It was okey to be eliminated, the defense team just wanted to train strictly, but didn't want to deliberately starve people to death
Even if the physique of the spirit hunting warriors was stronger than that of ordinary people, it may be fatal if they were not supplemented when doing continuous high-intensity training for many days. Therefore, the soldiers who couldn't keep up with the training progress were simply eliminated.
Of course, before leaving the barracks, they could get a full meal, which could be regarded as compensation for their performance in the past two days by the defense team.
Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian belonged to the group where only the two of them received the rewarded spiritual stone. Now, the other soldiers in the same group looked at them differently. They were masters!
During the whole day, Xia Ruize kept reciting the spirit transformation art while training, his talents were also activated from time to time. He finally completely resolved the spiritual power of a low-level spiritual stone, but the harvest was a little disappointing, the strength value only increased 0.1.
Compared to the previous mission world, where hunting a wild animal could get them a 0.1 increase in strength, the reward in this mission world didn't seem to be powerful enough. It took a whole day to get a 0.1 strength increase.
However, considering that the previous world was a novice world with generous rewards, he could also understand the gap between rewards.
Even so, Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian's interest in spirit stones had not diminished. They were still ready to collect as many spirit stones as possible. Even if the time in the mission world was not enough to absorb all of them, they could also slowly dissolve the spirit power when they had time in the future.
Night fell again, and after the barracks entered a state of rest, Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian sneaked out.
The cloak they wore today was the one given by the store owner. It was of high quality and fine workmanship. It could hide their identities very well and was easy to move around. The old man still found them.
There was no way, there were not many spirit hunting warriors who still did not take off their hoods after entering the tavern. The two young people walking together have screened out some of them, and old Baitou who has been waiting in the tavern had accurately discovered Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian who had just entered the tavern.
"Old Cheng? Xiao Ze?" Old Baitou pretended to walk to a table beside the table of the two of them casually, looked away, but asked the two of them softly.
"Why the mystery?"
Hiding under the wide sleeves of the cloak, Cheng Huaiqian was fiddling with Xia Ruize's fingers and asked a question with a smile.
Hearing the voice and confirming that it was Cheng Huaiqian and Xia Ruize, old Baitou breathed a sigh of relief, lowered his voice and explained nervously and quickly:
"Something happened yesterday! More than 30 small and large teams left the city last night, but none of the most powerful ones came back. I made special inquiries, and those who came back were the teams who were only active in the low-level evil spirit area.
I went to the city lord's mansion today to report what happened last night. The city lord personally met me and said that he would handle this matter and told me not to spread the word. I suspect… those who didn't come back also encountered a similar situation to us in the area where the middle-level evil spirits operate.
I'm not planning to go out of the city these few days. I advise you to be more careful. If you still want to go out of the city, the man in red leather armor at the entrance of the tavern is called 'Da Niu'. His younger brother 'Xiao Niu'1 went out last night and couldn't come back. He is going out of the city to see today. He has good strength and is familiar with the surroundings. You can join him. "
The old man didn't look at Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian all the time he spoke, and the big wine glass in his hand covered his mouth, as if he just sat there and had a drink by chance.
After quickly explaining the situation, old Baitou finally said, "Take care!" He got up and walked to the other seats to sit down, chatting with others from time to time.
"It doesn't look like it's going well…"
Cheng Huaiqian looked at Da Niu who was attracting the team members at the entrance of the tavern, and said softly, it was just that the interest and eagerness in his voice betrayed his true thoughts.
Xia Ruize was accustomed to it. He never saw his lover worry about the difficulty of the mission. This guy simply wanted the mission to be as difficult as possible.
After careful observation, Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian found that compared with the cheerful atmosphere of the previous day, there was more anxiety and depression in the tavern tonight.
For a long time, no one stood on the small table in the center of the tavern to recruit teammates, and sporadic people like Da Niu who tried to recruit teammates were wandering around the tavern trying to persuade the spirit hunting warriors.
It had to be said that these spirit hunting warriors were very sensitive to the situation. After realizing that the situation outside the city may be different, most of them decided to temporarily hold down and wait for the situation to become clear. They were very patient and vigilant.
