Poison, Lightning Fire, & Snow Wind

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Later that morning.

Wu Lin and the others gathered around in a circle, and watched Chu Yuan giving Nie Li three free hits.

None of them could understand Chu Yuan's logic.

Despite being beaten at the start of the expedition and still suffering from quick exhaustion, the off-brand Shen Fei still dared to be envious to a person who had contributioned to the expedition and even challenged him to a fight.

The so-called fight didn't last long, not even five paragraphs long, as Nie Li's swift movements allowed him to go behind Chu Yuan and slam his pale face onto the ground. Raising Chu Yuan's head and letting others see his bruised face, and Nie Li slammed his face onto the ground a second time, incapacitating Chu Yuan for the second time in the expedition.

"Put him in the cart and drag him again," Chen Linjian said to two of his underlings.

The two underlings complied while glaring at the unconscious Chu Yuan.

The expedition continued, however, this time it was more serene and bearable than before.

'It's time,' Nie Li said, transmitting his voice to Wu Lin.

The technique to transmit one's voice was taught to Wu Lin and the others before the expedition.

'Got it,' Wu Lin said. He activated the Law of Primal Chaos and created four fruit flies, three of which contain a Lightning Fire Battle Pattern that's similar to the one that he inscribed on the Lightning Fire Tomahawk. Then, he sent them to the direction of the three people following them.

He had timed the battle patterns to detonate after the flies were positioned near their heads. He wasn't concerned about the noise of the explosion or their screams because Nie Li told him that he'll blank out the noises using a special technique.

Using this method, there was no need for Chen Linjian's men to confront Shen Yue's underlings.

When the fruit flies were about half a foot from Shen Yue's underlings' heads, Wu Lin received a confirmation signal from Nie Li, and thus detonated the battle patterns from within the fruit flies, annihilating them in an instant.

Glancing around, Wu Lin saw that not a single one of them heard the explosion.

'You folded space?' Wu Lin asked.

'Yes,' Nie Li said.

'Cool.'

-

On the fifth day of their expedition, the group had set their foot upon a relic of the distant past and their destination, the Ancient Orchid City Ruins.

The sight of a ruined settlement not so different from theirs brought a feeling of desolation and of foreboding. The broken walls and the scattered bones of both humans and demon beasts were too distinct for them to ignore. The faint roar of demon beasts didn't help either.

The sun was burning bright, yet the ruins looked dark and damp.

This solemn silence didn't last long, however, as Chen Linjian broke it and spread out a map on the ground. While most agreed on one of his men's ideas, as it sounded reasonable. However, to most of the group members' surprise, he turned to Nie Li for his opinion. Nie Li gave his opinions and had to argue with Shen Yue. But of course, Chen Linjian took Nie Li's side and went with his ideas.

The group advanced towards their new destination with vigilance. This route might be safer, but being complacent is going to be their downfall in this expedition.

It was at this time that Wu Lin decided to take out his Lightning Fire Tomahawk, the inscription patterns inscribed on it caught the others' attention.

"What's that?" Ye Ziyun asked. She heard from Nie Li that Wu Lin is good at inscription patterns, but the two never had the chance to chat about it in the little celebration in the secret base and from the start of the expedition to now.

Hearing her question, Wu Lin smiled and explained, "This is a Lightning Fire Tomahawk, one of the eight-five that I have prepared for this expedition. The tomahawk itself isn't created from special materials, but it was the most durable I could find at a cheap price. I inscribed a Silver Rank Lightning Fire Battle Pattern on them, and two other inscription patterns that prevent the near instant activation of the Battle Pattern when soul force is inserted into it."

Ye Ziyun's steps halted the moment he finished his explanation, so did Chen Linjian and several others who have an above average or higher understanding of inscription patterns.

Others who weren't that knowledgeable with inscription patterns halted as well and looked at Wu Lin with surprise.

"You created an explosive weapon?" Ye Ziyun asked with a dumbfounded expression on her face.

"I read the rules, it's not considered an explosive weapon. Just a weapon with explosive power," Wu Lin clarified.

"... I'm not even going to ask what else you brought," Ye Ziyun said after a brief moment of silence.

"A master craftsman gifted me a batch of Silver Rank grenades," Wu Lin said as he took out the letter of permission from his interspatial ring.

Surprised, Chen Linjian said, "Wow, most Black Gold Rank experts can't even receive that sort of treatment."

"For real?" one of the expedition members asked, curious.

One must know that although explosive weapons are one-time use weapons, the weakest Bronze Rank explosive is worth 5,000 DSP, which at the moment was the base annual income of most Bronze Rank cultivators. So, Wu Lin being given a batch of Silver Rank grenades is shocking to hear.

"Isn't it obvious enough? It's talent," Nie Li said, gaining their attention. "Wu Lin is a self-taught inscriptionist who managed to inscribe Silver Rank Battle Patterns at the level of experts in the span of a week or so after the enrollment. Even geniuses of the past had to spend six months to do that."

Nie Li's words lingered in the air for the others to absorb. Soon, the others looked at Wu Lin in a new light.

Wu Lin sensed danger from afar, and said, "I feel the movements of demon beasts from a distance. Let's continue forward, there should be a place here where we can engage them in battle."

"Continue forward," Chen Linjian said loud enough to snap people out of their thoughts.

The group continued forward at a faster pace, and the Giant Blue Armed Apes trailing behind to speed up.

"Young Master Chen, it's time to use those," Nie Li whispered, reminding Chen Linjian the chest that he gave him the previous night. The chest contains bottles of poison that he brewed to slaughter the Giant Blue Armed Apes.

