After carefully traversing the mountains that divided the fifth and fourth rings, it was starting to get dark, but the group continued onwards.
Their objective was to kill a Sacred Blood beast, and the first thing to do was finding one.
They entered the fourth ring and what they saw was a massive forest.
It was fairly dense, and they could barely see fifty meters out.
"Alright people, this goes mainly for you Tang Tian."
Reng Huang said, making sure Long Tian was paying attention.
After seeing everyone looking at him, the leader nodded and continued.
"The fourth ring is known as the Outer Forest of Death. There are countless mutant beasts here and if we want to find a Sacred Blood we will need to get very deep into it."
"So I want everyone to be at their maximum alertness. This goes especially for you two, Lei Ru and Lei Mu. No absent-mindedness here. Everyone should be at their peak focus if they don't want to die."
Then, in a somber voice, he continued.
"Don't add yourselves to the list of friends I lost in this damn forest."
"Come on, let's go."
Reng Huang finished, and they went forward.
They walked in formation.
Reng Huang was up front, with his shield on hand. Carefully watching for any threat.
Lei Ru and Lei Mu were on the sides, making sure nothing came close.
Qiu Fei and Long Tian were at the back, close to the three archers in the center, always looking back and making sure nothing snuck up on them.
And so they went.
Every ten or so meters, Lei Ru, who was on the left side, would leave a mark on a tree, so they could find their way in case they got lost.
After walking for nearly ten minutes, they found the first sign of beasts.
It was a small group of deer, they could see three of them. Three meters tall and a deep green color.
They were Forest Deer, and these three were mutants.
Reng Huang then communicated with hand gestures.
Each archer would take a shot at one, trying to immobilize them, and the two swordsmen would go in for the kill.
And so they did, each archer drew their bow, aimed and released as soon as Reng Huang's hand fell.
Bian Mei and Bian Lian managed to hit their targets perfectly, the arrows lodging in the skull of two of the deer.
The arrow of Guan Zhun, however, hit the deer in the leg, as his arrow was slower, allowing the deer to immediately jump in fright when it heard the arrows hitting its companions.
Long Tian, seeing this, dashed at the deer instantly.
They were trying to be silent as noise could attract other mutant beasts.
And they could be in danger if more than 8 attacked at the same time.
Long Tian's speed had always been insane, the highest of the group.
But ever since he started practicing the Space Sword Gene Art, it has become scary.
The deer had been almost 80 meters always, in a clearing. But Long Tian reached there in less than 2 seconds.
Just as the deer was about to touch the ground after jumping more than 10 meters into the air.
Long Tian appeared and slashed.
It was a simple slash, without much force behind it, but it still cleanly decapitated the deer.
*Ding*
[Mutant Beast Forest Deer killed. Beast Soul of Mutant Forest Deer gained.]
[Supreme Evolution activated. Beast Soul of Sacred Blood Forest Deer gained.]
[Eat its flesh to gain up to 100 Mutant Gene Points.]
The group barely reacted, having seen Long Tian do these kinds of things multiple times before.
They all had their own thoughts about it, but their consensus after talking about it was that Long Tian was lying and had already at least completed his Sacred Blood gene points and had entered the sanctuary with the full 5.0 points possible.
They didn't know why he was lying, but he clearly was not trying to harm them. And he had no motive to.
So they concluded that he was probably a young master trying to gain experience in the sanctuary after being fed all the Gene Points that his family could buy for him.
All of this and more made them want to keep Long Tian close.
Who knew if one day he would decide to help them in the future if they became friends?
This was also one of the motives behind Bian Mei's actions.
Although she was not trying to get close to Long Tian purely due to the fact that he was probably a member of a big clan.
She would probably not be so aggressive as she convinced herself she was being, if he was not. Even though they had not even held hands yet.
The truth was, Bian Mei truly felt a little crush when she first saw Long Tian, but what made her act on it was the thought that she could become close to someone with a very promising future.
They ignored the deer bodies and continued forward.
Today, they would only stop for a Sacred Blood body.
During the next hour, the forest got darker and darker, and they found more and more mutant deer.
After the third encounter, Reng Huang told them that this was probably their territory.
