Chapter 237: Killing Demons (III)
Long Haochen revealed a smile and replied, “Sis, don’t be biased against him! In our team, everyone has an important role, and no one is dispensable. The same goes for Lin Xin.”
Li Xin was swayed, and suddenly thought of something, making haste to say in a low voice, “Oh, I’m sorry Little Brother! I wasn’t trying to drive a wedge between your team’s relationships.”
Long Haochen shook his head and replied, “Sis, I am just speaking about truth. You’ll see later, if a real situation of danger arises in the Desolate Hissing Cavern, Lin Xin’s utility will be exhibited to its fullest.”
At the present time, aside from Long Haochen who took a Great Restoration Pill, the others had yet to put the pills they received from Lin Xin to use. Chen Ying’er also only used a single magical crystal, which was used for the hidden trump they had kept during their battle on the side of the Yue Ye Caravan. She would only put such precious resources to use only when it is absolutely necessary.
“Boss, should we destroy the corpses we cannot take with us?” Sima Xian asked loudly to Long Haochen’s side.
Long Haochen thought for a bit, before replying, “No need, extract all the crystals and pile up the corpses. I’ll have Haoyue setting them on fire later.”
Lin Xin had a burst of creativity, before tossing the corpses of some Birdy Demons and Berserk Demons. In the Nareiks Province, the surprise attack against the Yue Ye Caravan was really shameless, so this little operation wouldn’t cause them to feel guilty. As for the fact of setting the corpses of fire, it was naturally to conceal the traces of the battlefield. The traces of the battle of the Demon Hunters against the Birdy Demon, the Berserk Demon were all different. When they would be set on fire together, who would be possibly able to tell out what happened?
Because the Grand Fiends didn’t get to transmit the message, they could clean the battlefield calmly. Having Han Yu’s Demonic Eye scout through the surroundings, in addition to Luc Xi’s Eyes of Truth that could be used in a smaller range, they didn’t worry about being sneak attacked.
Half an hour later, everything was set in flames, and Long Haochen led his mates to start over their journey, climbing the mountain firsthand.
This time, Long Haochen didn’t have Haoyue leave yet, since they were about to reach the Desolate Hissing Cavern, and having him by his side would be of great utility to Long Haochen. Haoyue wasn’t only able to use a formidable ability like Essence of Disorder: the most important was his mutual understanding with Long Haochen, which originated directly from their blood connection, which was something even Cai’er would be unable to compare to.
Climbing the mountain was done with some unconcealed excitement: because of the utility the Essence of Disorder had, that battle against the Grand Fiends Cavalry wasn’t too challenging, but came with generous reaps of war. Even the fourth soldier grade Demon Hunt Squad obtained a lot of magical crystals, and even though they couldn’t use them personally, they could still exchange these for contribution points.
Although the Grand Fiend Cavalry and their Nightmare Devil Horses were at the fourth step, forming tandems matching perfectly, and were even stronger than Dark Green Dual Bladed Demons. Thus, killing a single Grand Fiend Knight and his Nightmare Horse was rewarded with 15 contribution points. With the addition of the Fiend Commander of the sixth step and his mount, this battle brought the two teams a total of more than 1,000 contribution points.
Furthermore, along with the experience of this battle, the two Demon Hunt Squads could be said to have progressed in their strength as a whole, be it in terms of individual progress or matching as teams.
Almost all the Temple Alliance’s higher-ups had gone through a Demon Hunt Squad’s training, which was because Demon Hunt Squads were the easiest way for them to grow. Of course, the number of casualties in Demon Hunt Squads were also enormous: out of ten Demon Hunt Squads, most of the time, at most three of them would remain twenty years later. When a Demon Hunt Squad would get disbanded, the Alliance would arrange other posts for its members.
The sky was becoming dimmer, and the hazy weather seemed to persist all along.
This mountain the two Demon Hunt Squads climbed could be considered very high, with a height of roughly seven or eight hundred meters. Everyone was still dressed as aristocracy of the Moon Clan.
After approximately half an hour, they already reached the summit.
Surveying the scene from the summit, they could see a mountain range from afar, which corresponded perfectly to the map’s information. This mountain range was connected with a vast area of hills: even the mountains weren’t so high, which was because the demon territory wasn’t very exposed to the sunshine. In both mountains and hills, vegetation was rarely seen, and in times of winter like now, the terrain seemed even more empty, giving off a feeling of melancholy.
Long Haochen unfolded the map once again, comparing it to the terrain itself. At the time they accepted the missions, they received two maps: one indicated the rough location of the cavern, and the second one was a detailed map of the mountain range. In this map was a red mark, which was naturally the location of the cavern.
The others all surrounded Long Haochen, helping to block the mountain gust arriving at him, so as to let him watch the map more conveniently.
“The Desolate Cavern this Fiend Commander previously referred to, was precisely the Desolate Hissing Cavern we have set as our destination for this mission. We have cut off the demon side’s reinforcements, and didn’t let them give out any message. No further reinforcement should come during the upcoming days. Based on the assisting army’s strength as well as the request for help they had in the Desolate Hissing Cavern, the remaining demons should be nothing to worry about. The greatest existing menace should lie in the danger of the cavern in itself.”
