From bone collectors to the supreme ruler of humanity

Chapter 128 Entering the Inner Enclosure

Lin Yan took out a bottle of wound medicine from his pocket, tore open Xue Li's sleeve, and sprinkled the powder on the wound.

Wisps of white smoke rose from the wound, and Xue Li immediately grimaced in pain, veins bulging on his forehead.

"I used my internal energy to force the poison out of your body. This little bit of wound medicine should be enough to stop the wound from getting worse."

Lin Yan tore off another strip of cloth and wrapped it around Xue Li's wound. Xue Li nodded, his face pale, and sat down to rest against a tree.

Shi Gan squatted on the ground, pried open the mouth of an iron-scaled jackal with his short sword, and pulled out the two fangs by the roots. He then spent a long time scraping the corpse with a knife before finally peeling off a palm-sized piece of scales.

"This thing's hide is really tough." He wiped his sweat and threw the fangs and scales into a cloth bag. "These two fangs alone could fetch at least fifty taels outside."

"There were fourteen in total, but two escaped." Old Sun pointed to the monster corpses on the ground. "Sir, what should we do with these?"

Lin Yan glanced at the corpses of the Iron-Scaled Jackals scattered on the ground. "Take what you can, and forget about the rest."

It took the five of them almost an hour to clean all the valuables off the fourteen iron-scaled jackals.

Aside from the twenty-four fangs that Lin Yan had broken, there were fourteen pieces of scales, and quite a few bones of the Iron-Scaled Jackal were also removed.

Sun Laoqi used a piece of animal hide to wrap everything into a bundle and weighed it.

"This trip alone is worth at least a thousand taels of silver."

As agreed upon previously, Sun Laoqi handed over three of the spoils to Lin Yan.

Xue Li leaned against the tree, his complexion was better than before, but the strip of cloth on his left arm was soaked with blood.

"Can you still walk?" Lin Yan asked.

"Yes." Xue Li stood up, leaning against the tree. "I feel much better, it's nothing serious."

Lin Yan looked up at the sky. It was getting dark, but the fog showed no signs of dissipating. The light in the forest was dwindling, and it was gradually becoming dim.

"Let's find a place to camp first, we're not leaving today."

Lin Yan led the way, and the six of them walked north along the foot of the mountain. After walking for about the time it takes to burn two incense sticks, they found a sheltered rock face.

The rock wall was recessed inward, just big enough for these few people, and the ground was relatively dry.

Shi Gan gathered some firewood and started a fire. Sun Laoqi took out some dry food and a water bag from his bundle and distributed them to everyone.

Xue Li ate a couple of bites of dry rations and then stopped eating. He leaned against the rock wall with his eyes closed, and his complexion still wasn't good.

Wu Meng put the heavy axe beside his leg, tore off a piece of dry rations and stuffed it into his mouth. "Boss, do you think we're lucky or unlucky? We've only just entered the mountains and we've already run into iron-scaled jackals. If we go any further in, who knows what we'll encounter?"

Lin Yan finished his dry rations, dusted off the crumbs, and said to Wu Meng, "I'll keep watch for the first half of the night, and you and Yang Tie will take over for the second half."

Wu Meng responded, then leaned against the rock wall with his axe in his arms and closed his eyes.

Shi Gan and Sun Laoqi each found a place to lie down, and soon they started snoring.

Yang Tie sat on the other side of the fire, wiping his long stick with his head down.

The firelight illuminated his face, revealing a clean, white face with no discernible expression, except for his eyes, which occasionally darted around, as if lost in thought.

After a while, Yang Tie also leaned against the rock wall and closed his eyes to rest.

Lin Yan leaned against the rock face, placed the Zhenyue Blade across his lap, and stared at the fire.

The flames crackled and danced, casting long and short shadows of the group.

He recalled what had happened during the day.

He remembered clearly what Yang Tie said when he suggested taking those rogue cultivators with him: "If things get critical, we can leave them behind and get away."

Straightforward and cold-blooded.

At the time, he didn't think much of it, but he felt that although the reasoning was correct, Yang Tie's words were too unpleasant to hear.

