Here came the rustling sound and the black spiritual leopard was approaching Lin Xun.
Seeming to have smelt something, it looked up at the rocks, behind which Lin was hiding, with a pair of green eyes.
Whoosh!
At this moment, Lin dashed out and brandished his saber straight downward, producing a beam of sharp and dazzling light which could almost tear the darkness apart.
Puff~ Without time to dodge, the black spiritual leopard had its head cut off, with blood spraying out, and its huge body fell to the ground.
Right at the same time, with a short whistle, suddenly a ray of sharp black light lunged towards Lin’s back at an incredible speed!
The attacker seemed to have been waiting there for a long time, well prepared for the ambush. The direction he chose to attack Lin was also extremely tricky. Ordinary practitioners in this situation had no time to make any reaction at all.
But Lin seemed to have got eyes on his back. After killing the black spiritual leopard, he jerked his waist up and twisted his body in midair.
Swish!
Lin waved his saber backwards, as the Milky Way hung upside down; the Army Breacher accurately hit on the black light with a bang.
A low humph was heard behind Lin. And a faint figure that seemed to blend in with the darkness of night appeared immediately!
It was a lean lad, who was dressed in black. Faint blue lights glowed in his eyes, showing threat and weirdness.
Missing striking Lin Xun, the lean lad was a little surprised. The moment he was trying to escape, Lin launched a violent attack like a flash of lightning.
Boom!
Also very alert, the lean lad swiftly held up a sharp black iron rod, intending to fight against Lin with all the strength.
Unexpectedly, the blade of Lin’s saber produced a kind of terrible suction, clinging to the rod instantly. With a pull of Lin, the lad staggered forward uncontrollably.
Grabbing the opportunity, Lin leant forward, and with force converging on his left hand, he threw three punches on the lad’s throat.
With a crack, the lean lad’s neck was broken. With his head askew, the lad soon collapsed to the ground and had already lost his life.
In a minute, the battle’s result had come out!
It was incredibly fast and also extremely dangerous. It was hard to know what the consequence would be if Lin weren’t aware that the lad was using the leopard as a bait to lure him into attacking and thus giving away his position.
Zip!
After killing the lad deftly, Lin did not hesitate to tear open his clothes on his chest, and immediately saw his innate “Totem Barbarian Tattoo” in the shape of flowing water.
This was the symbol of Water Barbarians of the Voodoo-barbarian Tribe!
In other words, the lean lad was a strong Water Barbarian.
Swiftly, Lin cut off the skin with the “Totem Barbarian Tattoo” on it, processed it slightly and put it into his storage ring.
This was exactly the “military exploit”. Killing the enemy and collecting the “Totem Barbarian Tattoo” provided the most convincing evidence for the “military merit”.
In addition, Lin also obtained a short knife, which was dark and a little more than half a meter long. It was made of precious “dark steel”, with spindrifts carved on it.
It was a “Barbarian Tool” in the Voodoo-barbarian Tribe, and the pattern on its surface was called the “Barbarian Tattoo”.
To Lin’s knowledge, only the Totem Flamens of the Voodoo-barbarian Tribe could make barbarian tools. And the Totem Flamen played just the same role as the Spiritual Tattooist of the empire.
It was worth mentioning that the barbarian tools could only unleash its great power in the hands of descendants of the Voodoo-barbarian Tribe because of the barbarian tattoo carved on it.
There seemed no difference between the barbarian tattoos and the spiritual tattoos. But they had totally different secrets and modes of running, so totem barbarian tools with barbarian tattoos couldn’t be utilized with spiritual energy.
In short, only the strong ones of the Voodoo-barbarian Tribe could give play to the power of barbarian tools and barbarian tattoos.
Similarly, only the imperial practitioner could release the power of the spiritual tools and spiritual tattoos by spiritual energy.
This was exactly the difference. The empire and the Voodoo-barbarian Tribe belonged to two completely different civilizations, thus having totally different tools and cultivating ways.
In addition to the short knife, Lin got some other items, including herbal medicines for healing wounds and wild fruits, from the lad. All were put by Lin in his storage ring.
Hardly had Lin finished this and intended to leave when a rustling sound was heard. Lin turned his head and saw that the dead body of the black spiritual leopard, which had just been killed, was covered by a thick layer of bugs.
The bug was only as big as the little finger, its entire body pitch black. It got dense, fine and sharp fangs and looked very savage.
Like a shoal of sharks smelling blood, the bugs came out of the ground and devoured all the carcass of the black spiritual leopard in seconds, not even sparing the bones!
The bugs then rushed to the corpse of the lad and had another feast, obliterating all traces of the body.
The scene sent a chill down Lin’s spine. He now got a clearer understanding of the creepiness and danger of the Demon-cloud Ridge. At least, he had never heard of such black bugs.
Fortunately, the bugs seemed uninterested in living life, and did not attack Lin Xun. Soon, like running sand, they disappeared beneath the ground.
Now, neither the dead body of the black spiritual leopard nor the corpse of the young Water Barbarian lad could be seen, as if nothing had happened here.
