The mission was to kill a Tier-5 Land King-type beast located within the Lingyin Mountain Range.
After leaving Hang City, Zhao Xuan headed north. Before long, he had crossed the city's borders and stepped into the deep, vast Lingyin Mountains.
Following the information listed in his mission briefing, he made his way straight toward the lair of that Tier-5 Land King-class creature.
Roughly half an hour later—
After crossing two peaks and entering a small mountain valley, Zhao Xuan finally reached the hill recorded as the beast's dwelling place.
He scouted around for a while before he finally found his target.
It was a Fire Fox.
As the name implied, this was a fox-type Land King that could breathe fire.
A fox's vision, smell, and hearing were far superior to most beasts—
And this one was Tier-5.
The moment Zhao Xuan spotted it, the Fire Fox spotted him too.
However—
The Fire Fox, as large as a tiger, didn't flee. Instead, it bared its fangs, glaring fiercely at Zhao Xuan while slowly circling closer and closer.
But it didn't dare approach too near. Keeping a distance of about thirty meters, it began circling him, its crimson eyes gleaming with strange light.
It was clearly sizing him up—testing his strength.
Rustle… rustle… rustle!
The next second—
As if confirming that Zhao Xuan posed no threat, the Fire Fox suddenly moved.
Swish!
It lunged viciously at Zhao Xuan.
Thirty meters of distance—
Gone in less than the blink of an eye.
The Fire Fox's speed was nearly on par with a Mei Blossom Deer's.
And throughout the whole process, Zhao Xuan didn't move an inch.
Just as the Fire Fox's razor-sharp claws were about to strike—
"Roooaaarrrr!!"
The power of the Azure Dragon Fruit activated in an instant.
A bloodline-suppressing aura erupted from Zhao Xuan's body, washing over the Fire Fox like an invisible wave.
An instinctive fear flooded its body.
It wanted to retreat—
But it was already too late.
Zhao Xuan's earth-shattering punch slammed forward.
Boom!!!
His fist met the Fire Fox's claws head-on.
Empowered by over ten thousand points of physique—
Augmented by Armament Haki—
The power in that single punch was terrifying beyond belief.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The sharp sound of bones shattering rang out.
The Fire Fox's right foreleg was snapped in an instant.
But the momentum of Zhao Xuan's fist didn't stop there—
Bang!!!
The blow landed squarely on the Fire Fox's chest.
Skreeeeeeee!!
With a shrill cry, the Tier-5 Fire Fox was hurled backward.
Boom!
It slammed into a massive tree.
The impact was so violent that the trunk snapped clean in half.
"You're not getting away!"
Zhao Xuan's voice was cold as ice.
He saw the Fire Fox stagger to its feet, limping frantically toward the deeper mountains. Zhao Xuan stomped hard—
Tap, tap, tap!
Using Shave, he vanished and gave chase at high speed.
Seeing Zhao Xuan closing in, the Fire Fox panicked.
It turned back, mouth opening wide.
"Whoosh!!!"
A torrent of blazing flames burst from its jaws, roaring toward Zhao Xuan.
Zhao Xuan threw out two heavy punches, smashing through the firestorm before charging straight into its face.
Another punch—
Boom!!!
Lightning crackled around his fist as it slammed into the Fire Fox's skull.
Thud!
The beast's body flew again, crashing into the ground dozens of meters away.
"Still not dead, huh?"
As Zhao Xuan approached, the Fire Fox—barely clinging to life—tried to crawl up and run once more.
Another punch—
Boom!
Its head was driven deep into the earth.
The ground trembled for nearly a hundred meters.
Take him while he's down!
Zhao Xuan didn't hesitate.
He unleashed a flurry of blows, pounding again and again.
After seven or eight strikes, the Fire Fox finally went still—its life completely extinguished.
From the moment Zhao Xuan found the Fire Fox to the moment it died—
The entire battle hadn't even lasted three minutes.
It was a total one-sided massacre.
Still, since it was a cross-rank kill, the system rewarded Zhao Xuan with twenty proficiency points each for Armament Haki and Azure Dragon Fruit ability.
"This battle was so easy only because that Fire Fox underestimated me," Zhao Xuan reflected calmly. "If it hadn't dropped its guard and let me break its leg with that first full-powered punch, its speed alone would've made it hard for me to catch it."
Reviewing the fight in his mind, his eyes began to shine.
"When I don't activate my Fruit ability, the aura I emit only feels like Rank Four to other Land Kings. Unless they're weak even among Tier-5s, they won't sense any real threat from me."
"Just like that Fire Fox—it sensed my aura was only Rank Four, so it attacked me head-on without caution!"
At that thought, an audacious idea burst into Zhao Xuan's mind.
"In that case… Can I use this to ambush mid-to-high Tier-5 Land Kings? Or maybe even—"
His eyes gleamed with wild excitement.
