Free Web NovelChapter 278: Chapter 276: Encounter
Jiang Chen ran for several dozen li without stopping before he finally came to a halt.
He was still panting slightly.
"That was a close call."
Jiang Chen wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead. He had been genuinely afraid the Ant Queen would appear; that would have been real trouble.
Fortunately, it seemed the Black Ghost Ants hadn’t pursued him.
Jiang Chen sat down under a large tree and ate some wild fruits he had picked along the way to tide himself over.
"Quick, run!"
"There are too many Black Ghost Ants! They’ve gone mad!"
"Dammit, some bastard must have provoked the Black Ghost Ants. They’re all over the mountain! It was unbelievable, I almost got bitten."
Just as Jiang Chen was eating his fruit, he suddenly heard voices coming from the direction he had just fled.
A moment later, four people appeared, running in a disheveled state.
They didn’t stop until they were a short distance from Jiang Chen. Still shaken, they looked back, only relaxing slightly when they saw no enemies in pursuit.
One of them, a woman in a small leather skirt that exposed her snow-white calves, was dusty and travel-worn, her chest heaving with each breath.
There were several bloody marks on her legs.
"I’ve never seen so many Black Ghost Ants."
"There were no less than a hundred thousand of them, with at least seven or eight Ant Kings mixed in. It was terrifying."
The woman was clearly still shaken as she spoke of their recent encounter.
Another man, who was handsome and dressed in a black robe, gave a wry smile. "We finally escaped. The Black Ghost Ants shouldn’t be able to catch up now."
"Besides, it didn’t seem like we were their target."
"We just got caught in the middle of it."
As he spoke, he touched his leg, where there were several wounds, apparently from the bites of the Black Ghost Ants.
Of the remaining two, one was short, not even 1.6 meters tall.
The other was a slightly chubby man.
All four of them were injured. Though their wounds weren’t severe, none had escaped unscathed.
The short man suddenly sighed, his expression grim. "We made it out, but Xiao Bing... he was swarmed by the ants."
The four of them fell silent instantly.
They had entered the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain as a group of five. But after encountering the Black Ghost Ants, one of them had been careless and was caught by an Ant King, instantly becoming engulfed by thousands of Black Ghost Ants.
It was too late to even try to save him.
They themselves had only escaped because they were fast enough.
But every one of them was wounded.
The four of them were all somewhat dejected.
The death of their companion clearly made them even more worried about their journey into the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain.
The dangers of the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain had only just begun.
Jiang Chen sat under the tree, watching the four from the side. He was conveniently behind the large tree, so they couldn’t see him.
However, he could hear their conversation clearly.
’Black Ghost Ants? A hundred thousand of them?’
’No way, that many?’
He understood at once. These four people had likely fled from the very place where he had been fighting the Black Ghost Ants.
They must have run right into the swarm he had just enraged.
They had gotten a bit of a scare.
And someone among them had even been killed by the ants.
He was secretly alarmed.
But he didn’t dwell on it. In the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain, people died from Demon Beast attacks every day.
These people were just unlucky enough to run into the Black Ghost Ants that he had provoked.
In fact, anyone who entered the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain had to be prepared for death.
The level of danger here was even more terrifying than the legends claimed.
For the time being, he remained hidden.
After a period of silence, the four of them suddenly began to confer.
The handsome man in the black robe seemed to be their leader.
He was the first to speak after the silence.
"Xiao Bing may be dead, but we must complete our mission."
"We won’t let any accident stop us from our task."
At the mention of their mission, their spirits lifted.
The woman spoke up as well.
"Brother, our Warring States Mercenary Corps is already a Two-Star Mercenary Team. We just need to complete ten Two-Star Tasks to become a Three-Star Mercenary Corps." freewebnovel.cσ๓
"We’ve already completed nine Two-Star Tasks. We just need one more to upgrade to a Three-Star Mercenary Corps."
"But now that we’ve lost Xiao Bing on this final Two-Star Task, are you really sure you can pull this off?"
she asked worriedly.
They were a Two-Star Mercenary Team called the Warring States Mercenary Corps, and they had entered the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain to complete a mission.
However, they had already lost a member right after entering the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain.
The woman was worried about whether they could still complete their task.
The chubby man and the short man both looked at the man in the black robe.
"Yeah, Brother Yang, are you sure we can complete this mission?"
"I hear that Moyang Flower is difficult to obtain."
They began to discuss their current mission.
It was a Two-Star Task: to pick a Moyang Flower for a client.
The leader, Zhan Yang, knew the location of a Moyang Flower in the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain, which was why he had accepted the task and brought the five of them here specifically to retrieve it.
But they had run into the Black Ghost Ants first, and one of them had died.
Zhan Yang, however, was full of confidence.
"Don’t worry. I already know the exact location of the Moyang Flower."
"And the Demon Beast guarding the Moyang Flower is just a Celestial Brown Ridge Python at the Warrior Ninth Heaven. With our strength, killing it will be a simple matter."
Zhan Yang seemed to have a lot of information.
The task was to pick the Moyang Flower, and next to it was a Celestial Brown Ridge Python at the Warrior Ninth Heaven.
A Celestial Brown Ridge Python at the Warrior Ninth Heaven was indeed considered extremely powerful.
It was capable of fighting an expert with Martial Master Cultivation.
Fortunately, in their team, his own strength was at the Warrior Ninth Heaven.
His sister JinLing’s Cultivation was at the Warrior Eighth Layer Heaven.
The chubby man was named Niu Tuo, and his Cultivation was at the Martial Master First Heaven.
The short one, Lu Beifeng, had the highest Cultivation: Martial Master Second Realm.
With this kind of strength, they were considered a decent force among Two-Star Mercenary Teams.
Killing the Warrior Ninth Heaven Celestial Brown Ridge Python and taking the Moyang Flower shouldn’t be too difficult.
"Brother Yang, since you put it that way, we can rest easy."
Niu Tuo and Lu Beifeng both had no objections.
But the woman, JinLing, reminded him, "Brother, even though you’re confident, it’s always better to be cautious."
"We still need to be on our guard."
Zhan Yang nodded.
"I know. I would never let you all take unnecessary risks."
"You’re all like family to me."
"It’s just... what happened to Xiao Bing... sigh. Never mind. I will remember him." fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
With that, the four of them finished their discussion and set off, heading deeper into the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain.
But they had only taken a few steps when they saw a figure appear up ahead.
"Look, someone’s there."
JinLing had sharp eyes and immediately pointed ahead, speaking to her companions.
The other three all looked where JinLing was pointing and sure enough, they saw a young man, also travel-worn and dressed in a white robe, walking forward.
The man was none other than Jiang Chen.
He was getting ready to continue on his way.
"Hey, please wait a moment."
Suddenly, someone called out to him.
Jiang Chen turned to look and saw that it was the woman from the group of four who had stopped him.
This surprised him.
