When Qin Shilei returned to Luyang Bridge, An Qian and the other girl were locked in combat with a Tyrant.
Blazing Slash!
An Qian, with an Oak Shield floating before her, forced the Tyrant back with a single move.
Thousand Vines!
Instantly, ten thick vines shot out from Zhang Xiaoli's hands.
They swiftly wrapped around the Tyrant's limbs.
"Roar!"
The Tyrant roared and transformed into a gigantic form, over four meters tall.
As the Tyrant's body grew, six or seven of the vines ensnaring it snapped.
Just as it prepared to break free of the remaining vines and discard them, An Qian's ultimate attack struck.
White Rainbow Piercing the Sun!
Clad in fiery red armor, An Qian, like a burning phoenix, descended with astonishing momentum, slashing towards the Tyrant's neck.
With its limbs still bound by vines, the Tyrant could only bend over, attempting to evade the beheading strike.
However, An Qian, as if foreseeing its movement, pressed down with her Azure Moon sword, brutally cleaving the Tyrant's neck.
White Rainbow Piercing the Sun ignored fifty percent of the enemy's defense, coupled with the double attack effect from her critical hit attribute.
An Qian's strike severed the Tyrant's head. Its headless body crashed to the ground with a thud.
Seeing the Tyrant, a powerful foe, instantly defeated, An Qian blinked in surprise.
A nearby Licker seized the opportunity, extending its long tongue and launching a swift attack.
"Bang!"
The Oak Shield automatically rotated to the left, effortlessly blocking the Licker's tongue.
Just then, a silver dragon flew out from behind, instantly blasting the Licker into fragments.
"Brother Qin, you're back," Zhang Xiaoli rushed forward.
"Mm," Qin Shilei turned and chided, "An Qian, how can you be distracted during combat? If not for the Oak Shield, you might have been injured."
An Qian stuck out her tongue, saying sheepishly, "I didn't expect I'd become so strong, so I was stunned."
Qin Shilei was also astonished by the strength of the two girls.
Before they had fixed attributes, while An Qian and Zhang Xiaoli could defeat a Tyrant, they would likely have been injured.
Surprisingly, after fixing just two attributes each, the girls could now defeat a Tyrant with such ease.
Their current strength had at least doubled.
Qin Shilei briefly recounted the military's request for his assistance.
Upon hearing this, An Qian and Zhang Xiaoli vehemently urged Qin Shilei not to accept the military's offer.
Although they knew Qin Shilei was powerful, facing and killing a zombie king amidst thousands of mutated zombies was a dangerous undertaking, and a single mistake could mean never returning.
Zhang Xiaoli spoke up, "Brother Qin, you should go back and rest. We'll be fine here, An Qian and I."
Qin Shilei pondered for a moment and said, "I'll have Xiao Qiang stay here with you. If the situation becomes dire, let it carry you to escape."
An Qian frowned and asked, "What about Xiao Qiang's egg? If Xiao Qiang isn't there to incubate it, won't it spoil?"
At that moment, Xiao Qiang flew down from the sky. "No, my egg baby absorbed enough energy and nutrients in my belly. It will hatch soon, and my incubation won't be significantly delayed."
He paused, then exclaimed with delight, "I sense it! My little darling has hatched. I'll go back and bring it over now."
Xiao Qiang quickly flew back to Villa Number Five and brought back two small goshawk chicks, about the size of adult roosters.
An Qian and Zhang Xiaoli immediately each held one of the chicks, playing with them.
An Qian's chick affectionately pecked gently at her palm.
Zhang Xiaoli's chick, however, was not swayed by cuteness and instead fiercely pecked at Zhang Xiaoli's forearm with its tiny beak.
Qin Shilei watched this scene and suddenly remembered he had two Contract Scrolls.
A couple of days ago, after some thought, he had decided to fix the attribute of Copy onto the Contract Scrolls, thus giving him two of them.
Qin Shilei patted Xiao Qiang's head and asked, "You don't mind me finding two masters for your little ones, do you?"
