Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Xu Qiao and her three companions entered the mountain around eight-thirty in the morning. By noon, they had already collected sixteen C-grade crystals, just four short of completing their mission.

Qinchi and Meng Li led the attacks, while Sun Fushan protected Xu Qiao and used his earth abilities to support them. The newly formed team, after a brief period of coordination, worked with remarkable efficiency, rivaling even teams that had cooperated for over a decade.

"Rest for ten or fifteen minutes?"

The aircraft was scheduled to depart at four in the afternoon, leaving an hour and a half for the return journey. They had two and a half hours left to complete their task, but no one could guarantee they would have the same good luck as in the morning, so they needed to control their rest time.

All teammates agreed.

They found a shaded area under some trees. In the danger zone, the mutation rate of plants was high, but not every plant had undergone changes.

Sun Fushan sat cross-legged, about to offer his teammates fresh boxed meals stored in his crystal space, when he saw Meng Li and Xu Qiao each take out a tube of intermediate nutrition fluid. One drank it in a bold manner, gulping it down, while the other did so more delicately but still finished it in three sips. They immediately put their helmets back on, showing extreme caution.

Sun Fushan: "…"

He looked at Qinchi.

Qinchi also wanted to eat the delicious boxed meal he had prepared himself, but seeing the two twenty-year-old girls being so efficient and cautious, finishing their lunch in less than a minute, he realized eating a boxed meal might attract beasts with its aroma, causing trouble for his teammates.

His thoughts flickered over the four boxed meals stored in the space, but reluctantly, he switched to a high-grade nutrition fluid.

It wasn't that he wanted to be ostentatious; rather, intermediate nutrition fluid couldn't meet his nutritional needs, and there were no reserves in the space.

Seeing this, Sun Fushan also gave up on the boxed meal.

Meng Li closed her eyes to rest, while Xu Qiao noticed that her wealthy teammates seemed reluctant to open the nutrition fluid tubes. She understood and smiled, saying, "Did you bring boxed meals? If you're worried about the smell, you can eat them in the vehicle."

Sun Fushan, blushing, said, "No, it's fine."

Qinchi added, "I prepared four portions. We can eat the nutrition fluid now and save the boxed meals for dinner?"

Xu Qiao replied, "Sounds good. After a busy day, I won't feel like cooking when we get home."

After they finished their nutrition fluids, Xu Qiao asked, "How are your energy levels?"

Nutrition fluids replenished physical strength, but the depleted psychic and ability energies took longer to recover fully.

Meng Li said, "If it's one-on-one, I can handle five more C-grade beasts before getting strained."

Being strained meant risking injury.

She was a strong C-grade, proficient in both poison and fire abilities. Qinchi, who introduced himself as having wind and spatial abilities, only using wind for combat, said, "I can handle about five too, thanks to my experience."

Sun Fushan chimed in, "That's enough!"

His energy consumption wasn't as high, and earth abilities were more adept at defense, though not lacking in offense.

Seeing how capable her teammates were, Xu Qiao felt as if she had returned to the days when she accompanied Uncle Lu on missions. There was little room for her, as a healer, to contribute. Of course, Uncle Lu didn't treat her merely as a tagalong; instead, he shared various experiences to help her develop self-preservation skills outside the base.

However, Xu Qiao preferred contributing less rather than seeing her teammates severely injured.

In the New Era, safety always came first. If her teammates ever found her a burden, they could leave her behind to do missions alone.

After resting, the four set off again. Since they only had four targets left, they chose a different path leading out of the mountains instead of going deeper.

In late March, the afternoon sun was bright and glaring, and the windless forest was eerily quiet, with even the birds' chirping gone.

Meng Li, who was leading, suddenly stopped and looked at the knee-high grass on either side of the path, whispering, "Something's there."

Sun Fushan turned to shield Xu Qiao, staring at the opposite grass, saying, "There's something here too."

Qinchi concluded, "Nine in total. We're surrounded."

Xu Qiao's heart raced. Nine beasts constituted a small pack. If they were all C-grade...

With a commanding shriek, nine elongated triangular heads emerged simultaneously from the surrounding grass. Covered in metallic brown scales, with red-brown stripes running from their necks to their tails, their barrel-like bodies measured about two meters long.

Meng Li said coldly, "Stone dragons. Judging by their length, they're all C-grade."

