Chapter 186: Only the Crazy Survive, Li Hao, Don’t Be a Coward

Chapter 186: Only the Crazy Survive, Li Hao, Don’t Be a Coward

Just as Chen Chu went into isolation to refine his transcendent weapon, a heavy figure emanating a crazed yet kingly aura stepped onto the base plaza.

The figure stood at two meters tall, wearing a tattered dark red battle armor that was bursting at the seams from his bulging muscles. On his shoulder, he carried a four-meter long steel pillar that was thicker than his thighs.

It was none other than Li Hao, who had spent half a month in the Yunwu Mountains. He walked with heavy steps over to the large screen, entered his student ID, then placed his hand on the sensor below, infusing it with true power.

Immediately, a row of red characters appeared on the screen above.

"Li Hao, Nantian Martial Arts High School, beginning stage Fourth Heavenly Realm, breakthrough achieved on February 16th. Ranked twenty-fifth on the first-year genius list!"

"Fuck! It's Nantian again."

"How are there so many freaks in this batch of Nantian students? Three people have broken through to the Fourth Heavenly Realm and gotten on the Genius List in such a short time!"

"It’s not just the Genius List. The first two have already made it into the top one thousand of the Achievement List."

Inside the Nantian base, many second- and third-year students also looked up at the red letters on the big screen.

Some felt exhausted, seeing yet another freak who had broken through to the Fourth Heavenly Realm in just half a year.

A student at the beginning stage of the Third Heavenly Realm grumbled, "When will this end? Every day we have to watch these freshmen show off."

The person next to him nodded in agreement. "Yeah. We’re geniuses as well, but we’ve been struggling to break out of the Second and Third Realms for one or two years. Why can they break through so quickly?"

"No need to wonder. If you’d put in some actual effort and went into the mountains to hunt mutated beasts, you might have broken through to the Fourth long ago."

"Ahem! Forget it. Venturing deep into the mountains is too dangerous. I think I’m fine as it is now. We can also get stronger through steady practice every day."

"That's right. Those guys constantly have their spirits under pressure with those daily life-and-death battles, so of course their focus, true power activity, and resource efficiency are gonna be several times higher than ours. But have you seen how high their casualty rates are? I heard that Chang Feng from Class Five died a few days ago."

"What? Chang Feng from class Five? Wasn't he already at the middle stage of the Fourth Realm?"

"Yes, reportedly killed by a level 5 beast. They couldn't even find his body. A teacher’s already set out to find and kill it, to see if they can still find any parts of him in its belly."

"Another one dead, huh. Well, luckily, we chose the conservative route from the very beginning." The senior students chatting on the steps sighed with relief, happy that their initial decision was correct.

After all, what was the point of progressing quickly if it ended up costing your life? Throughout the year, they'd seen too many familiar names disappear.

"I’m only ranked twenty-fifth!?" Li Hao looked up at the rankings on the big screen with some displeasure. After half a month of training, he had thought he would make a stunning breakthrough.

The row of red characters gradually faded, and the screen shifted to displaying the ranking for the three years’ Genius Lists.

As Li Hao's gaze swept up from his name on the first-year ranking list, he noticed An Fuqing ranked at sixteen, and then froze when he saw Chen Chu’s name in the sixth ranking He hadn’t expected Chen Chu to have already arrived at the mutated beast battlefield, and he definitely hadn’t expected him to break through to the Fourth Heavenly Realm before him!

An expression of fervent fighting spirit gradually appeared on Li Hao's face. "This guy's arrival is perfect. Not only did he break through, but he’s arrived just in time for that duel we agreed on."

During these last two months, Li Hao had gained a lot in the mutated beast battlefield. He had hunted mutated beasts like crazy, and exchanged for nearly 700 points worth of resources.

Not only did he break through to the Fourth Heavenly Realm, he had also successfully condensed the Bull Demon Battle Body. His combat power had grown terrifying, far surpassing his current realm.

In his eyes now, others like An Fuqing and Chen Jianyi weren’t even worth mentioning.

Chen Chu might’ve broken through a couple weeks faster, but can that really be compared to someone like him, who had condensed the Bull Demon Battle Body while only at the Fourth Heavenly Realm?

***

After familiarizing himself with his new refined Flame Crystal battle armor, Chen Chu finally opened the door of the cultivation room and stepped out.

“What’s the situation?” Chen Chu asked.

A level 5 mutated beast with a king-level bloodline was worth at least 300 contribution points. Add a few ordinary level 5 mutated beasts to the mix, and it would be a huge profit.

