Chapter 146: Gathering

After settling everything that needed to be done and giving Su Chen some of the medicinal herbs they had gathered, Qi Weiyan and Zhu Anyi left.

Pi Yuanhong wanted to go too, but Su Chen said that his wounds weren’t completely healed yet and forbade him from going out. Pi Yuanhong was infuriated.

Thus, Su Chen basically used his status as number three to prevent him from leaving. That damned Qi Weiyan supported Su Chen as well, so Pi Yuanhong could only remain on the mountain.

The third night within the ruins, Su Chen encountered the third wave of his comrades.

It was the tenth-year, number nineteen student Fan Ruzhi and the eighth-year, number thirty-seven student Ma Xuan.

Ma Xuan’s arrival greatly excited Jiang Hanfeng.

He was the person who was extremely talented at setting up concealment Origin Formations.

Ma Xuan immediately adjusted Jiang Hanfeng’s formation upon arrival and made it so that both sound and smell were completely concealed. From the outside, all one could see was the mountain – this was so that the students looking for the location could still find it.

On the fourth day, the tenth-year, number five and number sixteen students Feng Yigu and Shi Jiangbai, as well as the seventh-year, number twenty-one student Wu Xiao arrived.

Wu Xiao was the most powerful of the seventh-year students, and he also had the highest student number.

That was because he was one of the eight with a Demon King Bloodline.

His Clairvoyant Beast Bloodline was quite a rare Demonic Beast. It had the unique ability of detecting an opponent’s vitals and evaluating their physical conditions.

The Clairvoyant Beast Bloodline was quite powerful in and of itself, making him the only one of the four seventh-year students who didn’t need protection.

Wu Xiao arrived and immediately delivered Su Chen some bad news.

Chen Qianfu, Yuan Mengshi, and Cen Wende had died.

Chen Qianfu was a tenth-year student ranked number 24, Yuan Mengshi was a ninth-year student ranked number 31, and Cen Wende was an eighth-year student ranked number 27.

None of them were weak.

Of them all, Cen Wende’s loss was the most unfortunate.

Cen Wende was the third and only student apart from Su Chen and Cloud Leopard without a bloodline. The three of them were the only ones who represented those without bloodlines in this entire group of people.

Cen Wende didn’t have a bloodline, but because he had used a Bloodline Medicine at some point, he probably could be considered to have a Mixed Bloodline at the very least.

But he hadn’t relied on that bloodline to get strong; rather, he had relied on his own efforts. It was quite impressive for him to reach the rank of 27 on the back of his own strength.

Even so, this hardworking youth, who had quite a big future ahead of him, was killed even before he had made any important contributions.

When Wu Xiao discovered them, their corpses were all piled together, and their heads had all been crushed to a bloody pulp. He had to spend quite a bit of time to correctly identify them.

Then, he used his own bloodline’s unique ability and discovered that they had died to a single Ferocious Race youth.

“A single Ferocious Race youth killed the three of them?” Su Chen’s squinted his eyes.

They could accept the fact that the Ferocious Race was stronger than humans in a one-on-one battle, but it was hard for them to accept that a single Ferocious Race youth had defeated three of them together.

“They should be one of the Temple Heros,” Feng Yigu said.

Su Chen nodded. “That’s the only possible explanation…… the Origin Energy Temple!”

These words pierced everyone’s heart like a needle.

——————————————

The fifth day in the ruins, Su Chen encountered the highest-ranking student, He Yuandong.

He Yuandong had a composed, weighty personality. His strength and moral character were all very admirable, and his presence was like that of a solid, steadfast pillar.

The tenth-year, number 9 student Shen Yucheng and number 20 student Shui Dong were with him.

Upon seeing Sheng Yucheng alive and well, everyone was extremely happy.

Shen Yucheng had a twin brother called Shen Longcheng. Even though the two of them only had high-tier bloodlines, they had a few powerful skills they could unleash when working together. In addition, they were born with a unique Bloodline Skill that allowed them to communicate even across extremely long distances.

In other words, finding Shen Yucheng was equivalent to finding Shen Longcheng.

And, Shen Longcheng was with Wang Doushan and Ji Ruoyu at the moment!

Finally, they had located Ji Ruoyu.

Su Chen sighed in relief. “How long will the ruins last for?”

