Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Gu Xiqiao didn’t know that the outside world had been turned upside down because of her, but even if she did there probably wouldn’t be much of a difference in her actions—As long as no one tried to provoke her, she wouldn’t bat an eyelid at anyone.
It wasn’t her fault that they tried to take advantage of Yao Jiamu and the gang, did they think she was there for show?
She rubbed her chin and nodded in satisfaction at her six teammates that had started becoming more and more like a well-oiled machine before she let herself relax and enter the virtual arena for some training of her own.
She suddenly thought that her virtual arena was a higher-grade Bahuang Forest, in a way.
After all, she could create her own enemies in here, but not outside!
The trio of Yao Jiamu, Xiao Yun, and Wu Hongwen didn’t have any problems in cooperating because they knew each other well in the first place, but the same couldn’t be said for the other three.
Betty, Hans, and Shi Qin didn’t have even the slightest bit of rapport and cooperation, because of the vast differences in their respective cultures and combat styles. In the beginning, they even had an extremely difficult time with even a Bone Refinement stage mythical beast because Gu Xiqiao had temporarily suppressed their overall ability to a tenth of what it was.
It was a plan by Gu Xiqiao to force them to join forces together in a short period of time.
It was a simple plan—Betty used a bow, so her job was to provide damage output from a long distance, Shi Qin was in charge of attracting and baiting the monsters, Hans was in charge of taking care of loose ends while the other three were in charge of close combat.
At first, Gu Xiqiao caught some beast by herself for them to practice on, and from not being able to even kill a Bone Refinement stage mythical beast, they became more and more well-practiced to the point where they could easily slay a Fleet Foot stage one, and stand their ground against mythical beasts on the Tongmai stage.
The Betty trio realized soon enough that they became strong extremely quickly just by following Gu Xiqiao around.
Gu Xiqiao seemed to be knowledgeable in everything, and this point was proven when Betty asked Gu Xiqiao a question on her marksmanship offhandedly. She had expected Gu Xiqiao to not be able to solve her problems because she used a sword, but the reality was the exact opposite, and not only did she solve her problems, but point her in a promising direction too!
And so, the news of such a strange team spread like wildfire in Bahuang Forest.
The people in the know were all in unspoken agreement that this team was much scarier than the other hot picks for the first place.
Bang! Boom! Crash!
The sounds of battling could be heard from afar, and a dark-skinned team came to see a small team of seven that just used wooden weapons, and after exchanging glances with each other, this team immediately moved out to attack them.
***
Not far away, another two teams were having a friendly chat.
“Aaandd another bites the dust.”
“I knew this would happen sooner or later, poor suckers.”
“How is this team so strong but none of them are on the rankings? They only drive out the ones that they caught, but apparently, they don’t even absorb the energy in their wooden plaques?”
“The strongest one is that girl over there! Don’t you remember how the six of them ate hotpot and watched while she fought earlier?”
“Ah, I’m envious…”
And so, the dark-skinned team was disqualified in the next second.
At this point, the rumors of Gu Xiqiao’s team had already been spread and had surprised and shocked many participants.
Of course, there were ones that didn’t believe these rumors.
“Nozawa, have you heard of the rumored team?” Felix wasn’t surprised when he heard this news, immediately thinking of the team that had suppressed him with sheer mental power when he met them.
And so, he asked this question bad-naturedly when he met Nozawa’s team.
Nozawa looked over at Felix with an uninterested gaze, and replied, “There’s a proverb in China that describes this: Three men make a tiger1.”
After he said so, he coolly turned around and left.
Felix only looked at his leaving silhouette with a smirk as he licked his lips. “You won’t be saying that when you meet them!”
“Young Master Felix, do you think that Nozawa isn’t a match for that mysterious girl?” Someone asked curiously upon seeing Felix’s mocking expression.
Felix didn’t reply, only glancing at him before walking in another direction.
One could count on a single hand the number of people that could drive him away just through sheer mental power, but Nozawa wasn’t one of them. It was clear who was the stronger one in this scenario.
He wouldn’t know what got him!
***
At the same time, the participants from the Tang family had already converged together.
Tang Qinghong trailed behind the entire group as they walked, and the one leading the entire Tang family group was another young man. In a mere few days, the fifth young master of the Tang family had made his rounds and put himself into the position of the leader. That position should have been Tang Qinghong’s, but it was already common knowledge amongst them that the latter hadn’t been in the ancient martial arts world nor the Trial Tower in the days leading up to the tournaments, so they had lost their confidence in him completely when he didn’t seem to be very proactive in pursuing rankings.
As they continued their journey, they came across a team from a smaller country being suppressed by a mythical beast, and Tang Wu1 immediately had everyone stop, and said, “Let’s go save them!”
