Shen Yin Wang Zuo

Chapter 188: Raise Flowers Into Trees (II)

The living quarters were very quiet; there were only occasional sounds of bursts of fire and some other kinds of quiet sounds, coming from Lin Xin’s fabrication of pills. The others were all immersed in a calm state of meditation.

In this Exorcist City, the demon armies could appear at any times, so everyone understood the importance of raising their own strength. Pressure was in this case a force, arousing one’s hidden capability. It was precisely under this kind of pressure that the whole 1st Demon Hunt Squad was slowly progressing. But what Long Haochen didn’t expect was that the Spiritual Bursting Pill’s side effect would only last six more hours. The weak feeling was gradually dissipating, but it didn’t take twelve hours like Lin Xin said. This should have something to do with his particular physique.

This moment of calm cultivation training lasted continuously till afternoon. After eating a similar rich meal, and after everyone returned to cultivate for less than an hour, the door was knocked, and immediately, the noise associated with a military order attached to the Exorcist Mountain Pass’ army rang.

A moment later, Long Haochen led his comrades from the 1st Demon Hunt Squad and happened to see the nine other newly formed Demon Hunt Squads.

What were they planning to do by calling all these newly formed Demon Hunt Squads in the same place? Long Haochen wasn’t the only one filled with incomprehension, but all the sixty young powerhouses from the Six Great Temples had a similar thought. After all, it hadn’t been any more than a day after they integrated into an infantry battalion; could it be that there would already be a change?

In reality, there really was a change. And this change happened because of two facts: it was first of all in respect to the performance they had during the battle of the day before. These newly formed Demon Hunt Squads had never stepped onto the Exorcist Mountain Pass before, and they were this time complete beginners. Thus, the commander-in-chief Sheng Lingxin didn’t have a good idea on how it would be the most fitting to assign them. As a result, it was decided that they would train and train in the harshest position of infantry soldier to polish themselves.

But the results were beyond the Exorcist Mountain Pass’ expectations; on the day before, when the ten newly formed Demon Hunt Squads were deployed for the defense of the city, they revealed a fighting strength that far surpassed the previous estimate of the commander-in-chief: the losses of these infantry battalions were under a fifth compared to normal times although each battalion only had six more people.

It was no wonder that the commander-in-chief was so shocked by these results: these newly formed Demon Hunt Squad members were the strongest of the past hundred years. Putting everyone else aside, if it was in the past, Yang Wenzhao, Long Haochen, Cai’er, Duan Yi and Huang Yi could all be considered to have the strength of the absolute champion of the competition. And this time, the Knight Temple had produced five knights of the fifth step!

And the other reason was Long Haochen. Although the real situation pertaining to Sheng Lingxin was to be concealed, Long Haochen’s performance in the battlefield had been seen by the whole Brilliant Angel Knight Regiment as well as the Assassins of the Dark Night. And now that the head of the Brilliant Angel Knight Regiment temporarily replaced Sheng Lingxin in leading military affairs as the general of the Exorcist Mountain Pass, he wanted Long Haochen or at best Long Haochen’s whole team to be transferred to the side of the Brilliant Angel Knight Regiment.

The night before, if not for Haoyue’s Eyes of Truth, perhaps not even half of the Brilliant Angel Knight Regiment would have made it back. In the army, it wasn’t one’s individual strength that was paid the most attention to, but one’s ability to provide assistance to the whole army. Even if one killed many enemies by himself, if all his companions died in the end, he wouldn’t be considered an outstanding soldier.

Last night, Sheng Lingxin put the Spiritual Stove of Return to Childhood to use with the resolution to die, annihilating a huge number of enemies before being taken away by Long Haochen, who saved Sheng Lingxin’s life from the wrath of the three grand demon gods.

At that time, everything happened too fast. After returning, the high ranked officers didn’t say much because of Sheng Yue’s presence, but afterwards, they discussed among themselves and determined that Long Haochen could be said to have rendered two great merits.

Long Haochen was the champion of the individual competition to form the Demon Hunt Squads, so he could naturally be considered the representative of the Demon Hunt Squads formed this year. His exceptional performance led them to attach even more importance to all the Demon Hunt Squads.

Having these elites to stay in infantry battalions was just a waste of talent. Thus, a change was issued; it was to give them a new mission.

As the captain of the 1st Demon Hunt Squad, as soon as Long Haochen arrived, the others’ looks naturally fell on him.

As soon as Yang Wenzhao saw Chen Ying’er by his side, Chen Ying’er drew herself toward Wang Yuanyuan’s arm without giving him a single glance.

“Hello Elder Brother Yang.” Long Haochen took the initiative to salute Yang Wenzhao. Although these two had a relation of fierce rivals, this competition among those two most talented of the Knight Temple could be called a positive rivalry.

Yang Wenzhao revealed a faint smile and asked, “Younger brother Long, how were the crops you had yesterday?”

Naturally, he was asking about contribution points. With a laugh, Long Haochen replied, “Quite good.”

