Chapter Thirty-Four: Breaking Through to Knight After finishing speaking,
Riding on this ring of black fuzz, Kreweir's speed surged dramatically. In just a few leaps, he vanished into the jungle, moving even faster than Lannuo.
"Seeds of Sprint Grass? So this is what Kreweir uses to save his life—but the side effects of these seeds are no small matter!"
Leilin muttered to himself, then looked over at the two girls beside him. "I know this might sound a bit awkward, but we should split up and go our separate ways!"
"Since we chose to come out on an adventure, we naturally have to be prepared for death! To be honest, the fact that you managed to keep up behind those two guys already surprised us quite a bit!"
As she spoke, Ni Lan pulled out a green potion vial and smashed it on the ground. A burst of green gale-force wind suddenly enveloped Ni Lan and Lilisite.
"See you at the Academy!" Shrouded in the green wind, the two girls vanished from Leilin's sight in an instant.
"So everyone's prepared their trump cards, huh?" Leilin smiled, shifted his feet, and disappeared into the trees.
In the blink of an eye, the five-person team had completely scattered. Each person did whatever they could to flee the scene.
Leilin pressed on without stopping, the trees on both sides continuously receding behind him.
"The Mountain Tyrant Bear's offensive power is formidable, but its speed is only average. Among the five of us, Kreweir used Sprint Grass, Lilisite and Ni Lan used acceleration potions, and I have Knight-level physical strength—none of us are slow. The slowest and most endangered is Lannuo, who fled first. If he hasn't prepared any trump cards, he'll probably die right there."
"But with Lannuo buying time, I should be able to leave the Mountain Tyrant Bear's hunting range. I'll hold off on using this potion!"
As an Apothecary, Leilin couldn't sell potions in large quantities, but he had accumulated a modest fortune. He had naturally prepared several life-saving trump cards before feeling confident enough to come out for field training.
Every footfall from Leilin was perfectly placed. Each movement seemed to harmonize with the forest itself, never obstructed by a single branch or vine. His motions flowed as smoothly as drifting clouds and running water, and his speed was actually comparable to Kreweir's—who had used Sprint Grass.
"ROAR!!!" A deafening roar erupted from up ahead.
A dark shadow suddenly materialized in front of Leilin, accompanied by a massive bear claw swiping toward him.
"Impossible! How did it get ahead of me? Couldn't even Lannuo draw its attention?"
Leilin's heart lurched in shock. His body moved on reflex, drawing his Cross Sword and slashing out.
Clang!!! A tremendous force surged through Leilin's Cross Sword. Using that force, Leilin twisted his body, escaping the bear claw's range, but his grip on the sword failed, and it flew from his hand.
Boom!!!
Without a moment's hesitation, Leilin hurled a fiery-red potion at the Mountain Tyrant Bear.
The instant the test tube shattered, a sudden burst of red flame engulfed the bear.
Leilin didn't even glance back at the scene. He turned and kept running.
"The Explosive Potion is powerful, on par with an ordinary Zero-level Spell, but against a Mountain Tyrant Bear with its thick hide and tough flesh, it's still lacking."
"ROAR!!!" The bear's furious roar sounded from behind, growing closer and closer to Leilin.
Leilin chanced a look back, and his eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. "That's not logical!"
The Mountain Tyrant Bear's head was only slightly singed, the rest of its body unharmed. The Explosive Potion had accomplished almost nothing except to enrage the bear further.
And yet its massive, bloated body seemed as light as a feather, doing nothing to slow it down as it pursued Leilin.
"Chip! Scan!"
Leilin issued the command, but after waiting, he heard no response from the Chip—only faint, garbled static.
"Chip! Chip!" Leilin called again, but to no avail.
"Damn it, what is happening?"
Leilin's expression twisted in anguish. The Chip was his greatest asset in this world. Its sudden disappearance nearly drove him mad.
Smack! The Mountain Tyrant Bear caught up again, its enormous paw swatting down as if crushing a fly.
"Shadow Hand!" Leilin rapidly chanted the incantation. A black hand emerged from the bear's shadow, gripping the paw firmly.
The bear roared continuously, but for the moment, it couldn't break free from the Shadow Hand.
Seizing the opportunity, Leilin scrambled away. "The Shadow Hand's effect only lasts a few seconds! I have to move fast!"
Leilin fled the scene in a desperate, undignified scramble.
"Damn it!" This wasn't the first time Leilin had cursed. "What the hell is going on? A mountain bear far stronger than I could ever imagine, and it's this fast too!"
The undergrowth on both sides of the dark forest kept being flattened by gusts of wind, and the occasional chirp of insects still echoed through the trees.
"I've finally gotten away for now!" Leilin ran for over ten minutes before he dared to glance back. The black jungle loomed behind him like a monstrous maw, threatening to swallow him whole.
"Caw! Caw! Caw!!!" Just as Leilin let out a breath of relief, the harsh cawing of crows pierced the air above once more.
Leilin looked up to see three red-eyed crows, each one several sizes larger than the ones before! Three of them! The moment they spotted Leilin, they dove straight toward him.
