Chapter 43: Counter Robbery

Jian Chen and Tie Ta quickly dodged. Over the past two days, due to the numerous battles with magical beasts, Tie Ta had gradually gained some combat experience. As he dodged, he swung his giant axe, which had several notches, towards one of the men's thighs.

However, the group on the other side was not so easy to deal with. Just as Tie Ta's axe was about to hit the man's thigh, a giant sword flew over and collided fiercely with Tie Ta's axe.

"Clang!"

With the sound of metal clashing, Tie Ta's axe was immediately blocked. Despite this, the terrifying force from the axe was transmitted without reservation to the giant sword. Instantly, the young man holding the giant sword felt a violent tremor in his entire arm, and the powerful counterforce made his palm tingle.

The young man's face turned pale with shock, and he quickly exclaimed, "Everyone be careful, his strength is very powerful. It's best not to engage him head-on."

Hearing the young man's warning, the other two men who were dealing with Tie Ta became more cautious, trying to avoid his giant axe as much as possible.

On the other side, Jian Chen was also engaged in intense combat with two young men wielding giant swords. Although the weapon in Jian Chen's hand was just a rusty iron rod, apart from his lack of strength compared to Tie Ta, his overall strength was far superior to Tie Ta's. After a series of agile movements, Jian Chen seized an opening and thrust his iron rod at one of the men's thighs with lightning speed. Since they were all students from the same academy, Jian Chen did not dare to kill them, only to injure them.

Jian Chen's iron rod moved very quickly. Before the student could react, the iron rod had already deeply pierced his thigh.

"Ah!" The young man let out a painful cry, his face turning pale instantly, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

Hearing his companion's cry, the other young man attacking Jian Chen's face changed slightly. He stopped attacking Jian Chen and quickly supported his companion, saying, "Harry, are you okay?"

Although the young man stopped attacking Jian Chen, Jian Chen did not intend to let him off. His body flickered, and he appeared in front of the young man. Gathering all his holy power in his palm, he struck directly at the young man's chest.

Jian Chen's attack was extremely fast, like a bolt of lightning. By the time the young man reacted, Jian Chen's palm had already silently approached his body and struck his chest mercilessly.

"Thud!" The young man was directly sent flying by Jian Chen's near full-force palm strike. While still in mid-air, he could not help but spit out a mouthful of blood.

After dealing with the two young men, Jian Chen immediately went to support Tie Ta. Tie Ta was already in a tough battle, having endured many attacks from the three men. The wolf skin he wore had been cut in many places, and blood was seeping through the cuts. If it weren't for Tie Ta's incredibly strong physique and innate strength, which made the three men dare not engage his axe, he would have been beaten to the ground long ago.

With Jian Chen's support, the pressure on Tie Ta was greatly reduced. Jian Chen's combat strength was far beyond that of ordinary saints. After a few brief exchanges, the three young men surrounding Tie Ta were all defeated by Jian Chen, suffering various injuries and lying on the ground in pain, unable to escape.

Jian Chen's gaze fell on the wounds on Tie Ta's body, and he asked with concern, "Tie Ta, are you okay?"

Tie Ta shook his head indifferently, saying, "I'm fine, my body is very strong." Then, pointing to the five men lying on the ground in pain, he asked, "What should we do with them?"

Hearing this, Jian Chen thought for a moment and then a strange smile appeared on his face. "Tie Ta, take off their spatial waist belts, take out all the magic cores, and then return the belts to them."

Upon hearing this, the faces of the five men lying on the ground changed, turning pale. Some of them even showed anger in their eyes. The magic cores in their spatial waist belts were obtained through two days of life-and-death battles. Now, with only half a day left until the three-day deadline, if they lost these cores, they would definitely fail to complete the academy's task.

Tie Ta chuckled and, without hesitation, immediately followed Jian Chen's instructions, removing the spatial waist belts from the five men. Jian Chen, holding a blood-soaked iron rod, stood guard, ready to prevent any sudden actions from the five men.

The five young men had initially planned to resist, but when they saw the blood-soaked iron rod in Jian Chen's hand, they all gave up and obediently let Tie Ta remove their waist belts.

After removing the waist belts, Tie Ta took out all the magic cores and then casually threw the spatial waist belts back to them. After counting, they found that the five men had a total of twelve second-tier magic cores.

