Chapter 471: Chapter 37: Springtime Killing Intent
The Spring Path was, by appearances, the most serene and beautiful of the four paths.
Aside from Yue Jinghua, who was aware of the dangers of the Four Seasons Path, Jin Nuo and his companions, as well as the members of the July Mercenary Team, felt their nerves relax instantly after entering the Spring Path, following a day and night of tension.
Outside the Sky Dragon Palace, most of the Canglong Continent’s domains had already entered winter.
Even in the deep mountain areas, nourished by hot springs and geothermal heat such as in Five Saints Town, the scenery was now of bare trees and withered flowers.
Yet, on this Spring Path, the scene was entirely different.
After walking a few steps, the narrow path that could only accommodate two people side by side gradually opened into a broader view,
The foot-softening tender unknown grass underfoot was like velvet.
At the end of the path was a dense forest, the edge of which could not be seen at a glance.
The tall, dark green trees stood densely, each seemingly dipped in watercolor, ready to overflow with vivid greenery.
Like a small forest sealed for a thousand years, it welcomed a group of visitors; not a single dangerous Dark Beast, nor even the spirit wood, posed a threat on the Spring Path.
Due to a lack of harvesters, the surroundings of the forest were overgrown with various precious herbs.
When things are abnormal, there must be a reason. Yue Jinghua couldn’t help but secretly wonder what kind of extraordinary person the Dragon Slayer Hero Mo Kang was, to have created such vivid and distinct scenes of spring, summer, autumn, and winter out of nothing, and each scene bursting with life.
Although Yue Jinghua and Jin Nuo remained vigilant, everyone finally began to relax after Weiwei tentatively harvested some herbs without any enemy attack.
The Imperial Soldiers rejoiced for having chosen this path, mocking those unfortunate enough to have taken the other paths.
Even Jin Nuo, after covering most of the path, had let his guard down somewhat, not even stopping the soldiers from sheathing their shields.
"Brother Yue, look, those are hops," Weiwei, in a relaxed state, pointed to a patch of lush light green plants ahead.
It was earlier by the hops found on the Xuan Beast Ridge by Weiwei, that Yue Jinghua, together with Guo Ziyu, was able to brew beer.
Even though Weiwei shared the location of the hops harvesting with Yue Jinghua, due to the environmental uniqueness of the hops, it was not widely distributed along the Xuan Beast Ridge.
Yue Jinghua also tried to cultivate them artificially, but whether it was the climate or some other reason, even with Yue Chen’s help, she was unable to grow a large quantity of hops successfully.
This directly led to a bottleneck in beer brewing, restricting supply only to a few limited places like Helen Tavern and White Moon Pavilion in Five Saints Town.
But here, on the Spring Path, Yue Jinghua and the others discovered a large patch of hops covering nearly ten acres.
Looking at the lush field of hops, Weiwei couldn’t help but run forward to gather some.
Since hops were not a plant with attack power, Yue Jinghua did not stop her, and the soldiers also entered the forest to search for precious spirit wood, hoping to gather some Spiritual Wood Cores.
Just when everything was harmonious,
a string in Yue Jinghua’s mind suddenly tightened.
Almost instinctively, she leaped to protect Weiwei, who was still picking hops.
"Swoosh swoosh swoosh"
It was as if several archers had ambushed from all around, countless green shadows appearing out of nowhere from the ground and the sky.
Drip-drip, a piece of wet and sticky thickness landed on Weiwei’s face, hot.
Her eyes widened as she saw fresh blood seeping out from Yue Jinghua’s left forearm.
Everything happened too fast, the speed and lethality of the assailant’s attack were something Yue Jinghua had never seen before in her life.
Yue Jinghua could clearly feel a tendon in her left forearm being forcibly torn, the intense pain rendered her entire left arm immobile.
Such an injury would have been severe, but luckily it was Yue Jinghua who suffered it. Her physical condition, having been tempered by the Green Liquid and Jiao Long Duan, was much stronger than that of an ordinary person.
The worst part was that Yue Jinghua hadn’t been able to see what attacked her at all.
It seemed to come from within the Hops, or maybe from the dense grove of trees in front of her.
With her movement technique, she should have been able to dodge the strike, but if she had moved aside, that deadly blow would have been lethal to Weiwei, who only had Jade Profound Cultivation.
"Tsk, actually drew blood," Yue Jinghua huddled on the ground, and to comfort Weiwei, she didn’t forget to rub Weiwei’s head with her uninjured right hand.
"Captain," members of the July Team and people like Jin Nuo hurried over when they heard the noise.
"Don’t act rashly," Yue Jinghua commanded coldly: "Feng Buhui, Qin Dongting, protect Shalman and the auntie; Brother Jin Nuo, please help me to keep an eye on Yue Chen and Ye Zi, this forest is strange."
Before Jin Nuo could react, suddenly a tragic scream was heard coming from Jin Nuo’s right.
Everyone turned to look, only to see an Imperial Soldier had already been attacked, his armor meant to protect his body had been shattered, and there was a finger-sized hole in the soldier’s right abdomen.
Seeing a brother who had gone through life and death with him die before his own eyes, and being completely helpless to do anything, Jin Nuo’s expression grew darker.
In a short amount of time, the assailant had managed to attack two people without them noticing any trace of the attacker, plunging everyone into a state of panic.
Weiwei helped Yue Jinghua up; after the assailant struck, they vanished without a trace. The surroundings were still sunny and the grass lush.
But this bright spring light was now overshadowed by the death of an Imperial Soldier.
Jin Nuo knelt down and gently closed the soldier’s eyes that hadn’t had a chance to shut, "Rest in peace, I’ll see to your family."
"All units, enter first-level alert status, we’re going to find the murderer," Jin Nuo ordered angrily.
However, not long after the order was issued, everyone realized that they were lost in what seemed to be a small forest.
Walking back and forth, they were still just circling around that hop field.
"Ye Zi, is there a way to find the exit?" Yue Jinghua’s complexion was pale.
Weiwei, standing beside her, bit her lip worriedly as she watched Yue Jinghua’s complexion grow worse.
Despite Weiwei’s healing, the wound inflicted by the unknown assailant remained unhealed.
Blood flowed continuously, as if there was a particular toxin on the wound preventing it from healing. If there was no way to cure it soon, even an iron-clad body could not withstand such blood loss.
"No, I can’t control the spirit wood and plants in this area. It seems someone more powerful than me is controlling this place," Ye Zi was utterly disheartened; this was the first time she encountered such a situation since coming to Canglong Continent.