Chapter 7: Little Blue (Part 2)

The Dark-Winged Scorpion moved at incredible speed, leaving Xuan Ai in awe. He said, “No wonder some people prefer using beast talismans and insect talismans—it makes sense. These are even more useful than talisman horses!”
Guo Shier asked, “Are there many people who use beast talismans and insect talismans where you are?”
Xuan Ai replied, “A few… But using them is considered cheating. Truly capable people rarely rely on such talismans because they require skill to use. Beast and insect talismans are for the lazy—you can fight right away once deployed, but if destroyed, your strength drops significantly. Other talismans are different. Once you reach the Saint level and start using virtual talismans, you’ll understand the difference.”
Guo Shier was stunned. He had never thought about this and fell into deep thought.
Xuan Ai exclaimed, “You don’t even know this?”
Guo Shier shook his head slightly, not agreeing with that. He was practical—why give up powerful beast and insect talismans? As for skills, they could also be achieved through various talismans. He only had a few beast and insect talismans, with no others.
Eagle Demon said, “The blood mist is starting to dissipate!”
Guo Shier felt a glimmer of light ahead. The thin blood mist gradually faded, and his vision became clearer. The so-called gray mist area wasn’t truly gray but resembled the morning fog—slightly hazy, yet allowing him to see distant objects.
“It’s really desolate…”
There was hardly any grass on the ground, only broken stones, with a few sparse, thick dead tree branches twisted and jaggedly reaching toward the sky. There was no sign of life, but strange cries could be heard from afar—probably the roars of mutated talisman beasts.
Eagle Demon said, “Apart from mutated talisman beasts and humans, there shouldn’t be anything else here.”
Xuan Ai added, “There are also mutated talisman insects, but not many.”
Guo Shier said, “They’re all mutated talisman beasts of level three or above… Just thinking about them gives me chills.”
Xuan Ai replied, “Not necessarily. If you’re lucky, you might encounter lower-level mutated talisman beasts.”
Guo Shier asked in surprise, “Weren’t they said to be at least level three when sent in?”
Xuan Ai nodded, “Yes, but mutated talisman beasts can also reproduce. If you can find lower-level ones, that’s really lucky.”
Guo Shier nodded and said, “Hmm, their offspring are indeed the weakest.”
Lan Hu stared into the distance for a while before saying, “There’s a deployment point over there… We can’t stay here. Let’s head this way and leave.”

“A deployment point? What’s that?”
Xuan Ai said, “It’s the place where mutated talisman beasts are released. Let’s leave quickly. Once they’re deployed, things will get bad. For one deployment point, at least ten mutated talisman beasts are released, and sometimes even hundreds… It’s terrifying!”
Guo Shier immediately sent the Dark-Winged Scorpion away. jokingly, he wasn’t afraid of a single level-3 mutated talisman beast, but if there were seven or eight or more, he wouldn’t even have time to run—he certainly didn’t want to face that many of them.
The speed of the Dark-Winged Scorpion amazed everyone. Half an hour later, they had already moved far away from the deployment point.
Along the way, they saw no one or any talisman beasts. The desolate scene was chilling. Piles of broken bones and fragments of fur and scales could be seen on the ground from time to time. Guo Shier sighed inwardly. If the spellcasters from the Northern Talisman Sect came here, these broken bones and fur/scales would be things they collected, but here they were just trash. There were also many bones that the masters of the Northern Talisman Sect would surely be interested in.
Eagle Demon suddenly said, “There’s a campfire ahead!”
Xuan Ai also said, “There are people!”
Guo Shier perked up and asked, “Where?”
Eagle Demon had sharp eyes and could see the farthest. He said, “There are three people in total. Hmm, they’ve stood up. They’re all by the campfire!” As he spoke, Guo Shier also saw faint figures.
Guo Shier said, “Everyone, land. I’ll put away the scorpion.” He didn’t want to scare those people away. Everyone landed, and he retracted the Dark-Winged Scorpion. The group slowly walked over.
The people here were extremely wary. Once they sensed something wrong, they would immediately run away. Although killing was prohibited here, it was still easy to harm others.
The four of them walked slowly. Guo Shier said, “Be careful and vigilant.”
Soon, the people by the campfire came forward. When they were about seven or eight meters away, both sides stopped and sized each other up. Guo Shier suddenly noticed that Lan Hu was trembling slightly. He asked softly, “Little Lan, what’s wrong?”
Lan Hu tightly held her talisman sword and said resentfully, “It’s them! They stole my talisman bag!”
Guo Shier immediately gave up the idea of making friends. Since he had brought Lan Hu with him, he had to stand up for her. He said loudly, “Fine! Hand over the talisman bag, and you can leave!”
All three of them were junior masters, which Guo Shier could tell at a glance, so he demanded it right away. Unfortunately, his appearance wasn’t intimidating at all.

The three of them were very young, seemingly not over thirty. Guo Shier was secretly surprised. Only now did he realize that his own Beifu Gate was nowhere near as good—the Advanced Continent was truly formidable. If even master-level professionals were so young, there must be countless advanced professionals there.