Shen Yucheng replied, “Ji Ruoyu says that, under these circumstances, the ruins can stay up for seventy-seven more days. However, this is only under the present conditions. You know that the Origin Energy fluctuations from the constant battles will only accelerate the rate at which the void collapses.”

“Ask him how many days there were when we first came.”

Shen Yucheng closed her eyes.

After a moment, she replied, “Ninety days or so.”

“Ninety days, huh? After five days, that number has already gone down to seventy-seven.” Su Chen did some quick calculations and then said, “Then this place can at most last thirty more days.”

Upon determining this figure, Su Chen sighed again.

That was more than enough time for him to break through to the Blood Boiling Realm.

“How many people have come here so far?” He Yuandong asked.

“Including me, fourteen, and now with Longcheng and the others, it’s seventeen in total. But according to what Senior Sister Qin and I discussed, not everyone will move together; instead, we’ll treat this place as a headquarters……” Su Chen continued to explain his plan to He Yuandong.

He Yuandong listened closely, deep in thought.

He said, “This mountain is a great rendezvous location to send exploration missions from, but we also need to consider our own safety. It’s best if we have three people per team and send the strongest groups out first. People like Hanfeng and Ruoyu should stand guard. In addition, every team should choose a direction so that we avoid crossing paths. Finally, we should set an amount of time in which hunting and foraging expeditions must return. If they don’t return soon enough, we will need to send out search parties. This should be a more complete plan.”

Su Chen nodded. “Yes, your plan is more complete.”

It wasn’t that Su Chen couldn’t have thought of this on his own. They just had too few people at the time, and there was no way they could have done things so precisely.

Now, with He Yuandong and the others here, the strength of the mountain headquarters had increased, so the plan would naturally see some changes.

In the afternoon, Shen Longchang, Wang Doushan, and Ji Ruoyu finally arrived.

Naturally, Su Chen was excited to see his good friend.

Unfortunately, Su Chen asked everyone present, but no one knew anything about Gu Qingluo’s whereabouts. He couldn’t help but feel nervous.

But when he remembered Gu Qingluo’s speed, he was sure that even if she couldn’t beat her opponents, she would at least be able to escape.

As long as…… she didn’t run into those from the Origin Energy Temple.

Being anxious now wouldn’t do him any good, though, and all he could do was force his worries about Gu Qingluo down.

In fact, Wang Doushan’s arrival meant that Su Chen could finally do something that he had always wanted to try.

“What? You want to finish off the Demonic Beast within the forest?” Wang Doushan yelled in shock.

Everyone turned around to gaze at him in surprise.

Demonic Beasts were not easy to deal with. There would definitely be a fierce battle involved, and this meant more danger.

With the Ferocious Race youths keeping an eye out for them, carelessly taking risks was not a good idea.

“Yes!” Su Chen said with conviction.

There was nothing he could do. That Demonic Beast was still prowling the forest, and he had already drawn out all of the Vicious Beasts at the perimeter of the forest that he possibly could. As long as that Demonic Beast was still there, he didn’t dare go in.

At this point, his cultivation base was at 96 Yellow Stars. He could initiate a breakthrough after four more Yellow Stars, but he couldn’t find any more prey.

Of course, Su Chen wouldn’t say this aloud. Instead, he said, “There are many more ingredients that I need from within the forest, but as long as that Demonic Beast is prowling through the area, I have no way of collecting them. I need those ingredients to make medicine for everyone, so we need to think of a way to deal with it.”

“Do you know how strong that Demonic Beast is?” He Yuandong asked.

“I got Wu Xiao to go take a look already, and he confirmed that the target was just a low-tier Demonic Beast. If we make the appropriate preparations, I believe we will be able to defeat it.”

Wu Xiao’s detection ability may not have been as good as Cloud Leopard’s in terms of detecting targets at long distances, but he could accurately gauge the target’s strength, making him peerless in scoping out a potential opponent.

With Wu Xiao’s confirmation, Su Chen had much more confidence in their ability to defeat that Demonic Beast.

“We need more people,” He Yuandong said. “We should wait for more people to get here.”

Su Chen shook his head. “That means that you guys all need to wait here too; that’s a waste of our manpower. I have a plan that, if everything goes well, will make sure that we can take care of it with just the few of us here.”

“What plan?”

Su Chen pulled out the Totemic Medicine. “First, we need to give that fatty a makeover.”