Nora and Xiong Da's spar was still underway.
Even though Xiong Da was injured, he was ultimately a wild child raised in the wilderness; being hurt did not make him afraid, but rather stirred the feral nature deep within him.
After widening the distance between them, he grabbed a frozen boar and hurled it violently toward Nora.
This time Nora reacted in time. She fired five consecutive shots at the airborne boar, blowing it apart on the spot into a shower of icy fragments.
"What insane power!"
Terrified by the sight, Xiong Da hastily dove behind a frozen elephant.
Although he possessed two major talents—Invulnerability and Bronze Skin, Iron Bones—he still had to exercise extreme caution against explosive bullets like those. Zhong Wuliang was a prime example; no matter how impenetrable one's defenses were, Yu Xian had still worn him to death with bombs.
At the end of the day, body-refining Transcendents were still flesh and blood, just possessing superior defenses.
Nora aimed at the frozen elephant and opened fire in rapid succession. Explosions boomed without pause, and in the blink of an eye, the elephant was blasted in two. Xiong Da seized the opportunity, immediately shoving one half of the elephant's carcass forward.
Because the ground was covered in ice, the half-carcass slid swiftly toward Nora like a curling stone.
Nora pulled out a fresh magazine, running as she reloaded. But Xiong Da was extraordinarily strong, propelling the massive carcass forward at blistering speed.
Though Nora tried her best to dodge, one of the elephant's legs tripped her up, sending her tumbling to the ice.
With her pistol in one hand and her other hand braced against the frozen surface, she shoved hard to spring back up. But just then, an elephant tusk came whistling through the air, forcing her to raise both arms to block.
*Boom!*
The tusk struck her with a deafening crash, shattering into a cloud of swirling ivory dust.
Several hundred meters away, Xiong Da came to a halt, snatched up a frozen pheasant, and swallowed it whole while watching the dust cloud to see how Nora fared.
*Bang! Bang! Bang!*
Three gunshots rang out from within the powder, the bullets piercing the dust and streaking out at him.
At the same time, the muzzle flash triggered a dust explosion. Flames completely engulfed Nora, followed by rolling billows of steam that quickly cooled into a veil of icy mist.
"Damn, that's wild!"
Xiong Da, having just dodged the bullets, stared in shock at the spectacle.
Yet a second later, Nora charged out from the flames, firing continuously at him. Xiong Da had no choice but to take to his heels.
Nora kept shooting, but despite Xiong Da's chubby appearance, he was remarkably nimble and managed to evade her shots time and again.
*Technique, think more!*
At that moment, Nora recalled Teacher Wang Xingnuo's words.
Her weapon handling was too crude, which was why her practical combat score had been so low.
If she wanted high marks, she needed to use her brain and apply technique—ideally by reading the environment and maximizing her strengths.
The black gale had stopped. All around were frozen animals—mostly wild boars, along with monkeys, stray dogs, cats, deer, cattle, and more. The ice was mirror-smooth, reflecting the stars above.
It was precisely because of all these obstacles, combined with Xiong Da's rapid running, that locking onto him proved so difficult.
Nora fired a shot at the ground in the distance. The explosion blasted a large crater into the ice, but she immediately noticed that as the biting wind blew over it, new ice quickly covered the crater once more.
No wonder the ice was so smooth; it repaired itself automatically.
She withdrew a special batch of red-tipped bullets from her storage ring and began firing all around. These rounds did not explode, but instead burned continuously, quickly forming a blazing ring of fire that encircled Xiong Da.
She intended to exploit the ice's instant-freezing property to craft a trap that would pin him down.
Xiong Da was exceptionally experienced in battle and instantly saw through Nora's plan. He raised a massive bear paw and swung it, conjuring the black gale once more to snuff out the surrounding flames.
"Nice idea, but too easy to read!"
Taking advantage of Nora's obstructed vision from the black wind, Xiong Da rapidly flung the nearby frozen animals at her.
