Chapter 9: Advanced Spear Technique! Swift as Thunder!

Fierce Beasts — why are they given the character 'fierce' (凶)?

Besides their inherently violent nature, it's because every Fierce Beast carries a special, ferocious aura.

This ferocious aura, when compared to humans, is like that of a professional killer who has slain countless people.

An ordinary person facing such a professional killer — the other party needs only a single glance.

And it might very well make one's heart jolt, or even scare them out of their wits!

Fierce Beasts possess exactly this kind of special aura.

Therefore, most Awakeners fighting a Fierce Beast for the first time

— under the震慑 of that aura — can usually bring out no more than thirty percent of their true strength.

Some even freeze up completely, forgetting how to attack, how to use their abilities, or even their weapons.

Thus, before the Wu Ke Gaokao,

families with a bit of background would hire professional ability-user bodyguards to escort their children into the wilderness zones, so they could adapt in advance to fighting Fierce Beasts.

Xu Jingming naturally had no such conditions.

Therefore, before the Wu Ke Gaokao, he had anticipated that when he truly encountered a Fierce Beast, his body might have some negative reaction.

Yet, after encountering the Shadow Cat, he showed absolutely no reaction whatsoever to the Fierce Beast's ferocious aura.

He could even, as calmly as usual, precisely calculate the Shadow Cat's leaping trajectory — and then pin it dead with a single shot!

"I heard that Awakeners fighting Fierce Beasts for the first time have to go through several battles before they can overcome that fear of facing such a ferocious creature.

But there are also people who are naturally insensitive to this aura — looks like I'm one of those special cases."

Xu Jingming's right hand suddenly yanked back, using the momentum to pull the Obsidian Spear from the Shadow Cat's neck.

With a thud, the Shadow Cat's corpse slammed onto the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"This Shadow Cat probably had never seen a weapon like a spear before — daring to leap in like that, isn't that just asking to die?"

Unlike the clumsy Iron-Bristled Boar or the Arm-Blade Tiger, the Shadow Cat is agile in movement, its charging speed reaching a terrifying 17 m/s.

Against the first two kinds of Fierce Beasts, if an Awakener can't win, they can still run.

But if they run into a Shadow Cat, they can't even escape — they can only be chased down and killed!

Therefore, the Shadow Cat has also been given the title of 'Newbie Killer.'

Under normal circumstances, without relying on abilities and using only physical strength, Xu Jingming would almost never have managed a one-hit kill.

Especially given that he had virtually no experience fighting Fierce Beasts.

But the Shadow Cat made a fatal mistake — it leaped in with a claw attack!

Against Awakeners wielding long swords or greatswords, that move might still work.

After all, by the time a long sword or greatsword can slash the Shadow Cat, the Shadow Cat's claws have already reached the Awakener.

But Xu Jingming's Obsidian Spear is a full two meters and one in length!

As the saying goes: an inch longer, an inch stronger.

So the Shadow Cat, still mid-air, hadn't even entered attack range before Xu Jingming ran it through with a single thrust.

"Also, if it weren't for the system notification sound, I almost forgot — killing Fierce Beasts earns Ability Points!"

Looking at the 3 new Ability Points on his system panel, Xu Jingming's heart burned with excitement.

This meant that if he earned enough Ability Points in the coming battles, his strength could be further enhanced!

"But the Ability Points from killing one unranked Fierce Beast are too few — I still need to hurry to the middle zone."

Like ability-users, Fierce Beasts range from Tier-1 to Tier-9, also divided into nine ranks.

As for Fierce Beasts below Tier-1, they are called unranked Fierce Beasts, corresponding to human Awakeners.

Xu Jingming, who had no Fierce Beast combat experience, had originally planned to spend more time adapting in the outer zone.

Since he had no major reaction to the Fierce Beast aura, staying longer in the outer zone held little meaning.

So Xu Jingming picked up his Obsidian Spear and sprinted at full speed toward the middle zone of the ruined town.

Compared to Zhou Mingyang, who wielded the wind-element ability, Xu Jingming's sprinting speed couldn't be called fast.

But during the sprint, he kept killing Fierce Beasts along the way.

"Killed one unranked Fierce Beast, Iron-Bristled Boar. Ability Points +5."

"Killed one unranked Fierce Beast, Shadow Cat. Ability Points +3."

