Chapter 138: The Fearless Mirror Immortal [Three-in-One]

Snow-Manes can play dead, and they do it extremely convincingly.

This is nothing new.

That the hundreds of barbs on its back could be launched, however, was something Xia Hong truly had not expected.

Thump, thump, thump...

The ground trembled incessantly under the panicked flight of the Snow-Mane. Behind it, amidst the snowflakes dancing across the sky, were the twelve figures of Xia Hong's group in hot pursuit.

"It seems the barbs on its back are its ultimate move. Fortunately, we primarily used bows today; this can be considered a lucky break!"

In the brief gaps while chasing at a fast pace, Xia Hong glanced at the wound on his shoulder, a trace of relief showing in his eyes.

If not for their insufficient strength, he would not have had the other fifteen people scatter and hide in the surrounding trees, hunting the Snow-Mane with bows.

Conversely, if everyone had been stronger and unafraid of a direct confrontation, adopting a close-quarters siege with a dozen people, the Snow-Mane would never have waited until the very end to pull such a trick.

Even though he had been so far away and had jumped down from the tree with the others in advance, he had still been grazed by a barb launched by the Snow-Mane, leaving a wound the size of a palm.

"Why are there three people missing?"

Xia Hong turned his head to check on the others' injuries, only to find that only eight people were following him. He immediately asked.

Zhu Shun and Zou Yuankai were injured, and he had left Qiu Peng and Ying Xuan to care for them. There should still be eleven people with him; it shouldn't be just eight.

Xia Chuan, panting slightly, replied, "Zhao Long and the other two were worried we would run out of arrows, so they stayed behind to collect them. They should catch up soon."

Xia Hong nodded upon hearing this, a look of approval appearing in his eyes.

As they were chasing the Snow-Mane, they indeed only had bows on their backs and no arrows left.

During the hunt just now, the fifteen of them had shot all their arrows. Although the vast majority were still stuck in the Snow-Mane's body, there were quite a few on the ground as well.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap...

"Leader, it's slowing down!"

As the Snow-Mane's footsteps changed, Luo Yuan immediately spoke up to alert him.

Xia Hong looked up and saw the fleeing Snow-Mane's gait becoming unsteady; it was no longer in its previous state of frantic sprinting. A look of joy appeared on his face.

"We should slow down too. Just hang behind it. Be steady, don't get too close, and wait for Zhao Long and the others to bring the arrows."

Despite being ninety percent certain that the Snow-Mane was at the end of its rope,

the scene from earlier had still startled Xia Hong a bit. Heaven knows if this Snow-Mane might have other life-saving trump cards or ultimate moves?

It was better to prioritize caution!

Although Xia Hong thought this to himself, as he watched the Snow-Mane continue to move forward and looked at the path ahead, a trace of worry appeared on his face.

The Snow-Mane had been fleeing westward, which was deeper into the Red Wood Ridge.

In just this short while, it had already led them about three kilometers deeper. And these three kilometers were not from the outer perimeter.

Counting the previous kilometer or so, his group of nine had now penetrated about four or five kilometers into the Red Wood Ridge.

"We cannot continue to go deeper. If we attract other cold beasts, we're done for!"

At this very moment, not just Xia Hong, but the others had also realized that the surrounding environment was completely unfamiliar. The variety of trees had increased, and in the distance, they could even faintly see the silhouettes of some behemoths.

The environment here was significantly quieter than the outer perimeter.

Aside from the commotion caused by the Snow-Mane's flight and their own footsteps, they could hear no other sounds.

Everywhere the eye could see was filled with shadows and darkness.

They had never set foot in this depth of the Red Wood Ridge before.

Once an accident occurred, the outcome would be hard to predict.

Xia Hong felt a struggle in his heart. Reason told him he shouldn't continue the chase, but the craving for the blood of a mid-level cold beast made him reluctant to abandon this heavily wounded, dying Snow-Mane.

"Leader, we're here!"

Fortunately, the three Zhao brothers arrived from behind at this moment.

The three of them had not only arrived, but each was also gripping a bundle of iron arrows in their hands.

"Speed up and get ahead! Keep it contained, don't let it run any further!"

Xia Hong's face was full of pleasant surprise. This was the reason he had shown approval when he heard from Xia Chuan that the three Zhao brothers had gone to fetch arrows.

