Lian Qiguang closed his eyes, enjoying the sensation of the wind tearing around his body. The feeling of weightlessness and the endless abyss beneath him made his blood boil and roar with excitement. Grains of sand swept past his face, bringing a faint sting.
Lian Qiguang opened his eyes and looked at the golden expanse below. For some reason, he suddenly remembered the tranquility he had felt in his previous life when the city had fallen and he had been on the verge of death.
When the ground was only a short distance away, layers of frost suddenly rose beneath Lian Qiguang’s feet, rapidly spreading outward and freezing the ground.
Lian Qiguang withdrew the look in his eyes and slowly walked down the ice steps. When both feet landed in the soft sand, the frost instantly disappeared.
Without paying any further attention to the aircraft overhead, Lian Qiguang calmly headed in the direction marked as the key destination on the ancient paper map they had been issued.
No intelligent devices were permitted during this competition. To the other students, this ancient paper map was practically an incomprehensible book, but in Lian Qiguang’s eyes, it was something he was so familiar with that he could not have been more familiar with it.
In his previous life, whether he was going on a mission or staying at the base, he always carried a map with him.
On missions, it was to locate his target.
At the base, it was to keep himself from getting lost.
With every step Lian Qiguang took, patches of frost spread beneath his feet. The white frost expanding around him formed a circular shield that protected him within.
The scorching sand beneath his feet and the blazing sunlight overhead were practically meaningless to Lian Qiguang.
Because the supernatural energy inside his body was disappearing, Lian Qiguang had originally not intended to waste it like this.
But the scorching sunlight made his skin sting painfully, while the mass of energy gathered in his abdomen had begun to grow restless. Along with that force, the rate at which the supernatural energy in his body dispersed also began to accelerate.
Helpless, Lian Qiguang could only turn the frost into a shield and envelop himself within it.
Once he did so, the agitation in his abdomen slowly settled down, and the supernatural energy rapidly dispersing through his body returned to its normal rate.
Inside the aircraft, everyone stared with their mouths hanging open at the frail-looking young man crossing the desert, leaving a patch of frost with every step.
Shentu Sihao looked at the rope he had been given to descend from the aircraft and suddenly felt that he did not want to go down anymore.
Inside the monitoring room, Xiahou Shaoxuan’s eyes were filled with gloom.
The cup in his hand had already been crushed to pieces, yet it still could not suppress the violent aura radiating from him.
When he saw Lian Qiguang recklessly leap straight down, Xiahou Shaoxuan wished he could immediately go over and drag him back.
Heaven knew how his heart and breathing had stopped in that instant when he saw that figure falling.
Xuan Lang rubbed his arms and spoke under Xiahou Shaoxuan’s pressure.
“Boss, don’t worry. Didn’t the competition rules already change it to individual combat? There won’t be anyone dragging Sister-in-law down. With Sister-in-law’s ability, killing them will be so easy he won’t even need to move a finger.”
In the desert, Lian Qiguang had already been walking for four hours.
It was noon now, and the sun overhead had grown increasingly vicious.
Lian Qiguang raised his head and glanced at the sun before taking a nutrient agent out of his pocket.
He had not eaten breakfast, and his stomach had already begun protesting.
But when it came to the nutrient agents he had always hated, he still did not really want to consume one.
Because he often got hungry, his spatial device was filled with all kinds of delicious food.
However, Chong Mu had said that the entire competition was under surveillance. He simply could not take the food out and eat it.
Shaoxuan was watching.
He did not want to be eliminated.
The frost around him had already begun thinning.
No matter how powerful one’s supernatural ability was, it was impossible to continuously output energy for four hours without any consequences.
Looking at the nutrient agent in his hand, Lian Qiguang put it back into his pocket.
He quietly placed his finger against the edge of the container and injected some lake water from his spatial device into it.
After a while, Lian Qiguang took out the nutrient agent again. He held the bottle in a way that concealed the amount inside, raised his head, and drank it.
The sour, bitter, and numbing taste assaulted his taste buds.
Lian Qiguang immediately felt his stomach churn violently, accompanied by pain in his abdomen.
