Yu Tian rolled his hands, “Well, cutting you isn’t a problem. Wanna try it out?”
Qian Lei: “Stupid Big Knife, you’re provoking me again. I already told you, if I’m lucky, you definitely can’t do it.”
Yu Tian: “Call me Stupid Big Knife one more time and I’ll let you have a taste of my Mo Sword.”
“You guys have been flapping your mouths for the whole day, how annoying can you guys get! If you really want to take action, quickly do it at the side.” Lin Donghui fumed in annoyance. He enjoyed peace and quiet but had a headache from Qian Lei and Yu Tian’s constant bickering.
Nighttime in the forest had always been the most dangerous, so Lan Xuanyu decided for the group to reorganize and take turns to rest. At the moment, Bing Tianliang, Liu Feng, and him were resting, leaving Qian Lei, Lin Donghui and Yu Tian to stand guard.
The reason for this allocation was their ability to cooperate and defend different directions together. With the advantage in manpower, they only needed two rounds of rest.
Qian Lei: “Alright, I’ll not lower myself to his level.”
Yu Tian replied with ridicule: “Or you don’t dare?”
Qian Lei snorted, “Let us see who will get into Shrek Academy, then. Let me tell you this, I’m a man who rejected Shrek Academy’s special recruitment!”
Qian Lei: “What me? Have you ever seen a summoning-type Soul Master like me? My strength might not be that great, but my Martial Soul is unique! What’s Shrek Academy’s motto again? Shrek only accepts monsters, not ordinary people. Aren’t I a monster? Can you summon a living person?”
Yu Tian and Lin Donghui looked at each other with no other way to ridicule him. Among the three, only Liu Feng’s Martial Soul was relatively ordinary. It was their first time seeing Lan Xuanyu and Qian Lei’s type of Martial Souls, especially Qian Lei’s unique summoning technique. Although he did not have an ounce of fighting capabilities, the Ground Dragon soul beast that he was able to summon was relatively strong. More importantly, he was able to summon Dong Qianqiu.
Qian Lei had summoned Dong Qianqiu five times in a single day and the two could tell from the battles that they might not be able to win against the lady in a one against one battle. The lady’s cultivation was similar to theirs, but her Martial Soul and fighting techniques were all extremely powerful!
It was not impossible for Qian Lei to receive special admittance due to his unique Martial Soul.
“Then why did you reject it?” Lin Donghui asked with curiosity.
Qian Lei replied complacently: “Because I can’t bear to leave my brothers! Am I the type to abandon my brothers? Without me, what can they do? I naturally have to stay to help them.”
Yu Tian had a suspicious look on his face: “You’re really that important? Why don’t I feel that way?”
Qian Lei snorted. “That’s because you don’t understand what it means to take on the heaviest responsibility to turn the tides during the most crucial moment. Let me tell you this, Xuanyu is the core of our team, while I am the spirit.”
“Will you die from not bragging for once?” Liu Feng who had been resting by the side suddenly opened his eyes. He was unable to tolerate it any further; meditation did not mean he was able to block out the sounds around him. He was unable to take it when he heard Qian Lei bragging and spinning stories out of thin air to the extent of calling himself the team spirit.
Qian Lei glared at him, “Go back and meditate. Don’t bother us.”
Yu Tian and Lin Donghui were startled first before cracking up in laughter. They immediately understood that the reason why Qian Lei did not have the special admittance was for another reason.
Liu Feng glared at Qian Lei for a moment before continuing his meditation. He could not possibly tell outsiders that Qian Lei’s summons were, in fact, unreliable; and without Lan Xuanyu around, he was just a good-for-nothing. They could not wash their dirty linen in public!
Qian Lei knew that his bragging had been seen through and chose to sit down resentfully without uttering another word. Lin Donghui and Yu Tian also stopped talking. The entire pitch-black forest quietened down. Only an occasional cricket sound could be heard.
The sky had already darkened as night came.
Yu Tian sat further out and looked into the dark forest as his eyes started to turn lifeless. It was not exhaustion, but sitting there doing nothing felt boring.
“Yu Tian.” Lin Donghui’s voice came out.
“En?” Yu Tian turned toward him while thinking to himself, ‘Why is this taciturn person taking the initiative to talk to me? He isn’t one to start a conversation.’
Lin Donghui frowned. “I feel that something’s wrong!”
Yu Tian was startled but immediately became cautious. Lin Donghui’s Spiritual Power was much stronger than his due to the unique characteristics of his Martial Soul and was only second to Bing Tianliang in the entire Ling Tian Academy. His perception was naturally more astute.
“What’s wrong?” Yu Tian looked around cautiously and whispered.
“It’s too quiet.” Lin Donghui frowned. “I heard a few crickets and birds just now, but there’s not even the rustling of leaves anymore.”
Yu Tian immediately focused on his hearing and realized that their surroundings had indeed gone extremely quiet without a bit of sound.
Everything had become so quiet, as though they had landed in a world void of sound. And such a circumstance was impossible to happen inside the soul beast forest. There were too many animals, be it small or large, and they would definitely make a sound. Even the wind blowing and rustling of leaves would produce sounds!
“Do we call them up?” Yu Tian pointed to the others.
Lin Donghui made the decision and nodded his head.
The two immediately turned back and returned to the ground. Qian Lei was already drowsy at this point in time. Upon seeing them return, he became suspicious. “What’s going on?”
Just as he posed the question, a bizarre change occurred around them suddenly.
Large, black figures suddenly shot out from within the pitch-black forest toward them without any omen. ‘Wu wu’ sounds started to echo out in the air.
Lan Xuanyu and Bing Tianliang opened their eyes simultaneously. Yu Tian bellowed, “Enemy ambush!”
He turned abruptly and unleashed his Mo Sword. The Mo Sword strike slashed outward and clashed with the closest black figure.
With a loud ‘bang’, the black figure stopped. But as for Yu Tian, he was actually flung out from the impact of the collision.
Lan Xuanyu raised his right and immediately unleashed the golden-patterned Blue Silver Grass to grab onto Yu Tian’s waist and pull him back. At the same time, he roared, “Get down!”
Every quickly ducked down when multiple black figures resembling large tree trunks shot past them.
‘What is going on?’ Everyone was stupefied, including Lan Xuanyu.
At this time, the ‘wu wu’ sounds became even clearer. Everything around them started to distort.
The location they found to rest was a hillside due to a higher terrain that gave them a better field of view and was beneficial for observation.
But since it was still within the forest, there were many trees around. At this moment, the trees had actually pulled out from the roots and were charging toward the hillside. By the looks of it, they were actually launching an attack.
They had investigated the trees earlier and discovered that none of them were soul beasts, but ordinary trees!
“Brother Lin, unleash your fireballs in all directions and light up the battlefield,” Lan Xuanyu shouted out anxiously.
Lin Donghui did not dare delay as he released the Brilliant Sun and quickly shot out fireballs in all directions.
All the trunks that had been thrown at them were from the uprooted trees. At this moment, all the large trees were bombarded and ignited by the fireballs, lighting up the entire area.
Under the bright light, everything became clearer. All the thousand-over trees around them seemed to have come alive, with some over a hundred-meters tall and were charging toward their direction.
“What do we do?” Bing Tianliang turned toward Lan Xuanyu and asked anxiously. It was his first time facing such a situation.
Lan Xuanyu thought for a moment and suddenly thought of a possibility as his expression changed: “This is bad. It should be the work of a Tree Demon, definitely a Tree Demon. To be able to control so many trees, the only possibility is that it is a high-rank Tree Demon. I reckon that it is at least a 10,000-year one.”