When the Snow-Mane was fleeing in a panic, he hadn't even thought about the fact that they were out of arrows.

He had only thought that the Snow-Mane was dying and that it would be easily captured if they just followed it for a while.

If not for the Zhao brothers' foresight, they would now be facing grave danger, whether they continued to follow the Snow-Mane deeper or tried to stop it with their lives.

On one hand, most of the iron arrows were stuck in the Snow-Mane; on the other, time had been tight, and the three of them likely hadn't had time to search carefully. The iron arrows the Zhao brothers brought amounted to only about sixty or seventy—not a large quantity.

But these sixty or seventy arrows were enough to issue a final death warrant to the heavily wounded Snow-Mane.

Swish... swish... swish...

Before shooting, the twelve of them had already increased their speed and scattered to both sides of the Snow-Mane.

More than sixty iron arrows flew in succession from the trees on both sides.

Their targets were all aimed directly at the Snow-Mane's skull.

The Snow-Mane's staggering form was knocked about by the continuous barrage of iron arrows from both sides. Its skull, already riddled with arrows and severely damaged, was struck many more times. Its gait began to distort, and its massive body began to twitch and falter.

Finally, after staggering forward for more than twenty meters, the Snow-Mane's vitality began to drain rapidly, and an aura of decay gradually permeated from its massive body.

Bang...

Finally, its four limbs went limp and powerless.

Its massive body crashed to the ground with a loud thud.

"It's finally dead!"

Xia Hong, up in the tree, finally let out a true sigh of relief.

The Snow-Mane's head had been directly blown apart by the continuous iron arrows; never mind blood, even the brain matter inside had spilled out quite a bit.

No matter how well it could play dead, it was finished this time.

"Don't approach yet. I'll go up and check it out alone!"

Although it was a sure thing, Xia Hong still upheld the principle of caution and decided to go over and check it out alone first.

"No need, Leader. I'll go check."

However, before he could finish speaking or move, Xia Chuan had already beaten him to it.

"Why would the Leader need to check personally? I'll go."

"I'll do it."

Even the others scattered on both sides began to compete for the task.

The fact that everyone was scrambling to go forward and confirm it for him caused Xia Hong's tense heartstrings to relax significantly, and a smile appeared on his face.

"Let Xia Chuan go alone. You all wait here with me."

While everyone's behavior was heartwarming, habits still needed to be cultivated. If so many people rushed up together and something really went wrong, they would regret it too late.

The eleven of them didn't wait long. After about ten breaths, Xia Chuan's voice, filled with slight surprise, came from beside the Snow-Mane's corpse.

"No problem, come on over! It's dead through and through!"

Xia Hong leaped down from the tree and was the first to arrive.

Looking at the massive Snow-Mane corpse on the ground, Xia Hong's eyes were full of joy, and he felt the fatigue on his body vanish in an instant.

Even the wound on his shoulder seemed to have eased significantly.

The other ten also arrived one after another.

"Tsk tsk, it's so big!"

"Hahahaha, a mid-level cold beast, so that's all there is to it!"

"This size is nearly two or three times that of a low-level Snow-Mane."

"Seven or eight meters in length; this will probably yield four or five thousand jin of meat."

"I'm afraid it's more than that. It's not just the length; its legs and torso are also several circles larger than the low-level ones. The meat yield will definitely be astonishing."

"We'll know once we bring it back."

"This is a mid-level cold beast. No one in the camps around Red Wood Ridge has ever hunted one before, right? Leader, have we created history today?"

Surrounded by the Snow-Mane's corpse, the group was filled with shock and joy in their words.

It must be said, during the previous hunt, except for Xia Hong who had brief close-quarters contact with this Snow-Mane, the other fourteen had spent the entire time hiding tens or even a hundred meters away, attacking with bows and arrows.

They hadn't realized it just now, but now that they were close, they truly felt for the first time what a behemoth the Snow-Mane they had hunted really was.

"Alright, stop looking. Split five people to go with Xia Chuan and pull out all the arrows from its head; the other five go cut down trees to make a few long wooden poles. We'll use the poles to carry it back later!"

The ten people's exclamations of admiration lasted only a moment. At Xia Hong's command, they immediately split into two groups and began to busy themselves.

