Chapter 697: Opening Ambush in the League Hunt

After Liffia and I enjoyed the last day of ease, along with outdoor camping and a barbecue.

We left early the next morning.

Since we had both decided to go solo, we naturally wouldn't hold each other back anymore.

I also embarked on a purposeless journey, waiting for the joint exam hunt to begin.

As the time settled at eight o'clock in the morning, I felt the power within my body instantly constrained and sealed.

Even I took several seconds to adapt to this state.

Currently, it was barely acceptable.

Perception was not shielded, and the power still belonged to me.

I could feel the power of the Great Tree of Knowledge still within my body, but I could not use it.

The only thing I could use was the power network function of the Seed of Knowledge that I had completely "integrated" in the past.

And each Seed of Knowledge was also a live broadcast window, just like the live broadcast platform I had built with the Great Tree of Knowledge before, conducting a live broadcast with instantaneous synchronous senses, or a video broadcast, or even a third-person view broadcast.

In the Seed of Knowledge's view, a live broadcast screen was currently being displayed to me, but it seemed that in an effort not to put more pressure on the examinees or the participating groups, there was no bullet screen design.

If it weren't for the "currently live" notification, I wouldn't have even known it was broadcasting.

However, besides the live broadcast element, there was another very important design, which was the health bar.

Currently, my health bar was full, but the design of the health bar was not specifically quantified into data.

As for whether there was a mana bar design… there actually was, but the energy source currently controlled by the power network came from the environment.

The mana bar, which represents the abundance of environmental energy, did not have much display value.

Due to the leakage of Transcendent resources in the current Expansion Realm and the drop in the energy level of Transcendent Primordial Crystals, the Transcendent energy in the environment naturally went without saying.

“The joint exam hunt has begun…”

I walked through the undeveloped ruined woods.

Small remnants of the original architecture of the small world were still left here, with vegetation burying them until only their outlines remained.

In fact, such places were very common in the Ninglan area.

They basically belonged to areas to be developed or planned areas, but the population couldn't keep up, and some places remained undeveloped wasteland.

Such a place might have small clusters of Herbivorous Mutated Beasts, or at most, a few individual Carnivorous Mutated Beasts.

I remembered that an entire population of such small Mutated Beasts might only count as a tiny bit of scoring, and the value of the materials on their bodies might only add up to a little over three digits.

Just as I was anticipating which unlucky examinee I would encounter, I felt that someone was following me.

Having lost the Earth Vein Appraisal Spell, all I could rely on now was my bodily perception.

Similarly, it had been a long time since I used Spirit Vision to search for a lurker hiding in the shadows who was unwilling to show up.

But even without Spirit Vision, my Heart Sense could feel the opponent's heartbeat, as well as their current Heart Sense Resonance.

"Tsk, come out. You've been following for so long. Did the preparations start even before the exam? That means you're not examinees, are you."

I spoke.

I was not in a hurry to use Spirit Vision on these people, and as for Heart Sense... well, it was instinct, but I was also restraining it.

I just wanted to train my anti-reconnaissance awareness in the most basic way, and the current test result was... somewhat abysmal.

But with the abilities I listed just now, my anti-tracking awareness rose by several levels instantly.

"Hmm? You're not coming out."

I turned my body to look at the empty space in the woods.

For an ordinary person, under the dim light blocked by the tree canopy, it would feel like someone was hiding behind every tree.

And I didn't treat them politely either.

A watermelon-sized Fireball instantly condensed in front of me after a short countdown.

Before it was even charged, I fired it towards a large tree.

The aiming for a spell fired from the power network also required manual aiming.

If the accuracy was poor, there would be no chance for a secondary correction.

Although the initial Fireball Spellbook also had this model, the students who were proficient in using the Fireball Spellbook had their own methods.

Although they couldn't mod the spellbook at this stage, the spellbook, as a spell platform, would attune with the user, which was equivalent to a passive minor modification to the spellbook, allowing mental power to guide the fireball to lock onto the target to a certain extent, and so on.

However, the power network couldn't achieve this form at present.

Boom—!

As the sound of fire explosion and the jarring crack of the tree trunk rang out, a figure was forced to emerge from behind the tree.

"Hey, I said, did we really have to do this? I just didn't want to cause trouble. Why did you force me out? Isn't it fine for you to just walk your own way?"

At this time, the slightly battered person emerged, and her tone of voice held a sense of grievance, along with a reluctant and forbearing feeling of being bullied.

"Oh, you showed your face, now you should die."

I raised the Book in the Casket in my hand, and the Fireball spell structure gradually condensed in the corner of the casket.

The person I aimed at, after revealing expressions of shock and fear, was a beat slower in pulling out her Magic Wand and starting to cast a spell.

But just when the opponent thought I would rely on the first-strike advantage to continue charging the fireball, I fired it and let the spell go.

Then my figure vanished from where I was, and only a watermelon-sized fireball quickly flew towards her!

