Chapter 502: Little Mice! (10/10, Autumn Subscription)

Natives killing anomalies can likewise gain boosts in strength.

It's just that compared to players, the attribute gains, lifespan, and even normal stone drops natives get after killing anomalies are far, far lower than what players get.

So the effort Lin Ling needs to put in to raise her strength could be ten or even dozens of times that of a player.

Fortunately, Lin Ling had been stuck at the Postnatal Third-rate Realm for quite a while already, so her foundation was extremely solid.

On top of that, the anomalies in the last two rows here were of no small quality, and should be enough for Lin Ling to finish accumulating her attribute points.

But when Fang Yue used Lin Ling's hand to pull back the Seven-Seal Short Sword, he was suddenly stunned.

He saw that the spherical anomaly that had just been killed had a body like a deflated ball — shriveled and wrinkled, as if the power of the anomaly had been suppressed.

Why does this corpse look so strange?

Normally, after an anomaly dies, part of its corpse will grade into Black Stone, or Black Ember, while the rest stays where it is — the specifics depend on the anomaly.

But anomalies killed by the Seven-Seal Short Sword leave corpses that are unusually intact, just shriveled up, as if their power had been drained away.

Although Fang Yue found it strange, he didn't think much of it.

He controlled Lin Ling to keep killing her way through. When Qingchen beside her excitedly shouted "I advanced! I advanced!", Lin Ling finally woke from her daze.

The very first instant, she froze.

"Xiao... Ye?"

Lin Ling was still weak, seeming a little dazed, somewhat uncertain about her own situation.

But once her memories came flooding back, she gave a sudden start and excitedly grabbed Fang Yue's hand.

"Xiao Ye, Lord Han... Lord Han was captured too! I saw it — Lord Han was locked up in a room called Lord Horse-Seat's!"

Lord Horse-Seat?!

Lord Han!

Fang Yue's pupils contracted, and white flames burst from his body with a whoosh.

Remembering Lin Ling was still there, he hurriedly reined in the flames.

"Don't worry! I will definitely rescue Lord Han!"

"Mm... I trust you... trust..."

Lin Ling once again weakly slipped into unconsciousness.

Fang Yue thought it over, then insisted on having Lin Ling kill all the remaining anomalies. Looking over at Qingchen, he had already been waiting nearby for quite a while, and the bookish air on his face was completely gone, replaced by an inexplicable excitement and vigor.

"Big shot, I feel like I've been reborn! Killing anomalies to level up is way too fast! I'm a Postnatal Third-rate Realm martial artist now! Xia Xiyu probably wouldn't even dream that I could enter the Martial Dao!"

Qingchen excitedly clenched his fists, overcome with endless excitement at stepping into the Martial Dao for the first time and possessing this power for the first time.

Fang Yue smiled and nodded, not finding it the least bit surprising.

When he himself had entered the Xiantian Realm and felt power surge through him, his excitement had been no less than Qingchen's.

Once Qingchen's emotions had calmed a little, Fang Yue handed Lin Ling over to him.

"Big shot, what are we doing now? Going out to kill anomalies? I feel like I'm super strong!"

Fang Yue:...

If your strength were a bit higher, I really could confidently hand Lin Ling over to you, turn around, storm Ning Mansion, stand at its peak, and wait for someone to come back.

But that won't do.

Fang Yue really couldn't set his mind at ease about Lin Ling.

"Do you know if there are any other exits we can get out through? Like ones that lead straight down the mountain, or outside? Best if we can also get some horses."

Before, Fang Yue hadn't known Ning Mansion was pulling a scam — he'd truly believed all of Ning Mansion's horses were junk.

Now that he knew about the Underground Stronghold, could an organization this massive possibly not have fast horses?

"Big shot, horses definitely exist, but with all this chaos going on for so long, they've probably been snatched up by people already. As for exits, in that direction there is a main road that goes straight from the Underground Stronghold to Qingsi County, with a few smaller exits along the way..."

"Wait!"

Fang Yue's expression went blank: "You just said... that main road goes straight to Qingsi County??"

"Yeah, the Underground Stronghold was built for concealment, so it doesn't have that many entrances and exits. The only one that goes straight through is to Qingsi County. I asked them why it went straight to Qingsi County, but they wouldn't tell me — seems like it has something to do with Ning Lao at the Ning Mansion above the stronghold. I don't know the specifics."

The reason doesn't matter!