"You all can't handle its blood yet, so be careful when pulling the arrows. Don't let it touch your skin."

Actually, Xia Hong didn't even need to remind them. Xia Chuan, who had gone over first to confirm the Snow-Mane's death, was already pulling arrows. Seeing his cautious movements, the others immediately followed suit, not daring to let the blood flowing from the Snow-Mane's body touch them.

Hiss...

Xia Hong gasped, touched his stinging cheeks, and looked down at his chest and arms, which were already torn and bloody. He immediately guessed that his face was likely unrecognizable now as well.

He hadn't reminded the others for no reason; just now, when he was frantically stabbing the Snow-Mane's orifices with his ceremonial blade at the pit, the blood that spurted out had almost covered him entirely.

At the time, a strong burning sensation had surged into his mind, but the battle had been intense, and his attention had been entirely on the Snow-Mane, so he hadn't paid it any mind.

Now that he was relaxed, the pain immediately became intense.

"If I hadn't raised my base strength to the limit of thirty thousand jin in that final period, never mind hunting this Snow-Mane, just the blood it splashed would have cost me half my life!"

Previously, when his base strength was only twenty thousand jin, the temperature of the Rat King's blood could have directly burned through his skin; only by borrowing the cold light of the sun could he eliminate the burns and recover completely.

Now, at the thirty-thousand-jin limit, although this blood still burned him until his skin was torn and bloody, it hadn't damaged his internal flesh and bone, and the pain was lighter than the previous time.

Although his skin was torn and he looked miserable, accompanied by intense pain,

Xia Hong clearly felt that he could endure it, and in the process of enduring, his skin-membrane and base strength were improving significantly.

"It just looks ugly; it should recover quickly..."

It was fortunate that it was night, and because they were so deep in, he didn't dare let anyone light a fire. The others could only see that he was covered in blood; if they saw his terrifying, torn-up appearance right now, they might mistakenly think he was a ghost.

Whew...

"Clean up quickly. We can't stay here long."

Taking a deep breath, Xia Hong endured the intense pain in his body and urged the others to speed up, while he climbed a tree to observe the surroundings.

This was already an area four or five kilometers deep into the Red Wood Ridge. The trees were not only generally much thicker than those on the outer perimeter, but the variety was also significantly greater.

Three or four kilometers to the north, there was a massive area of clouds and mist, which was five or six hundred meters wide by visual estimation alone. To the south, he could see a towering giant tree with an abnormally large diameter in the distance. On that giant tree, dozens of behemoth silhouettes were coiled, each not much different from the Snow-Mane that had just died.

The cloud and mist area to the north should be the territory of a Soaring Flood Dragon, but the cloud and mist area created by a low-level Soaring Flood Dragon was only fifty meters in radius.

Was this five or six hundred meters mid-level, or high-level?

What was that giant tree to the south? A Snow-Mane pack? Or a Frostwolf pack?

Judging by the size, it was highly likely that dozens of mid-level cold beasts were gathered together, and there must be a high-level cold beast leader...

Xia Hong withdrew his gaze. While his heart was shaken, he couldn't help but feel a trace of relief.

The Snow-Mane fleeing for its life just now must have been avoiding the territories of other cold beasts.

From this, one could see that the hierarchy among cold beasts was also strict.

Even when wounded to that state, the Snow-Mane's instinct had compelled it not to enter the territories of other cold beasts.

"We're done cleaning up, Leader."

Hearing Xia Chuan's call from below, Xia Hong leaped down directly.

The arrow quivers on everyone's backs were full again; the Snow-Mane prey had been tied to two long wooden poles with ropes, with two people in front and two behind, carrying it together.

"Alright, let's head back quickly!"

At Xia Hong's command, he took the lead and walked toward the eastern outer perimeter.

Xia Chuan and Luo Yuan stood on either side, Yue Feng and Yuan Cheng followed at the back of the team, and the three Zhao brothers walked directly on the trees, with the four people carrying the prey in the very middle.

They hadn't been hunting for just a day or two; the formation for the return trip had long since become routine.

Without Xia Hong needing to speak, everyone knew what to do.

In the unfamiliar environment, coupled with the gasps and howls of unknown cold beasts coming from time to time, Xia Hong led the group out almost at a run. Within a few minutes, they had traveled more than two li to the east.

