Lu Renjia stood by the pile of rocks, her expression ugly.
Zhou Min and Wu Min exchanged a glance and walked over to Lu Renjia.
Xiao Luoyi stood far away on the periphery, not coming in.
Their original plan was that when they and Xiao Luoyi arrived, the Little Spotted Boar would just wake up from the pain.
The unbearable pain of the Little Spotted Boar would call the adult female beast.
The enraged mother beast would inevitably attack the four of them.
Then the three of them would pretend to be no match and let Xiao Luoyi struggle to cope.
Once she had received enough of a “lesson”—but not enough to be fatal—they would step in to save her.
But now the problem was that the Little Spotted Boar was gone.
“What’s going on?”
Lu Renjia asked in a low voice, a hint of anger in her tone.
Wu Min looked around nervously.
“Senior Sister Lu, could it be that an overseer discovered it and chased the cub away ahead of time? Or… was it carried off by another demon beast?”
“How the hell should I know?”
Lu Renjia snapped at Wu Min, her expression ugly.
She had spent several days finding this solitary cub, timed the herb mixing perfectly, and then grouped Xiao Luoyi into the team…
This was supposed to be a perfect “accident.”
But now, the prey was gone.
“Senior Sister, what do we do now?”
Zhou Min looked at Lu Renjia.
“How about… we let it go for today? There’ll be other chances.”
In her heart, she was actually a bit nervous.
Normally, following Lu Renjia to bully Xiao Luoyi was one thing—at least there was no real danger to life.
This time, Lu Renjia’s scheme was honestly a bit excessive; no one knew what harm an enraged Large Bristleback Boar might do to Xiao Luoyi.
But Zhou Min and Wu Min dared not defy Lu Renjia.
If they displeased her, they might end up in the same situation as Xiao Luoyi.
“Let it go?”
Lu Renjia was a bit unwilling.
“With the cub gone, can’t there be other demon beasts in this forest?”
She paused, a flash of calculation in her eyes.
“Junior Sister Xiao hasn’t learned any movement techniques, has she?”
“The four of us attack the beast together, the Bristle Boar gets enraged, we three use movement techniques to disengage, and then the enraged beast chases Junior Sister Xiao… That’s perfectly reasonable, right?”
“Although an ordinary Bristle Boar isn’t as strong as a mother with a cub, its enraged counterattack is still enough to give her a hard time.”
Zhou Min and Wu Min exchanged a look, both hesitant, but under Lu Renjia’s cold stare, they nodded anyway.
They had also participated in the early reconnaissance; they were accomplices.
It was too late to back out now.
“Junior Sister Xiao,” Lu Renjia stood up, facing Xiao Luoyi.
“Sorry to keep you waiting. That little one seems to have been scared off by another beast.”
“But it’s fine. We’ll go hunt another Small Bristleback Boar instead. What do you think?”
Xiao Luoyi’s gaze lingered on Lu Renjia’s face for a moment, then swept over Zhou Min and Wu Min’s tense faces.
She nodded.
“I’ll follow Senior Sister’s arrangements.”
Her obedient demeanor only made Lu Renjia angrier inside.
She always felt that beneath this junior sister’s calm exterior lay a mockery of her.
The four didn’t hesitate any longer and dove into the forest, heading toward the area where Small Bristleback Boars often appeared.
Soon, they tracked the activity traces of an adult Bristle Boar.
They began setting traps according to the beast-catching techniques learned in the sect.
Not long after, violent shaking came from the woods, accompanied by heavy snorts, and a sturdy adult Bristle Boar burst out.
The demon beast triggered the Earth Sink Trap that Lu Renjia had set, but the timing of the earth spikes popping up was clearly off—they only stabbed the beast’s rear hoof, causing no real pain but making the beast even more irritable, fury blazing in its animal eyes.
“Now!”
Lu Renjia shouted in a low voice.
Two figures shot out almost simultaneously.
Zhou Min sprang from the left, her long sword flicking, the tip accurately stabbing into the thick hide above the beast’s hind leg.
At the same time, a stone infused with spiritual power flew from Wu Min’s right hand, snapping right onto the beast’s wet snout.
“Roar——!”
