Chapter 22

Faced with the Bloodshadow’s challenge, the killing intent in Luan Tooth’s gaze grew even more intense. She then looked at Captain Lei.

Captain Lei’s expression was just like usual, and he spoke up calmly.

“Cross.”

Hearing that, Cross picked up his bow without saying a word, instantly drawing it and shooting an arrow toward the air.

He was so fast that a sharp sound was created, and the arrow instantly pierced through the eagle circling in the air like a bolt of lightning.

As a result, blood burst out and the eagle let out an agonizing cry, falling. With a bang, it landed on the ground between the two groups.

At the same time, the body of someone in the Bloodshadow Team shook tremendously, and he spurted out a mouthful of blood. His countenance instantly turned extremely pale.

That was his eagle. Unlike the dogs that Luan Tooth kept, he had integrated his spirit energy into this eagle to control it. Hence, because of the backlash effect, he received a severe injury.

The other people in the Bloodshadow Team instantly sent out strong killing intent, but they were stopped by the Bloodshadow Team Captain. The latter slowly stood up from the dog’s corpse and stared at Captain Lei instead of looking at Luan Tooth.

Captain Lei also looked at him coldly.

The two of them stared at each other for a very long time before both let out cold snorts.

“Let’s go.” Captain Lei said calmly and continued walking forward. Luan Tooth and the others followed behind him. Xu Qing was amongst them too.

He felt the great hostility between the two teams and thus turned back to take a look at those people from the Bloodshadow Team. He could tell that they were waiting for Horse-Four and Fat Mountain, but it was a pity that the two of them would never appear again.

1

Xu Qing withdrew his gaze silently and followed Captain Lei and the others, gradually leaving the campsite.

The forbidden zone didn’t seem far from the campsite, but it was still a bit of a distance to go there on foot.

The group then walked for over an hour before they saw the pitch-black jungle from afar.

From the outside, this stretch of forbidden zone jungle seemed to stretch on endlessly, and it was unknown how wide an area it covered.

It was now late in the morning, and the sun was very strong. However, the jungle in the forbidden zone seemed to be a different world compared to the outside world.

They could see a tempest gathering in the sky above the end of the jungle. The many bolts of lightning that could be seen by the naked eye were especially dazzling, giving the entire forbidden zone a mysterious and dangerous feeling.

Xu Qing observed everything and quietly followed the group. On the way, no one in the Thunder Team said a word. However, as they got closer and closer to the forbidden zone, Xu Qing sharply noticed that everyone’s muscles were gradually tensed up. It was the same for him.

This continued until the feeling of having stepped into a cold world appeared on Xu Qing’s body, and all the warmth on his body was instantly removed. He had entered the forbidden zone.

It felt as if all the scenes he saw in the normal world had been wiped out as well.

The familiar bone-piercing chill awoke his memories of being in the abandoned city ruins and under the blood rain.

Therefore, he took a deep breath and became extremely vigilant. He instinctively grabbed onto his iron stick tightly, just like he had done back in the ruins.

What was different was that there were a lot of crumbling walls and ruined curbs in the city but here…

The trees were warped so badly that they looked like vicious ghosts, and the muddy ground was so loose that they seemed to be from hell. Also, the branches and leaves of the trees permeated out like claws and teeth covering up the sky.

However, the Thunder Team’s members seemed to be very familiar with this place.

They carried their weapons on their back, and the path they took was clearly one they had often taken, with each step taken very meticulously. Some places seemed normal, but they would jump past them, and there were places that seemed dangerous, but they just walked through them.

There were also areas from which they made a detour for no reason. This continued on and they avoided all the dangers on the way.

Xu Qing followed behind them and paid attention to remember all the details.

However, he also noticed some strange things. Captain Lei didn’t take the lead for the entire journey. Sometimes, it’d be Barbaric Ghost and sometimes it’d be Luan Tooth. They went in rotations.

Although they didn’t progress at a very fast pace, other than them hearing some ferocious beasts’ roars in the far distance, it had been quite safe.

There were some venomous bugs, but they didn’t get close after Luan Tooth had lit an incense.

After they walked for about two hours without saying a word, they finally stopped beside a muddy place with silt and let out a sigh of relief.

Xu Qing noticed that Luan Tooth had taken out some medicinal powder and scattered it into the mud. Very soon, a bunch of hostile venomous bugs came out. However, Luan Tooth kept a normal expression as she swung her hand, scattering out another type of powder. After that, the venomous bugs quickly scattered off restlessly, and the muddy spot calmed down

After completing all these, everyone squatted down and scooped up the silt with great familiarity, covering it all over their bodies.

“Did you remember the details on the way here?” Captain Lei gestured for Xu Qing to do the same while he was spreading the silt onto his body.

Xu Qing nodded and started doing the same without any hesitation. At the same time, his gaze swept past Luan Tooth. He felt that she seemed to know a little about poison techniques.

“The reason we jumped across certain places was because the leaves looked seriously decomposed yet were intact. This means that no ferocious beasts passed by them, and there are unknown factors that exist.

“The areas we crossed through were because there were ferocious beasts’ feces on the ground. Living creatures instinctively choose safe areas for excretion. Therefore, it means that there aren’t any excessive dangers or mud swamps that devour humans.

“As for the areas we made a detour from, it’s because of Barbaric Ghost’s nose. His nose is sharp and can smell the scent of some dangerous mutated beasts. You’ll learn many things on this journey, so just try to remember whatever you can.”

Hearing this, Xu Qing looked at Barbaric Ghost. Barbaric Ghost also turned his head at this moment and bared his teeth to smile at Xu Qing.

“As for this silt, it’s a place that our team found many years ago. It contains the shedded skin of night lizards. Not only will we be able to cover our scents after wiping them all over our bodies, but it’ll also instill fear in other creatures to a certain degree.

“The place we’re headed to is further forward. To the north is the Venomous Dragon Swamp. The different terrains in the forbidden zone jungle have been segregated into multiple areas by the scavengers.

“The Venomous Dragon Swamp is one of them, but this time around, we aren’t going there.” As Captain Lei said all these, he had covered his entire body with the silt.