Chapter 4085 — Xiao Tao Gravely Wounded

The five high-grade spirit beasts drew closer and closer. Just as [Wei Zhao] was about to strike first and finish one of them off for the group, a surge of incomparably sharp true qi suddenly erupted due north. He looked closely, and it was none other than [Huang Xiaotao] appearing and making her move!

A three-foot black arrow, driven by the explosive force of powerful true qi, had already become a streak of black lightning. In almost an instant it crossed a distance of a hundred zhang, striking one of the invading spirit beasts square in the throat.

The throat, even in high-grade spirit beasts, was always an extremely fragile and fatal spot; no matter how monstrously powerful one's vitality, a throat pierced clean through by an arrow meant certain death.

Without any suspense, a high-grade spirit beast was thus slain effortlessly by [Huang Xiaotao] with a single arrow.

"I didn't expect her to be such a rare archery expert. It seems [Cong Zhima]'s assessment wasn't exaggerated after all—this Captain Xiaotao really does deserve the word 'strong'!" [Wei Zhao] praised inwardly.

The Jungle Concealment Art paired with such lethally precise and superior archery—in these deep mountains and dense forests, it was nothing short of an invincible, overwhelmingly domineering martial combination.

Yet judging from how [Huang Xiaotao] was somewhat gasping for breath now, the cost of that astonishing arrow was far from as effortless as it had looked on the surface. That had probably been her strongest trump card.

"Everyone, be careful—they're coming!" [Huang Xiaotao] shouted with all her might toward those behind her. Without even taking a moment to catch her breath, she immediately fixed her eyes on another high-grade spirit beast.

After she had sniped one of the five high-grade spirit beasts from a distance, the situation that remained was exactly one beast per person! However, the one she had just killed had only mid-stage Foundation Establishment strength—the weakest of the five. The remaining four were each far stronger than it.

Two were late-stage Foundation Establishment, and two were peak mid-stage Foundation Establishment. Setting aside [Wei Zhao], who was hiding his true strength, for [Huang Xiaotao] and the other two these four high-grade spirit beasts were practically death-dealing Yama kings.

[Huang Xiaotao] deliberately targeted one of the ferocious late-stage Foundation Establishment beasts. At equal cultivation levels, human cultivators rarely stood a chance against spirit beasts, but for [Huang Xiaotao], who possessed the Jungle Concealment Art and formidable archery, these deep mountains and dense forests were likewise her home ground—this was a fight worth taking.

By comparison, [Cong Zhima] and [Chen Muzhuang] found themselves in a far more difficult position than [Huang Xiaotao]. What the two of them now faced were two peak mid-stage Foundation Establishment spirit beasts that outclassed them by a full tier—the pressure could well be imagined.

As for [Wei Zhao], still perched in the tree, he had been targeted by a gigantic Thousand-Eyed Spider.

This powerful late-stage Foundation Establishment spirit beast was covered from head to belly in densely packed eyes, and each eye could fire a terrifying ray capable of damaging the primordial spirit. Combined with the giant web it swiftly wove, it was a classic jungle killer.

Having set its sights on [Wei Zhao], the Thousand-Eyed Spider did not launch a fatal assault right away. Instead, it fired an occasional ray to keep him pinned down while circling back and forth around him.

In mere moments, [Wei Zhao] was startled to discover that on all sides—above and below, in every direction—he had been completely trapped by dense layers of spider silk.

From a distance, it looked as though he had been wrapped inside an enormous silkworm cocoon. No road to the heavens, no door into the earth—now there was nowhere left to flee.

"Tsk tsk!" Within the Thousand-Eyed Spider's shrill, grating cries was a clear note of indescribable smugness. In its eyes, [Wei Zhao] was now nothing but a delicacy served up on the dining table—a lamb waiting with bound hands for death.

"Heh, a mere broken spider dares to be this cocky. Seems you really haven't seen much of the world—what a waste of all those eyes." [Wei Zhao] stood at the very center, smiling without a hint of hurry.

"Tsk tsk tsk tsk!" The Thousand-Eyed Spider understood [Wei Zhao]'s mockery. At once every eye across its body snapped open, and hundreds upon thousands of terrifying rays wove themselves into a dense, deadly net that shot straight at [Wei Zhao].

Meanwhile, down below, everyone had fallen into a bloody, bitter struggle. [Huang Xiaotao]'s situation was still somewhat better—the Jungle Concealment Art was enough to keep her safely hidden.

Even so, with the fearsome instincts of a late-stage Foundation Establishment spirit beast, it had come close to catching her out several times. [Huang Xiaotao] had narrowly escaped disaster again and again, scraping through by a hair.

[Cong Zhima] and [Chen Muzhuang], by contrast, were in an even more miserable plight. Two capable mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators, yet they had to deal with two peak mid-stage Foundation Establishment spirit beasts—this was nothing short of attempting an impossible mission.

In the blink of an eye, both had already been wounded one after the other. Fortunately, the two were fairly in sync, maintaining a back-to-back defensive formation, seeking not to slay the two spirit beasts but only to stay alive.

But this turtling defensive strategy could at best buy them a little more time. Every time a spirit beast lunged, it almost always left them another wound. If they kept bleeding out like this, even without being bitten to death outright, the sheer number of wounds and the blood loss would drain them into dried-up corpses.

Seeing the situation grow ever more dire, [Huang Xiaotao], as captain, finally dared not delay any longer. If this went on, everyone here today—everyone except herself—would surely die!

"I can only take the risk and try!" [Huang Xiaotao] gritted her teeth. After several exchanges, the peak late-stage Foundation Establishment Jungle Blood Wolf she was locked in a stalemate with had begun to adapt somewhat to her tactics.

Every time [Huang Xiaotao] tried to raise her hand to loose an arrow, even while concealed, the Jungle Blood Wolf would always step back a beat ahead of her. It was also extremely adept at serpentine running, leaving [Huang Xiaotao] no way to lock on and aim.

[Huang Xiaotao] entered concealment once more. The Jungle Blood Wolf warily guarded against every stir of wind and grass around it. Though it could not, like [Wei Zhao], roughly pinpoint [Huang Xiaotao]'s location directly through perception, it possessed a sense of smell and hearing far beyond any human's. The slightest carelessness on [Huang Xiaotao]'s part—stepping on some flower or blade of grass—was a fatal flaw before it.

Suddenly, after hearing the faint rustle of grass, the Jungle Blood Wolf moved in a flash. Without absolute certainty, its patience and cunning would never let it strike rashly—but this time, it had seized the human's fatal weakness.

In an instant it pounced to the side of a large tree and, at the empty air beside it, delivered an extremely vicious slash of its sharp claws. Sure enough, [Huang Xiaotao] suddenly appeared out of thin air, sent flying more than ten zhang by that single claw strike, spitting out a mouthful of glaring crimson blood. (To be continued..) R527