Xia Xing Yue's threat must have worked, for the next three days passed by without any incident.
We moved through the forest as stealthily as we could, killing whatever minion-ranked spirit beasts we came across while mostly avoiding the rest. There were a few warrior-ranked spirit beasts that we came across, but we dispatched them almost easily thanks to a combination of techniques from me and Xia Xing Yue.
The rest of the journey continued without incident. Xia Xing Yue was careful to split me and Xiao Zhang's gang apart, putting as many bodies between us as possible. Basically, they were positioned at the far end of the group while I was placed at the opposite side, along with Jian Hu, Zhang Qian Long and a few people we could trust.