Zuo Lin'an was currently observing Zhao Lin and his group.
“Zhao Lin and the others have set off again.”
Furthermore, they had quickened their pace, arriving at another fork in the path.
“Hmm?”
Zuo Lin'an looked at the direction Zhao Lin was pointing this time.
It was surprisingly neither the optimal choice nor even the second-best option.
Rather, it was...
Looking at the overall structure of the mine shaft, the direction he was choosing now seemed to be... heading to regroup with the other batch of players.
“As expected...”
Fang Tang naturally noticed this as well.
“Just as you said, Zhao Lin really wants to regroup with the other players.”
“When the time comes, he can pretend it's a chance encounter, and then tell those players he knows the art of Qi-gazing and can help find the exit.”
“That way, the others definitely won't object.”
Zuo Lin'an pondered for a moment, doing a rough calculation of the time.
“Based on their current speed, even if I attack Zhao Lin continuously, the seven players around him can still buy him some time.”
“Though it won't be very long, still...”
Zhao Lin would definitely be able to successfully regroup with the other batch of players before the people around him were completely wiped out.
Fang Tang sighed.
“Even so, this is our only option. If we just let him keep going, he might actually clear the dungeon.”
After all, Zuo Lin'an could only kill on the hour.
As for herself... the less said, the better.
Anyway, once this became a Regional Dungeon in the future, even though a large number of players would enter each time, it was absolutely impossible for so many formidable individuals to appear at the same time.
This time, she had indeed been a bit too overconfident.
If the one who came to help wasn't Zuo Lin'an...
Sigh.
Honestly, based on her usual capacity, five players would have been about right.
Logically speaking, since she had help this time, she should have kept the number of players capped at around ten.
But because she was about to go to Sin Hunter City to obtain her third rule, and was thinking about turning her dungeon into a Regional Dungeon afterward, she had let it get to her head a little.
As a result, when she set the player count earlier, she had directly entered twenty!
Fang Tang snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Zuo Lin'an.
“Shall we go?”
Zuo Lin'an nodded.
“Sure. I'll head over now. It would be best to kill a few more before they regroup.”
Just then, Fang Tang suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
“Wait!”
Zuo Lin'an stopped and looked back at her.
“What is it?”
Fang Tang crossed her arms.
“We don't actually need to target Zhao Lin directly. Why don't we hunt down the other batch of players instead?”
Zuo Lin'an gave it some thought and suddenly found her words quite reasonable.
“I don't mind either way. It's all the same to me.”
Fang Tang smiled.
“It's not the same at all!”
“Over on Zhao Lin's side, there are eight of them including him. The others all tacitly follow his lead and won't easily scatter. But the other group is different!”
“If we go and attack them first, they have no foundation of trust, nor do they have a powerhouse to keep everyone in line. When they encounter danger, they will definitely scatter in all directions.”
“This way, we can hunt them down one by one. Not only does it lower the difficulty, but it can also ruin Zhao Lin's plans.”
“Even if he manages to find anyone later, it will be one or two at most.”
Zuo Lin'an nodded inwardly.
“Sounds good. Shall we head over now?”
Fang Tang turned and led the way.
“Let's go, let's go.”
The two figures vanished, quickly fading into the distance.
Behind them, only two corpses remained hanging in the deep, dark, and silent mine shaft.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, their corpses wouldn't even be discovered by the other players.
On the other side.
Li Zhuang was slowly walking forward, his eyes scanning his surroundings warily. Only after confirming there was no danger did he quicken his pace.
Although he had a burly build, his movements were incredibly agile.
Following behind him were six other players.
None of them knew one another, and they all kept a safe distance, remaining on high alert.
Before long, Li Zhuang spotted a fork in the path and couldn't help but curse under his breath.
“What the hell! Another motherfucking fork in the road?”
He had no idea how many forks they had encountered along the way!
Fortunately, among the six people behind him, there was one who could discern the correct path out.
He cursed once more before turning his head to look back.
The person following right behind him was a short, scrawny man.
This man was named Shu Laiyun.
Li Zhuang stood at one hundred and ninety centimeters tall and was extremely well-built; standing there alone, he took up half the space in the mine shaft.
Meanwhile, this Shu Laiyun was less than one hundred and sixty centimeters tall.
He was even hunched over with his hands curled up in front of his chest. His eyes darted about shiftingly, giving him a shifty appearance that made him look like a giant rat walking upright.
“Shu Laiyun, there's another fork ahead. Come take a look and see which way we should go.”
Shu Laiyun chuckled. His laughter was very soft, yet carried an unsettling, high-pitched quality.
“Sure, sure, no problem. Leave it to me.”
Li Zhuang's gaze swept over him without lingering.
Shu Laiyun didn't know him, but he knew Shu Laiyun because he had once seen the man's wanted poster.
It was a joint bounty issued by numerous spirit patrons and spirit mediums from the Northeast.
As for the reason... it was actually quite simple.
It was because Shu Laiyun had somehow obtained an unorthodox secret technique in his early years.
It actually allowed him to forcibly devour and seize the skeletal foundation and cultivation of demonic beasts, with an extremely low probability of even plundering their innate talents and the secret techniques they acquired through later cultivation.
As for demonic beasts...
Were there any better demonic beasts than the spirit patrons of the Northeast?
In any case, whether the guy had struck pure dumb luck or used deliberate underhanded schemes, he had ultimately succeeded.
He had captured a Rat Immortal.
Moreover, this Rat Immortal possessed a decent skeletal foundation and excellent talent, making it highly favored by its clan elders.
Supposedly, because its strength had reached the required standard at the time, it had ventured out to find a human partner to form a contract with, seeking to be enshrined and worshiped to aid its cultivation.
Perhaps because that region was their own territory, it hadn't taken any precautions when traveling.
And just like that, Shu Laiyun had captured it.
To Shu Laiyun, since he was practicing an unorthodox technique to devour a demonic beast's cultivation foundation and even its talent and secret techniques, the aptitude of the chosen beast naturally had to be as high as possible.
He had only gone there to try his luck, but who would have thought that with a name like Laiyun—which literally meant "luck is coming"—luck really would find him!
Having captured that Rat Immortal by chance and confirmed its aptitude, he was ecstatic. He immediately found a secluded basement and impatiently cast his devouring technique.
In the end, the Rat Immortal was completely stripped of its flesh and blood, its skeletal foundation shattered, and its soul dispersed.
It vanished entirely from the world.
And once Shu Laiyun got what he wanted, he knew he had committed a massive transgression. Without even taking the time to digest what he had plundered, he erased his tracks as quickly as possible and fled.
Yet, once a deed was done, it was absolutely impossible to keep it buried forever.
Especially since this Rat Immortal had its clan's patriarch backing it.
Following its death, the crime was quickly discovered.
In the end, it took them only a few days to pinpoint Shu Laiyun.
According to the information Li Zhuang had secretly gathered, the bounty had indeed been issued jointly by the largest clans among the Five Great Immortals of the Northeast, in cooperation with every prominent, named spirit medium.
Rate on N.U.