Fang Yue's face showed excitement.

That it could go straight to Qingsi County — he truly hadn't expected that. So this Underground Stronghold was basically built for moving back and forth between Qingsi County and Ningguang Mountain.

And unlike the surface village roads that wind around for safety, the long detours to avoid mountain peaks, and the various anomalies roaming about—

Inside this Underground Stronghold, according to Qingchen, the route from Ningguang Mountain to Qingsi County is a straight line between two points!

Ignore every obstacle — just damn walk straight through, and you come out at Qingsi County.

The efficiency, the shortened path — even without a Qingsi Horse, Fang Yue was confident he could get back to Qingsi County within half a day!

"Let's go! We'll head along the main road first. If we see anyone with horses on the way, we'll just snatch them. If not, we run on foot."

With Fang Yue carrying Lin Ling on his back and Qingchen following, the two of them ran toward the main road, in the opposite direction from Ningguang Mountain.

Along the way, they ran into two groups of anomalies.

Qingchen excitedly immediately offered to go fight, only to have a chunk of meat bitten straight off his left arm by the anomaly. He went pale, trembled all over, and screamed: "Big shot, help!!"

What else could Fang Yue do — he could only step in.

After easily dealing with it, they continued on.

Suddenly, they saw a batch of large date-red horses parked up ahead!

Both pairs of eyes lit up at once.

These large date-red horses were big enough — if the three of them squeezed together, they could ride.

Failing that, letting Qingchen and Lin Ling drive the horses while he ran alongside on foot would still greatly boost efficiency.

But before the two of them could get close to that batch of large date-red horses...

Boom!!

The body of the large jujube-red horse suddenly seemed to be smashed apart by something, its body splitting into pieces, fresh blood spraying everywhere.

"Boss, be careful!"

The moment Qing Chen's voice rang out, a black shadow had already shot through the flying horse flesh and, in a flash, rushed right up in front of him.

His pupils contracted, and in that instant, he finally saw clearly what exactly was charging toward him.

It was… a bizarre big-headed dog-like creature, with a blood-colored stone embedded in its forehead, a head as large as a dou measure, and outward-jutting fangs!

Almost the very next instant after Qing Chen saw this creature clearly…

Bang!!!

The blood-grade Xiao Xuedou, which had been charging at high speed, leaping high to pounce on Qing Chen's face, was as if struck by something and forcibly changed direction—abruptly shifting from a horizontal straight-line rush into an even faster vertical plunge downward!

Thud!!!

As the blood-grade Xiao Xuedou hit the ground, the earth split apart with a roar, dust flying, shockwaves rolling—and amid it all, a voice rang out, shocked and bewildered.

"Xiao Xuedou?!!"

Fang Yue, still holding his fist out, was dumbfounded. How could the creature charging over be Xiao Xuedou?!

Wasn't it still in Qingsi County? And hadn't the eerie resurgence been suppressed before?

How had it now fully turned into a creature?

Those ruthless, unrecognizing eyes, those vicious fangs—nothing like it recognized him at all.

How could this be…

Could something have happened at Qingsi County?!

The moment this thought struck, Fang Yue's breathing grew rapid.

Just as Xiao Xuedou once again leaped high on the spot, snarling to bite at Fang Yue—

Puchi!

The Seven Seal short sword plunged straight into the top of Xiao Xuedou's leaping head.

Power, drain, seal!

The jet-black Seven Seal short sword, its blade seemed to have a luster flowing across it.

Xiao Xuedou's fangs retracted; the blood-colored stone embedded in its forehead slowly sank back into its body, and the fissure closed.

The eerie power within Xiao Xuedou seemed to be absorbed by the Seven Seal short sword, and it returned to its usual self—harmless, even… faintly regaining its clarity?

"Woof?"

Glancing dazedly at Fang Yue, Xiao Xuedou seemed to recognize him. In an adorable way, it wagged its short tail rapidly several times, then completely lost its strength and flopped, plop, into Fang Yue's arms.

"You're not killing it?"

"It…"

Boom!!!

A violent blast of air suddenly erupted from behind!

Gravel and debris tumbled and flew skyward.

Rolling dust surged toward them like waves.

And within the dust, a man wearing a horse-head mask was walking toward Fang Yue and the others, step by step!

"You really made me search, you three… little mice!"

Going to sleep now—my schedule's been a mess these past few days. Probably five updates today to fix it, we'll see how it goes.

(End of this chapter)