‘Damn system! Why is it so hard to kill an MC!?’

Ding

This tutorial quest is designed to be manageable with your current cultivation base and skill set.

Please kill the protagonist with everything you have learned.

Be warned. Upon failing to kill the protagonist, your existence will be erased from this world.

After all, this might be your only chance to kill Xie Tian.

‘But you barely taught me anything! I did most of the work!’

Again, killing Xie Tian is only a tutorial quest. Bear in mind that more protagonists, main characters, and villains with various cheats are waiting for you in the story quests of the campaign mode.

Good luck! This is what your sponsor can pray for you.

‘Wait! I need some hints! How do I kill Xie Tian!?’

Cao Mao panted and clenched his chest, where his lung had been pierced by a piece of the broken ribcage. Although the lungs had been healed, the phantom pain was still haunting him.

The previous fire tornado and explosion blew dust in the air. It was hard to breathe, but Cao Mao’s turtle breathing technique helped in this situation. Cao Mao’s face and clothes were in a mess because of the dirt.

Cao Mao slowly got back on his feet. He glared at the cockroach protagonist. Vice versa, Xie Tian’s eyes flared with rage.

“XU MIAO!! DIE!!”

Xie Tian charged at Cao Mao again with his flame saber.

Cao Mao gritted his teeth. He mustered his strength and bellowed back, “SCREW YOU, XIE TIAN!!”

Both men dashed at each other and repeated what they had done during their first exchange.

This time, Cao Mao added more chips to the table. He circulated 1,000 drops of Yang Essence into Killer Queen. The latter cackled as her black blade glowed.

Xie Tian poured every last bit of his energy into his flame saber. He planned to destroy Cao Mao’s sword and end this fight.

Their swords collided once more.

It was a stalemate in terms of brute force. However, one of them had stored more energy.

Killer Queen’s high pitch laughter was audible. She created a demonic white flame around her blade, preparing to explode Xie Tian’s sword.

Xie Tian’s flame saber also did the same. But instead of trying to destroy KQ, Xie Tian pulled the sword back and swung it again, planning to cleave Cao Mao in half.

BOOM

Two energy collided again. Dragon flame and demon flame engulfed both of them, burning them alive.

Xie Tian’s regeneration strength didn’t work under the demon flame. As for Cao Mao, he could only protect himself with his remaining Yin Essence barrier.

Both men kept pressing onward, burning their remaining energy.

During the stalemate, Cao Mao seized Xie Tian’s neck with his left hand while the protagonist also choked the former.

Vampiric Touch, Life Steal

Energy Drain

Two men exchanged a life leeching skill amid the raging fire.

However, Energy Drain was a simplified version of Life Steal. The difference was apparent. Every 100 strands of Yang Qi that Xie Tian got from Cao Mao, the latter stole back 1,000 strands.

Realizing that he was losing in this tug-o-war, Xie Tian maneuvered his saber, hacking at Cao Mao’s left arm.

But Cao Mao sneered. His Qi went inside his invisible ring and ejected a sealed glass bottle, flying toward the saber.

Inside the bottle was the Crimson River water!

The glass bottle smashed with Xie Tian’s sword and splattered the content everywhere. However, Cao Mao had been prepared. He summoned 10 low-grade shields to be his umbrellas.

The cursed water got on Xie Tian and the shields!

Xie Tian recognized the water as soon as he felt the overwhelming will of the Rooster God. Fearing the worst-case scenario, he decided to use his trump card to cancel this effect.

“RETURN TO ZERO!!”

But Cao Mao laughed, “THAT GOLDEN EXPERIENCE KNOCK-OFF AGAIN!? NOT A CHANCE, KILLER QUEEN!!”

‘Ahaha! Show time!’

Killer Queen had once promised Cao Mao after the sparring match that day. Should Xie Tian activate this skill again, as long as KQ had enough essence, she would devour the time-and-space energy and cancel its effect.

Cao Mao wasn’t disappointed. As everything came to a stop, KQ burnt all essence that Cao Mao had poured into her. Then, she was the only one who could move in the frozen world.

