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nNot long after, the young barbarian caught up to them.

n“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

nThe young barbarian waved the bone club in his hand and deliberately stomped on the ground, causing sand to fly everywhere and dust to rise into the air.

nIts body, which was nearly 10 meters long, was huge compared to humans. In terms of size alone, it was quite scary. However, it lacked hunting experience and did not understand that the humans were setting up a trap for him.

nAt the same time, a rotten smell spread out from the young barbarian’s body. Many students frowned and covered their mouths or held their breaths.

nThe dozens of students looked like they were frightened out of their wits and had stopped in their tracks out of fear.

nSeeing this, the young barbarian shouted loudly, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth that still had bits of meat left on them. However, it did not attack immediately, intending to tease its prey first.

n“Are all the creatures from the otherworld so simple-minded?” a student could not help but ask the surrounding students.

n“That seems to be the case. That big guy fell for it easily.” a student at the side said as he analyzed the situation.

n“Don’t be careless. In a one-on-one fight, you guys aren’t a match for the young barbarian. Students with bows and arrows, launch a round of long-range attacks against the opponent first.”

nThe martial arts teacher, Cai Xihe, who was at the back, reminded his students loudly when he saw that they were underestimating their opponent.

nWhen the students heard this, they fell silent again and took out their weapons. It was as if they were warning the young barbarian not to do anything rash and showing that it was not as if they could not put up any resistance.

nWhen everyone was ready, a student shouted, “Three, two, one, fire.”

nMore than 30 arrows were shot out from their bows, creating the sound of rushing wind. From more than 10 to 20 meters away, the arrows made of a special alloy arrived at their target in an instant.

nArchery was an effective group attack method at the disciple realm. Although the distance gave the enemy time to dodge, they could make up for this limitation with their numbers.

nThis was especially true since technological weapons did not work in the otherworld. It was very effective in reconnaissance, probing one’s opponent, long-range attacks, and so on.

nFurthermore, the penetrative power of these arrows made of a special alloy was greatly enhanced. They could only be bought in the market in the stronghold.

nThe young barbarian was furious. In its imagination, this group of prey should have dispersed in fear instead of counterattacking. Facing the long-range attacks from the arrows, it waved the bone club in its hand.

n“Clang! Clang! Clang!”

nSome of the arrows were sent flying by the bone club, and the rest found their mark on its body from its head to its chest and legs. Some male students had aimed at its sensitive area, but the young barbarian had dodged them with its intuition.

nIn an instant, the young barbarian was pierced by the arrows and became like a porcupine. It wailed as blood flowed out of various parts of its body.

n“Hurry up and surround the young barbarian. It might try to escape,” the martial arts teacher, Cai Xihe, reminded the students who had stopped to observe the effectiveness of their attack.

nThe students reacted and quickly surrounded the wailing young barbarian.

nSeeing this, the young barbarian became shocked and afraid. It quickly pulled out most of the arrows from its body with its bare hands.

nShockingly, as the arrows were pulled out, the bleeding from its wounds quickly stopped.

nHumans could not verify how long the barbarians had existed in the otherworld. They had evolved over many generations.

nHumans of the same level were generally at an absolute disadvantage in terms of physical talent. Be it strength, defense, recovery ability, or so on, there was a huge difference.

nThe students holding melee weapons did not dare to go forward rashly. They only aimed their weapons at the young barbarian.

n“Everyone, fire another round!” a student suggested when he saw that the damage from the arrows was nullified so quickly.

n“Let’s do it. It seems that the creatures from the otherworld aren’t that easy to deal with.”

nThe students around him agreed.

nSoon, the second round of arrows were fired. The young barbarian’s pupils constricted and he leaped into the air, causing all the arrows to miss their mark.

nAfter landing back on the ground, an arrow pierced through the sole of its foot. The young barbarian endured the pain and pulled it out. In the next moment, it charged at the students surrounding it.

nAlthough this barbarian was considered young in terms of age, his aura at close range was like a small mountain, and the ground trembled slightly.

nAt this moment, as the students of the martial arts academy faced the creature from the otherworld, their lack of actual combat experience was exposed. They did not join forces to block the young barbarian and wear it down with a tag-team effort. Instead, they subconsciously dodged their opponent’s head-on attacks.

nBy the time the students reacted and tried to fill in the gaps in the encirclement, the young barbarian was already about to break through the encirclement.

n“Are we going to fail in our first battle?”

nMost of the students and the martial arts teacher, Cai Xihe, had the same thought.

nAmong the students, a figure rushed out. The longsword in his hand was covered in a layer of black energy.

nWhen the young barbarian saw the internal force from the corner of his eye, he was only left with fear. He wished he had two more pairs of legs, and he regretted running out of the ancient tree area so easily.