One of them was a junior Grand Talismanist, and the other two were junior Grand Talisman-Martialists. No wonder Lan Hu was at a disadvantage.

One of the Grand Talisman-Martialists had a thick beard and a somewhat lewd expression. He laughed and said, “Kid, is that little girl your girlfriend? Did you come to defend her?” He didn’t even take Guo Shier seriously. They had previously robbed Lan Hu and knew she wasn’t strong enough. As for Xuan Ai standing behind Guo Shier, they also ignored her. Eagle Demon, standing behind everyone else, didn’t draw their attention either.

Lan Hu shouted angrily, “You bastard!” She raised her talisman sword and leaped forward. The bearded man laughed heartily. Suddenly, a talisman staff appeared in his hand, and he swung it at her. With a sharp crack, Lan Hu was sent stumbling backward. The three of them laughed uproariously.

Guo Shier said firmly, “Come back!”

Lan Hu returned reluctantly, knowing she couldn’t defeat them.

Guo Shier said, “Uncle Eagle Demon, teach them a lesson!”

Eagle Demon smiled slightly and said, “These three brats are quite arrogant. Haha, watch this…” He didn’t even take out any talisman weapons and charged at them bare-handed.

The three of them lacked combat experience and failed to recognize Eagle Demon’s rank. It wasn’t surprising—there were hardly any advanced masters here. At most, intermediate masters would come to hunt mutated talisman beasts. Advanced professionals usually operated in the Dark Mist Area. So the bearded man thought Eagle Demon was just an intermediate master like himself.

The strength of a senior Grand Talisman-Martialist couldn’t be underestimated; they were terrifying even among master-level professionals. Even Guo Shier wouldn’t be able to withstand Eagle Demon up close, due to the differences in their professional traits.

The bearded man swung his staff downward. Eagle Demon grinned, raised his left arm above his head, and the moment the staff hit his arm, he exerted force and swung it away.

Boom!

The bearded man was shocked to find that the staff seemed to soften. His staff bent into a C-shape, and his palms burned with pain. Before he could retreat, Eagle Demon crashed into his chest. The bearded man felt a sharp pain in his chest and was flung into the air, hitting the Grand Talismanist who was summoning his life talisman book. The two of them tumbled together like rolling gourds.

Eagle Demon punched the bearded man aside, then quickly turned to attack another grand rune martial artist who was standing there in a daze. Guo Shieru shook his head in disbelief—the combat skills of these three were truly terrible; being in a daze at such a time was practically asking for death. He said, “Uncle Eagle Demon, don’t kill them!”
Eagle Demon didn’t intend to kill them. He had also heard Xuan Ai’s rules, so he attacked with restraint, knocking out the dazed grand rune martial artist with one punch. He said, “These three kids seem to have no real combat experience. I wonder how they managed to survive here.”
Xuan Ai grinned and said, “It’s easy. Just avoid the mutated rune beasts, rob the weak, and practice slowly.”
Guo Shieru was stunned. “That works too?”
Xuan Ai replied, “Why not? Robbing isn’t killing. The rules don’t forbid it. As long as they don’t kill, there’s no problem.”
Eagle Demon asked, “Aren’t they afraid of being robbed?”
Guo Shieru nodded. “The strong disdain to deal with them. Those weaker than them either get robbed or run away. So… before they met us, they had quite a promising future, haha!”
After knocking out the three, Lan Hu picked up a curved rune stick from the ground and started swinging it wildly, causing the three to scream in pain. Though furious, she struck with restraint, aiming her attacks at non-lethal areas, so neither Guo Shieru nor Eagle Demon intervened.
The bearded man kept saying, “Stop hitting me! I’m about to poop!”
Lan Hu’s reply was even more fierce: “Dare you! If you dare… I’ll make you swallow it back!”
Guo Shieru’s legs turned weak. “Damn, that’s too brutal!”
Xuan Ai laughed loudly. “I support you… uh, big sister…”
After beating them wildly to vent her anger, Lan Hu gradually calmed down. The girl was actually kind-hearted; once she cooled off, she stopped hitting them. She pressed the rune stick against the bearded man and said, “Give me back my rune bag!”
Guo Shieru stepped forward among the three, with Eagle Demon right beside him. He wasn’t confident about Guo Shieru approaching the two grand rune martial artists and remained ready to intervene at any moment.
The bearded man didn’t dare resist. He finally realized that not only was Eagle Demon formidable, but this girl too was dangerous. Even Xuan Ai, standing not far away, was stronger than the three of them. Thinking about how arrogant he had been earlier, he was terrified. It would be easy for these people to harm them—if they could lure in two or three mutated rune beasts of level four or five, they would be doomed. So he obediently handed over the rune bag he had stolen from Lan Hu, saying, “Here… it’s yours…”

Lanhu took back his talisman bag and stared at him maliciously.
The bearded man, as if about to be humiliated, said in terror, “What… what do you want?”