Chapter 255: Slaughter! (II)
After having come in contact for a rather long time, the members of the 4th soldier grade Demon Hunt Squads felt with great clarity the gap separating themselves from the 21st soldier grade Demon Hunt Squad. The pair of sweethearts and core of the team formed by Long Haochen and Cai’er had a sea-splitting impact. The other members also had powerful abilities to display, and moreover, were totally united.
This entire massacre lasted for only ten minutes, and Long Haochen didn’t let a single enemy escape. When the last enemy finally went down, slain by his Holy Spirit Sword while using Final Gambit.
All along, Long Haochen benefitted from the support of the loyal Light Element Fairy Yating, responding perfectly to her duty of helping him recuperate.
Not letting go of Cai’er on his back, Long Haochen dumped a pair of bloody crystals stuck to his heavy swords, heading back to the cave’s entrance along with Haoyue.
Long Haochen didn’t have any formidable recovery spell with crowd effect, but it didn’t mean that it was the same for Haoyue. From his initiative, an illumination of sacred light flooded every corner of the cavern.
“Prepare yourselves, everyone. I’ll clear the battlefield, so let’s depart from here at full speed.” Long Haochen’s voice sounded rough, and after he finished giving out these instructions, he turned back and walked out. While walking, he stored the corpses of every single Grand Fiend and their Nightmare Devil Horses inside Eternal Melody.
That’s right, the Pendant of Eternal Melody was also a storage tool. As for how large the space it encompassed, even with his current mental capacity, Long Haochen was unable to tell.
Having gone through the past massacre, Long Haochen had a more distinct feeling that every time he slaughtered a Grand Fiend, the counterpart’s soul would immediately be sucked into the Eternal Melody. And the soul energy he gained from the enemies he had just killed was even stronger than energy he received from the corpses of the previous battle. Since he couldn’t do anything about it, he could only ignore it right now. In truth, he didn’t have any real comprehension of the principle of soul energy.
Relying on the Eternal Melody, Long Haochen was fast to sweep through the battlefield. When he came back to the his comrades’ side, except from the still unconscious Dian Yan, everyone had recovered their ability to move.
After watching Long Haochen sweep through the battlefield without any difficulty, Lin Xin seemed to have recovered from remembering his painful memories. Having seen him collect all of the Grand Fiend’s and the Nightmare Devil Horses’ corpses, he couldn’t help but stare with wide eyes. When Haochen returned, he secretly signaled him to come over. With his back turned to the rest of the group, he waited for Haochen.
Long Haochen gave him a glance before silently looking down.
“How is everyone?” Long Haochen asked.
Han Yu replied, “Except from Dian Yan that suffered serious injuries, no one should have problems walking, only, to keep battling will be quite challenging. Yuanyuan, Sima and I took Bloodthirsty and Spiritual Bursting Pills. I’m also afraid that Ying’er’s little pig, McDull, is in quite a bad shape, and will not be able to keep absorbing magical crystals to join the battle. ”
Luc Xi replied, “Our side is in a better situation, Han Daosi and Li Xin can still keep fighting, but Yi Jun ignited his own vital force, and is thus unconscious and recovering his spiritual energy. I will need at least three more hours to launch my crowd-effective healing spell again. Dian Yan will at least need seven days of treatment before barely recovering some fighting strength. Xiaomo is pretty much the same as me, and will regain some spiritual energy in approximately three more hours.”
Although this battle ended without any deaths, it could be said to have been a total tragedy for their side. The only ones that still had the strength to keep fighting were the trio of Long Haochen, Li Xin and Han Daosi’s. Cai’er, who had lost four of her senses for a full duration of seven months, was even more pitiful than the seriously injured Dian Yan.
Long Haochen calmly nodded, declaring after some time of reflection, “I will have Haoyue carry Dian Yan and Yi Jun, and we will immediately set off. After advancing more deeply into the mountains, without staying close to such a conspicuous spot as the Desolate Hissing Cavern, we should be able to easily conceal ourselves. There, we’ll wait for everyone to recover some strength before attempting to head back.”
Luc Xi silently nodded in response, looking at Long Haochen with some hesitation.
Long Haochen knew what he was thinking of, “Right before, I recorded my exploration of the Desolate Hissing Cavern, and this is clearly not a place we are able to explore thoroughly. After we find a place to settle down, I will share the records of the exploration with everyone.”
The Recording Gem’s contents couldn’t be counterfeited, or at least, no one had this ability among them. An incredible skill in alchemy was needed to make this possible.
Hearing Long Haochen say so, Luc Xi immediately felt embarrassed, and calmly nodded at Long Haochen.
Long Haochen spoke out, “Let’s leave from here then. Right now, I recovered the enemies’ corpses. A third of the magical crystals will be yours to keep.”
Luc Xi hurried to react, “There’s no need, we didn’t do much anyway.”
Long Haochen shook his head, and said in a clearly resolute tone, “We are now a single team, and we’ll share the gains in accordance to how we agreed on it. Without you, my teammates wouldn’t have lasted long enough for me to return, so let’s do it as I said. Time to set off! ”
The backlash from Cai’er’s spiritual stove caused Long Haochen to feel extremely fidgety. The gentleness he had during normal times was gone and replaced by some aggressiveness. But with the strength and ability he showed there, everything he said felt as a matter of course, at least the members of the 4th soldier grade Demon Hunt Squad were secretly thankful. A third of the spoils from such a huge amount of Nightmare Devil Horses and Grand Fiends was no small figure.
