At the same time.
Fang Ping lifted his gaze, eyes searching the area, and mumbled, “Where are they?
“Did they all run that quickly?
“Big Lion really wanted me to go with the Rank-2 team?
“What does this mean? Not letting me follow them on purpose?”
Fang Ping muttered darkly to himself for a while. He took a gander at his surroundings. All around him, apart from the grass, there was only more grass.
Nobody felt the need to burn it, and nobody would be so wasteful as to consume energy from an energy ore to incinerate this wild grass.
Above his head, the vast energy sun hung high above.
Looking back, Fang Ping muttered, “Should I go back now?”
He had left so majestically earlier. If he went back now, nobody would believe that he could not find Big Lion. They would only think he was clinging to life and afraid of death.
‘Am I so shameless?’
Fang Ping cursed in his heart. ‘I need to save some dignity too. How can I go back now?’
“Big Lion said he’ll go to a limit of 30 kilometers’ radius. I walked quite a few kilometers just now, didn’t I? Plus the previous safe zone 10 kilometers away...”
Fang Ping calculated for a while. If he walked another ten or so kilometers, he would probably reach the outside of the radius’ limit.
Big Lion and the others should all be there, right?
Looking in front of him, Fang Ping did not hesitate any longer and resumed hurrying along.
...
At this time, at a place several thousands of meters away from Fang Ping.
“He’s not following?”
Tang Feng’s eyebrows scrunched together slightly. He huffed inwardly. Since he was willing to remain in a Rank-2 team, then let him stay there!
“Hurry up so we can reach the destination before night comes. After that, we won’t be going back to the city. We’ll sleep in the open!”
“Yes!”
The students all fervently moved quicker. Zhang Ziwei scoffed as she paced along. “He really didn’t come. That bastard really is clinging to life and afraid of death!”
Yu Xianghua wrinkled his brows lightly and said, “Don’t say that. Maybe he has his own way of thinking...”
“Whatever...” Zhang Ziwei quickened her pace, saying casually. “Like this, he won’t ever become a true powerhouse!”
She had thought Fang Ping was Xie Lei’s rival, but now, they were only going a further distance of 30 kilometers, yet Fang Ping had been so opposed. Even after Tang Feng had said so much, he still chose to remain in the team of Rank-2 martial artists. This made Zhang Ziwei feel that she had really overestimated Fang Ping.
The others did not object. Fang Ping not coming was indeed out of everyone’s expectations despite Tang Feng saying that he could stay with the Rank-2 team.
Still, everybody could tell that it was a purposeful provocation. The fact that Fang Ping actually stayed back was unexpected.
...
As he hurried along full-force, Fang Ping’s speed was extremely fast. Even without using Vitality, his physicality had been altered in Upper-stage Rank-3 and was much stronger than average martial artists.
Casually hacking off the wild grass in front of him, Fang Ping looked all around, saying angrily, “Asshole, what does this mean!”
He had already been extremely quick, yet he still could not catch up to the team. He had nearly reached 30 kilometers now, had he not?
In front of him, Fang Ping already noticed some remnants of battle.
The weeds were a mess, and there were even some faint traces of blood in the soil.
“This is The Grinder?”
Fang Ping mumbled. During lessons, his teacher had introduced that the area 30 kilometers from the city was called The Grinder.
Here, human martial artists and Sky Gate City martial artists often battled, both sides killing endlessly.
In so many years, the number of martial artists from both parties who had died on this land had reached over ten thousand ages ago.
Tens of thousands of martial artists, not regular people. An army consisting of tens of thousands of martial artists, along with high-ranked powerhouses, was enough to overpower an army of a million normal people.
“I’ve reached The Grinder, yet I haven’t seen them... Could it be... That my direction was a little off?”
Fang Ping talked to himself uncertainly. After all, there were no clear roads straight through. There was only a small trodden path in the wilderness. Martial artists very rarely walked on set roads.
