Chapter 391: Brink of the Seventh Step (II)
Long Haochen held out his hand, giving a polite introduction, “Hello, we are the 64th commander grade Demon Hunt Squad, and I’m the captain, Long Haochen. We are honored to have fought by your side.”
“Commander grade?” Tian Qing looked dazed, “Brother, are you joking?”
While speaking, Long Haochen took off the cloak concealing his face, and sheltering it from the sand.
Seeing that handsome and young face, Tian Qing immediately became speechless.
It was not only him, but the same went for all the comrades of his team. Right before, when Long Haochen showed his powerful burst of power, leaving them full of shock, the only point they didn’t understand was that Long Haochen wasn’t fighting clad in Mythril Foundation Armor. For someone who inflicted such serious damage to Jacques Demons of the eighth step like him, becoming a Mythril Foundation Knight should be no problem at all! But that was unless he had even better choices of equipment.
“It’s really unexpected to see that you are this young. But no matter what, I want to thank your team for your prompt help on the behalf of my comrades and myself. If not for your timely appearance, I’m afraid that we would have hardly made it out alive today.”
Long Haochen asked with a puzzled tone, “Senior, given your team’s strength, handling these two Jacques Demons shouldn’t be so difficult. So why…”
The promotion from commander grade to king grade of a Demon Hunt Squad would encompass a qualitative leap. It was not only about the cost of a million contribution points, but most of all about the fact that all members had to reach the seventh step of cultivation. And to agree to pay such a price, this Demon Hunt Squad surely had already sufficiently powerful equipment. Even only at the seventh step, a Demon Hunt Squad formed of powerhouses with excellent equipment should absolutely not find it difficult to handle two Jacques Demons of the eighth step, especially with the fact that this clan wasn’t privileged with the inheritance from a demon god. As for those lower grade Jacques Demons, it was even more needless to say, as it was showed in their previous battle with Long Haochen’s group.
With a bitter smile, Tian Qing cut, “Don’t bring it up, we were really out of luck this time. Our mission was originally to get into the Major Jacques City to kill two Jacques Commanders of the eighth step. But who knew that under ambush, the Jacques Chiefs would have gotten help from a Demon Hunters Remover squad that ambushed us. Although we inflicted serious damage to the opponent, we also suffered great losses, four of us sustained injuries, and we also had a great consumption of spiritual energy. Although by relying on pills, our situation was a bit better, the Jacques Demons chose this time to surround us. With difficulty, we finally managed to rush out of their encirclement, but because that annoying Demon Holder appeared suddenly in the sky, we turned out unable to shake them off, and you know about the rest.”
“A Demon Hunters Remover? What’s that?” Long Haochen asked full of doubt.
Tian Qing replied, “Demon Hunters Remover squads are accurately speaking somewhat similar to us Demon Hunt Squads. They are a new organized system that the demons put in place to handle us.
It was set up a bit more than one year ago. As the Alliance’s strength kept growing further and further, the strength of Demon Hunt Squads like us also increased, and the demons had to pay more and more attention to the damage inflicted by us to them. They were left without choice but to come up with new measures against us. Thus came the concept of the Demon Hunter Remover squads, acting to eliminate the Demon Hunters. Selected from the elites among demons, each Demon Hunters Remover squad is constituted of ten members, and led by a captain who is a powerhouse at the eighth step at least. The captain is either a Devil Dragon, a Moon Demon or a Star Demon, making him the most powerful of the team. The members will all be at the seventh step or above, and to make it even worse, some particularly powerful Demon Hunters Remover squads are fully constituted of demon powerhouses at the ninth step. The classifications for Demon Hunters Removers are still in the midst of being investigated.
Demon Hunters like us dare go complete diverse missions in demon territory, but that’s mainly because of the lax control inside the demon territory. While these Demon Hunters Removers can also come to our Alliance, they just don’t dare. After all, demons are far different in external appearance and aura from humans like us, and the higher ranked demons who have an humanoid shape are less in number, and don’t have the guts to take such risks. Thus, these Demon Hunters Removers are using all their energy to handle us in demon territory. Over the past year, at least ten Demon Hunt Squads were already slaughtered at their hands. And this time, we also suffered greatly.”
Long Haochen took a deep breath, “Do you know how many squads of Demon Hunter Remover there are currently?”
Tian Qing replied, “According to the information we got, roughly a hundred squads of Demon Hunter Remover have been created, and they are commanded by the Demon God Emperor, only following his directives. From today onwards, your team has to be even more careful when acting in demon territory. These Demon Hunter Removers are very hard to handle. Some of them are actually even equipped with some powerful equipment, and although they are imitating our Demon Hunt Squads, the demons have their own natural advantages. Also, high rank demons don’t need cultivate much to get a strength above the seventh step.”
Long Haochen replied, “Since things are this way, we will have to hurry up and leave this place. The defeated demons from the Jacques Clan must have reported our whereabouts to the Demon Hunter Removers.”
Tian Qing nodded, “That should be the case. Then, we’ll be following you for now. Let’s head for the closest team section.”
