stamina is truly impressive..."

Song Qiuyun didn't know how many times she'd thought this.

But this time

She didn't know what she was thinking, suddenly her face flushed slightly, her long, shapely legs gently closed together...

"Are you running a fever? Your face is so red."

Looking at Song Qiuyun's slightly flushed face, Xu Jingming asked in confusion.

With her second-rank energy user's physique, she shouldn't be running a fever.

Could it be that she pushed herself too hard today on the road?

"N-nothing... maybe the energy bar was a bit spicy."

Only then did Song Qiuyun snap out of it, her cheeks reddening further.

"Energy bars come in spicy flavor?"

Xu Jingming was taken aback.

But he didn't dwell on the detail, smiling as he said:

"Get some sleep. I'll keep watch tonight—you rest more."

"I'm fine, I can take over watch in the second half of the night," Song Qiuyun hurriedly said.

"No need. You're exhausted today. I haven't expended much—staying up all night is no problem."

Xu Jingming shook his head.

In truth, Song Qiuyun, merely a low-tier second-rank energy user, had already performed quite well.

Today's journey involved nothing but sprinting and fighting ferocious beasts—with almost no rest.

He had expected her to collapse by afternoon, but she held out until now.

"No expenditure?"

Song Qiuyun paused slightly, asking instinctively:

"Could today's intensity compare to your solo battle in the Yangcheng Wasteland?"

"No."

Xu Jingming shook his head. "The battle frequency was much lower—intensity was only about one-third of normal."

"Only one-third the battle intensity?"

Song Qiuyun's lovely, alluring face was filled with shock.

Oh my heavens,

Just one-third of his combat intensity, and I barely even moved during the whole thing—yet I'm already exhausted.

If he were to unleash his maximum combat strength, I probably couldn't last an hour at all?

At that moment, Song Qiuyun suddenly realized something.

She had never once seen Xu Jingming in his full power...

Not during regular sparring, nor during the school's freshman competition.

Xu Jingming always crushed everything in his path!

Everyone at Magic University knew Xu Jingming was strong, but no one knew his limits!

Unconsciously, she felt her earlier assessment of Xu Jingming's fighting style had been biased.

After all, how could one possibly judge him without ever seeing him fight at full strength?