The path that Fang Ping had walked earlier had not been used many times. It was because he had seen Tang Feng and the others also walking down this path that he followed this unclear path and hurried here.
“Could they have changed paths?”
Fang Ping was not very sure. “Then what should I do now?”
Fang Ping’s head hurt a little. The place was deserted. Tang Feng’s group was not a large one either. If they really had changed paths, where would he go to find them?
He had said it was The Grinder 30 kilometers away, but this was just a straight-line distance, and The Grinder was just the name of a collective place. The transverse radius of the area was extremely wide. A span of hundreds of miles was within The Grinder’s boundaries.
In the Catacombs, the area was large and the people were sparse. Not seeing anyone for tens of kilometers was too normal an occurrence.
“Or should I... Go back to Hope City first?”
Fang Ping weighed this in his heart. “Or should I kill a few Catacomb martial artists before I go back? To prevent those bastards from thinking I slunk off?”
He had already reached The Grinder. If he just went back like this, empty-handed, he would not be able to justify it.
The Grinder here was the activity grounds of middle- and low-ranked martial artists. There were few who were Rank-5 and -6.
“As long as I don’t encounter Peak Rank-6s like Big Lion... I might not necessarily be unable to run away...
“That’s fine. I’ll kill a few Peak Rank-3s before going back and let those assholes know that I’ve killed more Peak Rank-3s than they’ve ever seen!”
...
After entering The Grinder’s boundaries, there was much less plantation here. Years of battles between martial artists had caused The Grinder here to become barren and bald patches were often seen.
Fang Ping lightened his steps and gathered his Mentality, aware of the environment surrounding him.
Prior to this, he had been in a big group with two middle-ranked instructors following and close to a hundred students. It was fine to be a little more careless then.
It was just him now. The level of danger had greatly increased.
“Who’s there?”
Fang Ping suddenly called softly, raising his blade, ready to move.
After a few moments of silence, Fang Ping eventually put down his saber. He did not lure anyone out, so there should be nobody there.
“Can Catacombs martial artists understand what I’m saying?
“They probably can. It’s just one word...”
The surroundings were too quiet. It made Fang Ping a little uneasy. He could only comfort himself with a few sentences, calming his nerves.
Cautiously looking around for more than ten minutes, Fang Ping did not see a single shadow and was instantly full of woe.
“Should I go back first?”
Fang Ping looked at his surroundings and had the impulse to return.
Being alone in the wild, where danger could lurk in any corner, made his nerves bunch together and was very uncomfortable.
Just as this thought rose in Fang Ping’s head, when he slightly relaxed his guard, a flash of light appeared from the grass to his left!
In the next moment, Fang Ping’s hairs stood on their ends and he hastily moved back!
Pfft!
A soft sound of skin splitting was heard. Fang Ping’s pupils contracted and he quickened his pace, moving back lightning-fast!
The attacker in the grass quickly chased after too, but his speed was no match for Fang Ping’s. Seeing Fang Ping exit his attacking range, a flash of hesitation appeared in the eyes of the long-haired man who stepped out from the grass before he quickly dove back into it, disappearing in a moment.
Fang Ping felt some lingering fear. He touched his throat. His hand came back a little wet. He was bleeding.
The opponent’s sudden attack had nearly pierced through his throat in one move.
The throat was the biggest weakness of martial artists of the lower three ranks.
Cold sweat dripped from Fang Ping’s head. Then, he became outraged. The opponent probably had not reached Upper-stage Rank-3, yet he nearly killed him with one blow!
“Trying to run!”
Rage grew in Fang Ping’s heart and in the next moment, he speedily gave chase into the grass.
Just as he entered the grass, the sword flashed once again!
The opponent had not run—he was waiting for Fang Ping!
This time, however, Fang Ping was not panicking. He tilted his head slightly, dodging the tip of the opponent’s sword in a split-second. In the next moment, Fang Ping did not seek where the person was exactly and let his glaive fall lightning-fast in the direction his Mentality sensed Vitality!
