"You... what are you talking about?" Miss Wang noticed that the three of them were saying some strange things, which made her a little nervous.
"It's nothing, we'll escort you back, what was said before was just to fool Ghost-faced Vajra."
"How far are we from Qingshui City?"
Gu Shanhai first provided some comfort, and then he asked the question.
"About two li away, just pass through this forest, and we'll be at the city gates," Miss Wang hurriedly responded.
"Two li, so just a few minutes away. It looks like... you two might as well come out now, didn't expect you to have such patience," Gu Shanhai suddenly said.
"What?!" Miss Wang was also startled.
Seeing this, Gu Shanhai was exasperated: Why the hell are you surprised? It's not twenty li, just two li, which is about one kilometer. What, do you place one person every five hundred meters?
Then what about the White Ape Elder left over?
"It must be said, Ghost-faced Vajra's death wasn't in vain. Used to sinister deeds, today he capsized in the sewer at your novice hands," a swordsman emerged from the woods, clad in white with a longsword in his hand.
Elsewhere in the forest, rustling sounds could be heard, and then a rather thin middle-aged man with a goatee was standing on the branches not far away.
"Double elite fight, ah, it seems we can't take them both down ourselves. Which one do you want?" Gu Shanhai asked.
He now understood Ghost-faced Vajra's hurtful tactics. That signal for communication was probably not just for creating dissent but also waiting for backup. If the players foolishly waited around, when these last two arrived, it would be awkward. However, it wasn't without benefits; at least they could clean them up in one wave.
This was also the difficulty in novice instances, intended for training, but there had to be sufficient experience; otherwise, there wouldn't be any difficulty, rendering it akin to a newbie tutorial.
"Luo Xiake for us, brother. You have acceleration skills, and Huang Huadiao looks like he's agile. We won't fare well against him," the tough little Iron Pot declared.
"???" Gu Shanhai gave them a look that seemed to say: Are you joking with me? Two ranged fighters discussing taking on a melee? Something didn't seem right.
But he didn't say much, just nodded, turned around, and headed towards Huang Huadiao. The opponent was skilled in Qinggong and hidden weapons and presumably knew some poisoning techniques.
Such individuals typically lacked durability, just like Ghost-faced Vajra who was the tank type, with inevitably thin blood even in lower-tier games.
Swoosh~
Countless flying needles came cascading down like flower petals towards Gu Shanhai.
"Your hidden weapons are not up to par," Gu Shanhai commented as he watched the flying needles get stuck about thirty centimeters from him, unable to move any further.
He had further improved the Spiritual Clothing Technique and resonated it with his robe and Yunling Grass to create a domain. Within this domain, spiritual energy could be maximally contained without dissipating into the environment, not only enhancing the concentration of spiritual energy for an ideal spell-casting atmosphere and increasing the power of spells but also providing him with dense enough energy for cultivation.
The Spiritual Clothing Technique thus became a defensive measure of the Magic Domain.
That's right, it was a defensive measure, like an ever-present shield-based protective skill.
However, in his Magic Domain, there was also the Spirit Light Skill, which transformed into three blade-shaped transparent forms constantly revolving around him, functioning like a surround skill. It could not only deflect damages that pierced the outer defense of the Magic Domain but was also offensive.
Its strength, numbers, and range were understandably limited, being newly developed and awaiting further improvement.
Invisible Spirit Light Blades, accelerated by his own motions, instantly punctured Huang Huadiao's throat.
The opponent didn't even get the chance to react before toppling straight down from the tree.
Blood spewed like a fountain; the man was definitely dead, with half of his neck cut open.
Gu Shanhai then slowly approached to loot the body.
He had used his own mana as a driving force to simulate a high-pressure piston pump within the domain, which then pressurized the Spirit Light Blades, resulting in such powerful impact – like a high-pressure jet, except instead of water, it was blades.
With aim like that, and the opponent's small stature hit in the neck, how could he possibly survive?
"Which era are we in that people still use their hands to throw hidden weapons?" Gu Shanhai quickly finished looting the body. Huang Huadiao was even poorer than Ghost-faced Vajra.
At least Ghost-faced Vajra had some scattered silver, while Huang Huadiao had nothing but coppers left.
"Thankfully there's still some loot, but I have to complain: why would these people carry their secret manuals on them..." Gu Shanhai commented.
Indeed, he had found another secret manual on Huang Huadiao's body, glanced at it, and stuffed it into his robe.
"These hidden weapons can't be taken, really... seems like it's not entirely impossible?"
Gu Shanhai quickly stripped Huang Huadiao bare, draping the clothes over himself.
The hidden weapons were attached to the clothes. If he took the hidden weapons off, he wouldn't be able to carry them, but taking the whole garment worked.
After looting the body, he stood up to watch the nearby battle.
"Holy shit?!" Gu Shanhai saw the tough little Iron Pot wielding a longbow, seemingly ferocious and holding his own against Luo Xiake.
While it looked a bit like a fight between two scrappy birds in his eyes, the shock of it did open his eyes a bit.
He knew about Melee Mages, close combat gunners, and even Melee Priests, which weren't rare, but using a bow as a blunt weapon was new to him.
"Cough, it's a talent thing. When he uses the bow in close combat, he gets higher damage than ranged, along with extra damage boosts," the Flapping Big White Goose said somewhat sheepishly.
"Not bad..." Gu Shanhai observed. Indeed, that talent must be special, probably when using the bow in melee there's added stats, damage reduction, or increased health and mana, and maybe even no requirements to learn melee skills.
Though it looked odd, he'd seen his fair share of quirky talents. But those two didn't have much of a reputation; Gu Shanhai hadn't heard of them, nor were they top-tier players in his past life.
The talents were impressive, but their skills were lacking, relying solely on talent buffs and their semi-digitized bodies. Semi-digitization could dull pain perception; nowadays, players couldn't feel any pain, which enabled them to fight so fiercely.
Otherwise, they wouldn't last long in a real fight with the pain.
Novices, they were doing quite well already; one couldn't expect a group accustomed to a modern urban life to have any combat experience.
If they did, there'd be no need for training.