KQ sucked the energy from the flame saber, Xie Tian, and surrounding Qi into herself.

Instead of reversing time, everything paused. Then, time moved forward in a slow-motion mode. Two breaths later, the time and space resumed.

ROAR

Even after all that, Xie Tian unleashed a dragon roar, sending a blasting shockwave toward Cao Mao. The latter and KQ got pushed back by a strong force of a dragon. The impact crushed his nose, broke his ribcages, cracked his arms, and flung him away two hundred meters. As for KQ, she regained her momentum in mid-air and returned to her master’s side.

Cao Mao crash-landed on his back. His spinal cord cracked and dislocated, sending weird sensation to his lower back and his legs.

Sensing the internal damage, Cao Mao ate more healing pills. He even swallowed orc strength pills for a safety measure.

At the moment, Cao Mao experienced the same thing that Xie Tian had gone through, the pill toxic. If someone were to consume too many pills in a short period, the effect would decrease. And if the person ate the same pill for a long time, his body would resist the pill’s effect.

Cao Mao now needed more than 10 low-grade healing pills to heal shallow wounds. For deep wounds and internal injuries, he had to swallow at least 100 to 200 low-grade pills to get the same effect as a high-grade one.

Pokok!

Fortunately, Xie Tian was under the influence of the cursed river. He acted like a chicken and started pecking the rich brown soil instead of capitalizing this chance to finish off Cao Mao.

KQ helped Cao Mao rumble through his spatial ring to see if anything could help her master. When she noticed the hollowed spring water, she scolded him.

‘Use the spring water, you stupid hooman! Have your brain gone bananas whenever you fight!?’

In life-and-death battles, not everyone had a clear mental state. Sometimes, the adrenaline rush made Cao Mao forget about several moves or available cards he had. Xie Tian, as well, was still inexperienced in stressful battles. Both sides made a lot of mistakes in this fight.

Cao Mao might have fought thousands of tough opponents, but he fought with the mentality that he could get resurrected upon death. In a real fight like this one, it put a lot of pressure on his psyche, causing his combat performance to drop.

Realizing his mistake and his shortcoming, Cao Mao took a deep breath. In the Isolation Training Space, he fought better than this.

‘I should have used the spring water instead of healing pills. I didn’t use enough long-range and mid-range skills to harass him. I didn’t even use traps and psychological warfare. I’m stupid!’

Cao Mao poured a liter of spring water into his mouth, drinking it.

Cold water entered his stomach and spread through his body. Magically, he felt a lot better. Bones mended while his joints and spinal cord automatically corrected their positions.

Ding

Hollowed Spring Water has healed your injuries.

You have the Chloro Heart tattoo. The spring water’s effect is triple!

Within 10 seconds, Cao Mao managed to stand up again, even though he still felt groggy. He grabbed KQ and staggered toward Xie Tian like a drunk man.

“It’s over, motherfucker. Accept your fate!”

Despite saying that, Cao Mao didn’t let his guard down. During a time like this in many novels, protagonists usually had one or two tricks under their sleeves.

Cao Mao baited Xie Tian to use it even though he seemed to be influenced by the Rooster God’s will. He pretended, acting like he was still severely injured, and fired a black fireball of yin flame toward the latter.

While Cao Mao was at it, he plucked a kernel of wooden spirit corn and ate it, preparing for the next few moves if the plan were to fail.

Ding

You have digested 32 strands of wooden element Qi!

You are immune to wooden elements.

You have a Chloro Heart Tattoo. The wooden element Qi is temporarily stored in your heart until you can build a wooden element continent in your dantian.

The current Chloro Heart Tattoo’s capacity is 32/1,000.

The Chloro Heart of the dryad queen came in handy.

While Cao Mao was admiring the newfound power, Xie Tian snapped back to his senses and swatted the yin flame away with his flame saber. Then, he ignited himself on fire once more. All previous wounds were healed by the dragon fire.

“Jesus Christ. How far are you going to cheat, Xie Tian? Is there a limit to your plot armor?”