The scarecrow's attack came so suddenly, though, if it weren't sudden, could it still be called an attack?
Its branch-like claws were razor-sharp, and the human eye is so fragile—if struck, it would surely…
Fortunately, it missed. Not only did it miss, but it was also met with a sharp smack…
A shovel, coming from the side at a much faster speed, struck viciously against its waist, breaking both its body and its skeletal frame. Its figure shrank drastically, and upon hitting the ground, it looked up, attempting to pounce madly towards Yao's head. But—Yao countered, with a swift move, a chop! Smack! Right at its skull.
Its head was shattered to bits.
Scarecrow slain, +5 points!
The points weren't much, but then again, the scarecrow wasn't a formidable foe.
However, it must be in great numbers.
Yao made a decisive run forward.
Sure enough, the surrounding scarecrows seemed to have been roused. All of them began hopping and leaping toward her.
Yao wasn't worried about handling a dozen or so scarecrows. What she feared was being surrounded. The time between attacks was crucial—if she cleared one wave only to be engulfed by multiple more, it would lead to a fatal outcome.
This place wasn't suitable for fighting many at once.
Yao ran swiftly, reaching a dirt slope about four to five meters high. From this vantage point, she launched her missiles, aiming mostly at the heads. If any scarecrow broke through her defenses and came too close, the shovel was ready to strike.
To her credit, this strategy had its merits. For someone with Yao's current strength of 20,000 points, it was highly effective.
On the tapered dirt slope, the scarecrows had limited space to approach. At most, seven or eight could manage to climb up. Yao carefully controlled the missile frequency, conserving both her elemental and mental energy. In the beginning, it was relatively easy, and her points were climbing steadily. But as more and more scarecrows arrived, her attack rate had to increase.
Her mental energy drained faster, but the scarecrows were forced to slow down. They had realized that the ones who climbed first were invariably killed.
This…
They slowed their climbing.
Seizing the opportunity after clearing the front wave, Yao quickly drank a mental energy potion…
Many had been calculating her total mental energy and skill-casting speed to estimate her combat power.
Though she had previously overwhelmed others, her main strengths lay in her intellect and shamelessness, making it difficult to pinpoint her exact arcane level. Of course, her technique was undeniably strong.
But what is the most important foundation for an arcane practitioner?
Skillful execution is merely an embellishment; the real key lies in attributes, skill compatibility, and the complementary means of arcane power (whether treasures or companions).
Her meditative aptitude could give some insight into her attributes, and that was not something she could easily conceal.
As for skill compatibility, treasures, and even companions—those all depended on resources.
Resources typically came from two sources: family background and dungeon opportunities.
From Xie An's attitude, and the fact that this person had been found back by the Xie family less than a month ago, it was clear that the first factor was irrelevant. As for the second… well, it was also under a month. No matter how skilled this person was, they couldn't have experienced more than two months' worth of dungeons in that short period, unless their luck was astronomical. Besides, the X5 star didn't feature high-quality dungeons, only wild monsters and bandits. As for Jingyang's recent opportunities, they hadn't been part of any other dungeon except for that small farm incident. But even then, she wasn't the biggest beneficiary; the greatest MVP had been that girl.
Thus, Blue Lockheed concluded: "Her greatest asset must be her genetic talent. If her genetic talent is exceptional, then she certainly has the potential for a comeback."
His analysis was sound, but other members of the Blue family couldn't help but remind him, "Second Master, don't forget, she made a fortune off the eldest son's incident, earning tens of billions."
Ah, that's right.
But what could fifty billion really do? It sounded like a lot, but it was spent quickly—after all, it was copper coin, not green coin. Green-tier resources weren't even calculated in billions of copper coins.
She probably wouldn't buy many explosive resources, right? But, just now, her backpack didn't seem to contain any of those.
Explosive resources seemed useful, but the side effects were considerable. They created too much noise and could easily turn one into a target in dungeons. Plus, the chemical reactions from explosions could interfere with the surrounding elements, effectively diminishing subsequent arcane use.
Generally speaking, explosive resources were either surprise tactics to end a battle quickly or used to escape.
As for Ochs, everything about him was elusive—difficult to fathom.
Blue Lockheed furrowed his brow.
Just as Yao launched a missile to control the distance between her and the scarecrows, her other hand grasped a potion, tilting her head slightly when suddenly, the air behind her stirred. Nearby debris swirled into the air, quickly assembling into a stone hammer aimed directly at her skull!
It was devious, vicious, and unexpected.
Another arcane practitioner! Another candidate!
The hammer missed her skull as she dodged, but the next moment, it disintegrated into a shower of sharp fragments, splintering into the scarecrows. This unintentionally drew their attention, causing them to grow agitated.
The rhythm Yao had previously controlled was disrupted, and as she moved from her original position, she couldn't finish off the last wave. In that moment, dozens of scarecrows surged from below, trapping her.
She was caught.
Bang, bang, bang!
Yao had no choice but to speed up her missile attacks.
At that moment, about three hundred meters to the south, hidden in a mound of dry grass, an almost invisible sniper, his weapon cloaked, locked onto Yao. With his enhanced sensory goggles, he detected every movement she made, transmitting it to his brain, urging his body to react faster than any human eye could see.
This sniper wasn't like any ordinary sharpshooter; his mechanical sensitivity was off the charts, and his marksmanship was deadly. After Yao had fired five missiles, he realized her muscle strength and mental energy were reaching their limits.
That very moment...
