Chapter 45: New Target

Early in the morning, the woods were shrouded in a dense mist.

A young man with disheveled hair, a pale face, and many scars shuttled quickly between the trees. As if drunk, he swayed from side to side while running unsteadily; his right arm was drooping low and broken, and there was a deep wound on his back, with blood soaking half of his shoulders and rear. The guy’s focus was hazy, and the only thing on his mind was to flee as quickly as possible. He continued to run, covered in damp forest dew as if he had just been fished out of the water and appeared quite scruffy.

“Roar–!”

While running, the young man heard a low growl from behind, and then a nimble and agile figure sprang out of the woods; it was a leopard!

When the young man running for his life heard that roar, he immediately became terrified. He lost his energy and his last ounce of strength before directly falling to the ground with a thud. However, desperate for survival, he gritted his teeth and crawled forward with one hand. The leopard had already charged in front of him, with one paw firmly lodged on his back, making it impossible for him to move anymore.

“Don’t–!”

The young man howled in terror, seeing as the leopard was about to kill him.

Suddenly, the area around became noisy, and a group of people came out.

When the young man raised his head, he noticed a tall figure in the middle of the group. His desperate eyes were filled with hope again, and he yelled with a heart-piercing loud voice, “It’s me, Boss. Please, save me, please save me!”

Whoosh!

The tall figure rushed up like a gust of wind, waving his arms across. Right afterward, the leopard shrieked and flew upside down. Its body in the air was cut in half neatly before its two body portions gradually fell to the ground. The monster’s limbs were still twitching.

The tall, middle-aged man glanced at the young man on the ground and said lightly to his subordinates, “Help him up.”

Two youths quickly walked out and helped the fallen young man stand to his feet, then handed him a bottle of clean drinkable water. The young man being so thirsty, quickly took the water and drank it in big gulps before wiping his mouth as he looked at the boss gratefully.

That tall figure faintly spit out one word, “Speak!”

The young man hurriedly answered: “all dead; Team leader Sun Daxiang and vice team leader Xu Li are both dead!”

The tall man was taken aback for a moment and then asked calmly, “How did they die?”

The young man quickly recounted the previous incident between Sun Daxiang, Du Tao, and the others in the school’s ruins, as well as the detailed description of the opponent’s fighting power, the supplies there, and the number of women in the opponent’s team.

The young man said through snot and tears: “If vice team leader Xu Li hadn’t left the two of us to watch the situation from a distance, we might have died there too. Zhao Er and I rushed back to report, but a monster caught us on the way here. Unfortunately, Zhao Er died, and I was seriously injured. Boss, you must avenge us!”

“Sun Daxiang…ah, forget it; the real pity is that Xu Li also died.” The tall man paused for a moment and continued: “I will send people to search that area, and I will definitely find that group!”

“Yes, boss!”

The young man was overjoyed, “Boss, if you personally act, you will surely kill them all and avenge our brothers.”

The tall figure glanced at him and said lightly: “It’s been hard on you; you go first and have a good rest.”

The young man was very moved, “Yes…” but he couldn’t even finish his sentence….

His head slipped off his neck and fell neatly on the ground. His neck was perfectly slashed with a wave of the tall figure’s arm, and a lot of blood gushed out from his throat. The guy’s corpse fell as well, but his two eyes were still wide open, filled with shock and confusion.

“I don’t need trash that can’t fight back. So you can rest here forever.” The tall figure turned his back on the headless corpse without even looking at it, then looked around and said to everyone: “are all teams already back?”

“Boss, we have all returned. Unfortunately, the first-order monsters our entire group was sent out to hunt the other day caused us to suffer major losses. Five elementary warriors were killed, and three teams went missing. Now that Sun Daxiang and his followers are also dead, we still have seven teams left!”

The tall man clenched his fists, “Spread the word; everyone should concentrate their efforts on searching for those who killed Sun Daxiang. My strength is already close to the peak of the elementary level. However, the recent losses in our ranks have been too severe, and there isn’t enough cannon fodder in the team, so we need to recruit more, and we also need that sum of supplies!”

“Boss’s strength has vastly improved, and you still retain incredible skills. So dealing with them should be simple.”

“When this matter is resolved, Benefits will fall upon you. I’m not going to be stingy with the seized women and food!”

“Thank you!”

…………

After several days, everything in the underground cave proceeded in an orderly manner under Du Tao’s close monitoring. Six people have already stepped into the elementary level, three among whom had agility enhancement, two had strength enhancement, and the last one acquired physical body enhancement. Adding Han Kexin and the other six elites in the team, there were already thirteen elementary warriors and one first-order warrior in the group.

There was no doubt that Xiao Yu was the strongest in the entire group; being the only first-order warrior there, he was directly followed by Han Kexin, who was close to the peak elementary level. Jiang Xiaowen, Jin Shi, and Wang Chao were all at the middle elementary level, and the rest were all at the early stage. According to Du Tao’s calculations, the entire team had 123 members. And except for the thirteen elementary warriors and the one first-order warrior, those who strayed away and were weaker than others have also been supported in the past few days. Due to the efforts of Han Kexin and others, their overall fighting power has reached two to three times the strength of ordinary people.

