Bai Qiu noticed that A-Yuan had fallen asleep behind them.
He immediately lowered his voice and walked over to gently stroke the large serpent head.
Its scales were tough yet slightly elastic, and the top of its head was incredibly smooth—curled up like this, it felt amazing to the touch.
A-Yuan didn’t wake up.
Its steady breathing remained calm and even.
Bai Qiu hadn’t planned to make it fight anyway.
Since it liked this place, he might as well let it sleep a little longer.
With that, he signaled everyone to continue exploring the secret realm.
Because of the thick mist and heavy rain, their vision was even more limited.
Splitting up to gather resources was impossible under these conditions, so Bai Qiu could only pull out the map to check their current progress.
Dreamlike Sea of Flowers Secret Realm — D+
Current Exploration Progress: 4%
Gathering Progress: 0.01%
Kill Progress: 11%
Treasure Chests Obtained: 0/6
Seeing this string of progress numbers, Bai Qiu frowned.
This is way too slow.
It had already been twenty-five minutes since they entered the secret realm, and even with nonstop monster hunting, they had only pushed kill progress to 11%.
Worse yet, kill progress was the fastest-growing metric so far.
The most efficient strategy for clearing a secret realm was usually to split up—some gathering, some pushing forward while watching for treasure chests.
But this particular secret realm was too difficult.
A brute-force push like that simply wouldn’t work.
After thinking it over, Bai Qiu decided that clearing out all monsters in the secret realm first would be the fastest and safest method before gathering resources or searching for treasure.
He quickly maxed out the normal monster kill progress for the Tidal Staff, so Zhang Shiyao also joined the battle against the Thorned Willows, speeding up the kill progress even further.
With the torrential rain masking sound, the mithril arrows fired from her mithril shortbow flew almost silently.
Zhang Shiyao moved like an assassin—her attacks always struck before the Thorned Willows even noticed her presence.
Those that didn’t react in time were often killed in a single arrow.
Soon, the kill progress reached 25%.
“Drip… drip… sha-la-la…”
The rain grew heavier and heavier, droplets shattering on their bodies the moment they touched.
Visibility worsened, yet Bai Qiu became more and more proficient with the Tidal Staff.
Where he once needed nearly ten seconds of chanting to successfully cast it the first time, he now needed only two seconds to form a weaker, shortened version of the Water Cannon.
And its power had noticeably increased.
Bai Qiu kept moving forward when he suddenly spotted, sixty meters away, an even larger Thorned Willow.
His eyes narrowed instantly.
Century-old Thorned Willow — Level 25 Elite
Strength: C-
Magic: E
Endurance: C-
Agility: None ~ F
Skills: ???
A level 25 elite monster?
Bai Qiu’s expression hardened.
This century-old Thorned Willow was nearly five times the size of a normal one!
And because of its higher level, he couldn’t view its skills.
But judging from its base stats, it clearly possessed the same movable skill as the others.
Bai Qiu immediately signaled everyone to stop.
He sent a message in the party channel:
“Everyone, fall back 30 meters. There’s an elite.”
Afterward, he shared the information he had scouted.
Everything had two sides—the heavy rain not only limited their senses but also served as perfect cover.
As long as Bai Qiu’s group didn’t make loud noises or get too close, the Thorned Willows wouldn’t detect them.
Everyone quickly retreated.
They knew Bai Qiu had tasks he needed to complete, and with attributes reaching C-, other than Zhang Shiyao, none of them could really help!
However—Bai Qiu didn’t notice that as he advanced to prepare his attack on the century-old Thorned Willow, a streak of white light was slipping through the Dreamy Blossoms, using them as cover, heading toward the teammates he had left behind…
…….
“Bang!”
The Water Cannon exploded!
Many of the century-old Thorned Willow’s branches were shattered, but with just one attack, it was still far from being truly threatened.
“Splash—splash—!”
The puddles had risen to over 15 centimeters, submerging Bai Qiu’s ankles.
He sprinted in circles around the century-old Thorned Willow atop the water surface, constantly dodging its fierce counterattacks while maintaining a distance of 40 meters.
He had long prepared for this.
Earlier, as the rain grew heavier and the water level around his feet rose, Bai Qiu switched into a pair of iron boots.
The quality wasn’t great, but they were far better than ordinary sneakers—at least they didn’t hinder his movement!
The century-old Thorned Willow had an attack range of 50 meters.
Sharp roots stabbed out from underground from time to time in ambush, while cotton-like willow branches lashed wildly in all directions.
Its attacks were so dense and relentless that not even a gap remained—yet Bai Qiu dodged them one after another.
But it wasn’t easy for him either.
As he sped up, the Thorned Willow could sense his position through large-scale ripples in the water and vibrations in the ground.
To evade its attacks, he pushed his Fivefold Arcane Crystallized Eyes to the limit, using enhanced mental power to predict every incoming strike and dodge accordingly.
Just doing this alone consumed all his focus—he had no attention left to counterattack.
Even a two-second chanting time was long enough for this big tree to smack him a hundred times!
The century-old Thorned Willow truly wasn’t comparable to ordinary ones—its attack range, speed, frequency, and every aspect had been greatly enhanced, reinforcing its strengths even further.
Of course, its weaknesses hadn’t changed much either.
With such obvious vulnerabilities, it was harder not to exploit them!
After probing all its attack methods, Bai Qiu quickly retreated twenty meters, stepping beyond its attack range.
As the ground trembled, the tree prepared to move.
“Bang!”
Before it could take its first step, Bai Qiu rushed back into its attack range, swinging his staff and launching another Water Cannon.
It exploded atop its crown, giving the huge tree a brand-new hairstyle.
“Whooo—whooo—!”
Enraged, the century-old Thorned Willow lashed its branches toward him.
But Bai Qiu never gave it the chance—he withdrew from its attack range the moment it reacted!
The tree, frustrated but too short to reach, could only watch as Bai Qiu repeatedly darted in and out, bombarding it over and over.
Soon, every branch on its trunk had been blown off by his Water Cannon.
In this way, after fourteen Water Cannon blasts and a flawless display of distance control and movement casting, the century-old Thorned Willow died completely.
A massive amount of experience poured in as the final task progress was completed.
Bai Qiu turned back to look for Zhang Shiyao and the others—only to find them standing in a circle.
Each person held a wooden stick, and in the center stood a wooden stake with a severely injured white fox tied to it, letting out shrill cries.
Every time it cried, the group would raise their sticks and slam them brutally onto its head—one hit per person—accompanied by furious scolding.
Bai Qiu: “……”
What on earth happened in just a few minutes?
— The end of the Chapter–
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