Chapter 140: Amazing Gains, Flame Demon

When they had entered the mountain, the two of them had taken only half an hour, but it took Chen Chu, who was carrying nearly seventeen tons of mutated beast, almost two hours to leave.

The beasts were too large for him to run at his maximum speed, and they kept catching on trees and other things, forcing Chen Chu to forcibly break open a path with his true power. By the time he emerged from the mountain, even he was somewhat out of breath.

Thud!

Chen Chu exerted all his strength to throw the bundled carcasses onto the truck bed from the side. Instantly, the lower half of the cab sank on its tires, and parts of the tiger and giant lizard bodies were hanging outside.

It was going to be a challenge hauling all of this back on a medium-sized truck. It was already heavily overloaded, but Chen Chu couldn't care less at this point.

Chen Chu exhaled deeply, looking at Luo Fei who caught up with him. "Let's go, get in the car."

Chen Chu couldn’t even be bothered to wipe the blood off of his body before sitting in the driver's seat, starting the engine as Luo Fei climbed into the passenger seat. The truck shuddered momentarily, straining as it pulled several huge mutated beast carcasses towards the town.

"Wow! Mom, such a big tiger!"

"Damn, who's this badass? Just half a day and they've killed four mutated beasts. Judging by their size, they should all be level 3."

"The freshmen now are something else."

"Yeah, during last year's major purge, I remember the military had a hard time killing just one level 3 beast."

Due to their small town being located at the foot of the Changbai Mountains, the residents often encountered mutated beasts, and some of them were even military veterans with decent skills. Overall, the people here were quite tough and resilient; many of the online images and videos of mutated beasts had been captured by these people when they ventured into the mountains.

Some even made a living out of it, while others helped catch common mutated creatures to be sold as high-end pets, creating an alternative business line.

It wasn't just Chen Chu and Luo Fei who had returned. Along the way, other students were also coming back from their missions. However, the mutated beast carcasses in their trucks were relatively small, mostly level 1, with very few level 2 beasts.

The logistics staff member felt a bit awkward as he addressed the student. "Excuse me, could you please help us move the mutated beast carcasses down?"

“No problem.”

With that, Chen Chu grabbed the bundled mutated beast carcasses, his muscles bulging as he lifted them out of the bed and threw them onto the ground with a loud thud. The vines suddenly broke apart from the force of the throw, and the four carcasses scattered, occupying half of the room.

The staff member watching felt extremely envious. Unfortunately, his talent hadn’t been good enough back then; he hadn’t been able to achieve Foundation Building even after two months of cultivation.

"Two assigned level 3 mutated beasts, Cloud-striped Tigers, one assigned mutated beast, Single-horned Lizard, and one White-feathered Golden Eagle, totaling 72 contribution points. They have been transferred to your student ID."

"Thank you." Chen Chu smiled.

At this rate, he might be able to accumulate 300 points within three days. Being able to do it so quickly was mostly due to his vastly superior combat power, almost instant-killing his opponents.

Even Luo Fei could easily kill these level 3 mutated beasts with her overpowered weapon; while she appeared weak in close combat, the problem was that one had to be able to get close to her in the first place.

Another advantage was the precise positioning the authorities provided for the missions, which saved them a lot of time. If they could kill without worrying about bringing the bodies back, Chen Chu could complete over a dozen level 3 tasks in a day, accumulating hundreds of contribution points in the process.

Unfortunately, the authorities' goal was to train these freshmen and give them combat experience, making that impossible.

Chen Chu glanced at the time, noticing that it was only one in the afternoon, then turned to Luo Fei waiting beside him. "Let's go eat first, then continue."

“Mhmm.”

With the annual purges, the number of level 3 mutated beasts in these mountain forests was limited, especially those identified for missions. The faster they acted here, the better, especially since there were other Second or Third Heavenly Realm cultivators besides them.

The girl nodded. "When we choose our missions this afternoon, let's see if there are any missions involving groups of mutated beasts. If so, we can also accept level 2 ones."

"If you hadn’t mentioned it, I would have forgotten about that." Chen Chu's eyes lit up. Killing a group of level 2 mutated beasts would be more profitable than killing a single level 3 mutated beast.

When Chen Chu and Luo Fei walked into the mess hall, wearing blood-stained black and red battle armor and carrying their weapons, some of the students who hadn't taken missions yet were startled. Many timid freshmen found themselves panting slightly under the heavy aura emanating from the two.

"So scary, who is he?"

"It looks like that’s Chen Chu from Nantian."

"Isn't he the one who ranked in the top fifty in their competition with low-level arts?"