"—even some Tier-6 Land Kings with high attack, high speed, but low defense?"
"Rank Four… slaying Tier-6!"
"Rank Four… slaying Tier-6!!"
"If I can really kill a Tier-6 Land King while still Rank Four…"
The more he thought, the more exhilarated he became.
His face flushed red, his breath quickened, and his whole body seemed to tremble with anticipation.
Every cell in his body screamed in thrill at the thought.
And at that moment—
Deep within his mind, the dormant will of Conqueror's Haki began to stir faintly.
"If I really succeed… maybe I can awaken my Conqueror's Haki ahead of time!"
Quietly, Zhao Xuan clenched his fists, eyes blazing with determination.
But he wasn't a reckless man.
He forced himself to close his eyes and take deep, steady breaths.
"Haa… haa… haa…"
Dozens of deep breaths later, he finally calmed down.
Can't be reckless. Can't be reckless. Can't be reckless!
Tier-6 Land Kings were no joke.
"I still can't be sure whether all Land Kings are like that Fire Fox—unable to sense my true strength before I activate my Fruit power or enter Dragon-Man Form."
"And more importantly, I'll need a map showing where Tier-5 and Tier-6 Land Kings dwell within Lingyin Mountain Range. Only then can I find low-defense targets to test this properly."
With that, Zhao Xuan turned and dashed back toward Hang City.
Along the way, nearly every Rank Four Land King he encountered fell to his fists and was stored away in his relic space.
Money—every last one of them was money.
Before his breakthrough, Zhao Xuan had always considered himself a rich man.
But after stepping into Rank Four—
He realized the truth.
He was dirt poor.
After Rank Four, his strength had skyrocketed, and low-grade Energy Liquids could no longer sustain him.
Sure, they could still restore stamina—
But a single bag worth two hundred thousand credits only recovered a tiny bit, and it took five full minutes to take effect.
For low-rank ability users, that was fine.
But for mid-rank ones, it was unbearably slow.
A Rank Four user might need ten bags just to restore 80% of their strength.
That meant fifty minutes of waiting time.
Completely unacceptable.
So mid-rank ability users almost always used mid-grade Energy Liquids instead.
One bag—instant recovery to about 70–80%.
Even Tier-5 users could recover half their strength within a minute.
The effect was five times faster.
But the price—
A staggering two million per bag.
Ten times the price of the low-grade version.
And that was just energy liquid.
Mid-tier spiritual herbs and fruits were even pricier.
Browsing through the Hang City Ability Users' Guild marketplace, Zhao Xuan found that even the cheapest mid-tier spiritual fruit cost six to seven hundred thousand, with most hovering around a million each.
Two hours later—
By sunset, Zhao Xuan returned to the Guild.
After submitting his mission and collecting his 4.5 million reward, he sold all the beasts he had hunted.
To the staff's utter shock, Zhao Xuan unloaded thirteen Rank Four Land King corpses (with cores) and one Tier-5 Fire Fox corpse.
Total: 73.5 million credits.
Add the mission reward, and that was 78 million in total.
A fortune—
Or so it seemed.
Because in the blink of an eye, Zhao Xuan spent every last bit of it.
First, he bought a map showing the distribution of mid-tier Land King beasts across the Lingyin Mountains.
Price: 20 million.
Expensive, but worth it.
The Guild had spent enormous manpower and time compiling and updating this map each quarter.
Still, Zhao Xuan believed this investment would pay off—tenfold.
After that, he was left with 58 million.
At two million per bag, he bought 29 bags of mid-grade Energy Liquid.
And just like that, the 78 million was gone.
Yet Zhao Xuan didn't stop there.
Next, he turned his eyes to the Monkey King Fruit—a Rank Four spiritual fruit priced at 3.7 million each.
It could hasten mental recovery and even strengthen spiritual power.
He was satisfied with his physique—
But his spiritual power lagged far behind, nearly six times weaker.
Too large a gap between body and mind was dangerous.
According to Elder Jiang Youde, once that gap exceeded tenfold, one would start losing control of their own strength.
At twentyfold, only seventy to eighty percent of power could be used.
At thirtyfold, one would become no more than a "normal person," unable to even react properly in battle.
Zhao Xuan's sixfold gap was still tolerable—but risky.
He needed to prepare in advance.
Because both his Azure Dragon Fruit and Armament Haki would continue to push his physique higher.
So—
With gritted teeth, Zhao Xuan spent all his remaining funds to buy seven Monkey King Fruits.
"The poor study literature, the rich train in war'… turns out that saying's no exaggeration."
Staring at the pitiful 1,000 credits left in his account, Zhao Xuan silently clenched his fists.
◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews. comment
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on P@treon if you're interested: patreon.com/HorizonStudios0