Half a day passed. It was around four in the afternoon.
The members of Phantom Squad had all finished resting. Even Wang Zhi, who had been on watch, had gotten a few hours of rest after Zheng Tao took over for him.
At that moment, on the sixteenth-floor balcony of a residential building, Zheng Tao was already using binoculars to search for Beast General-level monsters.
"Zheng Tao, how's it going? Have you spotted anything big?" Zhou Zheng walked over and asked.
Zheng Tao smiled helplessly. "Brother Zhou, the monster population in City 023 is much lower than in City 003. I've been looking for a while, but I haven't spotted a single Advanced Beast General-level monster. The strongest group I've seen is led by one Intermediate Beast General and two Elementary Beast Generals!"
"It's almost evening, and plenty of monsters will come out to feed. Keep looking. We'll find something eventually!" Zhou Zheng walked over and patted Zheng Tao on the shoulder. Then he took out a pair of binoculars and began surveying the area.
With Phantom Squad's strength, making a special trip to hunt an Intermediate Beast General would be a complete waste of their abilities.
So Phantom Squad generally targeted monster herds led by Advanced Beast General-level monsters. As for Intermediate and Elementary Beast Generals, they killed those along the way whenever they happened upon them.
"Don't worry, everyone!" Chu Tian added from nearby. "There may be fewer high-level monsters in City 023, but it's safer here. As long as we don't provoke those two Lord-level Monsters, we shouldn't run into any danger!"
After speaking, Chu Tian also took a pair of binoculars from his backpack and went to the window on the other side of the room to search for signs of Advanced Beast Generals.
"Brother Tian, look over here!" Lu Qing suddenly exclaimed, pointing in a direction.
Chu Tian and the others rushed over, each raising their binoculars to look where Lu Qing was pointing.
Yang Wu followed her gaze as well. In a large warehouse about 1,800 or 1,900 meters east of the residential complex, nearly a thousand bovine monsters had gathered.
"Captain, it's a herd of Iron-Armored Wild Bulls! One Advanced Beast General, one Intermediate Beast General, and three Elementary Beast Generals!" After looking closely, Zhou Zheng said with a puzzled frown, "That doesn't make sense. I never heard about a herd like this being here when I came."
The herd of Iron-Armored Wild Bulls was sizable, and they had taken over a large warehouse as their base. It was clearly their lair.
Generally, if a martial artist squad discovered a herd like this, they would share the information with other squads. After all, an Advanced Beast General-level monster could pose a threat to most martial artist squads.
"Looks like this herd of Iron-Armored Wild Bulls only migrated here recently. No other squads have found them yet!" Zheng Tao said.
"Then I'll share the news with a few nearby martial artist squads, so they don't provoke the herd!" Zhou Zheng said.
When martial artist squads discovered a large monster herd in the Wilderness Area, they usually shared the information with squads they knew.
There weren't many martial artist squads in the Wilderness Area capable of taking on this herd of Iron-Armored Wild Bulls. Of course, Phantom Squad was one of them.
"No need!" Chu Tian suddenly said. "As long as we kill the five Beast General-level Iron-Armored Wild Bulls in the herd, the herd will disperse in less than half a day!"
"Captain, there are nearly a thousand Iron-Armored Wild Bulls!" Zhou Zheng said with some concern. "The rest of us aren't worried, but this is Yang Wu's first time in the Wilderness Area. Wouldn't it be too dangerous? How about we wait until we're close to returning to the Base City before taking them on?"
Bovine monsters had an astonishing charge, and Iron-Armored Wild Bulls had exceptionally tough defenses. If all those nearly one thousand bulls charged together, even a Primary War God could run into trouble.
So Zhou Zheng wanted Yang Wu to get some practice against a different herd first.