Finally, Da Niu turned to their vicinity, trying to find familiar spirit hunting warriors and leave the city in a group.
When Da Niu passed by, Cheng Huaiqian directly took the strip of metal from his hand, bent it easily and opened it easily, and threw it back to Da Niu, pointing to himself and Xia Ruize, "Count us two."
"Good!"
Da Niu agreed rapidly. Everyone was reluctant to leave the city tonight. He originally planned to convene a team of nine people, but most of the invitations ended up with no answers. It was rare that two people were willing to join, no matter whether they knew the situation or not, regardless of their strength, multiple strengths were always good.
In the end, after walking around in the tavern for almost half an hour, Da Niu gathered enough people to prepare to set off. Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian were not in a hurry, and sat there listening to a lot of gossip and guesses from the spirit hunting warriors.
Most of the spirit hunting warriors believed that those who left the city the day before and failed to return, crossed the cordon, approached the evil seaside, and encountered high-level evil spirits.
In Cheng Huaiqian and Xia Ruize's view, this guess was not necessarily wrong. The only thing that was different from the facts was probably that they didn't guess how those people got close to the evil sea.
In the end, there were eight people in the team that gathered together. They followed Da Niu quickly through Ping'An City, climbed over the city wall, and jumped outside the city.
The eight spirit hunting warriors followed Da Niu away from Ping'An city according to the formation of the first three, the second and the third.
Unlike the cautious old Baitou, Da Niu was much bolder and more direct, rushing in the direction away from Ping'An City without stopping, even if the number of low-level evil spirits around him increased, he didn´t slow down, but continued to dash forward.
It only took more than 20 minutes for the group to rush to the green cordon. Seeing that Da Niu still did not slow down and continued to rush forward, finally a teammate couldn't hold back and suggested:
"Should we slow down for a while, take a rest, and then move on?" they missed a lot of low-level evil spirits, which was a pity.
Da Niu crossed the cordon and continued to walk forward until his teammate made the same suggestion again:
"No, I'm afraid it's too late, I'm going to the beach to see it myself!"
"What?"
"What did you say?"
Four exclamations came out at the same time. Except for Da Niu, his well-informed friend, Lao Lin, and the indifferent Cheng Huaiqian and Xia Ruize, the other four were frightened by Da Niu's true thoughts.
"Are you crazy?! How can there be such a good place to go to the beach, if you encounter a high-level evil spirit, don't you want to live?!"
One of them asked in a low voice, and at the same time reached out and grabbed Da Niu, preventing him from going forward.
"Yeah, you can't just think about yourself, but also the rest of us. If you want to go to the beach in normal times, we'll go with you, but now it's before the full moon tribulation! I don't agree anyway, I don't even want to go deep into the middle-level evil spirit activity area!"
"Da Niu, you are too inauthentic. You didn't tell us in advance that you wanted to go to the beach tonight!"
This temporarily assembled team had a huge disagreement because of Da Niu's true thoughts. The four people who held the objection at the moment refused to continue to move forward. They also dragged Da Niu and Lao Lin to keep them from leaving.
Xia Ruize noticed that during the time when the people in front were arguing, the small piece of ground under his feet was supported by the evil spirit and turned 180 degrees, and their directions were reversed again.
Cheng Huaiqian, who knew about it, was almost not happy. Today was different from yesterday. Today, their teammates want to go deeper.
However, this also proves that it is not the middle-level evil spirits wandering around who are really planning this trap for human beings. Otherwise, the strategy should be changed in time according to the actual situation, instead of setting traps as soon as conflicts between human spirit hunting warriors are found.
"In any case, Lao Lin and I will continue to move forward. If you want to be together, you can go together. If you don't want to, you can go back by yourself!"
Da Niu stubbornly said that he and his friend Lao Lin knew about it and insisted on going to the beach. The other four recruited teammates were unwilling to move forward, so everyone looked at Cheng Huaiqian and Xia Ruize together, waiting for them to express their opinions.
