Chapter 4: Absorbing Memories (Part 2)

Two huge shields were propped up at an angle, with two burly men beside them seemingly arguing over something. Not far away was a woman, carrying a bow slung across her back, with two quivers tied in an inverted V shape on her back, their feathers sticking out from her shoulders. It was obvious she was an archer, capable of long-range attacks.
The handsome old man asked, “Can you understand them?”
Guo Shierou shook his head slightly. “I can’t. It’s a foreign language. This place is different from where we are. We have runes, so we can usually understand what people say.”
The handsome old man said, “Let me take a look…” He poked his head out from beside Guo Shierou’s shoulder and observed carefully for a while before saying, “The people here have strange looks… Thankfully they’re human-shaped; otherwise, we would have had to kill them.”
Guo Shierou wasn’t surprised. In his past life, he had been accustomed to various races, so he wasn’t shocked by their appearance. The people here had fair skin, somewhat similar to white people in his past life, with high noses, deep-set eyes, and thick body hair—thicker even than that of white people in his past life. Their hair was dark brown, and many of them had thick beards.
The handsome old man said, “They look so ugly!”
Guo Shierou almost laughed. In fact, those people weren’t ugly at all. Since Guo Shierou retained the aesthetic standards from his past life, he didn’t find them ugly at all. He even thought some of them looked quite good, especially a few women in the group, who had excellent figures and a seductive aura.
The handsome old man asked, “Should we go over directly?”
Guo Shierou shook his head. “There’s no rush. Let’s see what they do.”
After thinking for a moment, the handsome old man understood Guo Shierou’s intention. It was obvious those people were out hunting. Guo Shierou wanted to watch them hunt to assess their strength. He knew this continent had its own unique martial system, definitely different from that of the Rune Continent. If they rushed in recklessly, and those people had any special abilities, it would be costly to suffer losses.
Soon, the group finished eating the roasted meat and got up to prepare their weapons. Guo Shierou and the handsome old man continued to communicate through their souls, so no sound was made. He asked, “Handsome old man, what do you think of their strength?”
The handsome old man replied, “It’s hard to tell. By the standards of professionals, they’re just ordinary people, even worse than ordinary people in our place. Their souls are too weak… Only by watching them act can we determine what they’re good at.”

With Guo Shier’s skills, following this group would go unnoticed by them at all. Soon, the group set off toward the south. Guo Shier glanced back and said helplessly, “I don’t know where this direction leads… I hope Brother Li Ran and the others can arrive soon.”

The old man said, “Don’t worry about them. We just need to keep up.”

Guo Shier stealthily followed, sending out soul waves and quickly making a discovery. He said, “Old man, on their path ahead… there’s a wild beast. Hehe…” In fact, even if there had been no beast ahead, he had planned to lure one to test the group’s strength.

A moment later, the beast appeared—a bear over three meters tall, slightly smaller than the one Guo Shier had seen before. The group immediately fell into chaos, shouting wildly. Two of the largest men charged forward with huge shields, followed by the sound of bowstrings and several arrows being shot.

Bang! Bang!

The shields were struck hard by the bear’s claws, and the two men roared as they stepped back. A man wielding a great sword rushed forward and swung it at the bear.

The bear swung its claws violently, producing a clanging sound, followed by a barrage of attacks. Yellow light flashed across the bear’s body. Guo Shier said, “It can’t be breached at all…” Dozens of people attacked the bear nonstop.

The old man poked his head out and said, “They can’t do it…”

Guo Shier replied, “Not necessarily. Did you notice? Their weapons… emit a faint glow. It’s so subtle you can’t see it unless you pay attention. That means… they can use some kind of energy.”

The old man observed carefully and said, “That’s right. It’s like someone coming to the Spellcraft Continent and seeing low-level professionals fighting… If we follow this logic, they should have stronger experts. The key is using this energy… In other words, we might not be the strongest?”

Guo Shier smiled and said, “Not necessarily. You have to remember, on the Spellcraft Continent, we’re already among the top experts. I don’t believe… even if this continent has experts, maybe only equally top experts can fight us. These people aren’t good enough—they’re far behind.” After analyzing for a while, the two finally calmed down.

Dozens of people attacked frantically, while the bear charged around. In just a few minutes, several were severely injured, bleeding profusely. One even had a hand torn off by the bear. The battle was extremely brutal.

Guo Shier said, “They’re done. This bear… isn’t that strong after all.”