If they continued for another one or two li, they would reach the familiar outer perimeter, and they wouldn't be far from leaving the Red Wood Ridge.

Xia Hong turned his head to glance behind him and let out a slight sigh of relief.

"Finally, I can catch my breath. Staying inside there is really suffocating!"

"Me too. It's too dark inside. Even though you can't see a single cold beast, you just feel suffocated from all directions. The cold beasts inside must all have their own territories. It's fortunate we followed that Snow-Mane in; if we had just blundered in, we probably would have lost our lives in minutes."

Luo Yuan and Xia Chuan couldn't help but speak up directly. In the few minutes they had just walked out from inside, the two had been in a state of constant tension, always feeling that something in the shadows was staring at them.

Although the others didn't speak, the expressions on their faces indicated that they clearly hadn't felt relaxed in those few minutes either.

"Don't talk, keep moving. We'll be out soon!"

Xia Hong interrupted their discussion and led the group to continue increasing their speed.

Swish...

=9+Book_Bar

After moving forward less than two hundred meters, suddenly, a swift arrow pierced the air, flying horizontally from left to right about ten meters in front of Xia Hong, and stuck directly into a large tree on the right.

Crack... bang...

Xia Hong's expression tightened slightly. Before he could react, the sound of trees breaking and collapsing came from the left.

"Someone's there?"

"Be careful."

"It's from the north."

"It's that tree, it fell."

The commotion of their group moving wasn't loud, and the sound of the arrow piercing the air was exceptionally clear. Before Xia Hong could speak, the others had already become vigilant.

Xia Hong had already turned his head to look to the left, which was the northern direction of the Red Wood Ridge, his brows knitting slightly.

To the north, about a hundred meters away.

After the large tree Xia Chuan mentioned collapsed, a behemoth eight or nine meters in length rolled down from the tree, making a loud noise.

Arrows like raindrops from all around were frantically shooting toward that behemoth.

At the same time, a figure holding a giant broadsword leaped down from the nearest large tree and jumped directly onto the head of that behemoth.

"There are outsiders who broke in to hunt!"

"Is it that group from last time?"

"It should be that group from the Mirror Immortal camp."

"It's only them. Besides them, there are no other camps."

"They didn't even say hello and just broke in, humph!"

This was clearly a group of people, just like them, hunting a mid-level cold beast. How could Xia Chuan and the others not understand?

Everyone spoke up one after another, their tones filled with anger.

After falling silent, they all cast their gazes toward Xia Hong, who had yet to say a word.

"Go over and take a look!"

Xia Hong naturally understood what everyone was thinking. His expression was also somewhat gloomy. He hadn't found anyone from the Mirror Immortal camp on the outer perimeter just now and had assumed they hadn't crossed the boundary.

Unexpectedly, not only had the other party crossed the boundary, but they had even penetrated two kilometers deep and started hunting right here.

The Red Wood Ridge had long been viewed by Xia Hong as the territory of Great Xia, and the resources within were undoubtedly the exclusive property of Great Xia.

The Mirror Immortal camp's act of directly crossing the boundary clearly indicated that they didn't put the Great Xia camp in their eyes at all.

"Put down the prey. Xia Chuan and Luo Yuan, just come out with me. The other nine, all find good positions first. I want to see just how arrogant this Mirror Immortal camp can be!"

Choosing to hunt at night; adopting the same bow-shooting method as them; plus the fact that the person holding the broadsword was using evasive tactics while fighting the behemoth.

From these three points alone, Xia Hong could roughly judge that the other party's personnel configuration and strongest combat power were likely similar to theirs.

Xia Hong knew that the Mirror Immortal camp had Frost-Resistant level combat power.

But for such a high-risk hunt, Xia Hong didn't believe for a second that the Frost-Resistant level would hide in the shadows and let these Earth-Digging Realm people fight the cold beast.

Since the Frost-Resistant level expert wasn't there, the other party's strength was similar to theirs, and they were currently entangled with a cold beast, it would be a pity not to go up and manage this group from the Mirror Immortal camp when such a good opportunity presented itself.

Zhao Long led the other eight to scatter and immediately climbed the large trees, setting up longbows in the shadows and aiming at the few people from the Mirror Immortal camp whose positions had been exposed. Clearly, they all understood Xia Hong's meaning.

