"Beep… beep…"
A dial tone sounded on the phone — the call didn't go through.
"Why can't I get through?"
At the school gate, Tan Weifeng frowned, puzzled, and dialed a few more times.
The result was the same every time — the phone just kept ringing.
"Damn it!!"
The confusion on his face slowly twisted into anger and frustration. He suddenly suspected that Senior Wu had blocked him.
In order to secure the Top Scorer position in the college entrance examination, he had asked his family for help and paid a considerable price to hire a Cultivator at the third level of Qi Refining to help him "solve" the obstacle named Liang Xiao.
No matter how talented Liang Xiao was, he could, at best, have just stepped into the first level of Qi Refining.
A third-level Qi Refining Cultivator absolutely crushing a first-level — that was basically common sense.
Moreover, he had confirmed again and again that Liang Xiao hadn't come into contact with any powerful figures in recent years.
If he — Tan from the Rich Area — wasn't afraid, then a third-level Qi Refining Cultivator like Wu Qianrou would be even less afraid.
But in the end, he waited and waited — and the other party never made a move.
"She actually treated me like a sucker!!"
Tan Weifeng was so angry he almost ground his teeth to dust. Hiring a third-level Qi Refining Cultivator to do something so "small" was very costly.
"Wu Qianrou… you absolutely mustn't let me get a chance!"
Face gloomy, he got into the car driven by his servant and told him to drive home.
He had to tell his parents. Their family had suffered such a big loss, and the perpetrator had simply taken the money and disappeared.
The Tan family could gain a foothold in the Rich Area because, besides him, there were other Cultivators in the family, and they had some connections.
Although it was unlikely that they could really make a third-level Qi Refining Cultivator "pay the price," they could at least try to recover some of the losses.
After eating and drinking their fill, Liang Xiao and Wu Jun parted ways and each hurried home.
I wonder if there are any suitable tasks for me?
On the way, Liang Xiao opened [Cultivation Home] again on his phone, planning to see if there was a mission that fit him.
If possible, he wanted to become a privileged person sooner rather than later — that way, he wouldn't be ambushed like before.
The reason he had been intercepted and almost killed earlier was probably because he was not in a position of authority.
Someone like him — small, ordinary, without status — could disappear from the slums and no one would particularly care.
In this era, people died every day.
Anonymous people, even if they disappeared suddenly, would only make a tiny splash.
But if someone had authority, then even those with ulterior motives would have to think twice about the consequences.
"Boom—!"
Without warning, a deafening roar came from overhead.
Liang Xiao was startled and looked up sharply — only to see a terrifyingly large beast slam into the enormous, shimmering defensive barrier that had suddenly appeared a thousand meters above the city.
The beast resembled a lion or tiger, but its body was over a hundred meters long, exuding a terrifying aura.
At the moment of impact, a visible shockwave rippled in all directions along the surface of the city's defensive array.
"Waaaaah!!!"
Piercing air-raid sirens blared across the entire city.
"Damn it, monsters are attacking the city?!"
Liang Xiao's expression changed drastically, and he immediately ran toward Peaceful (Heping) Residential Area, worried something might have happened to his younger brother and grandfather.
He had only run for a few minutes when his phone rang — it was Grandpa.
"Ah Xiao, are you alright? The monsters are attacking the city, you need to be careful!"
Grandpa's anxious voice came the moment the call connected.
"I'm fine, Grandpa. Where are you? I'll come get you right away," Liang Xiao said hurriedly.
"I'm at home. After the factory owner found out that you, Ah Xiao, became a Cultivator, he promoted me to supervisor. Now I only work eight hours a day, and my salary has increased to five thousand federal dollars. I'm off work and home now."
Grandpa Liang Wen said with relief, then added, "Your brother is also at home, we are safe. Ah Xiao, don't rush on your way, let's wait until things calm down first."
"Okay, Grandpa. You and Yuan stay home and don't go out."
Liang Xiao breathed a sigh of relief, reminded Grandpa to be careful again, and then hung up.
