Chapter 36: The Five-Person Squad's Lives Hang by a Thread

A group of Red-Tailed Fire Bulls had just finished drinking water and were preparing to rest.

Suddenly, a stone flew in from not far away and struck the head of the leading Fire Bull Lord; it looked toward the direction from which the stone had flown.

Dozens of meters away, a human stood there, though no one knew when he had arrived.

Chen Xiaohu wiggled his backside at them, "Big dummies, come and chase me!"

A look of brutality appeared in the Fire Bull Lord's eyes; the genes carved into their bones made them hate humans, and seeing a mere human dare to provoke it, it immediately roared angrily at the sky.

"Roar——!!"

The roar spread throughout the entire oasis.

Soon, dozens of Red-Tailed Fire Bulls were seen charging out of the oasis, rushing toward that tiny human.

"Holy crap!"

Chen Xiaohu dared not be careless; seeing that the goal had been achieved, he hurriedly used every ounce of his strength to sprint toward the target point.

However, his two legs were clearly no match for the Red-Tailed Fire Bulls, and the distance between the two sides was visibly shrinking.

One of the early-stage Third-tier Red-Tailed Fire Bulls whipped its two-meter-long tail, striking Chen Xiaohu on the backside, causing him to yelp in pain and increase his speed by another notch.

Not far ahead, Fang Lin revealed a look of envy:

"As expected of an SSS-grade Talent; if that tail strike just now had hit any of us, we would have been severely injured, but for Brother Hu, it didn't even break the skin."

"Yeah!"

The three of them nodded in agreement.

During their conversation, Chen Xiaohu had already taken over a dozen 'whips' to his backside.

Even the Fire Bull Lord had confusion in its eyes, not understanding how this human before it could be so resilient. Moreover, the barbs on its tail could not actually pierce this human's body.

A distance of several hundred meters is not long; for a Martial Artist, two breaths are enough to cover it.

Chen Xiaohu successfully led the Red-Tailed Fire Bull herd to the trap.

Xiao Xiao shouted from the opposite side to remind him: "Brother Hu, jump!"

The next second, Chen Xiaohu exerted all his strength to leap high, easily clearing the five-meter-wide ravine.

But the Red-Tailed Fire Bull herd behind him was not so lucky; they were single-mindedly chasing the human before them and could not react in time to the ravine ahead, falling in one by one.

Only the three Red-Tailed Fire Bulls at the very end of the herd managed to stop their momentum.

Dozens of Fragment Bombs were triggered!

"Boom——!!"

The explosion shockwave spread for hundreds of meters, and the Second-tier Red-Tailed Fire Bulls crushed at the very bottom were all killed.

With their companions absorbing the damage, plus the sturdy physical bodies of the Third-tier Fierce Beasts, those dozen or so Third-tier Red-Tailed Fire Bulls only suffered minor injuries, with sharp fragments piercing their legs and limiting their movement.

"Now!"

Xiao Xiao and Tian Qi held blades and swords, unleashing sharp Slashes that accurately hit the weak points of the surviving Red-Tailed Fire Bulls: their necks.

The wails of the Fierce Beasts resounded through the heavens and earth, and the smell of blood spread out.

Fang Lin was bare-handed, but his combat power was the highest among the five; he quickly finished off the three Second-tier peak Red-Tailed Fire Bulls that had failed to fall into the trap, their heads smashed to pieces by brute force.

Everything was going according to plan, yet they had underestimated the Fire Bull Lord's defensive power.

Their attacks were too weak for the late-stage Third-tier Fire Bull Lord.

"Roar——!!"

The Fire Bull Lord roared, stepped on the corpses of its kin to leap out of the ravine, and charged at Xiao Xiao and the other with reddened eyes.

"Not good! This beast has charged out!"

The two turned to run, but the Fire Bull Lord, in a berserk state, had greatly increased speed and sent them both flying with a headbutt.

