"Let's join in!"
Du Ze drew a longsword first and began battling an Azure-Armed Giant Ape.
The others followed suit, but every Azure-Armed Giant Ape was silver rank, making the fight exceptionally difficult.
Especially since this was their first time fighting Superior Demonic Beasts that were huge, powerful, and extraordinarily agile.
Nie Li, however, never missed a shot. His arrows, coated with poison from purple mist grass, were like the King of Hell claiming lives, striking the Azure-Armed Giant Apes either in the forehead or in the eyes.
The points of impact varied, but every arrow hit its mark.
Azure-Armed Giant Apes had always relied on their agility, yet Nie Li still took them down with one arrow each.
Nie Li himself remained perfectly relaxed. At least twenty or thirty of the apes there had died to his arrows.
"Roar!"
A furious roar made everyone's expression change.
"That roar—it's a Spirit-Rank Demonic Beast! Judging by the sound, it's already Silver 5-Star, nearly Gold rank!"
Soon, a Spirit-Rank Azure-Armed Giant Ape charged into the ruins, its entire body silvery white and its build even taller and more imposing than an ordinary Azure-Armed Giant Ape's.
Seeing so many Azure-Armed Giant Apes dead, the Spirit-Rank Azure-Armed Giant Ape flew into an uncontrollable rage. He hammered his chest wildly with both arms, issuing commands through his roars and driving the ordinary Azure-Armed Giant Apes to surround and attack them once more.
Nie Li stopped taking it easy. He fired crossbow bolts furiously while calling for everyone to retreat into the dense, wooded undergrowth.
"Young Master Chen! We have to find a way to finish off this Spirit-Rank Azure-Armed Giant Ape! Otherwise, we won't get out!"
Standing on the trunk of a large tree, Nie Li alerted everyone.
"Us? This Azure-Armed Giant Ape is Silver 5-Star! None of us is a match for him!"
Chen Linjian was once again stunned by Nie Li's audacity.
This was a Demon Beast whose cultivation was approaching gold rank!
"Then we'll gang up on him."
Nie Li pulled out another arrow.
This arrow was coated with a potent poison Nie Li had made using purple mist grass as its base, supplemented by five highly poisonous herbs.
Poison was the whole point!
"Lu Piao, draw him over!"
"Why is it me again?!"
Lu Piao was miserable. He had been the bait when they fought the Horned Sheep, so why was it still his job now?
Watching the Spirit-Rank Azure-Armed Giant Ape charge toward him in great strides, he swallowed.
"Nie Li!!! Damn you!!!"
"Everyone else, get ready!"
After charging into the dense, wooded undergrowth, the Spirit-Rank Azure-Armed Giant Ape could no longer move as easily.
Lu Piao sprinted all the way toward the great tree where Nie Li stood, not forgetting to shoot him a meaningful look as he neared its trunk.
Nie Li popped a Soul-Explosion Pill.
This pill could rapidly boost soul force for a short time. Even someone at black gold rank could gain a fifty-percent increase.
For him, at bronze rank, it provided a full hundred-and-twenty-percent increase.
His soul force shot straight up to bronze five-star!
Gathering a vast amount of soul force into a single beam, Nie Li once again used the same method of attack he had employed against Shen Yue in the Sky Screen.
Breaking through a surface with a single point, he compressed his soul force into a beam and attacked the demon spirit inside the Spirit-Rank Azure-Armed Giant Ape's mind!
The sudden blow completely stunned the demon spirit inside the Spirit-Rank Azure-Armed Giant Ape's mind.
Even at his original bronze two-star level, Nie Li could have struck him senseless on the spot, leaving him swaying for quite some time before he recovered.
Now, with bronze five-star soul force behind the blow, the Azure-Armed Giant Ape staggered, his entire body reeling in a daze.
Nie Li immediately snatched up his light crossbow, awakening once again the instincts with which he had slain countless Demon Beasts.
He held his breath and focused.
Everyone else, hiding either up in the trees or beneath them, waited tensely for Nie Li's shot.
Whoosh!
"Roar!"
Pain! So much pain!
The arrow drove straight into the Spirit-Rank Azure-Armed Giant Ape's left eye.
The potent poison began spreading from his left eye, while the searing pain instantly snapped him out of the stupor caused by the attack on his demon spirit.
"Nie Li did it!"
With one eye blinded, the Spirit-Rank Azure-Armed Giant Ape began battering the surrounding trees recklessly, venting his pain.
Chen Linjian leaped down from the trunk of a large tree as the Spirit-Rank Azure-Armed Giant Ape raced wildly past it.
After merging with the Shadow Netherwolf.
Chen Linjian's left hand instantly transformed into a claw. His sharp wolf claws shimmered with an eerie light, and black-purple radiance flowed along his left arm.
Slash!
Combat skill, Claw of Darkness!
His claw plunged deep into the back of the Spirit-Rank Azure-Armed Giant Ape's neck, making the ape, already wreaking havoc under the poison's influence, even more frenzied.
"Young Master Chen! Dodge!"
Chen Linjian immediately pulled his left hand free, gripped his longsword, and stamped hard on the Spirit-Rank Azure-Armed Giant Ape's neck, using the force to leap onto the trunk of a large tree.
Ye Ziyun, Xiao Ning'er, Du Ze, and Lu Piao each took out a silver-rank inscription scroll.
"Raging Wind and Sudden Snow!"
"Thunderbolt!"
"Flame Impact!"
"Gale Blade!"
Four silver-rank attacks struck the Spirit-Rank Azure-Armed Giant Ape.
His enormous body was instantly blasted several hundred meters away.
His body had already been mangled beyond recognition, burned by fire, frozen by snow, struck by lightning, and ravaged by wind.
Poison was still spreading through his body.
The four of them panted. That fight had really taken it out of them.
"Is-is he dead?"
Lu Piao asked as he looked at the motionless corpse.
"Definitely. Between the poison and four silver-rank inscription attacks, never mind silver rank-even gold rank couldn't withstand that."
Nie Li was certain. The ape was dead beyond any doubt.
Even the Sacred Emperor couldn't save him. I said it.
Once the remaining Azure-Armed Giant Apes saw their leader dead, they too grew afraid of the group. After Nie Li picked off a few more that tried to approach without fear of death, the rest fled.
Leaning against a wall, everyone panted, brimming with excitement.
They had truly killed a silver-rank Demon Beast that had been just a step away from gold rank!
"Phew, I'm exhausted. Absolutely exhausted."
Lu Piao took out a Soul-Recovery Pill and popped it into his mouth.
These pills sped up soul force recovery, making them the unrivaled must-have for any trip.
Wei Nan and the others were thrilled.
"Nie Li, that shot just now was incredibly accurate! You hit him right in the eye!"
Nie Li smiled. "Oh, that? It comes with practice. Shoot a few tens of thousands of Demon Beasts, and you'll get the hang of it."
Tens of thousands...
That was enough to make up a small beast tide.
Such was someone who had lived an entire lifetime already, carrying along the skills honed in his previous life.
Xiao Ning'er took out a towel of her own accord and wiped the sweat from Nie Li's forehead.
Nie Li was genuinely overwhelmed by the attention.
"Um, Ning'er, I'm really not that tired."
Nie Li actually did not want to be so intimate with Xiao Ning'er, but when he looked toward Ye Ziyun...
Ye Ziyun gave him an encouraging look instead.
That left Nie Li completely bewildered.
What... what was Zi Yun doing?
Before you continue