Chapter 46: Instinctive Dodge — A New Spatial Passage

"Run!"

Qian Sheng urged himself in his heart.

Before, when he watched his companion lure monsters, it was overall more shock than real danger.

He just saw a few Fire-Wing Birds fly over stupidly, then get cut down by Fang Shi's sword in a few strikes.

The one acting as bait didn't lose so much as a single hair.

But even so, the bait-lurer was exhausted nearly to collapse.

At the time Qian Sheng had teased, "A few measly Fire-Wing Birds, no need to break out in a sweat."

The bait-lurer paid him no mind, only looked at Qian Sheng with an amused smile.

Meaning: just wait, you'll get yours.

Now it was Qian Sheng's turn, and his legs nearly went soft.

Every hair on his body stood on end, adrenaline flooding his system.

All for the sake of gaining that tiny sliver of extra speed.

Fire-Wing Birds really are too fast!

It's like the difference between watching traffic from the roadside and watching it from the middle of the road.

Only when you're right in it do you feel how fast it really is.

If Qian Sheng hadn't spent some time doing parkour before, and then class-changed into a Rogue—

—and had a better-than-average adaptability to this kind of complex terrain—

—he'd have almost, no! already been caught up.

The wind from the Fire-Wing Birds' wings lashed across Qian Sheng's face.

He had no idea how many Fire-Wing Birds were behind him.

Qian Sheng didn't dare look back; he could only judge from the shifting air currents that there was definitely more than one.

Wait—no! There was a current of air ahead of him.

Qian Sheng lifted his head slightly and saw the Fire-Wing Bird's enormous beak about to reach him.

He thought he could see a hint of mockery in the Fire-Wing Bird's beautiful eyes.

Bang!

By all rights already unable to dodge, Qian Sheng actually dropped to his knees at the very last instant.

His kneecap let out a crack of splitting bone.

It was already overburdened past endurance.

"After continuous combat, you have obtained partial information on Instinctive Dodge."

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three sword-flashes sliced through, and three headless Fire-Wing Bird corpses slammed into the ground.

As for the rest of the Fire-Wing Birds, they had long since flapped off into the high sky.

In no time they were gone without a trace.

"Lucky bastard."

Qian Sheng, his mind a blank, heard Fang Shi's voice.

He finally came back to himself, looked at the Fire-Wing Bird corpses, and let out a breath of relief.

Suddenly Qian Sheng felt pain all over his body, especially at his knees.

It already hurt too much to stand.

By Qian Sheng's fitness knowledge, that meniscus was almost certainly torn to pieces.

His heart instantly went dark.

A meniscus injury is the hardest to heal; how many top athletes have retired because of it?

In this danger-ridden apocalypse, having such a weakness was a fatal flaw in every fight.

One careless moment and he'd die an unnatural death.

Fang Shi, seeing the changes on Qian Sheng's face, said lightly, "Just a small wound. Go back and eat more meat, and it'll heal."

"The wonders of Origin Force are beyond your imagination."

"Really?" Qian Sheng asked anxiously at once.

"Mm."

Fang Shi reached out and with a light lift, hoisted Qian Sheng up.

Letting him lean against the vehicle to stand.

"I wouldn't lie about something this trivial."

"Besides—haven't you noticed? You've comprehended a feat."

Qian Sheng froze, then hurriedly pulled up the log on his attribute panel.

"You have comprehended Instinctive Dodge I."

"【Instinctive Dodge I】: You possess an extraordinary premonition; before danger arrives, you can dodge one step ahead. (When dodging, Agility-related checks +1.)"

"This is…?" Qian Sheng said, puzzled.

"Instinctive Dodge—the cicada senses the autumn wind before it stirs."

"In a situation like just now, even though you saw the Fire-Wing Bird's form, with your Agility you absolutely couldn't have reacted in time.

"

"But Instinctive Dodge is just that miraculous—even if you didn't react, didn't even notice. You'd still sense the crisis and form an instinctive dodge."

"As if foreseeing the future in advance."

With Fang Shi's explanation, Qian Sheng gradually understood the function of this specialty.

Using this specialty feels very much like an increase in neural reaction speed.

But in principle, they are completely two different things.

Intuitive Dodge is precognition, limited only to precognition regarding danger.

Moreover, it is precognition with limits, roughly equivalent to the effect of increasing the Agility attribute by two points.

But even so, it is an extraordinary specialty.

"So that means I can lure monsters more safely in the future?"

Qian Sheng said happily, feeling his knees stop hurting for a moment.

Fang Shi was somewhat speechless; such a good combat specialty, and he only wanted to use it to lure monsters—how much better it would be for himself.

Unfortunately, this specialty is extremely difficult to comprehend; aside from being innate to some Rogue professions.

For other professions wishing to comprehend it, it relies on luck.

Even with Fang Shi's high Perception linked to a sixth sense, he might not necessarily comprehend it.

Tap, tap, tap.

Footsteps came from the street corner.

Fang Shi turned to look; it was Zhao Wenjun.

He led several members of the Militia and a few male survivors over together.

The survivors saw the corpse of the Fire-winged Bird on the ground.

All of them widened their eyes; even with preparation in their hearts, they were still somewhat shocked.

Especially since Fang Shi had taken no damage at all, with only his long sword dripping blood.

This made it even more unbelievable to them.

This is the strength of Captain Zhao's master; it is actually so formidable.

The more they understood the strength of the Fire-winged Bird, the more afraid they felt of this creature.

