Xia Yan arrived at a clear stream not far from here and looked at the incredibly clear water source. He felt a bit reluctant to jump in and contaminate the water. However, due to the unpleasant smell on his body, he decided to take off his clothes and jump into the stream to wash off the black mud.
After washing off all the black mud from his body, a refreshing feeling he had never experienced before emerged, in other words, it was the refreshing feeling of a yuppie.
At the same time, Xia Yan also noticed that his senses seemed to have been enhanced.
Not only could he hear many small sounds in the forest with his ears, but his nose could also smell the fragrance of fruits and flowers in the air.
Then he noticed that there was a fish swimming in the stream. Although the fish was not big, he now felt like eating grilled fish.
So he tried to reach out and grab it, but as soon as his hand reached out, it startled the fish and made it run away.
However, even so, he was not willing to give up because he found that the movement trajectory of the fish in his eyes was extremely slow, which gave him full confidence that he could catch the fish bare-handedly.
He held his breath and stared attentively at the fish's movements until it calmed down for a split second. Then he swiftly reached out and caught the fish like lightning.
Unfortunately, the fish struggled in his hand and he accidentally dropped it back into the water, and it quickly vanished in a cloud of smoke.
...
"It seems that I won't be able to have grilled fish..." Xia Yan shrugged with some helplessness.
Returning to the shore, Xia Yan, who had finished bathing and wearing clothes, was ready to return to the territory of Manling. But at this moment, he caught a hint of a peculiar smell in the air.
That was... the smell of blood.
Out of curiosity, he didn't hurry back to the territory of Manling, but followed the scent of blood to a hidden thicket. In front of the thicket, there lay a severely wounded and dying swordtooth tiger monster.
And this swordtooth tiger monster was the same one that had chased the human into the territory of Manling before. However, it seemed that it was almost done for now.
At this moment, footsteps could be heard not far away, followed by the appearance of four humans in Xia Yan's sight.
Among them was the person who had previously rushed into Manling's territory in panic and was scared off by Manling.
"It's actually him!" Xia Yan was very surprised to see him.
...
The four people walking towards the swordtooth tiger monster were adventurers who had ventured into the Baiye Forest from the outside world. Their names were Leon, Stryde, Jamiel... and the person Xia Yan had seen before, Rand, who was also the captain of this adventurer team.
"Darn swordtooth tiger! It almost killed me back then! Now it's finally my turn for revenge!" Rand approached the dying swordtooth tiger with a triumphant look on his face. He was chased by this damn monster for a long time before, and it even made him flee into the territory of that terrifying tree spirit, almost draining him dry!
Now he finally reunited with his companions who were separated in the forest, and they set up an ambush for this damned monster, severely injuring it.
And now, it was time to kill this monster.
Rand raised his long sword and aimed it at the head of the swordtooth tiger. The swordtooth tiger lying on the ground looked at the humans in front of it with hatred, but eventually could only weakly close its eyes.
As the sword swung down, blood splattered onto the nearby ground... and the head of the swordtooth tiger rolled off.
Watching this scene from the hiding place in the thicket, Xia Yan couldn't help but feel a bit nauseous. Although he had long been accustomed to seeing Manling killing monsters, Manling always pierced the monsters' heads in one strike, without causing any pain to the creatures.
How could it be like this, tormenting the monster to the point of near-death and then cutting off its head?
"Forget it, I'd better slip away... It doesn't feel good to stay here any longer." Xia Yan gritted his teeth and prepared to quietly retreat from this place, but what he didn't expect was that one of the four people had disappeared without a trace.The adventurer in question was a thief, possessing the skill of stealth. He had noticed someone hiding behind the bushes early on and decided to sneak up on him, intending to catch the person who was spying on them.
However, to his surprise, the spy turned out to be a child!
"Kid, don't move! Otherwise, you're going to lose your head," he warned.
Just as Xia Yan was preparing to leave, a dagger suddenly appeared at his neck. He was caught off guard and couldn't understand when the other person had closed in on him. He hadn't even heard any footsteps.
"Big brother, don't hurt him. Let's talk it out!" Xia Yan immediately raised his hands in surrender. He knew very well that he couldn't possibly match up against the four adventurers.
Soon, Lande arrived with two other people. When he saw that the spy turned out to be the same foolish kid he had encountered in the tree spirit's territory before, he was astonished.
"It's you, kid? You're not dead. How did you manage to escape from the tree spirit's grasp?" Lande asked, genuinely curious.
He had personally witnessed an A-level magical beast being instantly pierced through the head by those terrifying vines and drained of all its blood. The horrifying scene had scared him enough to the point where he almost wet himself. He had turned and fled as far away as possible, swearing to never approach the tree spirit's territory again.
Then, because he was being chased by the giant tooth tiger, he unintentionally ended up in the tree spirit's territory once more and encountered this kid.
He remembered the hopeful expression on the kid's face, as if he wanted Lande to save him. However, at that time, Lande couldn't care less about saving anyone else. He was just trying to save himself. So without any hesitation, he left Xia Yan behind and ran for his life, leaving the kid to be drained by the tree spirit. That way, he would have enough time to escape...
After hearing what the other party said, Xia Yan suddenly realized that Lande didn't know that Manling wouldn't attack him. In order to maintain the secret between himself and Manling, he had to come up with an excuse. "Uh...that tree spirit seems to only be interested in stronger things. I'm just too weak, so it didn't pay any attention to me at all," he said.
Lande narrowed his eyes, trying to see through Xia Yan's lies. However, Xia Yan always had an expression of innocence, making it impossible to tell if he was telling the truth or not.
At that moment, the person holding the dagger against Xia Yan's neck pressed it closer, the sharp blade even cutting through the skin, causing blood to flow. He threatened Xia Yan, "Kid, I advise you to tell me the truth. Otherwise, I can't guarantee that your head will still be attached to your body in the next second."
Feeling the pain in his neck, death seemed imminent.
Xia Yan swallowed fearfully and tremblingly said, "I…I…I...I'm telling the truth. What benefit do I have in lying to you? Besides, you were there too. I called out to you to let you know that those vines won't attack me...I've been hiding in that area where the vines are all this time because no magical beasts dare to come close. I really don't know anything else!"
Lande stroked his chin as if deep in thought. If it was true that the tree spirit wouldn't harm this brat...could he use him to eliminate this dangerous tree spirit?
After all, if it could instantly kill an A-level magical beast, its danger level was at least above S-level, right?
S-level magical beasts were practically covered in treasures, and selling them would definitely fetch a good sum of money.
With this idea in mind, Lande commanded the person named Leon, who had been holding the dagger against Xia Yan's neck, "Leon, let go of this kid first. Let him lead the way to the tree spirit's territory. I want to see if what he said is true."
After the command, Leon released the dagger from Xia Yan's neck, relieving the tension. It seemed that he wouldn't be killed for the time being. However, the fact that these guys wanted him to lead them to Manling's territory ironically worked to his advantage."Alright, I'll take you there," Xia Yan said, turning around to lead the group. However, nobody noticed that the wound on his neck caused by the dagger earlier had already healed, which was a terrifying level of healing power that only few people possessed.
At this moment, his expression was somewhat gloomy. If these guys still wanted to harm him later, he didn't mind having Manling eliminate them. After all, the fewer annoying troubles like this, the better.
