Dark Blood Path

With lightning speed, Zhao Changping gathered all the manpower of the five factions, including Black Bear’s, before he sealed off the camp and waited. However, Xiao Yu never appeared in the settlement again, so he left the territory early the following day with a group of his most skilled subordinates under the guise of chasing the outsider.

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Learn English Via Listening | Beginner Level | Lesson 5 | Going Camping

After leaving the forest and walking for half an hour north, a figure jumped down from the tree trunk above their heads, placed his feet on the ground, and stood straight in front of the crowd.

Right then, an indifferent voice devoid of joy or anger came into their ears, “Zhao Changping, you are too slow.”

Zhao Changping waved his hand, all of his subordinates laid down their weapons, and he moved forward with a smile on his face, “There was no other way; it is hard to control the actions of those guys. So I had to stabilize the situation first, lest there be chaos.”

Xiao Yu noticed that all the wounds on Zhao Changping’s face had healed and said meaningfully, “Your wounds healed quickly.”

Zhao Changping smiled sheepishly, took out a small bottle from his space ring, and threw it over, “I always repay kindness and never owe someone favors. This operation is just a cooperative partnership between us. As for the remaining half of the bottle, I was going to gift it to you anyway. So consider it your reward for doing me a major favor yesterday.”

Xiao Yu caught the small bottle, and he could see that half a bottle of liquid remained in the glass bottle, which was crystal clear, so clear that it could hardly be described in words. However, if you looked closely, you would find that the liquid exuded a faint fluorescence. This liquid was the legendary “water of life”, Its quality wasn’t bad, and its value was probably no worse than any white-grade equipment, considering it was only half a bottle.

“Have you brought enough people?” Xiao Yu’s sharp eyes swept over the crowd, and everyone there felt as if they were being seen through to their core, “Their strength is not bad, but I don’t know if they’re reliable or not.”

“You can rest assured about this.” There was an air of confidence in Zhao Changping’s tone, “Almost all of them are long-time veterans of the armed military forces and have been dear friends and brothers of mine ever since we met. Therefore, there will be no problems, so let us leave now.”

Xiao Yu had almost forgotten about Zhao Changping’s former identity. He was a retired soldier, or a military commander to be more precise, and his subordinates all had a solid relationship with him as comrades in arms. Xiao Yu didn’t waste time and followed him to the northern woodland.

It rained for over half a day yesterday; the woods were wet, the humidity was high, and the terrain was muddy, making it quite challenging to move around. Xiao Yu and Zhao Changping were both first-order experts, and the latter’s fourteen comrades were all elementary warriors. The subordinates’ quality was exceptional, much above what regular people could measure, and it didn’t take long for them to arrive at the location Zhao Changping described, as they all stood close by.

They knelt down and picked up the mud and decaying leaves from the ground, smearing them thoroughly on their faces and bodies to mask the odor.

When Zhao Changping turned his head to look at Xiao Yu, he found that the latter had almost turned himself into a clay figurine; his techniques in camouflaging were very sophisticated, no worse than those of trained scouts like them. Naturally, this made him somewhat suspicious of Xiao Yu’s background. Despite his young age, he was flawless in all aspects, whether it be mental quality, combat skills, or the ability to survive in the wild.

Could he be a monster that the special forces have secretly honed?

Sixteen individuals proceeded to make their way carefully through the woods, and it didn’t take long until they spotted their target for the first time. Three green creatures were strolling side by side. The average height of these monsters was more than 2.2 meters. They had dark green skin, pointed ears, exposed fangs at the corners of their mouth, and very ferocious faces. The creatures wore tattered animal hide and held a rusty spear in both hands.

The monsters that were supposedly guarding the fountain of life turned out to be forest trolls!

Trolls were a vastly large race, mainly including forest trolls, jungle trolls, sand trolls, frost trolls, flame trolls, and dark trolls. Low-level trolls were the same as goblin warriors in that they were pure beast-like monsters. Still, the high-level ones, similar to the high-level goblins, had a very high intellect and were generally an intelligent species.

What Xiao Yu and the others spotted were just a few low-level forest trolls. This was a race that lived in the forest. Their bodies could bear the growth of plants to a certain degree, and their skin would inevitably get covered with a thin layer of lichen shortly after birth, giving them their characteristic green skin.

“Those are forest troll warriors, elementary-level monsters that are relatively strong and are a bit difficult to deal with.” Zhao Changping glanced at Xiao Yu, “There are many such creatures nearby; we must kill them quickly; otherwise, we will have no choice but to retreat if similar monsters get alarmed.”

Xiao Yu’s eyes turned blood red in an instant, and he whispered, “I’ll leave the one on the far left for you.”

“Okay.” Zhao Changping took out his long sword from the space ring, “Get ready… three, two, one, move!”

The two simultaneously rushed out of the bushes where they were hiding and outflanked the monsters from both sides. Zhao Changping swung his lightning-covered long sword and stabbed into the body of a forest troll warrior from behind as the creature started twitching violently. Xiao Yu appeared on the other side and cut off another forest troll’s head cleanly. The third forest troll had already turned and lifted its spear, preparing to attack him.

