Chapter 85: Section 86: Mysterious Gang
Chirping birds echoed in the early morning forest.
As Zhenjin and the others approached, a flock of birds fluttered their wings in panic and flew out of the branches.
Perhaps because it was near the desert, there was no morning mist, and the sunlight sprinkled through the green trees, filling the air with a fresh scent.
Zhenjin still led the way at the front.
Although it did not show on the outside, his coccyx, together with his buttocks, still felt a bit numb and sore.
His body was very healthy; the wounds he got in the desert had healed long before entering the forest.
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As for Bai Ya, a regular person, the fractures had only started to show signs of healing and, up to now, she was unable to draw her bow.
“It seems that yesterday’s training volume was a bit too much,” Zhenjin mulled to himself.
He knew that the numbness and soreness were due to last night’s training with the lizard tail lash.
After Zhenjin reverted to human form, even though he no longer had a tail, the injuries from using the lizard form would linger in a similar form within his body.
Just like when he was injured in human form, the wounds would not instantly heal when he transformed into another life form.
“Whipping trees and rocks with my tail doesn’t hurt me. After all, I transform into a Black Iron Level lizard.”
“It looks like there’s a real problem with the way I exert force with the lizard tail.”
“When practicing the tail lash, I ended up injuring myself.”
“If it weren’t for my strong recovery ability, I’d probably even be walking with a limp by now.”
Zhenjin sighed inwardly.
After entering the forest, it wasn’t very convenient to practice late at night.
Previously in the desert, the exploration team had arranged for one person to keep watch at night.
Now, with two people on watch simultaneously, Zhenjin couldn’t stray too far from the camp for too long. Being away too long would worry his companions, who would start to search for him, leading to even greater trouble.
Zhenjin could transform into the Silver Spear Scorpion and could also become a complete Fat Ball Flying Fish. But last night, he only managed to train his green lizard form; there was simply no time to practice the other two forms.
“I’m already quite familiar with the Silver Spear Scorpion form,” he thought.
“As for the Fat Ball Flying Fish…” Zhenjin had secretly transformed into one back in the desert and found the form to be impractical.
The Fat Ball Flying Fish’s strongest attack was to shoot out pitch-black, extremely poisonous spines.
But this form of attack hinged on the Fat Ball Flying Fish’s self-destruction.
It was a kamikaze method.
Sometimes, the Fat Ball Flying Fish died so abruptly, they didn’t even have the chance to explode.
For Zhenjin to employ this method was tantamount to seeking an elaborate death.
Beyond that, the Fat Ball Flying Fish could become invisible.
But after his mutation, Zhenjin discovered that while the invisibility was unseen to the human eye, when the Fat Ball Flying Fish moved forward floating, it would open its mouth and make a croaking sound. If Zhenjin kept his mouth shut and didn’t make the croaking sound, he couldn’t exchange air with the outside environment and thus couldn’t float swiftly in the air.
The croaking sound significantly undermined the value of becoming invisible.
Knowing all this, Zhenjin was rather reluctant to train his Fat Ball Flying Fish form.
After some thought, he felt that the most practical form was still the green lizard form.
The green lizard’s eyes had brought him tremendous help.
And the green lizard’s acid spray could be described as the strongest long-range attack that Zhenjin currently mastered. The power of the acid was much greater than that of wooden darts, and their range was not too dissimilar. Zhenjin was particularly skilled at precision, which, combined with the acid, made for an extremely powerful attack.
The green lizard form, being only of Black Iron Level, was actually an advantage.
The Silver Level form of the Silver Spear Scorpion consumed a significant amount of demon energy from the Heart Core. By comparison, the Black Iron green lizard consumed much less, allowing Zhenjin more time to battle and practice this form.
The Black Iron green lizard would be used as a standard fighting method, and the Silver Spear Scorpion, of Silver Level, would be reserved for facing powerful enemies as a trump card.
This was Zhenjin’s plan.
He didn’t initially think like this.
After truly gaining control over the Heart Core, his feelings towards it included not only curiosity, exploration, and astonishment but also apprehension, defensiveness, and caution.
He hadn’t planned on frequently using the Demon Core inside his heart, but after the encounter with the Fat Ball Flying Fish at the Oasis, Zhenjin’s thoughts changed.
“If I didn’t have the eyes of the green lizard, I would not have been able to detect the Fat Ball Flying Fish.”
“I myself would be in great jeopardy, and Zi Di, Cang Xu, and the others would hardly survive!”
“On this island, anything could happen, and danger might strike any moment.” S~ea??h the ηovёlFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
“I clearly have a Heart Core that can absorb Bloodlines to master some ability to cope with such dangers, but choosing to be overly cautious and not preparing in advance means when a crisis arrives, I can only wait for death. Wouldn’t that make me terribly foolish?”
With these thoughts, Zhenjin decided, for his own sake and that of Zi Di and the others, to grit his teeth and use the Heart Core to prepare as much as possible.
It is only by preparing in advance that one can avoid trouble before it arises.
The complete form of the Fat Ball Flying Fish was the result of this line of thinking—back at the Oasis, Zhenjin had secretly killed many Fat Ball Flying Fish behind the backs of the others, collecting their complete Bloodline, allowing him to transform into a Black Iron Level demon fish.