"It's fine!" Chu Tian wasn't about to change his mind so easily. "There's no time like the present. These nearly one thousand Iron-Armored Wild Bulls will be tough to deal with, but they aren't all that dangerous. Yang Wu may be a little lacking in physical strength, but his combat experience and technique are already almost as good as ours. He should have no problem dealing with these Iron-Armored Wild Bulls! What do you think, Yang Wu?"
"Captain, I'm fine with it!" Yang Wu quickly replied.
Since Yang Wu agreed, Zhou Zheng couldn't say much more. He simply resolved to keep a closer eye on Yang Wu later.
"Good. Let's move out!" Chu Tian ordered.
The six members of Phantom Squad immediately packed their gear, went downstairs, and headed for the area near the large warehouse where the Iron-Armored Wild Bulls were gathered.
Chu Tian's Spiritual Force constantly surrounded the area, guarding against any possible mishaps.
Chu Tian led the way, Yang Wu and Lu Qing walked in the middle, Zheng Tao and Wang Zhi guarded the flanks, and Zhou Zheng brought up the rear.
"Hm?" As soon as they went downstairs, Yang Wu and the others spotted a lone Elementary Beast General-level Silver Electric Python wandering nearby.
"Brother Zheng, Wang Zhi, that Silver Electric Python is yours," Chu Tian ordered.
The Silver Electric Python was only a little over two hundred meters from Phantom Squad. If Chu Tian used his flying knives, he could probably kill it in an instant.
But then, when they divided the spoils according to each person's contribution, Chu Tian alone would take sixty percent!
Still, this was only an Elementary Beast General-level Silver Electric Python. Any of Phantom Squad's six members, Yang Wu included, could kill it easily.
Doing this once or twice would be fine, but if it happened all the time, even the closest relationships would develop cracks.
So, whenever they could keep things safe, Chu Tian generally had different squad members take turns dealing with lone Beast General-level monsters. That made dividing the spoils much fairer.
Of course, on average, the one who still gained the most was Chu Tian, their captain, who was both a martial artist and a Spiritual Master.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
At the order, Wang Zhi and Zheng Tao swiftly charged toward the fleeing Silver Electric Python.
The two elite Intermediate War General-level martial artists were dealing with a single Elementary Beast General. There was no chance of anything going wrong.
Half a minute later, the Silver Electric Python's materials were in Wang Zhi's backpack!
"Good, we've collected everything. Let's keep moving!" Chu Tian said with a wave of his hand.
Half an hour later, Phantom Squad reached the area near the large warehouse where the Iron-Armored Wild Bulls were gathered.
Along the way, Yang Wu and the others had encountered several more Beast General-level monsters. Some were alone, like the Silver Electric Python, while others had gathered quite a few Beast Soldier-level monsters around them.
But against Phantom Squad, the strongest squad beneath the War God level, there were no surprises. Every one of those Beast General-level monsters ended up as materials in Phantom Squad's backpacks.
"We'll assign tasks now!"
In a secluded spot near the large warehouse, Captain Chu Tian spoke quietly.
"Xiao Qing, you and I will work together to kill the Intermediate Beast General-level Iron-Armored Wild Bull first. We need to take it down in one strike!" Chu Tian ordered.
To improve their odds, Chu Tian hadn't made the herd's strongest monster—the Advanced Beast General—their first target.
Then Chu Tian turned to Yang Wu. "Yang Wu, stay by Xiao Qing and protect her. Don't let any monsters get close!"
"Don't worry, Captain!" Yang Wu promptly promised. "I won't let any monsters get near Sister Qing!"
"I'll handle the Advanced Beast General-level Iron-Armored Wild Bull! Zhou Zheng, Zheng Tao, and Wang Zhi, you three take care of the remaining three Elementary Beast Generals!"
"After we kill the monsters, Zhou Zheng will collect their materials. Everyone else will hold back the herd!"
"Understood!" "Understood!"
Zhou Zheng and the others answered one after another.
"Good. Get ready!"
At Chu Tian's command, Zhou Zheng and the others readied themselves for action, while Lu Qing set her machine gun aside and took the bow from her back.
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