Long Haochen replied with hesitation, “That does not really conform with the rules. At our grade, we don’t have access to the team sections.”
The so-called team sections are secret bases for Demon Hunt Squads in demon territory, specialized for providing Demon Hunt Squads of the king grade or above with a place to rest, reorganize and restock their supplies.
This isn’t discrimination toward lower ranked Demon Hunt Squads, but due to the fact that the lower ranked Demon Hunt Squads shouldn’t have to carry out extremely difficult missions. Setting up these team sections in demon territory took large amounts of manpower, physical resources and natural resources from the Alliance. Thus, the more powerful Demon Hunt Squads were naturally prioritized.
To give a simple example, the Demon God Slayers’ Demon Hunt Squad was concealed near Modu Core City, in an area hidden beneath the surface.
The Demon God Emperor once gave the order to search thoroughly around the Core City, but still didn’t discover the whereabouts of the team section. From this, the great utility of a team section could be seen.
Tian Qing patted Long Haochen’s shoulder, “Don’t say these words as if you were an outsider. Rules are meant to be broken when necessary. Do you really think that team sections are absolutely forbidden to use for general or commander grade Demon Hunt Squads? As long as a team of the king grade or above is leading them, there’s absolutely no problem for entering, and the nearest one is inside Major Jacques City. Aren’t they chasing to kill us? Then we shall do the very opposite of what they expect, and return there. I’m really unwilling to leave things at that. After we get back to our peak condition, we’ll set Major Jacques City in complete confusion.”
While saying this, the powerful Mythril Foundation Armored Knight’s eyes lit up brightly.
Which of the Demon Hunters that managed to reach the king grade weren’t on continuous expeditions? Without strong characters, how could they walk this path? After all this time, countless demons’ blood was stained on their hands.
Tian Qing and his team were clearly extremely familiar with the nearby terrain. Under their lead, the two Demon Hunt Squads moved in a very large circle, and in no less than a whole day, reached the Major Jacques City at their full speed.
Though they couldn’t imitate Long Haochen’s group’s disguise as Moon Demons, the 17th king grade Demon Hunt Squad had their own methods. They used a so-called Gem of Imitation, to transform their looks into the appearance of Jacques Demons, escorting Long Haochen’s group to the Major Jacques City.
The Major Jacques City was in obvious chaos. The city’s defenses weren’t tight, and at least no one searched Long Haochen’s group, letting them enter the town without problems.
Tian Qing told Long Haochen that Imitating Gems could store illusion power, but that their storage needed them to go through a rather troublesome process. But in demon territory, it was considered to be an essential item for powerful Demon Hunt Squads. Long Haochen’s group having just entered commander grade, they didn’t come into contact with such an item.
Major Jacques City was the capital of the Jacques Province, but wasn’t very big. Just like the overwhelming majority of the demon cities, it appeared somewhat subject to destruction. Tian Qing brought Long Haochen to a restaurant run by humans, leading them to the rear of the kitchen, and the following process shocked them completely.
On activation, the back of kitchen made a total change, revealing the entrance to a cave, which the thirteen people entered. After that, the entrance to the kitchen returned to its original state. To Long Haochen’s great surprise, he found that his perception was unable to scout the external world from the inside of the cave.
In other words, this cave entrance was completely screening all probing abilities. And right after entering the cave, Long Haochen noticed that its entrance, connecting the cave and the kitchen, was over one meter thick. Undoubtedly, inside was some precious special alloy very possibly reinforced with magic arrays.
In fact Jacques City wasn’t any strategic town, so since they already invested in such a big team section for this town, it was no wonder that the Demon Hunt Squads could move so freely in the demon territory.
Both sides were inlaid with some extraordinary crystals, and this place seemed to be equipped with a very good ventilation system, leading to a very relaxing atmosphere.
When heading downwards, they advanced for more than thirty meters in depth before encountering a flat surface, they continued to advance for twenty meters, and then a little room appeared. All the rooms were arranged very simply, with beds, tables and chairs in each. In total, there were roughly twenty rooms, which was enough for three Demon Hunt Squads to rest and reorganize. The only thing was that there was no one here right now, and inside was some specialized storage with large amounts of food and clean water.
“Let’s have a rest first, everyone. Brother Long, can I have a talk with you?” Tian Qing asked.
Long Haochen nodded.
The two of them entered a room, and the others naturally looked for other rooms to rest by themselves.
Tian Qing invited Long Haochen to sit, “Currently, our two Demon Hunt Squads are the only ones present here. I’ll not be thanking you again: this feeling will stay engraved in the minds of all of us members of the 17th king grade Demon Hunt Squad. Please don’t call me senior or anything, and we should simply address each other with our names.”
Tian Qing had a very straightforward character, and didn’t ask Long Haochen for his age or the secret techniques he used to kill the Jacques Chief of the eighth step. Every Demon Hunt Squad had their own secrets, and even if everyone was fellow soldiers, asking their fellow’s secrets couldn’t do any good.