Chapter 8: Useless Members (Part 1)

The Big Bearded Man’s words made Guo Shier and the others burst into laughter. Lan Hu’s face turned red as she said resentfully, “Ugh, how can you be so annoying… I… I…” She swung her staff but hesitated, unsure whether to strike him hard.
The Big Bearded Man held his head and kept saying, “Don’t hit me! It could kill someone…” His shameless attitude made it hard to be harsh on him.
Lan Hu threw the staff away forcefully and said, “How dare you call yourself a master! How shameless!”
The Big Bearded Man lowered his arms from his head and stole a glance at Lan Hu, secretly relieved that he might get through this ordeal. He tried to sit up, but Guo Shier said calmly, “Stay lying down!” He immediately stopped moving and said aggrievedly, “Okay, okay… I won’t move…”
The other two also dared not move after hearing Guo Shier’s words. All three lay on the ground, with the big rune caster’s buttocks sticking up high, which annoyed Eagle Demon. He stepped on them and said, “If you’re supposed to lie down, then lie down!” The man replied in a low voice, “I’m lying down… Why step on me? I have a big belly…”
Guo Shier asked, “Name, age, height… Three… uh, hurry up and answer!”
Lan Hu asked, “Uncle Eagle Demon, what did Shier mean by ‘three’? Three what?”
Eagle Demon was confused. “Three? Maybe he means the three of them.”
Guo Shier secretly wiped a cold sweat—he almost asked about their body measurements. Luckily, he reacted quickly; habits from his past life caused trouble. He said, “One by one. Which of the three… first?”
Eagle Demon and Lan Hu nodded at the same time—so it indeed referred to the three of them.
The Big Bearded Man said, “My name is…” His voice suddenly faded. Guo Shier snapped, “Speak up! You dare rob people but can’t speak properly?”
The Big Bearded Man stammered, “My name is… Sun Min’er, nicknamed… Xiao Min’er… Ahem, it’s a rather plain name…”
Ignoring Eagle Demon and Xuan Ai’s stifled laughter, Guo Shier said, “What’s so plain about it? It’s just a girl’s name. It doesn’t match your appearance at all, but it suits your personality!” His insults were skillful—without using a single vulgar word—and left Sun Min’er completely unfazed.
Eagle Demon laughed out loud, and Lan Hu covered her mouth, laughing nonstop.
Guo Shier continued, “You’re a junior great rune caster? What’s your name?”

The large spellcaster lying on the ground was a huge fat man. The Eagle Demon had stepped on him earlier because he was sticking out his buttocks, but it wasn’t his fault. He was extremely fat, especially with a huge belly, making it very uncomfortable for him to lie on the ground and support himself with his belly. He had to use his legs instead, which explained those strange movements.

The large spellcaster had a loud voice and said, “I… my name is Yang Qi, nicknamed Fat Yang!”

Guo Shier was shocked and couldn’t help but kick him as well, asking, “What’s your name?”

Yang Qi replied, “I didn’t shout!” His voice was even more thunderous. Guo Shier, enraged, kicked him several more times, but not hard enough, so Yang Qi didn’t feel pain.

Guo Shier asked the last person, “What about you? What’s your name?” Then he took out a water pouch and drank some water.

The man grumbled inwardly, What’s my name again? But he didn’t dare complain and said, “Heh, my name is Peng Yuanwang, and my nickname is Wangwang…”

Guo Shier spat out the water, coughed a few times, and said, “Good. You all have your own characteristics—Hmm, Big Beard Min’er, Fat Yang, Wangwang…”

Lan Hu suddenly said from the side, “Wangwang is the worst!”

Peng Yuanwang covered his head and said, “We have no choice. If we don’t rob you, we won’t survive…”

Lan Hu said, “Robbing a weak woman like me… Hmph! Hand over your talisman pouches! It’s robbery!” She drew out her talisman sword and advanced menacingly.

The three had no choice. Under someone else’s roof, how could they not bow their heads? They obediently handed over their talisman pouches. Each of them had no more than five pouches, proving they were extremely poor.

There were fifteen talisman pouches in total. Lan Hu didn’t take them all—she took ten and left five, saying, “I’m not like you who exterminated everyone, leaving me nothing at all…”

Fat Yang said, “Weren’t we left a talisman sword and some food for a few days? We didn’t exterminate everyone…”

Lan Hu sneered, “I didn’t exterminate everyone either!”

Guo Shier couldn’t help but laugh. Since robbery had been committed, they had to be prepared for being robbed, so he neither tried nor wanted to stop Lan Hu from robbing them. He said, “Alright, Uncle Eagle Demon, Xuan Ai, Little Lan, let’s go…” Then he released the Dark-Winged Demon Scorpion without hesitation and flew away.

The few of them climbed onto the scorpion’s back. Guo Shier said with a smile, “Fat guy, Beard, Wangwang… goodbye…” He drove the Dark-Winged Demon Scorpion away into the distance.

Lan Hu sat behind Guo Shier and said, “Thank you, Shier!”

