The First Order

No matter who it might be, anyone who went into the Sacred Mountains would be filled with a sense of wariness and fear of it. Even Ren Xiaosu was no exception.

That was because no one knew what might be lurking in these mountains. Furthermore, the Sacred Mountains had already been demonized by the outside world as well.

So everyone could not help but feel a little spooked when someone mysteriously died at this moment.

Seeing the two lines of blood mixed with tears on the face of their dead teammate quickly solidifying, many people subconsciously stepped away from the shrine. They did not even dare to look at the statue’s eyes and the expression on its face, as though afraid they would be the next to die if it opened its eyes again.

However, there was also a hooligan in this group who was born without fear for the divine. Luo Lan cursed as he walked up to the shrine and said, “I don’t believe in demons and gods. When our ancestors abolished these divine beings back then, it wasn’t like any of them came forward to protect their temples.”

Then Luo Lan kicked at the shrine and caused it to collapse!

The people around him looked at Luo Lan speechlessly. They thought that if the god of the shrine were to start blaming anyone, they had better not be implicated by his actions.

But after the shrine collapsed, a strange sound could suddenly be heard. Right after, a black tide surged out of it. Ren Xiaosu took a closer look and realized they were some strange black bugs he had never seen before.

When Cheng Yu saw this, he immediately called out to a superhuman with fire powers to burn them with fire. The black bugs started squeaking as they burned in the flames.

But as bugs were really afraid of fire, no matter how much they tried to struggle, they still ended up dying very quickly.

The person who attacked the bugs had been exposed when facing the tarantulas, so everyone knew of his identity as a supernatural being.

Luo Lan started laughing loudly next to the burnt pile of bugs. “Didn’t I say there were no such things as demons or gods in this world? Look at how frightened you all were just now. Why did you even come to the Sacred Mountains when you’re such cowards?”

Cheng Yu looked at Luo Lan. “Boss Luo, you already knew it was the bugs that killed the guy?”

“I didn’t know about that, actually.” Luo Lan chuckled and said, “But didn’t you guys notice? The guy who died just now was the first to reach behind the statue to see if there were any treasures. I immediately thought there must be some kind of poisonous substance hidden behind it. That was why he started hallucinating and thought the statue had opened its eyes. After that, he died because the toxin from the bugs had spread through his entire body.”

In truth, even though Luo Lan seemed like he didn’t care most of the time, he still managed to show his quick-wittedness and meticulous nature on many occasions.

Everyone in the group heaved a sigh of relief. Although someone had died this time, it still sounded more reassuring to hear it was the bugs that killed him rather than divine forces. At the very least, it was something they could deal with.

“Are there any friends here with years of experience in wilderness survival?” Cheng Yu asked, “I’m guessing that most of you lack experience in this aspect, right? If any of you are good at wilderness survival, please come forward and tell us how to avoid the poisonous creatures in the wilderness.”

Many people thought supernatural beings should be proficient in everything, but the truth was that most of the supernatural beings here did not even have any military experience. Before they became supernatural beings, they were just normal people. They were then taught combat skills after they were recruited by the consortiums.

And under normal circumstances, they would usually have private vehicles ferrying them to any job assignments they had to handle. They would even have normal soldiers escorting them, so it would not be too much to say they had most things provided for them.

Ren Xiaosu took a step forward. Cheng Yu looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “If you’re thinking about performing, forget it.”

“Perform? What?!” Ren Xiaosu snapped. “I just wanna tell y’all, starting from tonight, everyone should clear the grass around them before they go to sleep. It would be best if y’all can sleep on the ground where a campfire was burning. I think there will be plenty of poisonous bugs out here, so hopefully, y’all won’t end up sleeping forever.”

“I thought you were going to say something weird,” Cheng Yu’s assistant muttered. “As you can see, there’s so many weeds here. If we have to clear them before going to sleep, it will probably take an hour or two. It’s already tiring enough during the day, and we still can’t rest well at night?”

What Cheng Yu’s assistant said was very fitting to their situation. The weeds here were overgrown, and it would really be too troublesome to clear them. Not too many people were willing to spend two extra hours to set up camp after walking for an entire day. Moreover, everyone’s tents were also quite enclosed, so they felt there was no need to put in so much effort.

Someone at the side said, “I brought some insect repellent with me. It should be quite effective.”

“I also brought a lot. I don’t mind sharing it with everyone, but not for nothing. Whoever wants to use my insect repellent will have to keep watch in place of me tonight,” someone said.

Over the past two days, it seemed the threats from within the team were not that great anymore. At the very least, there would not be any internal strife until the real benefit presented itself.

So some of those who were particularly exhausted attempted to trade their insect repellent for some extra sleep. After all, keeping watch at night was also very tiring.

Ren Xiaosu glanced at them and said, “Don’t be blindly dependent on the insect repellent. You don’t even know if these bugs are really afraid of it.”

He knew full well that most of the insect repellent found in the market now was just mosquito repellent. Many poisonous bugs were not afraid of stuff like that.

Furthermore, after the bugs had evolved, their bodily functions became different from before. The previous dosage of insect repellent might not be enough to deal with the poisonous bugs in the Sacred Mountains.

When it was time to set up camp at night, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin worked tirelessly to clear away all the weeds. Ren Xiaosu asked Yang Xiaojin to take a break, but she said she was not tired. Moreover, she enjoyed clearing the area where they set up camp with Ren Xiaosu.

Only a few people in the entire campsite followed Ren Xiaosu’s example. Ren Xiaosu had thought that Luo Lan and Zhou Qi would complain about being tired and start slacking off. But in the end, those two cleared their areas the most meticulously.

In Luo Lan’s opinion, it was safer to listen to Ren Xiaosu’s opinion when traveling in the wilderness. There was nothing to lose by being farsighted.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Qi and said, “Can you secretly drain out the moisture around our tents later on? Don’t leave any moisture in the ground either, it will be safer that way.”

Zhou Qi did not make it difficult and directly agreed.

When the others in the campsite saw Ren Xiaosu and the others working up a sweat, someone muttered, “Aren’t these people tired? They’ve been working for almost an hour already.” As he said that, he also sprinkled some insect repellent in a circle around his tent.

At this moment, Luo Lan asked softly, “Xiaosu, I never had the chance to ask you this, but why do you insist on going into the Sacred Mountains?”

Ren Xiaosu took a look at Luo Lan. He thought that if he had not insisted on coming to the Sacred Mountains, Luo Lan would probably have left. At that time, Luo Lan had been calling for the team to depart and return. He was really serious about withdrawing from the expedition.

But when Ren Xiaosu decided to continue on, Luo Lan immediately changed his mind.

Putting all else aside, Luo Lan was truly impeccable when it came to his friends. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu did not intend to hide the reason from him. “I suspect that Liuyuan is the person that the Pyro Company captured this time.”