The Strongest Talent Tree

Chapter 167: Chapter 164: Explosive Damage

The Magma Lake was vast. The trio had been traveling for over two hours and were still wandering along its southern shore.

Perhaps due to the unique nature of the Magma Lake, no other magical beasts were around. After all, aside from a special creature like the Fire Cloud Beast, it was difficult for other beasts to survive in such a high-temperature environment.

"There are tracks over here. Looks like we’ve found the right place," Dongfang Qi said, kneeling beside the footprints.

"They’re definitely Fire Cloud Beast tracks. Stay alert." Nanyuan Xu’s expression turned grave. "When it shows up, we need to lure it out of the Magma Lake’s range. This isn’t a good place for us to fight."

Dongfang Qi said confidently, "No problem. I’ll be in charge of tying it down. I’ll leave the damage dealing to you two."

"Right," Nanyuan Xu nodded slightly and began to cautiously scout in the direction of the tracks.

He had only taken a few steps when Nanyuan Xu’s expression changed abruptly. "I’ve found it! It’s in the magma right beside us! Retreat, now!"

Feng Hao and Dongfang Qi didn’t dare to be careless and hastily retreated.

The next moment, a gigantic Fire Cloud Beast leaped from the magma, sending sparks flying as it roared and charged toward the trio.

"You two fall back first! I’ll hold this thing off. We’ll fight it once we reach safer ground!"

Dongfang Qi shouted as an earthy-yellow halo enveloped him. He raised his sword and shield and charged forward to meet it.

BANG!

Although his shield blocked the impact, he was sent flying. Dongfang Qi gritted his teeth and cursed under his breath, immediately activating his Bloodline Power. The gravity beneath his feet instantly multiplied, and the Fire Cloud Beast, which had been pressing its advantage, suddenly slowed down.

"Come and get me, you dumbass!" Dongfang Qi taunted, laughing loudly as he retreated toward the jungle.

The Fire Cloud Beast roared and gave chase. Having evolved to the fifth rank, its intelligence was already quite developed; it could naturally understand Dongfang Qi’s taunt.

Feng Hao and Nanyuan Xu were also ready, patiently waiting for the Fire Cloud Beast to enter their attack range.

Nanyuan Xu was a Sword Magic user with a long attack range. His crimson Magic Sword pulsed with magical light, coalescing into a massive, flaming greatsword that crashed down on the Fire Cloud Beast.

The Fire Cloud Beast roared and spat a gout of flame toward Nanyuan Xu’s position, which erupted into a Sea of Fire.

Nanyuan Xu hastily dodged and sent two slashes of red Sword Qi back in return. "My Fire Attribute Secret Techniques are useless against it! I’ll have to rely on Basic Secret Skills. Little Bro, looks like the damage is all on you two!"

"Don’t worry." Feng Hao smiled confidently. As the Fire Cloud Beast drew nearer, he subconsciously activated his Crystal Eye to inspect it.

[Fire Cloud Beast]

Gene Level: 52

Evolution Path: Strength, Divine Sense, Physique, Flame

Qi Blood: 204,500

Life Force: 298

Strength: 3,660

Defense: 2,752

Speed: 1,130

Claw/Fang Damage: 267

Flame Damage: 1,551

Scale Armor Protection: 40 (Flame Protection: 80)

’No Dark Force protection? Isn’t that as good as being made of paper?’ Feng Hao sneered. Activating Black Pupils and Shadow Escape simultaneously, he stealthily closed in on the Fire Cloud Beast.

At that moment, the Fire Cloud Beast was tangled up with Dongfang Qi, its speed severely hampered by the gravity field.

Thus, Feng Hao easily circled behind the Fire Cloud Beast. After dodging a simple sweep of its tail, he used Shadow Strike to close the distance, found his angle, and aimed a [Moon Pierce] right at its rear end.

BAM! As the Fire Cloud Beast let out a pained roar, a string of data appeared above its head, visible via the Crystal Eye:

"53,635"

"42,108"

"32,181"

"21,454"

"10,727"

In addition to these numbers, a golden "10" also appeared, representing the life force damage from his [Instant Death] Demon Pattern.

Dongfang Qi and Nanyuan Xu saw the damage numbers through their Crystal Eyes as well. Their eyes went wide as they stared at Feng Hao in disbelief. "Holy shit, am I seeing things? What the hell kind of damage is that?!"

"Over 160,000 damage... How did he do that?" Nanyuan Xu gulped, clearly shaken.

