"Xiao Fei, there was clearly no one around earlier, but Xiao Lin still died, even leaving with such an expression on his face. Our opponent isn't human!" Although science and technology explained that there were no ghosts and spirits in this world, the bizarre nature of Xiao Lin's death had still caused Xiao Chong to panic. "Right now, even the leader has disappeared! He must have died at the hands of that terrifying demon too! If we continue to stay here, we'll definitely die!" Facing such a creepy situation, even a braver man would be affected by fear.
"Slap!" Xiao Fei threw a tight slap across Xiao Chong's face. In reaction, Xiao Chong gaped, expression still anxious, confused, and helpless.
"You need to godd*mn calm down!" barked Xiao Fei, "The leader had mentioned that the opponent is good at concealment and assassination, so it's not surprising that he knows some methods that we cannot understand. But this doesn't mean he's invincible!"
"Besides, I don't believe the leader has really been finished off." Xiao Fei knew his leader's capabilities very well — if even the leader could not resist, then they would really have no chance of leaving this forest alive. He told himself that he must remain calm. The moment the both of them got caught up in panic, then death would really be at their heels.
Xiao Fei's calm and steady words finally lessened Xiao Chong's panic. His gaze began to rove, but just as he was about to say something, he suddenly saw the bushes about 10 metres behind Xiao Fei burst apart soundlessly. Countless blades of grass and leaves shot out like arrows at Xiao Fei's back."Watch out!" Xiao Chong's previous panic was wiped away instantly. A cold light shone from his eyes as he pushed Xiao Fei gently to one side with his left hand. Then, lifting his right hand, he charged towards the bush the attack had come from. A formless blast of Qi-Jin, and the grass and leaves flying towards them were instantly obstructed.
A muffled "bang!" — the two invisible forces collided. Xiao Chong's body was shaken by the blast, and he felt the breath and blood in his chest roil ... calmly, he circulated the hidden force in his body, and once more gathered the energy at his palms to push out at the opposing force once more ...
The addition of this burst of Qi-Jin finally suppressed that formless energy, and the grass and leaves frozen in the air were immediately thrown back from whence they came.
Hiding in the opposite direction, when the muffled blast rang out, Ling Lan's complexion paled, as if sustaining some great blow. However, her expression did not change and her vision did not waver. She still kept her eyes coolly focused on the other team member, the one who had been pushed aside by Xiao Chong, Xiao Fei.
That's right, her target this time was none other than Xiao Fei. The flying grasses and leaves earlier were indeed her tactic, but that move was just a feint, an intentional attack to lure the attention of Xiao Chong.
Although Xiao Chong's surface panic had looked very real, the invisible bloody aura lingering about them proved that these people were all veterans who were used to bloodshed. How could they be so easily frightened by a comrade's unexplained death? His performance was undoubtedly meant to lull Ling Lan and try to entice her into attacking.
After figuring things out, Ling Lan decided to just play along. Even though she risked getting injured this way, she would obtain another chance to kill off yet another one of her opponents. This was an undoubtedly worthy exchange.Right after Xiao Chong blasted away those grasses and leaves, with no hesitation, he stomped on the ground, and using the reaction force generated from it, he pounced towards the area that had been blasted apart. Both his palms were thrust forward, formless Qi-Jin behind them as he struck out!
Since the formless force had come from this direction, then the opponent must definitely be hiding there! He had caught the killer! Glee flashed through Xiao Chong's eyes. As long as the opponent exposed himself, based on the strength he had sensed from their last encounter, Xiao Chong was confident that he would definitely be able to kill the other by working together with Xiao Fei.
With a loud "Boom!", dirt was thrown up into the air along with shrubbery as the ground was blasted apart by the force of his attack. At the end of it, a deep pit of about a metre wide in diameter laid before Xiao Chong.
"A good opportunity! Explode!" At this moment, Ling Lan, who had been hiding to one side, saw Xiao Chong leave the side of the other team member, and immediately detonated the spiritual power she had planted by Xiao Fei's side.
Ling Lan was not confident that she could kill two Qi-Jin experts at the same time with a spiritual blast. In comparison with Xiao Chong's late stage Qi-Jin strength, Xiao Fei with his early mid-stage Qi-Jin strength was undoubtedly easier to kill. Therefore, from the very start, her target had always been Xiao Fei — always start from cartilage when gnawing on bones 1 , after all.
The formless and colourless spiritual power, under Ling Lan's control, exploded in an instant, creating a massive shockwave aimed straight for Xiao Fei's brain.
Xiao Fei, who had been pushed to one side by Xiao Chong, had already been in defensive mode. His attention was currently focused on Xiao Chong's attack — the moment he noticed any sign of the opponent, he would follow up with an attack of his own and help Xiao Chong.
However, before he could notice anything, tremors abruptly coursed through his mind. This was a warning signal, an ability of every fighter who managed to enter Qi-Jin stage. Could it be that the opponent was trying to launch a sneak attack on him?
This notion had barely passed Xiao Fei's mind when the hidden force spread out across his body ballooned rapidly — if anyone or any hidden weapons approached him, he would be able to sense it ...
