Chapter 167: My Idiot! (III)
Early morning, breakfast time.
When Long Haochen and Cai’er arrived together in front of their companions, everyone, including Gao Yingjie, felt that something was off about the two of them.
Although Cai’er was blind, a change could still be felt in the atmosphere. Only, because she was wearing her black veil, no one could see the current expression on her face.
The nine other newly formed Demon Hunt Squads were also eating in this same dining room. Later on, their journey was going to continue.
Lin Xin whispered in Long Haochen’s ear in a low voice, “Well done captain. You truly deserve to be called a young hero.”
Puzzled, Long Haochen replied, “What?”
Lin Xin chuckled and explained to him, “Last night, I went to your room looking for you, but there was no one there. It appears that you didn’t come back to your room for the whole night. Restrain yourself—you should restrain yourself.”
Only then did Long Haochen understand the reason behind the look on his companions’ faces, instantly declaring embarrassedly, “It’s time to eat, let’s hurry up.” As he said so, he gave Cai’er a bowl of porridge, took some food for himself, and then started eating.
Although Sima Xian’s expression was not as vulgar as Lin Xin’s, he was also giving Long Haochen bewildered glances while stealthily raising his thumbs up in Long Haochen’s direction.
However, Long Haochen was eating with his head down, so he didn’t see it at all.
But when they were done eating and had climbed on the carriage again, Gao Yingjie went past Long Haochen’s side and let a little sentence slip out, “Isn’t this development a bit hurried?”
A change appeared on the corner of Long Haochen’s mouth, but in the end, he didn’t explain what really had happened to the others. He couldn’t bring himself to say, Actually, I haven’t done anything like that! And in fact, in the morning when Cai’er awoke from dreamland at his side, she had secretly hugged him after feeling his uncovered body under the blanket. And also in that early morning, Long Haochen already felt much more self-disciplined than last night. To hold Cai’er’s body with the blanket between them was already a great test to his willpower.
There was originally a lusty side on him, so toward his comrades’ mockery, he could only admit he wasn’t totally innocent.
Contrarily to expectations, Cai’er didn’t appear the slightest bit bashful. Her shyness and her other hidden feelings were things she would only reveal to that idiot. From the eyes of the others, she was the same as before; an ice-cold youth and the best assassin of her generation. In the remaining ten days, the ten newly formed Demon Hunt Squad members spent most of their time in the carriages, remaining inside from dawn to night while heading to the eastern border of the Alliance.
Gao Yingjie did as he said he would, passing his experience onto Long Haochen on a daily basis. Although the one he was speaking to was Long Haochen, the others naturally got to listen to him. Ten days passed, and everyone felt like they had benefit a lot from the situation.
At the same time, with the assistance of Lin Xin’s Spiritual Gathering Pills, the growth of Sima Xian and Chen Ying’er’s internal spiritual energy was extremely fast. Naturally, Shi Xiaoxue wasn’t able to benefit from such a treatment of receiving these Spiritual Gathering Pills as she was not a member of their Demon Hunt Squad. The cost of making these Spiritual Gathering Pills was too considerable.
Within this short span of time, everyone’s position within the team was established with Long Haochen as the captain and Cai’er as the one with the main firepower. Lin Xin was in charge of financial matters and the two brutes, Sima Xian and Wang Yuanyuan, didn’t care much of these matters; they only cared about battling. Likewise, Chen Ying’er was even more uninterested.
Exorcist City, this was the most strategic town at the border area of the Temple Alliance. This town was almost built like a fortress, situated atop of a mountain range, and was between two huge mountains. The terrain made it appear like an unreachable fortress, extremely hard to attack.
Exorcist City was also called Exorcist Mountain Range and could be described as a continuous mountain range which blocked the path of the demons and extended over a thousand miles, and was also known as the important mountain pass that symbolized the resistance of the Temple Alliance against the demon attacks from the east. In other words, in the case that the Exorcist City was to fall, the demon armies would be able to enter and march right into the territory of the Alliance.
Thus, the Temple Alliance had a massive military force on standby there while, at the same time, the main headquarters of the Assassin Temple was also located there. This was the place where Cai’er had grown up since young. And today at noon, the ten carriages coming from Holy City arrived at Exorcist City, and under the arrangements of the Assassin Temples, the ten newly formed Newcomer Demon Hunt Squads had been checked into a hotel in the east of the government office.
Having already rested during the afternoon, the ten newly formed Demon Hunt Squads were led by their respective team captains to a conference hall after dinner. They had finally reached the location for their next mission.
The ten Demon Hunt Squads were seated in ten rows, each Demon Hunt Squad captain seated in the first seat. Long Haochen was in the first row, and to back was Yang Wenzhao.
Yang Wenzhao occasionally turned his head to look at Chen Ying’er, seated at the rear of the 1st Demon Hunt Squad’s seats, but Chen Ying’er didn’t look back at him, though she did occasionally encompass her surroundings with a few glances.
Long Haochen was looking at Li Xin, who was on the second row, and greeted her with a hand gesture. Li Xin was the vice-captain of the 4th Soldier Demon Hunt Squad and had an extremely high position within her team.
Ten Demon Hunt Squad captains were to be seated at the front row of seats, but two seats were still empty. Clearly, other people were still arriving.