"Yeah, that's him. I heard he also participated in the Kyria Trial and killed a Fourth Heavenly Realm cultist while still in the Third."

"So impressive!"

Amid the discussions around them, Chen Chu and Luo Fei found a table with their food and sat down. Puzzled, Chen Chu asked, "Strange, why do those third-rate students seem so weak?"

Luo Fei whispered softly, "It's normal because they've been semi-abandoned from the beginning."

"What do you mean?" Chen Chu paused slightly.

"I'll tell you, but don't spread it around." Luo Fei glanced around and then whispered, "My aunt told me that all new students undergo a selection process when entering high school.

"The authorities use trace elements contained in our blood during the annual physical examination to determine whether a person has cultivation talent, with a thirty percent chance of detecting it.

"Those with higher overall qualities will enter first-rate schools, followed by the second-rate ones, although they make it seem like everyone is enrolling uniformly. Of course, because the accuracy is so low, the authorities will allocate many ordinary students to each school, but first-rate schools will have relatively fewer."

"No wonder." Chen Chu nodded thoughtfully.

When he had first arrived at Leisteru’s airport to pick up the second-rate freshmen, he had already felt that there was a significant difference in the number of cultivation geniuses between first-rate and second-rate schools, but he didn't expect that they had all already undergone a selection process.

In the afternoon, Chen Chu and Luo Fei took on two more level 3 missions: a fourteen-meter-long mutated rock python and a ten-meter-long crocodile.

Luo Fei blew the head off the mutated rock python with one shot, while Chen Chu sliced the lurking crocodile that had been attempting to ambush them in half with a single strike.

Both tasks had taken them deep into the mountains, dozens of kilometers apart. By the time they returned with the mutated beast carcasses loaded in the truck, it was already past eight in the evening.

"36 contribution points have been transferred to your student ID."

"Thank you."

Chen Chu and Luo Fei, both carrying their weapons and helmets, walked out of the logistics department. When they locked eyes with each other, they couldn't help but smile.

Today, they had harvested a total of 108 points by killing six level 3 mutated beasts. Chen Chu alone had gotten 72, a higher harvest than when he had killed the Golden-Backed Rampage Ape, while Luo Fei had gotten 36.

Seeing that the sky was getting dark, the two decided to call it quits for the day.

***

After dinner and a shower, Chen Chu stood on the balcony in the personal dormitories behind the military base, looking pensive.

On the first day alone, he had earned 72 contribution points. Along with the 30 points from killing the late-stage Blood Emissary in Kyria, and the 40 points exchanged for the Blood Crystal he had sold to the school, he had accumulated 142 contribution points.

However, Chen Chu knew this rate wasn’t going to last long. The number of level 3 mutated beasts within the mountain range was limited, and when he had selected new tasks in the afternoon, he had noticed that the number of level 3 tasks on the map was more than halved.

Obviously, the other students in the Third Heavenly Realm weren’t to be underestimated either. With each person hunting down one beast and adding any extras they killed, they had collectively cleared over a dozen level 3 mutated beasts today.

Thinking of this, Chen Chu couldn't help but feel fortunate that most of his classmates who had broken through to the Third Heavenly Realm, especially geniuses like An Fuqing, had applied to go to the mutated beast battlefield in advance.

If they had had to share the kills again, it was very possible that all of the level 3 mutated beasts would have been wiped out today. He would have been lucky to get two or three for himself.

Chen Chu couldn't help but smile at the thought, then narrowed his eyes.

In the darkness of the night, beneath the turbulent waves of the rocky reefs, two massive mutated beasts faced off.

One of them was the Sword Armored Fiery Beast, nearly sixteen meters long, covered in black and red armor. The other was twenty-six meters long, looking like a cross between a crocodile and a whale.

Like a crocodile, it had a long and narrow mouth full of sharp teeth, capable of tearing apart a bus with a single bite. Its body, however, was as heavy and bulky as a whale, covered in scales, with two pairs of thick fins on the front and rear of its abdomen, and a long, narrow tail.

The most important thing was that this mutated crocodile-whale had a powerful energy fluctuation, emitting a fierce aura.

However, this time it wasn't the Fiery Beast seeking it out; it was this massive mosasaur-like mutated beast that had its eyes on the Fiery Beast, seeing it as food.

The Fiery Beast had encountered this situation many times before, but each time, its attackers had been the ones turned into food.

Gurgle, gurgle!

The crocodile-whale blew bubbles as it slowly circled around the Fiery Beast with a sway of its fins, trying to instill panic in its prey with its massive size. However...

Boom!