"My Cross Sword is gone, and my Spiritual Power and mana are almost completely drained. Am I going to die here today?"
A dark premonition suddenly surged from the bottom of Leilin's heart.
A black talon slashed toward him. Leilin threw himself into a roll to dodge, but even so, the bird's claws raked three bloody gashes across his back.
The searing pain made Leilin's eyes turn red. "No!!! I don't want to die!!! I haven't even become a
While he was still rolling on the ground, Leilin reached back and grabbed a hard, greenish stone.
"Haah!!!" He sprang to his feet and leaped upward, smashing the stone down with all his might onto the red-eyed crow's head!!!
Crack!!! Leilin poured every ounce of his strength into the blow. The red-eyed crow swayed unsteadily and collapsed.
"Caw! Caw!" An angry shriek rang out from the sky. The other two red-eyed crows, seeing their kindred slaughtered before their eyes, screamed and dove at him furiously.
"Come on!" Leilin lowered his body slightly, like a leopard about to pounce on its prey.
He felt every blood vessel in his body expanding, his blood surging and carrying tremendous power to every part of his body. A warm current rose from his lower abdomen, and the wounds on his back no longer seemed to hurt as much.
"Kill!" Leilin roared, hurling the stone in his hand with ferocious force. It was as if he had used up every last ounce of his strength, and the warm current inside him surged in response. The stone let out a piercing whistle as it flew, striking one of the red-eyed crows dead on.
"This is... Life Energy!" Leilin was mildly startled. He had long since reached the physical standards of a Preliminary Knight, and through continuous meditation, he was now on par with a full Knight — he simply had never managed to awaken his Life Energy. He hadn't expected to achieve the breakthrough now of all times.
At that very moment, the warm current from his lower abdomen flowed upward past his eyes. A sharp, stinging pain shot through Leilin's vision, nearly bringing tears to his eyes.
When he opened them again, his sight was blurry, as if a thick fog were blocking everything — but gradually, the pale blue characters of his Chip materialized before him.
"Ding! The host has been subjected to an unknown influence... Status abnormality detected!"
"Sub... Subject has entered a hallucinatory state!"
The Chip's light screen flickered and stuttered, as though subjected to intense interference.
"Hallucinations!" Leilin was startled. Just then, another red-eyed crow swooped down toward him, and from the woods behind came the roar of a mountain bear — a massive paw extended, its barbed claws raking toward Leilin with vicious force.
Facing this lethal attack, Leilin gritted his teeth and did the opposite — he closed his eyes.
The searing pain of claws tearing through flesh came again and again, but it wasn't as fierce as he'd expected, and his body refused to collapse.
"So it really is like this?" A smile crept onto the corner of Leilin's lips.
"Chip! Pull up my current status!"
In the darkness, the Chip's light screen that appeared before his eyes was actually clearer than before.
The rows upon rows of red abnormality alerts had been right there, conspicuous as could be — yet Leilin hadn't noticed any of them before.
"Ding! Scan complete! Subject has inhaled a potent hallucinogenic gas! Sensory perception has been compromised! Purge recommended?"
"Purge immediately!" Leilin ordered.
"Beep! Reserving energy... purging now!!!"
With the Chip's confirmation that the purge was complete, Leilin opened his eyes once more.
He was standing in the middle of a dense thicket. The mountain bear and the red-eyed crow had vanished without a trace.
The thorns in the bushes had torn numerous gashes across his body, and blood was seeping from the wounds — but his back was unharmed.
"So it really was just a hallucination. Everything I saw and heard was an illusion!"
Leilin looked around. To his left, a massive tree had been cleaved clean through at the trunk, and the ground around its base bore scorch marks from a ring of fire.
"Even though everything I saw was fake, my reactions were real — the Explosive Potion and Shadow Hand both hit a large tree. In my eyes, that tree must have been the mountain bear!"
Leilin felt a twinge of regret. The Explosive Potion was worth a considerable number of Magic Stones — he'd paid a steep price to Wus for the recipe and ingredients to brew it, and it had ended up being used on a tree.
"Still, it wasn't a complete loss." Leilin glanced at the Chip's earlier alert.
"Subject's adrenal secretion has surged, blood flow rate increased by 58%!"
"Subject has activated Life Energy, advancing to Knight!!!"
"Although everything before was an illusion, from my perspective I was in a critical moment — a burst of potential, advancing to Knight, is perfectly natural!"
"And thanks to the surge of heat from the advancement, I suddenly realized something was off — otherwise I'd probably have been toyed to death!"
Leilin shuddered at the thought. "Chip! Record my state during the Knight breakthrough!"
"Ding! Recorded. Designated as Knight Breakthrough State!"
"This state might be the key to activating Life Energy! But why does it feel like some kind of demonic cultivation technique from my previous life — walking a dangerous, unconventional path!"
Leilin felt a degree of suspicion. This method of breaking through to Knight was far too dangerous — in most cases it relied entirely on luck. If the adrenal secretion went too far, it was entirely possible to die from poisoning.