Liu Feng and Qian Lei nodded their heads at the same time. Only by making calm, sound analyses could they make better judgements to face further challenges.
“Then what do we do now?” Liu Feng asked.
Lan Xuanyu smiled. “Wait. There’s no rush.”
“Wait?” Liu Feng questioned him in puzzlement.
Lan Xuanyu nodded. “After all, we are supposed to fight and battle each other. Every battle brings exhaustion, not only in terms of strength but also in terms of mentality. So, we wait. We wait until they have fought and then we’ll make further plans. We will wait here and go nowhere else.”
While saying that, he searched for a bit and quickly found a large, tall tree before turning to Liu Feng. “Use your white dragon spear to carve a cave inside the trunk of that tree top. We can rest there.”
He then turned to Qian Lei. “Get the Gold Silk Ape to search around, the further the better. If it encounters another human Soul Master, get it to return and inform us of their location. Do not, under any circumstances, engage in battle with them.”
Qian Lei’s eyes lit up. “You want us to hone our strength and bide our time, then wait until they’re exhausted before we appear? Then do the dirty on the villain?” This was roughly the same as in the maze. If not for the coincidental encounter with Lu Qianxun’s team, they would have lasted all the way.
“In fact, many of the other contestants might not know this,” Lan Xuanyu said. “The most important thing is not to seize from others, but to protect oneself. That is because as long as we are alive, the points we bring out will be complete. But once we fail through our inattentiveness or miscalculation and get killed, our accumulated points will be halved. We have our accumulated points, and adding the points from both Li Yaoming and Ye Lingtong’s team, our overall score should be high. As long as we do not die, I believe that our accumulated points will allow us to get into the top 10. Naturally, we should maintain our steadiness and wait. After the other teams slaughter each other, we can go out to look for opportunities and dredge up a bit more points. With the Gold Silk Ape’s help and your summoned soul beasts, we can still escape if we can’t beat them.”
Qian Lei laughed out loud. “You really are devious and crafty, but I like it.”
Using the silver moon blades to carve out a cave was an excellent idea. Lan Xuanyu had the 1,000-year Gold Silk Ape carefully scoop up the wood shavings and transport them away.
Very quickly, the three sat cross legged inside the tree cave. The canopy was a perfect cover and protection; even their auras could not be sensed. The three gradually dove into meditation and rest.
By relying on its familiarity with the Star Dou Forest, the Gold Silk Ape was able to observe the situation outside with ease.
As expected, Lan Xuanyu’s judgement was accurate. At about evening time, the Gold Silk Ape returned and reported how it encountered six waves of human Soul Masters. There were even three cases in which they fought against each other. The Gold Silk Ape observed from afar and did not close in.
Wait. They had to continue waiting.
Lan Xuanyu knew that his judgement was correct. The battles during the last two days would be even more intense.
Sure enough, on the sixth day of the competition, which was also the second to last day, the Gold Silk Ape returned with news after an hour of scouting. There were Soul Masters fighting with injuries and casualties.
There were already more than 10 battles.
What captured Lan Xuanyu’s attention was the description of a particular group of people. There were nine of them, which meant they comprised three groups. They had formed an alliance, and adopted ambush and control tactics. They were focused on hunting other groups. Because they had the numbers, the Gold Silk Ape had focused its attention on them. It watched as four or five groups were cut down by them, and they continued on their spree.
The three group alliance would in no way be easy to deal with. There were too many of them together, totalling to nine. In other words, their degree of exhaustion while killing other teams would be greatly lessened. Further, if they took turns to rest, it was not impossible for them to maintain their peak states. So long as the three groups were equal in distribution, they would be able to last till the end of the competition. It was not impossible for them to work together.
There was obviously an organised system. The Heaven Luo Academy had a total of five groups and Lan Xuanyu was unaware of the other three teams’ situations; however, he was certain that they were not from Heaven Luo Academy. The other three groups didn’t have a prior agreement, and they were not strong enough.
Aside from Heaven Luo Academy, Ling Tian Academy was the only one likely to have formed the alliance.
If not for Li Yaoming’s team being killed off, who knew if they would have been part of the alliance.
They had already experienced the strength of Li Yaoming’s team of three. In a one against one situation, Lan Xuanyu reckoned that it was difficult to beat Li Yaoming without using his martial soul fusion technique. Shu Zixuan himself was relatively strong as well.
Nevertheless, there were teams within the Ling Tian Academy that were stronger than them. One could only imagine how powerful the alliance of the three teams from Ling Tian Academy was.
Lan Xuanyu got Qian Lei to transmit a request to the Gold Silk Ape. “From now on, focus on them.”
There was no doubt that the alliance of three would be the largest barrier for them to gain their best possible results. They had to act based on the situation at the end. If the alliance maintained the perfect formation and did not exhaust themselves much, Lan Xuanyu would prefer to stagger around them. There were other ways to accumulate points. After all, they only had to be in the top 10 in the competition, not first place.
Safety was priority. If they were to fight their way out immediately, they would truly be eliminated.
The Gold Silk Ape continued passing information over to them until the evening of the sixth day, where the alliance had eliminated over 10 groups of soul masters. Their efficiency was astonishing.
Amongst the nine, three were injured, albeit not so heavily. And there was even a healer-type Soul Master within the nine that was able to heal their wounds.
Lan Xuanyu frowned upon hearing the news. There were no loopholes! Such an opponent was difficult to deal with.
Without a doubt, there was an able person within the nine that was commanding them, and his or her commanding ability was outstanding.
‘Do we have to let this go?’
The sixth day was finally over and the competition reached the last day. Once the seventh day reached midnight, everything would end and the test would be complete.
Lan Xuanyu had not slept the night before, as he constantly mulled over something.
“Qian Lei, Liu Feng, I have something to discuss with you guys,” Lan Xuanyu spoke within the cave. “I want to hear your thoughts.”
“Hear our thoughts about what?” Qian Lei said. “Don’t let us break your train of thought. We will do whatever you say. You’ve never been wrong before.”
Liu Feng laughed. “That’s right, Xuanyu, we’ll do it. Just tell us how.”
Lan Xuanyu shook his head and replied, “My plan is brazen. If we fail, we might get eliminated. But because of the current situation on the opponent’s end, I can’t think of anything better. If the plan is successful, not only will we stand out, but we should be able to come out first again. However, if we do not execute this plan, there is no guarantee we will make the cut for top 10. Although we aren’t sure of the points, we should still have the chance. So the question is whether or not to take the risk.”
Liu Feng became silent, while Qian Lei replied immediately. “Xuanyu, I want to hear your idea. What’s the probability of success?”
“I’d wager about 60 to 70 percent, but the battlefield is unpredictable, so I can’t say for sure. Master Yin has taught me many things, and he is an expert at gaining victories with strange strategies. There are many battle tactics that cause soldiers to face risk. Having been influenced by him, while formulating plans, I tend to maximise profits. That has become the inertia for my thought process. If you ask me to decide, I will choose to execute the plan.”