Guo Shier said, “You’re welcome. We’re in this together now… First, we need to hunt some mutated talisman beasts and stock up on meat, then prepare to enter the Blood Mist Zone to improve our strength as soon as possible.”
Lan Hu said, “Shier, then let’s not move forward. This place is close to the drop point. Once the drop time arrives, mutated talisman beasts will surely come here. We just need to stay here.”
Guo Shier said, “I want to find a place with slightly better terrain, preferably somewhere with cover, so we won’t be spotted by humans or mutated talisman beasts right away.”
Eagle Demon suddenly frowned and said, “Is someone following us? I’ll go check!” With that, he jumped off the scorpion’s back and flew low over the ground.
Guo Shier stopped the Dark Winged Scorpion and flew slightly higher. Due to the thin mist, he couldn’t see far, watching as Eagle Demon disappeared ahead.
A moment later, Eagle Demon returned with three people.
Guo Shier was surprised, “Beard? Fat Guy… and Wangwang? What’s going on?”
Eagle Demon said, “These three have been following us the whole time.”
Guo Shier flew down from the scorpion’s back and asked, “Did you try to ambush us?”
Fat Yang said, “No… it’s not that. We didn’t try to ambush you… We…” His voice was too loud, so Guo Shier had to stop him, “Shut up! Beard, you talk!”
Sun Min’er said with a bitter smile, “We had no choice but to follow you… to see if we could get some leftover food… The three of us are just junior masters. We were forced by our sects and families to come here. We’re the lowest-ranked here… not strong enough.”
Guo Shier was surprised, “You’re all at the master level, yet your sects and families don’t value you?”
Fat Yang said, “Only if a master reaches an advanced level at a young age will their sects and families pay attention. As for us… it’s impossible. We were forced to come here to endure harsh conditions and force ourselves to advance quickly. If we don’t work hard, our sects and families will think we’re useless and won’t care whether we live or die.”
Guo Shier felt a chill. These sects and families were ruthless. They sent master-level disciples to cruel environments to force them to learn and struggle, so they might advance. As long as these disciples could return alive, their strength would increase significantly, but this method was highly objectionable.
“Go on, it’s not just for leftover food, is it?”
Peng Yuanwang said, “By following you… we can avoid powerful monsters, giving us time to study and train.”
Guo Shier was surprised, “Can’t you avoid mutated talisman beasts on your own?”

Peng Yuanwang said honestly, “We can avoid them usually, but if we encounter several mutated talisman beasts in a row, we won’t survive… If the mutated talisman beasts are strength-based, as long as we don’t charge in recklessly, there’s no danger. But if we run into speed-based ones, there’s nothing we can do.”
Guo Shier turned and asked, “What do everyone think we should do?”
Eagle Demon said, “Shier, you decide. I don’t have any ideas.”
Xuan Ai touched his nose and said, “I don’t care.”
Lan Hu hesitated for a moment before saying, “Take them with us.”
Guo Shier was surprised. “Xiao Lanzi, you mean take them along?”
Lan Hu replied, “Yeah. We’re short on people and weak in strength. Three junior masters can be equivalent to one intermediate master.”
Guo Shier had thought the same thing. The main reason was that he didn’t think these three were extremely vicious. He said, “Sun Huzi, Yang Pangzi, Wangwang… Would you like to join our team?”
The three were overjoyed. When Eagle Demon suddenly appeared before them, they had already given up hope and prepared themselves to be beaten mercilessly. They never expected Guo Shier to invite them to join. They were instantly ecstatic and exclaimed in unison, “Yes! Yes!” It would be foolish not to agree.
Guo Shier nodded. “Good. Let’s get to know each other again. I’m Guo Shier, a senior grand talisman caster. This is Uncle Eagle Demon, a senior grand talisman martial artist. This is Xuan Ai, an intermediate grand talisman caster. Lan Hu, Xiao Lanzi, junior grand talisman martial artists.”
Sun Min’er, Peng Yuanwang, and Yang Qi were extremely grateful. They had prepared to take beatings but instead were recruited into the team. Especially since Guo Shier and Eagle Demon were at the level of senior masters—the highest tier in the Bloody Secret Realm—only advanced mutated talisman beasts could pose a threat to them; the rest were not a concern. How could they not be happy?
Guo Shier asked, “Sun Huzi, is there any hidden place or shelter here?”
Sun Min’er replied, “No. I heard… it’s impossible to find a hidden place here, precisely to prevent disciples from taking shortcuts…”
Guo Shier said, “What if we dig an underground hideout? We could hide there for a long time, right?”
Xuan Ai laughed and said, “Shier, the ground here can’t be dug. It’s all rubble. If you dig, it will collapse after going only a short depth. You don’t have any materials to reinforce it… So that’s not an option.”
Peng Yuanwang added, “Even if we could hide underground, without the help of the gray mist, it would be hard to advance.”

Guo Shier was stunned; he had never known about this and asked, “The help of the gray mist?”
The others were also shocked. The Eagle Demon and Guo Shier had similar expressions of confusion. Xuan Ai kept shaking her head and said, “Shier, your elders never mentioned… is there anything here?”