He endured it for a while, but eventually he could not hold on any longer.
He bent over and vomited violently.
The nutrient agent he had just swallowed was vomited back up completely.
After a long while, Lian Qiguang slowly straightened himself.
His face and lips were as white as paper, without the slightest trace of color.
Feeling the supernatural energy within his body, Lian Qiguang found some comfort in his heart.
Although the nutrient agent had been vomited out, the power contained in the lake water had still been absorbed by his body.
Lian Qiguang rested for a while, opened the map and studied it briefly, then continued walking forward.
Meanwhile, Xiahou Shaoxuan looked at Lian Qiguang’s pale face, his heart aching terribly.
At the same time, he turned an unfriendly gaze toward Xuan Lang.
Xuan Lang startled and hurriedly stepped backward, waving his hands repeatedly.
“Boss, I’m innocent! I already secretly replaced Sister-in-law’s nutrient agents with the best ones. One a day. They’d be more than enough to last three days.”
Xiahou Shaoxuan withdrew his gaze and once again looked at Lian Qiguang on the monitor, his heart aching.
He knew Lian Qiguang did not drink nutrient agents.
But he had never expected him to resist them this badly.
A day passed.
More and more students were eliminated.
The sky gradually darkened.
Feeling the temperature grow cooler, Lian Qiguang withdrew the ice shield around him. He looked around and casually found a high slope to sit on.
Watching the sun sinking in the west, Lian Qiguang grabbed a handful of sand and let it fall from his hand.
As he watched the fine grains scatter in the wind, Lian Qiguang lay down.
The temperature of the sand beneath him had not yet completely dissipated.
Looking up at the sky, Lian Qiguang felt a peace in his heart unlike anything he had ever experienced before.
His stomach began protesting again.
Lian Qiguang rolled over and covered his mouth with one hand.
Lake water slowly flowed through the gaps between his fingers into his mouth.
But to the eyes of everyone else, this scene looked completely different.
Lian Qiguang had gone an entire day without eating, while continuously expending his supernatural ability throughout the day.
He had already reached the limit of what he could endure.
As far as Lian Qiguang was concerned, sleeping comfortably through the night, continuing his journey tomorrow, and reaching the destination the day after tomorrow was a wonderful plan.
Unfortunately, perhaps someone simply could not stand seeing Lian Qiguang so peacefully settled.
Troublemakers arrived.
“Who do we have here? Isn’t this that commoner who got in through the back door?”
Amid mocking taunts, three young men and two young women walked over and surrounded Lian Qiguang.
Lian Qiguang opened his eyes, withdrew his hand, and slowly sat up.
He expressionlessly looked at the people surrounding him.
“What? Can’t hold on already?”
One young man took two steps forward, his face full of mockery as he looked at Lian Qiguang.
“Tsk! You commoner really have some ability. You actually managed to make Xiahou Hetian and Shentu Sihao so infatuated with you?”
“But that’s not surprising. Your face is pretty good-looking.”
“At the end of the day, you’re nothing more than a toy for the bed. Aren’t you still discarded just like that?”
A girl looked at Lian Qiguang disdainfully and sneered.
Inside the monitoring room, Xiahou Shaoxuan’s face turned livid when he saw the five people surrounding Lian Qiguang.
Xuan Lang and Chong Mu beside him were both trembling with fear.
Lian Qiguang stood up.
He remained completely indifferent to the five people’s taunts and mockery and lifted his foot, intending to leave.
“Trying to run?”
Someone flashed in front of Lian Qiguang, blocking his path.
His lecherous gaze traveled up and down Lian Qiguang’s body, concealed beneath the loose jacket.
“Xiahou Shaoxuan said this is individual combat. Robbery and killing are permitted.”
The young man deliberately emphasized the word “killing.”
Lian Qiguang finally moved his gaze onto the young man.
Expressionless, he asked,
“So?”
“Heh! Hand over all the nutrient agents on you. Otherwise, my brothers and I can’t guarantee what we might do.”
The young man’s insinuation made the other two laugh loudly.
