The sky was filled with the glow of sunset, the red made people palpitate.
A rain of blood showered.
“Awoo——!”
With the wolf howl, two murderous blue dog fox wolves arrived. With bodies as massive as a strong life white rhinoceros, they smashed into the camp gate.
The people in the camp were fleeing in panic.
“My Lord, save me!” As she was running Zi Di tripped.
The two blue dog fox wolves stepped closed in on the girl, their sharp teeth bared, and red gums exposed. They expressed their malevolence and their eyes seemed to shine green, as if showing their extreme hunger.
“Zi Di, don't be afraid, I am here.” Zhen Jin shouted as he ran over.
But when Zi Di saw Zhen Jin, she instead shrieked: “Ah, don’t come any closer!”
Another blue dog fox wolf! Sorry, I can’t save you.” Hei Juan shouted, and he began to flee Zi Di’s side. His trembling tone revealed his intense dread.
An arrow pierced the air and hit Zhen Jin’s back.
“I hit it!” Bai Ya cheered from a distance.
Lan Zao with a knife in hand, pounced Zhen Jin and cut his belly, causing blood to flow from it.
Lan Zao indignantly gazed at Zhen Jin as he shouted “Even if my master is gone, I will use my life to protect his mistress! Get lost brute.”
“Let me handle it.” Suddenly there was a figure under him, it was Zong Ge.
Zong Ge’s hands were holding the short spears that had been on his back, he used them to pierce Zhen Jin’s chest and stab his heart.
Zhen Jin had suffered a mortal blow, and his eyes widened as he fell to the ground with a bang.
“Lord Zong Ge killed a blue dog fox wolf!” Tripleblade yelled.
The remaining two blue dog fox wolves fled in fear.
“Zong Ge! Zong Ge!” The camp’s cheers echoed.
At that moment, Zhen Jin reverted from a blue dog fox wolf form back to his human one.
The cheering stopped spontaneously, everyone encircled the body and gazed at Zhen Jin’s fallen body with shock, doubt, disdain, disgust, and more.
Zi Di suddenly burst into the crowd, knelt to the ground, sobbing as she embraced Zhen Jin’s head: “My Lord, you are bleeding!”
After a moment, Zhen Jin opened his eyes suddenly in the tent.
“Pant pant pant……” He gasped as his eyes focused and found himself still sleeping in the tent.
He slowly sat up and touched his forehead, it was covered in cold sweat.
“Another nightmare!”
After realizing this, Zhen Jin gradually calmed down.
There was no light source in the tent, the candle in it had already been extinguished by Zhen Jin.
Sunlight passed through small cracks in the tent, it was already dawn.
Outside the tent, there were sounds of people moving about.
“How long did I sleep?”
Zhen Jin stood up, tidied up his underwear, and put on his leather armor and boots. Finally, he strapped the rapier, his water bag, and a few rations on his waist. Putting on these supplies was a habit that was immediately formed after Zhen Jin had been teleported.
Before opening the tent flap, Zhen Jin examined himself.
He found that the swelling in his genitals had already gone down.
In a split second, yesterday's awkward scene in Zi Di’s tent floated into his mind.
Originally, Zhen Jin wanted to ask Zi Di for some potions that reduced swelling, however in the end, he did not bring it up, instead he gave a hurried goodbye to Zi Di.
Fortunately, after resting for half a night, Zhen Jin’s recovery ability had already restored him.
After leaving the tent, Zhen Jin found Lan Zao. The latter was standing straight as he meticulously guarded the tent.
Detecting Zhen Jin’s arrival, Lan Zao immediately saluted and respectfully said: “Good morning my master.”
Zhen Jin nodded: “Have you eaten?”
“Not yet master.”
“Then let's go eat together.”
“Yes master.”
With Zhen Jin in front and Lan Zao behind him, they walked into camp.
The camp was doing repairs everywhere. At the most important wooden house, the small giant was beating stakes with his fist. The stakes penetrated deep into the soil, creating a new foundation for the wooden house.
The small giant’s injuries had already disappeared, one of the benefits of the giant bloodline was a powerful recovery ability.
On the other side, Mu Ban’s team was using axes, saws, and other tools to process wood.
“Don’t use that kind of saw, use this one!”
“Stop, let me see how you did.”
“You simply wasted wood doing that!”
Mu Ban was constantly berating his subordinates, his anger was not small.
At Zi Di’s tent, a sunroof had been intentionally opened, black pungent smoke rose from it. It was evident that she was mixing potions.
Zhen Jin and Lan Zao stopped in front of the bonfire.
There was an iron cooking pot on the bonfire, the broth bubbling in it gave off a strong aroma.
The camp still did not have a kitchen, and it was unlikely to get one in the future. At most, a work shed would be built to shield against rain and wind.
However, there was a specialist in charge of cooking.
Breakfast was quickly presented to them.
Breakfast was simple, it was the meat broth. However, having boiling water already made Zhen Jin happy. The meat flavor was decent, and most crucially, it had chewiness.
“Is this the meat of that crocodile head hammer tail boa?” Zhen Jin asked.
The cook immediately replied: “Yes my Lord. Lord Zi Di has already inspected it and found no traces of poison. The snake really is huge, it’s body can feed us for three whole days.
“Ok.” Zhen Jin, with the bowl, walked over to the corpse of the crocodile head hammer tail boa.
He had returned late last night; he did not have time to examine it carefully.
