By the evening, the group of three (Alina, Allen, and Lin Xue) exited the Imperial city on rental horses and made their way to the Bloodhill forest.
They reached the forest by dark but didn't stop and rest. Instead, they pushed their way until they reach Sector-6 where 4-circle realm beasts are common. Then, they set up a camp.
However, to Lin Xue's surprise, Alina started a campfire as the other two set up the tents.
"What the hell, Alina… you don't set up a fire in the dark. Didn't you ever come to the forest?" said Lin Xue as she raised her voice in surprise before realizing that she spoke out before thinking. It is indeed foolish to set up a fire in a place where beasts lurk in the dark while their vision will be limited.
But then again, she is here to impress the lady so that her path to gaining Allen's love becomes easier. Instead, she scolded her.
Fortunately for her, before Alina argued back, Allen replied in a soft tone, "Sister Xue, my younger sister is actually laying a trap for the beasts. Instead of searching for them in darkness, she is inviting them to the fire so that it becomes easier for her to hunt them and save enough time."
"Ah, I see…" Lin Xue nodded in realization. She was a person with high pride. So, she wouldn't usually go her way to apologize to anyone including Mark. But, to Alina whom she wasn't even acquainted much, Lin Xue bowed slightly with an awkward smile, "Sorry, I didn't think of that… I guess I overreacted…"
Alina wiped off the frown on her face and calmly nodded, "alright. Just focus on protecting yourselves. I will take care of the rest."
She didn't pursue the matter because of Allen as Lin Xue is friends with him and he trusts her very much.
The night passed away without anyone getting sleep due to the continuous attacks from various beasts. At the very least, Alina's plan was successful. By the morning, she had more than sixty corpses in her platinum-grade storage ring and they resumed their journey deep into the forest without taking any rest.
Being androids, neither Allen nor Alina needs any sleep. Hence, they looked fresh as always. On the other hand, Lin Xue appeared to be quite tired as she helped out Alina in killing the beasts throughout the night.
By noon, they successfully crossed Sector 5 and entered Sector 4, where the sightings of wolves of different types are common. Each pack of wolves serves under a werewolf, which could even hunt down Exalt realm experts. Hence, if they weren't careful, they can say goodbye to this world.
Then, why did Alina come here? It's not like people prefer the meat of wolves or werewolves.
It's because of a certain species known as the wandering armored cow. Their meat is often considered a delicacy in Phoenix Empire and is so expensive that only wealthy individuals could afford them. The price of 1 catty of this beef (0.6kg), depending on its cut, will range anywhere between 100 gold coins to 10,000 gold coins.
While these herbivores don't like to kill any animals or humans, they were quite difficult to hunt due to three reasons.
One, they were fierce grade beasts and possess a thick coat of armor around their skin. It's damn tough to even pierce their body and kill them.
Two, they were known to be fewer in number; each one wanders alone and didn't have any particular habitat to settle down. With sector 4 isn't any small in size, it is difficult to spot them.
And even if one has the capability to spot them and kill them, the third reason will only make the job more difficult. The wandering armored cow has the ability of stealth and they were pretty agile despite the fact that an average beast (matured one) weighs over 10,000 kilograms.
Unfortunately for those beasts and fortunately for Lin Xue, both Allen and Alina were androids and have the ability to scan around to spot the beasts. Their infrared vision will also render their stealth ability useless unless the targets were stronger than them. Allen might not be able to spot them but they couldn't escape Alina who was a rank-6 Android.
It didn't take long for them to spot a wandering armored cow. Using the Protos daggers, Alina easily took care of the beast and hunt it down by herself.
As for the other two, they were on standby to keep an eye on the surroundings as one wouldn't know how they will be attacked by other predators like snakes, carnivorous spirit trees, wolves, etc…
Once she was done with her battle, Alina stored the beast in her platinum-grade storage ring and proceeded to hunt down the second one and then the third one.
After that, she stopped her hunt and the group started returning to the lower sectors.
Lin Xue had earlier fought with a pack of wolves when Alina was hunting down the third cow.
Her stamina was quite low at the moment. She wanted to lie down and rest but didn't do it as she doesn't have any interest to appear weak in Alina's eyes of all the people.
But then, as if the god of misfortune decided to take a liking to her, they were marked by not just one but two werewolves and both of the androids sensed their presence far behind them. Allen informed Lin Xue.
"What should we do?" asked Lin Xue in a bit of worry. If it is one werewolf, it would be fine. But, two of them would be quite a bit of a challenge for the three of them. So, it is best to make a run. Or so she thought.
Contrary to her expectations, Alina didn't have much of a reaction to Allen's warning. She calmly said without changing the pace of her walk, "As long as the both of you handle one of them until I finish the other one, we'll be fine. Nothing to worry about, Lady Lin."
"Ah, Is that so?" Lin Xue was slightly taken aback at first, but then after remembering how this woman fought one on one with Supreme Commander Bai Xun and how Allen had a divine-grade weapon of the light attribute, she became a lot calmer.
Taking a deep breath, she summoned her semi-divine-grade lightning sword and tightly grabbed it. She was ready to battle with everything she has.
Within a couple of minutes, the two werewolves in their humanoid transformations caught up with the group of intruders and one of them directly attacked them without initiating any dialogue.
As the male werewolf tried to attack Allen with his claws, Lin Xue stepped forward and blocked his claws with her lightning sword.
But, the force behind his claws appeared to be superior. She was pushed back. Allen quickly grabbed her waist from behind and took a giant leap to the side, separating from Alina.
The male werewolf's eyes were fixed on Allen. He let out a powerful growl and charged toward him.
On the other hand, the female werewolf stared at Alina, who was staring back at her.
Unlike her partner, the female werewolf didn't mindlessly attack her enemy and instead questioned her with a frown, "You don't smell like a human. What are you?"
In response, Alina summoned a scythe and brandished it like a whip, "I will be your death unless you turn around and disappear from my sight within ten breaths."