18: Chapter 18 Stealing my beast core? I'll teach you a lesson with one kick!

Deep within the catacombs, the scent of blood filled the air.

Ye Huang stood on the hillside, looking down at Chen Lin with a complex expression.

Tearing apart seventy exotic beasts with his bare hands.

This was no exaggeration; he had seen it with his own eyes.

Those Second-tier Exotic Beasts that would make an ordinary martial artist's skin crawl were like paper-mache dolls in Chen Lin's hands.

One punch per beast, every kick landing solidly.

Especially when he beat that Mastiff Beast King at the end, that scene...

Ye Huang swallowed hard.

He understood now that Chen Lin was far stronger than he had imagined!

As someone ranked in the top five in combat strength in the entire camp, he might not even be qualified to compare himself to Chen Lin!

He was too monstrous!

"Don't just daze off there, come over and help me harvest the beast cores!"

Chen Lin's voice drifted up from below, interrupting Ye Huang's train of thought.

He looked up and saw Chen Lin waving at them.

"Coming, coming!"

Ye Huang called out and rushed down the hillside with the other eight people.

The nine of them gathered around the exotic beasts' corpses and pulled out the pocketknives they carried.

Following the knowledge they had learned in theory class, they began to carefully harvest the beast cores.

beast cores...

...were extremely precious items for both martial artists and exotic beasts.

Exotic beasts absorbed the energy of heaven and earth, and over time, they condensed a small crystal of energy inside their bodies.

Once absorbed by a martial artist, it could significantly enhance their physical strength and vitality.

But these things were hard to come by.

Not every exotic beast could condense a complete beast core that could be absorbed by a martial artist.

Some exotic beasts only had energy residue inside them, which was completely useless.

Some might have condensed one, but it would be irregularly shaped, suffering from severe energy loss, which greatly reduced the absorption effect.

Out of the seventy exotic beast corpses here, if even half of them yielded useful ones, that would already be a lot!

"This one has one!"

A student excitedly held up a thumb-sized, faintly glowing crystal in his hand.

"Mine has one too!"

"Holy crap, this Mastiff Beast King definitely has one! It's so huge!"

"Slow down, slow down. Don't get too excited, watch your hands!"

The nine of them were happily busying themselves.

Meanwhile, Chen Lin leaned against a ruined stone slab to rest and recover.

He had indeed expended a lot of energy in the battle just now.

Although his wounds weren't fatal, the dozen or so cuts combined had caused him to lose quite a bit of blood.

Fortunately, after taking some medicine, they were now healing at a rate visible to the naked eye.

He just needed to find a quiet place to catch his breath for a bit, and he should be fine.

[Current Total emotion points: 2911]

Chen Lin glanced at the system panel.

A decent harvest.

From that wave alone, he had harvested over two thousand Fright Points from the exotic beasts.

Add to that the shock, awe, and disbelief of Ye Huang and the others...

This wave was a massive profit!

"Ye Huang, you guys help me clean up the scene. I'm going to rest over there for a bit."

"I'll take some pills to recover from my injuries."

Chen Lin instructed Ye Huang before leaving.

"Alright, go find a quiet spot to recover quickly. We'll handle things here."

Ye Huang replied.

...

Time slipped away quietly. Not long after Chen Lin left...

...an arrogant voice suddenly echoed from the edge of the ruins.

Ye Huang frowned and turned to look.

He saw two figures striding toward them.

A man and a woman, who looked like siblings.

Putting on airs and walking with a swagger that showed utter disregard for anyone, they looked extremely imposing.

"Hey, hey, hey, who are you guys?"

Several students who were harvesting beast cores looked up, staring blankly at the approaching duo.

The man didn't stand on ceremony either. He walked straight up to everyone and swept a condescending gaze over the exotic beast corpses on the ground.

A flash of greed crossed his eyes, but he quickly suppressed it.

"Who?"

The man sneered, "You little brats sure have some nerve!"

"Do you know what kind of place this is?"

"Do you know what kind of procedures are required for hunting in the catacombs?"

"Do you know what the crime is for hunting exotic beasts and hoarding strategic resources without authorization?"

Three questions in a row, delivered with aggressive momentum.

The students looked at each other, and their hands stopped moving in unison.

Ye Huang furrowed his brows and slowly stood up, his eyes sharp as he sized up the newcomers.

"Shaping Realm?"

Sensing the faint aura emanating from the other party, his heart couldn't help but skip a beat.

It was indeed the aura of the Shaping Realm.

Ye Huang came from a well-to-do family and had seen some of the world.

