The next day, Yan boarded a bus to Nanyong City's demon cave. Once the bus dropped him off, he planned his next move. To get to the dragon valley outside, he had to pass through the demon cave first, and Yan figured that a lot of people might be there at that time of day.
The demon cave was connected to the real world, to Nanyong City, by a single passageway. Inside the demon cave was a human stronghold, one of humanity's main fortresses against monster invasion. Nanyong City's demon cave was run by two bosses above level 70. In his last life, Yan had been forced to work for them like a slave.
Upon entering the demon cave, Yan saw a lot of people geared up. Once they entered the cave, most people immediately geared up to stay ready to fight at any moment. Yan could tell that the majority of their gear must have cost a fortune. It was nothing, though, compared to the storage ring he had gotten from Kexin, because she was on another level of rich.
A few moments later, Yan arrived at the east gate, the exit closest to the Poison Dragon Valley.
The dragon valley was considered the safest among all the explored zones out there. Most monsters in it were said to be between level 13 and 18, and Yan believed it was the best spot for his leveling goals.
At the east gate, Yan was roasted as usual when he presented his identification to the guards. Wondering if he had a few screws loose, the captain questioned whether he really planned to go into the valley alone with his dual F-rank trash. He warned Yan that the rookie training grounds were nothing compared to the demon cave wilds.
Despite the warning, Yan remained calm and thanked the captain for his concern. As he headed past them, he boldly declared that he would surely come back in one piece.
The captain was still worried, and he did not want the poor sap to die. To save Yan, the man lunged forward to stop him — and to his shock, Yan swiftly evaded him.
Stunned and speechless, the captain could not believe that a dual low-class piece of trash had just slipped past him, a level 30 awakener.
A few minutes later, one of his men told him to let Yan go. He revealed that Yan was the same guy who had ignored class and single-handedly broken several rookie records. He also let the captain know that Yan was number one in both academics and combat at Nanyong First High, and a top contender to be that year's top scorer in the college entrance exams.
The captain was stunned to hear it, and could not believe a dual F-rank awakener could be that strong. The whole thing sounded like a fairy tale to him, because even the top awakeners in past years had never pulled off such sick moves as Yan had.
While they debated about his awesomeness, Yan headed into the Poison Dragon Valley.
Even though it was full of opportunities, the valley was covered with poisonous gas, so antidote pills were a must to survive. Yan pulled one out of his storage ring to take. The problem was that these pills only lasted about three hours, and since they were not dirt cheap, Yan decided to do his best to make it count, because he was still broke.
The moment he popped the pill into his mouth, three ferocious level 13 poison-wing lizards charged toward him.
Yan was prepared, since they were just stepping stones on his solo leveling mission. Without hesitation, he swiftly sliced through them using the Azure Steel Blade. He gained experience from defeating each winged poison lizard, increasing his level progress, and he was pleased that just three small wild monsters had been able to raise it that much. He continued further into the valley, looking forward to taking down other wild monsters.
A few moments later, he ran into a bunch of monsters, and Yan decided to activate the modification skill to speedrun through them. He immediately modified the Azure Steel Sword into the Azure Gold Sword before confidently charging into the hunt.
Yan effortlessly slashed through several poison-wing bats, boldly telling them to keep pouring in. After taking down a bunch of them, he gained a massive amount of experience and leveled up to level 13.
Afterwards, he moved on to slaying carnivorous fiend grass, which he cleared in no time. He gained another massive haul of experience and moved up to level 17.
Next, he sliced his way through a large number of miasma toad monsters. As usual, Yan breezed through them easily, gaining massive experience and leveling up to level 18.
After a while, he stopped to rest and recharge.
Despite all his successful leveling up, Yan was a bit disappointed, because he had not found a single magic crystal after merking so many monsters. It made him wonder if he was just unlucky that day.
Suddenly, a voice rang out from behind him, asking if he was the one who had killed all the monsters.
Yan turned around to see two guys strutting toward him like they owned the place.
He immediately recognized one of them as Nanyong Seventh High's S-rank awakener, Lu Yuan, popularly known as the Gale Assassin, and the young master of the Lu family, a prestigious awakener clan in Nanyong City.
Yan was still deep in thought when Yuan's companion asked whether he was deaf, and reminded him that he had not answered their question. Yan remained quiet, quietly observing the nameless lackey.
After a brief moment of silence, Yan rose from his seat and finally spoke. He boldly asked what the lackey planned to do if he refused to answer.
Yan's attitude provoked the lackey and infuriated him. He began mouthing off, throwing Yuan's identity around.
Before the situation could escalate, Yuan stepped in and finally spoke up, revealing that he knew who Yan was. He praised Yan's skills and invited him to form a party with them.
Yan ignored him and immediately rejected the offer before walking away. He did not want to share his hard-earned points with some arrogant brat who was not even paying him.
Yuan's lackey was infuriated by Yan's cockiness, and asked why Yuan had stopped him from teaching Yan a lesson.
Yuan explained that Yan might have some talent, because it was not easy for a dual F-rank awakener to make it this deep into the valley alone. He advised his lackey to be patient, and promised to let him have his fill the next time they ran into Yan. The lackey was excited to hear it, and looked forward to wiping the ground with Yan, whom he considered trash.
Meanwhile, Yan continued his adventure deep within the poison valley. With only one antidote pill left, he planned to take out a few miasma toads and hit level 19 before calling it a day.
After searching for his next targets for an hour, though, Yan came up empty-handed. He felt even more disappointed that he had not seen a single rare monster. He had been looking forward to stumbling upon the rumored rare dragon-type beast, and he had not seen anything remotely like that in the poison valley.