Hunting Illusion Beasts

Gao Yaqing nodded slightly, her icy expression instantly softening.

After Gao Yaqing joined, Huang Yuande tried to find more people to join the team, but he couldn't find anyone to join no matter what he tried.

Soon, everyone had formed five-person teams, with only Chen Lie, Chen Huafeng, Huang Yuande, and Gao Yaqing missing one person.

Seeing that the students had all formed teams, Mu Ningshu said, "Everyone's in teams now, let's move out! Remember, if you find a white Illusion Beast less than ten meters long, don't attack it immediately. Send its coordinates to the rest of the class right away, and nearby teams will arrive shortly." At this moment, a girl raised her hand and said, "Class monitor, can we form a group of six?"

Mu Ningshu looked at the girl who had spoken and said, "There are 150 of us in total. If you divide us into groups of six, won't one group have fewer than five people?" "Um... I'm not very familiar with that group of four, and we don't get along."

"Is group action something you can't control or get along with?" Mu Ningshu questioned.

Faced with Mu Ningshu's questioning, the girl simply lowered her head and remained silent.

Which team is understaffed?

Mu Ningshu scanned the numerous teams present.

Gao Yaqing immediately stepped forward and replied, "Our group is one person short, but four people is fine."

Seeing Gao Yaqing with Chen Lie, Huang Yuande, and the others, Mu Ningshu was a little surprised but didn't pay them any attention. She nodded and said, "Then let's all set off!"

After Mu Ningshu answered, the 30 teams went to their respective locations.

Before long, many teams scattered in different directions.

Apart from Chen Huafeng, Huang Yuande and Gao Yaqing both looked at Chen Lie.

Huang Yuande asked directly, "Chen Lie, what do we do?"

"Of course, we're setting off to find the Illusion Beast!" Chen Lie said directly.

After all, it was a class activity. Although Chen Lie didn't think he would stay in the class for long, he had still taken up a spot from Xiangguang Province, so it was only right that he contribute to the class.

"Then which way should we go?" Huang Yuande asked.

Chen Liedao, "Let's go to the camp further away; there should be more Illusion Beast there."

Chen Huafeng, who was standing nearby, said, "Far from the camp? Although Illusion Beast generally don't attack people on their own, there are definitely more Illusion Beast in the distance from the camp than here."

Didn't that second-year student named Li Ming just say that even the weakest Illusion Beast is no weaker than someone in the Organ Refining Stage? What if a Illusion Beast goes berserk and suddenly attacks us? Wouldn't we be wasting a chance to enter the Sumeru Illusion Realm?

Gao Yaqing said calmly, "I think Chen Lie is right. The only place you can find traces of Illusion Beast is far from the camp. If you, Chen Huafeng, are afraid, you can wait here!"

"No, Gao Yaqing, haven't you always been at odds with me and Lao Huang?"

Why did they insist on joining our group this time? Are they trying to sabotage us?

"Huang Yuande and I don't think we've offended anyone, have we?" Chen Huafeng said.

Gao Yaqing sneered and said, "My joining your group has absolutely nothing to do with the two of you."

"Then what are you doing this for?"

"Because of classmate Chen Lie."

"Chen Lie?"

Chen Huafeng was taken aback and glanced at Chen Lie with some surprise.

After Gao Yaqing finished speaking, she walked slowly to Chen Lie's side and said softly, "Chen Lie, what happened before was my fault for being impolite. I apologize to you here and hope you won't hold it against me."

Chen Lie waved his hand, expressionless, and said, "It's nothing, just a verbal argument. There's no real grudge, and I haven't held a grudge." Gao Yaqing's eyes lit up, and she smiled, saying, "Thank Chen Lie for your generosity, Chen Lie. We'll follow your lead this time." "It's just about finding the Illusion Beast. There's nothing to command. We'll just search together," Chen Lie said.

"Okay! Let's go then!"

Gao Yaqing nodded, feeling a sense of relief.

She was actually uneasy about making an enemy of such a genius. She knew that Chen Lie's position in the 15th Key Class was only temporary, and he would probably be promoted to the Genius Class, or even the Super Genius Class, soon. His future was limitless. Now that things were out in the open, her admiration for him deepened even more. The four of them walked straight ahead.

Chen Huafeng, who was following behind, was completely baffled.

"Is Gao Yaqing possessed? Back in the Genius Training Camp, she was so arrogant and domineering. I've never seen her so docile before. Why is she bowing her head and apologizing today?"

"What do you know?!"

Huang Yuande glanced at Chen Huafeng, then jogged after him.

Chen Lie and his group advanced about four kilometers outside the camp and finally spotted a White Illusion Beast floating low in the air, resembling a long whale's head and a snake's tail.

Upon seeing the White Illusion Beast, Gao Yaqing quickly said, "That's the Illusion Beast. I've seen it in the Sumeru Illusion Realm Catalog."