And in this forest, only a Sacred Blood beast could have territory.
So they continued forward.
After another hour, when they were about to stop for the night and return to a safer place, they finally found it.
With their enhanced vision they could barely see it.
A 4 meters tall deer. Different from its lower ranked counterparts, it was of a very bright green color. Its antlers were extremely light green in color, the closest thing to white in the whole beast.
It was currently eating some leaves on a tree.
Being just 50 meters away, the group prepared to engage.
They were not afraid of it running because no Sacred Blood ever ran away, it was like their pride was more valuable than their life.
So, after a series of communications with hand gestures, so that everyone knew what they were supposed to do, they launched their attack.
Both Qiu Fei and Long Tian dashed at it, with the same speed.
At the same time they dashed, the three archers released their arrows, all with the maximum strength they could muster.
At the same time, the two brothers also started going forward at a lesser speed while Reng Huang remained in front of the archers so that the beast could not get to them.
As soon as the arrows were loosed, the beast reacted.
It immediately looked in the direction of the group and made a strange but loud sound before jumping over the arrows, letting them pass harmlessly beneath it.
Long Tian and Qiu Fei reached it the next moment, with Qiu Fei attacking on the right and Long Tian on the left.
Qiu Fei's attack barely caused damage to the creature, barely piercing through its skin.
Long Tian, however, cut almost 10cm deep into the beast.
The beast let out a scream-like sound, clearly in pain.
Upong touching the ground, it immediately turned and attacked Qiu Fei, seeing him as the weakest of the two and hoping to eliminate him first.
The deer lowered its neck and literally threw itself at Qiu Fei, who desperately tried to dodge while also using his sword to parry the attack.
At the same time, Long Tian dashed after it, while three more arrows were loosed towards the beast.
The beast reached Qiu Fei first, ramming its massive antlers towards him.
He barely managed to parry the attack before being sent flying.
Then, Long Tian once again reached the beast and this time attacked in full force, managing to reach the bone, but being stopped there.
Then the arrows landed, one in the body of the beast, where it barely pierced its skin.
The other two landed almost in the neck of the beast, with Bian Lian's arrow almost entering completely in the beast.
The beast once again screeched and there were sounds of hooves approaching.
"Tang Tian finish it fast!"
Reng Huang yelled as the beast was trying to pull away from Long Tian.
Immediately, Long Tian started using the Space Sword Art.
His arms bulging from the force he was making; the sword finally moved through the beast's spine and severed it in half.
After that, the beast fell weakly on the ground, and Long Tian dashed towards its head and plunged his sword through its eyes, effectively killing the beast.
*Ding*
[Sacred Blood Beast Forest Deer killed. Beast Soul of Sacred Blood Forest Deer gained.]
[Supreme Evolution activated. Beast Soul of Super Forest Deer gained.]
[Eat its flesh to gain up to 100 Sacred Blood Gene Points.]
"Guys, everyone on me, all those mutant deer are coming, we will get the body of the Sacred Blood one later!"
Reng Huang rapidly commanded and everyone gathered around the archers.
Qiu Fei looked a little hurt but nothing that should affect him for now.
Then, as the group finally assembled, tens of mutant beasts came running.
Upon seeing the corpse of their leader, some screeched and turned around running while others dashed towards the humans.
In the end, only 36 decided to attack them, but this was still dangerous for them.
As the beasts came running, arrows rained on them, with each beast taking at least 2 arrows to kill, and this was because they were not actively dodging.
The archers managed to kill 6 before the beasts reached them.
Long Tian just kept slashing in front of him, killing or severely injuring the beasts with each slash.
He was the one that had it the easiest.
The others, however, were not so fortunate.
There were only five of them making the frontline, so each one got 6 beasts to deal with. Long Tian selected the side where the most beasts were coming from, so he ended up dealing with twelve of them.
But the rest had 18, and they were extremely hard pressed against them.
Each of them could deal with a mutant beast by themselves, but more than three were already too risky, so, obviously, someone made a mistake and paid dearly for it.
It was Qiu Fei, who was already injured and dealing with five beasts. Two of them attacked at the same time and sent him flying back.
