"Su Li, you're really getting stronger and stronger." Ding Longyun, Gong Xiao, and Xu Haishui all couldn't hide their envy.
Su Li smiled and said, "What about you guys? How many spirit sources are you short of breaking through to Level 5?"
Having successfully reached Level 5 himself, mastered the spirit source technique, and unexpectedly gained a weapon, Su Li was fully satisfied with this trip and had no further desires. He decided to help the other four improve their strength next.
Ding Longyun said, "I'm still short nine spirit sources."
"I'm short eighteen," Gong Xiao reported her current situation.
"I'm short twenty-two," Xu Haishui added.
Then Su Li glanced at Xu Xuehui, thinking that she hadn't even reached Level 4 yet. To get to Level 5, she still had a long way to go, so he'd have to set her aside for now. His goal was to help Ding Longyun and the other two break through to Level 5 today. That way, with their current strength, they'd have no fear of those leaders at Zifeng Building.
"None of you are too far off. Let's lure more monsters up right away." Under Su Li's lead, they moved the corpses on the rooftop and threw them down again.
With his newfound power, Su Li was no longer afraid of attracting any terrifying monsters. In fact, he even hoped for another rare beast like the Dragon Rhinofish to show up.
Armed with the Dragon Rhinofish Sword, which could cut through iron like mud, Su Li was confident he could easily kill another rare beast like the Dragon Rhinofish.
They tossed down a large number of corpses from the rooftop, but there wasn't much commotion. Only a few scattered corpse-beasts surfaced, and the massive swarm of monsters that had been gathered below seemed to have vanished.
Finally, Su Li threw down the Dragon Rhinofish's corpse, which lured out some Arrow Snake Beasts and Water Monkey Beasts.
In the end, the total number of monsters that climbed to the rooftop didn't exceed twenty.
This situation was clearly unusual.
"I see. So the most powerful monster hiding beneath this building was the Dragon Rhinofish. Once it was killed, the other monsters felt they'd lost their protection and gradually left to find new shelter."
It was just like the thirty-two-story building they'd lived in before. The strongest monster lurking at its base was undoubtedly the Corpse Mother. Once she died, the other monsters had scattered. Now, the same thing was happening here.
Su Li counted the gathered high-level corpse-beasts, Arrow Snake Beasts, and Water Monkey Beasts—fourteen in total.
"Brother Ding needs the fewest, just nine spirit sources to level up. Let's help him break through to Level 5 first." Su Li moved, sending a high-level corpse-beast flying toward Ding Longyun.
"Good, I agree." Gong Xiao nodded slightly. She was still short eighteen spirit sources, and even killing all fourteen monsters wouldn't be enough for her to break through, so she supported letting Ding Longyun advance first.
Xu Haishui said nothing, just nodded in agreement. In truth, he didn't have much say among the group and rarely spoke up.
"Thanks, everyone." Ding Longyun laughed heartily, raised his steel rod, and smashed the head of the corpse-beast that had fallen before him, collecting one spirit source.
With everyone's help, Ding Longyun quickly killed nine monsters, gathered nine spirit sources, and successfully broke through, advancing to Level 5 as a spirit source user.
As for the remaining five monsters, Gong Xiao killed three, and Xu Haishui took down two.
"So, what spirit source technique did you learn?" Su Li watched Ding Longyun, who was in the middle of his breakthrough, with interest, knowing that reaching Level 5 meant two techniques to choose from.
Ding Longyun said excitedly, "This is amazing! The spirit source technique actually lets you choose. They're called 'Air Manipulation Technique' and 'Air Missile.'"
Gong Xiao asked, "Brother Ding, which one did you pick? What can each do?"
Ding Longyun laughed heartily. "Of course I chose Air Missile. Just the name sounds awesome—a missile! It must pack a punch. As for that Air Manipulation Technique, it sounds weird, so I didn't pick it."
As he spoke, he had already selected Air Missile. Upon mastering it, a look of surprise crossed his face, and he marveled, "This Air Missile is tied to my lung enhancements. My lung capacity is huge now. I breathe in air, combine it with the spirit source inside me..."
He took a deep breath, his chest swelling slightly, then opened his mouth and spat out the air he'd just inhaled with a "ha."
The inhaled air merged with the spirit source in his body, forming a white orb that shot out of his mouth, flying twenty or thirty meters before landing on the water.
With a loud "boom," the water flashed white, exploding violently, sending water splashing everywhere. The power was considerable.
"Haha—" Ding Longyun was both shocked and delighted by the effect. The others looked stunned, never expecting Ding Longyun to master such a powerful spirit source technique.
"Spitting out explosive air bombs from your mouth?" Gong Xiao said in surprise. "There's a spirit source technique like that?"
"This is so fun." Ding Longyun grinned excitedly. "Su Li, you know what? This air bomb is tied to my lung capacity. The bigger my lung capacity, the stronger the bomb. It's a good thing I've been enhancing my lungs repeatedly. I've already strengthened them four times now."
Four lung enhancements had extended Ding Longyun's breath-holding time by an extra fifteen minutes. Combined with the base four minutes, his total breath-holding time now reached an astonishing nineteen minutes.
Su Li smiled. "That ability is really impressive. Congrats, Brother Ding." He thought to himself that this skill was great for long-range attacks but hard to use up close. If it were him, he might have chosen the Air Manipulation Technique instead. But since Ding Longyun had already picked Air Missile, Su Li didn't say more.
"There are hardly any monsters left to lure from below. What now?" Gong Xiao looked at Su Li. Now that both Su Li and Ding Longyun had reached Level 5 and mastered such incredible techniques, she was envious and eager to level up herself, curious about what spirit source technique she'd get.
"Let's change locations. We still have time." Su Li glanced at the sky. He couldn't tell the exact time, but judging by the daylight, there were probably two or three hours until dark.
They went downstairs and returned to the raft. Ding Longyun pushed it from behind. "Su Li, where to now?"
Su Li pointed to another building about fifty meters away. He'd originally avoided it to spare Xu Xuehui's feelings, but now that Gong Xiao and the others were stuck and needed more monsters, he couldn't worry about that. "Let's go there. You guys head straight to the rooftop, and I'll lure the monsters up."