Chapter 112: Section 113: This Will Be a Fair Competition


    The trees here tower higher than in usual areas.


    The emerald branches and leaves stack upon each other, almost obscuring the sky.


    Zhenjin led a group of men to this place, but did not venture deep into the forest. Because he knew that a group of bat monkeys lived here.


    As soon as Zhenjin and his men set foot on the edge of the bat monkey territory, they immediately stopped.


    “Let’s begin,” Zhenjin ordered, and Bai Ya led the others, placing the bundles of dry wood they carried in several piles, just as the team was gathered in the center.


    Several people took out Starfire Stones; when the Starfire Stones collided with each other, sparks flew. The sparks first fell into the loose wood shavings and sawdust, igniting quickly. Then, the team members placed these on the piles of dry wood. As the wood burned, the flames grew stronger, and several large bonfires successfully formed.


    ...


    Zhenjin took out a paper package from his bosom and distributed it to others.


    The others approached the bonfires. While the bonfires were still small and they could get close, they quickly opened the paper packages to reveal the brown medicine powder inside.


    They sprinkled the medicine powder into the fires, and soon the smoke from the burning bonfires changed color.


    The thick smoke expanded rapidly, not entirely following the hot air upwards into the sky but settling down, enveloping the entire team and continuing to spread around.


    A sharp scream seemed to come from the distance, as if a bat monkey had detected something unusual here.


    At this moment, Zhenjin was carrying an arrow bag, from which he took an arrow.


    This arrow was specifically crafted by Mu Ban; the shaft was hollow with a hole on the side of the arrowhead and another on the shaft—it was a signal arrow.


    Zhenjin then took down the crossbow that he was carrying.


    This time he brought three sets of crossbows, two were repeating crossbows, and one was an arm-crossbow.


    Putting aside the magic crossbows, regular hand-loaded ones are generally divided into three types: arm-crossbows, kick-crossbows, and waist-crossbows.


    As the name suggests, arm-crossbows are powered by the arms to pull open the bowstring.


    Kick-crossbows use the legs to draw the crossbow.


    Waist-crossbows have hooks at the waist and require the crossbowman to sit on the ground when drawing, with feet pressed against the crossbow stock and waist hooks grabbing both ends of the bowstring. When drawing the crossbow, the crossbowman has to use the strength of his legs, straighten them as much as possible, and simultaneously lean back to cooperate with his fingers and arms to draw the crossbow.


    The strength of a person’s legs often exceeds that of the arms.


    Therefore, the draw weight of waist-crossbows is greater than that of kick-crossbows, and kick-crossbows are greater than arm-crossbows.


    The waist-crossbow in Zhenjin’s hands is one of the three best-quality waist-crossbows produced by the camp.


    The waist-crossbow, set up on the ground, was taller than Zhenjin’s waist. The crossbow was also very wide, wider than Zhenjin’s body.


    However, Zhenjin’s waist did not have hooks; he simply reached out, grabbed the bowstring, and stepped on the stock with his foot.


    Then, exerting force with his arms, he pulled hard, and the waist-crossbow was strung.


    Every move he made was under the watchful eyes of the others. Seeing Zhenjin string the crossbow so effortlessly, the people around him had shining eyes, revealing excitement and admiration.


    Zhenjin placed the signal arrow on the crossbow, then lifted the waist-crossbow in one arm, as easily as though lifting a straw. Sear?h the N??eFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    This action once again provoked a wave of admiration from the crowd.


    Zhenjin then lightly triggered the crossbow, and the signal arrow shot out diagonally, not completely perpendicular to the ground.


    The signal arrow traced a parabola in the air, emitting a sharp whistle, and fell deep into the bat monkey territory.


    Bat monkeys are very sensitive to sound.


    Soon, the forest was completely agitated. A large number of bat monkeys flew into the sky, then spotted Zhenjin and his men, and immediately swooped down to attack.