“If unluckily I died here, no trace would be left…” Not to have any delay, Lin continued to fly forward in the night.
He needed at first to learn the circumstance of the Demon-cloud Ridge, and only in this way could he minimize the danger he would be stuck in.
…
A week passed.
Lin never stopped advancing. He passed through mountains, swamps, treacherous waters, cliffs and forests all the way.
Along the way, he had gone through ambushes and assassinations, and had also encountered enemies head-on. Anyway, all ended with the enemies’ death.
He had not met the real life-threatening danger, but Lin knew that would surely happen. Maybe soon.
In the seven days, he acted alone like a shrewd and ruthless hunter and never slacked off, with every inch of his nerves highly tensed.
It was a very dangerous place. Life or death could be set in a split second.
If you didn’t want to die, you must be more powerful and smarter than your enemy!
Lin Xun didn’t lack actual combat experience. The treacherous terrain of the Demon-cloud Ridge could even give him the opportunity to exercise the fighting skills which were never needed in normal battle.
The only troublesome thing was the supplies.
In the Bloodthirsty Camp, Lin could take Condensate Pills for his cultivation each day, thus he didn’t need to worry about the supplies for cultivation.
But in the Demon-cloud Ridge, where there seemed to be nothing but barren mountains and unruly rivers, he had to find useful spiritual medicines and herbs on his own or snatch from the enemies if he was to cultivate, recover his strength or heal the wounds.
There was no other way except this.
Lin didn’t know what the other trainees were doing now or whether anyone had been eliminated. He didn’t have the time to think about that.
The Demon-cloud Ridge was more dangerous than expected. It was truly hard to stay here for three months and also earn enough military merits without being eliminated.
In this case, Lin surely had no energy to care about others.
Around 1 p.m.
It was still dark in the Demon-cloud Ridge, with stifling smog smothering the sky.
Lin Xun huddled in a sunless crevice, outside of which a dense cluster of weeds put up a good covering. Lin could hardly be spotted.
Lin was resting, trying to recover his strength.
A shallow layer of grass ashes, known as “Worm-smell Grass”, was applied to his skin. It could not only disguise the breath, but also prevent attracting the attention of fierce beasts and insects.
“All supplies I got at present can only make me hold on until tomorrow afternoon. The key thing is to find supplies to replenish my spiritual energy; otherwise, I will be in danger when I can’t keep my fighting capacity in its prime…”
Lin thought silently.
He had killed nineteen strong Voodoo-barbarians and got a lot of supplies, but they were not enough to sustain the consumption of Lin.
There were a few spiritual herbs and fruits in the Demon-cloud Ridge, but they were still not enough. Unless he could find some top precious spiritual herbs, the recovery of fighting capacity still remained the most deadly problem.
Suddenly a sound of footsteps came from the distance, making Lin alarmed and his huddled body tense like a bowstring suddenly.
It wasn’t long before a group of people emerged from the mountain forest.
More than 30 strong voodoo-barbarians were escorting more than twenty soldiers in the imperial uniform of Reshahar Army.
These soldiers, including men and women, were all bound with chains and driven like livestock. All showed rage, despair and frustration.
They seemed to be marching on a certain place, and soon they passed by the low rocky mound where Lin was hiding, and disappeared in the distance.
Lin sprang out and followed them quietly.
The Demon-cloud Ridge was very large. Before the trainees including Lin Xun of Bloodthirsty Camp arrived, the imperial Reshahar Army often sent soldiers to the depths of the Demon-cloud Ridge to conduct guerrilla warfare against the strong voodoo-barbarians.
But Lin didn’t expect that he should see such a scene that those imperial soldiers were captive like livestock and their expressions were full of rage and despair just in the seventh day since he set feet in the Demon-cloud Ridge. Lin realized that he must do something!
Lin followed them all the way till it was close to dusk. That troop of strong voodoo-barbarians, escorting their captives, walked into a canyon.
Arriving here, Lin had a simple observation of the surroundings. Then he climbed up the top of a mountain and put all that was going on under his eyes.
A makeshift camp was built in the canyon.
Armed with weapons, dozens of strong voodoo-barbarians were patrolling in front of the camp. In the middle of the camp stood a huge stone table, with three extremely powerful male barbarians sitting straight up in front of it. They seemed to be discussing about something.
On the other side of the camp laid many cages. Those captive imperial soldiers were imprisoned inside.
There was a high platform which was probably the gallows in front of the cages. And a huge iron pot was hung above the bonfire in front of the platform.
A human lad was tied to the high platform right now. He was gagged and extremely terrified, with his face terribly pale and his body trembling and struggling.
Beside the platform stood a voodoo-barbarian with a sharp knife in his hand. With a ferocious grin, he cut off one of the lad’s arm by a single swing of his knife, and threw the arm into the iron pot on the bonfire.
Gurgling~
A stream of blood was dazzling in the boiling water.
Lin narrowed his eyes suddenly, with a chill emerging on his face. Were they going to eat human flesh?!