He squeezed the trigger.
Bang!
An ice-crystal-like bullet shot from the rifle, leaving behind a trail of frosty white. The next second... it veered off course.
Because the gun itself tilted, and his body was off-balance.
"Ah!"
At that moment, he was fully focused, more than ever before, unaware that beneath the ground, a thin wire began to seep through the soil. Softening, it suddenly hardened, and in that instant...
A horrifying scream erupted from his throat.
His body jerked, and as he leaped into the air, it was clear he hadn't noticed the danger in time.
While the higher-level experts like Zhou Linlang had already known that someone was lurking nearby, they hadn't expected him to expose himself so suddenly.
His posture was strange—his gun had flown out of his hands as he clutched his legs in agony, his lower legs bent unnaturally as if he were trying to hold back urine. His face was as pale as if all life had been drained from him.
Looking closely, his hands were soaked in blood.
Had he been stabbed?
The disturbance was so loud that even the scarecrows turned their heads in shock. Seeing him, they immediately became distracted and began charging toward him.
His face changed as he fumbled for a healing potion, summoning his arcane powers while attempting to dodge to the side.
But this time...
Just like when Yao had dodged the scarecrow's attack and allowed him to fire at her, he found himself under a new threat.
A sharp sound cut through the air.
He turned and saw it.
Yao had raised her hand, pulled out a gun, and fired.
Bang!
His head tilted to one side as he crumpled to the ground.
Was he dead? With his level of experience, even if he couldn't dodge in time, he could have immediately exited the game. The fact that his body remained meant he hadn't exited yet—meaning he wasn't dead!
Bang, bang, bang! She fired in rapid succession, and the man, realizing his act wasn't convincing enough, rolled into the dry grass nearby.
The grass rustled as he tried to blend in, but Yao noticed a faint glow around his head.
"He didn't die!"
"Unbelievable."
"Look, there are bullets near his feet."
"But he doesn't look familiar. He must be from another city."
This defense was clearly the result of headgear armor and at least forty thousand points in physical defense.
While it was only effective for his head, it was impressive nonetheless.
No wonder he had escaped from prison so easily.
The young man, now rising, had spiky red hair like a hedgehog. He quickly disappeared into the grass, his leg wound already healing. His eyes burned with hatred, and as he prepared to rush at Yao, he realized—though her mental power and attributes were not terribly strong, she seemed to command a deadly, underground arcane array.
And that insight into his disguise... she was no ordinary opponent.
Only by taking her down first would he be able to stop his plans from unraveling.
Someone who could break out of prison so quickly was not an ordinary individual.
She was decisive.
The young man dashed forward, abandoning his gun. With quick footwork, he attempted to confuse Yao's aim, but after chanting an incantation, four fiery serpents swirled around him, charging at Yao from four different directions.
This level of mastery over fire arcane magic meant the opponent had much stronger mental power and arcane talents than Ochs, who had been so stingy with his use of magic.
Yao leapt off the dirt slope, hiding in the grass.
The surrounding scarecrows, drawn by their movements, also followed them into the chaos.
Now, within this tangled melee, stealth and assassination were the only ways to survive.
The onlookers saw only the rustling of grass, unsure of what was happening.
"Whoever that is, they're strong. Ochs may be in trouble."
"His intellect is exceptional, but once you're in a true battlefield, it's all about strength."
"Just wait, she... she's about to finish it."
Experienced observers quickly formed their conclusions based on the shifting of the grass.
Then, with a burst, the young man shot out from behind a hidden figure, wielding a weapon with a sharp clash!
Yao was sent flying by the impact, flipping through the air before she landed and saw the approaching scarecrows and the young man appearing in a flash before her. His torso and heart were shielded by powerful armor, and his hands were clasped, a swirling vortex of fiery energy forming between his palms.
"Die…"
The fireball was ready to launch.
At that moment, Yao's counterattack was swift.
Suddenly, the heavy, ominous weight of a coffin appeared.
A coffin? The one obtained by killing the Coffin-Bearer?
Why did she have it? I never got it, even though I killed the Coffin-Bearer too!
With a terrifying thud, the fireball-wielding young man was thrown through the air by the force of the coffin.
His face and skull slammed into the coffin board, and in the process, the fireball lost control, exploding prematurely.
The blast hit the scarecrows charging toward them, causing them to explode in a fiery, chaotic frenzy.
The battlefield turned into an inferno, with the scarecrows fleeing in fear of the flames.
Yao hopped onto the coffin board, gazing at the young man beneath it, whose head had swollen grotesquely and who was unconscious.
His wound healed impressively fast, showing he must possess a powerful artifact or genetic talent.
Incredible. He was indeed a formidable opponent from another city.
Yao glanced down at him, then casually pulled out a gun.
To kill?
He was unconscious, unable to exit. This was the perfect opportunity.
The crowd still speculated whether Yao would take the final strike. The next moment, the sound of rapid gunfire rang out!
The young man's body was riddled with bullets—though his formidable constitution, defense, and incredible healing prevented him from dying, he was definitely wounded.
After shooting him into a sieve, Yao didn't seem disappointed. Instead, she pulled out a rope and hoisted him up, tying him to a cross-like structure.
She bled him out and left him hanging there.
Meanwhile, the scarecrows were drawn to him, attacking him with frenzied abandon.
Yao remained hidden, drinking soda as she took aim…
Bang, bang, bang!
Her points soared, racking up more and more.
The perfect bait, long-range sniping—what a smooth operation!