"I've been waiting to test this out," Chen Linjian muttered while taking out a chest from his interspatial rings.

Chen Linjian's subordinates who heard their conversation became curious.

Wu Lin glanced at Huyan Lanruo, who then winked in understanding.

Soon, the group came to a good battleground and formed a perimeter.

Chen Linjian placed the chest on the ground and began distributing black bottles to his subordinates and green bottles to those he invited while explaining the contents of the bottles and next line of action.

"The green bottles contain poison that can incapacitate and even kill Bronze Rank Giant Blue Armed Great Apes when inflicted in the right places while the black bottles contains poison that can kill Silver Ranks. Coat your weapons with poison without wasting them, and be careful with long-range weapons!" Chen Linjian ordered as he coated his sword with poison from the black bottle.

The others followed his instruction except Wu Lin and Huyan Lanruo. However, no one called them out as the former has explosive weapons and the latter is a 3-star Silver Rank.

Chen Linjian continued, "When the Giant Blue-"

Sou!

Pu!

Thud!

The sound of a crossbow bolt being released, struck a target, and putting down the said target, interrupted Chen Linjian.

Tracing the source of the sound, most were amazed to find Nie Li looking in the direction of a dead Bronze Rank Giant Blue Armed Ape.

Boom!

Most of the group were startled and looked to see three charred Giant Blue Armed Apes.

"We have to lure out the leader of this pack in order to scare the underlings. Begin the bloodshed!" Wu Lin exclaimed as he threw a second Lightning Fire Tomahawk at a group five that he spotted from afar, burning them to death soon after the explosive weapon detonated.

Thus, the battle between humans and demon beasts began.

However, it was more of a one-sided slaughter due to Wu Lin's 99.99% effective team-wiping throws and Nie Li's unavoidable shots that took care of the survivors and swifter Giant Blue Armed Apes.

Those who saw this were in shock. Most of them weren't even able to do a thing as the combined effort of Wu Lin, Nie Li, Chen Linjian and the six Silver Ranks he brought with him. Even Ye Ziyun took down a decent number of enemies.

Shen Yue, who was watching this, had a look of debial in his eyes. He can understand that outperforming Chen Linjian and his subordinates isn't achievable with his power. But Wu Lin, Nie Li, and Ye Ziyun on the hand? It was complicated as despite being around the same age as them, his capabilities and knowledge were a lot inferior to them.

But out of the three of them, the one he hated being inferior to is Nie Li!

Ye Ziyun is the City Lord's daughter, and she should've gone through more intense training than him.

Wu Lin is a freak of nature, and that's a fact.

However, Nie Li is different.

Nie Li is the bane of his existence!

If it weren't for the loud mouth, then he would've been the one spending his time with Ye Ziyun since the beginning of the expedition to now!

Nie Li sensed Shen Yue's anger and hatred, making him snort in his head in amusement and contempt. He thought, 'Death it is then.'

But before things could escalate further, a deafening roar reached everyone's ears. The number of Giant Blue Armed Apes increased, and a large number of them gathered in groups.

Bursting in laughter, Wu Lin began throwing two or more tomahawks at the group of demon beasts, causing large explosions left and right. He said, "I thought a Spiritual Grade Demon Beast is meant to be intelligent, but it seems that I was wrong!"

"Intelligent for a low-level demon beast at least," Nie Li said as he chuckled a little.

"A Spiritual Grade Demon Beast? Where?" Chen Linjian asked, a bit unconcerned because of the two's presence.

"There!" one of Chen Linjian's subordinates shouted while pointing at a charging Giant Blue Armed Ape from afar. "I think it's a 5-star Silver Rank bordering 1-star Gold Rank!"

"Don't panic! Even if it's a Gold Rank it's still within our boundaries," Chen Linjian said, calming down the panicking people. He turned to Huyan Lanruo, "You know what to do."

"I know," Huyan Lanruo said as she focused on the Giant Blue Armed Ape's eyes.

The Giant Blue Armed Ape jumped on a long collapsed structure and roared again, but before it could continue charging at them, it paused and after half a minute of intense silence, it slumped on the ground. Seeing this, the remaining demon beast retreated in fear. The same time the demon beasts retreated, Huyan Lanruo fell on the ground on one knee and panted in exhaustion.

"Woah! What the…"

"Huh?"

"Wait, what?"

"Is Huyan Lanruo alright?"

"Did she use her demon spirit's power or something?"

"Huyan Lanruo is alright, she's just a little too exhausted from using a special technique," Che Linjian said.

The technique Huyan Lanruo used is one of the training methods of the Divine Phantasms Technique, mind invasion. Though it was difficult, she managed to invade the demon beast's mind and inflict sufficient damage to it.

{A/N: EMOTIONAL DAMAGE!}

Wu Lin threw a couple of grenades at the Giant Blue Armed Ape, encasing it in frost and thus dealing the killing blow, and then helped Huyan Lanruo get up.

Seeing as the threats were gone, Chen Linjian ordered them to take a break, and went to salvage the demon spirit of the Giant Blue Armed Ape.

Wu Lin rested with Huyan Lanruo and her friends. He wasn't concerned about the Dark Guild trailing them as he and Nie Li have set up a bunch of precautions after the death of Shen Yue's underlings.

One of those precautions is Siming.

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On the campsite the expedition group rested on the fourth day, a group of loud people were encased in web and hanged on the branches of trees.

On the head of one of those people, a small spider rested.

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