Xia Hong, meanwhile, took Xia Chuan and Luo Yuan and approached directly.

As they got closer, the three also saw the true appearance of that behemoth.

It was a Golden-Eyed Demon Sheep that all three were very familiar with, except its body length was nearly nine meters, and its shoulder height was a full five or six meters. Standing, it was like a building. The white mane covering its back hung down four or five meters from both sides, looking exactly like two gray-white curtains.

The most terrifying part was its back, which grew sixteen golden eyes as large as lanterns.

Five pairs of them had already been struck by iron arrows, and blood was gurgling out.

The other eleven pairs were continuously erupting with blinding golden light. Those strong lights were like sharp arrows, shooting toward the person holding the broadsword and the other archers hiding in the surrounding trees.

The Golden-Eyed Demon Sheep's size was too massive; when it sprinted, it made the surrounding earth tremble incessantly. Its impact force was even greater than that of the Snow-Mane from just now, let alone the surrounding large trees.

In just this short while, more than a dozen large trees around it had already been smashed and knocked down. Within a radius of nearly a hundred meters, one couldn't find a single intact tree.

While seeing the Golden-Eyed Demon Sheep clearly, Xia Hong and the other two naturally also saw the person fighting it clearly.

Being too far away, they couldn't see the face clearly, only that the figure was burly, dressed in black, and holding a giant broadsword about 1.5 meters long and over 20 centimeters wide in both hands.

Never mind the sharpness of that broadsword; its form was extremely exaggerated.

An ordinary person probably couldn't even pick it up.

Yet in that person's hands, it was as light as nothing.

Waving, hacking, blocking, smashing, and retracting—it was incredibly fluid.

What was even rarer was that he could also use the potential energy of the broadsword to adjust his body, constantly circling with the Demon Sheep, and from time to time, he could even use the sword to carve several deep wounds on the Demon Sheep.

Iron arrows from the large trees all around constantly shot toward the Demon Sheep, and their targets were all the golden eyes on its back. Moreover, the iron arrows of one of the people were extremely precise, always shooting accurately when the Golden Sheep tried to erupt with strong light to suppress the black-clad person, preventing the Golden Sheep from unleashing the strong light.

Bang...

The Demon Sheep seized an opportunity to lower its head and charge. The black-clad person was caught off guard and could only raise his broadsword to block. Unsurprisingly, he and his sword were both sent into mid-air.

Seizing this opportunity, the golden eyes on the Demon Sheep's back opened simultaneously. Ignoring the iron arrows shooting from the trees in all directions, it erupted with eleven golden strong lights directly at the black-clad person in mid-air.

Pfft... pfft...

"Roar..."

The sound of seven or eight iron arrows piercing eyeballs in succession resounded throughout the field, followed immediately by the Demon Sheep's painful roar.

Xia Hong's gaze, however, was fixed on that black-clad person. Noticing a beam of strong light passing through his abdomen, his brows twitched slightly.

"Big Brother, did he get hit?"

"He was hit. The black-clad person should be injured, and not lightly."

Xia Hong only twitched his brows, but Xia Chuan and Luo Yuan beside him didn't have so many scruples. Joy appeared directly on their faces as they spoke to Xia Hong.

"Don't talk yet. Their strength is not bad. This Demon Sheep is dead for sure!"

Although the Demon Sheep had successfully injured the black-clad person, the eleven golden eyeballs on its back were also gone, one by one, under a round of continuous iron arrow fire.

"Roar... roar... roar..."

With all sixteen golden eyes on its back blinded, the Demon Sheep's final ferocity seemed to have been ignited. Its body leaped violently, and it raised its head and roared incessantly.

After the black-clad person in the distance landed, he had just torn off a strip of cloth to bind the wound on his abdomen when the Demon Sheep charged fiercely toward him.

"Boss!"

"Brothers, we can't let this beast hurt the Boss."

"This evil beast is blind, what are we afraid of!"

"Charge!"

Several angry roars came from the large trees all around. A total of more than twenty people leaped down from the trees in a swarm and immediately charged toward the Demon Sheep.

