"Crack, crack, crack."
A sound of ice cracking echoed.
Su Ling's lips curled into a bitter smile.
"As expected, it still won't work?"
Su Ling was already at the end of her rope, using her last bit of strength to activate a Spiritual Artifact once. Unfortunately, while the momentum was grand, its power was insufficient. She hadn't expected that not only did it fail to kill in one blow, but the time it could hold the Demonic Beast was also so short?
The Azure Wind Wolf Leader's body scattered Wind Blades, breaking free from the ice's restraint. When it jumped onto the ice surface, its legs also buckled.
The power of the ice wave wasn't as small as Su Ling had imagined. After all, no Spiritual Artifact was simple. Su Ling's Family had spent a fortune to acquire it back then. This could be considered Su Ling using a private item for public use.
The Azure Wind Wolf Leader had also endured injuries and forcibly erupted to break through the ice seal up. Having spent so much effort, it absolutely had to get this prey today.
Although the Azure Wind Wolf Leader's ability was greatly damaged, it was still a Demonic Beast. At this moment, killing Su Ling with just its Physical Body would be no difficulty.
When Qin Chao saw the Azure Wind Wolf Leader break free from the ice seal up, he felt a moment of regret, thinking Su Ling was about to perish. He had intended to retreat immediately, but seeing the Demonic Beast with its legs buckling and spitting blood upon landing, he couldn't help but hesitate.
Recalling how Su Ling had fought with all her might on the battlefield, and how her final order to retreat had saved his own life, even if the other party might not remember him, a small fry.
However, Qin Chao looked at the Demonic Beast's current state, and an idea suddenly arose in his heart, courage born from kindness.
He'd risk it.
Qin Chao glanced at the surroundings, directly picked up the rifle he carried, and began sweeping fire at the Azure Wind Wolf Leader. Bullets struck its green fur, leaving scratches, but unfortunately, they couldn't cause much damage.
The Azure Wind Wolf Leader was startled at first, but then it reacted, glancing at Qin Chao holding the rifle. The bullets fired didn't cause much damage, just its fur. It actually ignored him and continued walking towards Su Ling.
Su Ling's heart leaped with joy when she heard the gunshots, initially thinking it was her own people, sending support because she hadn't returned for a long time. She looked closely and found it was just someone dressed as a miscellaneous soldier, holding a standard-issue rifle, sweeping fire at the Demonic Beast. There was no other support around, and her heart sank again.
Su Ling was already severely injured, and with her emotions fluctuating, she couldn't help but spit out another mouthful of fresh blood, collapsing and kneeling on the ground.
Seeing that he couldn't lure it over, Qin Chao directly raised his gun and charged out.
He approached the Azure Wind Wolf Leader from the side to within ten meters, stopped, and continued firing, secretly aiming his thumb at the Demonic Beast's eye.
The Azure Wind Leader disdainfully glanced at Qin Chao and continued to stride towards Su Ling, who was three meters away.
"Hiss~" The sound of a Qi Sword cutting through the air, mixed with the scattering gunfire, shot towards the Azure Wind Wolf Leader's eye.
The Azure Wind Wolf Leader was already severely injured, and its reaction speed was reduced. At such a close distance, a Qi Sword embedded in the bullet rain was already too late to dodge by the time it noticed.
"Puff!" The Azure Wind Wolf Leader's right eye exploded, splattering blood. Its wolf head was violently twisted to the left, causing its body to spin a few times on the ice before falling onto the ice surface.
Qin Chao's heart lightened.
"It worked. It truly lives up to the saying 'a dog's eye looks down on people.'"
Qin Chao didn't dare to be careless at this moment and retreated.
The Azure Wind Wolf Leader, having suffered such a severe blow, didn't react immediately. Its right eye had already lost its vision. It thrashed a few times and finally stood steady. It let out a mournful howl, aiming its remaining left eye at Qin Chao and charged over.