But even as he pulled this defensive action, he felt a formless energy collide with the defensive hidden force on his body ... He felt his Qi-Jin shudder violently, and then waves of dizziness and disorientation invaded his brain. As if from a distance, he felt like he could hear his own Qi-Jin being detonated by that surge of energy. Boom! Boom! Boom! ...
These concussive forces were focused on attacking his brain. In the end, he felt his brain succumb to these overwhelming energy surges, and with a last roaring blast, it exploded ... he thoroughly descended into darkness and knew no more.
On the other side, Xiao Chong, who was attacking the source of the attacking energy, thought that his two Qi-infused palms would force out the killer hiding within the shrubs. However, other than flying dirt and grass, there was no one to be found ... besides the rustling sounds of the trees and plants stirred by the wind, there was nothing else in the surroundings.
"Damn it!" Seeing his two palms not having their intended effect, Xiao Chong could not help but curse silently, heart doubtful. Had the killer snuck away in the very moment he had launched his sneak attack at Xiao Fei? But he had not heard anyone moving at all! Or could it be that that person had never been there to begin with? In that case, then how had that attack been created?
Sure enough, Xiao Chong was not as flustered as he had appeared to be. Or, more accurately, his previous weak performance was just meant to put the killer hiding in the shadows at ease and get him to attack.
He had indeed gotten his wish. The opponent had struck, but the outcome was not ideal. He did not manage to frisk out the opponent, which made him even more uncertain and lost than before.
He moodily walked back to his teammate's side. Of course, along the way, he did not forget to stay vigilant — he believed that the killer was still nearby. It was only that the killer had a mysterious way of moving and hiding, causing him to be unable to find an opening, so fear began taking root in his heart.
"Xiao Fei, did you find anything?" he asked softly. Xiao Fei had been standing behind him all this while defending, perhaps he had seen something.
Unfortunately, there was no response to his question. Sensing something off, Xiao Chong's expression changed drastically. He rushed over to stand before Xiao Fei and was treated to the sight of Xiao Fei's wide open eyes staring off sightlessly into the distance. Meanwhile, thin rivulets of blood were flowing ceaselessly from Xiao Fei's eyes, nose, ears, and mouth ... With just one glance, Xiao Chong could tell that the other was already dead.
"Aaaah!!" Xiao Chong howled mournfully. Compared to the other teammates, he and Xiao Fei had grown up together, attended school together, fought their first battle together, and survived together. They were the best of sworn brothers. His death caused Xiao Chong to go utterly berserk ...
Hiding within the grass, Ling Lan's current condition was not optimistic either. Her face was as white as paper — that last spiritual blast had undoubtedly drained her spiritual power. Not only that, a spiritual blast was also an attack which extracted a heavy toll on oneself even as it dealt great damage to the opponent 2 . Moreover, the attack she used this time — the split-core twofold detonation technique — actually had an even higher requirement than a regular spiritual blast, with a correspondingly higher damage output.
Though the power of a spiritual blast was indeed very strong, it had a weakness — after it was activated once, the user would not be able to accumulate spiritual power again for a short period to continue attacking. Thus, if Ling Lan used a spiritual blast to attract the opponent's attention, then she would have no way of immediately gathering spiritual strength again to launch another sneak attack. In order to successfully kill off one of her opponents, she could only take a risk and use the split-core twofold detonation technique.
The split-core twofold detonation technique was an area-of-effect technique. It split her spiritual power into two portions, which could then be detonated separately to attack a target. The immense turbulence caused by the twofold blasts of spiritual power could instantly destroy anything tangible or intangible within a certain range.
Ling Lan knew well that that missing team leader was most certainly on his way here. There was no time for her to continue wasting; she needed to finish off these two people before the team leader arrived. Otherwise, up against that leader at the peak of Qi-Jin, Ling Lan had no confidence she would be able to stand up to him even one-on-one, much less if the other still had a helper remaining.
Ling Lan believed that, by using the split-core twofold detonation technique, she would definitely be able to kill off at least one of her opponents. And in reality, Ling Lan had done it. However, the cost was also very high. Not only was her spiritual power depleted, her head ached fiercely, feeling as if it were splitting apart, causing her to feel like puking. Even her physical body sustained a little damage. The only blessing was, setting her spiritual power aside, her combat ability had not been decreased by much.
"Boss, you cannot use any more spiritual power." Checking on Ling Lan's condition, Little Four spoke up to caution her, "Forcefully using any more will cause irreparable long-term damage to your spiritual self."
"Understood!" replied Ling Lan. Her gaze was fixed on the grieving and berserk Xiao Chong. His aura had started to fluctuate; this was undoubtedly a good time to attack ...
Since she already had no way of using spiritual attacks anymore, then all she could do was charge in. With a strong push of her arms, she flew like an arrow towards Xiao Chong who was still howling mournfully up into the sky.
At the same time, a cone-shaped icicle appeared in her hands, and in a split second, she was at the opponent's back.
In fact, Ling Lan already long knew that the so-called innate talents from spiritual mutation actually had very little to do with how strong one's spiritual power was. It was just that the innate talents possessed by a body required spiritual power to trigger. Although Ling Lan's spiritual power was depleted, she still had the tiny bit of spiritual power needed to activate Ice Affinity to make this small icicle ...
At that moment, the wailing Xiao Chong abruptly turned around. He glared at Ling Lan with bloodshot eyes and shouted, "You've finally appeared!"
