Chapter 131: Elf Clan

Lin Yifan's brows were tightly knit, his gaze sweeping back and forth between the giant tree and the Qingling Fruit tree.

His intuition told him that the danger hidden here was far more than just the Bloodsucking Vine.

Mao Mao's injury obviously had another hidden story; thinking of that arrowhead only made alarm bells ring loudly in his heart.

"Could there be other people here?"

Lin Yifan muttered under his breath, his eyes warily scanning the surroundings.

However, aside from those tiger-eyed Bloodsucking Vines, he found no trace of anyone else.

The flames of the fire crackled in the night, sending out "popping" sounds that dispelled some darkness and chill.

But he couldn't keep wasting time like this; his Pathfinding Spirit buff had less than three hours left.

If he couldn't return to the Shelter before this buff disappeared, he might get lost in this mist-filled night.

So, he had to act quickly!

But he now found himself in a dilemma.

Should he choose to retreat now, or try to pluck the remaining Qingling Fruit before leaving?

If he chose to leave now, all he needed was to break through the Bloodsucking Vine encirclement to leave safely.

But after traveling so far, could he really return empty-handed?

Lin Yifan felt somewhat unwilling!

More importantly, he felt he had been targeted!

Although he didn't see anyone around using a bow and arrow who had injured Mao Mao, he could still sense an invisible threat that had enveloped him.

Even if he wanted to leave now, the other side probably wouldn't be willing to let him go.

Moreover, though the Shelter wasn't exactly close, it wasn't far either.

If there were other humans or other races here, it was now clear they meant him ill.

If he didn't get to the bottom of this now, he would inevitably face them later.

By then, he would be in the open while they remained in the dark, making them even harder to deal with.

But in front of the Qingling Fruit tree, it was different: it was obvious he wanted the Qingling Fruit, and the other side wanted it too.

Then as long as he seized the Qingling Fruit, he wouldn't fear the other side not showing up!

Therefore, plotting to obtain the Qingling Fruit was a must!

Lin Yifan carefully began to think about how he could get close to the Qingling Fruit.

Bloodsucking Vines fear fire; otherwise... could he burn a fire path over?

That actually seemed possible!

However, he had no dry wood on hand, and if he wanted to burn a viable path, the amount of dry wood needed wasn't a small number.

But he didn't have any; the trading market surely wouldn't be lacking!

He directly opened the chat channel, didn't bother to look at the constantly scrolling messages, and sent a message:

"Blueberry for dry wood — interested parties, place an instant order in the trading district."

Then he opened the trading district and placed an order there.

What he lacked least was blueberries; his blueberry tree had always been planted in Cultivation Soil, and even ordinary Cultivation Soil could yield a batch every three to five days.

Even if he had used many blueberries to make jam, there were still over ten or twenty jin stored in his space.

While most survivors could now make it this far and weren't lacking food much, fruit remained a scarce commodity.

But dry wood was now plentiful for most people, and since everyone needed it for the fire, most would prepare some dry wood and keep it in the Shelter.

As soon as he sent this message, the order he had posted on the trading hall was quickly bought up.

In less than a minute, he received nearly 100 units of dry wood.

Earlier he had used a dozen or so dry wood to burn a fire pile covering roughly one square meter, and from his current position to the Qingling Fruit tree was about fifteen or sixteen meters.

So to lay a fire path over, he would need at least close to 200 units of dry wood.

Fortunately, the district had plenty of survivors, and the exchange rate he posted was also quite tempting.

Five blueberries could be exchanged for one unit of wood, so after two minutes he had obtained the wood he needed.

And he didn't waste time; as soon as he got the wood, he immediately started burning the fire.

As each fire pile ignited, the distance between him and the Qingling Fruit tree grew ever closer.

Lin Yifan also grew increasingly wary as the distance shortened.

Because as he approached, those Bloodsucking Vines that had originally been waving around out of fear of fire, now, under their protective instinct, actually began to overcome their fear of the fire.

Originally those Bloodsucking Vines were waving about five or six meters away from him, but once he came within ten meters of the Qingling Fruit tree, they began constantly trying to overcome the fire.

Lin Yifan could be sure that, if this continued, the half‑lived instinct to guard the tree would certainly enable these Bloodsucking Vines to overcome their fear of the fire, break through the fire's defense, and attack him.

Lin Yifan dared not be careless, so he simply exchanged some more dry wood and made the fire bigger and stronger.

This in turn made those Bloodsucking Vines feel a bit fearful again, causing them to retreat a considerable distance.

This let Lin Yifan breathe a sigh of relief, and so on his way forward he kept making the fire bigger and bigger.

He also worried a little that the huge fire might spark a forest fire.

But he soon realized his worry was unnecessary.

Because aside from the spots where the dry wood was piled, the flames could not spread at all, probably because it had been raining nonstop lately and the forest floor was soaked.

This also let him breathe easier, but even so he didn't let his guard down, for as he drew nearer to the Qingling Fruit tree, the hidden danger lurking behind the Bloodsucking Vines finally appeared.

"Whoosh!"

Just when he was only a few steps from the Qingling Fruit tree, suddenly a sharp whistling sound came from above.

Lin Yifan's pupils contracted, his body instinctively dodged to the side, and a sharp arrow grazed his shoulder before embedding deep into the ground.

"Sure enough there's someone here, you finally deigned to show up!!" Lin Yifan's heart jumped, and he quickly lifted his head to look in the direction the arrow had come from.

However, the dense canopy blocked his view; he could not see the attacker's position at all, and he couldn't help but narrow his eyes and say:

We're already at this point, still hiding? Do you want to remain a shrinking turtle forever?

However, the attacker was far calmer than he imagined, completely unaffected by his provocation, and remained hidden in the dark.

