Chapter 384: A Journey of Slaughter to the South (II)
In regard of raw power, in the 64th commander grade Demon Hunt Squad, as long as Long Haochen wouldn’t use Storing Power and Cai’er wouldn’t use the Spiritual Stove of Samsara, no one could surpass Sima Xian. Even Lin Xin’s Blue Phoenix Spiritual Stove was still below the Energetic Ball of Light regarding instant power.
During this operation, the one who took the longest time was Wang Yuanyuan.
Wang Yuanyuan and Sima Xian had similar battle styles; after she found her target, she attacked with the Divine Soul Shield. However, the Golden Birdy Demon she faced was different from the others; the wings on his back emitted a dark golden luster.
After seeing this Golden Birdy Demon, Wang Yuanyuan memorized his position, turned around and concealed herself. equipped the Divine Soul Shield, before activating the Spiritual Stove of Spatial Gate.
With a flash of silver light, she appeared right behind that Golden Birdy Demon, and violently swept the Divine Soul Shield horizontally, which was embedded with four spatial crystals.
In Wang Yuanyuan’s opinion, this sudden attack should have cut this Golden Birdy Demon in two.
However, the response of this special Golden Birdy Demon was actually incomparably quick. The instant Wang Yuanyuan appeared at his back, launching her attack, the wings on the back of this Golden Birdy Demon were abruptly flapped backwards, colliding with the Divine Soul Shield. Not trying to force her way, she made use of the powerful offensive strength of the Divine Soul Shield to leap back.
“Ka, ka.” That Golden Birdy Demon let out a scream, seeing the two wings on his back being completely broken. In the end, the Divine Soul Shield still had some effect on him, and a mouthful of bluish purple blood started to leak from his mouth. Flying forward, he took out a lightning spear glowing in a faint dark golden color.
Wang Yuanyuan was startled, So it actually didn’t die from this? Still, she obviously wouldn’t stop at such a time. Abruptly spreading out her own spiritual wings, she dashed towards the Golden Birdy Demon, again striking with the Divine Soul Shield.
That Golden Birdy Demon was at a loss because Wang Yuanyuan’s attack was too sudden. Using the instant teleportation of the Spatial Gate Spiritual Stove, she didn’t give him any room for an effective counter-attack. Being a Birdy Demon, having both his wings broken was a large blow to him, because it stripped him from the ability to fly.
“Ding.” The lightning spear hit the Divine Soul Shield with a piercing blow, and the tyrannical electric spiritual energy from it numbed Wang Yuanyuan. If this had been her previous self, she would have lost the impulse to attack from this. However, the current Wang Yuanyuan possessed an external spiritual energy surpassing the Golden Birdy Demon’s by far. How could she be stopped only with a bit of numbness.
The offense from the Divine Soul Shield didn’t change. Bending forward, she kicked her left foot at the spear and struck her shield against the Golden Birdy Demon. However, the Divine Soul Shield ended up with a pierced bit, and glinted with silver light.
“Roaar.” This Golden Birdy Demon was indeed quite out of the ordinary. In such a dangerous situation, with a loud roar, his whole body erupted with a lightning storm. A tyrannical electric torrent spread in all directions, giving his body a carbonized look. But the strength of this blow still only came from someone at the sixth step.
The Golden Birdy Demon’s Kuli Clan was not led by any demon god, and thus, only belonged to the demons’ middle class. The most powerful clan members were the Golden Birdy Demons. However, for Golden Birdy Demons there only existed a small probability of evolution. With a chance of roughly one out of hundred to reach the seventh step, they could evolve to become Dark Golden Birdy Demons. And in the whole Kuli Clan, there currently wasn’t even a total of a hundred Golden Birdy Demons.
It would be unknown whether Wang Yuanyuan’s luck was good or bad, to have actually met a Golden Birdy Demon who already started evolving, thus making him a lot stronger than ordinary Golden Birdy Demons. But it still didn’t complete its evolution to the dark golden level. Thus, it was still only a powerhouse at the peak of the sixth step.
Speaking of which, this Golden Birdy Demon was also quite out of luck. If they really had a fierce open battle, even though Wang Yuanyuan would have killed him in the end, the battle surely would have taken a long time. And this Naduo City was under the protection of a demon god, so even if this incomplete Dark Golden Birdy Demon ended up being no match for her, he could still possibly have run or waited for reinforcements. But unfortunately, he met with the user of the Spiritual Stove of Spatial Gate. Having lost the ability of flight, even if he really had been at the Dark Golden Birdy level, what could he have done?
The all out burst attack of this incomplete Dark Golden Birdy Demon was indeed powerful, and Wang Yuanyuan felt her whole body become numb. This kind of all encompassing attack couldn’t be evaded by the use of any technique, but at the same time the burst of this Golden Birdy Demon erupted, the silver light from Wang Yuanyuan’s shield also leashed out.
As early as when her shield struck the enemy, the ability was already launched, Space Splitting Sauté.
Backed up by four silver space crystals, the Divine Soul Shield now reached the Legendary Tier. And abilities carried by Legendary Equipment were just as powerful as one might imagine.
