Chapter 7

When the power of the domain descended, Jade Snow Wolf immediately fell back.

But it was still too slow.

The slowing effect had already taken hold.

The Jade Snow Wolf, famed for its speed, suddenly became sluggish.

Xu Jintang was moving as well.

The dagger that had fought beside her all along appeared instantly in her hand.

In the blink of an eye, the sharp blade stabbed toward the Jade Snow Wolf.

Her offensive ability was too weak; if the wolf recovered in time, she would easily be counterattacked.

She had to finish it as quickly as possible.

A clear clang rang out as the dagger’s edge met the wolf’s fur.

Looking at the blade, now chipped again, Xu Jintang frowned slightly.

The Jade Snow Wolf’s fur was as hard as jade; ordinary daggers and swords could not hurt it at all.

She returned the dagger to her spatial bracelet, then leaped onto a treetop opposite her and crouched slightly, looking down to observe the wolf’s movements within the domain.

Then she would have to change tactics.

The Jade Snow Wolf, trapped within the Slowing Domain, was rapidly losing patience. It suddenly raised a claw and let out a thunderous howl, a wave of power surging outward and shattering the entire domain.

The moment the domain broke, the spiritual force within Xu Jintang was consumed at once, and a wave of weakness slowly rose through her body.

She could not drag this out any longer.

The Jade Snow Wolf was stronger than an ordinary first-rank beast, and its spiritual power was even more terrifying.

She could not afford to compete with it in endurance.

A combat rune quietly appeared in Xu Jintang’s palm.

It was a first-rank basic attack rune she had inscribed after several sleepless nights.

The Jade Snow Wolf broke free of the Slowing Domain, bared its bloodthirsty jaws, and launched itself viciously toward Xu Jintang in the tree.

Its sharp claws dug tightly into the trunk, leaving deep gouges, and the branch beneath Xu Jintang began to shake violently.

A cold glint flashed through Xu Jintang’s eyes as she crushed the rune talisman.

Three blade-like streams of attack energy slowly took shape.

Then she sprang from the two-meter-high branch and charged at the Jade Snow Wolf below.

Ice Domain.

Xu Jintang frantically drew upon the remaining spiritual force in her body, gathering all her energy into the domain.

A terrifying chill began to descend.

The bone-piercing cold carried an immense pressure, the threat and killing intent of a high-rank beast.

Sensing the danger, the Jade Snow Wolf actually showed a trace of fear in its wolfish eyes, and its body involuntarily faltered, retreating by instinct.

At the same time, the three attack rune blades had already reached its face.

Then, suddenly, everything changed.

A golden spear with a red tassel fell from the sky and locked onto the Jade Snow Wolf before Xu Jintang, piercing straight through it.

The spear, flying in from afar, struck without hesitation. The wolf’s eyes widened; before it could even resist, it let out a miserable cry and collapsed powerlessly to the ground.

"Class leader! Come over here quickly!"

A clear girl’s voice rang out.

Xu Jintang froze for a moment, silently dispersing the ability she had been about to unleash, then turned to look behind her.

It was Huang Binhan leading a group of people hurriedly in her direction.

The one who had called out just now was Song Duoduo, the classmate in their class who loved gossip the most.

She ran out from the line and up to Xu Jintang, worry evident in her eyes. "Class leader, why did you come alone to the Blizzard Forest? If the teacher hadn’t acted in time just now, that would have been so dangerous."

Huang Binhan also came over with a frown, his tone somewhat stern. "You came here alone?"

Only then did Xu Jintang realize that this squad should be the group of students from the academy who were taking part in the winter break special training.

She cleared her throat and answered, "I just wanted to see whether I could beat a first-rank beast now."

Huang Binhan’s brow furrowed even tighter. "Nonsense! You only awakened your ability not long ago. Even first-rank beasts are far stronger in combat than you. What would you do if something happened after coming here alone?"

Song Duoduo hurriedly pulled Xu Jintang into the team, smoothing things over. "Teacher, the class leader definitely didn’t mean it. Since we’ve run into her, why not let her join us?"

Xu Jintang caught Xu Bohan’s cold glance from within the team; he was probably also mocking her for overestimating herself.

Beasts possessed harder hides and claws and fangs. One swipe from them would be more than human skin could endure, so beasts of the same rank generally had higher attack and defense than humans.

Under normal circumstances, first-rank ability users would not take it upon themselves to challenge a beast of the same rank alone.

Huang Binhan turned around and swept a stern gaze over the other students. "I know you’ve all just awakened your abilities and are eager to go fight beasts. But the prerequisite for growing stronger is first to protect your own lives. Don’t let a moment of recklessness drive you to challenge dangers beyond your capability. If something really happens, there will be no chance to regret it."

Xu Jintang could hear that he was speaking to her.

She lowered her head awkwardly.

Of course she still valued her life. If it were not for Brother Long, she definitely would not have dared to challenge a beast of the same rank alone.

"Class leader, why didn’t you take part in the winter special training this time?" Song Duoduo asked curiously.

Xu Jintang casually found an excuse. "I had another arrangement at the last minute, so I didn’t join."

Song Duoduo did not think much of it and quickly changed the subject. "I’m telling you, you missed so much gossip by not coming this time. You know that pair who used to be super close? They’ve fallen out now."

