Chapter 48: Clearance Artifact
Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy
After that, Wang Lu, along with Wen Bao, knocked out more than ten different monsters in the Small Clear Sky Peak. From the lowly category one first rank monster to category two third rank monsters, it was basically a routine for them—slip into the opposite party’s lairs and wait for them to rush back and then fiercely intercept; it was a smooth journey!
Along the way, Wen Bao always felt like he was in a dream land. He thought this experiential learning at the Small Clear Sky Peak would have a high risk for someone who was still on the ninth level of Qi Cultivating Stage like him. But as of this moment, it seemed unremarkable at all! As long as he followed senior brother’s instruction, it was really easy to accumulate the challenge points! At this point, counting on their ten consecutive victories, which resulted in additional bonus points, he had earned more than two hundred challenge points!
Senior brother was indeed senior brother.
In fact, Wang Lu’s contribution was more than what Wen Bao realized! Regardless of how synchronized their attack method was, they only relied on brute force. If not for their strategic timing and place, let alone the category two third rank Stone Wood Ape, even category two fourth or fifth rank monsters would easily route them. But how could it be that easy to get this strategic timing and place? Along the way, Wang Lu, almost without a mistake, directly found the monster’s lair, like he was an adept hunter who had lived in this place for a long time.
Wang Lu certainly didn’t live in this place for a long time. However, more than a month ago, he and his Master, together on a flying bamboo sword, wantonly looted the Small Clear Sky Peak. At that time, because his position was at the front, he was able to quickly grasp the complete picture of the Small Clear Sky Peak. Through his memory in addition to his keen sense of surrounding spiritual energy, a natural ability that came from his spirit root, his professional adventurer’s reasoning ability, and internal sect data regarding the place, he was able to accurately infer a lot of monster’s lairs.
This was one of Wang Lu’s most crucial cards in this experiential learning challenge.
For this experiential learning challenge, Wang Lu had made preparation for most of the days in the past month, and for a top student like him, he was able to prepare many things. Prior to departure, Wang Lu not only compared the map of the Small Clear Sky Peak with the distribution of the monsters and analyzed them, he also drafted multiple sets of solutions on the method to deal with each of the monsters.
When all the preparations was completed, only then did Wang Lu embark on this experiential learning challenge. At this point, as a professional adventurer, he simply had to analyze those sets of solutions for the Full Moon Valley before he perfectly executed them.
After earning more than two hundred challenge points, their task was basically fifty percent completed. However, as the saying went, the closer one is to completing a task, the tougher it gets. When they arrived at the Lotus Pond, the real problem arose.
At the beginning of the Lotus Pond, the distribution of the monsters was more complex. The monsters that have fixed lairs became less and less, and monsters that like to migrate became more frequent. When he rode on the flying bamboo sword with his master, they didn’t put too much attention on this place… To sum it up, this place was the one Wang Lu had least comprehended.
Wang Lu, after all, was just a body refining novice cultivator. Thus, he had no Stars Diffraction Technique of the Sect Leader that could help him discern the various monsters around them. Consequently, they finally encountered real difficulty.
——
At this time, Wang Lu and Wen Bao were walking on the road at the edge of the Lotus Pond. However, when they went through a bog, the two encountered a surprise attack from monsters.
“Senior Brother Wang Lu, what are those!?”
Watching the incoming waves of palm-sized long-tailed frog monsters, Wen Bao could not help but feel that his chest was tightening in disgust.
After a long silence, Wang Lu answered in a very serious tone, “They are Long-tailed Poisonous Toads, a category one sixth rank monster. They have teeth, and their saliva contains venom. Besides these, they have no other advantage, except that they live in groups.”
Living together in groups was often a property that defied the heaven. For example, a pack of wolves could expel a ferocious tiger, and a colony of ants could devour a large elephant. This Long-tailed Poisonous Frog was a mere category one sixth rank monster, not to mention the other monster, even an ordinary wolf was much better than it. If it faced a Full Moon Roar, a simple roar could kill these waves of Long-tailed Poisonous Frogs.
However although Wang Lu could handle Stone Wood Apes and even a direct roar attack from the Full Moon Roar, this time, he couldn’t handle this Long-tailed Poisonous Frog.
“Retreat.”
Wen Bao was stunned. “Retreat?”
Previously, this senior brother always espoused the peerless mode, but faced with this category one sixth rank monster, he actually asked him to withdraw!?
However, before he could inquire further, Wang Lu had already turned around and fled. Over a hundred poisonous frogs would soon swarm him, so Wen Bao didn’t dare to stay a moment longer and quickly followed Wang Lu.
Fortunately, although Wang Lu had no way to overcome these more than a hundred poisonous frogs, he easily found a dry path among the mud and quickly evacuated Wen Bao from the scene.
When they were out of the Long-tailed Poisonous Frogs’ territory, Wen Bao finally realized - once those waves of poisonous frogs made their attack, perhaps Wang Lu himself would be okay, but he himself would certainly be gnawed to the bones.
Meanwhile, while his Black Iron Sword had a powerful explosive single target attack, it did not have an area attack. Although his strike could knock out the Stone Wood Apes, he could not strike many Long-tailed Poisonous Frogs at once. Social monsters like that was this duo’s nemesis. No wonder upon seeing them, Wang Lu immediately wanted to retreat.
It was no wonder that since entering the Small Clear Sky Peak, Wang Lu would often choose a particularly demanding road because once they took a wrong step… Wang Lu was simply trying to avoid this kind of social monsters!
Previously, the more than ten species of monsters that they had knocked down were all solitary type. Even if some of them lived in a group, the numbers were particularly scarce. So, it was possible to separate them by various means and deal with them one by one, like the Stone Wood Apes… “Senior Brother Wang Lu truly deserves to be a professional adventurer, I could never match his ability to come up with this kind defying-the-heaven strategy,” Wen Bao mused.