Xia Ruize: …
Xia Ruize was stuck for a while. The current situation was that they wanted to go further, but they actually had to turn their heads and go back. Xia Ruize simply did not hide it, and repeated to Da Niu what he had said the night before:
"There were evil spirits under our feet that turned the area where we were standing, so the direction you thought we were going back to the city was actually going deeper into the sea. The two of us are willing to accompany you to the sea, but we should turn our heads and go back. "
As soon as Xia Ruize's helpless words were finished, Cheng Huaiqian finally couldn't help laughing out loud, propped on Xia Ruize's back, and urged a few people: "Hahaha, I think you should decide which direction to go quickly, there are people around and evil spirits are about to come around."
"Where did the two of you come from, don't pretend to be crazy and stupid at this time!"
Some people were angry that Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian didn't cooperate, and couldn't help but sneer.
Da Niu's character was rough and thin. He frowned subconsciously in disbelief when he heard Xia Ruize's words, but then a thought popped up in his mind, and he couldn't suppress it, Da Niu asked in a trembling voice:
"You, are you telling the truth?"
At this moment, Da Niu seemed to know why his younger brother could not come back. The younger brother's strength was not much worse than him, and it was not a problem to deal with the middle-level evil spirits, but if in a critical moment, the younger brother ran in the wrong direction and instead ran to the evil sea…
Seeing Xia Ruize nodding, Da Niu made up his mind in an instant, and shouted: "Don't argue! We´re going back!"
After speaking, he took the lead to turn around and walked in the same direction they came.
In this way, the four opposing team members were silent. What was the situation now? Did Da Niu really decide to go back to the city or did he believe what the man in the robe said?
Da Niu's friend Lao Lin followed closely, Cheng Huaiqian and Xia Ruize also turned around and went back. The remaining four looked at each other a few times, and finally decided to catch up.
Humph, they were almost cheated by them together!
They didn't believe in any direction reversal, and turning their heads back must be the direction of returning to the city!
Of course, the fact was slapped in the face. As the group continued to move forward, the surrounding fog became thicker and the number of evil spirits increased, but the green warning line was never seen.
"Da, Da Niu, we, shouldn't we really be walking to the seaside?"
One of the team members finally couldn't hold back the fear in his heart and asked.
Da Niu remained silent until he was asked twice in a row, "I don't know."
But looking at his unwavering appearance while fighting and moving forward, it really didn't look like he didn't know anything.
"No, I don't want to go forward, I want to go back!"
The most terrifying conjecture was verified. Several team members who were unwilling to go deeper immediately quit, but they no longer dared to go back alone. There were too many middle-level evil spirits around, and only eight people could help each other. If they lost half of the combat power, they may not be able to hold it at all.
Da Niu continued to move forward without saying a word.
"Da Niu, you´re killing us!" Another person hurriedly said, and turned to try to persuade Lao Lin, Cheng Huaiqian and Xia Ruize, "Da Niu is going to the beach to find his younger brother's relics, why do you all go to the beach to die with him?"
"Oh? What do you say?"
Cheng Huaiqian asked with interest, he and Xia Ruize only knew that Da Niu must go deep into the sea, but they didn't know why he insisted on going.
"You guys don't know what all of this is for?!"
The person who spoke was stunned, and was instantly furious, but seeing Cheng Huaiqian's indifferent appearance, he had no choice but to suppress his anger, and explained while killing the evil spirits:
"If someone dies at the hands of evil spirits, the evil spirits won´t take the clothes on his body and it will be taken to the beach at high tide in the middle of the night. There are spirit hunters who have not been able to return from outside the city, and if his relatives and friends want to get the relics back, they would find a way to reach the sea within three days, and it is possible to find the relics.
"Da Niu must go to get back his brother's relics, but we have to follow with our lives in vain…"
"Hey, if we can't go back tonight, the evil spirits won't let you go! It's usually difficult to rush to the beach, and you have to take risks at this time! You just don't take us as friends!"
The four spirit hunting warriors, who were regretful, did not dare to return alone. They could only scold Da Niu with all their strength to resist the evil spirit, hoping that the other three would wake up and return to the city together.
Da Niu silently accepted it, but the steps under his feet did not stop, rushing straight to the sea.