The opponent only had two choices.

Either wait for the countdown to release a spell to nullify my spell, but there was absolutely no time for that.

Even if it was nullified, it would be nullified right in front of her!

She would absorb the explosion power of at least both Fireball spells!

In that case, she would suffer a loss instead.

So she instinctively chose to interrupt her casting immediately.

Doing so would not cause a Mental Power Backlash, and she would only suffer the uncontrolled explosion of the unformed spell, which she could barely withstand with her Undying Nature.

Then she would dodge the damage from my fireball, which was choosing the lesser of two evils.

And when she actually did that, a series of rumbling sounds and a scream followed.

Boom—Boom—Crack—!

The loudest explosion was not the fireball I released, nor was it the explosion from her interrupted spellcasting, but a half-person-sized fireball that landed and exploded at the position where I had left!

The teaching assistant who planned to trade a small injury for mobility, after briefly losing her vision from the spell explosion in front of her, instinctively dodged, but instead took a direct hit to the face from the Book in the Casket I had thrown with a prediction.

The terrifying impact sent her crashing into a tree before she finally stopped.

"Sure enough, there was an ambush. Your cooperation is a bit poor."

I grabbed the Book in the Casket that was bounced off her face and looked at the veteran trickster who had fired the fireball behind me.

"You knew I was here all along?"

The opponent's fireball missed, and she frowned slightly.

If the sneak attack failed, then her advantage was gone.

"The ones Teacher Lina said couldn't beat a lower-grade student even with one Fireball, wouldn't happen to be you, would it?"

I didn't bother to answer her question, and immediately threw a taunt back.

Since they were so willing to cooperate in ambushing me, what was there to explain?

Killing them was the greatest respect I could give them!

"You... you're asking for death!"

"The level of your trash-talking is only this much. Do you usually live so comfortably that you don't even know how to curse?"

As I taunted, I charged a Fireball spell with my rear hand.

The power network's spell skills allowed for mobile casting, as the casting medium was the weapon held in the hand.

However, movement also needed to take the objective spell posture into consideration, otherwise, casting errors could easily occur.

But... knowing the underlying operating principles and architecture of the power network, I had already deduced many things that required testing to know, through theoretical data combined with practical common sense, right from the start.

Therefore, every mobile casting I performed was challenging the limit between the "spellcasting countdown" and "spell interruption."

In the early stages, when everyone only had one Fireball spell, there wasn't much room for maneuver or too many options.

The only move was to use a weaker spell to exchange and nullify a stronger spell attack, but this greatly tested accuracy.

After all, the flying speed of a Fireball was not slow; it was only slightly slower than a purely kinetically-driven bullet, and its body was much larger.

And the Fireball I was charging with my rear hand was not meant to attack or defensively nullify the one who couldn't even curse properly, but was waiting for the third person in the shadows.

This ambush was not just two people, but three!

So, after the fireball flying towards me missed its mark, I also sensed the movement of the third person.

I threw the charged fireball in my hand without hesitation.

Immediately afterward, two Fireball spells that were almost at their charging limit erupted with terrifying explosions and heat waves in the space.

Thus... both sneak attacks ended in failure.

"Did anyone ever tell you that your acting is really terrible, and your brains are not very good? If a dozen people had surrounded me from the beginning, maybe I would have been afraid, but a sneak attack... with such intense Fire Element gathering, did you think I couldn't sense it?"

As my words rang out in the ears of these few people, as if it were a huge taunt, the three of them were instantly infuriated and launched a joint frontal assault.

Since the sneak attack was mocked, they would rely on their numerical advantage to force an attack!

The opponent had only lost the augmentation of the grand spellbook and the power of that unknown domain.

Were the three of them still afraid of one person?

They were teaching assistants.

Over the years, even if they weren't known for combat, they had gone through many battles, big and small, so in terms of combat experience, they were absolutely not lacking!

But when they truly faced me, they found that they were wrong.

Their past combat experience seemed to be of little use at this moment, and even the most basic teamwork seemed difficult for them.

Furthermore, when faced with an incoming close-quarters battle, they had very little experience dealing with terrifying Physical Arts techniques.

The few combat experiences they had dealing with Body Cultivators were all instances of going to the Beast Academy to pick a fight, overwhelming them with spells, and then running away... they had absolutely no experience to draw from.

However, their numerical advantage was indeed an advantage.

As for me.

At the beginning of the battle, I immediately targeted the teaching assistant who was hit in the face by my Book in the Casket earlier.

At this moment, she had recovered, but the descending health bar proved that she was indeed injured, but still well within the acceptable range.

The reason why I chose her was naturally my judgment that she would be easy to handle.

After all, the person playing the first bait in a three-person team must be the weakest, and she indeed looked the most easily bullied.

When my Book in the Casket smashed toward her face, her instinctive reaction was to use her arm to block.

