Chapter 102: Carried to Success
Chapter 102: Carried to Success
This was the first time that Jing Ji, Qi Xinghuo, and Yuan Chongzhen had hunted as a team, and their expedition lasted for over forty hours. It wasn't until noon the next day that the trio returned to Midway Fortress.
There were only a handful of people in the lobby of the bounty office when they arrived.
However, the monthly leaderboard had already been updated.
Jing Ji looked up and saw that Alex topped the list with 68 points.
The second and third-place hunters also had the same score; from their names, they appeared to be Americans and likely teammates of Alex.
News of the trio's team-up had already spread by the time they returned to the city.
"Hehe..."
Jing Ji smiled calmly and placed a heavy bag on the counter.
A staff member opened the bag, and a flood of spoils poured out, overflowing the counter and spilling onto the floor.
Several bounty hunters who were present looked on in astonishment.
"So much!"
"How many enemies did they kill?"
Amidst the onlookers, it took the staff member nearly ten minutes to tally up the spoils. He then announced loudly, "Bounty of 14.08 million and 387 points!"
The bounty hunters in the room buzzed with excitement.
"Divide the points equally among the three of us," Jing Ji instructed.
"Of course," the staff member replied. He was very familiar with Qi Xinghuo and the others, and quickly registered the points. He then retrieved two large stacks of cash, each bill worth 100,000 Asian yuan, and handed them to Jing Ji.
Without hesitation, Jing Ji divided the bounty and transferred the appropriate amounts to Qi Xinghuo and Yuan Chongzhen.
The leaderboard was soon updated.
Jing Ji had taken the top spot, with Qi Xinghuo and Yuan Chongzhen close behind in second and third place, each with 129 points, pushing Alex and his teammates down to fourth to sixth place.
"Awesome!"
Jing Ji clenched his fist excitedly as he left the bounty office, his face beaming with joy.
Yuan Chongzhen also wore a satisfied smile.
He didn't care much for the points; what delighted him was the day's earnings, which exceeded 7 million—almost half a month's income for him. And they still had the exotic beasts and a few equipment pieces to sell, which could net them another million or two.
Qi Xinghuo, on the other hand, remained the most composed of the three. While team hunting did yield significantly better results, when averaged out, it was roughly equivalent to his usual solo hunts.
The biggest advantage, however, was the tripling of spiritual source energy acquisition! Each member of the team had their own focus: one sought points, another sought bounty, and the last sought spiritual source energy, ensuring everyone benefited greatly.
Jing Ji turned to Qi Xinghuo, feeling like he had just experienced what it meant to be "carried to success." With Qi Xinghuo around, he barely had to lift a finger throughout their hunt.
Against weaker foes, Qi Xinghuo would take them down with a few precise arrows.
Sometimes, Jing Ji wouldn't even see the enemy before Qi Xinghuo's arrows found their mark. All he had to do was collect the spoils afterward.
In the rare instances when they had to engage in close combat, the battles were still effortless.
Jing Ji would unleash his Silent Phantom, and he and Yuan Chongzhen would charge ahead, acting as bait or holding the enemies back, while Qi Xinghuo provided cover from a distance, picking off their opponents one by one with his arrows.
Even when faced with formidable foes they couldn't defeat, Qi Xinghuo would sense their presence ahead of time and lead the group to safety.
There was never any real danger.
Jing Ji could sum up the entire experience in two words: easy and exhilarating!
Yuan Chongzhen felt the same way: exhilarating and effortless!
"At this rate, we won't need a whole month. In just ten days, we can widen the gap with Alex and his team, forcing them to give up," Jing Ji laughed, his previous worries melting away. "With Xinghuo on our side, how can they even compete?"
"We've got this in the bag!" Yuan Chongzhen agreed.
"Don't get complacent," Qi Xinghuo warned, his vigilance unwavering. "The North Fallen Master Race will definitely react to our actions, and we may not be able to maintain this level of success every day."
Jing Ji's smile faded as he nodded seriously. "They might even send out more Legends."
"Indeed."
In fact, Qi Xinghuo had already sensed a couple of Legends from the Great Kun Race searching for him before, and today's hunt would likely attract even more, increasing the danger they faced.
"We can expand our hunting grounds and not restrict ourselves to the vicinity of Midway Fortress," Jing Ji suggested as a countermeasure. "It might take us longer to travel, but it'll be safer."
"That's our best option," Qi Xinghuo agreed, nodding. After setting a meeting time for the evening, the three parted ways and returned to their respective inns.
Back in his room, Qi Xinghuo opened the interface of the Myriad Star Pupils.
He had acquired 350 points of spiritual source energy the night before, and the progress of the Thunderclap Hands was at (Level 3: 742/743). He had deliberately left the last point unused.
Qi Xinghuo invested one point of spiritual source energy.
Instantly, the human silhouette on the right side of the interface lit up with electric sparks at the wrists, sending tingling sensations through his arms. Currents of electricity jumped from his palms to his fingers, and his skin was enveloped in a shimmering electric glow.
The interface updated, indicating Thunderclap Hands (Level 4: 1/2833).
"So there's no advancement?"
Qi Xinghuo was surprised.
Previously, he had assumed that when an ability advanced from Level 3 to Level 4, there would be a noticeable advancement. Now it seemed that wasn't always the case.
"It's probably different for each ability."
"Ether Sensitivity advanced to Level 3, but Thunderclap Hands doesn't necessarily work the same way."