Pfft!
A muffled noise sounded. The glaive met flesh, and the wild grass in front of Fang Ping was sliced cleanly. The edge of the blade also cleaved the person behind the grass into two.
“Motherf*cker, did you really think I couldn’t sense you?”
Fang Ping cursed. Previously, he was not prepared, plus the fact that the opponent had hidden his Vitality, so his ambush was successful.
However, ever since his Mentality broke through the big checkpoint of 500Hz, despite it not being able to officially extend it to oppress his enemies, he could spread it a little. His Mentality’s sensitivity to energy particles was very strong, and the power of Vitality was actually a manifestation of energy particles.
The other party was so close to Fang Ping that no matter how well he hid his Vitality, it was still as bright as a firefly in the night sky in Fang Ping’s eyes.
After slashing the opponent dead in one blow, Fang Ping cut off all the wild grass near him and added a new bald patch in The Grinder.
Having given himself space to dodge, only then did Fang Ping step forward to investigate the person he had just killed.
...
The man’s shoulder-length hair, which was probably tied up before this, was currently all over the place. Martial artists Upper-stage Rank-3 and below would find it hard to oppose the outburst from Fang Ping’s blade. The opponent’s brain had already been cut into two earlier.
“Black hair...”
Fang Ping squatted and observed. “Pretty similar to humans... No, pretty similar to Asian people.”
The corpse lying on the ground had black hair, yellow skin, and was somewhere between 25 to 30 years old.
“For someone with the strength of an Early-stage Rank-3... He has guts, trying a sneak attack of an Upper-stage Rank-3...”
Of course, the opponent might not have discerned Fang Ping’s strength. Fang Ping looked very young and was not as seasoned as the martial artists who often entered the Catacombs. He looked inexperienced, which was the main reason the other party attacked him in the first place.
Fang Ping rummaged through the opponent’s body and found a small cloth pouch. He tossed the pouch to one side, not anxious to look through it.
The pouch and the longsword in his opponent’s hand were his spoils this time.
Fang Ping also examined his opponent’s clothes and boots. His clothes looked like they were made of normal clothing material, but his boots were leather. Fang Ping could not tell what creature’s skin it was made out of.
He reached a hand out and tugged it roughly; the leather boots began to tear.
“It’s not made out of a middle- or high-ranked creature’s skin. A pity.”
Fang Ping shook his head lightly and tossed the boots aside. He thought it over, then picked up the torn clothing and examined it again. Very quickly, Fang Ping found a badge the size of a coin where the chest was.
“A Rank-3 medal.”
Fang Ping stared at the gold medal in front of him. The front of the medal had three longswords printed on it. One of the longswords there was better described as a dagger. This implied the opponent was an Early-stage Rank-3 swordsman.
On the back, there was the pin as well as a print of a plant that was not quite discernible.
Still, Fang Ping knew this was the “Sky Gate Tree”.
Sky Gate Tree was Sky Gate City’s emblem. The old professor had mentioned in class that there was a giant tree a hundred meters tall in Sky Gate City that the humans called “Sky Gate Tree”.
A martial artist’s medal was also a symbol of a Catacombs martial artist. Most of their martial artists would wear this type of medal of their rank.
“Sky Gate City’s martial artists... Someone with an Early-stage Rank-3’s strength is probably just a casual martial artist.”
Fang Ping made this deduction. Distinguishing between casual martial artists or Sky Gate City’s martial artists was also very simple.
The martial artists in the military pretty much all used weapons of the same model. The military martial artists’ longswords that Fang Ping had previously researched were of a different model than this person’s.
Moreover, of military martial artists, the powerhouses hunted alone. The weak all formed formations. Early-stage Rank-3 could only be said to have average strength. It would be very rare for one of them to appear alone if they were military martial artists.
“An Early-stage Rank-3 casual martial artist nearly killed me...”