These twenty-plus people had bows on their backs; clearly, those arrows from just now had all been shot by them. They each held a large saber in their hands, and their angry roars accompanied by their charging posture exuded a fearless, fierce temperament.

Of course, although they were fast,

the Demon Sheep was faster.

The black-clad person they called Boss clearly hadn't pinned his hopes on these twenty-plus people. After binding his wound, he raised his broadsword and dodged sideways.

The six sharp horns of this mid-level Demon Sheep were each two or three meters long. When it charged straight ahead, its lateral attack range was also astonishingly large.

The black-clad person's speed was fast, but compared to the Demon Sheep, human physique had an innate disadvantage, not to mention that his speed was not as good as its.

Pfft...

Just as Xia Hong had expected, the black-clad person's left shoulder was directly pierced by one of the Demon Sheep's sharp horns. But the next scene completely exceeded Xia Hong's expectations.

With his left shoulder pierced, the black-clad person didn't hesitate at all. He grabbed the broadsword with both hands, sank down violently, bypassed the Demon Sheep's sharp horn, and aimed directly at its neck.

Pfft...

"This strength is above mine..."

Seeing that sinking broadsword pierce more than half a meter into the Demon Sheep's neck, Xia Hong's pupils shrank, and his heart felt a slight chill.

He had just experienced the bones and skin of a mid-level cold beast. At such a close distance, to pierce the neck, the strength erupted in an instant, he conservatively estimated, must be at least over forty thousand jin.

Even borrowing the Long Fist technique, he could only erupt with thirty-six thousand jin of strength at most.

This black-clad person's base strength was definitely above his.

With the broadsword inserted into the Demon Sheep's neck, the intense pain caused its body to stagger immediately.

It tried to force its four limbs to stabilize its body, but on the other side, the twenty-plus people who had come down from the trees didn't give it this opportunity.

Those twenty people had a clear division of labor: ten charged directly at its skull, and the remaining ten-plus split into five groups, attacking its four limbs and tail respectively.

The Demon Sheep's size was too massive. The twenty-plus people had only hacked a few times before they were kicked away by its randomly thrashing limbs.

Bone fractures, vomiting blood, broken hands, broken feet, sabers kicked away, people sent flying more than ten meters, and some even heavily wounded and unconscious, not knowing if they were dead or alive.

The fate of those twenty-plus people was nothing more than these few types.

But what shocked Xia Hong and the other two was that, except for those who were unconscious and heavily wounded, everyone else, as long as they could move, without exception, all continued to pick up their sabers and charge up again.

They seemed to have no fear of death at all.

The twenty-plus people took turns hacking and killing, and coupled with the black-clad person in the lead constantly using the broadsword to cause damage to the Demon Sheep's skull, after more than a hundred breaths, the Demon Sheep's four limbs finally began to tremble, and its body also lacked the strength to continue, beginning to stagger.

"Brothers, it's almost there. Hold on a little longer, this Demon Sheep will fall immediately."

"It wasn't in vain that I hacked it a dozen times; the edge is all rolled."

"It's fine, we'll just sharpen it when we go back. What does iron count for?"

"Boss, how are you?"

Seeing the Demon Sheep tottering, the group still wielding sabers and hacking immediately shouted and talked excitedly. Finally, one person cared about the black-clad person and asked with slight concern.

"I'm fine. Everyone retreat first. This Demon Sheep has no strength left to escape..."

Xia Hong, Xia Chuan, and Luo Yuan, who had been watching from the sidelines for a long time, heard the black-clad person's voice for the first time. The three of them were stunned, and they didn't even notice that the black-clad person had paused before finishing his sentence.

This black-clad person's voice was actually very young.

No, it was excessively young.

Judging by the voice, he seemed to be about the same as Xia Chuan, only sixteen or seventeen years old.

"Follow me first and welcome our friends from Great Xia!"

The three people on the large tree, who were somewhat stunned, heard the black-clad person's subsequent words, and their expressions changed slightly.

They had actually been discovered by this person.

Since they had been discovered, the three didn't hide anymore and jumped down from the tree directly.

Xia Hong's expression was low, and he led the two of them to walk forward slowly, stopping only when they were ten meters away from the other party.

"You brought so many people to trespass on my Great Xia territory and hunt privately. This 'friend' title, I, Xia Hong, dare not accept!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 139 =====