TL: Etude
"Is the news true?" Ye Tian asked.
"It's true!" Zhang Bao confirmed. "We caught a glimpse from afar earlier. The students from the First Academy were working together to combat a striped snake that was 10 meters long, but unfortunately, they failed. Now, there must be even more students going to besiege that striped snake!"
"Which direction?" Ye Tian inquired.
"Southeast direction!" Zhang Bao pointed.
Whoosh!
Ye Tian ran off at great speed, soon disappearing from sight.
At that moment, Zhang Bao gazed at the retreating figure of Ye Tian and sighed deeply, "I originally thought that Ye Tian's strength was similar to mine, but I never realized that he hid his abilities so well. With Ye Tian's talent, it's certain he will become a Martial Warrior in the future; he might even have the potential to reach the level of an Elite Martial Warrior."
It would be false to say he wasn't envious, but envy was useless. In this era that valued innate talent, he only had second-rate talent. At best, he could only reach the early stages of a Martial Warrior in his lifetime.
"Let's go; we should head back," Zhang Bao said, somewhat resignedly.
"Go back? Not hunting fierce beasts anymore?" one of the students said discontentedly.
"No more hunting. With our strength, even if we united, there's little hope of obtaining the blood of the ferocious beast. I should have realized earlier. This so-called trial is nothing but a chance given by the five major academies to their top students. They just want to produce some Martial Warriors as soon as possible. As for the lives of us weaker Martial Disciples, do you think those big shots would care? They wouldn't feel pain no matter how many martial students die!" Zhang Bao said with a bitter smile.
The other students all remained silent, evidently in agreement.
The world was cruel. For Martial Warriors, the lives of ordinary people and Martial Disciples truly didn't amount to much.
This trial was said to be for all students, but in reality, it was a test or a training exercise only for those top students.
Seven or eight people, looking dejected, headed towards the outskirts of the small wilderness area without looking back.
...
After running a distance, Ye Tian stopped.
Now, he was carrying quite a few things on his back. Although not very heavy, they would certainly affect his combat abilities, and he couldn't possibly fight with these materials on him all the time.
Under normal circumstances, there were two solutions. One was to return to the valley entrance and exchange these materials for points, but going back and forth like that would waste too much time.
The second option was to hide the materials and retrieve them later when returning.
"Better bury them!" Ye Tian quickly dug a hole in the ground and buried all the materials, then concealed it.
The small wilderness area was vast, and the chance of someone discovering the materials was extremely low. The ordinary wild beasts would also not be interested in these materials.
With everything ready, Ye Tian sped off in the southeast direction.
Boom!!!
From afar, the sounds of battle reached him, and just from the noise alone, he knew how fierce the fight was.
"Could it be that the pseudo-ferocious striped snake is being besieged again?" Ye Tian speculated.
Although the pseudo-ferocious beast was strong, this time there were also quite a few peak Martial Disciples. If they truly fought, the pseudo-ferocious beast would not be a match for these students.
"I hope I can get there in time!" Ye Tian secretly hoped.
Thirty seconds later, Ye Tian arrived, but the situation was not what he had anticipated.
"This is..." Ye Tian's pupils contracted.
In the field, about ten Martial Disciples were besieging an injured striped snake. This snake was not the 10-meter one that Zhang Bao had spoken of, but reached a length of 12 meters.
"A ferocious beast, this striped snake has reached the level of a ferocious beast, but it's one of the weakest types of ferocious beasts!" he thought.
Ye Tian had judged: Ferocious beasts were not categorized by size, and this spotted snake was considered quite large among them. However, it had only a single method of attack, and its strength was not significant, making it weaker than the average ferocious beast.
But how had this spotted snake become a ferocious beast?
Not only was Ye Tian puzzled, but the other students were also very curious.
At that moment, no one thought too much about it, for their primary desire was to hunt down this ferocious spotted snake. A pseudo-ferocious snake was worth only 500 points, but a true ferocious one was different, with a value of at least 1000 points! Moreover, it was a ferocious beast; once slain, its blood could be absorbed and refined by many students.
It could be said that this ferocious spotted snake was a treasure all over its body!
Fortunately, this spotted snake had just advanced to the level of a ferocious beast and was not much more potent than the peak of a Martial Disciple. Otherwise, these students would not dare to attack it together.
However, even so, the students were continuously injured and withdrew from the fight one by one.
Ye Tian had not acted, but instead, he had been observing secretly.
About ten minutes passed, and only five students were left in the field. These five were the talented students from the first academy who possessed medium cultivation talents. They were also wounded, though, not lightly. But the more severely injured was the ferocious spotted snake, with numerous arrows, knife, and sword wounds all over its body. Even its forehead had a sword scar, looking utterly miserable.
Suddenly, the ferocious spotted snake activated its bloodline power, sweeping its massive tail violently, sending all five students flying.
The next moment, the ferocious spotted snake fled into the distance.
With its bloodline activated, the ferocious spotted snake had attained the speed of a normal ferocious beast. Unless pursued by a warrior, no one could catch up with it.
The students attempted to chase it for a moment but soon realized they were falling far behind.
"Damn, it escaped again! Everyone chase it, this ferocious beast is severely wounded; it can't get far!" Mo Shaobei angrily exclaimed.
However, unbeknownst to everyone, a shadow secretly followed.
"Haha, fortune is on my side! After activating my speed talent, I can easily catch up with this ferocious spotted snake," Ye Tian excitedly said.
He followed the ferocious spotted snake, and after many twists and turns, found it crawling, injured, into a cave.
Ye Tian hesitated for a moment and then entered the cave, knowing that with his speed, he could retreat if he faced any danger.
The cave was deep and stretched downward. After what seemed like a long walk, Ye Tian finally arrived at a rocky cavern where the ferocious spotted snake lay.
By this point, the snake was barely hanging on, yet it was still crawling toward a corner of the cave.
Without wasting time, Ye Tian utilized his speed talent, wielding his fine iron knife, slashing repeatedly at the snake's body. Though his power was weak, he soon killed the ferocious spotted snake.
"Collect the ferocious beast's blood!" Ye Tian didn't forget this crucial task.
He quickly took out the water bottle from his waist, punctured the snake's heart, and the beast's heart's blood trickled into the bottle. Since this snake had just become a ferocious beast, most of its blood was still that of a wild beast. Only the heart's blood was pure ferocious beast blood, so Ye Tian only collected it, deeming the rest unnecessary.
Soon, a bottle was filled, and the snake's heart's blood had drained completely.
"Equivalent to five portions of low-level ferocious beast's blood, I've hit the jackpot this time!" Ye Tian was overjoyed.