"Catch up, everyone . Let's go!" The card artisan in the lead kept reminding his comrades while cursing to himself about that d.a.m.ned team they were targeting . Their current situation was pretty messed up, with one of their comrades already breaking out into a low-grade fever . Another had been p.r.i.c.ked by some unknown thorns, and now his entire arm was swelling up like a pig's foot . But what calmed him somewhat was that the time for the newly dispatched card artisans to arrive was getting closer and closer .

In his walking until then, he'd felt some unspeakable hunch that was becoming more intense . If the orders from above hadn't been on pain of death, he would have turned around earlier . He knew what it meant to disobey a mortal order, which was something he would never allow . If he were to die on the job, his family would get a secure placement and spend a pretty good life . His children would also get a proper education .

But if he were to disobey an order, he would be kicked off the team with no a.s.sets . For someone like him with a wife and kids, that would be the worst thing that could happen .

His heart was both conflicted and thankful . It was fortunate that his normal work was to track in the city . If his ordinary work was to be active in the jungle, just thinking about it made him scared . If he had studied jungle maneuvers, however, he wouldn't have been so pa.s.sive .

Fortunately, his adversary was a large troop . He didn't need to expend a lot of energy finding the tracks of a few hundred people . They hadn't lost the trail up until then, which made him feel pretty good . It was just that they would be able to leave the d.a.m.ned jungle after a few more hours .

Parting the brambles in front of them, his face became covered in a mess of scratches .

His target had just pa.s.sed by there . The lead card artisan looked around on alert and found nothing strange . He signaled his comrades to catch up . There wasn't much time left, and he didn't want anything to happen during that critical period .

It was so quiet in the forest that a baby could sleep there, with only the sound of the occasional leaf rustling .

One of the card artisans couldn't help his curiosity . "Tell me, Chief, what are these guys really doing drilling into the woods? Why are those upstairs so concerned about them?"

The one in the lead shook his head . "I don't know . That troop is a little strange . As for those upstairs, that's not something for us to ask about . If you don't watch your mouth, Old Huang, something might happen someday . "

Old Huang was abruptly embarra.s.sed . "Sometimes I talk too much, Chief; don't take it to heart . But this time, we're really stuck in it to put up with such a job . It's no good . I'll have to take a good rest when I get back . Going along like this will kill a person sooner or later!"

The look on the one in the lead s.h.i.+fted, and he yelled, "Shut your mouth! What's not going to die, Old Huang? Don't we have enough bad luck?"

The rest of their comrades were looking pretty bad . Old Huang knew he'd spoken badly, and he shut his mouth . Everyone moved ahead in silence with what Old Huang just said enshrouding their feelings like a gloomy haze they couldn't get rid of .

Suddenly, Old Huang plopped down on the ground .

At first, no one paid any attention; falling in the woods was pretty common as far as they were concerned . After two or three minutes, however, when Old Huang still hadn't gotten up, everyone didn't feel so hot .

"Old Huang! Old Huang!" The expression on the card artisan in the lead changed, and he couldn't help but shout . He then felt a sudden cramp in his heart and couldn't get a single breath out . His legs went soft as he knelt to the ground .

The scene in front of him became gradually blurred, and right in that blurry scene, his own comrades seemed to be falling down one by one . He was alarmed and wanted to shout out, but he was swallowed up by darkness and lost consciousness .

After an hour, a team of 20 card artisans suddenly appeared not far from where Old Huang and the rest had fallen . The lead card artisan signaled, and all of the card artisans immediately knew to raise their energy cloaks .

"There is a toxic miasma here . Be careful . " The lead card artisan was speaking in a low voice . Everyone immediately propped up their energy cloaks and started to advance along the trail rapidly .

They discovered the fallen Old Huang and the rest . All of their faces turned serious, and one of them lowered himself to carefully examine the corpses, which had already started to blacken . "They died in a miasma, Captain . About an hour ago . "

Everyone looked a little worse off . If they had only been an hour quicker, nothing would have happened to their comrades .

The captain looked over everyone and calmly said, "We did our best . This was our top speed, and you can have clear consciences . Let's go finish the job . That would be the best way to comfort them . "

The dark looks on those card artisans' faces disappeared, and they became determined once again . The speed of the line picked up .

Chen Mu and his men also ran into some trouble .

They'd encountered a pack of Bosnian wolves numbering 700 or 800 . To run into such a large-scale wolf pack in the Outer Reaches was a one-time thing not often seen . Those who had never experienced battle, like Xi Ping, Sue Lochiro, and Ru Qiu, were all pallid as they looked in terror at the wolf pack in front of them .

