Don't Panic, Let Me Add Some Buffs

"Alright, little Haochen's mount companion isn't a large target. It can travel with us."

"From here on, be extremely careful. Our target is Demon scouts. Once we've hunted enough of them, we retreat immediately!"

Lin Jialu gave one final reminder.

"Understood!"

They were about to enter Demon territory, so naturally no one dared let their guard down.

Long Haochen and Li Xin silently moved to the front, while the Chen brothers took positions on either side of the group, keeping Lin Jialu in the center.

Ye Tian stayed at the rear. The six of them formed a diamond-shaped arrowhead.

After crossing the Hills, they officially entered Demon territory.

Before them stretched a vast plain with no end in sight. Waves of pungent, bloody stench rode the wind into their nostrils.

The Demon Race had descended upon the world thousands of years ago. No one knew how much human and demon blood had been left upon this battlefield.

Ye Tian could clearly sense everyone's tension.

Lin Jialu lightly tapped her staff and silently chanted an incantation.

The next moment, a transparent bird-shaped phantom soared into the sky. After circling with its wings spread, it flew into the distance.

A faint glow also veiled the girl's eyes.

Eagle Eye Technique, a spell every mage had to learn.

It could create a demonic eagle to observe the distance from above. The higher one's cultivation, the greater the range of observation.

It was an exceptionally useful scouting spell.

After a while, Lin Jialu withdrew her focus and spoke softly. "No Demon Race soldiers have been found nearby for now."

"We can probably continue forward and find a somewhat concealed place to set up an ambush."

The plain before them was far too open and simply unsuitable for an ambush point.

The group advanced at an extremely slow pace—one could even call it overly cautious.

They used the few bits of cover scattered across the plain to conceal themselves, and with Eagle Eye Technique scouting the surroundings, they did not need to worry about blindly stumbling ahead.

Whenever they reached a hiding spot, Lin Jialu marked it on the map.

Until night gradually deepened.

The surroundings became completely silent. Only the moonlight and starlight could barely provide some illumination.

With their minds stretched taut for so long, they could not help feeling fatigued.

Yet after traveling all this way, they had not even seen the shadow of a single Demon Race soldier.

"What's going on? Are the demons really this lax?"

After Lin Jialu once again found nothing with Eagle Eye Technique, Li Xin finally began to lose patience.

By all rights, nighttime should have been when the Demon Race was most active.

They were now only a little over a hundred li from the Demon camp. It would have been one thing if they had not encountered a large demon force, but not seeing even one was far too strange.

After all, there was a time limit for obtaining their admission tickets.

They had only three days. If they exceeded that, they would not make it to the Holy Temple Alliance in time for the selection tournament.

"If it really comes down to it, how about I ride Rose in and take a look around, then deliberately lure the demons into sending troops after us?"

Li Xin proposed her idea.

But before anyone else could respond, Ye Tian, who had been sitting on the ground, suddenly moved.

He became a streak of light and shadow, drawing the Long sword at his waist with his right hand before fiercely stabbing toward a clump of bushes.

"Pfft!"

The Long sword, infused with the Light attribute, pierced through.

Green blood sprayed out, sizzling as it dripped onto the ground.

"Little brother, what's going on?!"

The others reacted instantly as well, gripping their weapons one after another. Chen Si even raised his heavy shield to protect Lin Jialu.

"A Demon scout."

Ye Tian pulled out his sword and kicked the demon corpse, which had emerged from its invisible state, before them.

"It really is a demon—and it got this close without any of us noticing!"

As they stared at the demon corpse before them, surprise filled their hearts, along with a lingering chill of fear.

"I clearly used Eagle Eye Technique to scout several times!"

Lin Jialu felt lingering fear, but even more than that, she blamed herself.

Not only had she, the mage, failed to detect the enemy's approach in advance, but she had even allowed it to get this close.

That was already a dereliction of duty!

"Sister Lin, this isn't your fault. This type of demon is just rather special."

Ye Tian comforted her softly.

"Brother Tian, what kind of demon is this?" Long Haochen asked calmly.

"This is a Shadow Demon. They possess no offensive or defensive abilities, but they are exceptionally skilled at invisibility."

"Shadow Demons are specifically responsible for demon scouting. Only priests of at least the fourth tier can detect them, which is why they are also known as shadows in the darkness."

If Ye Tian had not been powerful enough and possessed sufficiently strong Mental Power, he might not have been able to discover these little mice hiding away either.

"So that's how it is. It can turn invisible—no wonder Eagle Eye Technique was useless."

After hearing Ye Tian's explanation, Lin Jialu felt much better.

"Then our tracks have probably already been exposed!"

Thinking of something, Long Haochen hurriedly spoke again.

The others instinctively looked at Ye Tian.

"I'm not entirely sure." Ye Tian gently shook his head. "Although I killed the Shadow Demon the moment I discovered it, no one knows whether the Demon Race has some means of transmitting information."

"Even if they don't, a Shadow Demon sent out to scout disappearing for too long will definitely make the Demon Race realize something is wrong."

"Then what do we do now?" Li Xin could not help asking.

"My suggestion is to wait for them at our leisure!"

Ye Tian softly proposed, "We only have three days. Rather than search aimlessly, we might as well wait for the Demon Race to take the initiative."

"If the Shadow Demon fails to return on time, the Demon camp may send people to investigate. They will be our hunting targets!"

After hearing this, Lin Jialu turned to look at the others again.

"What do you think?"

"We have no objections."

The brothers Chen Chen and Chen Si hurriedly shook their heads.

Long Haochen responded as well. "I think Brother Tian makes a lot of sense. We can wait for a while. If the Demon Race does not react, we can think of another way."

"Alright, since no one objects, it's settled!"

The group gathered together again.

Lin Jialu still used Eagle Eye Technique from time to time to scout the surrounding area, while everyone else faced different directions.

Yet the night held only silence and desolation.

Until dawn gradually brushed across the horizon, driving away the cold and darkness.

Ye Tian, who had been leaning against a rock with his eyes closed in feigned sleep, abruptly opened his eyes and growled at the others.

"They're here!"

Those two brief words made everyone's hearts jolt.

"They're underground!"

Lin Jialu and Long Haochen gave the warning at the same time.

One was a mage, whose Mental Power far surpassed that of close-combat professions, while the other had been born with powerful Mental Power.

"Move!"

Ye Tian gave a low cry, gripping the Shield of Radiance in his left hand as he fiercely raised his Long sword high with his right.

Aura of Faith, Gift of Protection, Aura of Power Strike!

Amid low chanting, three strange symbols appeared above Ye Tian's head at the same time. They immediately split into five streams of light that descended onto the others.

At the same time, a dazzling golden halo rose beneath everyone's feet.

Three fourth-tier skills, unleashed in one fluid motion.

Given Ye Tian's mastery of these skills, there was no such thing as casting time. They were completed almost instantly.