With the way open, the beasts rapidly charged at the archers in the center of the formation.
"Guys, help!"
It was Guan Zhun who screamed, seeing as the four beasts came from the side he was closest to.
Long Tian heard that and accelerated his slashing, as he still had seven beasts to deal with.
Guan Zhun had to dodge the beasts, who continued their charge towards the back of Lei Mu.
"Lei Mu, lookout!"
Guan Zhun once again warned.
Lei Mu heard it but couldn't do much.
The three archers focused their fire on the five beasts but could only take out one before the beasts reached Lei Mu.
Now dealing with four beasts in the front and four behind him, Lei Mu, clad in a Primitive armor, didn't look like he would survive it.
But then, something extremely fast passed through the beasts just before they reached Lei Mu.
It was Long Tian, who told Qiu Fei, who had landed close to him, to secure the four beasts left in his front and dashed to save Lei Mu.
While passing in the middle of the four beasts, Long Tian rapidly slashed at their necks, making all four of them fall down headless.
After that, he helped Lei Mu deal with his beasts before going back to help Qiu Fei, who had been sent flying again.
A minute later, all beasts were dealt with and all eight were panting with exhaustion, even Long Tian
He had to use all his force when dealing with the Sacred Blood creature and then give his all against these mutant ones.
After catching their breath for a while, Reng Huang said,
"Alright guys, we'll have to pass the night here, with the death of a Sacred Blood creature, no being should approach for a while, but we can never be sure, so we'll do shifts to stay awaken and alert."
They then dealt with the corpses, piling up everything in the center of their mini encampment.
After finishing pilling the corpses, Lei Mu mocked Qiu Fei a bit,
"Hey Fei, is being sent flying a new move you're training on? Seems very powerful."
By the end, the two brothers could barely hold their laughter.
"Shut Up."
Qiu Fei said and ignored the brothers, though his usual serious façade almost broke with an embarrassed blush.
Corpses normally attract other beasts, but that is until a certain point.
With the smell of a Sacred Blood and thirty mutant beasts, only another Sacred Blood would dare to approach.
Beasts in the sanctuary were not stupid, even more so the advanced ones. Although they craved meat of stronger beings, they still had an instinct that anything that could deal with something stronger than them could also kill them.
After setting all the tents, Reng Huang said,
"Alright, the distribution will be like this."
"First will be TangTian and-"
Before he could finish, Bian Mei rapidly added, a bit too loud,
"Me. Let it be me, please!"
Everyone looked at her, a little speechless, even her sister seemed to be twitching at the corner of her mouth.
Blushing, she said very low,
"Uhh… If it's possible… I think."
She then blushed even harder when she saw the expression of surprise mixed with enthusiasm on Long Tian's face.
"Uh. Alright, you two can go first, just don't get us all killed."
He continued, as if he didn't want to think about it.
"Next will be Lei Mu, Lei Ru and Lian Bian."
"Last will be me, Qiu Fei and Guan Zhong."
Done with the division of shifts, Reng Huang entered his tent saying goodnight and for Bian Lian to remember to keep the brothers awake and to awaken them before going to sleep.
"Alright, you two lovebirds, remember to not let anything eat us."
Lei Mu said while laughing, Lei Ru echoing before going to sleep in their tents.
Lian Bian just looked at her sister with a mixture of too many emotions that she was trying to hide.
So, she just looked at her sister for five seconds without saying anything before shaking her head and going to her tent.
Long Tian and Bian Mei, now alone in the dark forest, looked at each other and blushed.
"So…", Long Tian started.
"About that surprise?"
Bian Mei blushed even more furiously at his words.
But then, she took a deep breath and looked at him. Clearly decided on something, she said,
"Well, you impressed me back there, so I think a surprise is indeed in order."
Bian Mei then approached Long Tian, and looking in his eyes, she hugged him.
Long Tian almost thought that would be it, but then, he looked down again and saw that her face was increasingly close to his, eyes closed.
Heart exploding is his ears, Long Tian closed his eyes and was about to touch her lips with his when he suddenly paused.
His eyes a mixture of frustration and apprehension.
He said out loud, so that everyone in the camp would hear.
"There is someone here."