However, although the attacker stayed hidden, he clearly had a temper.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Several more arrows shot toward Lin Yifan, clearly intending to teach him a lesson.

However, what struck Lin Yifan as odd was that these arrows came from different directions, not the same one.

This showed that the hidden attackers were not a single individual, but a group.

This made Lin Yifan increasingly cautious; he swiftly swung his machete to block, then quickly retreated behind a large boulder.

Behind the boulder there was also a firepit, which he had prepared beforehand as an escape route.

His initial battle plan was to use himself as bait, lure the hidden attackers out, then retreat behind the boulder and find a way to attack with the Wind-Chasing Cloud-Breaking Bow.

His Wind-Chasing Cloud-Breaking Bow had a target-locking function, so as long as he could lure the attackers out, his arrows could kill them.

But things didn't go as he expected; although the attackers had launched an attack, they never revealed their silhouettes, remaining hidden in the dark.

This left him unable to use the Wind-Chasing Cloud-Breaking Bow to attack, forcing him to merely endure the blows passively for the time being.

Moreover, after he hid behind the boulder, the attackers ceased their assault, because every arrow they shot was blocked by the boulder.

This gave Lin Yifan a hint of suspicion!

He had originally been curious why the Bloodsucking Vine attacked him but not those attackers.

Now he could be certain that the Bloodsucking Vine was capable of attacking those attackers; they were simply staying in a fixed safe spot.

And if they left that safe spot, they would likewise suffer the Bloodsucking Vine's attack.

Upon realizing this, Lin Yifan instantly devised a countermeasure.

When those attackers previously assaulted him, Lin Yifan had been defending all along, but his gaze had been fixed on the direction each arrow came from.

With his current eyesight and the intelligence boost from the Qingling Fruit, he could now clearly see the direction each arrow originated from.

He didn't even need to find the attackers; he only needed to attack in the direction the arrows appeared!

Lin Yifan raised his Wind-Chasing Cloud-Breaking Bow, sneered, and said:

"You don't like coming out, huh? Well then, don't come out!"

Having spoken, he loosed an arrow toward the direction where the earliest arrow had appeared!

Hmph!

Instantly, a strange muffled grunt sounded.

Upon hearing that sound, Lin Yifan immediately knew that although this sword hadn't killed the attacker, it had definitely wounded him!

He then took another arrow from his space and shot again in that direction.

Pfft!

This arrow finally gave Lin Yifan the expected feedback.

The direction his arrow hit, a corpse fell down!

The firelight from the blaze allowed Lin Yifan to roughly make out the corpse's appearance.

"Indeed, not human!"

"Because humans don't have wings, yet this corpse does!"

The corpse's appearance was similar to a human's, but on its back it bore a pair of wings, dark green interlaced with black patterns, resembling dragonfly wings at first glance.

Moreover, the dragonfly person's features differed from humans; its skin was also dark green, topped with a head of light purple hair, and the exposed skin bore black patterns similar to those on the wings.

It was like a green-skinned, tattooed flamboyant youth from head to toe!

Although Lin Yifan had previously suspected that the one who attacked Mao Mao was not human.

Furthermore, inside the instance he himself had turned into an otherworldly merfolk, but an instance is still an instance—no one knows whether what happens there is illusion or reality.

But now, what he sees is truly real!

Faced with a genuine otherworldly race, even though Lin Yifan had been mentally prepared, he still found it hard to believe.

But whether they were otherworldly or human, Lin Yifan would not let anyone who threatened him go unpunished.

Killing the first one was enough to prove that all his earlier suppositions were accurate.

He therefore without hesitation nocked an arrow and aimed at the second position!

The first arrow aimed at the second position missed, but the second arrow still hit, and another dragonfly person's corpse fell down.

Lin Yifan then without hesitation turned toward the third direction.

And at that moment, the dragonfly people who had been hiding in the dark could no longer conceal themselves.

These dragonfly people swiftly flew down from all directions, all targeting Lin Yifan.

But as soon as they entered the Bloodsucking Vine's attack range, countless vines began to lash about.

In one instance, without even a scream, they were directly sucked dry by the Bloodsucking Vine into a desiccated corpse.

The remaining dragonfly people then rushed into the firelight's range, which is how they managed to survive.

Even so, two of the dragonfly people were still wounded.

Thus, at this moment, the number of uninjured dragonfly people was actually fewer than three.

At this point, the distance between Lin Yifan and them was only about five or six meters.

However, Lin Yifan dared not shoot directly, because while he aimed at them, they would also hit him.

Moreover, he was alone, while the enemy, though only three were uninjured, the two wounded could still draw their bows.

Thus, if they really engaged in an exchange of arrows, he would be the one at a disadvantage!

However, these dragonfly people were quite united; their leader actually spoke up voluntarily:

"Human, this is our elves' territory; you shouldn't have intruded!"

Lin Yifan was surprised to discover that, although he couldn't understand a single word of what these people were saying, he could still grasp their meaning.

He carefully recalled what had happened to him recently and could be certain that he had never learned the language of all races.

So how exactly could he understand it?

Wait, could it be that Obsidian Shard from the Instance?

Lin Yifan only after seeing that Obsidian Shard in the Instance could he finally understand those foreign scripts and also comprehend Keluositin's words.

It now appears that what he learned in the Instance was not lost after leaving it, but became one of his skills.

That's actually a good thing!

Having figured out the crux, Lin Yifan no longer dwelled on it, but instead focused his attention on these few foreign beings before him.

He had thought they were Dragonfly People, but unexpectedly they were elves.

Looking at the appearance of these elves, Lin Yifan felt somewhat disappointed.

Because they differed quite a lot from the elves he had imagined!