27 Chapter 26

Looking at each other, the rest of the orcs turned their body and ran.

"Eh?"

Watching the unexpected scene, Zuyuan froze in a second before furrowing his eyebrows. "None of you will escape."

As he was about to give chase, a rock flew towards him at an unprecedented speed. Retinas constricting a little, he forced his feet to take a step back as the rock grazed his cheek and made it bleed. Moving his gaze to track the trajectory, he saw a faint figure hundreds of meters away. The figure hid half of their body in the tree and wore an overcoat hood, but he could still see the green skin and a slingshot in their right hand.

As he contemplated if he should attack the figure, it quickly scurried away.

"Wait!" Shouting, he took a few steps to pursue, but then realized something. Stopping in his track, he turned his head to where the orc warriors ran to and disappeared. Looking at where the other enemy was, he saw no one in there as well.

Shaking his head, he sighed to himself, "Isn't this the oldest trick in the book… run and decoy.."

'No matter. I should focus on the task in hand.' Raising his head, he saw the canopy of the trees and squinted his eyes. 'First.. A sense of direction to go.'

Bending his knees slightly and storing back Estgard, he flowed the Qigong in his foot tendons and jumped. Stepping into the trunk, he kicked it and flew towards another tree's trunk and kicked it again. In no time, he almost reached one of the tree's branches.

*Kriaaahhhkkk*

A shriek came out from his right as one of the bird-like little girls from before spread both of its claws and pointed it at Zuyuan.

"Tsk." Clicking his tongue, he stepped into another tree and altered his aim position. Summoning Estgard in his right hand, Zuyuan took a stance as he leaped towards the bird.

Noticing that the sword had a better range than its claws, it tried to curve its body midair as to avoid Zuyuan's stab. Flicking his wrist, two phantom swords followed up and pierced the bird right when it turned its body.

*AaahhhKkk*

Screaming at the top of its lungs, it fell down to the ground while continuing to shriek in its dying moment.

Wrinkling his eyebrows, Zuyuan thought nothing of it and kept on climbing. After a few seconds, he arrived at the top. Squinting his eyes to the east, all he could see was a sea of trees. In the north, a gigantic tree that pierced the clouds stood while a lot of flying figures surrounded its branches. In the South, a massive river flowed to the west.

'Should I check out that big tree?' Putting his finger to his chin, he was about to try to travel there by jumping from tree to tree. But then, more shrieks came from below.

'There's more of those bird-like things?' Realizing more than dozens of the birds flew at him, he gripped the Estgard sword once more and took a stance. His feet wide apart as his knees slightly bent. Sword pointed downwards over the arm held the end of the hilt while crossed over the other hand that held the top of the hilt. The hilt was raised past the head as the blade was nearly parallel to the shoulders but with a downward tip.

The face of every bird seemed like innocent girls back when he saw them giggling together. But this time, their visage was hideous with rows of fangs from their outstretched mouth. Their eyes changed into a slit, with their faces showing an angry expression.

Leaping into their midst, Zuyuan grabbed hold onto one of the branches and said, "Phantom's Sword."

Four transparent doppelgangers materialized on both of his sides. As if connected with his mind, the doppelgangers acted immediately. They jumped and started to attack the birds. Their form moved at an unnatural speed while each of them slashed the enemies one by one.

*Aaarrrhkkk!!*

Scattering, the rest of them figured it was best to attack Zuyuan directly. Some tried to buy time by flying around each of the doppelgangers.

"Oh?" Smiling at the unexpected decision of the monsters, Zuyuan said, "But my doppelgangers won't be that easy you know."

In the next moment, all the bird-like creatures were slain by the doppelgangers and they moved to chase the rest.

"Khraaa!" "Raaakhhh!"

Some tried to escape after watching their brethren fall down in just short moments. Standing on one of the branches, he sighed at the retreating figures of the birds and murmured, "What are they anyways?"

"Ah right, I could ask XB11 for that. It's been a while and I haven't summoned him yet."

Waving his hand, his doppelgangers dispersed into thin air and lights gathered in front of him to shape a humanoid form. Stepping out from the lights, XB11 said, "XB11 at your service, Master."

Nodding, Zuyuan said, "I would need your help to scout the area. And ah! Would you tell me what's that?"

Following where Zuyuan pointed to, XB11 replied, "Oh, they are harpies, Master. Monsters that inhabited the deep jungle and have a close relationship with the goblins."

"The goblins?" Piqued, he stared at the direction where the harpies had gone and said, "I guess we know where to go then."

"Master was looking for the goblins?" Asked XB11 as it noticed its master's interest.

"Yep."

Before they could continue their conversation, the branches where they stepped on were shaking. Alarmed, both of them looked around to seek the reason for the tremor. In the distance, a group of giant elephants walked to the north. Each of their steps trembled the earth as they flocked in groups and moved in unison.

"They were heading to the giant tree." Smiling, Zuyuan said," Perhaps we have found our mounts for now."