Xiao Yu took a step forward, swung his blade, and slashed upwards. The spear in the forest troll warrior’s hand was split in two; a blood-red gash formed first from its abdomen to the top of its head, and the belly area split apart with a boom. All of its internal organs gushed out, and its throat was also ruptured, leaving it unable to make a sound. It struggled for a while before it fell to the ground. Zhao Changping drew out his long sword at that moment.

The fourteen people in the woods immediately rushed up, tacitly carrying the trolls’ corpses, and threw them into the bushes to hide them.

The group continued to travel deeper into the woods, circled the forest, and encountered many groups of forest troll warriors, all of whom were killed by the two of them. The total number of dead monsters reached more than twenty. Fortunately, since they had a high-quality combat team, everything was done quietly; otherwise, if their enemies got alarmed, those twenty trolls in the forest’s depths may have posed a greater threat than ordinary first-order monsters.

Xiao Yu’s face was smeared with mud, and only a pair of beast-like eyes could be seen. He crept silently into the midst of the forest, like a deadly snake seeking its prey. Then he came to a halt, raised his hand, and made a gesture; all the people behind him stopped immediately.

Five trolls appeared in front of them at the same time; among them were three forest troll warriors, while the other two were more dexterous trolls that looked slightly thinner. They held a thin javelin in their hands and tied several javelins on their backs.

These are troll headhunters, a monster with peak elementary-level fighting power.

“Five; very troublesome.” Xiao Yu turned to look at Zhao Changping, “I will deal with the two thinner trolls and leave the rest for you.”

Zhao Changping nodded, “No problem, Everyone, get ready…..move!”

The two of them sprang out from the bushes, and Zhao Changping’s fourteen subordinates followed suit. However, the troll headhunter had a considerably quicker response time than the troll warriors. While the two of them were still in the air, both monsters turned their heads as two pairs of fierce eyes stared at the two humans, and they simultaneously launched a javelin with their right hands.

Sou sou!

A flash of light glowed in Zhao Changping’s eyes brightly, and without warning, he clenched his left hand, gathered lightning in the palm of his hand, and pushed forward. Instantly, seven to eight tiny electric arcs poured out in a circular pattern, sputtering in the forest as bursts of blue smoke emerged on the grass, trees, and ground. The lightning surged and struck the javelin mid-air, causing it to explode in a shower of sparks and smoke. The attack even covered the bodies of the three troll warriors, and they were completely engulfed in it as they got paralyzed by the electric current and couldn’t move. The two troll headhunters were also affected.

Xiao Yu cut off the head of a dizzy troll headhunter before his feet landed. The other troll headhunter turned its head and ran away while opening its mouth as if preparing to call for their companions.

It must be held back from calling for help!

Xiao Yu’s pupils shrank suddenly, “Bullet time!”

Suddenly the whole world fell into a state of stillness, and the movements of everything came to a halt. Xiao Yu took three to four strides forward as though he were in a gravity-less space, then he swung his right arm, and the blade slashed across the troll headhunter’s throat.

The troll headhunter’s eyes were wide open, as was its mouth, but it couldn’t scream out again.

Zhao Changping and his companions saw an unusual scene. Xiao Yu’s body vanished and reappeared five meters away almost instantly. It was an incredible feat as if he had moved through space and time, and by then, the troll headhunter had already been beheaded. So when they saw this move of his, everyone assumed it was teleportation.

The three troll warriors who were paralyzed and unable to move were also killed in an instant under the collective assault of Zhao Changping and his comrades.

Then they quickly removed the bodies and cleaned up the battlefield.

Zhao Chang came over and looked at Xiao Yu with a strange expression on his face and said, “I wasn’t expecting you to be still hiding your strength. You didn’t give it your all when you fought me that day; it looks like you still had the ability to increase your speed by several times instantly. This should be one of your skills.”

“Aren’t you the same?” Xiao Yu’s muscles were a little sore from using the bullet time ability, but he retorted calmly: “That lightning palm discharge is not weak at all.”

Zhao Changping said with a wry smile, “Although I also held back, even if I were to use this move as a surprise attack, with your amazing speed, you can easily evade it. I originally thought I could fight you, but now it seems that my strength is indeed not as good as yours.”

Though he said those words, he was still a carefree individual who wasn’t really bothered by such things. At this point, his gaze was drawn to a white ball of light floating quietly on the ground.

A little surprised, Zhao Changping said happily, “Our luck is really good; it’s actually a white item.”

The ball of light was opened, revealing an ancient scroll woven of what seemed to be animal hide. It was a bit worn out and had to be a couple of years old. Complex magical symbols appeared on it, but they lacked magical power. So it was obviously not a magic scroll.

Xiao Yu’s eyes stayed on the scroll for a moment, his expression moved slightly, and he said: “This is a blueprint for an alchemy recipe.”

Zhao Changping agreed, “That’s right, it seems to be… the method of refining a first-grade potion of curing?”