Compared to the recently acquired spiritual perception.
Jiang He was still more accustomed to observing the world with his eyes.
Even when in the dark abyss, he released flames to illuminate the path ahead, walking at the front to observe the situation.
If danger lay ahead, even if all five of his spiritual senses failed, his intuition would still provide a warning.
Xiao Xue followed at the rear, preventing monsters from launching a sneak attack from behind.
Chi Zhilei stayed in the safest middle position, firmly seated as the healer, responsible for providing treatment and support for the two.
The three-person squad had a clear division of roles, continuously descending the stairs, exploring deeper.
As they went deeper, they discovered that the abyssal demons seemed to have "territorial divisions"—
Jiang He regarded the floor where they encountered the Mask Demons as the 「Initial Layer」.
Then, within the five floors below, apart from mask remnants, no other demons existed.
Not until they descended to the sixth floor did they encounter the second batch of demons.
[Hunter Blade Demon]
This was the name given by Jiang He.
They looked like humanoids wrapped in bandages, their right hands severed and stitched to a serrated blade.
Compared to the Mask Demons, their numbers were much fewer—altogether only five, each wandering on different floors. Once sensing the presence of living beings, they would rush over to attack.
They were physical-strength-type demons, already at C-rank, and possessed the trait of 「Severance」.
With a swing of their right-hand serrated blade, terrifying destructive power was unleashed, enough to cleave through classroom walls, slice apart the Flame Candle Dragon, and even cut through Xiao Xue's Blade Limbs…
Even Jiang He's B-rank Phoenix-Resting Wooden Blade bore a tiny notch.
In the end, Jiang He used the 「Judgment」 Spell Word to briefly control them, then utilized his Eraser talent to cancel the severance power of their hunter blades. Working together with Xiao Xue, they cut off all of the hunter blades and confiscated them on the spot, disarming the demons…
Only then were they completely defeated.
Afterwards, Xiao Xue's Blade Limbs, possessing regenerative ability, recovered through treatment.
Jiang He, however, held the Phoenix-Resting Wooden Blade in his arms, distressed to the extreme.
This was a Transcendent item!
Even if it was just a small notch, it meant its Transcendent properties were already damaged, and its effects would gradually weaken!
Jiang He could only hope the school's Craftsmen had a way to repair the Phoenix-Resting Wooden Blade's damage, restoring it to its original state.
And he also hoped that the "hunter blades" dropped by the demons were extremely valuable, enough to make up for his battle losses—
Of the five hunter blades, he kept four, Xiao Xue got one, while Chi Zhilei—as always—took nothing, a fasting-support playstyle.
Of course, besides the blades, Jiang He also stuffed the five demon corpses into his bag. Anyway, space was abundant—so long as some essence could be squeezed out, it counted as profit.
The Hunter Blade Demons were only the beginning.
The trio continued downwards, and at about ten floors, they encountered new demons.
This time, Jiang He did not use the Phoenix-Resting Wooden Blade, but instead attacked furiously, landing a barrage of Eraser Flame Punches, empowered by Word-Spirit buffs. No matter how strong the demons' abilities were, they could not escape death on the spot.
Not only them—during the following battles, Jiang He abandoned all hesitation.
He preemptively cast buffs on himself and Xiao Xue, bursting into full force the moment they met enemies, killing them and stuffing them straight into his bag.
Efficiency maxed out—in a short time, more than twenty types of cold demons were turned into warm materials.
As he felt the backpack gradually filling up and his losses gradually compensated, Jiang He's anger finally eased.
By then, the three had also summed up a pattern—
On the surface, this place seemed like an 「Endless Teaching Building」, but in truth, it was a vertical demon nest.
Different types of demons each occupied several floors as their territory, never interfering with one another.
By observing the number of floors occupied, their approximate strength could also be judged.
Among them, those occupying only five floors were the weakest—barely reaching C-rank, small in number, with rather ordinary abilities.
Above them, the more floors a demon occupied, the stronger it became, and it also possessed special abilities.