Unlike mutated creatures in the deep sea, however, which competed purely through size and abilities, mutated beasts on land generally had stronger overall combat power, and that wasn’t even getting into the ones with king-level bloodlines.

Li Hao said, “I observed the group of beasts for five days and I have a clear idea of their situation. Other than that king beast, there are five more level 4s, and around ten scaled level 3s. They’ve taken over a small mountain range, and their territory spans a few hundred kilometers.”.

“Five level 4s and ten more level 3s? So many?” Chen Chu furrowed his eyebrows. He was confident that he could take down the late stage level 5 mutated beasts, but if there were other high-level mutated beasts, it would be a bit more troublesome... albeit, just a bit.

Li Hao fell silent for a moment, and let out a bitter smile. “There’s another problem. Near the group of beasts, there is a Double Winged Dragon with a beginning stage level 5 aura. Most importantly, the dragon’s shape is similar to the scaled beasts. I suspect it’s a special characteristic of their mutation.

“Under these circumstances, if we fight, we have to be aware of that dragon.”

Another level 5 mutated beast, and this one could fly! Chen Chu shook his head. “We need reinforcements, we can’t handle this by ourselves.”

Two level 5 mutated beasts; one with a king-level bloodline and the other capable of flight. On top of that, there were five level 4 beasts and around ten level 3 beasts.

This was a strong group of mutated beasts; even normal cultivators in the Sixth Heavenly Realm wouldn’t dare to approach.

While humans who had broken through to the Fourth Heavenly Realm had enough combat power to battle mutated beasts of the same level, the beast still had a natural physical advantage. They could take a few strikes, but one bite from them would certainly kill the human.

There was also the problem of bringing back the mutated beasts after killing them. Even though there were anti-gravity disks to reduce the weight, there was a limit to how much weight they could hold. It would be impossible to pile all of those mutated beasts together to transport them.

Just leaving them behind wasn’t an option, either. There was no way Chen Chu was going to throw away that many contribution points.

Li Hao nodded. “True, we can’t do this with just the two of us. If you hadn’t arrived and broken through to the Fourth Heavenly Realm, I was going to team up with some peak Fourth Realm second-year students. I’m sure they’d be interested.”

After so many years of hunting, level 4 mutated beasts were scarce not only in the Jiuhuan Mountains, but even the Yunwu Mountains. As they grew stronger, the high-level mutated beasts naturally migrated toward the middle and back of the mountain ranges. Those areas were a horribly dangerous environment, but the intensity of transcendent energy there would allow mutated beasts to grow stronger much more quickly.

Of course, if Li Hao teamed up with senior year geniuses, they would end up taking both the lead and most of the contribution points.

In the evening, Xia Youhui and his team returned after being out for three days. During that time, the six of them had hunted down two level 4 beginning stage mutated beasts and one level 4 middle stage mutated beast. Since the corpses were intact and properly preserved, they had received a total of 170 contribution points... which sounded like a lot at first, but once divided between six, it turned out to be just under 30 points each..

Even then, however, Xia Youhui and his team were satisfied. 30 contribution points in three days; if they kept this up, that would be over 200 a month.

“What!? 50 contribution points per person just for transporting corpses?”

Everyone was having dinner in the mess hall, and when Chen Chu brought up his offer, Liu Feng almost spat out his food.

The others were just as surprised. Interested, Li Meng said, “Chen Chu, are you serious?”

Chen Chu nodded. “Of course, do I look like someone who jokes around?”

Bai Mu agreed. “Definitely not.”

Curious, Xia Youhui asked, “Chen Chu, did you find a group of beasts that you wouldn’t be able to bring back on your own after killing them all?” ”

“Li Hao did. There are around twenty of them...” Chen Chu then went on to explain the situation.

When they heard that there was a level 5 beginning stage mutated king beast, they hesitated. After all, this was a mutated beast with combat power surpassing theirs by two major realms.

However, Chen Chu quickly reassured them that there were others who would deal with the king beast, and Li Hao would also be there to deal with the level 4 beasts.

Xia Youhui's group wasn’t strong enough to be of much help, so all they needed to do was help with moving the carcasses afterward. Chen Chu was offering the 50 contribution points per person as incentive, with additional rewards depending on their efforts.

After all, opportunities and benefits should be shared with close friends first. Among the group, Luo Fe could also potentially serve as back-up with her sniper rifle. Her magnetic energy bullets could pose a significant threat even to level 5 mutated beasts, so if the Double-Winged Dragon decided to show up, she would need to find an opportunity to injure it and restrict its movements.

While her outright killing it would be ideal, it would also be difficult. Ultimately, Chen Chu needed to figure something else out.