There were a lot of teammates tonight, and their strength was stronger than the teammates of the previous night. Under the circumstance of working together, they were not overwhelmed by evil spirits. Instead, they broke through the siege of evil spirits all the way, and faintly saw a light on the ground in front of them, it was the red line.
In the dark night and thick fog, this red line was very conspicuous.
"That's the last cordon set by the city lord, hehe, it's close to the beach after crossing the line, but you may encounter high-level evil spirits after crossing the line. In any case, we can't go forward, Da Niu, you do it yourself."
In front of the red line, everyone stopped, and Da Niu finally said thanks: "Thank you for accompanying me here. If I, Da Niu, can come back alive, I will definitely come to thank you one by one!"
After speaking, Daniel stepped over the red line and continued to walk towards the seaside.
This time, even Lao Lin stopped in place, resisting the evil spirits with a few others, trying to hold on for a while, hoping to wait for the Da Niu to come back safely.
To everyone's surprise, Cheng Huaiqian and Xia Ruize bypassed the crowd and followed Da Niu across the red line.
"Are you two crazy?"
Everyone couldn't believe their eyes. What was the situation with these two people? Could they be Da Niu's relatives?
"I haven't seen the Evil Sea yet. I've come here, I'm have to go see it."
Cheng Huaiqian casually left a sentence, and followed Da Niu with Xia Ruize. They walked a few steps, and when they looked back, they couldn't see the figures behind them, but when they looked forward, there were surprisingly not many evil spirits.
Since leaving the city, a layer of fog had been shrouded above the head, surrounded by gloomy darkness, as if evil spirits were hidden everywhere.
Now, on the contrary, the dense fog above the head had all dissipated, revealing the bright half-full moon and the dazzling galaxy. In the distance, they could still see the vast sea ahead, with turbulent waves, constantly slapping the reefs on the seashore.
Da Niu took a deep look at the two behind him, and said thanks again: "Anyway, I thank you!"
He was grateful for whatever reason they had accompanied him to the end.
"No, we also want to thank you for leading the way, otherwise we wouldn't have seen such a magnificent view."
Cheng Huaiqian's voice was pleasant, and he took Xia Ruize's hand and slowly walked towards the seaside.
Da Niu: …
Da Niu didn't care about whether the two were mentally ill, he rushed to the beach, and then he knelt down on the beach, begging for something.
Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian stood on the beach and looked at the sea.
"If this place is not so dangerous, it will be a very beautiful scenic spot."
Xia Ruize smiled and leaned on Cheng Huaiqian's shoulder. Under the influence of his lover, he felt very relaxed at a time when he should have been nervous.
"I will accompany you to see more and more beautiful sceneries. When we are old, sitting on the rocking chair in the garden, there would be countless memories to share."
Cheng Huaiqian embraced his lover's waist, turned his head and gently kissed Xia Ruize's hair. At the same time, the black energy on Cheng Huaiqian's body surged backwards, shrouding a group of black shadows rising from the ground.
"Last time I saw that the Lord God sells various life skills, I plan to strengthen my painting skills, and then draw all my memories to save."
Xia Ruize shared his new ideas with great interest. He wanted to draw down the memories of the two of them getting along, and even make them into animations, which could be enjoyed at any time in the future.
"Okay, then I'll learn to compose and arrange music, and add our own background music to your paintings."
Anyone who saw the cheerful smile on Cheng Huaiqian's face would never have thought that a high-level evil spirit was struggling endlessly under his hands, but unfortunately, the extent of the struggle was getting smaller and smaller.
In what should be the most dangerous evil seaside, the two chatted freely about the little romance in life.
A big wave hit the coast, and something hit Da Niu's face head on. Da Niu took a closer look and found it was the blue leather armor his brother wore last night.
Resisting the grief and putting away the leather armor, Da Niu got up and left the evil sea.
Cheng Huaiqian and Xia Ruize also turned around, and they pressed their heads together to admire the black ball the size of a palm in Cheng Huaiqian's hand.