The White Illusion Beast is the lowest-level Illusion Beast in the Sumeru Illusion Realm, capable of floating at a low altitude of less than ten meters. However, judging from this Illusion Beast, its length seems to be close to fifteen meters, not less than ten meters. We'd better not provoke it."

Although Chen Lie had entered the Sumeru Illusion Realm in his previous life, it was only a few times. When he was a steward at the Taia Star Province Martial Arts Academy, he always went alone and was quite solitary. Therefore, he didn't know much about the illusory beasts, which were unique to the Illusion Beast Sumeru Illusion Realm. He nodded in agreement with Gao Yaqing's words. As expected, the Illusion Beast with a whale's head and a snake's tail did not actively harm anyone, but instead simply swam away.

Since there were already Illusion Beast appearing in this place, Chen Lie stopped advancing and began searching the surrounding area.

Suddenly, Huang Yuande shouted, "Everyone come quick! A White Illusion Beast, no more than ten meters long, is floating over here!"

Upon hearing Huang Yuande's voice, Chen Lie immediately turned around and saw White Illusion Beast with the upper body resembling a sea lion and the lower body resembling a fish tail, slowly swimming about seven or eight meters above the ground.

At this moment, Gao Yaqing and Chen Huafeng also arrived.

"Illusion Beast has been spotted? Should I send the coordinates to the classmates through the Sumeru Illusion Realm so the rest of you can head here?" Chen Huafeng said. "No need, they can't help. Let's handle it ourselves!"

Chen Lie simply waved his hand.

"Solve it yourself?"

Chen Huafeng was puzzled; how could they possibly have the ability to solve this on their own?

"Then we..."

"You three stay here and hold them off, make sure the Illusion Beast doesn't escape. I'm going to test Illusion Beast quality!"

"Good!"

Gao Yaqing nodded and joined Huang Yuande in blocking the back of the Illusion Beast.

Seeing Chen Huafeng still standing there, completely bewildered, Gao Yaqing immediately said, "What are you standing there for? Hurry up and stand at the back, ready to intercept the Illusion Beast!"

Although Chen Huafeng found it strange that Chen Lie had become a key player, he followed Gao Yaqing's advice and went to the rear.

Upon seeing this, Chen Lie immediately leaped up and instantly arrived in front of the Illusion Beast Illusion Beast, striking it on the forehead with a palm strike.

With a loud "boom".

The attacked Illusion Beast roared angrily, its gentle appearance suddenly changing. Two sharp fangs grew from the corners of Illusion Beast mouth, followed by four limbs.

The Illusion Beast with a sea lion's head and a fish's tail instantly transformed into a monster with sharp claws and giant legs, roaring as it launched an attack on Chen Lie.

Chen Lie sliced through the air with both palms, his powerful blood and qi surging continuously. In an instant, a blood-red dragon more than ten meters long emerged from his palms and charged towards the Illusion Beast.

"Roar!"

The Illusion Beast was knocked to the ground by the powerful force of its blood and qi, let out a roar, and then got up to attack Chen Lie again.

In a short time, Chen Lie had already fought the Illusion Beast for dozens of moves.

He roughly figured out that this Illusion Beast possessed a strength of over 24,000 jin, roughly equivalent to someone who had cultivated two major organs during the Organ Refining Stage, but it was indeed much stronger than other Organ Refining Stage of the same level.

Chen Huafeng, who was in charge of maintaining order nearby, was greatly alarmed.

How could Chen Lie, from a Chuanzhong Province, possess such formidable martial arts skills?

To fight Illusion Beast alone, you'd need at least the Organ Refining Stage, right?

Chen Lie fought the Illusion Beast for over a hundred moves with his superb combat skills. He seized the opportunity and threw a punch.

With a loud "boom," one of the Illusion Beast's claws was severed.

The Illusion Beast was struck hard, and its originally ferocious appearance changed, once again becoming a harmless creature with a sea lion's head and a fish's tail.

The Illusion Beast seemed to sense Chen Lie's danger, emitting a strange "sizzling" sound before instantly turning and leaving.

The direction the Illusion Beast fled was directly north of Huang Yuande's post. The Illusion Beast was much faster than Huang Yuande. It suddenly turned and fled, and Huang Yuande was caught off guard and was directly overtaken by the Illusion Beast.

"Wow, how is this thing so fast?"

Huang Yuande was startled and tried to give chase, but found that the Illusion Beast was already more than ten meters away.

"Huang Yuande, you're such a terrible teammate!"

Seeing this, Gao Yaqing angrily accused, "The Illusion Beast was about to be captured, and you actually let it escape! You were asked to hold the line, are you just for show? You couldn't even hold off the Illusion Beast for two or three seconds?"

Didn't you see how much effort Chen Lie's battle Illusion Beast put in?

