“Wait!”
Amidst the furious glares of the crowd, Emperor Taizong of Tang once again spoke out of turn, halting Zhuo Feng’s intention to lead the squad in pursuit.
“The jungle is teeming with poisons. That’s her home turf. Are you sure we want to chase a Poison Master who’s elusive and skilled at using whatever she finds on hand?”
Zhuo Feng looked coldly at Emperor Taizong of Tang, killing intent flickering in his eyes. “If you don’t want to go, then don’t. But if you dare shield her again, I’ll make sure you die a horrible death.”
Emperor Taizong of Tang helplessly closed his eyes. “I’m not shielding her. But it seems you wouldn’t believe anything I say anyway… Then I’ll stay here. You all go ahead.”
“Coward.” Zhuo Feng let out a scornful laugh and stopped looking at Emperor Taizong of Tang.
“There are so many of us, and we have the tower’s blessing. Why should we be afraid of a sneaky little Fox Demon?”
Just because she dared to choose the Gluttony Dagger.
But Emperor Taizong of Tang kept those words to himself.
“Let’s go! Move, now!”
Zhuo Feng hurried off, taking with him the camp’s last eight members.
Emperor Taizong of Tang and Changsun Wuji stayed behind in the camp, exchanging wry smiles as brothers in misfortune.
“Humans have grown arrogant,” Changsun Wuji said coolly.
“Unlike you and me, they’ve forgotten how easy it is to die.”
“No, they’re just arrogant toward the demon race,” Emperor Taizong of Tang shook his head.
“They’re clever—know exactly who’s easy to bully and who isn’t… It’s just, this year, I don’t know where so many freaks have popped up from, and they can’t change their attitude in such a short time.”
“So what do we do now?” Changsun Wuji asked.
“I don’t want to die,” Emperor Taizong of Tang sighed softly.
“Come on, let’s check upstream along the river.”
He pulled out a small Alchemy Furnace. “Leave a little gift for her. Maybe, in light of it, she’ll show some mercy.”
Emperor Taizong of Tang and Changsun Wuji set off in the opposite direction.
Suddenly, as they were giving chase, Zhuo Feng halted in his tracks.
“Liang Ruhui, go back and keep an eye on those two cat demons. Watch them in secret and see what tricks they’re up to.”
“Alright.”
Liang Ruhui accepted the order and left.
Zhuo Feng used his sword tip to lift a piece of black cloth not far away.
It was the black cloth the assailant had used to cover her face, still laced with a pungent, toxic scent.
The smell made Zhuo Feng’s face darken. Every time he caught a whiff, he couldn’t help but recall the humiliation of being played for fools just now.
Actually, it was nothing more than Spicy Fruit mixed with a bit of Itchy Grass, faked to create a poisonous mist.
Not only did it do no damage to the Spiritual Soul, it couldn’t even really hurt their bodies much.
Yet when the other side had faked a miserable scream—”This is the Poison of Divine Sense, ah—”—everyone had panicked, shrinking back and not daring to use a trace of Spiritual Soul to investigate, letting themselves be beaten blindly, suffering huge losses.
One mistake, and they lost seven teammates. Even if they weren’t core fighters, it still hurt badly.
Moreover, with each teammate’s death, the enemy’s strength kept growing.
No more could die. Otherwise, it would become a vicious cycle.
They had to strike first, eliminate her before her wings grew too strong.
“There, ahead!”
Liang Ruhui spotted another strip of cloth not far off, also used by the enemy to cover her head, now snagged on a thorn bush.
There was even a smear of fresh blood, likely left by the enemy in a careless escape.
The bloodstain was still new—she hadn’t gotten far.
“Keep chasing!”
Zhuo Feng took the lead, slashing through the thorns. The others followed in a line behind him.
Suddenly, a vine ahead was triggered—a cold flash shot toward Zhuo Feng!
“Tricks for children,” Zhuo Feng brushed aside the flying dagger with ease.
But as he caught something in his peripheral vision, the pride on his face vanished.
“Behi—”
Before Zhuo Feng could finish his warning, a shadow flashed past a tree trunk at the very end of the group!
There was never any shortage of hollow ancient trees in this forest, and these old trees had become spirits themselves, able to partially block others’ Spiritual Soul senses.
Zhuo Feng hadn’t expected it… hadn’t expected her to be bolder than anything he’d seen before—much, much bolder.
She had actually hidden inside a tree trunk, letting the whole squad pass right by her, only to strike when the very last one went by!
Relying on the tree’s slight shielding effect, and her own secret techniques to conceal her aura, she had evaded six deadly attacks and waited for the perfect moment to assassinate!
Using the rag and the thrown dagger as a distraction, she finally turned the tables and defeated the strong with the weak.
The team was down again—only six remained.
But there would be no more losses.
The moment the enemy revealed herself at such close range, she was doomed!
“Attack!”
Zhuo Feng charged ahead, hot on the heels of the panicked fleeing figure.
With a thought, he formed a hand seal, and his Jinghong sword whistled out, splitting trees and cutting through vines!
Though the enemy showed incredible agility in the forest, she still couldn’t outpace the sword.
Soon, she was forced to dodge desperately, her escape speed plummeting.
“Die!!!”
The Fireblade Squad must have acquired some secret treasure, for with all his teammates dead, the last survivor not only inherited all their strength, but had doubled it again.
His aura was now terrifying! Even a Six Harmony Stage Cultivator would likely be killed with a single punch!
The ground trembled.
With the target locked, Fireblade Squad’s Cao Zhen unleashed his overwhelming might.
As he ran, he grabbed trees on either side, hurling them at Jiang Ke’er.
The trees thrown by Cao Zhen were like an unstoppable flood, tearing apart everything in their path, sweeping up all the trees and vines and slamming them toward Jiang Ke’er.
Wood fragments exploded and flew everywhere, the sky filled with razor-sharp splinters.
Jiang Ke’er not only had to dodge those, but also avoid Zhuo Feng’s flying sword—a single misstep and she’d be dead.
In the crisis, Jiang Ke’er transformed into a fox, shrinking her size and leapt forward with gritted teeth.
Her fox body plunged into the water with a plop.
The current was fierce, the river strewn with jagged rocks and hidden reefs—not a good place to hide, by any measure.
No sooner had Jiang Ke’er entered than the raging current swallowed her whole.
“Find her!”
Zhuo Feng didn’t believe Jiang Ke’er had died just like that. Or rather, alive or dead, he needed to see for himself before he could rest easy.
“Splurt—”
A faint sound of a blade slicing through flesh sent chills down Zhuo Feng’s spine.
He whipped his head toward the source.
He managed to see another corpse topple to the ground, and on the earth was a palm-sized beaver hole.
Outside the entrance, a bit of fox tail still stuck out, not quite pulled inside.
Cao Zhen smashed a fist down near the hole, and the shockwave reduced all the mud and rocks within a hundred meters to dust!
They overturned the earth by the river, dug up dozens of rats crushed to death, uncovered a sprawling network of mouse tunnels and several beaver dens, and even found a few of Jiang Ke’er’s hairs.
But Jiang Ke’er herself was nowhere to be found.
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