Xu Jintang was startled and quickly lowered her voice to ask, "Which pair?"

Song Duoduo narrowed one eye and secretly pointed to a spot in the team. "Those two over there."

After looking for quite a while, Xu Jintang finally figured out which two she meant.

Those two used to be so close they might as well have shared one pair of trousers. She had never expected them to break apart now.

Kids these days really knew how to stir things up.

Because she had happened to run into the special training team led by Huang Binhan, Xu Jintang had no choice but to follow along and continue the practical training in the forest with them.

Considering the danger, Huang Binhan’s special training task was for every five students to form a team and jointly surround and kill a first-rank beast.

For students who had not yet encountered real beasts, the task was still fairly difficult.

But Xu Jintang did not take it seriously at all.

A few days later, Xu Jintang’s five-person team fully encircled a first-rank Phantom Cat Demon. After a fierce struggle, Song Duoduo from the team delivered the fatal blow.

"We did it! We really killed a beast!" Song Duoduo cried out in excitement.

The other members of the team also cheered for victory.

Xu Jintang, who had barely made a move at all beside them, quietly yawned.

In the afternoon, several other teams also completed their beast-killing tasks one after another.

Under his leadership, Xu Bohan’s team killed three first-rank beasts in a row, becoming the best-performing team in this special training.

Huang Binhan gathered the students together and stood before them to announce, "You all performed very well in this training. There are only two days left until school starts. Rest well, make some adjustments, and prepare to welcome the new semester."

Song Duoduo and the others immediately stopped smiling.

At that moment, everyone remembered the academy’s long-standing custom: the new semester entrance assessment.

"After training all winter break, we have to take an exam as soon as school starts. So annoying."

Song Duoduo clutched her hair and began to break down.

On the other side, Xu Bohan looked a little excited. It seemed he was very satisfied with the results of his winter special training.

Xu Jintang did not think much of it. After parting from her classmates, she returned directly to the Star City.

During the winter break, she spent every day in the Blizzard Forest practicing real combat against beasts, and the beast cores in her spatial bracelet had accumulated quite a lot.

The official Earn It service currently offered a wide range of business across the star system, including online shopping, secondhand trading, part-time order-taking, and item recycling.

Moreover, to make transactions convenient for citizens, physical branches had been set up in major star cities. As long as one brought the item into the store, it could be bought or sold directly.

Xu Jintang randomly picked an Earn It chain store and went to the beast core recycling counter. "Hello, I’d like to sell the core of a first-rank Flowing Fire Lizard."

Beast cores contained the most refined energy from the beast’s lifetime.

However, because they contained dangerous toxins, humans could not yet directly consume beast cores to increase their strength.

Only rune masters could use enhancement runes to convert the energy in the core into rune talismans, which ability users could then activate with the corresponding enhancement runes to obtain the core’s energy.

Xu Jintang had far too many Flowing Fire Lizard cores in her space. She planned to sell part of them first, and then try making some special enhancement runes with the rest.

The staff member glanced at Xu Jintang and replied flatly, "The official unified buyback price for a first-rank beast core is fifty star coins each."

First-rank beast cores were too common and not very valuable.

That price was reasonable enough.

Xu Jintang nodded. "I have twenty-five."

She swept her hand, and a pile of beast cores immediately appeared on the counter.

The staff member froze. "So many?"

He looked at Xu Jintang with curiosity. She seemed quite young—could she really have taken down so many beasts alone?

Though it was also possible that several people had jointly killed these beast cores, and this girl had come alone to sell them.

After thinking it over, the staff member felt the latter was more likely.

He put away his look of surprise and began counting the cores.

"In total, that comes to seven hundred and fifty star coins, already transferred to your account." The staff member smiled.

Xu Jintang checked her balance, confirmed the amount was correct, and nodded. "All right."

Two days later.

On the day of returning to school, the girls’ dormitory building at Dawn Academy became lively at once.

In the hallway, laughter from the various rooms was especially clear.

Xu Jintang walked briskly back to the dormitory with her hands in her pockets.

"Class leader, have you heard? Song Tianqi is coming back to our academy this semester," Song Duoduo suddenly ran over.

Xu Jintang stopped and hesitated for a moment. "Wasn’t he taken to the higher star regions for development?"

Song Duoduo leaned close to Xu Jintang’s ear and lowered her voice. "They say he’ll be sent back to the lower star region first for a year of training, and then return to Rektas Military Academy. The military academy seems to value him a lot. This time they even sent an especially outstanding cadet to come back with him—probably to protect him."

Xu Jintang was a little surprised. "Song Tianqi was directly recruited by Rektas Military Academy?"

"Yes. So enviable." Song Duoduo sighed. "The Federation’s number one military academy—so many people fight to the death and still can’t get in. Song Tianqi has truly soared to the heavens. I wonder just how powerful the ability he awakened really is."

A little interest rose in Xu Jintang’s heart, and she asked Frostscale Dragon about it.

"Brother Long, compared with Song Tianqi’s ability, which one is stronger?"

Frostscale Dragon let out a proud little laugh. "At the same rank, no one can defeat your Ice Domain."

That was the innate confidence of a tenth-rank divine beast.

No matter how strong other people’s abilities were, their ability manifestations were still only virtual creations shaped by spiritual force.

But inside Xu Jintang lived a true dragon.