Jiang Xiao failed.

He hadn't even finished carving the roast chicken before Xia Yan, that beautiful idiot, kicked him away.

If Xia Yan wasn't a woman, Jiang Xiao would have hiked up her clothes and carved four big characters on her back:

Serve the country with utmost loyalty!

Um...

Although Xia Yan wasn't standing on a Cherishing halo, and Jiang Xiao hadn't cast Blessing or Bell on her, the knife wound on her arm was still slowly healing.

One could imagine how full of vitality her body was right now.

Jiang Xiao finally realized where he went wrong. He shouldn't have taken such good care of her, shouldn't have used Bell + Blessing on every little scratch.

At this moment, Jiang Xiao only had one thing to say to Xia Yan:

Sorry,

I made you too comfortable.

Through this battle, Jiang Xiao estimated that the Cherishing Star Technique was a halo skill, and it needed to be actively activated, but not just a one-time thing.

During the continuous activation of the halo, Jiang Xiao's star power was slowly being consumed.

With Jiang Xiao's Star Gatherer stage Lv.9 star power, at this rate of consumption, it would probably take 300 seconds to drain Jiang Xiao's star power.

Of course, since he activated the halo, as long as Jiang Xiao continued to attack, he could also absorb star power from the enemy.

However, the amount of star power absorbed was not considerable. With Jiang Xiao's current level, he couldn't even break even.

If it was like Xia Yan, while it's hot...

Um, that is, directly stabbing the knife into the still-warm corpse, he might barely be able to break even.

Breaking even meant that Jiang Xiao couldn't use the Cherishing halo to replenish star power.

Perhaps the effect would be better after upgrading the Cherishing halo to gold quality.

However, having said that, after upgrading the Cherishing halo, it would consume even more star power, and Jiang Xiao wasn't sure what the final effect of this skill would be.

However, the Cherishing halo wasn't just absorbing star power from one side; it was also absorbing life force. The scene just now was the best example.

More importantly, the Cherishing halo was also weakening the enemy's star power and life force.

So, from this perspective, the Cherishing halo was still quite practical.

I earned two yuan, that's two yuan.

But these two yuan I snatched from a competitor,

At the same time as I got two yuan, my competitor lost two yuan, this situation is completely different.

The group collected star beads and continued on their way.

No one used these star beads to replenish star power, so there was no such thing as self-sufficiency. Therefore, these star beads would all be sold, and the four of them would split the profits equally.

Jiang Xiao had already absorbed the star bead of the female savage witch, which was a great bargain.

From the perspective of the team, none of the other three had any objections, but these star beads from the male gunslingers and female archers had to be divided equally, even if Xia Yan looked down on this little bit of money, she still had to take it.

As for whether to throw away the star beads or give them away, that was Xia Yan's own business.

The team's investment in Jiang Xiao had also yielded tangible returns.

They weren't like Jiang Xiao, they didn't need to use star power to maintain the activation of the Cherishing halo.

They just needed to enjoy the joy of hitting, and the life force and star power that came with it.

Even for Han Jiangxue, a ranged output mage, as long as she was within the halo range, even if she threw a fireball and hit an enemy dozens of meters away, the strands of life force and star power would follow the trajectory of the fireball and return to their former master.

The fireball condensed from Han Jiangxue's hand, drawing out a faint purple mist. The life force and star power that splattered from the enemy would naturally follow the map.

The life force and star power that belonged to the enemy expressed infinite hatred for the original owner, showed infinite Cherishing for the people standing in the halo, and finally returned to Han Jiangxue's arms.

Jiang Xiao followed the team and continued forward. This time, the teammate beside him became Li Weiyi.

And Xia Yan was walking side by side with Han Jiangxue, looking sadly at her fair and tender arm, carefully observing it, as if looking for scars.

Xia Yan had made up her mind that if Jiang Xiao dared to do this again, she would pin him to the ground and carve a "Qingming Riverside Scene" on his back.

"Before we come here next time, let's go to the snowfield and kill more White Ghoul star beads," Jiang Xiao suggested while walking.

Han Jiangxue responded with some distress: "The idea is good, but we lack time."

Xia Yan looked at Han Jiangxue and hurriedly said, "White Ghoul star beads can still be bought. I'll go back and buy a few bags."

The price of White Ghoul star beads also fluctuates between 500~800 yuan, which is all money for Jiang Xiao.

What's more, why buy White Ghoul star beads?