But when the fight broke out today, Yang Tie's few steps back happened to land on his left, attracting the largest iron-scaled jackal over.

Once is a coincidence, but twice?

Lin Yan didn't consider himself a suspicious person, but he knew one thing.

There are not many people in this world who can be trusted.

Yang Tie and he were not related, and had only known each other for less than ten days. Who knew what this man was up to?

Wu Meng is a straightforward person; he says what he thinks and can't keep secrets.

Lin Yan withdrew his gaze and closed his eyes.

[Observation of Qi] spread out silently, covering the surrounding area within a hundred paces.

There were no other living creatures around the rock wall besides them.

The fire burned for half the night. Lin Yan woke up Wu Meng and Yang Tie to take over the shift, and then leaned against the rock wall and dozed off.

Nothing else happened that night.

Lin Yan woke up just as dawn was breaking.

The six men ate a quick meal of dry rations, extinguished the fire, and continued walking.

The further you go in, the denser the forest becomes.

The canopy overhead grew thicker and thicker, completely blocking out the sunlight. Only a few streaks of light leaked through the gaps in the leaves, casting dappled patterns of light on the ground.

Lin Yan walked at the front, maintaining his [Aura Observation] at all times, not daring to relax in the slightest.

After walking for about an hour, Sun Laoqi suddenly squatted down and stared at the ground.

"What's wrong?" Lin Yan stopped in her tracks.

Sun Laoqi didn't answer, but reached out and brushed aside the fallen leaves, revealing a series of footprints.

The footprints were as big as a bowl, with several claw marks along the edges.

"These are the footprints of a Crimson Mane Beast." Old Seven Sun compared the size, "Sir, look at the depth. This one is more than twice the size of the ones we encountered yesterday."

He stood up and looked around. "Sir, we may have already gotten close to the inner perimeter."

"Keep going, everyone stay alert." Lin Yan nodded to indicate that he understood.

After walking for another half an hour, Lin Yan suddenly stopped.

In the perception of [Aura Observation], two auras appeared ahead.

The two auras were powerful and they remained firmly in place, as if guarding something.

"There are demonic beasts ahead," Lin Yan said in a low voice, "all of them are of the third rank."

Sun Laoqi's expression changed slightly. "A third-grade demonic beast?"

"Yeah, it's about two hundred paces away from us, lying there without moving."

Lin Yan squatted down, took out a map from his pocket, and gestured on it.

If we try to avoid these two monsters, we'll have to travel more than ten miles to the west and go through a denser forest.

This round trip will take at least half a day longer.

"Let's take a detour," Lin Yan said, putting away the map and making a decision.

"Take a detour?" Yang Tie, who had been silent the whole way, suddenly spoke up. "Two third-grade demonic beasts and three of us third-grade demonic beasts, it's not like we can't beat them."

Lin Yan turned to look at him.

Yang Tie met his gaze, his face expressionless. "Brother Lin, we've only been traveling for a little over a day, and we're still far from the core area. If we detour every time we encounter a second third-grade demonic beast, what will happen once we enter the inner perimeter, where third-grade beasts are everywhere? Are we even going to make it?"

Wu Meng, listening from the side, scratched his head and said, "Yang Tie has a point. Boss, with two third-rank officials, the six of us have a perfect chance of winning."

"We could win," he said, "but what happens after we win?"

Wu Meng was taken aback. "After you've hit him, just keep going."

"Killing these two third-grade demonic beasts will likely take a lot of effort for the three of us to fight together. Once we get to the inner area and encounter even more demonic beasts, who will fight them? It's pointless to waste our energy before we've even reached the core area. Don't forget what we're here for."

Wu Meng opened his mouth, but swallowed the words back before he could say them.

Yang Tie remained silent for a moment before nodding in agreement. "Brother Lin's considerations are thorough; I was being rash."

Lin Yan glanced at him but didn't say anything.

He turned and walked west, followed by five people.

After walking a dozen steps, Lin Yan glanced back at Yang Tie.

Yang Tie was walking with his head down, his face expressionless, and it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.

But Lin Yan noticed that his grip on the long stick was tighter than before.