“Hmm? Hold on a moment,” Zhenjin, who was walking, suddenly glanced at something unusual and stopped in his tracks.
The others immediately tensed up.
Since entering the forest, Zhenjin had never stopped moving of his own accord before. Could it be he sensed a huge threat nearby?
Zhenjin slowly walked toward his left front, and after twelve or so steps, he stopped under a tree.
He placed his hand on the bark, which had lost a small piece, as if it was cut by a sharp tool.
Zhenjin looked around and quickly found more subtle traces.
Then, his gaze paused as if he had discovered something.
He delved into the dense underbrush and bent down to pick up a silver-colored Armor Plate.
Other people came over, and Cang Xu looked at the Armor Plate in Zhenjin’s hand, surprised, “This is a part of armor. The material quality is high, it’s high-grade refined steel.”
Zhenjin nodded slightly and continued to search the surroundings.
Various footprints of different depths, residual bloodstains, fallen trees scattered all around, the soil exposed after the turf was completely removed… More and more traces were found by him, but Zhenjin was unable to simulate the battle scene.
“There definitely was a fierce battle here.”
“The surviving side deliberately cleaned the battlefield, making it impossible for me to make more judgments.”
Zi Di blinked her beautiful eyes, “Does that mean, there are people nearby?”
Bai Ya then asked, “And what are they fighting against?”
Zhenjin frowned, speaking with less certainty, “It seems to be a kind of giant beast, larger than the Explosive Hoof Fierce Horse, quite heavy. Its primary mode of attack seems to be using its head to ram.”
“It must be the humans who won. Magic Beasts wouldn’t bother to clean up a battlefield.”
Zhenjin made a judgment, albeit reluctantly.
“Are you sure it was humans?” Zi Di inquired further.
Zhenjin shook his head, “I can only tell they are humanoid, but since they were able to clean up the battlefield, and do it so well, it shows that they must have high-grade intelligence. Having the strength to clear traces after an intense fight shows that this group of people is not to be underestimated.”
Cang Xu squatted on the ground, his fingers touching a footprint, “This battle happened several days ago. What I’m more curious about is why they would clean the battlefield, remove these traces?”
This question from Cang Xu was also what Zhenjin was worried about.
Zhenjin and his companions rarely cleaned up after a Magic Beast attack. At most, they would clean up the blood to prevent the scent from attracting other predators.
But this group not only cleaned the battlefield but did so very meticulously.
This was not logical.
To clean up a battlefield to such an extent would be a loss. Because it would consume a lot of time and physical strength, in the process of survival on a deserted island, every resource, every bit of energy needed to be conserved.
Even if these traces were left behind, the predators in the forest were dim-witted and would not benefit from the battlefield traces.
But this group did it anyway.
What were they guarding against?
Who were they? Were they crew members of Pig Kiss, or…the island’s inhabitants?
Zhenjin looked into the distance, his eyes slightly unfocused due to thought.
An unexpected situation had arisen.
Now, he had two choices before him.
The first choice was to continue with their original plan, to reach the location where Cang Xu and the others had entered the forest earlier. This way, they could verify and fill out the map.
The second choice was to abandon this plan and follow these traces, approaching the mysterious group that had suddenly appeared.
There were many risks involved.
The fighting strength of the mysterious group was unknown, but presumably not weak. Their numbers, race, and intentions were also unknown.
Everyone was silent, some continued to observe the traces, while others were alert to their surroundings.
They were all waiting for Zhenjin’s decision.
Without taking too much time to think, Zhenjin quickly made a decision, “Abandon the previous plan, we will follow these traces. Remember to be cautious.”
“Understood,” Bai Ya responded.
“Yes, Master,” Lan Zao stated succinctly.
Cang Xu and Zi Di both nodded, no one raised any objections.
The five-person exploration team thus changed their direction, no longer walking along the boundary between the forest and the desert, but heading deeper into the forest.
Two hours later, a river appeared in front of everyone.
Zhenjin gazed at the rippling water and sighed.
Here, the clues had broken off.
He had originally been tracking according to the traces, but the group had been cleaning up their tracks along the way.
With their experienced and cunning methods, and several days having passed, Zhenjin had struggled to barely make out their previous route.
But at the riverbank, the traces left by the mysterious group were completely erased by the water.
“The river flows very slowly, and the riverbed is very low, only reaching an adult’s knee. They crossed the river here, but didn’t directly go to the opposite shore. We have no idea whether they followed the flow or went upstream, at what point they might have landed.”
“However, this also means that this river is not very dangerous.”
Zhenjin squinted his eyes, mutated into lizard eyes, and saw that there wasn’t much life in the river water, at most some small fish and shrimp.
“Let’s keep moving.” After thinking for a moment, Zhenjin led the team across the river to the other bank.
With no traces to follow, Zhenjin walked in the direction Cang Xu had estimated, aiming for the beach where Pig Kiss had run aground.
About a quarter of an hour later, Zhenjin was the first to hear a noisy and piercing sound.
As they got closer, the party of five unexpectedly discovered a camp in the middle of the forest.
The camp was encircled by a row of stakes, not very big in area, but surprisingly there was even a wooden hall built in the center. There were two Arrow Towers in the camp, one completed and the other just taking shape.
A horde of beasts was rampaging through the camp, and the people inside had retreated to the huddle in the central wooden hall, in a dire situation.