The sea erupted into waves as the Fiery Beast vanished from its original position, almost seeming to teleport to crash into the crocodile-whale dozens of meters away.

??Only then did a terrifying shockwave tear through the sea, forming a massive wave.

As the Fiery Beast's body had grown larger, the power of its three major abilities had become more and more terrifying.

The Fiery Beast’s eruption caught the crocodile-whale completely off guard. It only felt a terrifying impact on its side, and then its massive body was hurled a hundred meters away. Wherever it passed, the sea became turbulent, churning up rolling waves, and it let out a miserable scream.

The Fiery Beast’s fierce blow had not only sent it flying, but also caused the struck flesh to explode, revealing a massive, pale-white skeleton underneath.

There were eight wounds in total, each over three meters long and one meter deep with scorch marks on the edges, going not just through its tough scales and resilient flesh, but also through the energy covering its entire body, even though that energy had resisted most of the force from the blow. If it hadn’t been for that energy, its entire abdomen would have bursted open.

Roar!

A hundred meters away, the now enraged and bleeding crocodile-whale glared at the shadow looming in the darkness. A strong blue energy erupted from its body, stopping the bleeding in the wounds as its flesh rapidly regrew at a visible speed.

At the same time, its muscles all over its body expanded by a third of their original size in the blink of an eye, emitting a heavy and terrifying aura of power, so terrifying that it actually caused the surrounding water to go completely still.

This was a relatively rare mutated beast in the sea, evolving mainly based on physical strength and recovery ability. The Fiery Beast, however, paid no attention to this. Its eyes remained cold and unwavering.

Competing with me in physical strength? It’s asking for death.

Roar!

The ferocious fiery beast, wrapped in black and red, tore through the sea with a roar, while the crocodile-whale did the same, rushing forward to meet it.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The battle between the two beasts caused explosions on the surface above. Each collision unleashed a forceful shockwave that lifted waves dozens of meters high, creating a terrifying spectacle.

With each swing of its massive fins, the crocodile-whale unleashed thousands of tons of impact force. Its powerful body smashed the surrounding rocks with every collision, causing chaos.

Under their battle, many small fish that couldn't evade in time were instantly killed, and the sea surface was soon littered with the corpses of various marine creatures.

The Fiery Beast was exhilarated by this battle, its muscles swelling and its black scales lifting as it directly confronted the massive crocodile-whale.

Boom!

The crocodile-whale's massive tail, nearly ten meters long, swept across the sea surface, stirring up violent waves. Seeing this, the Fiery Beast didn't dodge at all, its sturdy claws instead reaching out.

Boom!

The terrifying force carried by the blow caused even the Fiery Beast to tremble. Its sturdy hind legs firmly stood on the rocks beneath the water's surface, and its terrifying power erupted from within.

Roar!

Accompanied by a roar, the Fiery Beast’s claws swelled, and it directly lifted the crocodile-whale by its tail.

Boom!

The giant beast, over twenty meters long, surged out of the sea surface, only to be brutally slammed back down, sending up a massive amount of water that rained back down in torrents.

Below the surface, the hard rocks were shattered by the crocodile-whale's impact, and the terrifying recoil shattered its scales, sending more flesh and blood flying.

This was the difference between having and lacking intelligence. The crocodile-whale only knew to rely on its powerful body to fight, and was completely unaware of how to use the surrounding environment to its advantage. As a result, it was directly knocked into a state of unconsciousness by the Fiery Beast's attack.

Behind the knocked out crocodile-whale, the black beast stood up on the rocks, rising to its full height. Flames burned on its body and danced on its sturdy arms, forming coils of fiery serpents as terrifying power converged towards its claws.

Boom!

Under the hundredfold Raging Elephant Stomp-like attack, the heavy scales on the crocodile-whale's head shattered. Its skull collapsed, and half of its brain exploded. In an instant, a massive amount of blood mixed with bodily fluids sprayed everywhere, dyeing the surrounding water a dark red all the way up to the surface.

The black-scaled, spike-backed, fierce beast rose back up to its full height. Flames burned on its body, especially around the three pairs of red-feathered horns on its head, forming a golden-red halo that made it resemble a demon.

With the battle over, the next step was to feast. The crocodile-whale was massive, several times larger than the double-headed snake. Even the Fiery Beast took a long time to eat and digest most of it.

By the time dawn broke, a giant, broken skeleton lay among the rocks below the sea. Over a meter thick, hard as iron, but not very nutritious, the Fiery Beast couldn’t be bothered to exert much effort on consuming the bones.

Even without them, it gained dozens of evolution points, and its body length increased by dozens of centimeters as it swam away and disappeared into the sea in the blink of an eye.