I didn't expect the news of me becoming a Cultivator to even reach Grandpa's factory this fast.
The factory owner was very good at handling relationships. That was a good thing — Grandpa's life would be a bit easier now.
Once Grandpa had a stable income, it would be best to let him retire and rest at home.
He was already sixty, and he'd worked hard his entire life. It was time he lived like a human being.
Liang Xiao put away his phone and slowed down slightly.
"Weng—"
Suddenly, a building ahead lit up with a dazzling light.
"What's that?"
His expression tensed and he quickly turned his head to look.
Inside the building, the faint outline of a formation appeared.
From its shape, it was clearly an altar.
Why would there be an altar here?
He immediately had a bad feeling.
"Roar—!"
Sure enough, the next second, a terrifying beast's roar sounded.
Then, the space above the illusory altar twisted — and a three-meter-tall monster slowly crawled out.
"That's… a wolf-crocodile?"
Liang Xiao stared, stunned, at the monster that looked mostly like a wolf, but with a crocodile's mouth and a crocodile's tail.
Although he'd never gone out to the wilderness, in this era, everyone had to learn basic monster information — from textbooks, TV, or the internet.
This was basic survival knowledge.
"A monster!!"
"Run!"
The ordinary people nearby screamed and scattered in panic.
Vehicles on the highway also accelerated frantically to escape the area, and several rear-end collisions happened on the spot.
"Roar—!!"
The wolf-crocodile roared excitedly, smashed through the wall, rushed into the public road, and pounced on an ordinary person.
Liang Xiao vaguely saw that inside the building, behind the altar, there were many human corpses.
For some reason, the words "evil blood sacrifice" flashed through his mind.
"Help!!"
The ordinary person who had been targeted by the wolf-crocodile cried out in despair.
Even though he was quite a distance away, Liang Xiao's heart sank. He hesitated for only half a second before flicking his finger.
Bang!
A flash of light disappeared instantly.
A bloody, chopstick-sized hole appeared on the monster's head — but it wasn't deep.
"Such strong defense!" Liang Xiao's expression changed slightly.
The wolf-crocodile, which had the agility of a wolf combined with the toughness of a crocodile, suddenly turned its head and locked onto him.
"Roar—!!"
With a roar, it abandoned the prey right under its nose and charged toward Liang Xiao like a maddened beast.
I'll give it my all!
The chance to make a name for myself is right in front of me, and I'm not without a chance!
Liang Xiao flicked his finger again, this time aiming directly for its eyes.
Bang!
The wolf-crocodile's left eye exploded instantly — and it was still more than fifty meters away.
"Roar!!!"
Enraged, the wolf-crocodile sped up instead of slowing down, crossing more than thirty meters in an instant.
"What—?!"
Liang Xiao was shocked. Adrenaline surged. He frantically mobilized the True Qi in his Special Golden Core, both hands flicking in rapid succession.
Bang! Bang! Bang!!
One after another, Destruction Needles erupted, streaking across the air like armor-piercing bullets, slamming into the wolf-crocodile's head.
Its right eye burst.
Then its forehead.
Then the upper jaw.
Then the cranial plate—
Under Liang Xiao's rapid-fire barrage, the Destruction Needles were like a machine gun.
In less than a second, he fired seven or eight in a row, turning half of the wolf-crocodile's head into a bloodied honeycomb.
Finally, the three-meter-tall beast staggered the last ten-plus meters, then collapsed heavily. Its huge body slid another seven or eight meters from inertia and stopped five meters in front of Liang Xiao.
That was close!
Liang Xiao let out a long breath. His legs trembled slightly from instinctive fear, but excitement burned in his chest.
Killing a monster for the first time was way more exhilarating than killing a person.
Only then did he realize — he actually hadn't felt any psychological burden from killing someone earlier.
But that was normal.
He was a transmigrator — he had already died once.
Having died once, why would I be afraid of the dead?
Just then, an official Cultivator rushed over.