Free-For-All Rumble (2)

Chapter 51 – Free-For-All Rumble (2)

Wei Yuan got into the monster realm along with other candidates. When she came back to her senses, she checked her clothes right away.

The prepared food packs and hidden knives were not teleported along with her. Wei Yuan was sent here with only her current clothes and her leather armor.

'As expected. One can't simply bypass those arrays without thorough preparation. Xu Miao must have known something about the array weakness and tampered it without getting detected. Or, the elders knew, but they allowed him to do so since it was a part of the test?'

Wei Yuan wasn't the type who dwelled in past mistakes. She always learned from them and moved on.

On this occasion, Wei Yuan didn't mind if she lost the prepared items. She could always hunt monster beasts for food.

However, the problem here was water and fellow examinees. As long as Wei Yuan couldn't secure a water source, she wouldn't be able to get a high score in this round since it affected her performance.

Cultivators could live without water for 3 days, but that didn't mean it wouldn't affect their strength. As the 3rd stage and weaker cultivators still relied on food and water to live, they still needed to eat and drink once in a while.

Wei Yuan looked around, checking her surroundings and the safe zone.

Then, a commotion occurred.

"Hey! My items are gone!"

"Huh? Shit! My treasure sword is gone, too!"

"I-I thought I've brought food with me. Where is it!?"

"No! M-My artifact! My family's artifact!!"

Several people also lost their prepared items and weapons. They shouted, screamed, and yelled in panic.

Wei Yuan shook her head and walked away from the group. She checked the surroundings to see where she had been teleported to.

As Wei Yuan looked around, she noticed a familiar-looking guy, who was busy building his wooden shack.

It was Xu Miao!

'Oh? So, I'm in the same safe zone as him. Well, it's not like the Xu Clan and the Wei Clan are enemies. I should be fine here.'

The girl turned around and inspected the dead forest outside. She planned to climb on of them to check the geography and search for a water source.

A minute later, another commotion occurred, which attracted everybody's attention.

A scholar led a group of bodyguards to surround Xu Miao. They wanted to rob his magic sword.

Wei Yuan found their actions disgusting. Still, she found an opportunity to make Xu Miao owe her a favor.

'If I save him, he will owe me a favor. I can use him and his clan in the future, or I can reap some profits here.'

The woman waited for the opportunity. Once Xu Miao showed a sign of weaknesses, she would rush in to help him.

But she didn't get a chance to do so…

.

.

.

Xu Miao cackled as if he were Joker who had encountered Batman. He deposited the magic dadao back into his inventory to stop them from stealing it directly from his hand.

"Come! Show me what you idiots can do. I won't use my magic weapon!"

Yu Lin was surprised when the large saber disappeared into nothingness. He grumbled, guessing that Xu Miao had other treasures that could store items.

"Be careful! He should have a spatial treasure with him! Use hit-and-run tactics and try to wear him out! Force him to take out weapons, so we can snatch it from him!"

Yu Lin didn't let his guard down. He figured that Xu Miao should have more weapons in the unknown spatial treasure, and the latter could suddenly bring it out at any time.

The four bodyguards rushed at Xu Miao from all sides. They had activated their body enhancement skills beforehand, and their power was comparable to 3rd stage cultivators.

Xu Miao also activated the Demonic Body Strengthening skill in an instant.

That was not all, Xu Miao still had plenty of tricks to fight against these barehanded fighters. He kicked the ground and ran backward, trying to break away from the encirclement.

The four bodyguards punched and missed. Xu Miao slipped through their large bodies and escaped from the encirclement. He got behind one of them and placed his palm on a bodyguard's back.

One of the clone's skills had been activated.

Energy Drain +5!

…

When Xu Miao defeated a clone a hundred times, he had a choice to learn a skill of the clone, obtain its magic weapon, or upgrade a stolen skill with the same name.

Energy Drain skill belonged to a group of evil cultivators, who was lurking in the Mountain Goose City. Among Xu Miao's opponents, 6 weak cultivators worked for these evil groups. Xu Miao defeated them 100 times each. Thus, he obtained the skill and upgraded it to +5.

When a cultivator used this skill, they could steal their opponents' Qi. The effect of this skill depended on the user's mastery and cultivation strength.

However, the suffix (+5) improved the performance by 5 levels. Even if Xu Miao was a peak 1st stage cultivator, his skill would display the strength of a 2nd stage level 5 fighter. Combining with the boosted body strengthening skill and Xu Miao's fluid meridian, the skill effect increased by another notch.

The only downside of this skill was the usage condition. Xu Miao had to touch his opponent to use it.

And this skill became deadly once the safe zone disabled all ranged skills.

…

<<Ding >>

<<You 141 have stolen strands of Yang Qi.>>

<<You 146 have stolen strands of Yang Qi.>>

<<You 137 have stolen strands of Yang Qi.>>

Each second, three system messages flashed as Xu Miao stole Yang Qi from one of the bodyguards. The victim's skin paled and he suddenly lost vigor.

"E-Evil art!"

"Xu Miao is using evil art!"

The three other bodyguards were alarmed. They jumped at Xu Miao, trying to rescue their friend.

