Chapter 52: In This Day and Age, You’re Still Practicing Traditional Cultivation?

Magic and bullets intertwined, heavy punches and flying swords danced together.

Even in the face of a mutant horde that would make any wasteland dweller turn pale with fear, the five of them still appeared entirely at ease.

Mutants as robust as oxen were mowed down by the old monk's Six Paths of Samsara prayer wheel, tumbling pathetically onto their charging path.

Glazed pure fire, combined with the vampire magic unleashed by Anthony, incinerated a vast number of low-tier mutants to ashes.

Those whose strength reached the B-tier or above were singled out one by one by Lu Wenwu's fists and Su Qinghong's flying swords, dying violent deaths on the spot.

Cassandra the succubus hid behind the others, wielding a two-handed staff taller than herself, continuously channeling elemental powers to fortify the frontline.

Muds and torrents kept rising to form towering walls, dividing the battlefield into a maze-like structure.

A massive number of mutants were channeled into smaller groups in the distance, scattering as much as possible and surging forward in other directions.

The Wasteland Trio stood at the rear, completely dumbfounded.

Fighting head-on against a mutant horde with just five people?!

Is this something humans are truly capable of doing?

Even though the horde lacked a "King" class symbolizing the sixth tier (B+) and an even higher seventh-tier "Emperor" class, given the endless numbers present right now, even those legendary sixth-tier powerhouses couldn't possibly survive such a tide-like onslaught, could they?

Could it be... Could it be!

A very bold thought suddenly arose in the priest's mind.

Could these five adults, suspected of being priests of the God of Natural Redemption, be legendary seventh-tier powerhouses?

Does humanity truly possess seventh-tier existences?

Lu Wenwu and the others were destined not to answer the priest's question.

After nearly an hour of bloody battle, the mutant horde finally swept past entirely, heading toward the distant horizon.

Until this moment, Old John and Takeda still felt as though they were in a surreal dream, hugging each other tightly and weeping with joy.

They had survived!

They had actually survived!

"Amitabha..."

The old monk's "wrathful eyes" expression completely dissipated, transforming back into his usual merciful appearance.

The Northeastern fox-spirit asked Cassandra for some water, and was currently cursing while wiping her precious magical sword, angrily complaining about how fiercely corrosive and sticky mutant blood truly was.

Only Anthony, the most serious of them all, spread his bat wings and flew into the sky, enduring the solar radiation debuff to carefully observe the surroundings and ensure everyone had truly escaped danger.

"Hey, you three, stop standing there like fools. Go pick up all the muscle meat and sort them by grade."

Lu Wenwu was toying with a billiard-ball-sized piece of muscle meat in his hand, giving instructions as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Master Ruhuo's glazed pure fire is truly convenient. The mutant flesh and blood are completely burned away, yet this muscle meat manages to remain."

The old monk said while collecting his pile of spent bullet casings, "Not quite, not quite... The glazed pure fire cannot affect 'pure' objects; it can only be used for purification. The Tyrant benefactor's judgment just now was entirely correct—there was no pollution present within the muscle meat."

"Aha, looks like I can rest assured and study how to cook this thing!"

Lu Wenwu took a hearty crunching bite out of the meat lump in his hand, just like eating an apple.

The B-tier muscle meat had a certain chewiness, making a crunchy sound when bitten into, somewhat resembling lamb tendon that had been pre-boiled and then charcoal-grilled.

Compared to the junk-tier D-tier stuff, this B-minus-grade muscle meat possessed a hint of refreshing fragrance.

After fully consuming it using Devour the Heavens, Lu Wenwu's [Physique] attribute received a joyful boost of five points.

This discovery immediately delighted him beyond measure.

Killing activated Evil Bane, granting ten free attribute points.

Win!

Eating the meat after killing activated Devour the Heavens, boosting the [Physique] attribute by another five points!

Qin Shi Huang sucking on a baby pacifier—winning again!

Unfortunately, he couldn't win a third time.

Near the end of the battle, Lu Wenwu had secretly consumed the corpse of a B-tier mutant.

Nothing happened, other than wasting physical stamina.

He couldn't even feel his physical attributes increasing.

