Take Out Your Hammer and Come With Me

After Qi Luo sent that message, he waited a long time without receiving a reply.

He grew less and less certain.

The clay jar in front of him was still open, waves of its fishy stench drilling into his nose. Someone beside him was rubbing the stuff onto his cuffs. When he finished, he grimaced and shook his hands, but didn't dare shake it all off.

"Do we really have to put this much on?"

"Brother Zhuo said if the smell's too faint, it won't draw them over."

"Weren't we closing the net?"

"Plans changed at the last minute."

The men exchanged glances.

They all knew this time was different, but each waited for someone else to speak first.

They had already sunk so much time into the previous trips, and at last they'd been told they would be taken deeper into the forest. If they turned back now, everything they'd done before would have been for nothing.

Qi Luo looked at his level.

Level twenty.

He still had his first Soul Ring, but he had no idea where his second would come from.

If he really died once, dropped two levels, and spent the time to train them back, would he have to wait for another opening all over again?

Just as he was about to send another message, He Zheng finally replied.

[Stop applying it. If you've already put it on, take off your outer clothes and roll them up. Don't rub them against anyone beside you. How many of you are there?]

Qi Luo suddenly felt a little more at ease.

The man beside him was still rubbing the stuff onto his arm. Qi Luo hurriedly stopped him and passed on the message in a low voice. At first, the man didn't believe him, but when he heard He Zheng was on his way, he put the clay jar back on the ground.

"Then haven't we wasted the past few days?"

Qi Luo looked at his oil-stained cuff.

"Let's get through today first."

[Ten.]

[Wait there. I'm coming.]

At the other end, Xu Sheng had spread the route map out again.

Shen Zhaolin pointed to a wider gap in the slope to the north. "Shao Rong is up ahead. I'll go find him. We can lure the beasts, but we need to make it clear who goes, how they retreat, and who holds the line. We can't just throw people into a ditch and call it done."

Du Wenhe stayed with Xu Sheng.

They would leave the vine beast's growing ground that Song Xiaoqiao had found for later and clear this stretch of the route first.

Xu Sheng had no intention of taking eleven people and charging into the other side's camp in a swarm. He told Mo Yifan to circle around through the lower ground, identify the tree split in two that Qi Luo had mentioned, and then find a patch of firm ground on each side where someone could stand.

Chen Tuo crouched and studied the tracks for a while, then pointed to the left.

"This isn't an old path. Something heavy just rolled through here."

Xu Sheng followed his gaze. The grass blades lay flattened, and a broken rope still hung between two saplings.

The hunting party had set something up here.

He didn't touch anything. He had Chen Tuo lead the others around it while he went with Du Wenhe to inspect the terrain on the other side.

By the time he returned, He Zheng was already on his feet.

"I told them."

"Told them what?"

"I'm going over."

Xu Sheng glanced at him and smiled.

"Then take out your hammer and come with me."

He Zheng tightened his grip on the hammer's handle, and his shoulders, which had been tense all along, finally relaxed a little.

He had worried that Xu Sheng would think he was stirring up trouble so soon after joining them, or even ask which mattered more: the people over there or the Soul Ring they had come to obtain.

But Xu Sheng had already started walking.

He Zheng hurried a couple of steps to catch up, the corners of his mouth rising before he knew it.

The ten of them split up. Ji Juechen guarded Xu Lizhi and several one-ring companions as they secured the escape route by the low rocks; Du Wenhe, Xu Sheng, and He Zheng headed for the far side of the slope. After checking both sides' positions, Mo Yifan landed to rest, ready to pass on any developments.

Xu Sheng also made a point of asking Xu Lizhi how much Soul Power he had left after replenishing the others earlier.

The little fatty calculated and told him how many portions he could make, then added, "Don't take my buns and tell them they can keep fighting forever."

"Don't worry, I'll tell them that for you."

But Xu Lizhi didn't leave. Instead, he pulled him a little closer.

"I'm afraid they'll eat them and think they can keep fighting forever. You need to make sure they understand."

Xu Sheng lifted his chin toward He Zheng.

"You heard him? Tell the people you know in a bit. One bite doesn't mean they can block a Soul Skill with their faces."

He Zheng nodded solemnly.

Only then did the little fatty turn to leave. Before he went, he put his waterskin beside the medicine chest and told He Gu not to forget it.

He Zheng watched for a while, then suddenly said, "When you go out, does everyone keep track of their own things?"

"He remembers the medicine, Lu Song remembers the shield, and you remember not to lose your hammer."

Xu Sheng finished speaking and laughed at his own words.

He Zheng opened his mouth, but for a moment he couldn't even figure out where to begin arguing.

When they arrived, Qi Luo and the others had yet to be driven down the slope.

The local hunter watching them saw He Zheng approaching with his hammer and took half a step aside before shouting a challenge.

"What are you doing here?"

He Zheng ignored him and counted heads first.

One, two.

Qi Luo stood at the front, and He Zheng recognized the faces behind him. Ten people, not one missing.

He Zheng let out a long breath.

Xu Sheng had already come to stand beside him.

"We're here to take them."

The hunter saw the hall emblem on Du Wenhe's clothes, and his expression worsened, but he didn't attack. Instead, he turned and sent someone to find Zhuo Yuan.

Zhuo Yuan arrived quickly.

He first saw that all ten had taken off their outer clothes, then spotted He Zheng's great black hammer. His face darkened little by little.

"Who told you to stop?"

Qi Luo held his rolled-up clothes and didn't answer.

Xu Sheng answered instead. "I told them to ask for a clear explanation."

"What's it got to do with you?"

"They sent He Zheng a message, and he asked me to come with him. Is there a problem?"

Zhuo Yuan sneered. "White Wings, you poached people from me a few days ago, and now you want to meddle in our business too? Aren't you sticking your nose in too far?"

"Come on now."

Xu Sheng stepped half a pace aside, revealing the path behind him.

"Anyone who wants to stay can stay. Anyone who wants to come with me, stand over here."

As soon as he finished, Qi Luo was the first to step forward.

A second followed, then a third.

One man was still hesitating, so He Zheng walked forward a couple of steps and reached out to take his bundle of stinking clothes.

"What are you standing here pondering for? Can't you think on the way?"

The man's face reddened, and he followed them over.

The ten retreated one after another, and Zhuo Yuan's face grew darker and darker.

He had expected Xu Sheng to use his position in Spirit Hall to pressure them, and had even prepared a rebuttal.

But Xu Sheng hadn't said any of that.

He had simply stepped out of the way.

And that was precisely what Zhuo Yuan feared most.

Once people knew they could go elsewhere, he would actually have to deliver the benefits he'd kept talking about.

Zhuo Yuan took a deep breath and suddenly looked at Qi Luo.

"You're leaving too? Don't you want your second ring anymore?"

Qi Luo paused.

He Zheng was about to speak when Xu Sheng raised a hand to stop him.

This was Qi Luo's own business.

The young man looked down at the clothes in his hands and suddenly smiled, though it was a strained smile.

"Brother Zhuo, I'm level twenty. If I die once, I'll be eighteen."

"Haven't you been telling me to wait all along?"

"Then I'll wait a few more days."

He handed the clothes to He Zheng and walked over to Du Wenhe without looking back.

The chill in Zhuo Yuan's eyes could no longer be suppressed.

A muffled beast roar suddenly came from behind them.

The ground trembled slightly, and birds burst from the forest in a flurry of wings.

The local hunter whipped his head around.

"Who drew them down there with the scent?"

Another hunter came running over, his face pale.

"They've already started fighting up ahead!"