I knew right away that she didn't have much close-combat fighting experience.

Moreover, tangling with them in close combat could also restrain the other two from being afraid to act, otherwise, a Fireball might accidentally blow up on their teammates.

I was originally preventing this, but their way of thinking forced me to actually put it into practice.

It wasn't until I had this person's back help me block a fully charged Fireball that I realized they truly had no teamwork awareness whatsoever!

I didn't even want to figure out if they had forgotten that there was "friendly damage" in reality, or if they had already given up on this not-so-effective teammate.

But this person indeed took a Fireball.

It was just that... she still hadn't died, at least from the health bar, she wasn't dead yet.

"That's a really heavy hand."

After pushing aside this "meat shield," she collapsed on the ground in a sorry state.

After all, Undying Nature was not without its cost.

At this moment, I was also thinking of a way to close in on the other two, but a mere advantage in physical constitution could not help me close the distance quickly.

I had the basic physical constitution boost given by Body Cultivation, and they similarly had the physical body enhancement brought by many years of Witchification.

They were also very adept at the combat techniques of remote spell suppression.

"Let's retreat first..."

"Tsk... the commotion is too big."

The other one also nodded and said nothing more.

Too much commotion could easily attract people.

Although this place might not attract the examinees, other teaching assistants might come here to pick up the spoils.

Moreover, it had just started.

The initial sneak attack was the main part of their plan.

Dragging the fight with the opponent any longer was pointless.

It was better to develop for a bit and find some isolated examinees to ambush.

Although this time it was said that they were the special hunting targets, it was uncertain who would hunt whom in the real examination ground!

Seeing the two people with nearly intact health bars run away just like that, I also felt a bit of pity, and could only sigh that old fritters indeed cherished their lives.

"But you, the one with low health... do you think you can run away?"

I chased after the teaching assistant who had just taken a direct hit from her teammate's Fireball.

At this moment, apart from her clothes, which indicated she was heavily injured just now, there were no obvious wounds on her body.

"Can't you just let me go! I clearly didn't hit you even once..."

"I won't let those two go either, but just like you, they didn't hit me with a single Fireball."

After a brief chase, her leg was injured after I predicted her movements with the Fireball spell and the Book in the Casket, one in front and one behind.

At their level, a scrape would not affect their movement at all, so the goal of every strike needed to be lethal or crippling.

"Fine... tsk, kill me. I'll just wait for resurrection."

At this moment, after this teaching assistant fell, she also realized she had no room to resist.

Moreover, she had been disarmed.

Losing her weapon was equivalent to losing the casting medium and the Transcendent power granted by the power network.

She was a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

"Kill you? That would be a waste. But before that, I really have to thank you."

"Thank me? Why?"

"Thank you for letting me understand what the marking of the health bar refers to this time. It should also refer to the Level of Life and Undying Nature. If you suffer another major injury now, your Undying Nature shouldn't be able to help you recover anymore, right?"

"If I said yes, would you give me a quick death?"

"Honestly, no."

After I said this, I rewarded her with another uncharged Fireball, further weakening her health bar.

"Ah—wait... wait... I can tell you... a secret..."

"I don't need it. You are not truly dying; you will be resurrected, so your dying words lack the most basic credibility. I don't want to spend excessive effort distinguishing whether your words are true or false. Your statements might even subconsciously influence my judgment, so you are forbidden to speak."

I looked at the last remaining sliver of her health bar, a satisfied smile rising on my face, and then punched directly toward her cervical spine.

Just as my strike landed, a figure appeared beside me—it was a mentor from the Witch Academy.

"Pardon me, Mentor, I didn't expect you to be so efficient, but you might have wasted your trip. She is not dead yet."

I turned my head to look at the mentor and said with some apology.

"Oh? Indeed. I thought that punch would send her off."

The mentor who came was somewhat surprised. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

She sensed her and looked at the health bar.

She was indeed not dead.

"Are you planning to continue?"

"No, killing her doesn't bring me any benefit. She should still have some utility value."

I lifted her by the back of her collar.

That punch just now naturally didn't take her life.

I am a Body Cultivator.

When Big Sis Bai taught me to familiarize myself with the concept of Body Cultivation, the first thing was to familiarize myself with human anatomy.

Now, she was only suffering directional damage to the cervical spine area, which went from potentially being quadriplegic to certainly being paralyzed.

I controlled my force very well, and... although the Undying Nature's spontaneous self-healing can repair this kind of paralysis, it depends on how much of her Undying Nature's self-healing ability is left.

Don't blame me for being ruthless.

Since they shamelessly came to me, then they shouldn't be afraid of me being heavy-handed.

"Oh, what are you going to do with her?"

This mentor didn't find anything wrong with my behavior.

After all, if you try to ambush someone and get counter-killed, what right do you have to pretend to be pitiful?

"I'm going to see if any examinees are willing to generously give me some kill count to unlock my skill tree."