The Three Realms Thief Chapter 16

“Where are we going now?” Jiang Xueyao asked.

“Xu Yuan, you tell us,” Yang Xiaobing said.

“Afei, you’re in charge of distributing pills. Xiaobing, you’re responsible for scouting ahead and guarding the rear. Jiang Xueyao and I will lead the front, ready for battle at any time.”

Xu Yuan quickly assigned tasks.

—It was just an exam, which should have been insignificant.

But now it was tied to a nightmare-level competition.

The woman who appeared just now—no, it should be a monster—just looking at it made him inexplicably nervous.

Let’s get out of this area first!

“Okay,” the others responded in unison.

Zhao Afei directly took out several gourds, giving one to each person, and quickly said,

“The four types of pills—grain abstinence, spirit replenishment, body healing, and toxin removal—are all in the gourds. I personally refined them all. They’ve been reported before the exam, so you can eat them with confidence.”

Yang Xiaobing drew a talisman and held it upright in front of her.

A Pathfinding Talisman.

She saw that three corners of the talisman had turned black, while the remaining corner was clean as new.

“Demonic qi has encroached on the east, west, and south sides of the city. Only the north side is still relatively safe. Should we go north?” she asked.

Before she finished speaking, the last corner of the talisman also turned black.

“We’re besieged as soon as we entered…” Zhao Afei said with a pale face.

The others all exchanged glances.

—This disaster was very thoroughly covered up, with no information whatsoever.

Everyone only knew that such a disaster had occurred.

They were completely in the dark.

How should they proceed now?

“Follow the gunshots,” Xu Yuan suddenly said.

“Huh? Isn’t where there are gunshots where battles are breaking out? Why would we want to go there?” Zhao Afei swallowed nervously.

“High-level cultivators and high-level demon beasts don’t use guns in battle. Where there are gunshots, it should be small skirmishes.”

“We need to contact the military and police forces who are still holding out to understand the current situation,” Xu Yuan explained.

—Having played role-playing games like “Apocalypse Escape” for many years, he naturally had rich experience in these kinds of situations.

At his words, the three had no objections.

They held their breath and waited for a moment.

Suddenly, a series of gunshots echoed from the distant street.

“Go!” Xu Yuan commanded.

Jiang Xueyao led the way, followed by Zhao Afei. Yang Xiaobing and Xu Yuan walked side by side.

The four ran several hundred meters and emerged from the alley.

They saw a police car overturned on the road.

The body of a police officer lay in the grass by the roadside, while another officer held a pistol, hiding behind the police car, continuously firing at the other side of the road.

On the other side of the road, a three-meter-tall humanoid monster with grayish-white skin swayed and stumbled towards the police car.

The pistol shots hitting its body only caused its chest to vibrate, unable to even make it retreat.

“It’s a Tree Demon—there are ‘Demons’ in the exam, everyone!” Zhao Afei’s voice trembled.

“It’s alright, the book says it’s the weakest ‘Demon,’ only responsible for scouting.” Yang Xiaobing immediately added.

The monster extended its claw and effortlessly pulled out a street lamp, wielding it like a club to smash the police car.

Before the others could react—

Jiang Xueyao leaped forward, her longsword unsheathed and thrusting forward.

It was the first form of the Yan Song Sword Art, Leaffall!

Boom!

Scarlet flames transformed into a line of fire, stabbing towards the Tree Demon.

But before the fiery edge could strike, the Tree Demon was cut into several pieces by a faster, sharper sword qi, its body falling to the ground.

It was Xu Yuan!

His sword struck first, ahead of Jiang Xueyao, unleashing an arcing sword qi that sliced the Tree Demon in half!

The Qiongxia Sword had +5 sharpness, +3 agility, and +2 strength.

But using it also required corresponding spiritual power.

Although Xu Yuan’s sword strike claimed the kill, it also consumed 20% of his spiritual power.

—Such astonishing consumption!

Jiang Xueyao frowned slightly and explained, “My sword is fire-attributed, naturally countering wood-attributed entities, and consumes less spiritual power. It would be safer if I engaged in battle.”

Xu Yuan seemed not to hear her.

He stared intently at the Tree Demon’s corpse until several glittering gold coin illusions floated up from the body, at which point he let out a long sigh of relief.

First kill!

Money’s in the bank!

To prepare for the subsequent nightmare competition, I ran faster than a rabbit, fought harder than Jiang Xueyao, just to secure this kill.

Was it easy for me?!

“Got it, I’ll pay attention next time.” He nodded apologetically to Jiang Xueyao.

“It’s fine,” Jiang Xueyao said softly, her frown easing.

Let’s check the loot first.

Xu Yuan opened the “Apprentice Qi Cultivator’s Combat Preparation Room” and saw that the number of Gold Coins had risen to 21.

One Tree Demon gave 7 Gold Coins!

What a profitable business!

As he was calculating his gains, he saw another shadow, over three meters tall, rushing towards them from the dark road opposite.

