The Era of Gods-Chapter 740: Novice Village (Part 2)

Ten people stood in line at the even more dilapidated school gate. In just one day, the weeds had visibly grown a great deal; it felt like in less than a week, they could take over right to the entrance of the teaching building.

Lin Xiao said to the nine students behind him:

"This is your last reminder: Once you leave, there is no turning back. I don’t have time to escort anyone back on a whim."

No one responded, and he nodded and said:

"Follow closely behind me. When encountering any monsters, your first instinct should not be how to fight, but how to survive. Obey my orders, and when I say run, don’t hesitate—just run. Now, follow me."

He led the way out of the school, with the nine students tightly following behind.

They had barely stepped into the underbrush for five seconds when a few Bat Monsters rushed out from behind the dense leaves of a nearby tree. He stood still, letting them pounce before grabbing one and slamming it to the ground, then stepping on its wings and breaking them before pointing at two boys:

"One each. Kill them."

The Bat Monsters now wouldn’t add much strength to him, but for a newcomer, each was worth an additional five kilograms of strength—a very cost-effective deal.

There weren’t many bigger monsters nearby and Gorilla Monsters were rare. The most seen around the school had been only three even after circling it twice over the last two days. It was mostly Long-haired Wolves and Bat Monsters, ideal for them.

The group slowly made their way around the edge of the school, constantly encountering Long-haired Wolves or Bat Monsters, all of which he disabled and tossed to them.

Divided among the nine of them, it wasn’t a lot, but it was enough to add dozens of kilograms of strength, a substantial enhancement for ordinary people.

After the enhancement, even a few of the female students seemed eager to try out their greatly increased strength.

Ordinary people suddenly gaining a lot of strength will definitely feel somewhat emboldened.

Lin Xiao didn’t try to lecture them, just occasionally threw a Bat Monster at them without disabling it, forcing them to cope on their own.

The first one was killed by wild ax swings, but for the second, he singled out the most confident boy. It only took a few swipes for the boy to start crying for mercy, his body covered in scratches, quickly becoming docile.

He then split the nine students into three groups of three, each group cooperating to handle the attacks.

All being average students, he couldn’t expect them to stand on their own all at once. He wanted them to work as teams and try to face more and stronger enemies.

"Bang!"

Just as they turned the corner at the edge of the school, they saw a three-meter-tall Black Gorilla Monster knocking down the school’s perimeter wall, about to enter. Lin Xiao picked up a brick from near the wall and hit the Gorilla Monster with it, pointing at the imposing beast rushing towards them with a roar and said to the slightly frightened students:

"I’ll handle this one. Watch its attack patterns closely, so next time you won’t be defenseless."

With that, he charged, knife in hand. As the Gorilla Monster swung at him, he ducked and brushed past, slashing a long wound across its body.

The Gorilla Monster roared and turned around, its arms coming down to slap. Lin Xiao’s mind shifted, activating his Talent "Time Acceleration," instantly doubling his cognitive reaction and speed. In the state of the Talent, he could keenly feel the entire world slow down the moment it was engaged.

The Gorilla Monster roared and turned, ’slowly’ bringing its arms down, but he moved with great speed, cutting its neck with his knife. Blood slowly spurted out. He could even see the Bone Chopping Knife splitting the skin, tearing apart the flesh, and severing blood vessels all in rapid succession, then with ease circling behind the Gorilla Monster before its face could contort in pain, dealing another blow to the neck.

To the students watching from near the wall, Lin Xiao appeared unimaginably fast in an instant, like a fast-forward video, crazily slashing the Gorilla Monster’s neck seven or eight times as if he were lightning, severing a ring of flesh down to the neck bone, blood gushing like a fountain.

When Time Acceleration ended, Lin Xiao had already retreated over ten meters, watching coldly the beast’s final, furious counterattack.

"Oh my God, you’re amazing!"

As the bloodied, massive body of the Black Gorilla, over three meters tall, hit the ground hard, the students came up to him still in shock, the girls looking at him with starry-eyed admiration.

Zhuo Jing pushed her large black-rimmed glasses up her prominent nose and inspected the Gorilla Monster’s corpse carefully. Turning to Lin Xiao, who also looked her way, she asked with a smile:

"Zhuo Jing, do you have any questions?"

She shook her head:

"No, I’m just amazed at how powerful you are, Lin Xiao."

He replied with a smile:

"No one starts off this powerful. It’s only through extensive combat that I’ve accumulated this experience."

No one paid any attention to the corpse—gorilla meat wasn’t tasty.

Continuing on, they soon encountered a small pack of Long-haired Wolves. Lin Xiao directly engaged half of them, leaving the rest for them, just right for the three small teams.

But before he could finish off those in front of him, two Bat Monsters suddenly flew out from the treetops. Lin Xiao was prepared to catch them, but the next second he stopped and loudly cautioned:

"Two Bat Monsters incoming. Deal with them yourselves."

It was a sudden situation that wasn’t too threatening, to see whether they could solve it.

This sudden situation immediately made them tense; fortunately, they had already killed quite a few creatures alongside him, so their mindset was no longer that of an ordinary person. After the initial panic, they quickly recovered, and Zhuo Jing immediately said:

"I’ll take on one, and each of your teams detaches someone to handle another."