Lian Qiguang glanced at the others.
The expressions in their eyes made him feel disgusted.
He did not want to waste any more time.
Lian Qiguang walked past them and prepared to leave.
The young man became furious from embarrassment, cursed loudly, then turned around and reached out to grab Lian Qiguang.
The sudden malicious intent caused Lian Qiguang’s eyes to turn cold.
A bone-chilling aura suddenly erupted from his body.
Before the young man behind him could touch Lian Qiguang, he suddenly felt a wave of icy coldness sweep over him.
A tremendous force crushed down upon his entire body.
The young man screamed and was sent flying.
Several ice spikes shot out, piercing through his limbs, shoulder, and abdomen, pinning him to the sand.
Crimson blood stained the ice spikes red and spread across the sand, seeping between the grains.
The young man had already passed out from the pain.
The ice spikes pinned him in a pool of blood, making him look like an ancient sacrificial offering.
It was a horrifying sight.
Although technology was highly advanced now and the injuries on the young man’s body could be healed within minutes, a shadow would undoubtedly remain in his heart from this experience.
Seeing the young man’s miserable state, the other four could not help drawing in sharp breaths.
Fear appeared in their eyes as they looked at Lian Qiguang.
Lian Qiguang expressionlessly looked at them and pulled both hands out of his pockets.
“You. All of you. Come together.”
“Bastard!”
Lian Qiguang’s indifference enraged them.
Various supernatural abilities suddenly appeared in their hands and surged toward Lian Qiguang.
Darkness welled up in Lian Qiguang’s eyes.
Just as their abilities were about to strike him, a layer of frost suddenly rose before Lian Qiguang.
The four supernatural attacks were silently swallowed by the frost.
“You! You…”
The four stared at the vanished abilities, practically unable to believe their eyes.
Lian Qiguang raised his left hand.
Under their terrified gazes, hundreds of ice spikes floated in the air.
The four were filled with terror and wanted to flee.
But before they could act, a series of screams rang out.
Just like the first person, they were brutally pinned alive to the sand.
Looking at the bloodied bodies scattered across the sand, Lian Qiguang expressionlessly walked forward.
Without changing expression, he retrieved the nutrient agents from each of them and tucked them into his pocket.
Then he raised his head and looked toward a raised mound of sand not far away.
After remaining silent for a moment, he turned and left.
After Lian Qiguang departed, several heads suddenly emerged from behind the mound of sand.
A petite girl could not help letting out a breath. She patted her chest repeatedly with one hand.
“I thought we’d been discovered. That scared me to death.”
“Five people, killed instantly. Just how strong is he?”
A young man murmured quietly.
“Forget how strong he is. Right now, I just want to throw up.”
Looking at the five bloody bodies, several others covered their mouths and ran to the side, beginning to dry-heave.
Lian Qiguang walked alone through the desert.
The sky had completely darkened.
The temperature from the daytime had already dropped away. The cold wind howled, freezing everyone until they shivered.
No one knew how long he had been walking when Lian Qiguang suddenly stopped.
He twitched his ears.
Almost imperceptible sounds of fighting reached him, making Lian Qiguang frown slightly.
The pain gradually rising in his abdomen made Lian Qiguang reluctant to look for more trouble.
But after looking around, he realized that the sounds of battle were coming from the path he had to take.
If he went around, he would have to travel much farther.
After weighing the options, Lian Qiguang started walking toward the source of the sounds.
About half an hour later, the sounds of battle were already right beside him.
Brilliant, multicolored supernatural abilities illuminated the darkness, dazzling against the night.
There were roughly ten people fighting.
Two of them looked very familiar to Lian Qiguang.
They seemed to be Xiahou Hetian and Shentu Sihao.
Opposite them was a mutated python five or six meters long.
This python should also possess Earth-Rank strength.
Because it did not possess any supernatural ability, the ten people could barely hold their own against it.
If this snake possessed supernatural abilities, these people would have been killed instantly the moment they encountered it.
However…
Lian Qiguang’s eyes suddenly brightened, and a little more vitality appeared in his pale face.
A snake?
Then does that mean…