Scouting the terrain

Bai Yun looked at the crowd. They were all staring straight at him in hostility.

"Who gave you the right to speak. Shut up and listen to prince Ming." One of the participants cursed at him.

Bai Yun simply glanced at him, and then turned back to Gong Ming who was frowning after thinking of this. "He is right." Gong Ming said. "We need to know what kind of demonic beasts we are dealing with. Depending on the beasts, we will need to make changes to the plan. So, is there anyone who is willing to go out and be the scout?"

The entire group went silent, and for good reason too. Nobody wanted to be the first to scout. The terrain as well as the dangers were unknown. Simply because the siege had not begun, it did not mean that there were no demonic beasts running around. If they died, then it would be all over for them.

Bai Yun fell back upon seeing this. He went up to Zhang Zi and whispered, "Do you want to go and scout out the enemy?"

Zhang Zi was startled. "Why should we be the ones to go?" He asked.

"If not us then who else?" Bai Yun replied.

Zhang Zi thought for a moment and then nodded his head. He then turned towards the other two members of the team, "Do you have any problems with it?" They simply shook their head.

After getting their response, Zhang Zi stood and said, "We'll go and scout out the beasts." Everyone seemed to be surprised by this statement. They were all prepared for a long and messy fight to choose the sacrifices, scratch that, scouts. Gong Ming nodded after thinking about this for a moment. The team checked their gear, and quickly got ready for the journey.

Bai Yun had not suggested this trip out of the goodness of his heart. He had a reason to do so. War was special among the different scenarios of the second test. In war it was possible to get resources, and take it out of the test or use it for yourselves during it.

And Bai Yun desperately needed a sword.

The sword that he was using was damaged by Song Hui's whip. It was only something that he had purchased yesterday and was not a top weapon. By now he was not sure how much longer he could use it. Not only that, he also needed a strong weapon to fight in the last round. In the city there was a place where you could exchange achievement points that you got while killing the demonic beasts for various pills and weapons and so on. And outside the city there were many precious herbs and minerals that could be found.

This also created a difference in the kind of resources that one could get in war. Since most of the demonic beast would only appear after the siege had begun, and there was no way to escape or enter the city once the siege began, the attacking team would have to leave early. This meant that they would not be able to get any of the more precious items that could be bought in the city. And since most of the precious materials would be inside the beats den, the defending team would not be able to get to them either. But during the hours before the siege, both teams would usually wander about in search of beasts or raw materials so that they can get their hands on something before the battle began.

And that was why Bai Yun needed to go and get his hands on some demonic beasts before he left for the beast den. He wanted to kill as many beasts as possible so that he could get a better sword. Not only that, if he could end this mission quickly, then the time for free hunting would be longer.

As he was leaving Bai Yun realized that the participants for the test had no experience whatsoever at all. They were likely to simply waste the time, or squabble it away. Not wanting to draw attention to himself, he asked Zhang Zi to tell Gong Ming to use this time to scout the city and find locations that they can defend easily, or to put blockades and such so as to delay the beasts. Zhang Zi took a long look at him upon hearing this, but then went to tell Gong Ming about it. Once it was done the entire team left for the scouting mission.

As soon as they stepped outside, the environment changed drastically. The city that they were in looked like an abandoned city, with small houses and a central plaza where the flag was located. Right outside the city walls was an entire region. This place looked like a forest. Even though it was not completely thick so as to be untraversable, the forest was dark enough for Bai Yun to use the Assassin God's techniques. He smiled as he thought of this.

"Should we split up, or stay together?" Bai Yun asked.

The rules of war stated that the entire team had to move together as one. Of course this did not mean that the entire team had to move as one. It only meant that the entire team was either in the attacking or defending side, and they also had to have the same job. For example all of them must be scouts, or healers, or long distance attacks and so on. It would be idiotic to make a team with four healers and ask them to stay together in one spot. As long as the job that the entire team did was the same, it was fine. There were many who tried to take advantage of this, and assigned a team to do one thing, while some of the team members did something else, but such teams where punished.

"Lets go separate ways." Zhang Zi said. "If we split up, we can get a better understanding of the beasts, and have a higher chance of finding the beasts."