“I’ll handle it!” Jiang Xueyao cried out softly, leaping to meet it.

Her longsword moved—

Swish!

Xu Yuan darted past, delivering a preemptive sword strike, then unleashed an arcing sword qi that instantly sliced the Tree Demon into several pieces.

Yan Song Sword Art, third form, Arc Dance!

Another 20% of his spiritual power was consumed.

He watched as the gold coins floated up, radiating dazzling light.

Xu Yuan’s face seemed to come alive, illuminated by the illusory glow.

—Gold Coins +7!

The total reached 28!

With money, what could he buy?

Could he get an infinite-ammo shoulder-fired rocket launcher?

Xu Yuan was just daydreaming when he suddenly felt a cold stare and then realized.

He had stolen another kill.

—But this wasn’t a game; they wouldn’t get experience even if they killed it.

“Sorry, I reacted instinctively just now. Next time, I promise it’s all yours.”

He opened his gourd, took out a Spirit Replenishment Pill, and chewed it while explaining.

Jiang Xueyao looked at him, then at the monster’s corpse. Her initially indifferent expression grew playful.

—So, he wanted to compete in this way.

This was more interesting than direct confrontation.

Fine.

Let’s compete to see who can kill more!

A faint smile touched Jiang Xueyao’s lips, and the dull, boring exam suddenly became something to look forward to.

At this moment, Zhao Afei stepped forward, mustering his courage to greet the police officer:

“Honorable officer, are you alright?”

There was no other way.

Those two fierce individuals were practically throwing themselves at the monstrous creatures.

They were practically suicidal!

Although Yang Xiaobing hadn’t made a move, she held talismans in both hands, ready to cover the two at any moment, not even glancing at anything else.

—Surely, a normal person needed to step up and take charge, right?

“Who are you?” the police officer asked.

“We are a team of cultivators dispatched to assist. What is the current situation?” Zhao Afei inquired.

“Recently, there have been frequent incidents of demonic beasts entering the city. For some reason, this year they’re acting like they’ve gone mad,” the police officer sighed.

Zhao Afei started wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.

—The police officer only felt that recent events were unusual, completely unaware that the entire city-wide massacre had quietly begun!

In other words—

At this very moment, it was the beginning of the entire incident!

“By the way, could you please show me your identification?” the police officer asked.

“Okay, please wait a moment.” Zhao Afei grew nervous, looking back.

Jiang Xueyao held her sword, her face calm.

Xu Yuan seemed not to hear anything, his gaze fixed on the distance, lost in thought.

Yang Xiaobing, however, had regained her composure and quietly nodded to Zhao Afei.

With her hands behind her back, she quickly folded a talisman into shape, then activated it with spiritual energy.

—Transforming talisman into object!

Talismans could mimic anything and were the best combat support.

A faint spiritual light emanated from the talisman, quickly transforming into an identification badge embedded with spirit stones, bearing a number, identity, and origin.

Zhao Afei took the badge, handed it to the police officer, and then looked at Yang Xiaobing.

Yang Xiaobing gave a “no problem” gesture.

If she said no problem, then it was no problem.

After all, her forte was talismans, and she had even secured special admissions to Nine Luminaries and Luofu.

The police officer looked at the ID, his attitude became even better, and he asked,

“By the way, do you need any fire support?”

Zhao Afei shook his head and said,

“No need, we cultivators don’t need—”

Xu Yuan also came back to his senses at this point, directly covering Zhao Afei’s mouth and pulling him behind him, saying with a smile,

“We do need fire support—thank you for your assistance. Where should we return the weapons after we’re done?”

The police officer said, “You can use them first. Just find me at the East City Police Station later.”

He opened the trunk of the police car.

Several tactical vests, grenades, pistols, and a submachine gun fell out of the flipped trunk onto the ground.

—Among the students participating in the exam, most had not awakened their spiritual power.

Some combat skills, supplemented by firearms.

This was the mainstream approach to the exam.

Of course.

Students who had already reached the Qi Refining stage might not need these.

“Hey, why do we need these things—”

Zhao Afei’s voice trailed off.

He saw Yang Xiaobing already picking up a tactical vest and putting it on.

Xu Yuan was checking the firearms and ammunition.

“Don’t be overconfident. If you can conserve spiritual power, you should definitely try to,” Xu Yuan whispered.

—He directly took the submachine gun and then picked up the pistol and bullet box from the ground.

“Xu Yuan is right,” Yang Xiaobing also whispered, “We are just low-level cultivators. Spiritual power should be used at critical moments.”

Zhao Afei pouted and casually picked up a gun.

—You haven’t opened my gourd to see.

My family, just so I could get a high score on the exam, gave me so many alchemy materials.

There’s absolutely no need for these things that ordinary people use.

Look at Jiang Xueyao, holding her sword, standing aside, her gaze fixed on the darkness around her, waiting only to kill enemies.

—She had no interest in these guns or anything.

This is the demeanor of us cultivators!