Chapter 121: Seizing the Initiative

Swish!

In the densely wooded forest, Li Luo's figure darted past at high speed, his hands gripping the hilts of the twin blades at his waist, his entire body taut, ready to enter combat at any moment.

He didn't know exactly how many students were in this area, nor which heavy hitters might be hiding among them, so he absolutely could not let his guard down.

Li Luo looked up and glanced at the pillar of light overhead; with the dense forest's cover, the pillar was no longer so obvious, but as those people gradually approached the area he was in, they should still be able to see it.

"This pillar of light should have some duration. If I can drag things out until the pillar fades, then the encirclement will basically be broken." Li Luo's expression turned solemn, his thoughts racing like lightning.

But for now, he still had to figure out how to deal with being surrounded by so many people.

Although with his current strength, in a one-on-one fight, apart from those top three ranked individuals, he shouldn't fear anyone, but two fists can't fight four hands—once surrounded, he would inevitably fall into a disadvantage.

They'd wear him down just by attrition.

So what to do?

A fierce glint flashed through Li Luo's eyes. It wasn't that there was no way out—he could head straight into the deep mountains, where there were many spirit beasts. As long as he hid in there, anyone wanting to come in and encircle him would have to pass through those spirit beasts' territory, and by then those spirit beasts would become his best guards.

So now he had to take advantage of the encirclement not yet being truly formed and head into the deep mountains.

Whoosh!

Thinking this, Li Luo sped up again, bursting through the thicket ahead. But the moment he broke out, he saw three figures rushing toward him from the opposite direction, and in an instant the two sides came face to face.

Those three students, seeing Li Luo burst out, were for a moment still a bit slow to react.

Li Luo's heart sank, and without waiting for any reaction from them, he shouted urgently, "Did you guys see the person with the pillar of light on his head?!"

Directly seizing the initiative by striking first.

The three, hearing this, instinctively shook their heads.

"You guys go left, I'll go right, don't let him escape!" Li Luo shouted loudly, his figure crossing past them as he crashed headfirst into the dense forest.

These three students looked a bit bewildered—who was this person? Why was he ordering us around?

"He's also looking for the person with the pillar of light on his head?" one young man asked.

"But... he also has a pillar of light on his head," another young man said with a blank expression.

"Could it be that more than just that Li Luo has a pillar of light on his head?"

The three exchanged glances, feeling something was off. After several breaths, the god of wisdom finally smiled upon them again, and the three burst out cursing: "Damn it, that person is Li Luo!"

"Chase him!"

"Kill him! How dare he make fools of us!"

The three were utterly shamed and furious. That bastard Li Luo was truly too hateful—meeting them, he struck first and preemptively, leaving them completely dumbfounded. After all, they had never seen someone being encircled actually pull a thief-shouting-"stop thief" trick.

The three hurriedly chased after the direction Li Luo had fled.

But when they charged at full speed into the dense forest, suddenly several balls of light came shooting toward them from the front. The next instant, a blinding flash erupted right before their eyes, and the three immediately let out screams.

A figure slid out from the side thicket, blue phase force seeming to form a curtain of water beneath him, making his speed extremely fast. As his figure swept past, blade light slashed across the three's legs, bringing up a spray of fresh blood.

These three students immediately tumbled to the ground, screaming continuously. Li Luo had directly rendered them unable to walk in the short term.

And by then their vision finally gradually recovered, but all they could see was a back holding twin blades, disappearing from sight.

Such decisiveness, ruthlessness, and shameless style made these three feel a bit of dread for a moment.

But Li Luo didn't really care what these three thought. After swiftly dealing with them, he continued at full speed racing toward the deep part of these mountains.

He didn't dare waste a single moment, because judging from the speed at which those three had appeared, there were probably more and more students rushing over to join this encirclement.

Hopefully he'd make it in time.

And while Li Luo was racing at full speed toward the deep mountains, trying to use the spirit beasts to defend himself against the encirclement, several miles away from this spot—

In a small forest, signal flares rose into the air one after another.