Xiao Qiang turned to look at An Qian and Zhang Xiaoli. "If it's them, then it's fine. Otherwise, when they grow older, I'll let them leave to live independently."
Qin Shilei then took out two Contract Scrolls from his Qiankun Ring and handed them to An Qian and Zhang Xiaoli respectively.
"You're really letting us contract the little ones?"
An Qian and Zhang Xiaoli asked in unison, full of surprise.
After receiving Qin Shilei's confirmation again, the two girls tore open the Contract Scrolls and successfully completed the contracts.
An Qian took out some crocodile meat and fed it to a young eagle. "From now on, your name will be Xiao Qing."
Zhang Xiaoli also gave her pet a name. "From now on, your name will be Xiao Fei."
After eating the energy-rich crocodile meat and two core crystals, the sparse downy feathers on Xiao Qing and Xiao Fei's bodies became denser.
Though fluffy, they were much cuter than before.
Zhang Xiaoli continued to feed crocodile meat to Xiao Fei. "Eat up, I hope you grow quickly and take me flying in the sky."
Xiao Fei gurgled and quickly swallowed the crocodile meat.
Qin Shilei looked at Xiao Fei's bulging stomach and said worriedly, "If you keep feeding it, be careful you don't overfeed it to death."
"Er!" Xiao Fei cooperated with a loud burp.
"Did it really get too full?" Zhang Xiaoli asked Xiao Qiang with some concern.
"It'll grow by getting full," Xiao Qiang said irresponsibly.
What an inexperienced bird mother.
Zhang Xiaoli had no choice but to recall Xiao Fei into her pet space.
Rumble!
Suddenly, several muffled peals of thunder echoed from the sky.
An Qian looked up at the sky. "Is it going to rain?"
The sky had been clear moments ago, but suddenly clouds churned, and the sky grew dark.
The thick, dark cloud layer seemed about to press down.
Gales raged, and lightning flashed!
"Qin Shilei, quick, look! What is that?"
An Qian pointed to the west with a look of astonishment.
At the far end of Nanzhuang City, a pillar of light reaching into the heavens stood tall.
As Qin Shilei looked up, the light pillar was slowly shrinking.
Could it be a treasure appearing?
Or a secret realm manifesting?
Qin Shilei's eyes lit up, his heart instantly ablaze with excitement.
"You two be careful. I'm going to see what's happening."
"You be careful too."
An Qian and Zhang Xiaoli admonished him in unison.
Qin Shilei waved his hand and leaped onto Xiao Qiang's back.
Just then, raindrops the size of beans began to fall.
Under the oppressive dark clouds, the earth was shrouded in gloom, and with the rain obscuring vision, visibility was greatly reduced.
Qin Shilei could only guide Xiao Qiang westward based on his memory of the light pillar's appearance.
Half an hour later.
The man and the eagle had arrived at the westernmost edge of Nanzhuang City. The pillar of light reaching the heavens had shrunk to the thickness of a barrel.
Rumble!
A bolt of lightning struck, illuminating the heavens and earth.
By the flash of lightning, Qin Shilei saw that the source of the light pillar was in a small valley.
At that moment, the light pillar suddenly accelerated its shrinking and then vanished completely.
"Xiao Qiang, fly over there quickly."
Qin Shilei pointed to where the light pillar had last disappeared and gave his instructions.
As they got closer to that spot, Qin Shilei felt the spiritual energy outside his body becoming more active.
When he reached the small valley, he immediately saw a dark cave entrance in a patch of grass.
The cave was about three meters wide. Qin Shilei peered down; the cave extended downwards at a seventy to eighty-degree angle to an unknown depth.
Just as he was about to throw a stone in to test it, two blue gems floated up from the depths of the cave.
As the two blue gems floated closer, Qin Shilei finally saw what was rising.
What blue gems? They were clearly two eyeballs.
It was an insect!
A giant beetle, resembling a praying mantis, nearly two meters long, with a pair of sharp forelimbs like scythes.
As soon as the scythe beetle crawled out of the cave, it immediately swung its scythe-like forelimbs and charged towards Qin Shilei.