Footsteps sounded and everyone unconsciously turned their head to look outside the door to only see a man and a woman enter the conference hall with several bodyguards clad in a complete martial attire.
From their appearances, these two looked approximately thirty years-old. The man was clad in black military clothes bordered by a golden thread and carried a luxurious appearance; he had a slender build, a handsome appearance, a short purple-colored hair, and appeared to be full of vitality. His eyes glinted with coldness and pride. With a look as sharp as a spear, a biting cold atmosphere immediately filled the enormous conference hall as soon as he entered. By his side was a woman clad in a blue-colored mage gown, her body surrounded by a rich water essence that was pulsing as if it was alive. She looked quite younger compared to the man by her side, had light-blue-colored hair, and a picturesque face—naturally dazzling. Her charming eyes swept past the crowd, as if she was looking for someone in particular.
Seeing this couple, Long Haochen couldn’t help but stare blankly at them. He didn’t know why, but in his heart, he held a somewhat familiar feeling toward them.
Quickly, these two people arrived on the middle of the stage. The ten Temple Knights and leaders had stood up a while ago, and Gao Yingjie took the initiative to go up and welcome them, greeting them politely.
“Eldest Brother Gao.” From his voice, this man sounded somewhat excited as he went forward to give Gao Yingjie a big hug. The woman followed him and smiled at Gao Yingjie before remaining on the side.
Hearing the voice of the man, seated behind Long Haochen, Cai’er’s body shook slightly, but quickly recovered to normal, her face still as cold as usual.
Gao Yingjie changed direction and looked at the group of youths, “Let me introduce him to you, he is Sheng Lingxin. Mister Sheng is the commander in chief of the Exorcist Military District and also the youngest assassin to have reached the step of Assassin King within the whole Alliance. ”
Assassin King? That was an assassin of the seventh step. This mister Sheng only seemed to be about thirty years-old, could it be that he was already a powerhouse of the seventh step at such a young age? For a moment, the Six Great Temples’ selected talents couldn’t help but stare at him, filled with admiration.
Sheng Lingxin smiled faintly and said, “Elder Brother Gao is exaggerating. I am thirty-seven years old this year, this cannot be counted as young anymore. You are the true young heroes. I hope that on this trip in the Exorcist Military District, in my Exorcist City, everybody will be able to show off their potential.”
Gao Yingjie happened to look at the woman, and at this moment, her gaze was focused in the crowd, a slight change appearing in her look. This look was filled with sadness, with longing, and with some other things.
“This person is the leader of the Exorcist City’s mage regiment and hall master of Exorcist City Auxiliary Mage Temple, the Magic Grandmaster Lan Yanyu.
Sheng Lingxin lightly touched the dull-looking Lan Yan Yu. Only then did she react, nodding to everyone below. However, she didn’t say anything, her look remaining the same from beginning to end.
Long Haochen noticed this change because Lan Yanyu’s look was actually oriented in his direction. Is she looking at Cai’er?
Sheng Lingxin and Lan Yanyu sat on the seats in the middle of the platform, and Sheng Lingxin said in a deep tone, “Welcome to all of you in Exorcist City. Before assigning different missions to all of you, I will first present the current situation of the Exorcist Military District and the Exorcist City. I hope that when it is time for you to leave, you will be in a good enough shape to later return fully loaded with contribution points.
The Exorcist Military District is in control of the whole area including the entire Exorcist Mountain Range. From north to south, it covers a continuous distance of 1,654 kilometers. The terrain of this mountain range extends vertically, making the overwhelming majority of the Exorcist Military District extremely hard to attack and enables us to block these demons. And because of this, the Alliance is stable and we are still alive.
At the present time, the majority of the Exorcist Military District is supervised and commanded by our Assassin Temple with the assistance of the five other Great Temples. Including the major portions of those guarding the strategic locations of the Exorcist Mountain Range, our troops total 80,000 soldiers. Under the main command of the Alliance’s Headquarters, the Assassin Temple has pledged its life to resist the enemy with unwavering determination. From the time this dark era started 6,000 years ago, the Exorcist Military District and Exorcist City has gone through thousands upon thousands of attacks from the demons, but has never fallen. This place is filled with the blood and the tears of countless of our elders whose lives were taken by the merciless demon invaders.”
Hearing Sheng Lingxin’s words, the ten Newcomer Demon Hunt Squads’ assassins, with the exception from Cai’er, all looked incredibly excited and proud. This Exorcist City was the holy land of assassins. To them, being able to partake in the battle here was in itself an enormous honor.
“The demons’ military offensive has already been launched, fighting with our soldiers who have pledged their lives to the Alliance. You will be divided to ten military campsites to work in concert with our most basic infantry troops to learn how to act cooperatively. Among these troops, you will have no privileges of any kind, and killing enemies will not only bring you contribution points, but will also be the only way for you to be promoted within the army. The higher the amount of contribution points a team has, the more important the missions a team will receive Within the span of three months, whichever level you will reach will depend on your own efforts. You have to keep in mind that, in case any of the members of your team dies, your Demon Hunt Squad will be dissolved and your contribution points will be taken back. On the battlefield, individual power will forever remain insignificant; cooperating as a team is the only way to survive.