Chapter 28
Yuan Heng had enough equipment to kill monsters. He had previously thought that skill cards were for saving his life or helping him in critical moments.
But now he suddenly understood that he had to use skill cards sparingly because his own stockpile was limited. A lucky player who didn't lack skill cards might be able to use skill cards to farm monsters the whole time.
The more skill cards the better, and he made a profit by exchanging them for the Tide-Absorbing Ball.
However, Yuan Heng ultimately didn't confiscate Qiao Ning's skill card. He replied, "I don't need the skill card for now. I'll exchange it with you when I need it. Consider these 20 Tide-Absorbing Orbs a gift. If you have any extra stamina potions later, just sell them to me first."
Qiao Ning had no reason to refuse this sure-fire deal. "Okay, if I have any extras, I'll sell them to you first."
She's selling fewer items to Li Yangxing to exchange for materials; moisture-absorbing balls are more important right now.
Just as Qiao Ning was about to close their private chat, she suddenly received another 30 moisture-absorbing balls from him.
Qiao Ning: "...?"
Yuan Heng: [I suddenly remembered that Xiao Xing mentioned before that you have any extra healing potions for sale? Could you sell me some?]
Given the current natural disaster situation, one moisture-absorbing balloon can maintain normal humidity inside the car for 4 hours. 50 moisture-absorbing balloons should last her a long time. Even if the disaster severity escalates, it should still last for a while.
Qiao Ning calculated the value and mailed him 10 bottles each of medicine for internal and external injuries.
Yuan Heng: [……]
No, when did the drop rate for medicines become so high?
This girl handed over 20 bottles of medicine without hesitation; how many medicines did she have...?
No wonder Xiao Xing always says he must cling to Qiao Ning, this lucky woman, so he'll be set for life.
So that's really how it is!
Qiao Ning closed the chat interface and entrusted the task of replacing the moisture-absorbing ball to the smart butler. Afterwards, she went to the activity area in the car to exercise and practice her swordsmanship.
We practiced until noon, getting off the vehicle four times to retrieve supply boxes.
At exactly 12 o'clock, Qiao Ning stopped, panting, took a shower in the luxury bathroom, changed into clean clothes, and began preparing lunch.
She cooked two dishes: green peppers and cured pork, and hot and sour shredded potatoes. She also made a soup, her favorite West Lake beef soup.
Two dishes, a soup, and a pot of rice—Qiao Ning was about 70-80% full after eating.
She was surprised by her own appetite.
Qiao Ning suspected that her rapidly increasing appetite was related to her learning of basic body tempering and the Blazing Blade Technique.
It's also possible that her various attribute values are getting higher and higher, and her physical abilities are no longer within the scope of ordinary humans.
In short, her appetite is proportional to her physical strength. But eating like this can't go on; she needs to find another way to reduce her food intake while ensuring sufficient energy intake.
Otherwise, eating so much food would require going to the toilet many times a day, which would be unbearable and a waste of time.
After lunch, Qiao Ning packed everything she needed into her spatial backpack, then parked the car, turned off the engine, and walked off the road into the wilderness.
This time, the wilderness area is neither a forest nor a grassland, but a valley with a flowing river.
Survival Mission 1: Kill 3 wild beasts. (Reward: 1 Return Token, 1200 Experience Points)
Survival Mission 2: Kill 2 Blue-scaled Hippos and 1 White-maned Rhinoceros. (Reward: 6000 Experience Points)
Qiao Ning glanced at the chat channel and saw the survival mission information mentioned by other people. Their missions were generally simpler, the beasts they needed to kill were not strong, and the experience points they received were at least two-thirds less than hers.
There were about a dozen green-scaled hippos drinking water by the river. They were ugly, with a pair of black tusks that were half a meter long, unlike the common hippos. They looked like they were not to be trifled with.
Qiao Ning's Black Flame Bone Blade was upgraded yesterday but she hasn't tried it yet. The blade is already very different from when it was first taken out of the box.
The long black sword was engulfed in intense black flames, and upon closer inspection, a trace of crimson could be seen, as if it were the blood left by slaughter.
Qiao Ning, carrying a knife, moved quietly, using the abundant reeds near the riverbank to stealthily approach a blue-scaled hippopotamus.
In the real world, hippos mainly eat aquatic plants and only kill animals for meat when there is absolutely nothing else to eat.
But these green-scaled hippos don't look like they like vegetarian food at all.