A Dark Force Mage’s damage was terrifying, but that was typically the kind of output one saw from a fifth or sixth-rank Mage who had fully developed their skills. For Feng Hao, who was only level thirty, to deal such explosive damage was simply unbelievable.

Keep in mind, this Fifth-rank Fire Cloud Beast only had about 200,000 Qi Blood. Feng Hao had just wiped out more than three-quarters of it in a single blow.

Feng Hao himself was startled. The damage from that [Moon Pierce] was more than double what he’d anticipated. ’The Fire Cloud Beast’s Divine Sense must be even lower than I thought,’ he mused. The massive damage bonus from his stealth and from striking a weak point had resulted in such terrifying numbers.

The Fire Cloud Beast was now thoroughly enraged. It instantly abandoned Dongfang Qi and turned on Feng Hao, intent on killing him.

"Little Bro, look out!" Dongfang Qi cried out, frantically hacking with his sword and shield in an attempt to draw the Fire Cloud Beast’s attention.

Unfortunately, the Fire Cloud Beast was too intelligent. It knew exactly who posed the greatest threat and focused its frenzied assault on Feng Hao. In an instant, the surrounding jungle became a Sea of Fire.

Feng Hao instinctively activated Shadow Escape to get away, but he was completely surrounded by the vast Sea of Fire. His Qi Blood began to plummet.

’Damn it. Good thing I have over a thousand points of Gang Qi to absorb this, or I’d be in real trouble.’

What left Feng Hao most speechless was that the Fire Cloud Beast could somehow sense his location within the Sea of Fire and was relentlessly spitting Fireballs at him.

’You’re not going to let up, are you?!’ Feng Hao, feeling scorched all over, cursed under his breath. Gritting his teeth, he endured the searing heat of the Sea of Fire, used Shadow Strike to get to the Fire Cloud Beast’s flank, and unleashed a [Dark Moon Slaughter] followed by a frantic [Moon Wheel Dance].

The Fire Cloud Beast didn’t have much Qi Blood left to begin with, and it was instantly depleted. Combined with the pincer attack from Dongfang Qi and Nanyuan Xu, the last shred of its life force was quickly extinguished.

"Fuck, I’m burning alive!" Feng Hao viciously kicked the Fire Cloud Beast’s corpse while frantically patting out the flames on his clothes.

Dongfang Qi and Nanyuan Xu hurried over, their eyes fixed on Feng Hao in sheer amazement, completely ignoring the Fire Cloud Beast’s corpse.

"Little Bro, your Dark Force damage is just insane!" Nanyuan Xu exclaimed, dumbfounded.

Feng Hao paused, then replied with a shrug, "It’s nothing special. The main reason is that this beast had no Dark Force protection and its Divine Sense was pitifully low."

"Holy cow, if that attack had hit me, I definitely wouldn’t have been able to take it," Dongfang Qi said, a hint of fear still in his voice.

"If you couldn’t take it, I wouldn’t stand a chance," Nanyuan Xu said with a wry smile.

Dongfang Qi shook his head with a bitter sigh. "If I’d known Dark Force was this powerful, I never would’ve bothered with sword and shield. I should’ve gone with a Dark Force build from the start."

"Don’t be ridiculous. With your pitiful aptitude for Dark Force, you’d be even worse off if you’d gone down that path," Nanyuan Xu said disdainfully.

"As long as I’m stronger than you," Dongfang Qi shot back.

Feng Hao stood by, speechless, before finally cutting in, "Ahem... Shouldn’t we get to butchering the Fire Cloud Beast’s corpse?"

"Right, we still have to get home." The two finally snapped out of it and skillfully began to butcher the Fire Cloud Beast’s corpse.

The Fire Cloud Beast’s Scale Armor was a rare material. A flame protection of 80 was terrifying. A full set of gear crafted from Fire Cloud Beast Scale Armor would be an absolute nightmare for a Fire Attribute Mage like Nanyuan Xu.

"Can I have the Essence Blood? I’ll use it for alchemy," Feng Hao asked.

"No problem." Dongfang Qi and Nanyuan Xu naturally had no objections. After all, Feng Hao had killed the Fire Cloud Beast almost single-handedly.

After processing the Fire Cloud Beast’s corpse, the trio began to clean up the surrounding Sea of Fire to prevent it from spreading and causing a forest fire. Protecting the environment was, after all, an unwritten rule among Mages.

Afterward, they continued on their way to Rongcheng in the flying car...

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