The group cheered for a while before Zhou Shenming was the first to recover his wits.
"Everyone, pack up. We're leaving as soon as possible."
"Li Mo, Huang Li, take out the pills and distribute them to everyone to replenish their qi and blood."
"Move quickly, everyone."
The stench of blood was thick here, but no other monster beasts would come for a little while.
But if any did show up, they would be more than the group could handle in their current state.
"Yes!"
The group answered in unison, dividing up the work as they packed their things and moved the base.
Night had fallen. Apart from the blood that was impossible to conceal and the White-headed Wolf corpses scattered everywhere, no one would have known what a brutal battle had taken place here.
Lu Lin regretted losing the Monster Cores inside those White-headed Wolves, but he knew what mattered most. This was no time to collect Monster Cores.
The Dragon Saber Squad packed up their belongings and quickly relocated to the foot of a slope five kilometers away.
Li Mo and Huang Li handed out boxes of pills to everyone.
Blood Nourishing Pills, Bone Strengthening Pills, Healing Pills, Qi Boosting Pills... one after another, the pills were distributed.
The air in the area immediately filled with a rich medicinal fragrance.
Lu Lin had no external injuries, but he had pushed himself beyond his limits by repeatedly using the Fourth Layer of Sky Breaking Thirteen Slashes. Both arms felt as if they were useless, and he could barely lift them.
Huang Li gave him two Blood Nourishing Pills. After taking them, Lu Lin felt warm currents coursing through his body, especially around his arms, repairing the damage within.
He was also given two Bone Strengthening Pills and two Healing Pills. Lu Lin took one of each, experiencing their effects for himself.
The other squad members were also working hard to refine and absorb the medicinal power of their pills.
Half an hour later, everyone had more or less recovered. The wounds on Li Mo, Zhou Shenming, Da Wei, and Xiao Wei had all scabbed over. Aside from having lost some blood, they looked no different than before.
From the place where they had fought earlier came the roars of monster beasts. It sounded as though some of them were fighting each other.
The group still shuddered at the thought. If Zhou Shenming hadn't warned them, they would likely have been surrounded by monster beasts.
"Brothers, this time, I was in the wrong."
Seeing that the squad members had mostly recovered, Zhou Shenming stepped forward and spoke. Ren Tian beside him was just about to reassure him that the monster beasts had come to them and it wasn't Zhou Shenming's fault, but Zhou Shenming waved him off.
"Let me finish. When I accepted the mission to investigate the Red Moon Earth Bear, the client asked the Free Martial Artist Association to give me a box of bait. They said that as soon as we spotted the Red Moon Earth Bear, we should open the box and set the bait on the ground. It would draw the bear over."
"When I went into the tent to rest just now, I wanted to check whether there was anything wrong with the bait, so I opened the box. I never imagined it would be so potent. We owe our survival this time to everyone's efforts, especially Lu Lin."
Zhou Shenming looked at Lu Lin, his admiration impossible to hide. "Our new teammate, Lu Lin, cut down three Beast General level White-headed Wolves all by himself. And we only managed to kill that high-rank Beast General level Wolf King thanks to him. Otherwise, we might have suffered casualties."
"I made a mistake, and Lu Lin helped make up for it. So I've decided to give him all the reward I'm entitled to for this mission. I hope you won't refuse, Brother Lu Lin."
"This..."
Lu Lin hadn't expected Zhou Shenming to say that. He stood up to refuse, but Zhou Shenming caught hold of him.
"Lu Lin, right is right and wrong is wrong. My curiosity nearly got every brother in the squad killed, so don't refuse. If you do, I'll feel even worse."
Lu Lin didn't know how to turn him down. He looked to Ren Tian, the person he knew best, but Ren Tian nodded too, telling him to accept.
Huang Li, Li Mo, Da Wei, and Xiao Wei all looked at Lu Lin encouragingly, hoping he would accept Zhou Shenming's reward.
Lu Lin had no choice but to say, "All right. But I'd like to exchange the reward for Monster Cores. Any rank, any kind will do."
"That's easy. Once it's light, we'll go over there and look. There should be plenty left."
Zhou Shenming smiled at Lu Lin. "All right, there are about six hours until dawn. We won't look for the Red Moon Earth Bear tonight. Everyone, get some rest as soon as possible. Ren Tian and I will keep watch."
The group had been fighting for half the day and had just come through a life-or-death struggle. Hearing Zhou Shenming say this, they were all getting sleepy. They put up their tents and lay down inside. Before long, the camp was filled with thunderous snores.
Lu Lin was no exception. He had thought that on his first night in the Wilderness, he would be too excited to sleep. But the moment his head touched the pillow, he fell into a deep slumber.
"Boss, did you hear that?"
A Mid-level Martial Artist from the Wu'an Bureau, keeping watch in the darkness, heard the White-headed Wolves howling on the mountain and felt a little nervous.
Their departure this time had been too sudden.
Although Bai Wei had said that the Commander had coordinated for soldiers from 301 Forward Base to provide support, those soldiers could only be mobilized after they found their target. Otherwise, bringing several hundred soldiers into the mountains would likely alert their quarry.
"I heard. They're only White-headed Wolves. Xiao Wu, go to sleep before you're exhausted tomorrow."
Bai Wei didn't even open her eyes. She replied casually, preparing to go back to sleep.
But as she spoke, the howls of the White-headed Wolves on the mountain grew more urgent, and there were quite a lot of them.
Now Bai Wei really couldn't sleep. She sprang up. "Xiao Wu, Xiao Zeng, grab your weapons and get ready to fight!"
"Yes!"
The two subordinates answered and immediately sprang into action.
The White-headed Wolves' howls grew fiercer. Soon, the shouts of Martial Artists and the wolves' cries of pain rang out in a relentless cacophony.
Bai Wei's face filled with confusion.
White-headed Wolves usually roamed the plains. There were plenty of them on Baiyin Mountain too, but food was scarce, so no pack would grow very large. Yet from the sounds she was hearing, there had to be at least two or three hundred White-headed Wolves attacking that group of human Martial Artists.
Where had this pack of White-headed Wolves come from?
"Boss, should we go up and help? Maybe this pack of White-headed Wolves is why Martial Artists keep dying on Baiyin Mountain."
Xiao Wu suggested from beside her.
Bai Wei glanced at him, speechless. "Are you stupid? There are hundreds of White-headed Wolves. If we go up there, all we'll do is get ourselves killed. Wait until the wolves kill the Martial Artist squad or the squad escapes, then we'll go see what happened."
Xiao Wu realized he hadn't thought it through. There were only three of them; they might not be able to help at all.
The howling on the mountain didn't let up for a moment. The three from the Wu'an Bureau waited below. As several Beast General level White-headed Wolves were killed, quite a few of the others quietly slipped away and came down the mountain.
But these White-headed Wolves were scattered stragglers and posed no threat to Bai Wei and the others.
Later, after the White-headed Wolf King was killed, a flood of White-headed Wolves rushed down the slope. Bai Wei and the other two crouched on a tree branch, watching the vast horde flee in panic, their hearts pounding.
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