In an instant, Nora was pelted from all sides, and an entire elephant came crashing down on top of her. Even though she was protected by Zhenwo Changjing's defensive gear, the sheer weight pinned her completely immobile.
In the end, only her head poked out from the pile, making her look just like the Great Sage Equal to Heaven trapped beneath the Five Fingers Mountain.
"Hahahaha, I win!"
Xiong Da strolled over with a triumphant grin, watching Nora struggle in vain to break free.
Just then, Nora pulled the trigger. Explosions detonated in rapid succession. She had enough defensive gear to shrug off the blast damage, but the frozen beasts shattered into countless fragments that scattered everywhere.
Realizing things had gone terribly wrong, Xiong Da turned to flee, but took eight consecutive shots to the back, howling in pain with every hit.
"Alright, that's enough sparring!" Seeing that both of them had exhausted most of their tricks, Yu Xian called a halt with a chuckle.
To Xiong Da's ears, Yu Xian's voice sounded like heavenly music. Breathing a deep sigh of relief, he simply flopped onto the ice and played dead. Nora stood up, brushed off the ice shavings clinging to her clothes, and quietly reflected on what she had learned from the match.
"Interested in a job? Room and board included, and you'll get human citizenship." Yu Xian walked over to Xiong Da, who was lying with his rear end sticking up, and posed the question.
Xiong Da's eyes went wide. "I can really get an ID card?"
"Guaranteed. But if you break the law..." Yu Xian said seriously.
Xiong Da scrambled to his feet, cutting Yu Xian off before he could finish. "I, Xiong Da, will strictly abide by the law! If I ever break it, you can twist my head right off!"
"Good. Then it's a deal!" Yu Xian smiled.
Xiong Da plopped down on the ice, suddenly putting on a mercenary grin. "Uh... should I call you Boss, Big Brother, or Master? And what about my benefits... do I get five insurances and one housing fund?"
"Five insurances and one fund? What relic era did you learn that from? These days it's ten insurances and two funds," Yu Xian retorted.
After a moment's thought, Yu Xian continued, "From now on, just call me proprietor. As for your compensation, your monthly salary will be five million. If there's combat, you'll get a performance bonus of ten to fifty million after the fight, based on your contribution. That's the market rate for the Tiger rank. Any objections?"
Back when he used to visit his father's factory as a kid, the workers had always addressed him as 'young proprietor.' Because of that, he had an indescribable fondness for the title 'proprietor.'
It was probably his nostalgia for lost youth...
"No objections! I will follow the proprietor's arrangements to the letter!" Xiong Da nodded eagerly after hearing about his compensation.
Yu Xian nodded. "Come on, let's take a photo first. Stand straight, give me a bit of a smile, and don't bare your teeth."
Saying so, he pulled out his phone to snap a picture of Xiong Da, then forwarded the bear's information to Qilin. With his guarantee, getting Xiong Da human citizenship would indeed be straightforward.
In truth, the reason he was willing to vouch for Xiong Da was because he knew the bear was good-natured at heart.
Aside from occasionally scaring Transcendents, Xiong Da spent most of his time cultivating alone in the deep mountains. It was only because a Dragon-rank beast had recently moved into his mountain that he had been forced to flee toward Ice City to scrape by.
Yet he had never harmed anyone. On the contrary, he had secretly rescued several humans who had wandered close to mortal danger.
Yu Xian felt that leaving him in the wilderness would eventually lead to tragedy. One day, he might be pushed into opposition with humanity and subsequently suppressed by Qilin.
Now that their paths had crossed, Yu Xian acted on his principle of lending a hand whenever possible, leading to this arrangement.
"Proprietor, I found out a secret. Wondering if you'd be interested?" After the photo was taken, Xiong Da lowered his head furtively and whispered to Yu Xian.
Yu Xian glanced at Nora, then smiled at Xiong Da. "Let's hear it."
Chapter 150