Chapter 56: Unlocking a New Skill

Two floating islands approached Cheng Jianyong.

Upon seeing the appearance of those two territories, Cheng Jianyong instantly realized that these might be other survivors.

Remembering Han Xing's warning, Cheng Jianyong immediately raised his guard and gripped his blue greatsword.

Once the floating islands drew near, Cheng Jianyong saw a human hunter and a human warrior standing upon them.

If two survivors appeared on a single floating island, it meant either that the two had an extremely close relationship, or that something had gone wrong with one of their territories.

Furthermore, both men looked rather wretched, covered in bloodstains and wearing tattered gear.

Among them, the human warrior appeared severely injured, unable to even stand steadily, requiring the support of his hunter companion.

Upon seeing Cheng Jianyong, excitement immediately flashed across their faces, and they hurriedly cried out, "That's wonderful! Other survivors! Little Jiang, we're finally saved!"

Cheng Jianyong frowned and asked, "What happened to you?"

A painful expression appeared on the human hunter's face as he sighed and said, "It's a long story, but to put it simply, we encountered a terrifying monster—a giant bird that has been attacking the territories of human survivors everywhere."

"We unfortunately fell victim to its attacks as well, and barely managed to escape with our lives. Because of this, my brother's territory was completely destroyed."

"Then we fled all the way, staying far away from the giant bird's attack range, running for more than half a day until we finally met you."

Hearing of their tragic plight, Cheng Jianyong felt a pang of sympathy.

At this moment, the human hunter continued, "Brother, my friend is not going to make it..."

"If you have any healing items over there, could you please save his life? We will forever remember your kindness..."

Seeing their state, they indeed did not look like they were lying, and for a moment, compassion stirred in Cheng Jianyong's heart.

After a brief pause, he sighed and said, "Come over. I still have a bit of life elixir left."

Hearing this, the human hunter's face lit up with joy, and he profusely expressed his gratitude.

Then, the two floating islands drifted close together.

The very moment the human hunter and the human warrior stepped onto Cheng Jianyong's floating island territory, they exchanged glances, sinister smiles spreading across the corners of their mouths.

"You..."

Seeing their expressions, Cheng Jianyong's expression suddenly shifted.

...

Inside the Lost Palace.

Han Xing was still engaged in a prolonged war of attrition with the six puppets.

Another twenty minutes or so passed.

Han Xing's archery hand had gone numb, and the index and middle fingers used to pull the bowstring had turned severely swollen, crisscrossed with bloody lacerations.

Every time he drew the bowstring, he felt a piercing, agonizing pain shooting through his fingers.

If he kept fighting like this, he felt his right hand would be completely ruined.

Yet the battle had already begun, and these psionic puppets would not afford him any time for a mid-combat rest.

Han Xing could only clench his teeth, spinning around to shoot once more.

The terrain of the ruins was not particularly large, and these puppets surrounded him from multiple angles.

Had it not been for Coal Ball periodically drawing away the puppets' aggro, Han Xing would have been run down long ago.

He had long lost count of how many arrows he had loosed, but a conservative estimate put it at over three hundred.

Subtracting the shots that missed, every single puppet now had at least thirty arrows bristling from its body.

This group of stone monsters looked as though clumps of weeds were growing all over them.

The sight almost made Han Xing want to laugh.

Yet the moment the corners of his mouth twitched upward, a terrifying beam of energy blasted toward him from the front.

"Damn it!"

Han Xing gritted his teeth and rolled desperately on the ground.

After widening the distance, almost instinctively, he drew the bowstring.

Skill, Multi-Shot, activate!

Thud! Thud-thud!

All five arrows converged on the single remaining puppet with the lowest core defense value.

And right at this moment, the situation finally shifted.

Under his relentless efforts, the core defense of this psionic puppet was finally reduced to zero!

Han Xing cried out in excitement, "Yes!"

Psionic puppets relied primarily on their cores to power their movements; now that their defense value was emptied, as long as their core was shattered, they would automatically lose their combat capability.

Han Xing spun around instantly, loosing a Zephyr Arrow once more.

This was his most frequently used skill for no other reason than the fact that the Zephyr Arrow traveled faster than other skills and boasted a higher hit rate.

Whoosh!

The Zephyr Arrow struck true.

The core of this psionic puppet was pierced through, and its forward momentum abruptly halted.

Crack... crack...

After a plume of black smoke billowed forth, the psionic puppet stopped dead in its tracks.

"Taken down!" Han Xing exclaimed in pleasant surprise.

With that psionic puppet dealt with, 5 remained on the field, and Han Xing's pressure plummeted!

He poured another bottle of Savage Bear Strength Elixir down his throat, and feeling as though he had been pumped full of adrenaline, he resumed his frenzied barrage of arrows!

"Take this! Take this! I'm going to shoot you stone-headed bastards to death! Hahaha!" Han Xing howled at the top of his lungs, completely unconcerned with how embarrassing his cries sounded.

Anyway, there was nobody else around here, and he didn't care about being heard.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The sounds of arrows striking the psionic puppets echoed one after another.

Five minutes later, the second psionic puppet went down.

Three minutes after that, the third psionic puppet fell.

The remainder of the battle held no more suspense.

When the core of the final psionic puppet was pierced through, Han Xing collapsed onto the ground, sitting limply as if utterly drained of strength.