“Tang Wu, this isn’t time for you to satisfy your savior complex! If they can’t hold on it’s simple for them to just shout out that they forfeit, we don’t need to save them!” Tang Qinghong couldn’t help but comment.
Tang Wu scoffed and replied, “How could you be so cold-blooded, Tang Qinghong?!”
Tang Qinghong: “???”
He was cold-blooded?
Tang Qinghong looked at the rest of the team members, who were casting doubtful and reprimanding gazes towards him.
“Fine, you do what you want, I guess.” Upon saying this, Tang Qinghong raised his hand. “I’m going to leave with Shaoyuan now, does anyone want to leave with me?”
This question was met with dubious gazes from the team members before they looked at each other with an expression as if saying, “Can you believe this guy?”
In the end, only a thin and frail-looking young man walked out to leave with Tang Qinghong.
“Baili Wen, you want to leave with them?” The others looked at him as if he was mad. “Is there something wrong upstairs?”
Baili Wen was the only participant from the Baili family that was entrusted by Baili Bin to Tang Qinghong.
Upon being asked, he only nodded timidly and shuffled over to Tang Qinghong without a word.
Tang Qinghong didn’t seem to have much of a reaction to this outcome, and as he looked at the thirty other members in the group, he said, “I hope you don’t regret your choice today.”
After he said so, the three of them turned around and left.
Wasn’t that their line? How could the three of them be such idiots?
After the three of them left, Tang Wu jeered, “This man has become crazy after just half a month outside, how much longer can he survive after he leaves our team?”
“Congratulations, Fifth Young Master. These tournaments will definitely be the start of your rise to stardom!” One of the members exclaimed with a flattering tone.
Tang Wu laughed proudly before leading the team forward.
Everyone in the team had mocking expressions, and their words reflected as such, saying, “Those idiots won’t even know what got them, they’ll definitely regret it!”
***
Meanwhile, the trio had made their way to Gu Xiqiao.
Upon counting the members in Gu Xiqiao’s team, Yin Shaoyuan smiled as if he had expected it before he whined, “I knew the mysterious team was you guys! Who other than Qiao Qiao would be able to do such a thing, throw people out of the forest? Little Wu, do you know how much of a drag it was over there?!”
He had been used to living a carefree life in the Peacekeepers, and he felt unbearably suffocated in the Tang family group.
‘Now, everything was finally how it’s supposed to be,’ thought Yin Shaoyuan as he munched on a slice of beef.
Gu Xiqiao blinked and looked over at the frail boy that Tang Qinghong brought with him, and asked, “Why did you follow the two of them here when no one else did?”
Baili Wen patted his hair self-consciously before replying, “Young Master Bin told me to follow behind Young Master Qinghong at all times…”
“Well, you should thank him for that advice!” Wu Hongwen looked up at Baili Wen. “You’re a member of the Baili family?”
“Yes, my name is Baili Wen.” The boy replied with a timid smile.
Baili Wen? Gu Xiqiao squinted slightly in thought.
From that moment on, their team was expanded to ten members, and after three days of meshing together under Gu Xiqiao’s guidance, the mythical beast reapers were born.
Gu Xiqiao devised a perfect team composition for them as well as strategies, and even Fleet Foot mythical beasts couldn’t make them pause for half a minute at this point, and even Tongmai stage mythical beasts could only stall them for two minutes.
At this point, they could even fight against a Xiantian stage mythical beast!
With renewed confidence, the team moved deeper and deeper into the forest in hopes of coming across a Houtian stage mythical beast.
And thus, the mythical beast reapers started rampaging in the forest, much to the woe of many a competitor.
Everywhere this ten-man-team passed by was practically razed to the ground, not leaving behind a single mythical beast within a thousand-meter radius!
How could there be such a team?!
“Hey, what’s that team doing? Are they too scared of the Xiantian beast to move? Why aren’t they running? Why is everyone watching?”
“Looks like someone didn’t get the newest intel. Have you never heard of the mythical beast reapers?”
“Look!”
The ten members weren’t scared by the Xiantian beast in the least, but were using the beast as bait to attract other Xiantian mythical beasts. As six such mythical beasts came onto the scene, the onlookers were practically slammed onto the ground by their aura and the pressure that the beasts exerted.
It was only after eight mythical beasts converged that nine of the members moved.
Four of them stalled the beasts’ movements, driving arrows made of lightning into the beasts’ tough hide.
Four others came in close for close combat, and the strong mythical beasts were beaten into the ground pathetically.
The last person set up arrays and seals, and with a resounding bang the eight Xiantian mythical beasts disappeared, becoming wisps of energy and flowing into their wooden plaques.
“… See that? These are the infamous mythical beast reapers! Don’t ever provoke them!”
