Dark Blood Path

Xiao Yu and Han Kexin sneaked back to the camp and discovered that there were a large number of monsters wandering around the place. It was evident that the camp had been taken over. They didn’t linger and followed the traces left by the crowd when they broke through, finally finding everyone about ten miles away. With only a little over four hundred people left out of the original one thousand and three hundred in the camp, it was clear that the battle had been fierce.

Wang Chao laid on the ground, covered in injuries and unable to move his limbs. Even moving his little finger felt excruciatingly difficult. In the escape last night, he had activated his “rage body” ability with “Rampage” and charged at the front of the team, creating a bloody path. As a result, he sustained the most severe injuries. Although Jin Shi’s Rock Defense was extremely resilient and he had barely been injured during the battle, he was now completely exhausted and had no strength left.

Jiang Xiaowen and Zhao Changping had also suffered tremendous spiritual exhaustion and were currently sitting on the ground, using soul gems to recover. Most of the other team members were injured, sitting, lying down, or leaning against trees, all feeling weak and occasionally groaning in pain.

Yun Yun was skilled in long-range attacks and had been at the rear of the team during the breakout, so her injuries were relatively minor. She was the first to notice movement in the woods and immediately grasped her longbow, ready to pull the string and shoot an arrow in that direction.

Xiao Yu’s voice came through, saying to her, “Yun Yun, it’s us. Don’t shoot.”

Yun Yun recognized Xiao Yu’s voice, and a hint of joy appeared on her face. “Xiao Yu, Teacher Han!”

Jiang Xiaowen quickly stood up, looked in that direction, and recognized Xiao Yu and Han Kexin walking side by side. She let out a long sigh of relief and went to meet them, calling out, “Are you both okay? That’s great! That’s great!” Suddenly, she looked at Han Kexin with a puzzled expression, sizing her up and down.

Han Kexin felt a little guilty and forced out a smile. “Hehe, Xiaowen, what’s wrong?”

Jiang Xiaowen frowned and said, “Why do I feel like you look a little different than usual, Teacher Han?”

Han Kexin’s heart raced, and she glanced at Xiao Yu, who didn’t show any reaction. She then stammered, “Different…in what way?”

“I’m not sure,” Jiang Xiaowen said, shaking her head. Han Kexin immediately changed the subject, “Are you all okay? Is this all that’s left? How could the casualties be this high?”

Jin Shi, Sun Dazhu, Huang Jianmin, and Du Tao were all still alive. All the original inhabitants of the underground cave cheered together as Xiao Yu and Han Kexin returned safely and unharmed. This was a huge encouragement for them. Xiao Yu approached Zhao Changping and asked, “Are you okay?”

“Just a minor injury, but this time we dragged you down with us into this mess,” Zhao Changping stood up with a bitter smile. His face was pale, indicating that he had consumed a lot of his spiritual power. His armor was shattered in many places, and there was a deep wound on his chest. His shoulder armor was also broken, and half of his body was stained with blood. He smiled bitterly and said, “The camp is destroyed, and most of the people couldn’t escape. My elite one hundred-man team sustained heavy casualties.”

“Jin Shi. How about our losses?”

Jin Shi reported on their casualties: “The Tiger team has 35 remaining members, the Bear team has 42, the Eagle team has 39, and there are only four people left in the command unit. We suffered heavy losses in this battle. Fatty is also seriously injured, and I don’t think he’ll be able to recover in the short term.”

Xiao Yu examined Wang Chao, who was covered in blood and lying motionless on the ground, and frowned slightly. “Did you go berserk while in that transformed state again?”

Wang Chao seemed to have no strength left to speak. His throat moved, and he hoarsely said, “Damn it, do you think I wanted to? The situation was critical… I had no choice!’”

Xiao Yu took out half a bottle of the water of life and poured a small amount into his mouth. “It’s alright now. The water of life is a sacred item for healing, and it can also help restore spiritual power. Just rest well for a day, and everything will be fine.” He handed the bottle to Han Kexin and said, “Let every seriously injured person have a sip.”

Zhao Changping’s eyes lit up when he saw the large bottle of water of life. He had given most of the ones he had obtained to his subordinates and only had one left that he didn’t want to use unless it was absolutely necessary. He never expected Xiao Yu to be so generous and immediately took out half a bottle to share with everyone. The water of life had excellent healing effects, and even a small drop could have a significant healing effect and help restore physical and spiritual power to some extent.

Zhao Changping said, “Everyone is hungry, and most of our supplies are still back in the camp and haven’t been taken out.”

Xiao Yu explained the situation in the camp he just saw. “I just infiltrated the area near the camp for inspection. After the monsters captured the camp, they dispersed into the surrounding forest and are now scattered and relatively sparse. We, four hundred people, have the ability to kill our way back to the camp!”

Jiang Xiaowen was a little surprised. “Kill our way back?!”

Zhao Changping grinned. “Last night we killed monsters in the hundreds, if not thousands. There’s a lot of loot that we haven’t had time to collect, and a large number of monsters are still there, including many first-order creatures. It would be such a waste to miss such an opportunity to improve our strength and gear. I also agree with the plan to kill our way back to the camp!”

“Alright, let’s act in the evening when everyone has recovered,” Xiao Yu said, nodding his head.

After being treated with the water of life, everyone’s condition improved significantly, and they were able to recover after just ten hours of rest. Han Kexin even went out of her way to specially heal Wang Chao, allowing him to regain most of his fighting power.