Sure enough, Qiao Ning watched as a green-scaled hippopotamus bit a serrated green crocodile out of the river, and with one bite, the giant crocodile with its thick skin was bitten in half.
The pieces of crocodile carcass fell into the river and were quickly devoured by the surrounding river fish of all sizes.
With such a powerful bite, even with her life-saving abilities, Qiao Ning felt a little apprehensive. Her defenses were simply not enough to withstand even half a bite from the Green-Scaled Hippo, let alone a single hoof strike.
The only option is to ambush, taking advantage of the 3-minute teleportation effect that comes with the Black Flame Bone Blade after it's been inlaid, to avoid the Blue Scale Hippo's attacks.
If we can trigger the Corrosion effect, Blazing Inferno, and the Spring Breeze Set's probability of reducing the monster's attributes by half at the same time, we can take down the Azure Scale Hippo much faster.
If they cannot be triggered simultaneously, they must be resolved within 3 minutes, otherwise the teleportation effect will disappear and the cooldown time will be 1 hour.
The Green-scaled Hippopotamus has formidable attack power, and while its defense is not as high as that of the White-maned Rhinoceros, it is thicker and tougher than most wild animals in the valley.
Qiao Ning observed for quite a while and found that these big guys had very low alertness; they couldn't detect it even from three meters away.
If it were a black-tailed hyena on the grassland, it would probably have spotted her the moment she made the slightest movement.
The white-maned rhinoceroses not far away were equally unguarded. They were much larger, and their skin was like a thick layer of armor; you didn't even need to try to break through their defenses.
Since its vigilance was so poor, Qiao Ning didn't need to worry about anything. Taking advantage of a blue-scaled hippo's inattention, she released the [Swamp Devour] skill card, using three cards in a row to trap the blue-scaled hippo in the swamp.
She breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the skill card was effective against beasts. Although it consumed a lot of resources, it was still a helpful tool for killing monsters.
The Green-Scaled Hippo was too big in both strength and size, and it couldn't be trapped in such a shallow swamp for long. Qiao Ning didn't dare to waste any time, so she seized the opportunity and slashed down hard at the Green-Scaled Hippo's neck.
A cluster of thick black flames suddenly ignited and engulfed the entire body of the blue-scaled hippopotamus within seconds.
The "Burning Body" effect has been triggered.
The blue-scaled hippopotamus, in pain, struggled even more in the swamp. Its angry roar echoed throughout the valley. Hearing the cries of its kind, most of the other hippos merely glanced up a few times before lowering their heads to continue eating.
They are not monsters that attack in groups.
Qiao Ning wasn't sure if real hippos fought in groups. Anyway, these blue-scaled hippos were very territorial; even a male and a female couldn't tolerate each other. They would never easily step into the territory of another of their kind.
Swamp Card only trapped the hippopotamus for two or three minutes, during which time Qiao Ning slashed it at least several hundred times.
By the end, her arms were trembling slightly—not from exhaustion, but from the shock of the Green-scaled Hippo's thick, hard scales.
Qiao Ning could only use the Swamp Devourer to trap it again. When she had almost used up the Swamp Cards, she used the Ice Seal Card.
Finally, after using up twenty stamina points, I managed to wear down the hippopotamus.
Only after Qiao Ning successfully killed the beast did she have time to carefully examine its level and attributes.
She almost fainted when she saw it: a level 5 beast with 80,000 HP and 12,000 defense. Good heavens, no wonder it was so hard to kill!
Fortunately, it is slow, clumsy, and not very alert, otherwise it would be really difficult to deal with this monster.
After killing two green-scaled hippos using the same method, Qiao Ning set her sights on an old white-maned rhinoceros that looked unhealthy and somewhat aged.
Qiao Ning thought that this old rhinoceros would be easier to deal with, but when she saw its level and ridiculously long health bar after attacking, she was stunned.
Level 6 beast! The exact health bar isn't clear yet, but it's definitely twice the length of a Blue-Scaled Hippo!
Qiao Ning began to have second thoughts, but once the white-maned rhinoceros was provoked, it went berserk and relentlessly pursued her.
Poison gas, venom, swamp, thorns, ice, fire... she used every skill card she had, as many as she could. Even if she couldn't kill the behemoth, she could at least hold it off and slow down its attacks.
