Li Chonglou shivered abruptly and made a decisive choice.
“Alright then, I’ll be going if you’re alright.”
With that, Li Chonglou leaped to the front of the black snake’s head, which was staring at him with confusion.
“Wait.”
Li Chonglou quickly waved his hand. “No, I have things to attend to. I was just passing by this time. We humans have a saying.”
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Heizi is my enemy. It’s only right that I help you. Alright, I’m leaving.”
After finishing, Li Chonglou, fearing the other party might try to keep him, quickly used his Shadow Steps and instantly concealed all his aura.
The black snake hadn’t even reacted before the person had vanished from its perception, its pair of green eyes filled with confusion.
However, it remained motionless there until about half a minute later.
A head suddenly descended from the sky, rolling directly in front of the black snake.
The black snake’s head shot up. A familiar figure was in the air above, and its eyes instantly welled up with moisture.
“Mom!”
On the other side, Li Chonglou, who hadn’t gone far after leaving, sensed a terrifying aura appear behind him, even more formidable than the pursuit he’d encountered before. He continued to use Shadow Steps, fearing the other party might come after him.
At this moment, Old An teased him in his mind, “Little Li, why weren’t you worried when you were tricking that little guy, but you’re so scared now?”
Li Chonglou forced a smile. “Isn’t this seeking wealth amidst danger? You said it yourself, it’s a little guy, easier to fool. Who knows what the temper of a big one is like?”
Even among humans, there were unpredictable perverts, let alone beasts. Li Chonglou dared not gamble his life.
Still, he was content with this outcome.
He temporarily handed over control of his body to Old An to search for other异兽 (yì shòu - exotic beasts) or Heizi, while he entered the bottle space.
“How is it? Are these few remnant souls enough?”
Li Chonglou needed to figure out how much remnant soul Old Lin and the others would need for everyone to recover to their peak levels. Old Lin’s words filled him with despair.
“You’re thinking too simply, kid. This little bit of remnant soul isn’t even enough for us to gnaw on.”
Li Chonglou glanced around. The few remnant souls had indeed disappeared, but the condition of the souls seemed unchanged.
Old Lin wasn’t joking this time?
Rainbow couldn’t stand it and spoke up, “Little Li, don’t listen to him scaring you. It just seems slow because we all shared them. But if we get another hundred or two hundred, it shouldn’t be a big problem.”
Hearing the first half, Li Chonglou wanted to give Old Lin a glare, but after hearing the second half, he decided to save his glare for Rainbow.
A hundred or two hundred, and that’s ‘shouldn’t be a big problem’? Where was he supposed to get those?
Setting aside whether he could encounter a hundred or two hundred Heizi, even if he did, he wouldn’t be able to handle it. He only obtained these few through schemes.
If he had to kill them himself, he could only deal with those at the fifth level or below. Depending on the difference in cultivation, wouldn’t that mean multiplying the number by ten times?
Just thinking about the number made Li Chonglou feel it was impossible to achieve. The most crucial part was that he had less than two and a half hours left.
“Alas, it seems I still need to return to the safe zone to figure things out.”
Perhaps sensing Li Chonglou’s low mood, Old Lin became a little more serious and comforted him, “Take your time, no need to rush. But it’s best to find an opportunity to confirm if you can return here anytime.”
Although remnant souls were collected using功石 (gōng shí - merit stones), no one had told Li Chonglou that they were useful outside, and it was highly likely they would only function within this space.
Therefore, being able to return anytime to replenish remnant souls became extremely important for Li Chonglou.
After all, with less than two and a half hours remaining, it was clearly impossible to fill everyone’s condition.
“That’s the only way.”
Li Chonglou sighed softly and then withdrew from the bottle space.
“Old An, in about ten minutes, they should all be gone. Let’s go back and pick up some things.”
“Mm.”
The reason he could swiftly kill two Heizi before was not only due to the longbow conjured by the round sphere but also the arrows conjured by the same round sphere. If not for that, with his current strength, he could only have wounded them at best.
At that time, the situation was urgent, and he didn’t have time to pick them up, but he had long decided to bring these items back for Chen Paoying and the others, so he couldn’t leave them behind.
Ten minutes passed quickly. During this time, Li Chonglou couldn’t even find a single异兽 (yì shòu), so he could only sigh again and return to retrieve the round sphere.
When he returned to the scene, the black snake was indeed long gone. The corpses of the two Heizi were still there, but to Li Chonglou’s astonishment, his round sphere was missing!
“Uh, could it be this unlucky? Did someone get here first?”
After reconfirming the round sphere was truly gone, Li Chonglou stood there, dumbfounded.
This meant that for a few fifth-level peak remnant souls, he had lost two top-tier weapons!
This was a huge loss!
Old An suddenly spoke, “Little Li, I have a bad feeling.”
Li Chonglou’s mood immediately tensed, and he quickly asked, “Senior Old An, did you sense something?”
“No, just an instinctive feeling. Why don’t we return to the safe zone first? Even if we come out again, we need to understand the situation first.”
Yes, they had entered too casually this time. After entering, they discovered that the realms outside the safe zone were completely different from what they had imagined. It wasn’t that exotic beasts or powerful cultivators were everywhere.
On the contrary, they rarely encountered living beings here. The previous incident with the black snake was probably an accident.
Li Chonglou agreed with Old An’s words and nodded. “Let’s go back for now. Black Spirit Stage won’t last much longer anyway. Let’s go back to the organization first.”
Despite saying that, Li Chonglou still checked the corpses before leaving. He was surprised to find that even the belongings on these two Heizi had been plundered by someone else!
The sword they clearly held in their hands before death, their valuables, everything except their clothes, had vanished!
“Damn it! I hope I find out who you are!”
Li Chonglou was so angry he gritted his teeth. The speed at which this was done suggested the perpetrator was likely hiding in the shadows. As soon as he and the black snake left, they immediately jumped out to collect the loot, otherwise, it was impossible for the corpses to be untouched.
Yet, they could accurately take the items!
However, the person had likely already disappeared somewhere unknown. Li Chonglou could only suppress his emotions for the moment and hurried back towards the safe zone.
At the same time, about ten kilometers away, a beast roar, whose origin was indistinguishable, suddenly sounded and spread rapidly at a very low frequency!