nThis extraordinary power had an advantage that completely overcame the size difference between races. It was like a drop of poison that was strong enough to kill an elephant.

nThe sword flashed past, and the young barbarian let out a loud cry and fell heavily to the ground. One of its feet was separated from its body, and blood spurted out of its wound.

nWith such a severe injury, the barbarians’ recovery ability, which was stronger than that of humans, was no longer effective. No matter how hard the young barbarian tried to press on it, he could not stop the blood from flowing out.

n“She is?”

nSome students were stunned. Shen Mengwei had been hiding in the team quietly. Many students had only seen this person before, but they did not know her name.

n“Mengmeng, you’re amazing.”

nSong Shanshan led the others to start cheering.

nAfter following the martial arts academy’s teachers and students for most of the day, she had a rough understanding of the standard of the students in the East Lake Martial Arts Academy. Of course, they were much stronger than her, but there was still a huge gap between them and her friend.

nChen Yingying stood helplessly in the crowd of students. When she saw the shocked gazes of the surrounding students, her face subconsciously turned red.

nShen Mengwei and Song Shanshan had always misunderstood that she was very powerful, but her actual combat performance this time was extremely mediocre. She had only shot two arrows along with her classmates.

nThis gave her a strong sense of urgency. She could not embarrass her brother too much.

nChen Yiming looked at Shen Mengwei, who was the center of attention.

nHer martial arts talent was indeed much higher than that of ordinary martial arts practitioners. This was also the first time she was facing a creature from the otherworld. Shen Mengwei, a high school student, had never even had any actual combat experience in the wilderness.

nHowever, her movements were smooth and fluid, without any hesitation. Even though she was kind of bullying the young barbarian since she was at a much higher level, her determined gaze was a stark contrast from her weak appearance. It was clear that her heart was very determined, and there was still a lot of potential to be unearthed.

nIn addition, he could also tell the difference between East Lake City and Jiangdu City. In the short term, the students of the East Lake Martial Arts Academy were only at this level. There was nothing really worth paying attention to.

nSoon, the young barbarian was killed. Chen Yiming also announced that the training at the stronghold had ended and the team started on their way back.

nThe corpse of the young barbarian was tied up with special steel ropes and dragged along by the students in turns.

nOn the way back, everyone was very excited. Although they were not the ones who had killed the young barbarian, most of them had landed attacks on it. They could be considered to have contributed to their successful first battle.

n…

nAt night, in an open-air square in the stronghold, a group of young people were racing against time to carry out their daily cultivation.

n“Um… can you give Mengmeng some pointers?” Song Shanshan walked over and stammered.

nThe strength Chen Yiming had displayed during the day was unfathomable. Even if she was thick-skinned, it was difficult for her to say anything as he led a group of people around the territory of the creatures from the otherworld.

nChen Yiming waved his sword and put away the peach wood sword. He smiled and said, “No problem. Go and call her over.”

n“Alright, thank you so much.”

nSong Shanshan skipped away and quickly pulled Shen Mengwei over.

nChen Yiming looked at Shen Mengwei who had an embarrassed expression and asked, “What problems did you face in your cultivation?”

nShen Mengwei did not reply. Instead, she glared fiercely at Song Shanshan, as if to say that she was being nosy and should not trouble others so often.

nSong Shanshan did not mind and said, “Mengmeng has already learned the concept diagram you gave her that day. She doesn’t know what to do next.”

nChen Yiming wasn’t surprised. During the day, he could tell that her control of the sword was outstanding. He planned to get her to join the Myriad Phenomena Sect before taking out the remaining eight concept diagrams.

nHe immediately got Shen Mengwei to temper her body further. Because the other party’s breakthrough speed was too fast, the tempering of her body had definitely not reached its limit. Her use of the internal force still needed to be developed further.

nAt the same time, he wanted to prevent her from feeling too arrogant for breaking through too smoothly. After all, others did not have a special ability like him. One day, they would encounter a bottleneck. If they encountered too few setbacks along the way before they finally encountered a bottleneck, they would not be able to face it at all and might even break down.

n“I’ll suppress my physical strength and internal force to the same level as you. Let’s use the Mantis Snake Sword Technique to exchange a few blows.”

nA smile appeared on Song Shanshan’s face. She tugged at Shen Mengwei’s sleeve, as if to say, “Hurry up and praise me. You can’t do it without me.”

nShen Mengwei rolled her eyes at her and turned to Chen Yiming. “Alright, thank you for your guidance.”

n“Clang!”

nThe two figures flashed at the same time, and the two swords collided. In the blink of an eye, the two of them had exchanged a round of blows.

nFaced with the same speed and strength of internal force, Shen Mengwei was still forced to take a few steps back. The internal force covering her sword also wavered. There was a problem with the rhythm of her battle from the start.