Bai Yun nodded. They split into three groups, with both Bai Yun and Zhang Zi deciding to move alone. They decided to meet up after half an hour no matter what. They did not have much time to scout, and it was better to add more members to their teams rather than to blindly search if they were unsuccessful.

Bai Yun walked for a while. The forest he was in did not seem to be too old. The trees were young, and very fresh. There were already a small number of dead leaves covering the floor. But no matter how far he walked, he was unable to find any demonic beasts. An eerie silence permeated the entire forest.

Bai Yun decided to slow down and calmly walk forward instead of rushing headfirst into danger.

He was unable to find even the smallest animals here. More importantly, all the trees that were here were the normal kind. Nor was there any herbs that he could find.

Suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks. On one of the trees in front of him he could see a small bite mark. Bai Yun smiled when he saw this. He had finally found a trail. He was afraid that he would have to go empty handed, but at least that wasn't the case.

As he stared at the bite mark, something triggered in his memory. It seemed as if he had seen similar things before, but he was unable to place it. So he simply ignored them. As he walked forward, he sent out his three soul tendrils to seek out any other traces that he might have missed. A short while later he stopped, ad blew away some of the leaves that were on the floor. As he did so a small footprint was visible on the floor. He did not recognize the footprint, so Bai Yun decided to follow the trail again. As he walked forward, more and more sign started to appear.

After walking for a while he stopped once again. He could hear some chewing sounds coming from a short distance in front of him. Bai Yun pulled out his sword, erased his presence and walked forward, and peered out from behind a small tree. He saw an ant eating a small fruit.

The ant in front of him was not a normal ant, but a demonic beast. It was a little more a foot tall and seemed to be in the first circle of the qi step. He watched as the small ant kept on eating the fruit, one bite at a time. Bai Yun smiled as he saw the animal. It seemed as if the scenario they got was ant colony.

There were hundreds of possible scenarios that war could take. Depending on which of these scenarios came to pass, the strategies that had to be deployed would change. His father had informed Bai Yun of some of the most powerful as well as common scenarios in war.

Among the ones he had heard about was ant colony. It as one of the stronger ones, but not among the most dangerous. The ants in ant colony was mainly beasts in the first three circles of the qi step, and each of them were even weaker than the usual demonic beasts. The only annoying thing about them was their vast numbers. There were nearly an inexhaustible number of ants.

As he thought of ant colony, he smiled. It seemed as if the organizers did not want to make things too difficult for the participants. There were three grandchildren of dignitaries in the group. With the strength that the three of them and Bai Yun had shown, it would not be too much for the team to pass. Of course with the large number of ants, it was not possible for the four of them to save everyone. More than half of the participants would definitely be killed. Bai Yun figured that it would satisfy the celebrities involved.

Bai Yun quietly walked up to the eating ant, and swung his sword down at it. It noticed Bai Yun at the last minute, but by then it was too late. The beast was bisected in a single swing. Even a normal first circle beat would be easily killed by Bai Yun, not to mention a weak one like a demonic ant. Bai Yun watched the beast die, and then pulled out his token, and confirmed that he had received one achievement point.

In war you received one achievement point for each first circle demonic beast that you killed, two for a second circle beast, four for a third circle beast and thirty for a fourth circle beast. If multiple people joined together for the kill, the achievement points would be split between them. Thankfully a fourth circle beast would only appear in the top three most difficult scenarios of war, or else it would be impossible to clear it.

A scenario like ant colony which had a large number of weak monsters was heaven for Bai Yun who could rake up a large number of contribution points. The simple sword was almost tailor made for this.

As he stood there, he heard a buzzing sound behind him, which was getting close. He figured that it was a second circle beast, the flying ant. He turned around to face it, only to be faced with a stinger flying straight at his face.

His instincts acted up without thinking. He dodged the flying beast by rolling to the side and stood up in an instant. After this, he confirmed that the beast in front of him was indeed a bee.

This confused Bai Yun. He did not expect to see a bee in ant colony. Then his back broke out in a cold sweat as he realized his mistake. This was not ant colony.

He was probably in the ninth hell of war.

Insect World.