Wang Yuanyuan’s body was surrounded by electricity. She stood in the same place, in a state of numbness, while that incomplete Dark Golden Birdy Demon was violently repelled. In his chest was a large hole, and although he wasn’t dead yet, he fell to the ground, unable to fly.
Right at that time, intense light and dark shadows enfolded, and the incomplete Dark Golden Birdy Demon was powerless in front of it. Getting sunk into darkness instantly, it was struck with power.
With a brilliant glint, the corpse disappeared, and a sweet figure appeared near Wang Yuanyuan. She pulled her hand, and the two of them rapidly disappeared in the alley.
An ear piercing strident sound rapidly echoed through Naduo City, and the whole city was flared up. A large battalion of the demon army started to search everywhere in the city.
Even with the Kuli Clan’s status as one of the leaders of the Nareiks Province, four Golden Birdy Demons actually ended up assassinated, and another Golden Birdy Demon went missing.
It only took an instant for Naduo City to react. The demon god in charge of the city immediately gave the order to close the gates of the city and search for human spies.
The instant the order was transmitted to close the city’s gates, the Yue Ye Merchant Group happened to be on the verge of leaving the city.
Given how the Yue Ye Merchant Group ended up being ambushed during their last trip through the Nareiks Province, which had roused the fury of the Demon God Emperor who had yet to be completely appeased, the Yue Ye merchant group was still allowed to leave. They passed the city gates even after the demon god ordered them closed, after being carefully inspected.
It would have been strange if they had found anything. Right after reuniting, six of them immediately hid in the Tower of Eternity, while Long Haochen disguised as a manservant and completely suppressed his presence and aura. His youth became his greatest disguise. After the merchant group smoothly left the city, he summoned his comrades back.
Once they reunited, everyone was on cloud nine, with only Lin Xin looking in a somewhat bad shape due to the backlash of his spiritual stove.
“The first mission is complete. We killed five Golden Birdy Demons and recovered their magical crystals, which will grant us a reward of 30,000 contribution points. If the magical crystals aren’t delivered, the reward will only consist of 10,000 contribution points.”
Long Haochen was also in a very good mood. While trying out their skills, they completed their first commander grade mission as a Demon Hunt Squad. And this was done only two days after leaving the Temple Alliance. Of course, the mission of killing five Golden Birdy Demons could be considered a relatively simple one among the stack they took.
The Yue Ye Merchant Group’s journey was still headed to the southeast, directly towards the Central Province. The reason was that this was the most bustling place, where goods could be sold at the best prices.
The 64th commander grade Demon Hunt Squad followed the merchant group deep into the demon territory, and with the map and information provided, combined with the assistance of the Yue Ye Merchant Group, they completed five successive missions.
Of course, they wouldn’t act every time the Yue Ye Merchant Group would stop, since this behavior would too easily turn the Yue Ye Merchant Group into suspects. They would generally stop at one city with the Yue Ye Merchant Group, and regroup with them after the completion of their mission in the city. This time was filled with more fears than dangers, and they didn’t meet any true difficulties.
A third of their sixteen missions were already completed, when the Yue Ye Merchant Group entered the Central Province also came the time they would have to part with them.
This wasn’t because they didn’t have any targets in the Central Province, but because Long Haochen made the decision to go by order of difficulty, completing the simpler missions first before heading for the Central Province.
Watching the departing merchant group, Long Haochen said, “For the following course of action, we will only be able to rely on ourselves. Let’s head for our next target, the Jacques Province. Let’s go!”
The Jacques Province was north of the demons’ Central Province, bordering it directly. The area was inhabited by a demon clan known as Jacques Clan, providing the province’s name.
The Jacques Clan was just like the Birdy’s Kuli Clan, without a demon god amongst their ranks, and their clansmen were known as Jacques Demons. The ones in the upper ranks could be considered as powerful close-quarters fighters, but because they weren’t numerous, few would be sent to the battlefield. Generally, they remained in the Jacques Province, surrounding and protecting the Central Province.
Long Haochen’s group was on the verge of starting their seventh mission, entailing the killing a hundred Jacques Demons.
Jacques Demons were rather low rank powerhouses, but often acted as a group. In their clan, the most powerful ones were at the eighth step, and their ranked officers mostly were at the sixth step. Completing this mission wouldn’t be easy; at least it would be harder than the missions they completed so far on this trip.
The Jacques Demons as a whole only numbered five or six thousand. To stay unnoticed from the chief of the Jacques Clans and kill a hundred Jacques Demons without their intervention wouldn’t be easy. The difficulty increased by a level as they wouldn’t have the help from the Yue Ye Merchant Group this time, and had to rely on their own for everything.
According to the map, it would take them less than half a day to reach and enter the Jacques Province.
The area wasn’t much different from the other provinces under demon control, the land was very poor and infertile, and farmland was very rare.
Long Haochen tightened his large cloak, and told Cai’er, “We will be continuing to the south for two or three days before making it into the capital, Major Jacques City, of the Jacques Province. It seemed that all the Jacques clansmen will be concentrated in the city: this is a good thing for our operation, but will make it somewhat more complicated to get away. After the mission is complete, we will turn east, heading for the next mission.”