Everyone once again set out for their journey, and although they were for the most part in a very weak state, having wounded people among them, their bodies far exceeded ordinary people’s in strength as fighters. As dawn touched upon the land, the party of thirteen didn’t make haste to leave the mountain ridge, instead penetrating even more deeply under Long Haochen’s lead. After crossing two mountain peaks, they finally stopped in an area full of shrubs.
It was a valley with a natural crevice in the midst of it, just the right place for them to temporarily stay at. When they decided to camp there, it was already the middle of the day.
Luc Xi became the most occupied member of the team, unceasingly recovering his spiritual energy as he took the duty of healing everyone.
What finally relaxed Long Haochen a bit was that Cai’er gradually recovered her ability to move. At this time, he was sitting close to the entrance of the crevice, letting Cai’er temporarily lean against his body.
Cai’er was seemingly very calm: she was now blind, mute, deaf, and unable to taste, but it appeared as though she didn’t care about all of this, only calmly nestling in Long Haochen’s embrace.
While the others were resting, Han Daosi took over the duty of keeping watch, and Haochen pulled Cai’er by the hand, using his thumb to form some words in Cai’er’s palm. Slowly he wrote the narration of the whole course of the events that happened back in the Desolate Hissing Cavern.
Cai’er was unable to listen, but could sense and was actually rather enjoying this kind of feeling. As she let Long Haochen write characters on her palm, she nestled against him, just like the little big McDull was nestling in Chen Ying’er’s embrace
“Lin Xin, come here for a bit. I have something to tell you.” Li Xin suddenly waved to Lin Xin, hinting him to follow her.
Lin Xin blanked, slightly wrinkling his brows, but still chose to follow Li Xin inside of the crevice. Long Haochen just gave him a puzzled glance, but didn’t say anything about it. In his heart, Li Xin was one of the most trusted people he had. He comprehended the character of this big sister of his pretty well, and didn’t know what formerly happened inside of the cavern. Instead of keeping track of that, he continued to write some words in her palm.
The others were cultivating on the side, and didn’t pay attention to them.
The crevice was very deep, and they kept walking until they were over two hundred meters deep in the mountain. When gazing deep inside, one would be able to see a marvellous scene.
Li Xin kept walking in, until no one remained in her view, before finally stopping in her tracks.
Lin Xin stopped close behind with an apathetic face, simply using his fingers to comb his own dark green hair, plaiting a braid after putting it together and leaning on a stone of the wall, “What did you call me here for? Trying to kill me in order to silence me?”
Li Xin unhappily declared, “As a man, what are you doing with such long hair. You’re even doing something such as a plaiting it. In my opinion, you simply seem closer to a girl.”
Lin Xin curled his lips, replying, “Hey, it’s called being handsome, okay? Don’t talk drivel just because you don’t understand it.”
Li Xin disdainfully replied, “Handsome? What farts! Speak of it again when you are half as handsome as Long Haochen.”
A temporary change appeared in Lin Xin’s expression, and his muscles immediately hardened, “Did you just call me to bully me? Sure, Captain has better looks than me, but he looks even more like a girl than me!”
Li Xin suddenly became silent, looking at Lin Xin without saying any further words.
Feeling the strange atmosphere, Lin Xin couldn’t help but look at her, puzzled.
“Sorry.” Li Xin slightly lowered her head, “It was my bad, I shouldn’t have forced you into sharing a part of your past, much less recall those painful events to your mind.”
Lin Xin slightly trembled, and an unremovable pain filled the depths of his eyes. Lowering his head, he threw the hair he had been combing all this time to his back.
“It’s okay, someone would have questioned me sooner or later. To be honest, deep inside I feel much better now.” Lin Xin said in a pained expression.
Li Xin unhurriedly walked to his side, “I should get punishment for making such an error. Then, curse me back. Or else, strike me, and I’ll feel better.” Her expression was very serious. Standing by Lin Xin’s side, she offered her vigorous yet delicate figure as a sort of self-sacrifice.
Lin Xin’s expression changed, “Miss, stop joking, won’t you? Would I even be capable of hitting you?”
“I won’t hit back.” Li Xin hurried to emphasise.
“That’s it? I’m heading back then.” Lin Xin unhappily declared, and turned to head in the opposite direction to leave.
Li Xin stamped her foot, “I’m afraid of everyone else’s judgment. Don’t head back like that, or how would I even be able to face your teammates?”
“Enough.” Lin Xin abruptly turned back, furiously replying, ”What use will I have to hit you? You didn’t say anything wrong, I’m just a coward that didn’t have the guts to learn offensive magic. Even if I hit you and curse you, don’t tell me that you believe that it would be enough to lessen the pain in my heart? Hmpf…”
Lin Xin’s words ended with a grunting sound, and his originally large eyes appeared even larger as he glared at her.
If someone else was present, he would have described this scene as astonishing.
A pretty and vigorous knight was at this moment grabbing the head of a mage, pushing him against the stone wall behind him, before fiercely kissing his lips.
