Early morning, Giant Beasts Forest inner regions…
The cold morning air wafted around the tents in this area. The people inside the tents instinctively tightened their hold on their blankets or coats, drawing it closer to their bodies. Rays of sunlight fell from the sky, piercing through thick foliage and slowly lighting up the whole place.
The bonfires kept crackling away, however, this failed to prevent the creeping cold from seeping into the bones of the people who are close to the heat source. Fortunately, the sunlight came at just the right time to indiscriminately warm up the patrols who sacrificed their sleeping time to look around and the people who had a good night’s rest.
Of course, if we are still talking about humans, that would be the case. For those who are outside the definition of human, the morning’s weather had nothing to do with whether he should continue sleeping.
Wu Yan woke up after Flandre-chan kept fiddling with him. He yawned and he brought Flandre-chan who is wide awake out of the tent with him. His lazy aura would infect anyone who isn’t on guard around him.
“Can you psych yourself up for just one morning?”
Mikoto said with arms akimbo. Her pant wasn’t long enough to cover her magnificent thighs and they glistened in the sunlight. The sight of her delicious legs waked Wu Yan up just a little. He scanned her legs and he stored the images away for future reference.
“You girls do not appreciate sleeping in, it’s a truly blissful thing to do.”
“That would be true, if we were in our warm beds…”
Hinagiku pursed her lips at him.
“I fail to understand how you can sleep so soundly on rough grounds, on unfamiliar rugs, and uncomfortable settings. At this point, you’re just being lazy rather than enjoying life.”
“No, you’re just projecting it on me…”
“No, I am pretty sure you have a rotten core, anyone who knew you would agree…”
“Oh, woe is me. I didn’t have a warm pillow to snuggle up to. If only someone would be kind enough to accompany me in bed, that would be just splendid…”
“Don’t give me that crap! Also, didn’t Flan sleep together with you last night?”
“Ikaros, you can sleep me if you want, you know…”
“Yes… Master…”
“Oh, you’re blushing. That’s so cute!”
“Stop right there! Don’t you ignore me!”
While Wu Yan and his retinue killed time with their idle chat, the others are already hot at work. They are all ready to depart. As for breakfast, Wu Yan cooked something up and fed the voracious ladies. Wu Yan was the only one who didn’t get to eat.
“Yan, you guys ready to go?”
Fei Fei, Sylph, Bing Ling, and Bishi greeted Wu Yan & co. Fei Fei opened the conversation. If this was the day before, Fei Fei & co needed a good enough reason to strike a conversation up with Wu Yan proactively in front of their own subordinates. They are the leaders of this expedition and they have to put up appearances in front of Wu Yan & co who are only observers on this trip. Now, everyone wanted to hear Wu Yan’s words.
Wu Yan noticed this change in attitude. He nodded nonchalantly after glancing at the other expedition members waiting behind the squad leaders.
“Yeah, we are good, let’s go…”
“Good!”
Fei Fei nodded. Sylph, Bing Ling, and Bishi exchanged a look and they waved a hand at their subordinates.
“Let’s move out!”
The magicians got out of formation and they dispelled the barrier they put up last night. The familiar forest appeared in front of them once more. They gathered up and they moved vigilantly onwards, into the center of the Giant Beasts Forest.
After the lesson they learned yesterday, nobody dared to screw around on this expedition. Fei Fei & the other squad leaders would stop and survey the area they are in now and then. They wanted to make sure that they didn’t barge into the territory of a tier 9 monster. Nobody wanted to go through another fight like the one yesterday.
It’s a very simple procedure. If they wandered into a tier 9 monster’s territory, they would encounter mobs belonging only to a species, descendants or pack mates of the apex predator, it would be hard to find another type of monster inside a claimed territory. Only peak tier 7 creatures, and newly-minted tier 8 creatures can be found in such areas.
If they noticed that the beasts are decreasing and the levels are low on average then chances are they have just stumbled into a tier 9 monster’s domain.
Sure enough, they encountered habitable places where a bunch of demonic beasts gathered.
They failed to notice they were in a tier 9 creature’s territory because the weaker monsters all bunched up and gathered in an area, they also encountered different species on their way to the habitat, these factors lowered their guards and they ended up fighting for their lives in the end.
Luckily for them, Wu Yan & co came with them. If not, only those with trump cards would have been able to escape with their lives. In other words, only Fei Fei, Sylph, Bing Ling, and Bishi would have come out of the forest alive.
Concentrating on their steps, they encroached upon the center of the Giant Beasts Forest. The closer they got, the greater the decrease in the number of demonic beasts wandering around. It’s a very strange sight for the expedition team.
Wu Yan even saw the scene where a tier 8 creature that wandered into this area pack up and run with its tails between its legs, it looked like the monster can’t wait to get out of this place. The others saw it as well and their eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
Fei Fei, Sylph, Bing Ling, and Bishi remained very calm as if this is only natural. Wu Yan immediately pinned this odd situation on them.
He passed Flandre-chan over to Hinagiku and he furtively asked Fei Fei a question.
“How did you do it?…”
Fei Fei giggled and she replied.
“As expected, we couldn’t hide this from you…”
Wu Yan rolled his eyes at her. Since her subordinates are all acting weird with the squad leaders being the only ones who are calm, it takes only a few seconds for anyone to figure that out.
Fei Fei took out a small sack and she dangled it in front of Wu Yan. He knitted his brows in puzzlement.
“This is the cause?”
“Yes…”
Fei Fei nodded and she stood up straight.
“Contained within is the blood of the Longarm Ape King that died yesterday.”
“It’s blood, huh?”
Fei Fei grinned.
“Don’t you know? Normal demonic beasts are absolutely terrified of tier 9 monsters, they are like walking one-way-pass-to-hell to these normal demonic beasts…”
Wu Yan blinked his eyes at her. He looked at the sack in her hands.
“Don’t tell me the monsters can feel the aura coming from the blood?”
“Yeah!”
Fei Fei shook the sack in her hands.
“We extracted the blood from the dead Ape King and we carried it with us. In this manner, we emanated the ape king’s aura while traveling, though unknown to the other expedition members, the astute creatures that lived in this forest immediately sensed it when they got close.”
“The demonic beast didn’t actually see us, they felt the aura and they thought a tier 9 monster was nearby so they immediately scampered off. We saved a lot of trouble by using this method.”
“I mean…”
Wu Yan laughed.
“Well, aren’t you guys being a little bit too smart here? What if another tier 9 monster was nearby, they would think that a new challenger is here to usurp them and come right for us!”
“I am not too worried about that…”
Fei Fei continued.
“A tier 9 monster usually stayed in their own domains. Moreover, we still have you and your entourage, no?…”
Wu Yan was at a loss of words…
