Chapter 48: Fierce Battlefield

Flame goblins, goblin leaders, poisonous zombies, ghouls, and ogres were all first-order monsters. But they were very distinct from each other, and their strengths were all wholly different. For instance, the flame goblin was a monster at the low stage of the first order and was the weakest among all the first-order monsters they had encountered until now.

Poisonous zombies and goblin leaders were both monsters in the middle stage of the first order; on the other hand, ghouls were monsters in the late first-order and were stronger than the last two, while the ogres were the strongest of them all and were an existence at the peak first order.

With Xiao Yu’s current strength at the low first-order level, fighting against monsters of the middle first-order was already breaking his limits; if he attempted to confront those beings of the late first-order, he was just looking for death. Ghouls were relatively high-level undead creatures. They were also part of a large group that could be classified into three kinds, ranging from low to high: iron-armored ghouls, silver-armored ghouls, and golden-armored ghouls. At the same time, their strengths were in the first-, second-, and third-order levels, respectively.

This particular ghoul was just the lowest of its kind, an iron-armored ghoul. If it evolves into a silver-armored ghoul, its skin will turn shiny silver. From that, it can evolve into a golden-armored ghoul, where its skin will turn bright golden, and by then, it will become almost invulnerable to fire and water magic attacks and evolve to be much more powerful than ever.

The ghoul should have spotted everyone running away, but it didn’t seem to care about the humans and instead focused on the corpses scattered around. The armored ghoul’s teeth were razor sharp; even the zombie’s body, which was as hard as rock, felt like a fragile potato chip in its mouth, which it devoured with glee. It had a voracious appetite and consumed two zombie corpses in only ten minutes. The armored ghoul, however, still needed more. The dead body of the poisonous zombie drew its attention, and its four blood-red eyes revealed delight and acute hunger.

The armored ghoul crept forward slowly, stopping in front of the dead body of the deadly poisonous zombie before grabbing its head and hurling it down into its mouth. This dramatic scene occurred against the backdrop of a ‘Ka Ka Ka Ka’ burst of scalp-numbing crackling noise. The poisonous zombie’s head, which was as tough as a steel statue, was crushed into meat paste just like that.

The ghoul roared in excitement, opened its bloody mouth, and gnawed off the poisonous zombie’s arm, chewing it with relish.

The poisonous zombie was a first-order monster. After devouring its body, a powerful force of death was immediately absorbed by the armored ghoul, and right then, a delicate silver scale materialized on the back of its body, and a more powerful dark force seeped out; the monster’s aura was now three points stronger than before!

Xiao Yu hid in the dense forest, paying close attention to everything happening there. Then a look of astonishment flashed in his eyes “are those signs of evolution? If it just consumed more corpses of first-order monsters, this iron armored ghoul can directly advance into a silver armored ghoul.”

The ghoul appeared to be a little unsatisfied after consuming the poisonous zombie’s lifeless body. Whereas then, it abruptly turned its head, and its eyes pierced the forest like a sharp sword, locking onto Xiao Yu’s figure, hiding in the forest’s depths.

“Shit!”

Xiao Yu’s heart trembled. He didn’t expect the ghoul to still feel his presence from so far away. Then, without even thinking about it, he turned around and ran. The armored ghoul let out a low growl, and a football-sized black energy ball quickly gathered in front of it, compressed into the size of a ping-pong ball in an instant, and shot into the woods in a stream of light.

Too fast!

Xiao Yu only felt a strong energy fluctuation. However, when he looked sideways, the pitch-black ball of energy had already swept over.

Boom!

A violent explosion ensued in the emerald-green forest. The raging dark power swept out, covering an area of more than ten meters in radius. The black energy engulfed the area like a big upturned hand, crushing all the grass, leaves, trees, and stones into powder in an instant. The dark energy spread throughout the area, and the plants withered rapidly.

……

In the woods, Han Kexin and the others waited. Each one of them felt lingering fear as they remembered the ghouls’ terrible deterrence. Nobody knew how powerful the ogre was; it was only a hazy concept. But the horror of the ghoul has been personally engraved into their soul, and it was not something that any of them could hope to fight.

There was a violent, loud booming noise not far from their location, and everyone couldn’t help but worry for Xiao Yu.

Wang Chao suddenly yelled, “Be careful; there are human figures in the woods behind us!”

Yunyun directly drew her bowstring and shot an arrow into the woods.

“Wait, don’t shoot. It’s me!” The bushes swayed, and a student jumped out like a cat whose tail was stepped on. Fortunately, Yun Yun’s archery skills were not accurate enough; otherwise, if the arrow struck him, then it would be truly too unfair to die like that, “Teacher Han, it’s me!”

Han Kexin recognized this individual as a cave dweller and an older member of their group. Her heart skipped a beat because he was sweating profusely and covered with blood. Then, realizing that something might have transpired, she hurriedly inquired, “What’s wrong? What brought you here? What happened?”

The student shouted with a panicked look: “something bad happened, the cave…the cave has been attacked, you guys should go back quickly!”

Everyone’s faces changed drastically.

Jin Shi hurriedly stepped forward and asked, “What are you talking about? Please explain clearly. Who is attacking our cave?”

“It’s intruders from the outside. They stood guard at the cave’s entrance and tried to smoke everyone out, aiming to force Senior Du Tao and the others to suffocate and leave the underground cave. We were out hunting when we came across this incident, but there were too many of them, so we came here looking for you. Please go back quickly; the situation is extremely urgent. Senior Du Tao and the rest are trapped in the cave and cannot get out!”

Wang Chao was furious when he heard those words: “Fuck, such a thing actually happened. Those guys are tired of living!”