    Zhenjin fired off the waist-crossbow several times, hardly ever missing, and directly killed three Black Iron Bat Monkeys.


    The remaining two Black Iron Bat Monkeys quickly hid in the forest, constantly shrieking, urging the Bronze Level bat monkeys to lead the main force in continuing to charge at the human crowd.


    As the distance closed, Bai Ya and others began to fire back with their own crossbows.


    The bat monkeys kept being hit by arrows, falling to the ground, dying on the charge.


    By the time the remaining third of the bat monkeys finally charged in front of Bai Ya and the others, they smelled the pungent smoke.


    This smell assaulted their sense of smell—no, more precisely, it was destroying their sense of smell!


    The momentum of the bat monkeys faltered, and their formation completely dispersed. Some circled in mid-air, others ran on the ground, some jumped in the bushes, always unable to charge.


    The thick smoke repelled the bat monkeys.


    This was a potion formulated by Zi Di. It had previously bought enough time for reinforcements under the attack of the Blue Dog Fox Wolf’s Demon Beast Army, arguably saving the camp.


    Now, the same scene was happening again. The bat monkeys could not rush into the smoke, while Zhenjin and his people used them as living targets for shooting practice.


    Soon, the hunt came to an end.


    All the surrounding bat monkeys had become corpses.


    Zhenjin led his men to the depths of the bat monkey territory and found that the two Black Iron Bat Monkeys previously hiding there had fled.


    Zhenjin and his companions weren’t surprised.


    Having faced off against the bat monkeys more than once before, he knew bat monkeys were too clever by nature. If the battle turned unfavorable for them, they were likely to choose to flee, especially the Black Iron Bat Monkeys.


    Aside from shooting them, Zhenjin and his people had no other good way to deal with the fleeing bat monkeys.


    They didn’t completely overpower the beasts but instead used the clever tactic of the smoke trick.


    While Zhenjin was cleaning the battlefield, on a hillside,


    Sanda was running desperately, escaping from a cave.


    Behind him, a Monkey-tailed Brown Bear relentlessly pursued.


    Don’t be deceived by the bear’s bulky frame; when it charges, it’s very fast. At the same level of existence, the bear’s speed is almost twice that of a human’s.


    Sanda was merely at the Bronze Level, while the Monkey-tailed Brown Bear was a Silver Magical Beast.


    The distance between them rapidly closed, and just as the goblin Sanda was about to be caught, the ground under the Monkey-tailed Brown Bear collapsed.


    The Monkey-tailed Brown Bear suddenly fell into a trap.


    The pit was deep, and inside, sharp wooden long spears stood erect.


    After the Monkey-tailed Brown Bear fell in, it let out an angry roar.


    Most of the wooden spears could not cause it any serious injuries; many broke under the strain after piercing through the bear’s hide.


    The Monkey-tailed Brown Bear lifted its head, only to see a group of people appear beside the trap.


    “Good job, Sanda,” Zong Ge praised.


    Sanda wiped the sweat from his forehead, panting heavily and unusually speechless. He was still shaken, having felt the breath of death moments before.


    Of course, the trap had been laboriously dug by Zong Ge and others; the trap was so deep that even if the Monkey-tailed Brown Bear stood up, it couldn’t reach half the depth of the pit. Moreover, the walls of the trap were made as vertical and smooth as possible.


    “Fire,” Zong Ge signaled, and the surrounding team members all took out their crossbows and shot at the Monkey-tailed Brown Bear.


    For a moment, the Monkey-tailed Brown Bear was like caught in a downpour of arrows.


    The Monkey-tailed Brown Bear, being a Silver Magical Beast, was furious after being bombarded by a barrage of arrows. Its palms started to change, sharpening as if its fingertips were forged from Black Iron, glowing red hot as though just removed from a furnace.


    Using its fiery red fingertips to dig into the wall and pushing forcefully with its legs, the Monkey-tailed Brown Bear rapidly climbed up the inner wall of the pit.