As she spoke, she left the original battle to face one of the Bat Monsters, but she forgot one thing: these Bat Monsters and the Long-haired Wolves attacking them would not cooperate obediently. As soon as she turned around, she heard a cautious voice behind her. Before she could turn back, she was pounced on from behind by a Long-haired Wolf; her body twisted nimbly as she avoided the attack and with a backhand swing of her axe, skewed the wolf’s head. However, the other two Bat Monsters had pounced on her, knocking her to the ground, their sharp claws working in tandem, instantly covering her face in blood, followed by a scream as an eyeball was directly gouged out.

Lin Xiao sighed inwardly. Time Roaming flashed by as he bisected the two Bat Monsters, whose thought processes were in a state of Stagnation. He caught the falling Zhuo Jing and kicked the Long-haired Wolf towards the other two classmates, who cut it down in mid-air.

Setting her down on the ground, he removed his big black-rimmed glasses and parted his thick bangs to reveal an incredibly delicate girlish face, marred by the bloody ruins of her eye socket.

He hadn’t expected she would turn out to be the legendary treasure girl, but it was a pity about her luck.

With such a severe injury, she would have undoubtedly died without treatment, as massive bleeding and infection of the wounds could have been fatal. However, the world they lived in was different. When they killed monsters and gained Evolution Points and Strength, there was an inherent healing and recovery effect, so although her left eye was beyond saving, there was no massive bleeding or infection, and her life was preserved.

For a girl, especially one as beautiful as she, disfigurement could be more terrifying and harder to accept than the loss of life itself, but she only felt sad for one night. The next day when they set off, she came to Lin Xiao again and looked at him.

Lin Xiao observed her hastily bandaged left eye and her determined gaze, and he nodded, saying:

"Let’s go."

Her courage and unwavering faith in the face of disfigurement and near death merited recognition, and Lin Xiao certainly didn’t skimp on giving her opportunities.

The following day was just like the previous one. Starting from the school gate and with the previous day’s tragedy in mind, they became even more vigilant, and their Combat Power grew at a visibly fast rate.

Zhuo Jing in particular was always facing a Long-haired Wolf or Bat Monster alone, quickly becoming covered in wounds. Her delicate skin was sliced open with numerous bloody cuts, yet she didn’t cry out in pain.

What Lin Xiao found most impressive was her learning ability. He was surprised to discover that Zhuo Jing had a very strong Talent for battle. She not only imitated his way of fighting but didn’t simply mimic directly, instead integrating it with her own conditions to form her own style of combat, which he found astonishing.

Lin Xiao soon became interested, and over the following days, he specifically instructed her, giving her individual guidance.

By noon on the sixth day, after killing two Long-haired Wolves, she successfully evolved to Rank 1.

Everyone curiously gathered around as Lin Xiao stood in front of the meditating Zhuo Jing, carefully examining the wounds on her face and hands that were visibly healing, her skin returning to a tender girlish smoothness, eliciting wonder from the onlookers.

He couldn’t help but reach out his finger to touch her seemingly delicate face, smooth and tender, with a subtle blush emerging. His hand paused and withdrew as he saw her eyes open, her long eyelashes fluttering as if she felt a bit shy.

"How do you feel?"

"A very powerful strength."

"Let me see."

He reached out his hand, and Zhuo Jing pursed her lips but extended hers as well. Lin Xiao didn’t think too much of it. He completely enveloped her small hand in his large one, applying gentle pressure, and nodded, saying:

"The Strength should be the same for all Rank 1 Evolvers."

With a Rank 1 Evolver on their side, and considering Zhuo Jing’s strong heart and Talent, none of her peers were a match for her. Lin Xiao was already prepared to let go.

He decided to have her lead the team for training in the vicinity while he ventured deeper into the jungle to look for stronger monsters. He had been delayed for two days and needed to continue growing.

At the end of the day, back in the classroom, he shared his decision with everyone. Although they were reluctant to see him go, they understood that the team needed a strong leader.

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They were all students who hadn’t left the school grounds, with relatively simple thought processes and less greed. If they were adults who had been in society for a while, they wouldn’t think the same way.

Back in the teaching building, just as another class of boys came back, they saw them and smiled awkwardly before heading upstairs.

On the fourth floor, some students were already out and about. After their daily extermination efforts, there weren’t many monsters within the school, and after a few days, they had gained enough courage to come out, though they still lacked the courage to venture beyond. Lin Xiao didn’t bother to say anything. Destiny was in their own hands; if they didn’t seize the opportunity, there was nothing to be done.

Moreover, they needed some ordinary people to handle minor tasks like cooking and laundry, which were now definitely left to them.

At night, Lin Xiao, who was sleeping at the door of another classroom, suddenly opened his eyes to see Zhuo Jing standing quietly in front of him. She whispered upon seeing him awaken:

"Lin Xiao, could you come out for a moment? I have a question I’d like to ask you."

On the corridor, he looked towards the completely dark, starless area outside the school and asked:

"What’s the matter?"

The girl said:

"I think I awakened a Talent today, but I don’t know how to use it and wanted to ask you for advice."