Anyway, Er Wei was relying on him, so why not make good use of this star pet.

Thinking back to when Er Wei was saving all living beings in the Holy Ruins, the spinning vortex of flames could not only burn the White Ghouls and White Ghoul Witches into ashes, but also directly leave behind star beads, how perfect?

Especially when there were no foreign enemies invading.

The Holy Ruins were like a monster-spawning cage for Er Wei, taking whatever he wanted.

The snowfield, a low-level training location, strictly restricted high-level awakened individuals from entering for training.

Awakened individuals above the Star River stage were not allowed to enter the snowfield, only people like Er Wei in the national army could enter.

Speaking of the national army, Jiang Xiao was in a dilemma. Er Wei was in a disciplinary force, it would be difficult to agree to help Jiang Xiao brush star beads, right?

Jiang Xiao's Blessing was still silver quality Lv.1 (810), there was no way around it, White Ghoul Witches were too rare.

Alas,

It's all because I didn't know anything when I first came,

Rashly accepted the White Ghoul Witch star bead given by Han Jiangxue,

I don't know when it will be able to be upgraded to gold quality.

If I could do it all over again...

Jiang Xiao would still absorb it.

Nonsense,

Blessing is simply a freaking evil art!

Jiang Xiao did have a lot of skill points, and he could directly push Blessing to gold quality, but Jiang Xiao felt the pain.

When his star power level rose to the Nebula stage, upgrading even a small level would require 10 skill points, and the Star River stage would require 100 skill points to upgrade a small level.

His hundred or so skill points seemed like a lot now, but they could be used up in the blink of an eye.

It was best to save them for the most important things.

After all, there were four checkpoints in each star power level, and countless people used bloody facts to tell Jiang Xiao that they were stuck on a certain small checkpoint and could not improve even a bit in their entire lives.

The group walked northwest all the way, and slowly discovered that something was wrong. It seemed that someone had already explored this route.

When leaving the supply point, at the suggestion of Hai Tianqing, the group did not choose due west, but chose to go northwest.

Hai Tianqing didn't say it, but everyone knew that the teacher didn't want them to encounter the bald awakened team again, and didn't want the team to go to other dangerous routes, so as a compromise, he chose the northwest route.

But this northwest route, was it cleaned up by other training teams?

The corpses on the ground had not yet been dragged away by those corpse-picking savages and ape ghosts, and there were still burnt marks on the ground, and occasionally large trees could be seen toppled.

Jiang Xiao also saw signs of extinguishing the fire. It seemed that this team of awakened individuals was very qualified and afraid of causing a fire?

Jiang Xiao suddenly had a bold idea in his heart.

If...

If I set the mountain on fire,

After this forest is completely swallowed by the fire, there will be star beads all over the ground, right?

Whether there were star beads all over the ground or not, he didn't know, but Jiang Xiao would probably have to spend the rest of his life in jail.

While thinking, from the deep forest in the far distance, came a series of ape howls.

Jiang Xiao carried the wooden giant blade and turned his head to look at Li Weiyi.

"Far away," Li Weiyi said, and then turned to look at Han Jiangxue, "Listening to the sound, it should be a group of ape ghosts."

Han Jiangxue slightly raised her head, listened carefully to the continuous ape howls, and frowned slightly: "It is likely to be a large ape ghost population, the sound is too dense."

Jiang Xiao also raised his head and looked at the sky through the sparse forest leaves.

Unfortunately, the scene often shown on TV did not appear. If at this time, a group of birds were chirping and flying around, it would be even more sensational.

"Detour, go due north. We only find small populations to attack." Han Jiangxue ordered, "Xia Yan, you go and lead the way with Xiao Pi, cooperate well, and provide the team with new lineup formations."

"Okay." Xia Yan pouted, looking unhappy, and walked up with long legs.

Jiang Xiao smiled and said, "Half an hour ago, you were looking at me affectionately, loving me deeply."

Xia Yan reached out and put her arm around Jiang Xiao's shoulder, propped up her elbow, rested it on his shoulder, and rubbed Jiang Xiao's crew-cut head hard with her palm, saying word by word: "Remember this sentence, I can't possibly fall in love with you in this life."

Jiang Xiao grabbed her palm and muttered, "Life is so long, who knows."

Xia Yan snorted coldly and said extremely firmly: "If I lie to you, I'm a dog!"

Hearing this,

Jiang Xiao sighed deeply.

Do you know,

In my heart,

You are already a Xia Shiba Inu.