Fang Ping’s eyes flashed. The opponent’s strength was far inferior to his. The gap between them was extremely big.
He had been careful enough too, but he was not alert enough and had nearly been killed by someone.
He rubbed his throat. The wound had already stopped bleeding and was healing quickly, but Fang Ping still felt some lingering fear.
“I have to be careful, more careful, even more careful!”
Three consecutive “careful”s made Fang Ping become more alert. He started condensing his Mentality to a thread and diffused it all throughout his body.
Picking up the opponent’s longsword, Fang Ping knocked on it, then pinched it strongly. “The level of E-grade alloy. He’s a poor beggar!”
The weapons used by Catacombs martial artists were not the types of alloy used by humans, but to determine the strength of the weapon, humans liked to use their own measurements to calculate it.
When the Military Department and martial arts universities recycled Catacombs weapons, they still only recycled it based on two-thirds of the alloy grade’s price.
In reality, a lot of these Catacomb martial artists’ weapons were made of crude ore. The government would repurchase these and add in other metals. One Catacomb weapon could perhaps create three alloy weapons of similar strength in the end.
This was also one of the vital sources of alloy creation for weapons manufacturing companies.
He weighed the longsword. It was not too heavy—five or six catty at most. Selling it to the Military Department or other departments for 500 or 600 thousand was already an inflated price.
For killing a Rank-3 martial artist, if this was the only reward, it could not have been smaller.
Killing martial artists in the Catacombs did not have any external awards. It was all in the spoils.
Of course, this was not absolute either. Sometimes, the Military Department would issue some missions, such as killing a specified number of low-ranked martial artists or middle-ranked martial artists, and would give a set external reward, mainly to encourage everyone to kill more Catacombs martial artists.
Fang Ping once again opened the small cloth pouch. There were very few things inside.
There were some rations that resembled steamed bread, an energy ore with a rough surface, and a piece... No, a grain of cultivation-aiding energy ore that was just a little bigger than a grain of rice.
“A cultivation-aiding energy ore. Is it to replenish Vitality?”
Fang Ping examined it. It weighed 1 gram at most.
The basic energy ore he found was around ten grams.
“A cultivation-aiding energy ore that weighs 1 gram is worth 30 credits, which is 900 thousand. It’s not particularly cheap. I don’t know how high the purity of the 10 grams of basic energy ore is. I’m afraid it might be the lowest, which would add another 10 credits or 300 thousand.”
Calculating this, killing this Early-stage Rank-3 martial artists this time gave him less than 2 million in reward.
Fang Ping was an Upper-stage Rank-3 martial artist, which was why he could kill him so easily. It was not necessarily the same for other Rank-3 martial artists.
For a Rank-3 martial artist to kill an opponent with his life at risk and receive less than 2 million in reward, it was not a good deal at all.
“The person’s dead, and I’ve seized his things. Why haven’t my Wealth points increased?”
Fang Ping looked at his Wealth points and furrowed his eyebrows slightly.
Before he entered the Catacombs, his Wealth points had reached more than 80 million. In the time since, he had used some up and currently had 79 million.
However, after he got the loot, his Wealth points did not increase, which was not the same as before.
Previously, when he did missions, unless the awards were only calculated after credits were collected, when the other spoils such as medicinal pills and weapons were given to Fang Ping, it added to his Wealth tally.
Now, the opponent was dead, but why was his stuff not counted?
“They haven’t been counted into my Wealth points, which means these things... aren’t mine yet...”
Realizing this, Fang Ping’s eyes narrowed, and in the next moment, Fang Ping leaped into the air, fleeing back as fast as lightning!
Just as Fang Ping jumped up and ran, the sound of air being split came from the place Fang Ping had stopped earlier!
“Kagu...”
From the grass, an enraged low roar sounded. Fang Ping did not know if the other party was calling the person who had died or was cursing him to die or something similar. He had not learned this and nobody taught it either. Of course, this was not important at the moment.