"Killed one unranked Fierce Beast, Horned Rhino. Ability Points +6."

"......"

In his battles against Fierce Beasts, Xu Jingming did not use his ability.

On one hand, he wanted to hone his spear technique and gain more combat experience.

After all, using an S-rank ability like Doushen Shenlei against these unranked Fierce Beasts would only result in an instant kill — it couldn't serve as training at all.

On the other hand, the rarer the ability, the greater the consumption when using it.

Xu Jingming's original E-rank ability, 【Weak Electricity】, could be sustained at full output for just over three hours.

But switching to the S-rank ability 【Doushen Shenlei】, full output might not even last an hour.

One must remember — the Wu Ke Gaokao lasts a full twelve hours.

If he burned through his ability in the early stages, then once he entered the core zone and faced mid-Tier-1 or even high-Tier-1 Fierce Beasts, Xu Jingming would have no other means of attack left.

So he could only refrain from using his ability for now, saving it for after entering the core zone.

Additionally, after each battle ended, Xu Jingming could feel himself improving.

These battles stacked together pushed his combat awareness and spear technique to improve at an exaggerated pace!

Especially his spear technique — the more he used it, the smoother it became, even reaching a feeling of total freedom.

And this was something he had never experienced before.

"Could my spear art have already broken through without my realizing?"

On a broken, old path, a fierce beast's corpse lay at Xu Jingming's feet.

This fierce beast was as massive as a small sedan, with knife-sharp horns on its head, thick limbs, and blackish-brown skin.

Even in death, it still emanated a powerful, ferocious aura.

This was precisely the fierce beast examinees least wished to face — the One-Horned Rhino!

This One-Horned Rhino's body was covered in bowl-sized wounds, and the fatal strike had come at its head.

The jet-black Obsidian spear tip could be seen, in a violent thrust, piercing straight through the eye socket into the brain, destroying the most vital cranial nerves.

The One-Horned Rhino was, naturally, dead beyond any doubt......

"Squelch—"

As the spear was pulled out, some red and white matter came with it from the One-Horned Rhino's head.

An ordinary person suddenly faced with such a scene would, if their mental fortitude were a little weak, likely vomit on the spot.

Yet Xu Jingming's expression remained calm; he even opened his system panel right there:

【Name】: Xu Jingming

【Level】: Awakener

【Ability】: Doushen Shenlei (S)

【Physique】: 141 Qi-Blood (+)

【Spirit】: 160 Hz (+)

【Skills】: Spear Art (Intermediate+), Lightning疾風破 (Beginner+)

【Ability Points】: 213

"As expected, the spear art has broken through to Intermediate!"

Xu Jingming's eyes lit up, and then he could not help sighing, "Looking at it this way, real combat is still the greatest boost to strength."

His predecessor had practiced the spear art for over six years and was still only at Beginner.

Yet he, after just several dozen battles with fierce beasts, had raised the spear art to Intermediate.

There was certainly an element of accumulated effort bursting forth, but it still demonstrated the importance of real combat.

"Intermediate spear art already makes me feel I can do as I please — what would it be like to raise it further?"

More than three hours had passed since the Wu Ke Gaokao began.

Along the way, although Xu Jingming had not deliberately sought them out, he had encountered over forty fierce beasts.

Among them were relatively low-level Shadow Cats, as well as relatively high-level Arm-Blade Tigers and One-Horned Rhinos.

Each fierce beast killed yielded some ability points.

But how many he had obtained in total, he had not looked at carefully.

Now checking, he hadn't expected to have already accumulated 213 ability points — enough for him to upgrade a skill.

"213 ability points is just the beginning. Once I enter the central zone and use Doushen Shenlei to kill fierce beasts, the accumulation of ability points will be even faster!

Since that's the case......"

After a moment's thought, Xu Jingming still could not resist the temptation and directly tapped the plus sign after spear art!

Instantly, countless spear-art-related techniques poured into his mind like a tide.

This kind of memory infusion was not like watching a movie in passing — seen and forgotten shortly after.

It was as if Xu Jingming himself had truly practiced the spear art for several decades!

After the spear-art memory infusion was complete, Xu Jingming thrust his spear fiercely!

The next moment,

In just one second, the Obsidian spear stabbed out four times in succession in the air!

Like black lightning — swift and dangerous!