Chapter 369: Chapter 369: Strange Feelings
Zhi Ruo handed the golden longsword and the scroll to Yang Xiao.
"Mr. Yang, see if these are of any use."
Zhi Ruo and the others were not much interested in the skill cultivation methods and techniques burst out by the monsters.
Yang Xiao first looked at the golden scroll, which was labeled "Golden Bee Sword Skill 2", and he immediately wondered.
He had once, at the beginning of the apocalypse, killed a Bee Queen near Kongming Academy and obtained the initial Golden Bee Sword Skill, which he later cultivated to level 9; recently, he hasn’t been using it much.
Now, the Bee Queen had dropped a "Golden Bee Sword Skill 2." What did this "2" mean?
Zhi Ruo smiled and said:
"This sword and scroll, I’ll gift to Mr. Yang. I see that you cultivate soul skills and skills burst out from monsters, this should suit you."
"Alright, then I won’t be polite."
Yang Xiao wasn’t shy either, as he had always liked the Golden Bee Sword Skill, and the longsword hadn’t been identified yet; it only had the words "Golden Bee Sword" on it, and he would need to wait until he returned to the Genetic Store to identify it before using.
Yang Xiao placed the sword and scroll into his space ring, saying:
"Miss Zhi Ruo, why don’t you cultivate such skill cultivation methods? Do you know that even the initial Golden Bee Sword Skill can increase the base damage by tenfold when fully cultivated?"
Zhi Ruo smiled and replied:
"My understanding is different from yours. These skills Cultivated from monster bursts are indeed powerful, just like grenades in the past, exploding with great destructive power.
However, how many targets will stand still waiting to be blasted? For example, the Golden Bee Sword Skill, I studied it initially too, it’s a burst skill with no subsequent attacks, one hit wins it all, but if it fails, you have to start over,
whereas our Emei Sect’s swordsmanship is different, if one move fails, there is a second, a third waiting for you, the target moves and we move along, and even if the target doesn’t move, we have already sealed their space to move,
combined with the power provided by genetic evolution, strength and technique together can exert greater combat power."
Yang Xiao nodded; these few days he had witnessed ancient martial arts from Monk Ben Yin, Lan Xin, and Zhi Ruo, and found them indeed very powerful.
This small-scale battle had burst nearly 50 genetic balls, and Zhi Ruo offered Yang Xiao 5 genetic balls, but he refused.
"I’ve already taken the Golden Bee Sword and the skill scroll, as well as the body of the killer bee; these genetic balls belong to you."
Zhi Ruo didn’t insist, and everyone cleaned up and continued on their way.
Within the canyon, there was a small path trampled by animals usually, with the small grass on the path bending to both sides.
As they continued along the path, various mutant monsters kept running out from inside the canyon.
A group of watermelon-sized fire ants exhilarated Zhi Ruo and the others, and Yang Xiao simply dismounted from his Flame Horse, holding the Longquan Spear, joining everyone in stabbing the ants on the ground.
Every ant killed would burst out at least 3 genetic balls.
The Emei swordsmanship of Zhi Ruo and the others fully demonstrated strong combat power; seven girls, multiple sword qi striking, slashing, stabbing, lifting, spinning, sweeping...
Each sweep of sword qi, those watermelon-sized ants would either die or be injured.
Half an hour later, the group had killed more than a hundred ants, while the remaining ants scattered and fled into the dense grass and nearby bushes, disappearing from sight.
Facing several hundred genetic balls on the ground, the girls shouted excitedly.
Of course, everyone had paid a price, almost everyone was bitten by the ants, and swelling appeared on the wounds immediately; if the detoxification pills weren’t taken promptly, the wounds would fester, and their bodies would itch unbearably.
Yang Xiao’s hands and ankles were bitten twice, extremely itchy, but it felt a bit better after eating the detoxification pill.
"The species in this place are a bit strange; small in size but with a high level of genetic evolution."
"Yes, I also find it strange, and their combat power seems to be lower than some of the larger-bodied monsters outside."
"Do you want these ants’ bodies?"
Zhi Ruo asked.
"Yes, even small ants are still meat!"
"Giggle..."
Upon hearing this, Zhi Ruo and the others laughed heartily, and a few girls immediately picked up hundreds of ant corpses nearby and piled them together.
Yang Xiao opened his Space Ring and put them all into the Black Bottle.
Zhi Ruo looked on and felt a sudden urge to say something, but ultimately she remained silent.
She knew that everyone had their secrets, and if Yang Xiao didn’t want to talk about his, it was best not to ask. Being a clever and understanding girl in front of men could sometimes be very important to avoid causing displeasure.
Everyone continued heading towards the depths of the canyon, encountering enormous rats, porcupines, squirrels, packs of wolves, and more along the way.
It was only while dealing with the pack of wolves that Yang Xiao used the Sweeping Void, killing the Wolf King and nearly twenty ferocious mutant wolves with a single strike. The Wolf King was already at the Enhanced Gene Advanced Realm.
In Yang Xiao’s black bottle, hundreds of various mutant monsters were steadily collected, with a small portion being Enhanced Gene Advanced, while the rest were Enhanced Gene Intermediate.
Meanwhile, Zhi Ruo and the others gathered thousands of Genetic Balls, resulting in an incredibly substantial haul that excited everyone tremendously.
"Sister Zhi Ruo, if we wipe out all the monsters in this canyon, we can all evolve to Enhanced Gene."
"Yeah, we’ve struck it rich."
...
At this moment, Yang Xiao and the others had ventured about a kilometer deep into the canyon. They were not deliberately searching for monsters, but they naturally encountered many mutant monsters along the way.
Yang Xiao looked up and saw that the end of the canyon was still not in sight, but the deeper they went, the higher the levels of the encountered monsters became. They had just encountered that group of mutant wolves here.
Yang Xiao felt a vague sense of unease in his heart. He had trained in the desert for several months, and this was the first time he had felt this way.
"Let’s stop for a moment."
Yang Xiao spoke while mounted on the back of the Flame Horse.
The others looked towards Yang Xiao.
"Young Master Yang, what’s wrong?"
"I have a bad feeling. This canyon seems ominous, and I suggest we shouldn’t venture any deeper to avoid any accidents."
"Oh?"
Everyone looked at Yang Xiao, caught up in their excitement.
They all dreamt of quickly breaking through to the Enhanced Gene Primary Level, which would increase their combat power manifold, and each level of Genetic Evolution would allow them to perform higher difficulty Ancient Martial Arts skills from the Emei Sect.
For instance, their current Qinggong was Skimming Water, which wasn’t the highest realm of Emei Sect’s Qinggong; there were still two realms beyond it, Stepping Water Without Waves and Wind Riding.
These two realms required higher levels of Genetic Evolution Realm to be achieved.
Normally, hunting in the desert for a day would yield just a dozen or so monsters and approximately a hundred Genetic Balls, but today alone they had gathered over a thousand Genetic Balls in half a day, making it hard to give up now.
Still relatively calm, Zhi Ruo spoke up:
"Young Master Yang, did you specifically sense something?"
Yang Xiao shook his head and said:
"It’s just an intuition."
Seeing the reluctance on the faces of Zhi Ruo and the others, Yang Xiao added:
"I might not be right, it’s just a feeling. This canyon is a bit eerie, and the deeper we go, the higher the level of the encountered monsters. I’m worried that if we go further, we might get trapped and unable to leave."