If the skill cards aren't powerful enough, make up for it with quantity. Qiao Ning used the Shadow Shift skill while escaping, and seized the opportunity to strike the white-maned rhinoceros.
The corrosion effect was triggered twenty or thirty times, and with the consumption of dozens of skill cards, the behemoth finally collapsed, dropping a pile of colorful resources.
Previously, killing two Blue-scaled Hippopotamuses yielded the following supplies:
Five Great Restoration Pills (Quickly restores 30 points of stamina and instantly heals all injuries, but cannot remove negative status effects such as poisoning.)
Azure Scale Set *2
Skill cards include Water Dragon Impact, Icebound Hundred Meters, Petrification, Earth Wall, and Illusory Counterattack. There are also familiar skills like Ground Spikes, Swamp Devour, and Poison Gas Paralysis, among others.
There are a total of about 20 skill cards, totaling 40 cards.
Stamina Potions: Large Bottle *1, Medium Bottle *5, Small Bottle *20
The White Mane Rhinoceros dropped even more supplies. Perhaps it was because Qiao Ning had overcome extremely high difficulty to kill it that the drop rate was so high that Qiao Ning was a little scared.
First, there's the Great Rejuvenation Pill, 20 pills.
100 skill cards, 5x Spirit Rhinoceros Sets
Black Flame Stone*3, Gemstone Inlay Box*5
Stamina Potions: Large Bottle *10, Medium Bottle *30, Small Bottle *100
No level required, special skill book "Eye of Truth": After learning Eye of Truth, players can directly see all monster information, including but not limited to level, attributes, habits, weaknesses, and rage meter (when the rage meter is full, a berserk state will be activated).
Additionally, it can make players immune to all mental confusion-related negative effects.
Qiao Ning immediately learned the Eye of Truth, and her first experimental subject was a white-maned rhinoceros that was already dead but whose body had not yet disappeared.
[White Mane Rhinoceros: The previous White Mane Rhinoceros King was defeated and driven away by a younger rhinoceros after he became old and weak. However, this does not affect the fact that players will receive the same generous rewards as when the new White Mane Rhinoceros King is killed.]
Level: 6 HP: 200,000 Defense: 18,000 Speed: 1,800
Characteristics: As a former king of the white-maned rhinoceroses, it still retains a certain degree of intimidation and influence over other white-maned rhinoceroses. When facing dire straits, it has a certain probability of summoning other rhinoceroses to help it fight off enemies.
By the end, Qiao Ning felt incredibly fortunate. Luckily, the old rhinoceros hadn't managed to summon its own kind before it died; otherwise, she would have been in serious trouble, if not dead.
Qiao Ning had used up nearly 400 stamina points in the three battles just now, and she was almost constantly drinking stamina potions while fighting afterward.
These three battles were dangerous and exhausting, and even with potions to restore her physical strength, she felt mentally drained. She decided to stop lingering in the wilderness to grind monsters, and after collecting the loot, she left.
Back on the highway, Qiao Ning got into the car, changed her clothes and washed up, then instructed the smart assistant to drive before falling asleep immediately.
I got up three times while half asleep to retrieve the supply crates. By the time I was fully awake, it was already 9 p.m. The smart assistant had already turned off the engine and parked the car, leaving only a small interior nightlight on.
Qiao Ning got up and washed her face; her stomach was growling with hunger.
She boiled water and cooked forty or fifty pork and shepherd's purse dumplings, which she ate with vinegar and chili oil.
While eating, I opened the chat channel.
This discovery was alarming; she found herself on the district news again.
Li Yangxing sent over a hundred private messages.
[Sister Qiao, are you there? Are you driving? Or fighting the treasure monster? Or in the jungle?]
[Sister Qiao, please reply when you see this.]
[Sister Qiao, you're on the server-wide announcement again! It says you were the first to kill a level 5 or higher Beastmaster! But there's no reward, and they even published a portion of the loot you got from killing the Beastmaster. This damn survival game is getting more and more of a rip-off.]
[Sister Qiao, you'll definitely get a lot of private messages. Be very careful and don't fall for any scams.]
Sister Qiao...
Upon seeing Li Yangxing's series of private messages, Qiao Ning, who had roughly learned the situation, was completely numb.
A district-wide announcement was made, but there was no reward; instead, it revealed some of the supplies she obtained from killing the Old Rhino King…
This is like roasting her on a fire!
Will she still be able to quietly make a fortune and dominate the charts after this?
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