Battles were fought before entering the treasure trove because nobody knew what was inside.
Taking the initiative would lead to two possibilities. Firstly, they would be one step ahead of the enemy all the time, and would still be on the same pace with the enemy even if they were slowed.
However, the other possibility was that they would be faced with dangers, which was the case for human beings this time.
Meng Guiyi’s maze failed to stop the Half-Mermaids. As a result, the two parties were straightly engaged in a battle.
There were altogether 36 Half-Mermaids. Han Fei had no idea why there were so many of them when there were only twenty human beings. If the Half-Mermaids were as strong as those he countered in the earlier battle, even if the human beings were all Heavenly Talents, they would only be on par with them.
Tang Ge, Chen Aochen, Chen Chen and several others simply charged out. Tang Ge and Chen Aochen were the most fearsome two. Three Half-Mermaids were fighting each of them, hoping to outnumber them.
Of the four captains, Meng Guiyi had the strongest opponents. He was fighting two Half-Mermaids that were holding gold harpoons.
A series of arrays appeared under Meng Guiyi’s feet, which quite amazed Han Fei. He thought that being good at arrays wasn’t bad at all.
As the other spirit gatherer of the team, Zhao Jiayi was surrounded by his whole team.
Han Fei, on the other hand, was only protected by Gong Yuehan and Wang Qing. Su Hongye had been stalled by three Half-Mermaids. The red leaves that floated around her reminded Han Fei of the Big Red Trunk.
The sweeping red leaves seemed to be burning through souls.
Su Hongye said telepathically, Duan Jiang, protect yourself. This is just the first clash. Nobody is really determined to fight without seeing the treasure first.
Wang Qing had already gone stealth, but he appeared next to Han Fei and blocked some attacks for him now and then.
Gong Yuehan also cut out a net of flashes with her longsword, covering up all the enemies in front of Han Fei.
Even so, the Half-Mermaids’ attacks weren’t stopped. When Han Fei noticed that the water was flowing uncannily and he jumped aside, a glittering harpoon stabbed where he just had been standing.
Han Fei’s expression slightly changed. Do the Half-Mermaids have hunters too?
Wait, it’s not a hunter but a water-natured battle technique that can transform them into part of water. It’s similar to Mo Feiyan’s technique.
“Kill their spirit gatherers!”
Some Half-Mermaids roared out.
Because he couldn’t attack, Han Fei simply said to Gong Yuehan, “I’ll slip away; you keep fighting.”
As he talked, Han Fei dashed out and squirmed to avoid the harpoons. He was able to squeeze through their gaps when he seemed to be surrounded.
“Hoooooo!”
Tang Ge launched an attack in rage. His spear floated and the white dragon roared, blowing a Half-Mermaid straight into the sculptures.
Next to Han Fei, a Half-Mermaid was ripped apart by a sword light, and Ning Dong, who was an armorist and a soul warrior, came to Han Fei. “Spiritual energy.”
Han Fei pointed his finger, and spiritual energy surged into Ning Dong’s body. Ning Dong roared, and the thirteen swords from his weapon box ripped apart two energy balls as a net.
Boom!
The Half-Mermaid who launched the energy balls, seeing that, summoned his Companion Spirit, which turned out to be a crystal scorpion.
Before he attacked Han Fei, red leaves had been stuck to the scorpion and blew up its shell.
Su Hongye looked at Han Fei. “Spiritual energy.”
Han Fei dodged a piercing spear and hid behind Ning Dong, before he filled spiritual energy into Su Hongye.
Su Hongye was refreshed and looked at Han Fei, thinking that this Duan Jiang wasn’t completely useless after all.
The battle lasted about five minutes, and Han Fei was chased for the same amount of time.
It wasn’t over until four weird stone statues walked out of the opened arches.
Meng Guiyi roared, “Xu Mo, what’s taking you so long?”
Xu Mo flung a Half-Mermaid back and said with an awful look, “I can’t open it. There are more puzzles in this hall.”
Meng Guiyi’s expression slightly changed. “Truce! You want to fight a life-and-death battle without seeing the treasure first?”
After a few roars, all the Half-Mermaids returned, and the first clash was over.
Zhao Jiayi was casting the healing technique on two people next to him. In the five-minute battle, two human beings were gravely wounded, and three Half-Mermaids were killed.
Human beings seemed to have won the battle, but not really. Han Fei saw that more than half of people were running out of spiritual energy.