However, Senior Brother Wang Lu was not omnipotent; encountering this Long-tailed Poisonous Frog meant that the situation has gradually gone out of control. Moreover, this bitter experience seemed to have stained them with bad luck. They tried to take several different routes after that, but in each route, they would always encounter similarly social monsters who lived in groups. The level of these monsters was not high, yet their numbers were enough to overwhelm them, so they had no choice but to take another route… Once, they have an unfortunate encounter with the Five-headed Golden Haired Red-eyed foxes. These foxes were agile and fast, and they were also good at fighting in packs. Although Wang Lu could defend himself, he wouldn’t be able to take care of Wen Bao; and in all likelihood, Wen Bao would end up being mercilessly bit pieces by pieces by those foxes. Thinking about the pain that Wen Bao would suffer through, he could not help but shiver.
The weakness of Wen Bao and Wang Lu’s combination had been fully laid bare here. After several times running into a wall, the scarred fatty became disillusioned. “Senior Brother, our harvest today has been very good, why don’t we… call it a day.”
Wang Lu suddenly stopped. “Call it a day?”
The fatty gulped down his saliva and said, “I… I am not scared, I just feel like, if we keep going on like this, there would be more harm than good. This time, we have earned a lot of challenge points and we have also accumulated a lot of experience. Why don’t we come back again next time?”
Wang Lu sighed. “Oh, Fatty, I told you to read the relevant rules regarding this experiential learning challenge, but you obviously didn’t. You really disappoint me. You are too lazy! I’ll say this so you can understand clearly: with great difficulty, we consecutively knocked out more than ten species of monster in a single experiential learning challenge. Now, with each successful knockout, we would basically earn double points, but if we call it a day and try again next time, we won’t have this opportunity again! Regardless of success or failure, the most important principle of this experiential learning challenge is 'opportunity’. If we call it a day, when we take the same challenge and achieve the same result in the future, we would not get as much score as now. So if we quit now, next time you take this experiential learning challenge, even if you knock down one hundred Stone Wood Apes, you would not get even a tenth points that we have now!”
Wen Bao was gobsmacked; he immediately understood Wang Lu’s insistence.
Indeed, if they bailed when they still have this double points opportunity, it would really be a pity. However, even if they insisted, the reality would tell them otherwise! The fact was already laid in front of them; relying on their combination, they struggled to pass through this Lotus Pond. Actually, Senior Brother Wang Lu himself had said that to pass this experiential learning, not only should they rely on their combination of extreme offense and defense, but they still had to rely on various perfect strategies that must be applied depending on the situation.
But now, it seemed like Senior Brother Wang Lu didn’t have the perfect strategy to handle this situation.
“This is not only limited to near the pond; the situation is also changing so fast around here, so it’s impossible to predict this in advance… Just a month ago, there’s nothing in that mud by the pond, but a month later, it has bred hundreds of Long-tailed Poisonous Frogs.”
However, having said those, Wang Lu’s tone of voice didn’t show that he was the least bit discouraged. “But as long as we pass through this Lotus Pond and arrive at the Azure Dragon Gorge, our situation will greatly improve.”
The fatty ruefully smiled. “But, we still have to pass through the Lotus Pond. We have been skirting the Lotus Pond for quite a while, and the Azure Dragon Gorge is getting farther and farther away.”
“Very good, as a teenager, you have a good sense of direction, but I have already anticipated this kind of situation, so you don’t need to worry. This is going to be easy.”
Seeing this familiar smug face as if the victory was already at hand, Wen Bao was startled. “Senior Brother, do you really have a way?”
“Most of the monsters that live in groups at this Small Clear Sky Peak are low-level monsters, and to handle low-level monsters that groups together, the most effective method is to use high-level aura.”
This was a basic common sense for cultivators. Wen Bao himself knew about it. However, he was only a ninth level Qi Cultivating Stage cultivator, while Wang Lu was just peak body refining; where would they get that “high-level aura”?
“Idiot, the biggest difference between human and animals is that human understand the use of tools.”
Wang Lu then very cautiously removed a small wooden box from the package on his back. Then, he opened the wooden box, took out a small piece of fine white silk and wrapped it around his wrist.
Wen Bao frowned. “What is this?”
“Clearance Artifact.”
Wen Bao wanted to inquire further, but he then noticed the eerie silence on the area around them.
The Lotus Pond was teeming with wildlife of various species. However, when the white silk appeared, whether they were monsters that eyed them in the dark or the ubiquitous small insects and small beasts, all of them seemed to have disappeared! It was deathly quiet!
When he looked far into the distance, Wen Bao was vaguely able to see a lot of monsters fleeing in panic.
Wen Bao was shocked beyond measure, he thought, “Wh-what kind of magical treasure is this? It actually has the amazing effect of area clearance!?”
“But, but, something as miraculous as this artifact is definitely not a low grade one. Moreover, it didn’t even need to be activated or something. Just a simple appearance alone is enough to clear the area; its pressure is definitely off the chart! Perhaps, this is a spiritual treasure!”
“But, to use a spiritual treasure to complete the experiential learning challenge… the point deduction will definitely be a lot. Oh, Senior Brother, wouldn’t the loss outweigh the gain here?”
“Don’t think too much, this is something that beyond your intellectual capability.” Wang Lu kicked the still-in-a-daze Wen Bao. “Don’t get distracted, we need to take advantage while the artifact still has its effect, let’s go.”
He then inwardly sighed.
“Sure enough, peak Jindan Stage Daoist Masters leak a lot of their aura! Oh, Honored Master, your used underwear that you left in your bedroom is truly effective!”