Seeing Yu Lang sat on a tree trunk, frowning as he gazed toward the distant direction, where a pillar of light shooting skyward could faintly be seen flickering in and out of view.

After watching for a while, he flipped down, found Zhao Kuo who had fired the signal flare. The two of them had happened to run into each other, and since they were both in this area, they had both received the mission to encircle Li Luo.

"That jinx Li Luo, I don't know what he did, but he actually stirred up this kind of mission," Seeing Yu Lang complained to Zhao Kuo.

"I told you, being this handsome, sooner or later you'll have to pay for it."

Zhao Kuo frowned and said, "This mission is too strange. Which Purple-Glow Mentor is testing Brother Luo?"

"Test my ass, this is clearly targeting him." Seeing Yu Lang snorted coldly and said, "An encirclement of this scale—even if it were Qin Qin Zhulu, who's ranked first, he might not be able to handle it. With this many people, they'd just pile up and kill him."

"The signal's been out for a while now. If Zong Fu, Chi Su, Xiang Liang and the others saw it, I wonder if they'll come according to the agreement," Zhao Kuo said.

"Whatever, I wasn't really counting on them anyway," Seeing Yu Lang said.

"Seeing Yu Lang, stop gossiping behind people's backs all day like some woman." From within the thicket, a cursing voice suddenly rang out. Seeing Yu Lang turned his head and saw three figures running over, panting.

"Oh, quite a neat lineup," Seeing Yu Lang said with a smile.

"If you've got something to say, spit it out—what do we need to do?" Zong Fu said irritably.

"Since everyone's here, I'll just say it. Li Luo should be in trouble this time, and it's no small matter, so I plan to help him out," Seeing Yu Lang said.

Zong Fu pondered for a moment and said, "Don't say I'm throwing cold water on you, but an encirclement of this level—even if we go, we'd just be delivering ourselves as food."

"Do you guys remember what Vice Principal Su Xin said before? In this Mentor Selection Competition, it's not only by defeating spirit beasts that you can obtain gold and silver Fu Yin—our performance might also determine the final outcome."

Seeing Yu Lang smiled, pointing at the faintly visible pillar of light in the distance, and said, "Right now a lot of people have gone to join the encirclement of Li Luo. Even if we go join in, we probably won't get much of a showing. So how about we flip our thinking? This position just happens to be able to block students coming from the southwest direction. We set up a trap here and take out some lone students joining the encirclement. If we succeed in the end, not only can we share some of the pressure for Li Luo, but in a sense, we might also be able to earn some special performance points."

"I believe those Purple-Glow Mentors should be watching this Mentor Selection Competition at all times. Maybe they'll think a few of us have brains and take us in."

The others exchanged glances—they hadn't expected Seeing Yu Lang's plan to be this.

"I agree," Zhao Kuo nodded. Since it could help Li Luo and also earn him some performance, naturally he had no objections.

Zong Fu and the other two hesitated for a moment, and finally Zong Fu gritted his teeth and said, "I can help too, but afterwards you have to tell Li Luo that what I really wanted to do was latch onto Senior Sister Jiang's thigh!"

Xiang Liang and Chi Su, seeing Zong Fu nod, had no objections either. With their strength, the best they could aim for was a Gold-Glow Fu Yin, so as long as Seeing Yu Lang's method could get them that kind of result, it was enough for them to take the risk.

"So what do we do next?" the three asked.

Seeing Yu Lang said solemnly, "Next, it's time for our great actors to step up."

Hearing this, Zhao Kuo's expression immediately became honest, straightforward, and wooden—making anyone who saw him instinctively feel a sense of trust.

The three of them stared blankly at Zhao Kuo, who had changed so drastically, then sighed in admiration—this bastard really is a talent too. How could a tiny South Wind Academy produce both of you freaks of nature at the same time?

(One chapter today.)