Chapter 24 - 20: Green Tea Vibes

Chapter 24: Chapter 20: Green Tea Vibes

Inside the dim cave, Lu Chen and three other students stared at each other across the campfire.

Outside, the rain poured down in buckets. The pitch-black night and the deep, profound forest gave off an indescribable sense of dread. It felt as if something could leap out from the shadowy corners at any moment to give them a fright.

CRACKLE CRACKLE...

The burning wood popped and snapped, bringing a little noise to the otherwise silent cave.

Perhaps sensing the strange atmosphere, the precocious female student spoke up.

"Hello there. I’m Zheng Liu from Class Seven of the third year. He is Xu Jianliang from Class Five, and this is Chai Xi from Class Eight," Zheng Liu said, pointing to the two male students beside her.

"Which class... are you from?"

Xu Jianliang was a student of Class Five, one of the four Earth Dao Classes in the third year. The students in this class all possessed Middle Grade Spiritual Roots, and their parents were generally Cultivators as well. With such backgrounds, the education they received from a young age and the resources they could access were naturally much better than those of ordinary students.

Meanwhile, Chai Xi’s Class Eight and Zheng Liu’s Class Seven were standard Human Dao Classes. The students in these classes only had Low Grade Spiritual Roots and average Cultivation Talent—just like Lu Chen’s Class Twelve.

Among the three, Xu Jianliang had the highest Cultivation, having already reached the Qi Cultivation Sixth Level. Zheng Liu and Chai Xi were more ordinary; the former was only at the Qi Cultivation Third Level, while the latter was at the Qi Cultivation Fourth Level.

Although Chai Xi’s Cultivation wasn’t high and he had remained silent ever since entering the cave, he was the one who warranted the most attention. This was because he was one of the rare Body Cultivators in the third year.

Looking at this strange trio, Lu Chen replied, "Lu Chen, Class Twelve."

"Lu Chen?" Hearing this, Zheng Liu immediately raised her Protective Wristwatch to check. It didn’t take long for her to find Lu Chen’s ranking on the device.

"Wow, you’re amazing, Lu Tongxue! You actually have twenty-five points already!"

At those words, Xu Jianliang shot Lu Chen a somewhat surprised look. Immediately after, he exchanged a meaningful glance with Zheng Liu, and she seemed to catch his drift.

She instantly lavished Lu Chen with praise. "You’re so much stronger than me, Lu Tongxue. I only have sixteen points so far. I don’t even know if I can make it into the second phase of the mock exam.

"Your Cultivation doesn’t seem that high, Lu Tongxue. Do you have so many points because you learned some special Magic, or perhaps you have some Magical Treasure?"

Rashly asking other Cultivators about their Magic and Magical Treasures was an incredibly rude thing to do. However, Zheng Liu clearly knew how to weaponize her advantages. She packaged herself as completely harmless, making it seem as though the words had just slipped out thoughtlessly. It was a textbook act of faux innocence.

Unfortunately for her, Lu Chen never fell for such tricks. He didn’t answer Zheng Liu’s question. Instead, he simply took out some ordinary beast meat from his Storage Pouch and began roasting it over the fire.

Five Springs Mountain boasted a rich ecosystem. While there were many Demon Fiends here, there were equally numerous ordinary animals. Otherwise, the Demon Fiends raised in captivity by Luocheng First High School would have starved to death long ago.

Seeing that Lu Chen was ignoring her, Zheng Liu put on an aggrieved expression. "You’ve misunderstood me, Lu Tongxue. I didn’t mean anything by it. I just thought you were really amazing, so I was a little curious.

"If you think there was something wrong with what I said, then I apologize."

Zheng Liu’s silky-smooth combo of words not only brushed over her previous offense but also highlighted her supposed reasonableness. If it had been a more naive or thin-skinned person, they might have blushed and ended up telling Zheng Liu everything about their situation in full detail.

But it was a pity that Lu Chen didn’t buy this act. His defining trait was an absolute refusal to play along with social pleasantries!

He thought, "As long as I have no morals, no one can guilt-trip me."

Therefore, Lu Chen completely ignored Zheng Liu’s probing and minded his own business, eating his roasted meat.

Seeing Lu Chen completely impervious to her act, the corner of Zheng Liu’s eye twitched slightly. For some reason, however, she still chose not to lash out. Instead, she sat down to the side, looking pitifully wronged as she fully committed to her "white lotus" persona.

As for Xu Jianliang and Chai Xi, they seemed to realize by now that Lu Chen was not the easy-to-talk-to type. They sat down as well and remained silent.

For a time, the atmosphere in the cave grew even more oppressive. However, it wasn’t long before a flurry of rapid footsteps shattered the silence.

AWOOO!

Accompanied by a resonant wolf howl, over a dozen pairs of green eyes appeared in the Ye Hei outside the cave.

Seeing this, Zheng Liu and the other two hurriedly stood up.

Xu Jianliang stared at the wolf pack emerging from the shadows not far away and said in a grave tone, "This is bad. It’s Blood Amber Demon Wolves."

Blood Amber Demon Wolves were rare pack-dwelling Demon Fiends within Five Springs Mountain. Their appearance resembled ordinary gray wolves, but they had a blood-red amber embedded in the center of their brows. This amber was naturally not just for decoration; it was the source of their Power. It could shoot out a special type of light, which was a Racial Talent unique to the Blood Amber Demon Wolves.

Adult Blood Amber Demon Wolves possessed a minimum Power of the Qi Cultivation Fourth Level. The Blood Amber Wolf Leader could even reach the Qi Cultivation Sixth or Seventh Level.

The Blood Amber Wolf Pack that appeared just now wasn’t particularly large, numbering only a little over a dozen. However, judging by their size, these creatures were basically all fully mature. Furthermore, the leading Blood Amber Wolf Leader had two blood-red ambers on its brow. Its Power was as high as the Qi Cultivation Sixth Level, already surpassing Xu Jianliang, who had the highest Cultivation among the four present.

No matter how you looked at it, the four of them were no match for this Blood Amber Wolf Pack.

"Lu Tongxue, in this situation, we can only join forces," Xu Jianliang said.

"Leave the Blood Amber Wolf Leader to me. You guys see if you can hold off the other Demon Wolves.

"Blood Amber Demon Wolves are cautious by nature. As long as we display enough Power, they will realize the difficulty and retreat."

Saying this, Xu Jianliang took the initiative to step out of the cave, directly confronting the massive Blood Amber Wolf Leader. Beside him, Zheng Liu and Chai Xi also sprang into action, taking out their respective weapons. Zheng Liu’s weapon was an ordinary longsword, while Chai Xi wielded a Fine Iron Long Spear.

Lu Chen looked at the three of them, then at the many wounds on the bodies of the Blood Amber Demon Wolves in the pack not far away. He faintly guessed what their true goal was.

If he wasn’t mistaken, they had deliberately lured these Blood Amber Demon Wolves here. Their motive was quite simple: to use him as their bait. By keeping the Blood Amber Demon Wolves occupied with him, they could more easily hunt down the rest and harvest points.

After all, although this mock exam was supposed to simulate actual combat, the existence of the Protective Wristwatches guaranteed that they wouldn’t face any real danger. Letting someone else act as bait didn’t burden their consciences at all.

He thought, "The idea is beautiful and all, but why should I play along with your script?"

Lu Chen watched Xu Jianliang "volunteering" to deal with the Blood Amber Wolf Leader, and a plan formed in his mind.

He thought, "Since everyone is putting on an act, let’s see who can act better."