Sun Fushan shuddered, "Too many!"

Xu Qiao added, "Stone dragons can lay up to sixteen eggs at once. Normally, they live alone, but these are acting in a group, which suggests there might be a mother controlling them."

If there was a mother lizard, it would need to be B-grade or even A-grade to command nine adult C-grade stone dragons.

Before humans could analyze further, the nine stone dragons launched their attack.

In the Old Era, ordinary lizards could move at twenty kilometers per hour, and the mutated C-grade stone dragons were even faster. Neither Meng Li's fireballs nor Sun Fushan's underground spikes managed to hit any of them. Only Qinchi's wide wind sand circle temporarily held them back.

However, given the speed and weight of the stone dragons, once they realized the wind sand circle wouldn't cause much harm, they would start attacking fiercely, using their speed to break through.

Meng Li quickly formulated a plan, "Three each!"

She released a fiery snake, forcing three stone dragons into one spot. The snake grew larger, encircling them, and the stone dragons, fearing the unfamiliar flames, adopted a defensive stance, backs against each other.

Meng Li controlled the fire, and her giant fire scorpion spirit leaped into the circle, fighting three at once.

Sun Fushan followed suit. The ground beneath him seemed to transform into a dragon, rumbling as it herded three stone dragons into one spot and then instantly raised four tall walls of earth. The stone dragons tried to leap over, but a thick "ceiling" covered with sharp spikes slammed down, turning the walls into an unbreakable prison.

The remaining three were trapped in Qinchi's wind sand circle. Invisible wind blades attempted to cut the stone dragons inside, but their metallic scales and clever protection of vital areas made it impossible for Qinchi and Sun Fushan to breach their defenses, leaving them only able to restrain them.

Such restraint required continuous use of psychic and ability energies.

Xu Qiao looked at Meng Li's fire circle.

The fire scorpion, under Meng Li's mental command, sprayed a cloud of poison upon entering. Unexpectedly, the stone dragons were not afraid of poison. Three of them attacked the scorpion from different directions, one biting its tail to prevent it from using its stinger, while the other two went for the joints connecting its claws and body.

Meng Li couldn't just watch her spiritual body get bitten and continuously attacked the three stone dragons with fireballs. However, she was at a disadvantage fighting three against two, and it was clear that victory would not come anytime soon.

Sun Fushan's attacks and defenses were blocked by the earth cage, and Xu Qiao looked anxiously toward Qinchi.

Qinchi's wind blades continuously attacked the eyes of the stone dragons. Just as he successfully gouged out the left eye of one stone dragon and thrust his wind blade into its body, the other two stone dragons, after repeatedly failing to break through the small, high-density, high-speed wind sand circle, suddenly burrowed into the ground.

The wind blades could not penetrate the soil, so Qinchi motioned for Xu Qiao to stand behind him. At the same time, he sent the wind blades into Meng Li's fire circle and, catching them off guard, fiercely stabbed one of the stone dragons in the eye.

The fire scorpion spiritual body seized the opportunity, turning its body and clamping down hard on the flat triangular head of the second stone dragon with its massive left pincer.

Just as Meng Li was about to help, accompanied by Xu Qiao's "Be careful!" the ground beneath her suddenly shook. A stone dragon that had escaped from Qinchi's side burst out of the ground, mouth wide open, aiming straight for her feet!

A sudden gust of wind swept Meng Li aside, and at the same moment, she threw a fist-sized fireball into the gaping mouth of the stone dragon below, revealing two rows of sharp teeth.

With a muffled "boom," the defenseless internal organs of the stone dragon caused it to collapse on the ground, twitching a few times before going still.

The other underground stone dragon went to attack Sun Fushan. Qinchi, who had been multitasking by attacking the stone dragons within the fire circle and using wind to sweep Meng Li away, was two seconds too late when trying to do the same for Sun Fushan.

As the stone dragon's large mouth was about to bite Sun Fushan's jumping feet, a millstone-sized turtle spiritual body appeared out of nowhere under him and slammed down with a "bang."

The stone dragon's open mouth was crushed and flattened on the ground, killing it instantly.