Jian Chen laughed and took six of them, placing them in his own spatial waist belt. He said happily, "Tie Ta, we'll split these magic cores. The remaining six are yours."

"Alright!" Tie Ta did not hesitate, excitedly putting the remaining six magic cores into his own bag.

However, when the five young men heard Tie Ta's name, their faces all changed, and they became extremely upset. In the Kagas Academy, Tie Ta's name was well-known. He was the apprentice of the dean, and although he had not yet become a saint, no one in the entire Kagas Academy dared to offend him.

At that moment, the five young men were so regretful that they wished they had never come. If they had known that one of the two was Tie Ta, they would never have dared to rob the dean's apprentice. Now, not only had they been counter-robbed, but they also dared not seek revenge, suffering a silent loss.

After placing the second-tier magic cores in his spatial waist belt, Tie Ta's smile became even brighter. He said excitedly, "Changyang Xiangtian, you are really amazing. You defeated all five of them so quickly. I, Tie Ta, am following the right person."

Jian Chen smiled and said, "Alright, let's continue on our way. I hope we can hunt more magical beasts during this time to support our daily training."

Then, Jian Chen and Tie Ta, without even glancing at the five young men lying on the ground with grim faces, continued advancing into the forest.

When Jian Chen and Tie Ta disappeared from sight, one of the young men finally couldn't hold back his curses. "Damn, this is really bad luck. We actually encountered the dean's apprentice. Now, not only did our plan fail, but we were also counter-robbed, and we can't even seek revenge. What a bad omen."

As soon as the young man finished speaking, the one holding the large hammer said, "That's not necessarily true. Don't forget, we weren't the only ones robbing them. There was another person."

Hearing this, everyone's eyes lit up. "You mean Changyang Xiangtian?"

The young man holding the large hammer, who was also the tallest, nodded and said, "Exactly. Tie Ta has the dean's backing, so we can't touch him, but Changyang Xiangtian is different."

"But Changyang Xiangtian is very powerful. We five almost all lost to him. How can we beat him?" one of them asked.

"Exactly, and the most important thing is that Changyang Xiangtian's attack speed is too fast. I couldn't even dodge it," said the young man holding the giant sword, who had been stabbed in the thigh by Jian Chen.

At this moment, the young man holding the large knife suddenly said, "Don't forget, Changyang Xiangtian has offended many people in the academy. Whether it's Young Master Cheng or the Luo family's young master, they are all much stronger than us. If we can find an opportunity to join forces with them, we can eventually take revenge."

...

In no time, the sky had gradually darkened. The number of magical beasts in the third area was significantly fewer compared to the second area. In half a day, Jian Chen and Tie Ta only found a few magical beasts. Each time they killed a magical beast, they had to go through a tough battle. In the afternoon, they only managed to obtain seven second-tier magic cores, a number that seemed insignificant compared to the second area. However, when they thought about the five students who had reached the saint level and only obtained twelve magic cores in two days, they felt relieved.

The third area was not as peaceful as the second area. Perhaps because second-tier magical beasts were harder to kill and were fewer in number, many people resorted to robbery. After encountering the five young men who tried to rob them, Jian Chen and Tie Ta encountered three more groups of robbers. The smallest group had four people, and the largest had seven. After a series of tough battles, Jian Chen and Tie Ta emerged victorious, and the magic cores from the opponents were all confiscated by them. However, Jian Chen was frustrated to find that one of the groups of four had no magic cores, having just been robbed themselves. Nevertheless, they still managed to obtain thirty-three second-tier magic cores from the other two groups.

In the evening, Jian Chen and Tie Ta sat by the fire, roasting magical beast meat. Both of them showed signs of fatigue on their faces. The half day had been more tiring than a whole day of battling magical beasts in the second area.

However, Tie Ta's school uniform was nowhere to be seen. He was bare-chested, with only a piece of animal skin covering his important parts, looking like a wild man. His body was covered with over a dozen scars of various sizes, though they were mostly superficial and did not affect his muscles or bones. Jian Chen envied his robust physique.

Jian Chen was not much better off. Although his school uniform was still wearable, it was covered with many wounds and completely stained with blood, which had turned black.

At this moment, faint sounds of fighting could be heard from a distance. Jian Chen's hearing was very sharp, and he immediately caught the subtle sounds.

Jian Chen stood up from the ground, looking into the distance, and said, "Tie Ta, there's a battle happening far away."