Chapter 165: Two More
For the next period of time, the human students reused this ploy over and over, either baiting their opponents in or searching the surroundings for Ferocious Race targets.
The Ferocious Race was completely out of luck.
Because they lacked an effective organized system, the Ferocious Race was always completely outnumbered, and they were captured in waves.
This made everyone extremely happy; they would have preferred to continue doing this over and over again.
Unfortunately, there were only so many Ferocious Race youths, and they were all spread out in the vast ruins. Finding them really wasn't that easy.
In reality, killing them wasn't extremely difficult, but finding the Ferocious Race youths took the most time.
Even with Zhao Xin's eagle eye, finding these Ferocious Race youths still took a significant amount of time and energy.
In the first day of hunting, they managed to find six waves of Ferocious Race youths and succeeded four times, capturing a total of six Ferocious Race youths. The other two times, the Ferocious Race youths were alert enough and didn't step into the trap.
Six more research specimens had appeared in Su Chen's research lab. Once again, Su Chen felt excitement rising in his heart.
The second morning, however, the students ran into some trouble when trying to continue executing their plan.
This time, only a single Ferocious Race youth fell into the trap.
However, the opponent instantly discovered that something was wrong. Instead of retreating, he chose to attack!
His powerful offense caught everyone off guard. No one expected the opponent to be that decisive.
Only after he struck out did everyone realized that he was a damned Temple Warrior!
The Ferocious Race was really quite deceptive in this regard.
The only difference between a Temple Warrior and a regular Ferocious Race youth was that one had passed through the Origin Energy Temple. This would only result in a difference when using Origin Energy, and it was impossible to distinguish between a regular Ferocious Race youth and a Temple Warrior under normal circumstances.
Whether they had inscriptions on their faces or chose not to use weapons wasn't an indicator of whether they were a Temple Warrior or not; that was only a matter of personal preference.
Before they attacked, no one knew whether a Ferocious Race youth was actually a Temple Warrior or not.
However, they were easier to identify on an actual battlefield. Temple Warriors usually wore a unique set of armor, but in this place, they were completely identical to the other Ferocious Race youths.
Thus, by the time everyone figured out that their "prey" was actually a Temple Warrior, he had already accomplished the one thing he could do: capture Yu Mengnan.
Yu Mengnan, who was ranked fifteenth, wasn't weak in his own right. However, he wasn't even able to last three moves against that Temple Warrior before he was captured. Ye Qiming's eyes were red when the Temple Warrior placed his hand around Yu Mengnan's throat.
After negotiating for a long time, they were forced to let that Ferocious Race youth go.
This was the first real setback they had experienced while executing their plan.
Afterward, they succeeded two more times, capturing four more Ferocious Race youths.
But on their fourth attempt, they ran into another problem.
This time, it was Danba.
Just before the targets were about to step into the trap, Danba suddenly appeared, warning his comrades of the plan and causing it to fail.
Most shockingly, he had completely avoided Zhao Xin's detection.
He Yuandong had sent people to chase after Danba, but he had almost turned the tables on them. Duan Jiangshan had almost been seriously wounded or even killed.
He Yuandong knew that their hunting days were about to come to an end.
Indeed, in the following few ambushes, Danba constantly followed them around, ruining their plans a number of times. Even though He Yuandong tried to set up the teams to deal with Danba, that crafty guy was somehow always able to escape.
The number of Ferocious Race youths that escaped continued to increase, and the students' successes became few and far between……
Within the research lab.
"So you mean to say that Danba ruined our plan once again?" Su Chen said calmly as he placed a kidney back into the Ferocious Race youth's body and then sealed up the incision.
The Ferocious Race youth was still alive, but he seemed to have lost all of his senses, completely submissive to Su Chen's actions.
Jiang Hanfeng glanced at the Ferocious Race youth, who had been dissected like a rag doll but just wouldn't die, and gulped before replying, "This guy is really crafty. Zhao Xin can't find any trace of him at all."
"Didn't I tell Cloud Leopard to keep an eye on him?" Su Chen said as he carefully pulled back the Ferocious Race youth's eyelids.
His careless attitude really made him seem like the boss of an underground gang.
The Ferocious Race youth's pupils were about to turn white.
He was about to fold.
