Chapter 17: Stealing Experience

No matter whether it was strength, skill, or level, Yun Qing was no match for the black panther. The small stone in her hand was aimed at the panther, but she dared not throw it, afraid it would turn its wrath upon her. Quietly, she placed both hands before her chest in the posture of cradling a large stone, her mind intensely focused and ready to retrieve her big stone for self-defense at any moment.

This was different from facing chickens and pigs, when she had been the stronger one; and unlike facing the snake, when they could be considered evenly matched. This black panther brought her the threat of death.

After missing a strike, Yun Qing feared the panther's next target would be the weakest—her.

The panther cast her an indifferent glance. Ye Wolf stood beside Yun Qing, his aura fully unleashed. With a sudden turn, the panther launched its attack at its chosen target.

In a blur, Yun Qing saw the panther leap toward Aunt Six Ye.

Its body shot forward like a sharp sword, reaching Aunt Six Ye in an instant.

The panther was now the mortal enemy of the group. Yun Qing’s desire for experience overcame her fear; she focused on the panther’s haunch and threw the small stone with force.

While Yun Qing tossed her stone, the panther pounced at Aunt Six Ye. Ye Wenjing’s bow was already drawn, Ye Wolf’s figure flickered and vanished, and the other hunters rapidly drew their weapons.

Aunt Six Ye swiftly pulled out her kitchen knife, channeling her inner strength into it.

With a metallic clang, the knife clashed with the panther's sharp claws, sparks flying.

A force of nearly a thousand pounds struck Aunt Six Ye’s knife. The panther didn’t withdraw its paw but pressed on, intent on knocking her down.

“-1!”

“Combat experience +40!”

Seeing the experience prompt, Yun Qing realized that even ineffective attacks still yielded experience.

With a thought, a handful of stones appeared in her palm, and she hurled them at the panther.

Aunt Six Ye’s strength was far inferior to the panther's. She retreated quickly to absorb the impact.

In a place thick with trees, after only a few steps back, she crashed into a tree trunk. The tree, unable to bear the force, snapped with a crack.

“-1!”

“Combat experience +22!”

“-1!”

“Combat experience +20!”

Several stones struck the panther’s haunch. Most lacked the force to cause injury, and even those that did yielded only scant experience.

This proved that quantity was not always advantageous.

Yun Qing took out another stone, concentrated her strength, and threw it at the panther. Before that stone hit, she grabbed another and tossed it as well.

The panther’s two forepaws shredded Aunt Six Ye’s animal-hide clothing, pinning her to the ground.

It gave its prey no time to react, opening its jaws to snap at Aunt Six Ye’s neck.

As the panther lunged at Aunt Six Ye, Ye Wenjing’s bow was drawn to its fullest.

Seeing the panther’s gaping maw about to bite Aunt Six Ye’s neck, Ye Wenjing released an arrow imbued with inner power.

The arrow whistled past Aunt Six Ye’s neck and the panther’s jaws, making the panther hesitate momentarily, but inflicting no harm.

“-1!”

“Combat experience +45!”

Yun Qing’s stone struck the panther’s haunch.

At some point, Ye Wolf had climbed a tree over ten meters tall, gripping his spear tightly as he dove down.

The spear, driven by Ye Wolf’s descent and inner strength, aimed to pierce the panther’s neck from above.

Sensing danger, the panther tried to dodge, but found its pinned prey clutching its forepaws tightly.

With a howl, the panther let out a cry of agony as the spear drove through its neck, stabbed into the earth beside Aunt Six Ye’s throat, and lodged a foot deep.

Ye Wolf performed a side flip, releasing the spear and landing to the side.

“-1!”

“Combat experience +45!”

Watching the panther’s health bar near depletion, Yun Qing swiftly took a stone, focused her strength, and threw.

“-1!”

“Combat experience +745!”

“Congratulations, your combat level has risen to level thirteen.”

The panther’s health bar was draining rapidly. To Yun Qing’s surprise, her last stone managed to land the final blow, and the panther died.

“My goodness, what luck! This doesn’t make sense—the panther was killed by Ye Wolf!” She had thought crossing into this world and getting the system had exhausted her fortune, but it seemed her good luck was only beginning.

“You are indeed lucky, but most of the damage was Ye Wolf’s doing. You only gained a bit of experience. With such a big gap in levels, killing monsters lets you earn more experience.”

“It’s already incredibly good!”

From this single encounter with the panther, she gained a total of 872 experience points, almost enough for slaughtering four pigs.

The bounty of experience made Yun Qing forget the terror she felt when the panther first appeared.

Now, her eyes glowed as she stared at the panther’s corpse. She didn’t know how many hit points the panther had altogether, but she imagined a shortcut to leveling up.

If a master could capture and restrain the panther, she could prepare a pile of stones and bombard it, gaining dozens of experience for each hit. If its health dropped, she could heal it or feed it restorative food, endlessly boosting her level until the experience gained dwindled.

Dead panther: What grudge, what resentment?

System: Don’t forget you need to earn skill points for achievements. Otherwise, you’ll have only levels with no real strength and be easily slain by someone of lower rank.

The dream was rosy, reality harsh. In truth, without a master to help her capture high-level beasts, she was sure she’d be no match for the panther. If she ever encountered one, her only hope was to hide in her cave, where there was little energy left to exploit; she couldn’t think of any other way to survive.

“Hurry, fetch the water flask! Panther blood is valuable.”

The dead panther’s body lay heavy atop Aunt Six Ye. Ignoring her minor injuries, she turned her attention to the panther’s flowing blood.

Aunt Six Ye’s words snapped Yun Qing from her reverie. As Yun Qing, the odd-job worker, moved forward, Ye Mingyu—still pale—warned, “You don’t have inner strength yet. That blood isn’t purified. Best not touch it.”

“Alright.”

Captain Ye Mao and Ye Wolf joined forces to quickly butcher the panther. Seeing the bloody claw marks on Aunt Six Ye, Ye Wenjing asked with concern, “Aunt Six, are you alright?”

Aunt Six Ye laughed heartily. “It’s nothing, just a scratch. With you all here, I knew this little panther wouldn’t escape.”

Yun Qing silently admired Aunt Six Ye’s composure, recognizing that she and Ye Mingyu still had much to learn.

Yun Qing made a mental note of Ye Wenjing’s mention of the fifth stage of acquired strength, keen to know the levels of everyone in the group.

Judging by Ye Wolf’s skill, his strength seemed far above the fifth stage.

With their rich harvest, the group returned early to the village. Even Yun Qing, the odd-job worker, received five taels of silver and had time to head to the blacksmith’s shop to gain crafting experience.

Five taels of silver was enough to learn a passive skill. Torn between saving for weapons and learning a passive skill, Yun Qing could not resist; she handed the silver to the system and learned the passive skill: Indomitable Will.