Presumably, all the flesh-and-blood essence of this species was concentrated entirely within this single piece of meat.

The Wasteland Trio acted briskly.

Soon, over a thousand pieces of muscle meat were all gathered back.

Among them, D-tier made up a full half, C-tier made up a little over two-fifths, and B-tier amounted to only a few dozen pieces.

These were good items that could solidly increase one's attributes; nobody would be noble enough to choose to pass on them.

The fox demon ate both meat and greens, and the canine type ate everything.

The vampire drank blood, but wasn't limited to only drinking blood.

The old monk normally ate vegetarian food, but he was also a soldier; breaking precepts in special circumstances was of no consequence.

The succubus ate... ahem...

As long as she could eat meat, everything else was unimportant.

The spoils of war were evenly divided into five portions.

Originally, they thought the old monk had contributed the most and should take a larger share.

However, Master Ruhuo stated that everyone had played their own role in this battle, and they shouldn't judge solely by the number of kills.

If they really wanted to be technical, Lu Wenwu had slain countless B-tier mutants, so if anyone took more, it should be him.

After some polite declining, and due to the old monk Ruhuo's insistence, the others had no choice but to drop the matter.

Low-tier muscle meat was almost useless to Lu Wenwu.

Thus, he chose to trade his culinary skills and a large quantity of low-tier muscle meat with his companions in exchange for those at the C-plus grade and above.

Everyone readily agreed.

Their bodies weren't as formidable as Lu Wenwu's, and low-tier muscle meat still had a strengthening effect on them.

Over the course of the battle, the number of B-tier mutants that died by Lu Wenwu's hands was over a dozen; solely from free attribute points, Lu Wenwu had made a fortune.

A whopping two hundred and fourteen!

Unfortunately, there were no B-plus-grade existences among them.

If he could have consumed muscle meat of that grade, that would have been a full five hundred points of [Physique] attribute!

Lu Wenwu didn't feel regretful for long, though.

After all, the [Physique] attribute gained from eating muscle meat, combined with the free attribute points harvested by Evil Bane, brought his total gains for this wave to a staggering three hundred and fifty!

And this was only the first day of entering the instance!

If this kind of mutant horde could happen a couple more times, wouldn't that just be unimaginably thrilling?

Because of these gratifying gains, the smile on Lu Wenwu's face hadn't faded even by the time they made camp and cooked dinner in the evening.

The egg pancakes made with Brother Ge's special muscle meat sauce were exceptionally fragrant.

Let alone those three wastelanders who were eating to the point of tears.

Even the well-traveled vampire count, the socially anxious succubus, the Northeastern fox demon, and the old monk Ruhuo sighed endlessly, declaring that the first half of their lives had been lived in vain.

No one could resist the charm of egg pancakes prepared at the [Myriad Dharmas Divine Mastery] level of spirit cuisine.

Even if they weren't human, it still wouldn't work!

It was just a pity that Lu Wenwu's mastery of the various techniques of a spirit chef was not yet very proficient, and his success rate was low.

Those hand seals and incantations, which were even more cumbersome than alchemy or Taoist spell cultivation, tortured him mercilessly.

It was simple for Lu Wenwu to crush a stone with two fingers.

Asking him to form hand seals as swiftly as a butterfly flitting through flowers was truly making things hard for him.

Just as Lu Wenwu was agonizingly cracking his fingers to practice hand seals, Cassandra the shy, timid, and socially anxious succubus plucked up the courage to proactively offer him a "shortcut."

A holographic projection handheld console.

To be precise, a holographic projection handheld console loaded with hundreds of ultra-hardcore rhythm games.

Playing it required tapping and touching in all directions, bending one's fingers into bizarre arcs one after another just to ensure no notes were missed.

With the mindset of "since I'm already here," Lu Wenwu gave it a skeptical try.

Over the next three days of travel, he transformed into a rhythm gamer, frantically playing one torturing game after another.

You don't say.

You really don't say.

After three days, Lu Wenwu's skills had indeed advanced by leaps and bounds!

His finger flexibility had greatly improved!

With zero tact, Lu Wenwu sighed about this, "Damn it, transmersion novels really are all lies! How can anyone become a grandmaster just by brooding and practicing blindly!"