Chapter 419: Trouble Is Brewing (2)
Ding Yifeng’s gaze swept over Li Junjie’s face before finally resting on Li Xiaofei.
“You’re not participating in the hunt. Stay by my side,” Ding Yifeng said. “I’ll protect you, so don’t panic or run around. I’ll take care of everything.”
“Thank you, Instructor Ding,” Li Xiaofei replied.
Li Junjie opened his mouth as if to speak but ultimately said nothing.
A few moments later, the carriages came to a halt five kilometers from Xiajing City. There was no road ahead.
The instructors led the students out of the carriages, each carrying their weapons and equipped with radiation shielding and air filtration devices as they began to trek deeper into the wilderness.
Li Xiaofei stayed by Ding Yifeng’s side. At the forefront, Chief Instructor Qi Shisan walked in his simple blue robe, carrying a lone sword on his back and holding a wine gourd in his hand.
He wore no protective equipment. His strength alone was enough. The wilderness soil was dry and loose, and even on foot, their steps kicked up large clouds of dust. They could hear a faint, sporadic howling ahead. After advancing a thousand meters, they finally saw signs of ‘life’ in the distance. It was...
“Damn, zombies?” Li Xiaofei couldn’t help but curse.
Ahead of them, creatures moved sluggishly, with decaying skin and crooked heads, wandering aimlessly in small groups across the wilderness. They were eerily similar to the zombies from films five hundred years ago.
Ding Yifeng glanced back at him and said, “Stay close.”
Li Xiaofei quickly caught up. Ahead, a few senior students had begun guiding the younger students to approach the zombies and eliminate them. These low-grade zombies were weak and easily dealt with. Even martial artists at the Qi Refining Realm could defeat them.
“The only weakness of zombies is their heads. Crush the skull, and they’ll be killed. These are just grade one zombies and aren’t much of a threat, but don’t let your guard down. Higher-grade zombies have greater speed, defense, attack power, and corpse toxins that are much more dangerous,” Ding Yifeng explained loudly.
The students felt a mix of excitement and tension, especially the first-year freshmen. The only exception was Wang Xiaofan. As a battle-hardened student who had grown up fighting arctic bears in the frozen wilderness, he had experienced countless life-and-death moments. He could maintain absolute composure and clarity even in the most perilous environments.
Instructors began searching through the heads of the fallen zombies. Soon, they retrieved several star cores that glowed with various colors.
“These are star cores,” Ding Yifeng explained. “They form in the brains of zombies and are the purest energy sources among all star beasts. They have the lowest toxicity and the highest quality, making them highly sought after on the market. The higher the zombie’s grade, the greater the chance of finding a star core in its brain, and the more energy it contains.”
“Our task for this trial is to collect at least ten grade five star cores, fifty grade four star cores, one hundred grade three star cores, and one thousand grade two or lower star cores,” Ding Yifeng informed the students, showing them the collected star cores.
Trials of this scale were not exclusive to the school’s battle team; the various year cohorts across White Deer Academy also conducted them regularly. Beyond gathering star cores, the primary aim was to hone students' combat skills. Through battling zombies, students could sharpen their willpower, improve combat techniques, and gain practical experience.
White Deer Academy was a purely ancient martial arts institution. Hence, everything was real. They never used light core cockpit simulators. Students weren’t trained in trial scenarios within the light core virtual world.
After reiterating the key precautions, the team continued to advance into the Corpse Whisper Plains. As they progressed, the zombies they encountered were indeed of increasingly higher levels.
For first-year students, their average strength meant that when they would struggle when they faced grade three zombies, equivalent to zombies at the human Acupoint Opening Realm. It would often take them considerable time to defeat them.
The instructors only rarely intervened. They only stayed nearby, watching over the group. They would only step in to help if a student encountered a life-threatening situation and didn’t have time to activate their identity combat badge.
This adaptation period lasted approximately four hours. Six hours later, even the first-year rookies had adapted to fighting zombies and accumulated a fair amount of experience.
Li Xiaofei hadn’t lifted a finger throughout the process. This level of zombies didn’t interest him at all. He obediently stayed close to Ding Yifeng, treating the excursion like a sightseeing tour, watching as the other students hunted down zombies.
Li Junjie, once again, became the center of attention. Zombies were swiftly decapitated with a casual swing of his Sacred Martial Saber. His kill count remained far ahead of everyone else’s. Even the senior third and fourth-year students couldn’t match him.
At first, a few upperclassmen were dissatisfied and attempted to secretly compete with him. But when Li Junjie sliced through the head of a grade five zombie with a single blow, they were left speechless. A grade five zombie was equivalent to a human at the Five Spirits Realm. Li Junjie’s effortless kill meant that his combat strength had at least neared the Golden Body Realm.
It was practically a show of overwhelming superiority. Ding Yifeng and the other instructors couldn’t hide their delight. After so many years, White Deer Academy had finally produced a true prodigy. Not only did he possess remarkable intuition, but his combat skills were astonishing. Even Chief Instructor Qi Shisan looked at Li Junjie with admiration.
“The final stage.” Ding Yifeng announced loudly, “Next, everyone will disperse to find and hunt down a zombie matching their own realm alone. Good luck to each of you.”
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This was the last phase of the trial. The students exchanged uncertain glances. Finally, after some urging from the instructors, they broke off from the group and went out on their own.
The risk factor had significantly increased. Li Xiaofei looked at Ding Yifeng.
After a moment’s hesitation, Ding Yifeng said, “You’re part of the school’s battle team, and if you want to earn the respect of your teammates, you’ll need to take some risks. Go ahead. If you’re in danger, activate your identity combat badge immediately.”
“Understood.” Li Xiaofei gave a small smile before heading off into the wilderness.
He stretched his limbs as he disappeared into the distant red dust mist.
Qi Shisan put away his wine gourd and said, “Old Ding, keep a close eye on Li Xiaofei. Junjie thinks highly of him, so don’t let anything happen to him.”
“Don’t worry. I know what to do,” Ding Yifeng replied confidently.
Qi Shisan tossed his wine gourd into the air, where it swiftly expanded to the size of a small boat. He jumped aboard, ascending quickly to hover a thousand meters above where he took up his post to watch over all the students below.
Meanwhile, three hundred miles to the north, outside the nest of the Corpse Emperor, a woman with short, ear-length hair, dressed in a combat suit, was swiftly retreating.
She carefully stowed an object in the pack on her back, then mounted a strange flying device resembling a jet-powered hoverboard. She silently and swiftly skimmed over the ground, making her escape toward Xiajing City. She was only a few hundred miles ahead of the trial grounds for White Deer Academy.
Minutes later, an enraged roar erupted from the Corpse Emperor’s nest. In the next instant, high-grade zombies around the nest, deep in their cultivation slumber within underground lairs, awoke abruptly, sensing the emperor’s wrath, and let out long howls in response.
Countless high-grade zombies surged from their pitch-black burrows, moving with lightning speed, frantically hunting for the audacious thief who had stolen the Corpse Emperor’s treasure.
“This is bad.” Hundreds of miles away in the sky, Qi Shisan, who had been sitting in quiet contemplation on his flying gourd, suddenly opened his eyes.
He sensed the terrifying energy waves emanating from the direction of the Corpse Emperor’s nest.
The Corpse Emperor has gone berserk! And at this very moment? Trouble is brewing.