Having said so, he saluted the captains of the other Demon Hunt Squads. Among the newly formed Demon Hunt Squads, the ones who were qualified to contest the first position of the team contest with him were only the 2nd, the 3rd and the 4th squad. The other six Demon Hunt Squads were also outstanding, but there was a wide gap between them and the latter four.

The tall Duan Yi’s behaviour could be called serious, saying nothing more after saluting Long Haochen back. The captain of the 4th Demon Hunt Squad was that priest of the fifth step. He wasn’t familiar with Haochen, but Li Xin was! She immediately came to Long Haochen’s side, chatting with him about the course of yesterday’s battle.

It was clear that in the battle of the day before, Long Haochen’s squad wasn’t the only one to have shown a good performance. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th newly formed Demon Hunt Squads also showed astonishing strength, their killing power even exceeding Long Haochen’s. After all, the mage and the summoner in Long Haochen’s group were total misfits, so in respect to killing power, they weren’t likely to be the strongest among the newly formed Demon Hunt Squads.

At this time, the ten squad leaders arrived together. The Demon Hunt Squad members immediately began to calm down, each of them returning to his respective group.

The one who followed Long Haochen in battle the night before, whom he didn’t know the name of, stepped forward by Gao Yingjie’s side, arriving in front of the ten Demon Hunt Squads.

“Hi everyone, I am Gu Jin, a general subordinate to commander Sheng.

First of all, to everyone’s exceptional performance in the defense of the city yesterday, the Exorcist Mountain Pass would like to express you its greatest thanks. The officers and soldiers of the Exorcist Mountain Pass will forever remember everything you did for us.”

Hearing the words of this general Gu Jin, the youngsters revealed some excitement on their faces. To these young elites under 25 years-old of age, obtaining the approval of the military was of utmost importance. This was directly related to the assessment of their performance, as well as the ultimate reward of contribution points each team would get in the end.

To Demon Hunt Squads, contribution points were indeed of utmost importance. Having enough of them meant one could learn even more powerful secret techniques or exchange them with outstanding equipment. Naturally, it also meant they would be able to take harder and better rewarded missions, unceasingly sharpening themselves.

Gu Jin declared, “We have been accounting for your great individual strength and your outstanding performances, and for this reason, the Exorcist Mountain Pass decided to issue missions for each of you.”

As he said so, a soldier had taken out a military map from his back.

The sky was growing dimmer compared to the night before. Today’s demon offense had weakened greatly: fundamentally, no other formidable demon was dispatched to participate in the offense, and only the cannon fodders were rushing forward. Although they could inflict some damage to the Exorcist Mountain Range, they were far from being a threat at their current state.

Under the cover of the dim night, the gate of the Exorcist Mountain’s Defensive Fort had been slightly opened, and immediately following, one silhouette after another advanced stealthily, nimbly slipping away and leaving the city, covered by the dim night. They weren’t many; all together, they were still less than a hundred. Then, the city gate was shut once more, as if nothing happened.

Naturally, this was the ten newly formed Demon Hunt Squads that had received the missions coming from the Exorcist Mountain Pass. These young elites from the Six Great Temples formed this little group, with Long Haochen, captain of the 1st Demon Hunt Squad, as the team leader and Yang Wenzhao as well as Duan Yi as sub-leaders. They were in charge of commanding the others.

The current mission wasn’t complex at all, to raid the replenishment supply of the demons. According to the message of a scout, a transportation group would send supplies to the demon armies on the next day, at daybreak. Their mission was precisely to get rid of these supplies, destroying them on the spot.

Outside of the Exorcist Mountain Pass, considering the terrain and the relief, mainly formed of hills, it wasn’t hard to conceal such a little sixty-one-man-group at all. And precisely because the relief was excessively formed of open spaces, it was impossible for the demon armies to completely block their path of retreat. As a result, this assignment’s difficulty was actually not high. After all, Exorcist City would rarely dispatch troops to attack the demons’ logistic teams, and thus this time they should be unprepared.

Making use of the darkness of the night, the sixty-one advanced noiselessly, at the side of Exorcist City. They went down all along till reaching its bottom before heading to the north, towards the demon barracks that they could see from afar.

Everyone changed into black clothes, and was clad in simple clothing from top to the bottom. And even the mages weren’t so slow, because of the assistance of the Float Technique. Summoners and priests also obtained the assistance of the mages’ Float.

After only half an hour, they were already 10 kilometers away from the demon armies. Over the five next kilometers, the priests uninterruptedly used Eyes of Truth to scout the surroundings, so as to make sure they weren’t spotted by near demons. The knights summoned their respective mounts, and the summoners called out magical beasts and the 61-man-group advanced at full speed, heading to the rear of the wide demon barracks.

Long Haochen and his 1st Demon Hunt Squad were at the top of the front; Long Haochen, Cai’er, Chen Yin’er and Lin Xin were all seated on Haoyue’s back. The four of them were all seated on Haoyue’s back; after all, nothing could be done about the fact Chen Ying’er was an unreliable summoner, having no way of calling out a suitable mount. Nonetheless, Haoyue had a height of four meters so the four people didn’t feel crowded in this situation.