Xiao Xiao and the other fell to the ground, severely injured and unable to fight for a short time.

Immediately after, the Fire Bull Lord's gaze locked onto the human woman preparing to heal the two, its nostrils releasing heavy breaths, waves of heat rolling off it!

Clearly, it was about to launch a charge.

"Xiao Rou!" Fang Lin's scalp went numb as he prepared to provide support.

But before he could move, the two remaining severely injured Third-tier Red-Tailed Fire Bulls in the ravine also rushed out, blocking his path.

With no other choice, Fang Lin could only look at Chen Xiaohu, the only one not entangled, and roar:

"Brother Hu, hurry and help Xiao Rou! Once I finish off these two beasts, I'll come help you all!"

"Ah... me?"

Chen Xiaohu looked at the berserk Fire Bull Lord and couldn't help but swallow; this was different from being a decoy—this meant standing there and letting the Fire Bull Lord hit him.

His talent was being able to take a hit.

But even if it couldn't break his defense, it still hurt when it hit him.

"Brother Hu! Save me!"

Xiao Rou used all her strength to cry for help, but Chen Xiaohu stood where he was, still hesitating.

The Fire Bull Lord didn't care about that; after finishing its charge-up, it rushed directly toward the human woman not far away, and Xiao Rou, who was the weakest in terms of strength, had her abdomen pierced by those fiery red horns without any effort!

A large amount of blood gushed from the wound in her abdomen, and until the very end, her gaze remained fixed on Chen Xiaohu.

A pair of fair hands dropped powerlessly.

"Xiao Rou!" Fang Lin's eyes turned red, his face full of disbelief, and even more full of confusion.

Why, exactly?

Just in this moment of distraction, a Fire Bull seized the opportunity and accurately whipped Fang Lin away, blood spraying everywhere.

Chen Xiaohu stood frozen in place, at a loss for what to do.

Fortunately, at this moment, a troop arrived from the rear, wearing military uniforms and covered in dried blood.

It was a team of military Martial Artists.

They had just finished their mission and were preparing to return through the Rift when they heard the sounds of battle over here, so they stopped by to investigate and happened to witness the scene of Fang Lin being sent flying.

The captain leading them realized these people were Academy students, and his expression turned ugly:

"A Spirit Sea Realm cultivator daring to bring a group of Spirit-Guiding Realm students into a Tier 3 Rift is simply reckless!"

"Go help them, quickly!"

The members of the team behind him all attacked at once, each of them radiating the aura of the Spirit Sea Realm.

The two already-injured Tier 3 Red-Tailed Fire Oxen had their heads cleanly severed in just a few strokes.

As for that Red Ox Lord, under the siege of the group, it soon closed its eyes in unwillingness, lying on the desert covered in wounds, its life force completely extinguished.

The battle ended very quickly.

After checking the injuries of the four, one team member reported:

"Captain, the foundations of those two who are heavily injured have been damaged; even if they can continue to cultivate after they recover, they will reach the Spirit Sea Realm at most. As for that female student... she has already stopped breathing."

At this moment, upon hearing the news, Fang Lin, as if losing control, ignored his own injuries and rushed in front of Chen Xiaohu, grabbed his collar, and roared:

"I told you to go help Xiao Rou just now, why didn't you go help her!"

"It's clear that if you had just gone over to withstand the Fire Ox Lord's attack, Xiao Rou wouldn't have had an accident! Xiao Xiao and Tian Qi's foundations wouldn't have been damaged either; it's all your fault! Why didn't you go help just now!!"

Chen Xiaohu lowered his head, "I... I'm afraid of pain."

Fang Lin was so angry he laughed upon hearing this reason and punched Chen Xiaohu hard in the face.

"If you're afraid of pain, then why the hell are you a Martial Artist!!!"

"Xiao Rou was my girlfriend, my parents and her parents had already talked it over; as soon as we graduated from the Academy, we could get married immediately, but now Xiao Rou is dead because of you!!"