Somewhere near the cave, in the middle of the forest, Xiao Yu stood straight on the grass, holding a blade in one hand. He was dressed casually, and his face was washed clean of dirt. He appeared to be very fresh and tidy for the first time in a while. Standing opposite to him were Wang Chao, Jin Shi, and Jiang Xiaowen, who, on the contrary, were all dirty and disheveled. Wang Chao was the worst of them all; his face was beaten black and blue, and his original expensive clothes were in tatters and were now no better than a beggar’s attire. Jin Shi wasn’t doing much better, and even the delicate Jiang Xiaowen had large bruises on her face.

Xiao Yu stuck the luminous beast blade on the ground and said lightly, “This time, I won’t use my weapon.”

Wang Chao’s chubby face started shaking. “You don’t even need a weapon, do you? You’re far too arrogant. So today, I must let you know how powerful fatty is.”

Jin Shi also stared wide-eyed, “that’s really insulting!”

Xiao Yu stretched out his wrists, “Stop talking nonsense; come at me all at once.”.

Wang Chao went straight into the berserk state and charged up first, while Jiang Xiaowen flapped her wings and gradually flew into the sky as Jin shi rushed from the side. Xiao Yu first dodged Wang Chao’s axe and held the latter’s wrist with his left hand. He then elbowed him like lightning with his right arm and followed the attack with an inch-close punch before he turned around and punched him hard on the face. Wang Chao was knocked back several meters before his back collided with the charging Jin Shi. Xiao Yu then rushed and kicked them both with his leg, and the two piled on top of each other and flew out. Right afterward, Xiao Yu jumped up, grabbed Jiang Xiaowen’s long spear with one hand, and yanked her down from the air as she came crushing hard on the ground. The impact almost made her shed tears from the pain.

Xiao Yu shook his head, “You guys are still too weak; I can take you on all day without my eyes of insight.”

Wang Chao cursed loudly before yelling in frustration: “You’re one to talk. Aren’t you aware that we can’t keep up with your current speed? To me, it simply looks like you’re bullying us hardworking elementary newbies with your first-order strength.”

Xiao Yu said: “You must learn how to deal with stronger opponents, or you will never be able to break through to the next level. Also, your combat skills are so lacking that you don’t even know how to cooperate. So from now on, I will increase the training time by one hour every day. Like that, your fighting power can improve.”

Wang Chao cried mournfully: “One extra hour will be added, my God! Just kill me already!”

Jin Shi patted him on the back with a bitter expression, “Don’t cry, seeing as you won’t die anyway, just let Teacher Han heal you after every training round.”

“Speaking of which, Miss Han’s combat talent is significantly higher than all of yours.” Xiao Yu stopped for a moment and said, “In the case that I don’t use the eyes of insight, she already can endure and exchange with me five to six moves in a row. Defeating her isn’t as easy.”

Jiang Xiaowen had a nosebleed and a bruised forehead. When she heard this, however, an intense light flashed in her eyes, “I…I will definitely work harder and not let you down!”

Xiao Yu nodded in her direction, “That’s good…well, that’s it for today; let’s go back.”

Wang Chao and Jin Shi both cheered simultaneously.

This devilish sadistic training is finally over.

Not long after returning to the cave. Han Kexin, who was in charge of leading the hunting team for the day, finally came back. She treated the several people who got injured during the hunt, as well as Wang Chao and the others, before heading directly toward Xiao Yu’s cavern, where he was resting.

Han Kexin told him with some puzzlement: “According to your request, we took turns leading different teams in the past few days, and we have already helped the weaker people amidst the group grow their strength. Now, except for the newbies, the others have all reached the late zero-order stage. They can evolve as long as they kill two to three elementary-level monsters. But for some reason, since I have been out hunting recently, the number of elementary monsters we’re encountering is getting less and less. Of course, we always encounter one or two elementary monster leaders, with dozens of strong ‘zero order’ monsters sneak attacking us, causing a great deal of trouble and even hurting our people; however, that does not help the team’s overall growth. Xiao Yu, do you know any good gathering place for elementary level monsters nearby?”

Xiao Yu was cleaning the bright edge of his blade, and he smiled wryly after hearing her words, “What you’ve experienced is a situation commonly faced in wild hunts. But, as far as I know, it’s not easy to find a suitable gathering location of monsters; after all, you must embark on a long expedition, and you may face great dangers along the way.”

“That’s the only way to go, huh” Han Kexin grumbled, “but following our current rate, most people can become elementary warriors in about a month.”

“This progress is already fast.” Xiao Yu nodded lightly and suddenly thought of something: “Actually, it’s not that there is nowhere to go. On the contrary, I have long thought of a place where there should be a heightened density of elementary monsters.”

Han Kexin’s eyes lit up, “Oh, and where is that?”

Xiao Yu said: “That location is the previous zombie coal mine that you have been to. The trip will take us about half an hour, and since it is that close, there shouldn’t be any danger.”

Han Kexin was a little surprised: “Really? Didn’t you slaughter all the zombies in the mine back then?”

Xiao Yu shook his head: “That’s wrong; although I left some elementary zombies around the mine area to allow some of you to advance, there is actually a more important reason why I want to go back. In the depths of the coal mine, there is a mighty existence. At that time, I wasn’t its opponent at all, and to not disturb it, I had to stop the hunt abruptly. But the situation is completely different right now; this time around, when we go to the zombie mine, that thing will be our first target!”

(TN: zero order means people who has yet to evolve, I didn’t want to use the ‘zero order’ term throughout the chapters for a reason but don’t worry it was only mentioned two times before, I’ll keep using this term from now on)