Chapter 549: 100,000! Stunning Battle Merits!

Although his ability points had already met the promotion requirements, Xu Jingming did not immediately choose to allocate them.

After all, advancing from Fifth-Order Upper to Sixth-Order would strengthen his entire physical body.

Flesh, meridians, bones — all would receive corresponding enhancement.

However, this would also cause an extremely brief moment of rigidity, possibly less than half a second.

If he were in a safe training room, this would naturally be of no consequence.

But right now, a Seventh-Order Mid-stage fierce beast was following right behind him — half a second was already enough for that beast to strike several times!

Xu Jingming had no desire to use another Guardian Talisman because of this.

Therefore, waiting until the battle ended before allocating points was the safer choice.

"Human! Don't run!"

A piercing roar rang out — the Azure Void Lei Niao trailing behind was already somewhat frantic with rage.

Fifth-Order human ability users — it had no idea how many it had killed!

The mere aftershocks of its lightning could instantly kill them on the spot!

But unexpectedly, it had chased this human for over two full hours and still failed to inflict even the slightest wound on him.

The strangest thing was,

every time it sensed the human's ability was about to run dry, it would rapidly recover to peak condition.

It knew humans had pills that could restore abilities, but what pill could possibly have such a terrifying effect?

"Roar—"

Just as it was about to continue the pursuit, a sudden roar rang out from the sky.

It was the voice of the Flame Dragon Emperor!

The instant they heard this voice, the fierce beasts on the battlefield immediately abandoned their attacks.

Like a tide, they swiftly retreated toward the pale forest canyon behind them.

This was the retreat order issued by the Flame Dragon Emperor.

"Human, consider yourself lucky! In the next wave of attack, you won't be so fortunate!"

A piercing voice rang out — the Azure Void Lei Niao's killing-intent-filled eyes glanced at Xu Jingming one last time.

Then it spread its wings, lightning swirling around its entire body, and swiftly flew toward the rear.

Not just it — the other Seventh-Order and Eighth-Order fierce beasts were also rapidly withdrawing.

"Consider myself lucky? Wait until the next wave of attack — I will surely slay you!"

Xu Jingming stared in the direction the Azure Void Lei Niao had flown off, a faint cold glint flickering in his eyes.

Once he advanced to Sixth-Order, both his physique and spiritual power would receive a wave of enhancement.

By then, slaying this Seventh-Order Mid-stage fierce beast should be a very simple matter.

"Woo—"

At this moment, within Zhen'an City, a deep war horn sounded.

None of the human ability users pursued — instead, they retreated into Zhen'an City in highly orderly fashion.

Xu Jingming's taut spiritual power also relaxed slightly.

An ability user's ability cannot be sustained for long, especially under continuous combat — at most only one or two hours.

The same held true for the fierce beasts.

Although their physiques were powerful and could fight for extended periods,

the fierce beasts controlling elemental shields among the beast horde did not possess unlimited spiritual power.

Once they could no longer maintain their elemental shields, these fierce beasts would all become living targets.

The human ranged-spell legions could very easily sweep them all away.

Therefore, the fierce beasts chose to end their attack at this time.

But it's truly horrific—just the first wave of attack alone resulted in at least several thousand dead human ability users.

Xu Jingming, suspended in the sky, cast his gaze toward the ground.

The once relatively tidy ground was now flowing with fresh blood, corpses strewn everywhere.

Among them were fierce beast corpses, and also human ability user corpses.

A thick stench of blood permeated the entire battlefield.

"Xu Jingming, are you alright?!"

At this moment, the Fourth Vanguard Squad captain, transformed into a rock giant, strode over from afar.

The originally earthy-brown rock surface now bore a large patch of bloodstains.

Some were dried dark red, some fresh bright red.

"I'm fine, just a bit drained. Let's go — back to the city wall first."

Xu Jingming shook his head.

He exited Thunder Extreme State, recalled the Extreme Glory Thunder Ring, flapped his wings, and returned to the city wall together with Zhou Yan.

The troops on the city wall, apart from the ranged-spell legions, were members of the various vanguard squads.

Seeing Xu Jingming land, gaze after gaze instinctively turned his way.

The emotions in those gazes varied — envy, curiosity, regret...

Who could have imagined that yesterday, Xu Jingming had still been rejected by every vanguard squad.

Yet today, his performance on the battlefield was so dazzling!

Some vanguard squad captains were especially full of regret on their faces.

Had they known Xu Jingming's adaptability was this strong, they should have scrambled to recruit him!

At the same time, Zhou Yan, who had exited his rock giant form, looked at Xu Jingming standing tall and straight beside him and felt a slight surge of emotion.

Who could have imagined that Xu Jingming, whom he had thought would be a liability, had actually given him such a huge pleasant surprise.

"Rock, this time you got lucky as hell. Xu Jingming's battle merits are probably not much lower than yours, right?"

A familiar vanguard squad captain said with a face full of envy.

After every battle, the various vanguard squads would compare their average battle merits.

The squads with higher battle merits could obtain more rewards.

Xu Jingming's appearance should have added quite a bit of battle merits to the Fourth Vanguard Squad.

"You'll know soon enough."

Zhou Yan replied with a smile, then patted Xu Jingming's shoulder:

"This time you killed an extremely large number of fierce beasts on the battlefield. Tap open your communication watch and you'll be able to see your battle merits."

"Battle merits?"

Hearing this, Xu Jingming curiously tapped open his own communication watch, and immediately a pale-blue holographic projection appeared before his eyes.

Name: Xu Jingming

Squad: Fourth Vanguard Squad

Current Battle Merits: 101,134

Cumulative Battle Merits: 101,134

The information on the holographic projection was very concise, but the two numbers on it—

still made some curious surrounding vanguard squad members' eyes widen!

100,000 battle merits!

Generally, a seventh-rank Grandmaster who had just entered the battlefield would be doing well to have ten or twenty thousand battle merits.

Yet Xu Jingming had fully ten times more than them!

"Worthy of being a lightning-type ability—the destructive power is just too terrifying."

"Indeed, that thunder dragon killed a seventh-rank fierce beast!

Just that one seventh-rank fierce beast alone contributed 20,000 battle merits, let alone the other sixth-rank and fifth-rank fierce beasts."

"So envious. This haul of battle merits is enough to exchange for an S+ grade cultivation resource."

"..."

Waves of envious voices rose up, and some vanguard squad captains silently withdrew their gazes.

Xu Jingming's battle merits from this wave were actually even higher than those of these veteran captains.

"100,000 battle merits, is that a lot?" Xu Jingming asked in confusion.

"Of course it's a lot."

Zhou Yan laughed heartily, and likewise tapped open his own communication watch. The battle merits displayed on it were only 60,000.

"60,000 battle merits? Less than mine?" Xu Jingming was somewhat surprised.

You should know,

Zhou Yan was a peak seventh-rank Grandmaster—his battle merits should logically be higher than his own, so how could it be only this much?

"My ability is the elemental earth type; the ability category isn't as domineering as your lightning type.

Besides, I'm also something of an old nemesis for fierce beasts—the moment I appear on the battlefield, corresponding seventh-rank fierce beasts come to restrict me.

In those two-plus hours just now, I only killed one lower seventh-rank, along with some fifth-rank and sixth-rank fierce beasts."

Zhou Yan shook his head. "Let's go. After fighting hard for over two hours, everyone's tired. We'll head back to the villa first."