“Whoosh! Whoosh!”
After successfully collecting the item, Zhang Shiyao immediately retreated and swiftly pulled out her weapon, firing enchanted arrows with her Mithril Shortbow.
Two shots blasted the Thorned Willow Tree’s trunk and stump apart.
The shockwave from the enchanted arrows dispersed the white fog within several meters, and even the raindrops were blown away, scattering in all directions.
Bai Qiu unfolded a magic barrier to block the splattering mud.
He was a bit surprised and said: “Such power?”
The other three were also shocked.
They hadn’t expected this cute little loli to be so fierce.
If one of these arrows hit them, they might not even survive it!
It seemed the rumor in Zone 2233 was true—this fluffy little merchant girl really was her!
After all, before Bai Qiu’s strength was exposed, she was the publicly recognized strongest in Zone 2233!
Of course, this had everything to do with her own efforts.
Zhang Shiyao pulled out another arrow and said,
“I got scammed by that mage merchant last time, so I bought Mithril Arrows beforehand this time. Once the Mithril Shortbow is fully charged with magic, its power will be even greater!”
Her small face was serious.
She couldn’t see the Thorned Willow’s stats—only its level—but even an ordinary one was this tough!
After Bai Qiu kicked the tree trunk and broke it, she still had to fire two more magic arrows to finish it off!
【Ding! EXP +1020! Regenerative Branches +5! Life Core +1!】
But the EXP gain was terrifying as well.
A few more kills of this kind of monster and she would level up again!
And this was her earning only 36% of the EXP.
If she were soloing without a party, this single monster would give nearly 3,000 EXP!
Bai Qiu frowned.
Zhang Shiyao’s firepower truly had jumped in quality, but these Thorned Willows were indeed difficult to kill.
Using the tree as the center, its attack range with its branches was about 3.5 meters.
And on top of that, it could uproot itself and move slowly—its vitality was incredibly tenacious!
The surrounding Thorned Willows had already begun moving.
Bai Qiu took out the Thunder Staff and continuously summoned Thunderbirds to fly toward the trees.
“Zzz! Crack!”
Before the Thunderbirds could even hit, they were struck by the branches and exploded prematurely.
Aside from a few branches near the explosion center being damaged, the rest of the branches and the trunk remained intact.
Even the paralysis effect failed to activate!
“Shasha…”
The rain grew heavier, raindrops slamming against the Thorned Willows and creating an even denser mist around them.
In this environment, the Blazing Staff’s offensive capability was almost completely negated.
The Thunder Staff couldn’t penetrate their defenses.
The Stone Staff was severely weakened.
The Frost Staff was in the same situation as the Thunder Staff—the Thorned Willows used their dense branches to detonate the magic early, preventing the damage from reaching their trunks!
Only the Thorn Staff and the Tidal Staff remained.
But neither of these staffs specialized in offense—they would likely struggle to break through the enemy’s defenses.
Especially the Thorn Staff: its attack method was nearly identical to that of the willow trees, so it couldn’t possibly overpower them!
The rain grew heavier and heavier.
A sudden spark of inspiration flashed in Bai Qiu’s mind.
He shouted loudly: “Everyone, fall back fifty meters!”
After speaking, he immediately retreated.
The others quickly followed.
Bai Qiu didn’t need to deliberately move faster; mobility had never been the Thorned Willows’ strength.
Even if they uprooted themselves, they could only crawl slowly across the ground.
To move fifty meters, they would need at least two minutes!
Seeing the distance was sufficient, Bai Qiu took out the Contract Space Card and said:
“Come out! A-Yuan!”
With a flash of white light, A-Yuan appeared—coiled up like a lump of poop.
It raised its head in confusion, as if wondering where it was.
“A-Yuan, charge up your Water Cannon in that direction! Fire only when I tell you to!” Bai Qiu ordered as he pointed ahead.
A-Yuan was timid, and if it saw the grotesque, writhing Thorned Willows, it might freeze up in fear.