Like the Hunter Blade Demons, only five in number, yet they occupied a full ten floors.
Their hunter blades were capable of damaging B-rank Transcendent items—proof enough of their terror.
And ten floors was not the limit.
As Jiang He's group descended deeper, the number of higher-floor demons gradually increased.
Ten-floor demons began appearing frequently, and even fifteen-floor and twenty-floor demons emerged!
Especially that one twenty-floor demon.
Jiang He named it [Fission Demon].
Its strength was already near the C-rank peak, and it possessed an extremely special 「Fission」 ability.
Whenever heavily injured, it would vomit, spewing out another type of demon, before its wounds healed and its body returned to peak state.
And the demons it spewed out were mostly ones that had appeared on earlier floors, such as Mask Demons and Hunter Blade Demons… and they matched its strength exactly.
If this were a matter for ecological researchers, they might speculate on the abyssal demon ecosystem from this ability—different demons perhaps fought and preyed on each other, which explained how it had devoured so many…
But Jiang He did not care about that.
In his eyes, this Fission Demon was like a treasure-hoarding goblin, capable of spitting out endless high-grade materials.
He was extremely curious how many treasures it could spew out.
Finally, after a grueling battle, the Fission Demon was slain.
Along with it, the twenty-two types of demons it had vomited out also became materials inside his bag, leaving Jiang He thoroughly satisfied.
By then, Jiang He's Spatial Storage Pouch already held over a hundred different demon materials, completely filling one storage slot!
One slot in his pouch had a space of two thousand five hundred cubic meters—almost more than what all the other students combined possessed!
This time, he was truly stuffed to the brim.
After defeating the Fission Demon, the three rested on the spot, recovering spirit and stamina back to peak condition.
Only then did they continue deeper.
When they passed the Fission Demon's twenty-floor territory and reached the bottom,
They suddenly discovered a change below.
The stairway leading to the next level had collapsed, revealing a deep entrance.
Beneath the entrance was no longer new classrooms and corridors, but an extremely vast dark space. Jiang He released his spiritual power to explore, but could not sense an end at all.
"Finally reached the end…"
Xiao Xue gazed into the pitch-black void, her eyes full of curiosity.
The endlessly repeating classrooms and corridors had already made her restless.
She was very curious what lay below.
"Go down and take a look?" Jiang He was eager to try.
He was not worried about danger at all.
Not to mention, during the combat test, Old Jiang had always been following nearby, merely without intervening.
Even without Old Jiang, they had already recorded their life signatures at the Anchoring Stele—there was no life-threatening risk.
"I have a tool here that can scout the situation first."
Chi Zhilei came closer, reaching into her pouch to retrieve an item.
At that moment.
Jiang He's intuition triggered—alarms rang in his mind.
It was as if he had glimpsed a future trajectory, "seeing" a figure emerge from below, "seeing" blood splatter—
This was when his training revealed its worth.
His mind was still processing, but his body moved instinctively—his left hand yanked Chi Zhilei backward, while his right hand drew the wooden blade at his waist, slashing forward.
He opened his mouth to speak.
「Judg...」
However, he was still half a beat too late.
Just as he uttered one syllable, the black shadow appeared before the three, and with overwhelming impact—the stairs, corridors, classrooms… everything collapsed and shattered in an instant!
Jiang He plummeted with countless fragments, the wooden blade slammed against his chest under immense force, fracturing his sternum, injuring his organs, and causing him to vomit a mouthful of blood.
The intense pain did not make him faint—he was instead more awake, his thoughts racing so fast that time itself seemed to slow.
Amidst the falling debris, he saw the attacker's appearance.
It resembled a human, but its body was severed at the waist, leaving only the lower half.
Its leg muscles were extremely developed, appearing to possess tremendous explosive power.
With just one kick, it had blasted apart an entire floor of the teaching building!
Most importantly…
Jiang He's left hand was empty, and within his spiritual perception, Chi Zhilei's aura had completely vanished.
She had been "instantly killed."
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