It had taken one hour and twenty-seven minutes, and over four hundred arrows had been loosed.

He had finally ground these six stone monsters to death.

Tears of excitement were practically welling up in Han Xing's eyes.

Ever since arriving in this world, he had never experienced such a prolonged and arduous battle.

The two fingers that pulled the bowstring were now bloody and mangled, and dull aches radiated from his shoulders.

He hurriedly fished a bottle of life elixir from his backpack to restore his injuries.

"Hah..."

The cooling elixir slid down his throat, not only replenishing his bodily fluids but also soothing the aching soreness throughout his body.

Simultaneously, the life elixir rapidly took effect, and the two fingers that had been nearly crippled now rapidly sprouted new flesh, healing completely back to their original state within mere seconds.

Such was the formidable healing capability of the life elixir. It was fortunate this was a magical world; otherwise, such recovery effects would be utterly inexplicable by modern biological science.

At that moment, Han Xing suddenly noticed that Coal Ball's state in the distance seemed somewhat abnormal.

With the battle concluded, the little wolf cub still possessed bloodshot eyes, hot air continuously puffing from its snout, remaining locked in a state of high nervous tension.

Han Xing quickly called it over.

"Coal Ball, come here."

Hearing Han Xing's call, Coal Ball snapped out of its trance instantly, the ferocious aura around its body vanishing in an instant.

Then, with a flash of black light, Coal Ball appeared by Han Xing's side.

"Stop baring your teeth, it's over."

Upon hearing this, Coal Ball seemed to finally relax its vigilance, reverting to the appearance of an obedient, well-behaved little dog.

Han Xing stroked its head and fished a few spirit cores from his backpack to feed it.

"You've worked hard, little Coal Ball."

After wolfing down the spirit cores, Coal Ball's condition improved drastically.

It rubbed itself affectionately against Han Xing's palm.

Then, a system prompt materialized before his eyes.

[1-Star Secret Realm: Challenge of the Lost Palace completed. Tallying secret realm rewards...]

"Completed?"

Han Xing breathed a sigh of relief. He had truly been afraid the system would throw a third or fourth phase at him, which would have brought him to tears.

Still, thinking about it, that was impossible.

After all, this was merely a 1-star secret realm; if every single one were set to such a high difficulty, other people wouldn't even need to bother fighting them.

The system prompts continued to scroll past.

[Secret Realm reward tallying complete.]

[You have received item rewards: Strength Fragment *3, Rune Crystal *170, Silver Treasure Chest *1 (The treasure chest is located within the secret realm map; please open it yourself.)]

[You have received experience point reward: 4,700. Pet 'Coal Ball' has received experience points: 3,760.]

[Pet Coal Ball has leveled up. Current level: LV6. Skill 'Void Extraction' has been unlocked.]

As the system prompts concluded, a flash of white light swept over Coal Ball's body.

Han Xing immediately exclaimed in surprise, "Level 6?"

"Does that mean that new skill can finally be unlocked?" He eagerly checked Coal Ball's stats.

[Pet Information: Void Shadow Wolf (Infant)]

[Race: Void Clan]

[Level: LV6]

[Strength: 21, Agility: 39, Spirit: 20, Constitution: 23]

[Pet 'Coal Ball' has unlocked a new skill: Void Extraction]

[Void Extraction]: When entering combat state, the Void Shadow Wolf continuously draws power from the void, increasing all attributes by 50%. Its recovery ability after sustaining damage is drastically enhanced, and it automatically generates one void spike within its body every second. Upon accumulating 10 void spikes, all spikes are unleashed in a burst.

Upon reading this newly activated skill of Coal Ball's, Han Xing slowly exhaled a breath, then gritted his teeth and said, "Freak!"

He admitted that he was indeed feeling a bit envious of his pet, Coal Ball.

Compared to Coal Ball's first four skills, the Void Extraction skill was even more freakish.

Just the attribute of increasing all stats by 50% alone was enough to be called a divine skill.

Coupled with the second property, which drastically enhanced Coal Ball's recovery ability, it disguised an increase in its survivability.

As for the final property, it directly turned Coal Ball's second skill, 'Counter-Spike', into an active skill.

As Coal Ball's most powerful burst capability, the activation condition for 'Counter-Spike' had been relatively harsh, requiring it to sustain 10 attacks before it could be actively released.

Although Coal Ball's evasion rate was extremely high, it had its own weakness—its constitution was far too low.

Furthermore, the enemies Han Xing challenged were generally quite powerful; if it failed to evade even once successfully, it meant a heavy blow for Coal Ball.

Therefore, for the longest time, Han Xing had mainly focused on keeping Coal Ball safe, trying his best not to let it take attacks from other monsters.

Consequently, that counter-spike had essentially become a somewhat useless chicken rib of a skill.

Yet now, with the 'Void Extraction' skill activated, Coal Ball's shortcoming had been directly mended, achieving a qualitative leap!

This skill could be said to have elevated Coal Ball's combat power by several tiers once more.

Moreover, upon reaching level 6, the attribute gains were equivalent to the increases of the previous two levels combined, significantly boosting its strength.

Had Coal Ball been in this state when facing the encirclement of six psionic puppets, Han Xing wouldn't have had to fight in such a stifling manner.

"Good, good, good! As expected of an S+ growth potential pet, truly fierce!" Han Xing was exceedingly pleased.