The relentless attacks drove the Bristle Boar to the peak of fury.
It didn’t even see who struck; it only felt sharp pain coming from several places on its body at once.
“Fall back!”
Lu Renjia yelled, and the three of them quickly activated their movement techniques, retreating from the battlefield.
Perhaps it was because of the Demon-Attracting Incense on Xiao Luoyi’s shoulder, or perhaps because Xiao Luoyi was the only one on the scene who hadn’t moved.
That crazed Bristle Boar indeed locked onto Xiao Luoyi, taking her as the culprit.
With a furious roar, the beast’s hind legs pushed off hard, charging straight at Xiao Luoyi.
Lu Renjia and the other two quickly retreated to a safe distance, smirking with the satisfaction of a successful scheme.
They waited to see Xiao Luoyi panic and then beg them for help.
However, Xiao Luoyi moved.
She didn’t step back.
Instead, she activated Flowing Cloud Traceless, dodging to the side.
By just that much, the beast rushed past her, its thick tusks even grazing her arm.
A sharp pain came from her arm, but Bronze Skin, Iron Bones immediately activated on its own, a faint metallic sheen spreading beneath her skin, and the pain quickly turned into a slight numbness.
The beast missed its target, enraged to the extreme.
It clumsily halted, swung its head, and lashed out with its tusks in a horizontal sweep.
This time, Xiao Luoyi didn’t retreat but advanced instead.
Her whole body seemed to stick to the edge of the beast’s attack range.
The sweeping tusks always remained inches away from her.
Lu Renjia and the other two stared in shock.
Xiao Luoyi had only recently joined the sect; she shouldn’t have learned any movement techniques.
But Xiao Luoyi’s movement technique now… it was like dancing on the edge of a blade, yet she was composed and at ease.
After missing twice, the beast became utterly frantic.
It actually leaped up, trying to crush her with its heavy body.
This move had a large attack range; it seemed hard to dodge with movement technique alone.
But Xiao Luoyi’s right hand, which had been hanging by her side, suddenly raised, fingers together in a sword gesture.
With no hesitation, just as the beast’s body reached its peak height and was about to crash down, Xiao Luoyi activated Universal Throw, and a sharp sword qi shot from her fingertip.
“Thump!” A dull sound.
The sword qi had already pierced through the hollow of the beast’s throat with pinpoint accuracy.
The beast instantly became like a cut string on a kite, its massive body rigidly slamming to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Its limbs convulsed violently a few times, frothy blood bubbling from its mouth and nose, and its crimson eyes soon lost their luster.
From the moment the beast charged to it falling dead, it took only a few seconds.
Dead… dead?
A set of movement techniques to dodge, took one hit, and then one finger… killed it?
The panic, screams, and pleas for mercy that Lu Renjia and the other two had imagined—none of that happened.
They only saw a calm so efficient it sent chills down their spines.
Xiao Luoyi paid no attention to their ugly expressions.
She simply looked at them quietly, her voice still calm but clearly reaching the three ears.
“Senior Sister Lu, does this Bristle Boar count as completing the task?”
That tone was as flat as asking, “Did you eat today?”
But it was this flatness that made Lu Renjia feel immensely humiliated, her whole body turning cold.
Her throat was dry, her lips moved, and it took a long while before she forced out a few words.
“…Yes, of course it does.”
She watched Xiao Luoyi walk toward the beast’s corpse, seeming to want to remove the tusks as proof.
Suddenly, a deafening roar exploded from deep in the dense forest.
Then came the crackling sound of trees being snapped, one after another, from far to near, as if something big was charging through the forest, approaching rapidly.
Xiao Luoyi’s pupils contracted slightly, and she stopped what she was doing.
Lu Renjia and the other two turned even paler.
They glanced at each other and saw the horror in each other’s eyes.
What was that sound?! It didn’t sound like something they could handle at the Qi Refining stage.
The ground seemed to be trembling slightly, the unsettling noise rapidly approaching.
Xiao Luoyi slowly turned to face the direction of the sound.
There the forest was deep and dim; nothing could be seen clearly.
But she could sense a presence far more ferocious and aggressive than the previous Bristle Boar rapidly spreading, overwhelming this woodland.
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