After the emergency discussion with everyone and consoling Zi Di for a while, he returned to his tent and slept.
He had been sleeping until now.
Zhen Jin drank the broth while examining the giant snake corpse.
The crocodile head hammer tail boa’s body was enormous, if one calculated its weight, it should be heavier than a strong life white rhinoceros.
Of all the magic beasts Zhen Jin had seen on this island, only the gigantic lava turtle was larger and heavier than the crocodile head hammer tail boa.
“It seems it cost Zong Ge a lot of effort to kill this silver level magic beast.”
Zhen Jin surveyed the entire snake corpse, he did not find any spear wounds, instead he found many bite marks.
“Lord Zhen Jin.” At that moment, Bai Ya came to pay his respects to Zhen Jin.
His arm was still bandaged, the fracture on his arm, according to a normal person’s recovery ability, would take at least one to two months to heal.
“At dawn, Zong Ge and his people went out to investigate.”
“My Lord, I grew up in a small forest. Maybe I cannot hunt now, but I can surely help your Lordship in reconnaissance!” Bai Ya enthusiastically volunteered at his own accord.
Zhen Jin smiled: “Have you eaten?”
“I already ate my Lord.” Bai Ya’s face was fervent, he wanted to hear Zhen Jin say——We will set off at once.
But Zhen Jin gave Bai Ya the wooden bowl: “Then get me another bowl, I still need to eat a bit more.”
Bai Ya was stunned, he soon reacted and took the bowl: “It is my honor your Lordship.”
Zhen Jin began to leisurely eat a second bowl of broth.
Lan Zao ate a bowl and followed Zhen Jin, maintaining his silence.
Bai Ya looked at the unhurried Zhen Jin, his heart becoming increasingly impatient, he wanted to urge but couldn’t open his mouth. After all, he knew that Zhen Jin had returned to the camp late into the night.
“It seems my heart still has fear after all.” Zhen Jin sighed as he recalled his dream.
Zong Ge’s investigation challenge was not in Zhen Jin’s heart, because he knew he held victory in his hands.
However, he had taken in Bai Ya’s entire expression and it touched his heart.
“Move.” After eating his fill, Zhen Jin led a group of people out of camp.
Outside of Bai Ya, the group consisted of a few others, including Lan Zao and Xi Suo.
This was all Cang Xu’s arrangement, Zhen Jin had already approved it during last night’s meeting.
Just one person conducting investigation work was very inefficient.
This place prohibited the usage of magic and battle qi, Zhen Jin would be more effective as the reconnaissance team’s protector.
Nothing about drawing a map was easy.
The pink potion was quickly depleted——of course there was not much of it left.
At noon, Zhen Jin’s team returned to camp for lunch.
Bai Ya reported to him with worry: “Lord Zhen Jin, we have not seen Zong Ge, nor his people return. They should have eaten outside.”
When evening came, and as the sun fell below the treetops, Zhen Jin’s team had already returned to camp.
Bai Ya reported again: “My Lord, Zong Ge and his people still haven’t returned. They are using their full strength!”
The phrase “full strength” moved Zhen Jin’s heart.
He suddenly realized: he felt pressure under the current situation, and Zong Ge was surely feeling even more than him.
“It's not easy.” Zhen Jin sighed.
Bai Ya slightly glared, he thought his well-meaning advice and tactful persuasion would arise vigilance and nervousness in Zhen Jin, he did not expect a sigh of regret.
Bai Ya was really anxious: “My Lord, we can also carry rations, continue our investigation past noon, we need not squander valuable time going back and forth from camp.”
“Ok, that is a good proposal, let’s do that tomorrow.” Zhen Jin was willing to accept his advice.
This was his original plan. Although victory was in his grasp, he still needed to pretend to prevent others from having doubts.
When the curtain of night completely descended, movement was heard near camp, Zong Ge’s group had finally returned.
Because of the bloodlines in Zong Ge, Tripleblade, and the others, there must be one among them that had night vision.
But Zong Ge still returned. They had used their full strength during the day, all of them were physically and emotionally exhausted, their military strength had drastically declined.
There were many predators in the night forest, it was a risky place.
The most crucial thing was the intelligence Zhen Jin returned with, it was likely the two blue dog fox wolves would try to find trouble with everyone.
As a result of that, even if Zong Ge was brave, he was still worried about the magic beast corps launching a surprise attack.
This choice was very convenient for Zhen Jin.
After eating dinner, he went into the forest alone, justifying that it was a patrol.
The pretext he had intentionally tossed out was already effective, no one doubted his intentions.
After going far from camp and confirming no one was around, he took off his clothes and practiced all kinds of magic beast forms.
With the silver level spear scorpion form, he mainly practiced turning at high speeds.
With the iron level bat monkey form, he used ultrasound more proficiently.
With the bronze level flying squirrel form, he attempted to discharge an electrical attack.
“Time is too short!”
“The amount I need to practice has also increased.”
Zhen Jin spent half the night strenuously training, almost never stopping to rest.
When it was very early in the morning, Zhen Jin turned back to camp, entered his tent, and took a nap without delay.
Notes
Considering how the author defines ultrasound as creating a sketched map in one’s heart, it would make map drawing quite easy as long as he took the time to do so, probably should have been the first thing on the list. Though to be honest, he probably needed more training to make sure he doesn’t have such a large failure rate, but procrastinating is a bad trait, don’t do it.