And the more they could understand Fang Shi's terror.

For a moment, their sense of belonging to the Militia grew stronger.

"You are here; handle the rest yourselves."

With those words, Fang Shi flashed, leaped onto the roof of a bus, and took out an Energy Core to cultivate.

Zhao Wenjun was already familiar with such a scene.

"You few, come with me to clear the zombies on the road; level up to 2 as soon as possible."

"You two, go guard little Qian to avoid any accidents."

"Once the zombies are dealt with, come back to move the Fire-winged Bird's corpse."

Zhao Wenjun issued orders with practiced ease, and soon everyone had their own duties.

There was absolutely no need for Fang Shi to manage anything, saving time and effort.

And Fang Shi himself served as the martial guarantee, preventing any eyeless Fire-winged Birds from coming to die.

He also practiced the Breathing Method on the side.

Fang Shi had a feeling that his Breathing Method was about to break through.

Not tomorrow, but the day after, or even possibly today.

This sounds incredible, but in reality, it is only natural.

Because the Breathing Method is essentially a Cultivation Technique that cultivates faster the higher the Perception.

The higher the Perception, the more precise the indirect control over Primal Force, thereby improving the utilization rate of Primal Force and strengthening the body more quickly.

Fang Shi currently has 21 points of Perception, plus he is re-cultivating; such efficiency is not strange.

But this is not the main point; Fang Shi vaguely heard a saying in his past life.

The stage where the Breathing Method is most efficient is before entering a rank.

The reason is simple: before entering a rank is equivalent to having only a foundation, so the effect of Primal Force transforming the body is strongest.

And after entering a rank, a building has already been built on the foundation; at this time, wanting to change it becomes very slow.

Although the attribute point limit is broken, that is only equivalent to moving into the building, not changing the foundation.

So the question arises: if one uses Breathing Methods that do not change the essence of life, would it be better?

But actually, it is not; this is also a matter of efficiency.

Although efficient use of Primal Force will change the essence of life, the speed of training is fast.

Simply utilizing Primal Force makes the foundation easier to lay, but lacks that kind of efficiency.

Just like one level-up requires 100 experience, increasing by 1 point each time.

One level-up requires 500 experience, increasing by 10 points each time.

Overall, using a Breathing Method that changes the essence of life is most efficient before entering a rank.

Current Fang Shi possesses both; he is before entering a rank and has high Perception.

And he is also re-cultivating; a Breathing Method breakthrough is truly too normal.

Bang!

Zhao Wenjun knocked the zombie in front of him to the ground with a steel pipe.

Then, using the sharpened tip of the steel pipe, he inserted it into the zombie's eye socket.

At this moment, he was hunting zombies together with the members of the Militia.

"Captain Zhao, what's your master's background?"

A newly joined member asked.

Zhao Wenjun caught his breath and said, "I don't know either. I only became Master's disciple yesterday."

A member of the militia squad snapped, "Stop asking this and that, so as not to upset Daoist Master Fang."

Zhao Wenjun said, "It's fine. By the way, Wang Peng, how much longer until you reach level 2?"

Wang Peng was the one who had just snapped at them. He said sheepishly, "Still 100 experience short."

Zhao Wenjun encouraged, "Then later, let you take these walking corpses first. Get everyone to level 2 as soon as possible."

Then he said to the new members beside them, "As for you all, you have to work hard too, or there'll be fewer and fewer walking corpses later."

"When the time comes, the only way to level up will be to kill Fire-Wing Birds. The danger is on a whole different level."

At these words, everyone's heart gave a jolt.

Walking corpses are made from living people — that's common knowledge.

But leveling up requires 1000 experience, and a single walking corpse only provides 10 points.

For one person to reach level 2, they have to kill at least 100 walking corpses.

How is that ever enough!

Based on what they'd encountered, the conversion rate was definitely not one to a hundred.

Otherwise, there absolutely wouldn't be that many people still alive in a single building.

Hence some people hadn't even opened their attribute panel yet, let alone obtained a combat class.

If they don't hurry and level up now, later they'll really only be able to hunt Fire-Wing Birds.

"You guys, do you know what level Daoist Master Fang is now, after killing so many Fire-Wing Birds?"

Once again, it was the same person raising the question.

This time Fang Peng didn't snap — first, Zhao Wenjun didn't mind, and second, he was genuinely curious too.

They hadn't killed a Fire-Wing Bird yet, but that didn't stop everyone from assuming that the harder a monster is to deal with, the more experience it gives.

Fang Shi had been killing non-stop — no one knew how much experience he'd accumulated, or how many levels he'd gained.

"Fire-Wing Birds are level 3 creatures. Killing one gives 60 experience points and 6 survival points."

"For every level above the monster you are, the reward increases by 20%."

"So a level 1 class-holder only needs to kill 12 Fire-Wing Birds to reach level 2."

"All of this I heard from Master."

Zhao Wenjun's answer resolved part of everyone's doubts.

"Then what are survival points?"

"Master said survival points are related to the Trial Tower. We don't need to worry about that for now."

After that, Zhao Wenjun went on to relay, bit by bit, the things he'd heard from Fang Shi to everyone.

Everyone listened with great interest, and finally gained a preliminary understanding of the apocalypse.

While the militia squad was chatting.

On top of the bus, Fang Shi, who had been cultivating, gave a soft sound of surprise.

His gaze fixed on what lay ahead. Before long.

Before his eyes, a silver disc slowly appeared.

It was a spatial channel in the process of opening.