ষোলোশ অধ্যায়: ভাগ্য খারাপ?

ফthe return journey, Luo Yao seemed to recall something.

"Hai Zhu, can I... ask you a question? When I was fighting the Nether Leopard, I was hidden in the shadows. How did you manage to find us?"

Having just obtained a spirit bead, Luo Yao was still quite excited. Now that she had calmed down, she immediately blurted out the question. During the battle, she had been extremely puzzled. Now that they were safe, she asked it directly.

The last person who had been able to track her movements was Lin Xiao, and she had not expected Hai Zhu to be able to do so as well. This dealt a bit of a blow to her confidence while simultaneously arousing her suspicion.

She might be somewhat shy, but that did not mean she was foolish. The similarities between the two were simply too numerous. Hai Zhu was an SS-rank power-type awakener. During the class meeting introduction, Lin Xiao had also mentioned that his admission notice stated he was an SS-rank power-type. Both of them were at level two, and both possessed exceptional marksmanship. Lin Xiao's true ability was vision enhancement, and Hai Zhu's eyesight was also remarkably sharp, always managing to spot spiritual beasts before anyone else. Now, coupled with the fact that both of them could detect her even when she used dark-attribute abilities, piling so many coincidences together made suspicion inevitable.

Hearing Luo Yao ask this, Lin Xiao felt a sudden sinking in his stomach. He hadn't thought things through during the heat of battle, and this point was genuinely difficult to explain.

Could she have figured something out?

"You're talking about that? Well, I personally happen to be quite sensitive to spiritual power fluctuations. I can accurately distinguish the different spiritual power fluctuations of various individuals. Let's just consider it a special skill of mine."

When Lin Xiao said this, he felt a twinge of guilt, but having no idea how else to explain it, he could only pull a reason out of thin air.

"Oh, is that so?"

Lin Xiao: (°口°?)

She actually believed it!

She really is adorably naive!

Actually, Luo Yao couldn't entirely be blamed. After her suspicions were aroused, she had carefully observed Lin Xiao. She could confirm that Lin Xiao's face bore no mask or any traces of disguise. Furthermore, from his physique to his voice, Hai Zhu and Lin Xiao seemed like completely different people.

Perhaps she was just overthinking things.

The three of them quickly returned to the camp. Although the others in the camp had heard the commotion of the battle to varying degrees, none of them had gotten up. This was the prior agreement of the Fierce Wolf Mercenary Group—if a team could resolve a battle on their own, there was no need to wake the others.

Lin Xiao hadn't chosen to call for reinforcements, which meant they could handle it themselves. This was also why no one came to support them during the battle.

Chen Long and Xu Gou saw the three returning and immediately came up to greet them.

"Are you alright? Judging by the commotion from your direction, it seemed pretty intense."

"A level-five dark-attribute spiritual beast, already taken care of. We got a dark-attribute spirit bead and gave it to Luo Yao since she can make good use of it."

Chen Long and Xu Gou stared at the three of them in utter shock.

A level-five spiritual beast was nothing special; they had hunted many of them. But that was a dark-attribute spiritual beast! Even if they weren't afraid of it, pinning one down and killing it was practically impossible. To think that just the three of them had managed to slay a level-five dark-attribute spiritual beast—how on earth did they pull it off?

Their gazes immediately shifted to Chou Niu. After all, they were much more familiar with Chou Niu and hoped to get a general rundown of events from him.

Chou Niu: o(′^｀)o

"Why are you looking at me? I was just coasting the whole time, didn't even get a chance to make a move."

Knowing they were curious, Lin Xiao explained, "Doesn't Luo Yao have dual light and dark attributes? It happened to counter the beast."

Though Chen Long and Xu Gou still found it somewhat incredible, they had no choice but to accept the explanation.

Lin Xiao looked at Luo Yao. "There are still a few hours left. Take this opportunity to absorb the spirit bead."

Luo Yao had been impatient for a while now. She crossed her legs and sat on the ground, beginning to absorb the newly acquired spirit bead.

Half an hour later, Luo Yao successfully absorbed the spirit bead. The moment she opened her eyes, she found Lin Xiao staring quietly right at her. The distance between them was extremely close, and a rush of crimson quickly bloomed across Luo Yao's face.

Lin Xiao's old face also flushed red—his covert spying had been caught!

"Ahem, you're awake? How are the effects of the spirit skill?"

"Very... very good. At my current level, I can summon four ghost clones that possess half of my own strength. For every level I go up from now on, I can summon one more."

Hearing this, Lin Xiao drew in a sharp breath.

That spirit skill was overpowered! When he had seen the Nether Leopard use it earlier, he assumed those clones were just empty shells, but they actually retained half of the original body's strength. At that rate, the cost-effectiveness of this spirit skill was astronomical.

That Nether Leopard really was something else—having a spirit skill like that, why did it even think about running away? If it had attacked them alongside those clones, it might have pulled off a miraculous counter-attack.

Luo Yao was exceedingly satisfied with the spirit skill. With this ability, her combat prowess had once again risen significantly.

Lin Xiao was green with envy. Why didn't he have a single offensive spirit skill yet? Who could he even reason with about this? The only thing in his possession was the Petrifying Pupil, but that was a level-seven spirit bead which he couldn't absorb at all. All the good things always belonged to others—how incredibly frustrating!

The next day, after Zi Shu and the others woke up, they inquired about the previous night's events. After all, the commotion Lin Xiao kicked up hadn't been small. Even though they hadn't gotten up, it was impossible for them not to have heard anything.

Lin Xiao didn't hide it either, simply recounting the general course of events. Upon learning that Lin Xiao had obtained a rare spiritual herb and Luo Yao had acquired a dark-attribute spirit bead, everyone was deeply astonished.

The luck of these two youngsters was truly enviable. Of course, everyone was merely envious and had no intention of demanding the spiritual herb from Lin Xiao. Lin Xiao was quite happy with this arrangement; they were all A-rank mercenaries, while he still needed the Three-Leaf Green Ganoderma to rapidly boost his own mercenary rank.

...

For some time afterward, the members of the Fierce Wolf Mercenary Group quickly reached the core area of the mystic realm. This was their destination, and upon arrival, they immediately set about executing their missions with peace of mind.

They spent a full day in the core area, slaughtering over a dozen level-five spiritual beasts and one level-six spiritual beast. They didn't encounter any real danger because Lin Xiao always managed to detect the presence of the spiritual beasts in advance, allowing them to make preparations before every battle. It was just unfortunate that their luck with drops was mediocre, yielding only two spirit beads in total.

When the members of the Fierce Wolf Mercenary Group reflected on this, they were left somewhat speechless. In the past, achieving such results upon entering a mystic realm would already be considered quite good. Since when had such a harvest made them feel like their luck was poor?

All of this seemed to have started ever since Hai Zhu joined them. This was only their second time entering the mystic realm together with Hai Zhu! If Hai Zhu ever stopped teaming up with them, they couldn't even imagine what their future days would look like.

There were still quite a few spiritual beasts left in the core area, but the members of the Fierce Wolf Mercenary Group couldn't possibly wipe them all out. After all, they would still need to come back to the mystic realm for missions in the future; if they killed everything off in one go, there would be nothing left to hunt later.

The missions they had taken on this time were essentially completed, and there was no longer any need to linger. Counting the days, it was time to head back. Once they arrived in Kyoto, there were still matters to discuss with Hai Zhu.