This was a high-level evil spirit. It was in a very large state during the battle, but it had now become a pet that was subdued by Cheng Huaiqian's [Devil's Coercion], so it shrank into a spherical shape and danced gently in Cheng Huaiqian's hands.
"Why don't you kill it, baby, I want to see what the high-level evil spirit's spirit stone looks like."
Cheng Huaiqian looked at the ball evil spirit in his hand, and suddenly suggested.
Xia Ruize looked at the small ball that was instantly stiff and solidified in the air, reached out and poked it, and replied with a smile, "Let's keep it. Compared to the other three, it's already round and cute."
Among the pets, the taller, spherical high-level evil spirit was already the least terrifying of Cheng Huaiqian's dark pets, so why would Xia Ruize be willing to kill it?
"You two, let's go."
Da Niu greeted the two from afar. He was not overwhelmed by grief. After all, he had already prepared himself mentally before coming. It was far beyond his imagination to be able to get his brother's relic so smoothly.
Too lazy to think about why the evil sea was calm and no evil spirits were seen, Da Niu just wanted to rush back to Ping´An city right now.
"You lead the way."
Cheng Huaiqian said casually, turning over the little black ball in his hand.
Da Niu had some shadows at the moment, and looked at Cheng Huaiqian and Xia Ruize with slightly dissatisfied eyes. The attitude of these two people was a bit too relaxed and casual, and he didn't take into account his grief at all.
Da Niu didn't say anything in the end. Of course, he crossed the red line. The five teammates who stayed behind had disappeared, and they should have returned to the city.
The three quickly moved away from the evil sea, and it didn't take long for them to find the five who had returned one step ahead. Probably because the five in front had led away a large number of evil spirits, the pressure on the three behind was very small.
The five of Lao Lin were also surprised and delighted to see the three of them again. They were surprised that they left the Evil Seaside unharmed. They were delighted that after the eight of them reunited, they were more assured of returning to the city safely.
The eight people rushed in the direction of Ping'An city, and finally successfully crossed the green cordon, climbed over the city wall, and returned to the city. Just after landing, several people collapsed to the ground. It was so exciting that they seemed to have walked on the edge of a cliff.
"Everyone, it's fate to meet again."
Not long after climbing over the city wall, Cheng Huaiqian suddenly said goodbye, then pulled Xia Ruize and disappeared into the alley.
"Da Niu! You almost killed Lao Tzu, don't try to run!"
After resting for a while, reason returned, remembering what had happened before, a few of the team members who had been pitted stood up angrily and rushed towards Da Niu, their anger had been held for a long time, and it was impossible to vent it without beating Da Niu.
As a result, several people fought in a group, and if it weren´t for the fact that the soldiers of the defensive team heard the noise approaching, and several people left in a hurry, I am afraid that they would have to fight each other.
On the other side, Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian were walking around in the alleys of Ping'An City. After a certain turn, a layer of illusion was set around them, and they watched three people in black appear behind them. They searched in the place where they disappeared.
"Why did they disappear?"
"Keep looking!"
The three men in black searched around for half an hour, and finally determined that they were indeed lost, so they had to go back to their lives, but they did not know that the people they were looking for were following behind them, chasing them all the way until they saw them entering the City Lord's Mansion.
"Does he want us to hide the news of the abnormality of the middle-level evil spirits?"
Xia Ruize touched his chin and asked suspiciously.
The three men in black followed old Baitou from the Guitu tavern and stared at them. Although they did not follow them out of the city, they were found immediately after they returned to the city. Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian were really curious about who was staring at them, but they didn't expect it to be city lord that Old Baitou had just met during the day.
"I'm afraid it's not that simple. If he wants us to keep it a secret in order to avoid panic, just come to us in an open and honest way. I'm afraid there is something hidden in this sneaky approach, but it doesn't matter. It's getting late, we should go back to rest."
Cheng Huaiqian calmly analyzed a sentence at the beginning, but at the end, his voice suddenly became excited, and he wanted to go back to the barracks trying to pull Xia Ruize with him.
He hated the barracks during the day, always being watched by a lot of people, making him want to get close to his lover, but he liked the barracks at night, when no one could disturb them.