"This..."

Huang Yuande scratched the back of his head, somewhat embarrassed, and said, "It's really my fault, but the Illusion Beast was too fast; I simply didn't have time to react." Chen Lie arrived, waved his hand, and said, "Forget it, it's normal to fail the first time. Just find another Illusion Beast to hunt!"

"Um... I'll definitely be more careful next time!" Huang Yuande said.

"Let's hope so!"

Gao Yaqing snorted coldly.

The fleeing Illusion Beast didn't go far. A few hundred meters from Chen Lie and the others, it turned back, hissing as if mocking them. "Is this thing really that intelligent?" Huang Yuande asked, somewhat surprised by this.

After the Illusion Beast finished mocking them and was about to leave, a person suddenly appeared beside it.

The man struck out with his palm, and a blade of True Qi appeared in the air, instantly slicing the Illusion Beast in two.

The Illusion Beast suffered a fatal blow and vanished instantly, leaving behind a Crystal Core the size of an egg that fell to the ground.

"Yay! I managed to snag a lucky kill! I killed a Illusion Beast so easily!"

The person who killed the Exotic Beast picked up the Crystal Core, his tone filled with joy.

At this moment, a woman with waist-length hair walked over from a distance. "Mengmeng, this Illusion Beast was already seriously injured, which is why you were able to kill it so easily."

I think you should return the Crystal Core to them; it's not right to take advantage of them like this."

"No way. They were incompetent enough to let the Illusion Beast escape. Now that I've killed Illusion Beast, it's naturally my reward."

The woman with waist-length hair shook her head.

On the other side, Gao Yaqing, having witnessed the method used by the person who had just killed the Illusion Beast, whispered, "It seems to be two second-year senior students from Blue Star University. I told her to use True Qi to kill the Illusion Beast; first-year students at the Blood-Qi Stage can't use True Qi."

"Oh, it's you, senior!"

Huang Yuande looked over and, sure enough, saw two girls: one with waist-length hair and the other with a petite figure.

"Hey? That long-haired senior looks familiar, I feel like I've seen her somewhere before."

At this moment, two girls walked towards Chen Lie.

The petite girl looked at Chen Lie and the others with an unfriendly tone and said, "Hey, I saw it just now. It was indeed you who seriously injured the Illusion Beast, which is why I was able to kill it so easily."

"But you yourselves are incompetent, and the Illusion Beast escaped. Now that the Illusion Beast's Crystal Core is in my hands, don't even think about getting it back!"

As soon as the petite girl finished speaking, the girl with waist-length hair spoke up in surprise.

"Chen Lie? It's you..."

Chen Lie nodded to the girl with waist-length hair. This girl was the same one he had met at the restaurant a few days ago— Ruan Liuyun, Ruan Liusu's cousin. "It's me, hello!" Chen Lie said directly.

Ruan Liuyun smiled slightly and said, "I didn't expect you to come to the wilderness of the Sumeru Illusion Realm to hunt Illusion Beast so early. Are you preparing for Starry Sky University in the future?"

"It was a collective action by the class."

"A class-wide activity? Do Super Genius Class even have activities like this?"

Ruan Liuyun found it a little strange, but she didn't ask further. Instead, she said, "This is my classmate, named Zhao Mengmeng. She came with me today to hunt Illusion Beast."

After the introductions, Ruan Liuyun said to Zhao Mengmeng, "Mengmeng, this is Chen Lie, he's temporarily... a friend of my cousin. Please return the Illusion Beast Crystal Core to him."

Zhao Mengmeng pouted and said, "My cousin's friend? What kind of convoluted relationship is that? It's obvious they're not even acquaintances. I'm so broke this month I'm practically eating dirt. Liu Yun, you wouldn't let me starve and freeze at Blue Star University this month for this completely unrelated connection, would you?"

Ruan Liuyun coughed twice and said, "What nonsense are you talking about? Chen Lie and I are not unrelated. Give the Illusion Beast Crystal Core back to Chen Lie, and next time we hunt Illusion Beast together, the Crystal Core is yours, okay?"

"Really? You can't back out now!"

"No backing out!"

Zhao Mengmeng nodded and, with her small, white hand, gave Chen Lie a Illusion Beast Crystal Core the size of an egg.

"For you!"

Chen Lie didn't stand on ceremony, taking the Crystal Core directly from Zhao Mengmeng's phone and saying, "Thank you."

"Don't thank me, I don't need your thanks. If you want to thank someone, thank this heroine Ruan. She's very generous and righteous." Zhao Mengmeng waved her hands repeatedly.

"We're all family, no need to be so polite!"

Ruan Liuyun said very generously.

According to the news her grandfather brought from Chuanzhong, her younger cousin's marriage went very smoothly. So, Chen Lie was now her brother-in-law, and a brother-in-law is family.