He knew that above the Condensed Core was the Shaping Realm.

Moreover, a cultivator at the early stage of the Shaping Realm against three to five peak Condensed Core cultivators would win without any suspense.

The siblings before him had arrived with aggressive momentum; they clearly had bad intentions.

Ye Huang instinctively took a step forward, shielding everyone behind him as his voice turned deep.

"Seniors, we are students from the Wu City Special Training Camp, ordered to enter the catacombs for training."

"Our paperwork is complete, and everything is perfectly legal."

"May I ask what guidance you two have for us?"

"Wu City Special Training Camp?"

The man raised an eyebrow, the disdain on his face growing even stronger. "Oh—you mean that Wu City Special Training Camp that specifically takes in trash?"

"What did you say?!"

A student instantly flared up with anger and stood up to charge forward.

Ye Huang grabbed him and said in a low voice, "Don't be reckless."

Seeing this, the man became even more smug.

He crossed his arms, looking down at everyone with an increasingly arrogant tone. "What? Not convinced?"

"Did I say anything wrong?"

"Isn't the Wu City Special Training Camp just put together by a few trash academies so that some students—who call themselves geniuses but are actually garbage—can train before the Martial Arts Exam?"

"You little brats, why aren't you staying outside where it's safe? What did you run into the catacombs for?"

"To seek death?"

The woman chimed in from the side, speaking in a sarcastic, mocking tone.

"Brother, don't be so blunt. They are martial artists, after all. Even if they're the trashiest kind, they still need to save face."

"Hahaha."

The man burst into laughter, his guffaws echoing through the ruins.

Several students turned red with rage, their knuckles cracking as they clenched their fists, but they were all held back by Ye Huang.

Ye Huang took a deep breath, suppressing the anger in his heart, and tried to maintain a calm tone. "Seniors, we indeed have formal paperwork."

"If you have any doubts, you can come back to our camp with us to verify with our instructors."

"Verify?"

The man sneered, "I don't have time for that!"

He took a step forward, fully releasing his Shaping Realm aura. An oppressive pressure instantly blanketed the area.

"Let me tell you, you've committed three major taboos right now!"

"First, hunting in the catacombs without registration!"

"Second, hoarding strategic resources!"

"Third, suspected illegal acquisition of beast cores!"

"Any single one of these three is enough to make you suffer more than you can handle!"

Ye Huang's face changed. "Senior, we really did register—"

"Registered?"

The man interrupted him with a cold sneer. "Fine, show it to me then."

Ye Huang froze.

The registration paperwork was in the instructors' hands. How could they, as students, have it?

Seeing this, the man laughed even more wildly. "Can't produce it, can you? If you can't produce it, then you don't have it!"

"Entering the catacombs to hunt exotic beasts without registration means that according to the rules, all your gains are confiscated! Handed over to the authorities!"

With a wave of his hand, he pointed at the exotic beast corpses covering the ground. "All of these beast cores are confiscated!"

"What?!"

Several students immediately exploded in anger.

"On what grounds?!"

The man's eyes turned cold, and his Shaping Realm aura surged once more, the pressure growing even stronger.

"On what grounds?"

Word by word, he said, "On the grounds that I am in the Shaping Realm! On the grounds that I am stronger than you!"

"On the grounds that even if I slaughter all of you right now, no one will ever know!"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone's expressions changed drastically.

A few of the more timid students instinctively took a step back.

Ye Huang's face was livid, his knuckles turning white from clenching his fists, but in the end, he didn't make a move.

"Senior, are you sure you want to take things this far?"

"If you're sure, then I'll call for backup."

"Call them, go ahead and call!" The man sneered with utter disdain. "Let's see who you can call over."

"Do you think a Shaping Realm powerhouse like me is playing games with you?"

"I'm telling you, even if you call your instructor over, he'd have to bow to me respectfully!"

The man pointed his nose to the sky.

Ye Huang took a deep breath. "I know. Our instructor would indeed feel intimidated upon seeing a Shaping Realm powerhouse."

"But the person I'm going to call... he has a really bad temper..."

A bad temper?

"Call him then! I'd love to see today just how bad his temper is!" The man stiffened his neck.

"Chen Lin!"

"Someone is threatening us and wants to steal your beast cores!"

Ye Huang's face flushed red as he shouted at the top of his lungs toward the distance.

???

The man was startled, looking left and right in alarm.

"Kid, are you trying to scare me?"

"Where is there anyone else..." Just as he was about to speak, a size 42 flying kick came hurtling toward him.

"You little bastard!"

"You're the one trying to steal my beast cores?"