Han Kexin also said with a determined expression: “We have to go back; after all, it is impossible to provide Xiao Yu with any help by just staying here. Not only do we have all our supplies back in the cave, but it is also our foundation and backbone. So we will go back first to defeat the intruders, then choose our next course of action!”

“Yes, let’s go back and kill them!”

“They actually dare to invade us. Let’s slaughter them all!”

The crowd didn’t hesitate anymore and rushed towards the cave aggressively.

At the entrance of the underground karst cave, about 130 to 140 individuals were standing densely; it was difficult to count their exact number due to their close proximity, but almost all of them were men of different ages; the older ones were in their forties or fifties, and the younger ones looked to be only in their teens.

They were igniting a lot of dry wood and hay and throwing it into the cave with ferocious and distorted grins on their faces, stirring up a storm of heat and smoke that quickly filled the cave entrance, and a strong and pungent smell was constantly coming out.

Their leader was a tall, middle-aged man, looking at the cave with cold eyes while a sneer hung on the corner of his mouth, “Hmph, burn these ignorant people!”

“Stop!”

A shout arose from behind, and Jinshi, who was more than two meters tall, having that burly body of a little giant, rushed over. Four to five of the invaders waved various weapons in an attempt to stop him, but he pushed them back six meters away with a wave of his large hand. They all vomited blood and collapsed on the ground, fully unconscious. Jin Shi’s bravery astounded everyone, and more people hurried up to block his path. At this moment, an agile and obese figure flashed past, and three individuals were sliced off from their torsos, instantly killing them on the spot.

Han Kexin’s face was a little gloomy, and her cold eyes swept over everyone in front of them, “Hmph, You all are looking for death!”

Everyone was surprised to see Han Kexin speaking as hundreds of eyes full of wicked intentions roamed up and down her exquisite body.

The head of this group also popped up, and there was a look of surprise in his eyes. “What a sexy lady… my name is Zhang Kai.” He quickly composed himself and stepped forward. “Your people murdered one of my team leaders and over twenty of my subordinates barely a few days ago. I’m sure you recall that incident.”

Jiang Xiaowen shouted angrily: “Nonsense, it’s obvious that they wanted to steal our things and attacked us first, so we had to strike back!”

Zhang Kai did not expect to meet another beautiful woman who was even more lovely and gorgeous than the other mature lady. His eyes then quickly swept across the crowd, and apart from these two, there were also quite a few other girls with great looks.

“It seems that I came to the right place this time around.” Zhang Kai originally had the idea of expanding his manpower and plundering all the supplies, but he didn’t expect to plunge into a pile of flowers instead. However, he found that Wang Chao and Jin Shi were both strong and unyielding, and it would be too troublesome to fight them head on, so he made a quick decision and said: “Well, even if my people were at fault first, you slaughtered them still, so, you owe my brothers an explanation. But considering that your strength isn’t bad, I’m willing to put our concerns to rest as long as you lay down your hands and join us. From now on, our resources can be shared, and everyone will work together to create a harmonious team. How about that?”

“Horseshit!” Wang Chao cut one of the other party’s elementary warriors in half and shouted arrogantly: ” You bunch of trash really think you’re worthy?”

Zhang Kai’s face darkened, “Very well, you asked for it; kill them all!”

A weird transformation developed in Zhang Kai’s body as soon as he finished speaking. His already tall body was raised significantly further, and his entire figure gave off slender man vibes. Then, as he stood up straight, his clothing began to flutter from the winds surrounding him, and like a whirlwind, he blasted off the ground, heading right toward Wang Chao. About a hundred of his subordinates, led by about eight to nine elementary warriors, excitedly launched an attack against everyone.

Wang Chao clenched his battle axe tightly and slashed at Zhang Kai, but the opponent slipped behind him and swung his sickle-like arm to chop at his neck area—the attack was too fast!

“Rampage!”

Wang Chao’s skin bulged as if he was inflated from the inside. His eyes became crimson red; his speed soared exponentially, and he became a blur, cutting through the air in a way that defied the laws of physics. Even so, he was still hurt as an injury that was not too deep emerged on his skin while blood continued seeping out.

Zhang Kai coldly sneered, “It turns out that you had a unique, innate skill as well. No wonder you were so pretentious earlier. But your strength is far inferior to mine!”

Zhang Kai rushed up as soon as his words fell; his speed was so fast that it was difficult for his ennemies to react. Although Wang Chao had gone berserk, his speed was still far behind that of his opponent, who appeared to have vast combat experience. And so, many cuts appeared on his body after a few face-to-face exchanges. Seeing this, Jin Shi hurriedly rushed to help him; the goblin shield on his hand was lifted and blocked an attack before his giant rock-like arm blasted out as Zhang Kai dodged nimbly.

Wang Chao staggered back. There were many wounds on his chest, shoulders, and thighs. However, he couldn’t help but secretly rejoice in his heart. If it wasn’t for Xiao Yu’s recent intensive training, which significantly improved his combat skills, he might have already been killed by the opponent in those few rounds of exchange!

Han Kexin yelled and rushed into the crowd. A bloody storm blasted through wherever she passed, and almost no enemies were left surviving in her path. Anyone she killed was quickly drained of blood, turned into a dry mummy as their blood accumulated over time and turned into a bloody mist wrapping tightly around her body. As a result, Han Kexin grew braver as she fought, killing fourteen to fifteen people in a row before confronting several team leaders who were all elementary level warriors.

Han Kexin was only attacking carelessly, and any wounds that appeared on her body got healed in an instant while the few people she beat were steadily retreating.

Zhang Kai was taken aback; these people’s fighting power was far higher than he had initially expected, and a number of them actually endowed unique, innate skills!