Chapter 34

Five days passed in the blink of an eye.

Over those five days, the Divine Arrow Squad rested during the day and hunted at night. Their gains had been considerable, and nearly everyone's backpack was stuffed to the brim.

Of course, Advanced Beast Soldiers made up the majority of their haul.

But what pleased Cao Bing and the Divine Arrow Squad most was Cao Bing's growth over the past few days, as well as the team's improved coordination.

Cao Bing could now expertly patrol the squad's perimeter and create opportunities for Guan Yong to charge into the heart of a beast horde and assist his assassinations.

Cao Bing's movement speed had already reached the limit of the Micro-level. With just a little more insight, he might reach the Perfect-level. Of course, taking that step was extraordinarily difficult. Still, Cao Bing was in no hurry. Even Luo Feng had only broken through to the Perfect-level after half a year of life-and-death combat at the Elite Training Camp. Cao Bing was already close to the threshold—more than half a year ahead of Luo Feng—so there was no need for him to rush.

His saber technique, on the other hand, had improved tremendously. With a single swing of the Phantom Blade Technique, two blade phantoms crossed as they attacked, their real and false forms impossible to predict. Yet the Nine Layered Thunder Saber had progressed painfully slowly. Despite practicing for so long, he had yet to master even the first layer.

Cao Bing had also wanted to follow Luo Feng's example and use thunderstorm observation to gain enlightenment and improve.

In the end, other than making his eyes hurt, it was completely useless.

Did he really have to give up the Nine Layered Thunder Saber? Cao Bing felt unwilling. Although the Phantom Blade Technique suited him well, its strength did not lie in force generation, but in the shifting between phantoms and reality. Even if he truly cultivated all seven phantom layers, each phantom would only possess six-tenths of his power.

Even all seven together would only amount to 4.8 times his force output. And it could not be calculated that way—the Phantom Blade Technique did not concentrate its force. Each blade phantom possessed its own power.

As a result, the power was dispersed. Even with a full-strength strike, eight blade phantoms could at most wield roughly four times the power.

Even the expert who created this saber technique had admitted that his punches could only produce 4.6 times the force. What he truly excelled at was battle and slaughter. Cao Bing also guessed that this expert had likely been an existence beyond the God of War.

Forget it. I'll leave it at that for now. The Nine Layered Thunder Saber was created by Lei Shen, after all. How could it be so easy to master? I'll devote more time to it.

Splat!

As Cao Bing calculated in his heart, two flashes of saber light instantly severed the heads of two leopards the size of yaks.

"Two Advanced Beast Soldiers thought they could sneak up on me?" Cao Bing chuckled.

Before entering the wilderness, Cao Bing would never have dared to be so arrogant. But now, this was no longer arrogance—it was confidence.

"Cao Bing, it's time to go!"

After killing the two leopard-type beast soldiers, Guan Yong's voice came through Cao Bing's earpiece.

"Received!"

Cao Bing immediately replied while swiftly removing useful materials from the two monster corpses.

Five minutes later, Cao Bing appeared on the roof of a residential building more than twenty stories tall.

Every member of the Divine Arrow Squad had gathered there.

"Everyone did well these past few days. Your backpacks are nearly full, so we'll return to the supply base today." Yan Ying swept her gaze over everyone, especially Cao Bing, who had returned last, and nodded in satisfaction.

"Alright, Captain." Song Shengnan nodded. Even though she was accustomed to fighting in the wilderness, as a woman, she still had her own cleanliness habits. Going days without bathing or washing her face had already made her miserable.

"Haha, when we get back, we need to have a proper meal. These compressed biscuits have made my mouth feel greasy." Xie Hongxin's ruddy face broke into an excited grin.

"All you know is eating." Song Shengnan glared at Xie Hongxin and scolded him.

"Shengnan, don't pick on Old Xie. I want to go back and get a good night's sleep too." Guan Yong put a blade of grass between his lips and said with a smile.

"You lot are getting lazier and lazier!" Yan Ying sighed, glared at her team members, then continued.

"Haha, Captain, proper rest lets us fight better! Besides, we never let down our guard in the wilderness!" Guan Yong said with a laugh.

"Alright, you guys don't even know how to set an example for Little Cao." Yan Ying shook her head helplessly, while the others merely chuckled.

Even Fang Ye, an old wilderness hand, leaned against a crumbling wall and watched everyone with a smile.

"Alright, time to go. Zheng Ke, the route." Yan Ying turned to Zheng Ke, who had not joined the conversation.

"Captain, the scouting is complete. The route we used to enter still does not have too many monsters occupying it, so we can withdraw quickly. The only thing we need to watch out for is a small supermarket not far down that road. It has been reoccupied by a lone Advanced Beast General. Judging by its build, it should be a Flame Crystal Leopard," Zheng Ke reported.

"A Flame Crystal Leopard?" Everyone except Captain Yan Ying had their eyes light up.

"Old Yan, should we pull one last job before leaving? An Advanced Beast General-level Flame Crystal Leopard is worth a fortune. If we sell it well, it could fetch more than nine hundred million." Xie Hongxin spoke greedily.

"We go around it!" Yan Ying said without room for argument.

"It's too dangerous. The Flame Crystal Leopard's strength is already close to that of weaker Low-level Lords. Even Old Guan's speed would definitely be unable to keep up with it. As an Advanced Warrior, you simply can't withstand attacks of that level," Yan Ying explained.

"Fine." Xie Hongxin was somewhat unwilling, but he still chose to compromise.

In truth, as Yan Ying said, the Flame Crystal Leopard was even more dangerous than the Silver Moon Wolf King Luo Feng had encountered in the original story. Its Flame Crystal scales could not necessarily be cut through even by a Warrior General level expert wielding an A7-series saber, and those scales covered almost its entire body.

Even more terrifying, it was no slower than the Silver Moon Wolf King. In terms of instantaneous bursts of speed, it was even much faster.

"We'll take the eastern route, following the abandoned highway leading out through City 132's southeastern exit." Based on the scouting information Zheng Ke had reported, Yan Ying quickly planned a relatively safe withdrawal route.

The Divine Arrow Squad might have seemed to be slaughtering monsters throughout the city without restraint, but in reality, every hunt had been properly planned. If they had truly killed at random without purpose, they would have long since been surrounded by countless monsters.

Furthermore, withdrawing was different from rushing in. Several days of combat had drained a great deal of everyone's energy, and when they first arrived, they carried little besides their weapons. But after several days of hunting, everyone's backpacks were full.

If they truly encountered danger, the heavy packs would severely slow them down. Unless they discarded their backpacks—but then all their hard work over the past few days would have been for nothing.

Therefore, squads were generally even more cautious when leaving ruined cities. After all, no one wanted to exhaust themselves and fight through life-and-death battles for several days, only to end up empty-handed.