"My old friends!" Bogner muttered in a low voice so no one could hear it . His gaze suddenly made contact with those 400 card artisans, who were showing faint signs of the commotion of panic .

Any look of sadness in his eyes disappeared as a shower of fire exploded in them . "A**holes! You heard of pigs! Get in formation! Do you still f***ing need me to show you how?"

Bogner's growl rolled like thunder over the entire camp! Even Chen Mu was a little surprised as he watched him, muttering to himself that it looked like the size of a voice wasn't related to perception .

The roar was clearly quite effective . The card artisans had been experiencing strict training for a while . It was drilled into their bones and had become something instinctual . But they had never seen such a battle and were immediately fl.u.s.tered . Bogner's growl had come at just the right time, rescuing them from their panic .

Jiang Liang's reaction was the quickest . His small group was the first to get into formation and activate their apparatuses . Looking over his chaotic comrades, he was quick to make a decision . "Everyone pay attention; our objective is in front of us at 30 degrees . Fire!"

Neat, sharp whistles suddenly sounded out . The 25 fighting units could shoot off six energy shuttles per second, and within one second there were 150 of them . It was like a canopy of raining shuttles, which accurately hit their targets .

Jiang Liang had picked out the foremost part of the pack, needing to buy some time for his comrades to help them finish their adjustments . The raging pack of wolves was like it had run headlong into a solid shoal of rock .

The scene was spectacular!

More than 100 energy shuttles were triangulated in! The wolf pack suddenly splashed sprays of blood as though waves were cras.h.i.+ng onto a reef . It was both sad and beautiful .

If one were looking on from above, one would find that the wolf pack had suddenly collapsed over a large area . The attack of Jiang Liang and the rest killed nearly 70 or 80 Bosnian wolves . The energy shuttles approached a damage value of 1,000, doubtlessly an embodiment of their power . The defensive performance of the Bosnian wolves' outstanding pelts in front of the energy shuttles was nothing . Quite a few of the energy shuttles even penetrated several wolves .

If it weren't that the raw recruits were so nervous, that round of attack wouldn't have ended with just those few . The attack wave included a few units that were too nervous; they had some issues with the coordination among the three of them . They didn't fire off any energy shuttles .

The deficiencies and weaknesses of the novices' experience was undoubtedly on display . Most of the card artisans unconsciously aimed at the forward-most wolves, wasting a lot of firepower .

Those few pitiful Bosnian wolves were shot into honeycombs . The air was filled with the heavy smell of blood!

The novice card artisans were provoked by the smell of blood, and they displayed utterly different reactions . Some were like Jiang Liang, whose eyes were red with excitement . But most of the card artisans had turned white, with no blood in their faces and some even about to vomit .

Although the attack was terrible to Bogner, it did stir their low morale quite a bit . The novices had found out that the wolf pack wasn't as scary as they had imagined . Even though their faces had turned pallid, and their limbs were shaking, in the end they'd dialed in their formation .

However, the smell of blood had also provoked the wolf pack .

The pack suddenly started howling to the sky, gathering into a torrent and destroying the novices' fragile spirit . They also seemed to be paying attention to the novices' panicked expressions as they all bowed their bodies to spring!

The scene of several hundred wolves bounding into a run utterly shattered their courage . The earth was shaking, and in the blood-gorged eyes of the wolves were reflected back the novice card artisans' pallid faces .

"They are all here right in front of us . Fire!" Jiang Liang's command rescued them again, and the other few team leaders sounded the order to attack as though they had been aroused from a dream!

Shuttles were flying like a tapestry—sharp and unstoppable! The wolf pack was rolling in like thunder!

The two torrents. .h.i.t head-on, and the desperation of the scene froze Chen Mu as he watched . He had experienced countless battles, but he had never encountered such a grand scene as that one .

The fleshy dog in Wei-ah's hands swept away his laziness for the first time and got really excited . He was struggling in Wei-ah's arms, where he began to howl madly, loud and clear . The face, which was ordinarily so covered in flesh that you couldn't discern his five orifices, had now stretched out into a strangely sinister rage!

Wei-ah gave him a look and shook the hand that was holding him by the neck twice, which immediately softened the fleshy dog, his bones having nearly been shaken out .

The fleshy dog's eyes were looking at Wei-ah meekly as he barked through tears . Wei-ah didn't understand him . He retracted his gaze, turning his attention back to the battle .