The turtle spiritual body, perhaps finding the ground uncomfortable, slowly crawled to the side. As it moved, its round black eyes turned to Xu Qiao, who was watching the battle intently. Seeing the beautiful girl staring at it, the dark green turtle stretched its neck longer and held its head higher, unable to hide its pride.

Xu Qiao: ...So turtles can be used like this!

However, for Sun Fushan to release a turtle spiritual body capable of crushing a stone dragon, he had to expend a lot of mental energy. The nearby earth cage became difficult to maintain, and the three stone dragons inside immediately broke free.

Qinchi had killed two, Meng Li and her spiritual body each killed one, and the turtle spiritual body crushed another, leaving four remaining.

Sun Fushan withdrew his spiritual body and tried the same trick again, but he had taken advantage of the element of surprise earlier. Now, as soon as the big turtle appeared, the targeted stone dragon immediately darted to the side, making it impossible to hit. Moreover, hitting only the body might not kill it.

Thus, they changed their strategy: Meng Li controlled two, and Qinchi controlled two. This time, with Sun Fushan reinforcing the soil between the fire circle and the wind sand circle, the four stone dragons could no longer burrow underground.

The stone dragons in the wind sand circle knew the power of the wind blades and kept their eyes tightly shut, defending actively. The two in the fire circle had to deal with the fire scorpion and dared not close their eyes. So, Qinchi controlled the wind blades to cooperate with the fire scorpion, while Meng Li used fire to burn the stone dragons in the wind sand circle. No matter how tough their scales were, they couldn't withstand high temperatures.

When Qinchi and the fire scorpion spiritual body each killed one stone dragon in the fire circle, and the two remaining in the wind sand circle were being scorched by intense flames, another tremor came from deep underground. It was so fast that Xu Qiao and the others barely noticed it before the ground beneath them cracked.

Before they could see the creature's full form, a two-meter-long sharp tail swept across. Only Xu Qiao, who was carried by Qinchi and flown over ten meters away, avoided it. Sun Fushan and Meng Li were hit by the tail's force, injuring their waists and calves. This was only because Qinchi used wind to pull them away; otherwise, a direct hit from the tail could have been fatal.

Taking advantage of the mother lizard checking on the surviving two C-level stone dragons, Qinchi used wind to bring the pain-wracked Sun Fushan and the stoically enduring Meng Li to his side.

As soon as they landed, Xu Qiao immediately crouched down to examine their injuries.

Sun Fushan had a fractured waistbone, and Meng Li had a broken calf bone with a shattered fragment.

Sun Fushan was in too much pain to speak, tremblingly pointing at Meng Li, indicating that Xu Qiao should treat her first.

Meng Li stared at the five-meter-long mother lizard and said solemnly, "A-level."

Xu Qiao, being a healer, knew the urgency of treating her teammates. She focused on Meng Li's leg while sending eleven petals from her lotus flower spiritual body into Sun Fushan's damaged armor to cover his waist, which would speed up the healing process.

Influenced by the fire dragon spiritual body, Qinchi's gaze lingered on the eleven lotus petals on Sun Fushan's waist for a second before returning to the A-level mother lizard: "Stone dragons hibernate from late autumn. This is the season they awaken. Either this nest has been hiding underground, evading the patrol team's detection, or they've just arrived, attracted by the scent of mercenaries."

Suddenly, Sun Fushan produced an energy gun, shakily handing it to Qinchi. "A-level."

Even Meng Li couldn't help looking at Xu Qiao, wondering how her schoolmate knew such a wealthy individual.

Xu Qiao had no time to spare. Treating Sun Fushan's bone fracture required both mental energy and abilities, and Meng Li's shattered bone injury was even more severe, requiring precise control to piece together the fragments before healing with wood-based abilities.

Treating injured teammates would consume eighty percent of a C-level healer's abilities.

The two C-level stone dragons needed time to recover and disappeared into the grass.

The A-level mother lizard watched her children disappear to safety before pouncing on the four-person squad.

Qinchi's marksmanship was excellent; all three shots hit the swift-moving mother lizard.

Unfortunately, an A-level energy gun meant it could penetrate an A-level beast's defenses, but it didn't guarantee an instant kill.

The mother lizard glanced at the tiny wound on its scales, caused by three energy bullets hitting the same spot, then chased after Qinchi, disregarding the three lower-level mercenaries left behind.

It would eat the one with the gun and return to find its children had finished the other three.