But without ocular arts, it couldn’t sense anything fifty meters away—so it obeyed without hesitation.
A-Yuan lifted the front half of its body, raised its serpent head, opened its gaping maw, and began rapidly absorbing the surrounding water-element magic particles.
Its azure blue scales began to glow.
Through the five-fold Arcane Crystalized Eye, Bai Qiu could see the massive amount of energy building inside its body, gathering toward its mouth!
At that moment, A-Yuan resembled the bottom chamber and narrow neck of an hourglass—but unlike sand falling downward, its body compressed the enormous energy toward its mouth.
The surrounding water-element magic was continuously drawn in, funneled into the “narrow opening.”
This was a double-direction energy funnel, rapidly compressing a dense mass of water-element power!
Bai Qiu watched intently.
In fact, everything A-Yuan was doing was identical to how he used his staffs.
He waited—waited for the Water Cannon, capable of producing a miniature tsunami, to fully take shape.
Five seconds later…
The condensed azure water sphere was compressed to the size of a basketball.
A-Yuan coated the sphere’s surface with a special type of energy that cleverly forced the expanding sphere to compress again—but this time, the compression was self-driven, not caused by A-Yuan.
This prevented any energy leakage!
Next, another water-layer wrapped around the sphere, doubling its size—a sphere within a sphere.
Then, a third layer formed on the outside—a water sphere over a meter in radius.
Thus, a triple-layered water sphere was complete, taking a total of ten seconds.
“Master, I’m ready!”
A-Yuan’s voice echoed through their mental link.
Bai Qiu nodded slightly, but did not give the command to fire.
Instead, he took out the Stone Staff and, in front of everyone, used it to raise a thick stone wall.
At this moment, the Thorned Willows were still more than forty meters away from the group.
Bai Qiu continued to wait—at this distance, they still wouldn’t be able to visually feel the true power of A-Yuan’s Water Cannon!
He had fully understood the principle behind A-Yuan’s Water Cannon, but its actual destructive effect still needed to be confirmed.
Truthfully, he was looking forward to it—because the innermost water sphere, originally the size of a basketball, had now been compressed to the size of a soccer ball!
“A-Yuan, can you hold on a bit longer? Does it feel uncomfortable?” Bai Qiu asked.
He didn’t know whether staying in a prolonged charge state would put strain on A-Yuan’s body.
“Mm! I’m fine!”
A-Yuan’s voice echoed in his mind.
Receiving that firm reassurance, Bai Qiu finally relaxed.
He leapt atop the stone wall, reinforcing it while closely monitoring the distance of the approaching Thorned Willows.
Everyone held their breath, eagerly anticipating the power of A-Yuan’s skill.
After all, Ning Xingxue’s trio knew A-Yuan’s stats—its only problem was timidity; in reality, it was far from weak.
Zhang Shiyao, on the other hand, stared at the large water serpent in puzzlement.
She had no idea when her brother had acquired such a creature—did he loot a summoning card from a monster?
…No, that couldn’t be right.
No one had ever looted anything like a summoning card before.
And with her brother’s luck stat so low, there was no way he could obtain one!
But since the moment was critical, she kept her questions to herself.
The swarm of Thorned Willows crawled slowly closer, densely packed, crushing the Dreamy Blossoms beneath their writhing forms as they moved through the waterlogged ground.
35 meters… 34 meters… 33… 30 meters!
This was it!
At this distance, Bai Qiu could see every detail of the Thorned Willows clearly through the thick fog—and that meant A-Yuan’s attack was fully within his sight as well!
“Now! A-Yuan! Fire in the direction I pointed earlier—release!”
Bai Qiu shouted, pointing toward the center of the Thorned Willows’ advance.
A-Yuan understood instantly.
It lowered its head and released the Water Cannon!
In that instant, the entire water sphere shot out like a rocket, roaring toward the Thorned Willow swarm!
— The end of the Chapter–
TL note : Join Patreon to support the translation and to read up to 50 chapters of the release :
https://www.patreon.com/DeCakraWnloverz