With the camp as their central point, the surrounding area was swarming with monsters. However, this time, the monsters were scattered more sparsely than during the previous night’s intense surge, making it much easier for Xiao Yu and Zhao Changping to eliminate them. The two leaders divided their troops into two groups and set out to eliminate the monsters from different directions.

As they ventured further into the forest, they soon came across the first group of monsters—a herd of bull-like creatures covered in scales and boasting three horns on their heads. These elementary level monsters numbered around forty, and although not particularly large, they possessed astonishing strength, capable of knocking over a locomotive with their sheer force. Fortunately, their meat was delicious and could serve as a valuable source of food.

“Don’t just look; kill them.”

Xiao Yu gave an order, and the crowd rushed forward. Han Kexin flicked the whip from a long distance away, and with a bang, the whip directly knocked a scally bull to the ground. Most of the scales on its body were broken, and the injury could not be endured. Swiftly, the blood was absorbed by the whip, and transformed into blood-red energy by Han Kexin. Others had already come into contact with the scale armor bulls, and most of these monsters were killed on the spot when they collided.

Jiang Xiaowen controlled a scale armor bull, then stepped back and handed the spear in her hand to the little girl Tian Tian, “Tian Tian, this bull is under my control, go and kill it!”

“Okay, thank you, big sister!”

Despite Tian Tian’s young age, she had been working hard for several days and had already killed some monsters with the help of Tian Hongguang and his wife. She took the splitting air spear and ran over to fiercely stab it into the neck of the motionless scale armor bull, causing blood to gush out. The little Tian Tian was quite afraid of blood and she staggered back several steps.

Before long, the scale armor bull died due to excessive blood loss.

After absorbing that essence, Tian Tian advanced to the next level.

In just a few minutes, dozens of scale armor bulls were completely wiped out. Although their strength was not very high, their meat was extremely delicious and tasty. Xiao Yu now had a thirty-square-meter space ring, which naturally needed to be filled with more things to avoid wasting the empty space.

Tian Tian completed her advancement and underwent some changes. This doll-like girl first grew taller; her ears became pointed, and a strange green magic symbol appeared on her smooth forehead.

“What happened, Tian Tian?”

Tian Tian was a bit dazed, and after a moment, she patted her little head and said, “There are so many changes happening.”

She stretched out a small hand and placed it on the ground. Just as everyone was puzzled, wondering what she was doing, a green vine suddenly rushed out of the ground ahead, entwining around a small tree as thick as a bowl. It suddenly tightened and compressed, exerting tremendous force on the trunk, which broke into several pieces, causing the entire tree to collapse.

Jiang Xiaowen exclaimed happily, “It’s actually an innate skill. Tian Tian, you’re amazing!”

Tian Tian giggled foolishly and quickly thanked Jiang Xiaowen, saying, “Thank you, big sister. Thank you, big sister.”

Xiao Yu and Han Kexin exchanged a surprised look, each showing a hint of astonishment.

Jiang Xiaowen simply liked this little girl and wanted to help her advance, as having basic strength would provide some self-protection. However, what they never expected was that this act would add another elementary warrior to the team who possessed a special innate skill.

Tian Tian’s elementary innate skill was called “Strangling Vines” a skill that could summon several flexible and strong vines to bind and strangle the target.

Tian Tian awakening to her special talent brought the most joy to her parents, Tian Hongguang and his wife, as many members of the team had been dissatisfied with their presence. Tian Tian had been slowing them down, and because of her, Tian Hongguang and his wife were always hesitant to fight and never fought with all their might. But now that they had discovered she had a special talent, they could naturally gain more respect and increase their status, and their situation would be greatly different.

In less than two hours, they had killed over four hundred monsters and obtained around twenty pieces of equipment and items, all of which were divided among everyone.

By the time Xiao Yu and Zhao Changping met up, it was already dark. Zhao Changping asked right away, “Did you guys encounter any first order monsters?”

Xiao Yu replied, “No, we didn’t.”

Zhao Changping wore a solemn expression as he spoke, “As expected, they’re all concentrated in the center. There are about eight to nine of them, so be careful when attacking.”

The two groups made their way back to camp, collecting a lot of loot along the way—about a dozen items in total—which were shared equally between the two sides. The camp came into view in the distance, but it was completely destroyed. The fence that Zhao Changping had labored over had completely collapsed, and all of the wooden and stone structures inside had been destroyed.

A large number of monsters had gathered there, and human remains were scattered all over the ground. Many of the monsters were still chewing on human limbs and severed arms.

Zhao Changping’s fists clenched in anger as he exclaimed, “These damned monsters!”

Xiao Yu had already grasped the luminous beast blade and scanned the camp with his eyes. Even in the dark night, he could still see the appearance of each monster. He paused on several first-order monsters for a few seconds, then focused on an ugly creature with blue scales and six eyes. “The other first-order monsters are easy to handle, but this one is particularly tricky. It’s a formidable foe in the late stage of the first order level.”

“What can we do? Let’s kill them all, and I’ll take care of this one!” Xiao Yu declared.

“Okay, I trust in your strength.” Zhao Changping nodded. The long sword in his hand began to flicker with lightning, which was particularly striking in the dark night. “Kill!”

With a leap into the air, Xiao Yu lit a ball of green flame in his left hand and hurled it at the six-eyed monster. The monster, in the late stage of the first order, roared and stood up just as the flame landed on its body. In the next instant, the monster disintegrated into thousands of dust particles, which disappeared into the air without leaving a trace. Only three balls of light were left on the ground.

That fierce monster was killed in one attack!