n“You’ve only broken through to the warrior realm a few days ago, and your experience in using internal force is still lacking. You shouldn’t have fought me head-on from the start,”

nChen Yiming said. After separating from Shen Mengwei, he didn’t continue to attack her.

nShen Mengwei nodded and charged forward again. Chen Yiming didn’t say anything else and also raised his sword to meet the attack. He used actual combat to teach his opponent how to use her internal force.

nThe two of them quickly exchanged more than 100 blows.

nChen Yiming maintained the same level from the start to the end. No matter what kind of moves he faced, he would use the simplest method to counterattack.

nOn the other hand, Shen Mengwei’s improvement was visible to the naked eye. At the beginning, she had only been stumbling around. She had gradually grasped the rhythm of a battle at the first stage of the warrior realm.

nA suitable opponent could allow one to grow quickly. Since Chen Yiming had comprehended the internal force completely, it was naturally not difficult for him to become a qualified opponent.

nIn the distance, Zhao Meijing and Cai Xihe, the two martial arts teachers from the East Lake Martial Arts Academy, also observed Shen Mengwei’s improvement with their own eyes. They also sighed at how talented she was.

nTalent did not follow any reason or rule. As long as there was a chance, the advantage of age and experience would be lost in the blink of an eye in the face of talent.

nThis was especially true for Cai Xihe. Even with Chen Yiming’s guidance, he wasn’t even confident that he could win against Shen Mengwei, who had just broken through to the warrior realm a few days ago.

n…

nThe students in the square looked over enviously and seized the opportunity to carry out their own cultivation. No one knew how long they could stay in the stronghold. It could be said that every single second was very valuable.

nTime gradually passed. An oppressive aura suddenly came from the dark red sky. The ground started to tremble slightly, and the entire stronghold became noisy.

nChen Yiming was shocked. He soared into the sky and arrived in midair one step at a time. It was as if there were stairs in the air for him to step on.

nWith the faint light from the three glowing spheres above his head, he could see black shadows moving in the distance, heading straight for the stronghold.

n“Since it’s coming from that direction, could it be the otherworld creatures from the ancient tree region? Or the undead creatures from the graveyard?”

nBecause they were too far away, he could only see a faint outline in the darkness, and could not determine the exact situation.

nBefore he could ask the military about it, a creature from the otherworld suddenly broke out of the ground in the stronghold. It was a creature with a huge mouth.

nChen Yiming had seen it before when he was exploring the otherworld for the first time, but it wasn’t completely the same. This huge creature emitted the aura of death from its entire body. As soon as it appeared, it made everyone within dozens of meters faint.

n“It’s an undead creature!”

nAt this moment, all the noise from the spot where the creature had appeared had instantly disappeared. The human exploration team, the military martial arts experts, and the members of the martial arts factions did not dare to approach it.

nSpiritual damage was different from physical damage. Ordinary people could not recover from it. Therefore, the danger posed by undead creatures was often half a level higher than other creatures of the same level.

n“Die!”

nChen Yiming pointed the peach wood sword in his hand, and the Sword Aura shot out like a silver spear. The creature sensed the impending danger and tried to dodge.

nHowever, as soon as it made a move, its body was nailed to the ground. In the next moment, it turned into dust and disappeared along with the spirit inside of it.

nLess than 10 seconds had passed between the time the creature emerged from the ground and the moment it was destroyed by the Sword Aura. Soon, more undead creatures emerged from the ground.

nChen Yiming rained continuous attacks down on the ground from above. Each Sword Aura attack was like a guided missile. None of the undead creatures that dared to show their faces were able to survive long enough to start a massacre. They were killed in half a second to a few seconds.

nAfter killing more than 10 undead creatures that had emerged from the ground, the ground fell silent again.

nAt this moment, the martial arts talent panel appeared. On it, the number needed to increase his swordsmanship talent had decreased by dozens of points. The benefits he received were diminishing.

nChen Yiming watched the ground for a while longer. After confirming that the undead creatures had given up on attacking from underground, he landed back on the ground.

n“Brother, what should we do?”

nChen Yingying ran over in a panic.

nChen Yiming’s expression was solemn as he said, “Stay by my side and don’t run around.”

nHis intuition had warned him that something had happened as soon as he entered the stronghold in the otherworld. In addition, the sudden disappearance of the team from Jiang City the day before also involved a large portion of the forces in Jiangnan province. This was too much of a coincidence.

nThe teachers and students of the martial arts academy were all frightened by the many undead creatures that had appeared suddenly. At this moment, they all surrounded Chen Yiming. This was the only way they could feel safe.

nAfter a while, an officer ran over to tell Chen Yiming some bad news.

nThe base city was surrounded by a beast tide. It was suspected that a Western corporation was controlling it from behind the scenes, and the stronghold and the base city were being attacked on both sides.

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