Qin Chao saw the Demonic Beast charging and kept dodging into its blind spot. The Azure Wind Wolf Leader had to keep tilting its head to find Qin Chao's position.
A wolf's maw, tinged with green, rushed directly at Qin Chao.
Seeing this, Qin Chao no longer held back. His thumb fired two Qi Swords consecutively, accurately striking the joints of the Demonic Beast's front legs. The Azure Wind Leader was unable to dodge, its front claws stumbled, and it knelt on the ice. Its hind legs kept scrambling, continuing to rush towards Qin Chao.
Qin Chao fired Qi Swords continuously, but unfortunately, they could only create bone-deep scratches on the Azure Wind Wolf Leader's scalp, slowing it down, but not causing fatal injuries.
Seeing this, Qin Chao no longer retreated. He directly knelt down, aimed his thumb at the open wolf's maw, and desperately charged his Qi. Looking at the gradually approaching Demonic Beast, Qin Chao, as a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, couldn't help but recall the first time he performed acupuncture on himself, and his hand became even steadier.
A tearing pain shot from the pad of his thumb directly to the fingertip. A Qi Sword, even thicker than when he had a Breakthrough, shot directly into the charging wolf's maw.
The Azure Wind Wolf Leader closed its mouth immediately as the Qi Sword entered, and it stopped moving.
A stream of fresh blood flowed from between its closed wolf fangs.
The wolf's corpse slid all the way to Qin Chao's front due to inertia.
Qin Chao looked at the wolf corpse in front of him and sneered disdainfully:
"Beasts are just beasts."
He ignored Su Ling's strange gaze and directly placed his hand on the corpse's head.
Inside a military command vehicle in the advancing convoy.
Su Ling had changed into a new military uniform and sat at the command table, looking at the data in front of her. Across from her, Qin Chao was blankly flipping through his own System panel.
Host: Qin Chao
Stamina: 20
Strength: 15
Speed: 16
Spirit: 23
Acupoints Unlocked: 2
Meridians Opened: 0
Wei Qi Ying Blood System: Not activated
Five Zhi System: Not activated
Essence Storage: 1243
Seeing that his Essence had become a four-digit number, his heart blossomed with joy.
He was pondering how to use it, but the tearing pain still present in his finger made Qin Chao a little worried.
Two hours ago.
After Qin Chao successfully absorbed the Essence, he glanced at the Essence value, and his heart was also filled with great joy. At this moment, the long-absent System prompt sounded again:
"Detected that the host's Essence value has reached the standard. Medicinal Pill Exchange System has been activated."
Upon hearing this, Qin Chao thought: "Medicinal Pills? Does this mean I can go back to my old profession as a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner?"
Just as he was about to browse the newly activated function,
Su Ling, who was slumped on the ground beside him, looked at this fifteen or sixteen-year-old half-grown boy, touching the head of the dead Azure Wind Wolf Leader, sometimes grinning foolishly, sometimes surprised, and couldn't help but speak up to remind him, startled by his reactions:
"Hey, don't just stand there. This guy's pack is still behind us and could come over at any time. Help me up and let's quickly return to the team."
Qin Chao then snapped back to reality. Hearing Su Ling's reminder, he thought:
Even one of these is so troublesome, and there's a whole pack behind them. This place is not suitable for staying long.
Seeing Su Ling's condition, he asked:
"Can your Physical Body still walk by itself?"
As a high-ranking officer in the military, Su Ling, though lacking in strength, was unwilling to let a stranger she had just met less than five minutes ago touch her, so she replied:
"Just give me that ice blade, and I'll walk myself."
Seeing this, Qin Chao said no more. One less trouble is better than one more. If you don't need care, I'm happy to relax.
After some effort to pull out the ice blade, the two hurried towards the direction of the team.
About ten minutes after the two left, more than twenty Qingfeng Wolves found their way to the location. Seeing the dead leader's corpse, they began to fight over it. After a series of tearing and biting, only a pool of blood remained on the ice surface.