Xu Miao stopped using the skill and kicked the ground, avoiding kicks and punches from the three chasing men. He kept running away, waiting for an opportunity.

As Xu Miao kept running backward, one of the bodyguards got in front of their friends. He activated his inner Qi and threw a palm at Xu Miao's chest.

"Die! Bone Crushing Palm!"

Xu Miao cringed when he heard the chunnibyou-like name, but he didn't miss this opportunity.

The palm missed the target's chest as the latter suddenly rotated his shoulders and dodged the attack. Xu Miao planted his right foot forward and rotated his shoulders along with a left punch.

*POEK*

Xu Miao got close and hit the front bodyguard with a gut punch, but that was not the end.

Energy Drain!

<<Ding >>

<<You 149 have stolen strands of Yang Qi.>>

<<You 144 have stolen strands of Yang Qi.>>

<<You 147 have stolen strands of Yang Qi.>>

As long as Xu Miao's hands or fists touched his opponent, the latter's precious Qi would be stolen.

'I almost depleted my Qi when I fought Xu Xiuying's clone. Thank you for offering me some free gas. I'll suck you dry, and I'll beat the hell out of you later!'

Instead of being hit-and-run by the bodyguards, Xu Miao used it against them instead. He kept punching and running away while fighting four stronger opponents without letting them get too close.

Xu Miao had lost count how many times he used this tactic against the 200% clones, who excelled at short ranges. Those monsters, especially soldiers from small clans, were much faster and more creative than these four bodyguards. In the sparring matches, they often threw their secret weapons, utilized the geography, and pressured Xu Miao with various tricks.

But in this cat-and-mouse chase, the bodyguards' tactic and coordination were too simple. There was no trick other than trying to catch him.

Xu Miao took his time, sapping their energy slowly. Instead of trying to counter-punch them again, he only parried their punches and kicks. The light touches during the parries also stole these bodyguards' energy and annoyed them.

Still, Xu Miao sent a few sucker-punch and knocked them on the ground.

"Damn it! Don't run, you coward!"

"Get back here!"

The four men got punched once every 10 seconds, but they kept getting back up and chased Xu Miao. Although they lost some of their Yang Qi, they were not afraid of losing a few strands since all of them had a few thousand Qi strands in their dantians.

Little did they know that the damage added up. The more they got punched or touched, Xu Miao got stronger and had more Qi to use while these four men lost theirs.

The bodyguards couldn't even display their techniques properly since they couldn't use ranged skills in the safe zone. Their hand-to-hand skills also couldn't be used since Xu Miao kept running away.

The fight lasted 10 minutes since Xu Miao prioritized absorbing energy over killing his opponent. He kept using the hit-and-run tactic until the four men ran out of Yang Qi.

<<Ding >>

<<Your target has run out of Qi.>>

The four men couldn't upkeep their body strengthening technique. They panted and staggered, trying their best to stand on their wobbling legs.

"D-Damn coward!"

"Fight like a man, you pussy!"

Xu Miao laughed at the sight of weakened big men. He cracked his fists, "Oh? Sure! Let's have a fair close-combat fight. I won't run anymore."

Four men with no Qi were not different than common people with no cultivation strength.

Without letting the four men refute, Xu Miao leaped at them and started the killing, which he had been holding back.

Xu Miao drew the magic dadao.

*SWUA* *SWUA*

*SWUA* *SWUA*

The heads of these bodyguards flew. With the overwhelming speed of the body strengthening technique, none of them could react to a cultivator whose body had been boosted by an internal strengthening technique.

"M-M-Murderer!"

Yu Lin screamed and fell on his butt. He peed his pants and crawled away in a panic, trying to flee into the crowd of onlookers.

This person thought that he could bully the Xu Clan's young master with numbers. Unfortunately, he underestimated Xu Miao.

The spectators in the safe zone made ways for Xu Miao and Yu Lin. Since it was none of their businesses, no one tried to help either of them.

Yu Lin despaired. He looked around, pleading everyone for help.

"P-Please help! X-X-Xu Miao is going to kill me!"

Everyone looked at Yu Lin with a mocking smile. Some of them jeered and laughed.

"Who asked you to rob Xu Miao? Are you dumb?"

"Serve you right. Even if you manage to steal his weapon, you and your entire family will be hunted down by the Xu Clan!"

"Karma. You shouldn't have offended young master Xu Miao."

"Scram, little bitch. Get lost!"

This was the fate of a loser. Had Yu Lin won, they would have said something different. But when a loser had no chance to come back, everyone spat on him, looking down on the losing side.

Xu Miao strode, following Yu Lin. He stomped on the scholar's chest and seized his neck.

Energy Drain!

"N-Noooooo!!"

Xu Miao took his time. He drained Yu Lin's Qi until nothing was left in his dantian.

Then…

*PEOK*

A torture session started. Xu Miao canceled his body strengthening technique and punched the weakling to his face.

Yu Lin collapsed in one punch, but Xu Miao mounted on top of him, using his favorite ground position.

Ground-And-Pound Mount

*PEOK* *PEOK*

*PEOK* *PEOK*

Taking his time, Xu Miao savored the taste of punching a helpless scholar on the ground. He didn't say anything, just punching, left, right, left, right, until the opponent bled to death.