A’Yuan’s snake head emerged from the sea, resembling the line “the tip of a lotus bud just peeks above the water.”
It spat bursts of water fireworks into the air in celebration, instantly becoming the most eye-catching presence in this stretch of ocean.
Bai Qiu’s Sevenfold Arcane Crystallized Eyes remained fixed on the sea within a four-kilometer radius.
He carefully scanned the area for a full five minutes.
Only after confirming that no monsters similar to the Kraken remained did he withdraw his gaze.
“A’Yuan, go have fun on your own for a while. I’ve still got things to do.”
“Mhm!”
Communicating through telepathy, Bai Qiu decided to let A’Yuan play freely in the sea while recovering its stamina.
“Let’s go. It’s time to deal with the monsters on Dragon Gate Island. I’ll handle anything King-rank and above. You take care of everything else.”
As he spoke, Bai Qiu walked past the still-dumbfounded Huang Hailing.
“O-Okay!” Huang Hailing replied obediently, following his instructions without objection.
She was extremely grateful that she hadn’t rashly brought Huang Yong into this dungeon.
Forget the King-rank monster guarding Dragon Gate Island itself—even the underwater Kraken was a nightmare beyond her imagination.
If Ah Yong and I had run into a monster like that… we’d definitely have died!
The conclusion sent a cold sweat running down Huang Hailing’s back.
It was certainly nice that the dungeon rewarded materials above its stated difficulty rating, but increasing the difficulty accordingly was honestly a bit of a scam…
After that, things went exactly as Bai Qiu had said.
Whenever a King-rank monster appeared, he would personally step in and kill it instantly.
Anything below King-rank was left entirely to Huang Hailing.
The arrangement actually benefited her.
With her current strength, defeating a King-rank monster was barely within her capabilities, but it would cost her a considerable amount of time and come with significant risks.
Risking her life for uncertain drops and the guaranteed 20% experience bonus was obviously an unwise choice.
More importantly, she had no desire to make an enemy of Bai Qiu.
As for Bai Qiu himself, his reasoning was much simpler.
The moment he entered the dungeon, he and A’Yuan had gotten so caught up playing around that by the time he realized it, more than an hour had already passed.
He simply wanted to speed up the monster-clearing process.
If too many lesser monsters attacked Huang Hailing at once and she couldn’t handle them, Bai Qiu would casually wipe them out as well, cutting them down while cleaving through everything in his path.
Eventually, Huang Hailing simply gave up fighting altogether.
She took on the role of a gatherer, completely entrusting her back to Bai Qiu.
Every monster was left for him to kill while she followed behind him, frantically harvesting special plants.
Besides the fixed 20% experience awarded for the kill itself, she still received half of the remaining 80%.
A total of 40% experience was already an excellent deal.
At first, Bai Qiu had been somewhat surprised.
Subconsciously, he had associated Huang Hailing with the military and assumed she wanted to maximize her share of the experience and resources.
Now, however, it seemed that wasn’t the case.
Coincidentally, Bai Qiu himself was pressed for time.
It was just that he felt too embarrassed to bring it up.
After all, he’d been the one fooling around with A’Yuan earlier and completely losing track of time.
If he suddenly started urging someone else to hurry once it was time to get serious, wouldn’t that be a bit shameless?
So when Huang Hailing suggested that he handle all the monsters while she focused entirely on gathering materials so they could clear the dungeon as efficiently as possible, Bai Qiu was genuinely delighted.
Because it perfectly matched what he had wanted all along.
That said, a dense jungle really wasn’t a suitable place to use a longbow or a spear.
It wasn’t because the environment limited Bai Qiu’s abilities.
Rather, the forest was filled with valuable resources like tree fruits and berries.
If he didn’t carefully control his strength while using his weapons, he could easily destroy those resources.
Especially with Dragonslayer Star Breath Spear.
Once its Wind Gathering trait was activated, who knew how many fruits and berries would be wiped out?
Fortunately, the monsters here were weak—mostly packs of wolves, troops of monkeys, and the like.
Bai Qiu simply fought them at close range.
His fists, each the size of a sandbag, carried the destructive force of a falling meteor while raining down with relentless speed.
Some monsters didn’t even have time to react before their heads were smashed apart by his punches.
The sight startled Huang Hailing.
At first, she even wondered whether Bai Qiu had some peculiar hobby of brutally killing monsters.
But after thinking it over, she quickly understood.
If Bai Qiu had drawn the same bow he had used earlier and fired those same arrows into the island’s forest, the resulting area-wide destruction would have been unavoidable.
The amount of resources she could collect would certainly have decreased in direct proportion.
So it wasn’t that Bai Qiu enjoyed smashing monsters’ heads apart with his bare fists.
It was simply that using his powerful weapons wasn’t practical for clearing monsters in this environment.
It had to be said, this so-called two-player dungeon was a complete scam.
Aside from the sneaky Kraken lurking underwater, there were three King-rank monsters, twenty Lord-rank monsters, and several thousand Elite-rank and Normal-rank monsters combined.
To make matters worse, they all had to be killed in close-quarters combat.
Even Bai Qiu, after fighting continuously for nearly two hours, began to feel somewhat fatigued.
Still, it wasn’t without its rewards.
Within the dense forest—filled with low shrubs and crisscrossed by countless vines—Bai Qiu had effectively been forced to abandon both his bow and his spear.
His Mana Release and Wind Manipulation abilities were also unusable because their area of effect was simply too large.
Under these restrictions, Bai Qiu could only rely on Mana Manipulation to strengthen his body.
At the same time, he had to accurately locate and eliminate enemies while navigating the complicated terrain, all without getting tangled in the vines or tripping over the undergrowth.
Otherwise, it would slow down his monster-clearing speed.
Through this intense, highly focused combat, Bai Qiu’s footwork and hand-to-hand fighting skills improved dramatically.
Before long, he independently comprehended a combat skill of his own…
“Ding! Your martial prowess has been recognized. You have learned the skill: Wild Brawling (C Rank).”
Wild Brawling differed somewhat from traditional martial arts.
In ancient times, physically frail humans relied on martial arts to achieve victory in countless battles, even defeating multiple opponents alone.
But in later generations, as martial traditions gradually faded and laws became more established, martial arts slowly declined, eventually becoming little more than a form of physical exercise.
Wild Brawling, on the other hand, was the most primitive form of combat—pairing raw physical strength with the most practical techniques to kill an opponent as efficiently as possible.
As his understanding deepened through battle after battle, Bai Qiu also mastered the concept of force.
He came to understand techniques such as the intercepting punch and the jab, both well-suited for fighting in confined spaces.
He even learned to project internal force through an opponent’s body—striking one side while the impact penetrated to the other—making him every bit a true martial arts master.
By the time Bai Qiu had cleared all the monsters on the two islands, his level had risen to Level 35.
Huang Hailing, meanwhile, had gained two levels, reaching Level 32.
After all, her level was lower than Bai Qiu’s.
Even though Bai Qiu had killed every monster, she still received 40% of the experience.
Combined with the bonus experience awarded for defeating higher-level enemies, she actually gained more experience overall than Bai Qiu did.
With the combined efforts of the two of them, another half hour passed before every last resource on both islands had finally been gathered.
Next, all they had to do was find A’Yuan and they could teleport back immediately.
— 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