Su Chen pulled out a pen and a piece of paper, then began to write down, "Chillheart grass is confirmed to have additional effects on a Ferocious Race individual's physique. The Numbing Medicine's preliminary step is a success, but it has some slightly poisonous properties and still needs to be improved. When added to blood……"
Jiang Hanfeng replied, "Danba has a helper, another Temple Warrior. Cloud Leopard wasn't able to deal with both of them on his own."
"Temple Warrior?" Su Chen froze. "The same one as last time?"
"No."
Su Chen stopped writing, his expression turning heavy.
He turned around to look at Jiang Hanfeng. "You said it's not the same one?"
"Yes, it's a fourth Temple Warrior, not within what we agreed upon," Jiang Hanfeng said harshly. "Dammit, I knew that these Ferocious Race youths weren't up to anything good. We agreed that they could only bring three Temple Warriors in, but they forcefully added a fourth. Who knows what method they used to pass the Origin Energy screening."
"There's no point in thinking about that now. More importantly, if they were able to sneak an extra one in, they could have snuck in more!" Su Chen said heavily.
"Yes. That's exactly what Leader thought, so he told me to come find you."
Su Chen understood. He turned around to glance at the Ferocious Race youth in front of him and said, "I will give you an answer soon."
Half an hour later, Su Chen walked out of his lab.
He wiped off the blood on his hands.
"How'd it go?" He Yuandong was already waiting outside.
"I managed to dig it out. There are a total of five Temple Warriors. The other two were snuck in by some secret concealment technique that their race possesses. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to discover what that secret technique was. However, I don't believe for a second that those Ferocious Race youths, with their unique temperament, can come up with something too clever. If they were able to trick the Long Sang army's inspection, it's likely because our side was too overconfident. But the cost should be quite high, which is why only two were able to make it."
A black line appeared on He Yuandong's forehead. "You're still in the mood to think about what their secret technique is?"
"Oh, sorry, that's an occupational thing. But truthfully, I really didn't expect those Ferocious Race bastards to pull off something this complicated. Now that there are two extra Temple Warriors, things have become much more complicated," Su Chen sighed.
"That's right. Who says that the Ferocious Race is dim-witted? It seems like each one is more cunning than the last," Jiang Hanfeng said in frustration.
"That's why people say that you suffer the most when you get tricked by someone who's normally well-behaved," Su Chen laughed.
"Right, those Ferocious Race youths are also becoming more alert and beginning to group up. Just now, they tried to organize a counterattack against us. If it weren't for the fact that Cloud Leopard detected it, we might have all been killed. It looks like we'll have to end our hunting ploy. What do you think we should do next?" He Yuandong asked.
Even though Su Chen wasn't the leader, He Yuandong respected him immensely. They would always discuss any plans together before executing them.
"Looks like the good days are going to end soon," Su Chen sighed.
In the past two days, the humans had captured a total of twelve Ferocious Race youths without losing a single person. This was quite an impressive accomplishment.
The Ferocious Race had been dealt a serious blow. Most importantly, the balance of power had shifted considerably. If they were to go into battle now, the humans wouldn't be afraid of their opponents.
"Yes, the good days have already ended, and the time for picking isolated fights is also over. Next, we should probably plan on cracking open that mountain."
"Which also means that the all-out battle is about to begin," Su Chen said.
Once they arrived at the ancient laboratory, the amount of open space would greatly decrease. The distance between the two groups would become almost nonexistent, setting the stage for a full-fledged battle.
"At this point, if we are to fight against the Ferocious Race, our efforts have really only leveled the playing field. We still don't have a definite advantage if we fight all-out now," He Yuandong said with some worry.
Killing more than ten Ferocious Race youths should have given them a huge advantage.
The appearance of two more Temple Warriors, however, had cut into their advantage quite significantly.
"This only makes it more interesting," Su Chen laughed. "If we have the absolute advantage, would there be a point in fighting? In addition, the Ferocious Race youths aren't idiots. If they really are at a disadvantage, they won't make any rash moves. Instead, they'll probably try and backstab us at any opportunity they can get; that would be even more frustrating. As long as they think that they can still win in an all-out fight, they'll be willing to directly attack us. That's the only way that they'll continue to fall into our traps, not the other way around."
As Su Chen spoke, he began to squint.