Without a word, Han Fei quickly pointed his fingers, and Su Hongye, Wang Qing, Gong Yuehan and Tang Ge gathered around him.
Su Hongye took a long breath. “The first clash is over. Replenish your spiritual energy quickly.”
Tang Ge said solemnly, “Something is coming out.”
The Half-Mermaids were cautious too, and some of them were refilling spiritual energy into their comrades.
Han Fei asked in surprise, “Do those Half-Mermaids have spirit gatherers too?”
Ye Xiangxiang explained, “They have a class similar to spirit gatherers. They don’t just know how to use a harpoon; they’re good at battle techniques and arrays too.”
The four stone statues that just walked out suddenly giggled, and then the thousands of sculptures around everybody opened their eyes.
Han Fei didn’t see any data in his eyes, which meant that they were just sculptures.
Nevertheless, the sculptures were moving, and some had turned their heads by 180 degrees to look at the intruders.
Meng Guiyi’s face was black with fear. “They’re puppets. It isn’t a good thing to run into so many puppets before we’ve even explored the treasure trove…”
Someone asked Xu Mo, “You’ve studied it for a long time, can you open the door or not?”
Xu Mo said grimly, “I can’t. I don’t think the door can be opened until all the puppets are killed.”
Meng Guiyi immediately roared, “Half-Mermaids, let’s join hands and fight later, shall we?”
“Okay.”
Han Fei never thought that two parties that were fighting juist now could join hands in the next moment.
Tang Ge said to Han Fei telepathically, Don’t be too dependent on them. Leave early if necessary.
It’s fine. They aren’t likely to be killed easily. I’ll study them first.
He had been doing nothing more than transmitting spiritual energy into other people, which was a simple task for Han Fei.
He didn’t focus his attention on the doors or the puppets, but the top of this big room.
When he took off the glittering pearl a moment earlier, he had noticed that the pearl was not meant to illuminate the space.
Everybody had great senses and awesome eyesight in the sky. Did they need those pearls?
On the dome of the house, on the other hand, was an enormous painting of a half-naked man who covered the center of the dome with one of his giant hands.
“Huh! These lines… Is it an array?”
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The army of puppets marched towards the human beings and the sea demons.
Gong Yuehan followed Han Fei and slashed a puppet with her sharp sword, yet it only cut three inches deep.
Ye Xiangxiang was twisting the neck of a puppet, when a red spot of light emerged from inside the puppet and darted at Ye Xiangxiang.
Swish…
While Ye Xiangxiang backed off, she was covered by a Six Spirit Armor, and then she chopped apart the red light.
Data popped up in Han Fei’s eyes:
Hardly had Han Fei finished reading the data when Ye Xiangxiang cried, “What the hell is that?”
When Ye Xiangxiang cried, a swarm of red Soul Parasites was crawling out of the unseen corners and crevices on the dome.
“Hiss!”
Han Fei felt that his blood was freezing. They had run into such horrors after they just came in? If they had entered the doors and their souls were swallowed, wouldn’t they end up as walking zombies?
Immediately, Han Fei spoke to Tang Ge telepathically, What danger did you feel from the opened arches?
Tang Ge replied, I can’t tell. It feels like death.
Meng Guiyi said, “Everybody, gather ground. I’ll set up an array… Duan Jiang, you help me. Armorists, clear the stone statues.”
Zhao Jiayi was stunned. “Duan Jiang, you can set up arrays?”
Han Fei said casually, “I know a little bit.”
All the other people were slightly shocked, as it wasn’t easy to learn arrays, and they had never heard that Duan Jiang was capable of that. Was it his hidden method?
Han Fei came close. “Are you going to set up a killing array?”
Meng Guiyi nodded. “Yes, can you protect everybody with a Coiled Turtle Array?”
Han Fei was lost for words. “Do you think I have infinite spiritual energy?”
Meng Guiyi urged, “Just try your best. Those worms aren’t easy to deal with. We underestimated this treasure trove.”
Han Fei’s lips curled. “I’ll try.”
Immediately, spiritual energy flashed in Meng Guiyi’s hand, and the weapons in his hand drew all kinds of lines of spiritual energy in midair.
Han Fei’s technique was quite strange too. Circuits were spreading out from under his feet, and weird stones were flying out of his hand to the critical points of the array.
In front of Han Fei, a bucket of spiritual spring was quickly turning into spiritual energy and gathering on the foundation of the array.
Meng Guiyi was astounded. “You’re going to set up the Great Coiled Turtle Array?”