When he associated this with the system’s insistence that these items were still not his, Fang Ping knew that there was still danger!
The system was a little rigid. The things had to be ascertained to be yours. Only then would they be considered your Wealth points.
If it was uncertain, then the Wealth points would not increase.
Just as it was back then when he captured Huang Bin. Those items had not necessarily been considered his, so it had not increased any Wealth points.
Only when Wang Jinyang had finished splitting it with him did his Wealth points grow.
At this moment, Fang Ping realized that there was still another Catacombs martial artist in the vicinity, whose strength was not weak. If they were small fry, judging by the system’s pickiness, he might have already been awarded the points.
“The system can be used as an early warning system...”
While Fang Ping escaped, this thought floated into his mind.
This use had felt very suffocating previously, but now that he thought about it, it did not seem bad.
As for the person tailing him closely from behind, Fang Ping’s Vitality sensed he was much stronger than himself. He was probably a Rank-4 martial artist.
Fang Ping’s Vitality had already reached 999cal. Rank-3 martial artists, even if they were Peak martial artists, would find it very hard to break through this limit. For the opponent’s Vitality to be higher than his, there was a 90% chance he was Rank-4 or perhaps even higher.
Of course, the probability of him being Rank-4 was higher. A Rank-5 or-6, or someone like Tang Feng, could have caught up to him in a blink of an eye.
As Fang Ping fled, he turned his head to look.
About ten meters behind him, a male Catacombs martial artist wearing leather and wielding a changdao was staring dead-straight at Fang Ping, a cold fury on his face.
The opponent relentlessly chased after him, not even bothering with the corpse of the dead martial artist.
“This rotten luck of mine...”
Fang Ping had not dueled a middle-ranked martial artist before and did not dare to rashly enter a duel with the opponent now, so he could only run.
In The Grinder, although there were often middle-ranked martial artists fighting, they were not as common as Chinese cabbages. In such a big place, they were still rare encounters, whereas there were plenty of martial artists of the lower three ranks.
Fang Ping had not thought he would encounter a middle-ranked martial artist when he just arrived here either. This was too unlucky.
‘Big Lion, that bastard, still wanting me to do missions solo. I could meet a middle-rank at any time. This is too motherf*cking dangerous!’
Fang Ping cursed internally. During lessons, his teacher had also said that middle-ranked martial artists were the backbones of the Catacombs and humankind. They weren’t seen often and the ones met in the wild were mostly lower-ranked ones.
Now, however?
Earlier at the army’s side, a bunch of middle-ranked ones had appeared, and now just a random walk had him encountering one too. Sightings were supposed to be uncommon?
They were all over the place, for goodness’ sake!
“How did those Early-stage Rank-3 martial artists in the past survive?”
Fang Ping was very dispirited. It was so dangerous. Would Early-stage Rank-3 martial artists not die the moment they came in?
...
While Fang Ping was being chased; more than ten kilometers to the left of him.
Tang Feng frowned and said in a low voice, “Is Sky Gate City planning to make a big move? There are more middle-ranked martial artists than before.”
After he said this, Tang Feng said, “If you meet a middle-ranked martial artist, don’t be too frantic. Among our martial artists, we have middle-ranked ones hunting too who you can turn back to and seek help from. The chances of meeting our middle-ranked martial artists are very big, so the other party won’t dare to keep chasing after you either.
“Remember. If you meet a hostile middle-ranked martial artist, don’t ever run deeper in because when a middle-rank from the other party appears, that implies the probability of one of our middle-ranked martial artists appearing before you isn’t high. Furthermore, the deeper you go, the more there are Sky Gate City’s powerhouses. Don’t ever flee wildly.”
Everybody fervently nodded. Everyone understood this reasoning.
Not to mention that the further forward they headed, the closer they would be to Sky Gate City. If they were running, they naturally had to turn back. This was something they could understand without being ordered.