If not for the fact that this Grand Fiend Cavalry’s destination was the Desolate Hissing Cavern, Long Haochen wouldn’t have let his teammates take so many risks in acting to dispose of us. But having gotten the confirmation that the counterparts were reinforcements headed to the cavern’s side, he passed the battle command without hesitation. This was a decision done resolutely, because in case this Grand Fiend Cavalry arrived at destination to the Desolate Hissing Cavern and they still kept following, they were bound to arise the counterpart’s suspicions and wouldn’t be able to catch them off guard with a surprise attack at this time. Furthermore, if the two demon forces linked up, the battle’s difficulty would increase tremendously, so the best choice was to dispose of the reinforcements first.
“Should be there.” Long Haochen raised a finger, pointing at a little waist of mountain on the other side, because a cavity was on it, “It cannot be seen very clearly, but according to the map’s informations, the cavern should be at this direction.”
Just at that time, a hiss echoed loudly and suddenly.
“Huu.”
The ear-shrinking hissing sound reverberated in the whole mountains, echoing a time after another and causing everyone to feel chills on their whole body.
The violent hiss didn’t stop at that, but a loud hiss echoed after another, carrying increasingly distinct excitement. Together with the increase of the sound, it seemed that the mountain range trembled from the hisses. The violent sound waves even caused some rocks to shatter, launching horrifying colliding sounds.
Everyone unawarely covered their own ears: the palpitation everyone had from these sounds caused an intense fear from the depths of their heart. In particular, a few girls’ faces were already pale.
The violent hisses lasted for no less than a quarter of an hour, before gradually stopping. Although it had no wounding power, it produced a terrifying effect in these wide mountains.
“It should be coming from the Desolate Hissing Cavern. If the sounds coming from the cavern are so loud, I’m afraid that we are about to turn deaf inside of it” Luc Xi spoke with an ugly complexion.
The spatial mage from the fourth soldier grade Demon Hunt Squad, Yi Jun, declared, “This is quite a problem. My spatial magic can cut off the sound to some extent, but this will use up my spiritual energy over time, so I’m afraid I cannot last long. I should be able to cut it off for a duration of five minutes and that’s it. If we consider that I don’t battle and do it to my limit, I should be able to last for ten minutes.”
Long Haochen nodded, and asked, “Who else would be able to block the sound from coming in our way?”
They looked at each other in succession, and in the end, the one who spoke was Chen Ying’er.
“I have two magical crystals of spatial attribute, that should be able to cause McDull to transform into a spatial magical beast of the sixth step. He should be able to defend us for some time with it. Only, I estimate that I will only be able to last for five minutes. If I match with Yi Jun, we would be able to last for fifteen minutes. The problem is that I have only two of these.
Long Haochen nodded, and declared, “Let’s go then! We should find the cavern first, and speak of it again then. If we are unable to deal with the problem of these violent hissing sounds inside, we will have to give up on its exploration and leave.”
Going down the mountain was naturally a lot faster than to climb it, and half an hour later, they finally reached the other side of the mountain.
However, they were still unable to spot the existence of the mountain’s peak.
Just when they started looking for the Desolate Hissing Cavern, the violent hisses sounded once again.
Due to the short distance, at the time the hissing sounds echoed again, everyone felt dizzy and hurried to gather, making use of their respective spiritual energy to protect themselves from the sound, isolating themselves from these sound waves as far as possible.
However, this hissing sounds clearly turned out to be not so easy to handle. The extremely powerful sound waves didn’t only pass through their ears, invading them, but also caused their bodies to shake intensely. From the shaking, the spiritual energy in their bodies was also consumed.
The sound waves clearly increased in power, but it was still not as if they were totally unable to bear it. After all, this clamor’s greatest part came from the mountains’ echo.
At this precise time, a few figures suddenly drilled up at a distance of fifty meters from them.
Covering their ears with energy, they tried their best to resist the noise.
“Fiends?”
Drilling out first was shockingly a Grand Fiend, followed by two slim Fiend Mages carrying black staves. Behind them were five or six more Little Fiends.
These Little Fiends had miserable appearances, their mouth, nose and the corners of their eyes leaking out black blood, clearly caused from the fact they were unable to bear the terrible sound waves transmitted from the insides of the Hissing Cavern.
Long Haochen waved his hand forward, and the assassin of the fourth Demon Hunt Squad, Han Daosi, suddenly dashed forward while causing silver ripples to appear in the air.
These fiends were clearly in a weak state, and Long Haochen didn’t hope to obtain any sort of information from their mouths, preferring rather to dispose of them the fastest possible.
Luc Xi mumbled a few incantations aloud, holding his hand’s staff high and golden undulating radiances spread, covering everyone inside. Immediately, the twitchy feeling they had from the hisses was reduced. This was a priest’s meditative stance.
The hisses still continued for a quarter of an hour before stopping and the thirteen members of the two Demon Hunt Squads immediately felt as if relieved from a great burden. After they got closer, the hisses also increased in power. Nonetheless, they relied on their own spiritual energy to block it, and could bear it at long last though it was with difficulty.