    However, just as it was about to emerge from the edge of the trap, a massive white Bone Hammer slammed forcibly onto its head!


    The thud of the impact made the hearts of those around quiver.


    Struck by the tremendous force, the Monkey-tailed Brown Bear fell back to the bottom of the pit.


    It shook its head to clear the dizziness, then stood up to battle again, furiously roaring at the culprit, Zong Ge.


    It was met with another flurry of arrows.


    Thus, the Monkey-tailed Brown Bear repeatedly tried to climb out of the trap, only to be knocked down again by Zong Ge, falling to the bottom.


    In an endless loop of frustration and resentment, the Silver Magical Beast lay dead in its own pool of blood.


    As the last rays of the sunset lit the sky, Zhenjin and his people were the first to return to camp.


    They brought back a large number of bat monkey corpses; their primary goal today had been to clear out the bat monkeys.


    There were over a dozen Black Iron Bat Monkeys, two or three of which died dismembered by Zhenjin’s thin sword.


    Thick smoke wasn’t all that threatening to Black Iron Bat Monkeys, at least not enough to stop them from charging into it to kill a human in a furious rage.


    However, those Black Iron Bat Monkeys who tried this all died at the hands of Zhenjin.


    This proved how unpredictable the nature of the beast can be.


    Zhenjin’s triumph incited cheers throughout the camp.


    While Zhenjin and others were having dinner, Zong Ge’s team also returned.


    Xi Suo was guarding the camp gate and stopped them.


    After reporting to Zhenjin and receiving his approval, Zong Ge’s team was allowed to enter the camp.


    They brought back the corpses of three Monkey-tailed Brown Bears!


    The people in the camp were greatly shocked.


    After all, these were three Silver Level Magic Beasts.


    When Zong Ge took out the Bone Hammer from behind to have it repaired by Mu Ban, everyone’s eyes widened a bit, noticing that the wooden handle had snapped off from being overly exerted.


    Zong Ge’s bravery was startling.


    Zong Ge glanced around and paused when his eyes landed on Zhenjin by the distant bonfire, then asked Mu Ban, “Can it be fixed?”


    Mu Ban rolled his eyes and put down the bowl he was holding, “With this damage, fixing’s a thankless task. It would be better to craft a new handle. This is only the first day. With the way you’re using it, unless the handle’s made of iron…”


    Zong Ge shook his head, “I’ll make do with it for now. Iron should be reserved for making arrowheads. Wooden arrowheads are useless, and Bone Arrowheads are hardly effective.”


    That’s when Zi Di came over, “While my potions can dissolve and refine iron, the consumption is significant. Only with a large amount of iron ore can we make enough iron arrowheads. Maybe, Zong Ge, you could lead a mining expedition.”


    Zong Ge shook his head, uninterested in mining.


    But at that moment, Zi Di handed him a list.


    Zong Ge glanced at the list, his expression changing slightly, “One Silver Monkey-tailed Brown Bear can be exchanged for ten sets of Repeating Crossbows, or two sets of Waist-crossbows, or twenty sets of newly made Arm-crossbows. What kind of pricing is this? Just for some crossbows, we need to trade?”


    “We’re not an army after all, Zong Ge,” Zi Di smiled, “I think it’s fair.”


    Zong Ge was about to scoff when Zhenjin approached, the young knight said, “I swear on my honor, I also exchange according to the rules. This is fair competition.”


    Zong Ge looked at the Waist-crossbow on his back, “Holy Temple Knight, what did you exchange for that crossbow? Today’s bat monkeys? The list doesn’t say anything about buying on credit.”


    Zhenjin shrugged, “Of course, it was for my previous victories. Don’t forget, I killed a Blue Dog Fox Wolf.”


    Zong Ge raised his eyebrows; he remembered the Crocodile Head Hammer Tail Boa he had killed.


    But Zi Di spoke again, “Your victories have already been exchanged for, Zong Ge, don’t forget, those crossbows you took from the camp earlier.”


    Zong Ge and his people: …