The handsome old man said, “It’s not that the bear is that powerful; it’s just that they’re not good enough…” From his and Guo Shier’s perspective, a fight of this level was obviously terrible.
With a roar, the bear suddenly emitted yellow light, and a stone ball immediately formed. It crashed violently into the shield, sending the giant flying along with his shield in an instant. The force was immense—the stone ball, nearly a meter in diameter, was fired like a cannonball. With just one strike, the giant’s bones were broken and his shield shattered.
But after delivering that strike, the bear’s strength clearly diminished, as if it had exhausted all its energy.
A man in chainmail shouted loudly, thrusting his greatsword viciously into the bear’s ribs. Another man used the remaining shield to push back at the bear frantically. Several women shot arrows from their bows. At that moment, the bear’s defenses seemed to vanish entirely, allowing the arrows to pierce through its fur.
Guo Shier said, “This bear only has the strength for one strike. Once that’s over, it’s over…”
The handsome old man said, “This bear is stubborn. If it had run away from the start, these people wouldn’t have had a chance.”
Guo Shier laughed and said, “It’s a bear, not a human. Strangely, usually, when wild animals face danger, they instinctively flee. But this bear refuses to run and fights to the death. Hehe, maybe it’s a characteristic of this continent?”
The handsome old man said, “Who knows… What do you plan to do?”
Guo Shier chuckled and said, “Now that I’ve seen their strength, of course I’ll just walk over directly.”
The handsome old man said, “What boldness! Go ahead, go ahead…” He couldn’t help but tease him.
Guo Shier was used to this and wasn’t annoyed at all. If the handsome old man stopped teasing him one day, he would find it strange.
He gently climbed down from the tree, immediately alerting the group, who let out a few shouts. Guo Shier guessed they must be asking who he was. He didn’t respond, knowing they wouldn’t understand anyway, and slowly walked toward them.
The distance between the two sides was about seventy or eighty meters. Guo Shier didn’t walk fast; he moved slowly. The group acted as if facing a formidable enemy, but only when they saw it was just Guo Shier did they relax. The others were busy treating the wounded and bandaging their injuries, while only the two-meter-tall man, holding his greatsword, stared intently at Guo Shier as he approached.
There was also a woman holding a bow, aiming at Guo Shier from afar.
The handsome old man hid in the altar. Through the fluctuations of his soul, he could clearly sense the situation outside. Smiling, he said, “Kid, they’re not friendly at all…”

When Guo Shier approached, everyone in the group put down their work and stared at him intently, as they had never seen anyone with his appearance or outfit before. His first impression on them was one of extreme elegance—both his clothes and accessories left them in awe. Most importantly, his appearance was very different from theirs.

The man holding the great sword spoke loudly a few words, which to Guo Shier sounded like a series of syllables, but he couldn’t understand a single word.

Standing still, Guo Shier asked, “Can you understand what I say?”

The handsome old man inside the altar burst into laughter and said, “It would be weird if we could understand… Haha.”

Guo Shier realized he was speaking incomprehensibly to them. After a brief silence, he pointed at the injured man, indicating that he could heal him. But as soon as he made the gesture, the man with the great sword roared and swung his sword at him, aiming straight for his neck. Guo Shier couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

Bang! A bowstring snapped, and an arrow was shot out.

Guo Shier said, “I don’t want to kill, but…” He raised his hand to grab the swinging sword, ignoring the arrow completely. The arrow hit his chest but didn’t even pierce his clothes before falling away. He continued, “This world always forces me to kill. Then, damn it, I’ll kill!” He too grew angry.

With a twist of his wrist, Guo Shier snatched the great sword away. He shifted his body sharply, using his shoulder to slam into the man’s chest. With that impact, it seemed as if several small firecrackers exploded inside the man—crackling sounds filled the air as all the bones in his chest shattered. He was sent flying as if hit by a heavy truck. And that wasn’t all—Guo Shier threw the sword away with a wave of his hand.

The archer woman had barely shot her second arrow when the great sword pierced her chest. The immense force lifted her into the air and pinned her to a large tree. Instantly, the crowd panicked, letting out terrified screams as they rushed at him with their weapons.

The handsome old man also sighed and said, “Kill them, then absorb their soul memories.”

There was no logic left at this point. To enter this world and obtain its information, language communication was essential, but now communication was completely impossible. Worse still, the others were highly hostile, attacking right from the start. Given Guo Shier’s personality, if they wanted to kill him, he would have to be prepared to die.

The others attacked quickly, but Guo Shier was even faster. With his combat experience, these people simply couldn’t keep up. In just over ten seconds, they were all knocked to the ground. Out of seventeen people, six were killed, nine were seriously injured, and the other two suffered severe injuries in their fight with the bear. Guo Shier walked up to one of them and placed his hand on their forehead.