Qi Xinghuo didn't dwell on it and instead focused on sensing the changes brought about by Thunderclap Hands reaching Level 4. With a thought, both his hands began to glow with electric light, emitting a soft buzzing sound of electricity.
However, this electrified state has been consuming Stellar Power.
Qi Xinghuo drew out Lei Chi, and the twin lightning bolts running along the hilt to the blade lit up the three lightning vein patterns, activating the accompanying arc halo cuts, and the blade trembled slightly, piercing the air with electricity.
With a casual wave of his hand, he sliced a ceramic cup on the table in half, the cut as smooth as a mirror.
"Even sharper!"
Qi Xinghuo exclaimed in admiration.
With the addition of the Level 4 Thunderclap Hands, the Lei Chi could truly cut iron like mud.
He sheathed his battle blade and tested with other objects, discovering that even without a weapon, the electricity in his bare hands could cause extreme damage, and holding onto something, whether conductive or not, would leave burn marks after just a few seconds.
The Preparatory State allows his hands to generate high-temperature electric shocks!
The lightning release is faster.
More powerful!
Moreover, Qi Xinghuo found that he could release two lightning bolts at once, and if he released them simultaneously with both hands, that would be four lightning bolts in one go.
Although the lightning bolts released simultaneously were not as powerful and had a shorter range, they could strike multiple targets, and the cross release of the four lightning bolts could form an electric net, directly covering all enemies in front, leaving them nowhere to hide! The release of four lightning bolts together with the electromagnetic pulse also resulted in higher pulse arc damage.
However, after the release, there was tendon overload, and it took a few seconds to be able to use the Thunderclap Hands again, and it consumed more Stellar Power.
Qi Xinghuo went to the training ground and practiced for two hours.
He still had over 300 points of Spiritual Source Energy.
After much consideration, he decided to use this Spiritual Source Energy on Qinghong, upgrading its "Minification" to Level 2, with a progress of (Level 2: 1/3049).
Qinghong closed its eyes, and after a few minutes, its body shrank again.
"So tiny!"
Qi Xinghuo was amazed. At Level 2 of Minification, Qinghong was now less than three centimeters long, resembling a tiny insect.
He gently pinched Qinghong and held it up to his face, marveling at it.
Minification was indeed a magical ability; after shrinking, its weight also decreased, and he could barely feel any weight in his hand.
With such a small size, it would be extremely difficult to be discovered.
"You can hide in my hair from now on, and even if you make a nest on my head, no one will be able to see you." Qi Xinghuo said with a smile.
However, Qinghong shook its head in disapproval, as it valued cleanliness and found the idea of nesting in his hair too unhygienic.
"Never mind then."
Qi Xinghuo found it amusing, as he bathed every day.
It was then that he noticed a problem: the Spiritual Source Energy required for Minification to reach Level 3 had skyrocketed to 3049 points, almost ten times the amount needed for Level 2, comparable to the amount needed for upgrading Symbiotic with an Alien Species.
"Abilities related to space are indeed not simple and cannot be understood with common sense."
Qi Xinghuo did not think further and lay down on the bed to rest.
When night fell, he met up with Jing Ji and Yuan Chongzhen at the bar, had dinner together, and set off again.
In the following days, as Qi Xinghuo had predicted, the North Fallen Master Race sent out multiple Legend-level experts to search along the defense line day and night, focusing on protecting the patrol teams. Sometimes, the Legend-level experts disguised themselves as Tier 3 Great Kun humans and hid among the patrol teams.
However, Qi Xinghuo detected them all.
As previously discussed, the squad directly avoided this area and traveled over a hundred kilometers each day to expand their hunting grounds.
While this reduced their hunting efficiency, it was much safer.
Every day, the trio of Jing Ji, Qi Xinghuo, and Yuan Chongzhen would leave the city at dusk and not return to Midway Fortress until noon the next day, consistently earning bounties of over 10 million.
Their points also increased at a rate of over 100 points per day.
However, what surprised them was that the gap between Jing Ji's and Alex's points did not widen as expected, and the margin, though slowly increasing, was not as overwhelmingly advantageous as they had imagined.
Alex's team was somehow managing to keep up, and for several consecutive days, the maximum gap did not exceed 200 points.
On the tenth day.
After returning from their hunt, when the trio entered the bounty office, they noticed a strange atmosphere, and upon looking up, they were all astonished.
Their points had been surpassed! On the leaderboard, Alex was now in first place, with his teammates in second and third, all three of them with 1,172 points.
In just one night, Alex's points had increased by almost 300!
"What happened?"
Jing Ji was perplexed and asked a nearby bounty hunter.
"The Red Devil Trio destroyed a North Fallen Master Race watchtower last night, eliminating over 700 enemies." The bounty hunter replied: "They returned the spoils of war this morning, and it took 20 minutes to tally everything. The bounty alone was over 30 million!"
The trio of Jing Ji exchanged glances, shocked by the ruthlessness of Alex's team.
The watchtowers of the North Fallen Master Race were not as weak as the hidden outposts, and those built at critical locations had defensive structures and a large number of troops, making it impossible to quickly eliminate them. If there was any delay, reinforcements, including Legend-level experts, would arrive.
It was unclear how Alex's team had managed to pull it off, but the destruction of the watchtower was undoubtedly true, as a simple check would reveal the truth.
Could it be that a Legend-level expert was secretly helping them cheat?
(End of Chapter)
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