The Attack of the Wastrel

Hey guys, great news!  Two more top-performing sneak peek Chinese novels licensed from Zongheng have left VIP-only and are available for you to read, each with fifty chapters and a 2/day schedule!  These novels are Yama Rising, translated by Minotauruz (who did the great translation of Demoness' Art of Vengeance) and Star Odyssey, translated by OMA who did Warlock of the Magus World and City of Sin!  Both are veteran and highly capable translators, and I'm excited to bring this to y'all.

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Everyone else was also confused as they looked around. The surroundings remained the same as before, extremely quiet. There was not even a shadow of a beast to be seen.

However, considering Rong Yuan’s abilities, everyone hesitated as they forced themselves to wake up and hold their weapons as they looked around.

“Senior, what exactly did you sense?” Jin Hao could not help but question after not sensing any movements from the surroundings even after a while.

Rong Yuan’s lips tightened as he glanced at him, “I don’t know.”

He doesn’t know? Everyone’s lips tightened, believing that they had heard wrongly. Was he fooling them? How could he wake all of them up when he was not even sure?

Fang Yue was just about to say that he was going back to sleep since nothing was happening when the sound of wind floated into their ears.

“This is bad! It is the Bat Beast!” Having been into this place quite a few times, Wei Lingshu immediately recognized the sound. Noticing the direction the sound of the wind was coming from, he directed everyone to run in the opposite direction as he shouted out, “In the Heavenly Lands, this beast is second in line in having the greatest number of individuals after the Insect Beasts. Measuring about two feet long, they eat any living organism. As they move in a pack, it is rare that any of their prey can escape!”

Everyone started to run even faster upon hearing his words. A beast that was almost as numerous as the Insect Beasts? Just thinking of the beasts covering the entire sky made them feel like puking. They wondered if they had made the wrong decision by coming into the Heavenly Lands. In just two days, they had already met two of the three most troublesome beasts in the Heavenly Lands. No one else could compare to their bad luck.

Wei Lingshu tried to think on the positive side. Unfortunately, as he heard the sound of wing beats getting closer, his heart paused as he said seriously, “Let’s prepare to fight. I am afraid that the Bat Beasts have already placed a target on us.”

If the bats were just passing by where they were resting, they would not chase them so fervently even after they had changed directions. They could only hope that there were not a lot of Bat Beasts in this cluster.

Wei Lingshu’s hopes were immediately dashed as he saw the moving ‘cloud’ behind them.

As the Heavenly Lands was covered in a black fog, visibility was low. But now, he could actually see the shape of a cloud formed by the Bat Beasts, showing just how many bats there were.

Before he could get over his shock, a hoarse sound pierced through the night. Hidden in its call, it communicated in a frequency that humans were not able to hear. In a split second, the black ‘cloud’ was suddenly headed straight for them.

“Get in formation!” Wei Lingshu ordered, the sword in his hand was pointed in the direction the Bat Beasts were coming down from. Rong Yuan stood in the middle of the formation, his face was cold as he pointed his sword into the sky. Flames ranging a few meters long flew into the sky clashing directly with the incoming bats. Sparks flew as a few Bat Beasts fell to the ground.

His strike only managed to take down a few Bat Beasts?

Rong Yuan’s face turned black as he looked at the hundreds of Bat Beasts forming a cloud. He turned to Gu Lingzhi and said, “Follow closely behind me.” With so many Bats, he could not afford to be careless and let them find space to hurt Gu Lingzhi.

Gu Lingzhi patted the back of his hand reassuringly, “Rest assured, I am a Martial Sage after all. I am not that weak.”

In the time that they spoke, the Bats had descended upon them. Blackness filled the sky as they cried out towards the humans.

Gu Lingzhi felt a sharp pain and cried out that things were bad! The cry of the bats could affect their concentration!

Bearing the piercing feeling, Gu Lingzhi swung her Fengwu Sword and slashed the Bat Beast in front of her into half.

The piercing cries of the Bat Beasts continued and the pain in her head got even more severe. Gu Lingzhi glanced at the people around her and realised that they were not faring any better than her. They all had the same pain-struck expressions, suffering the same attack by the Bat Beasts. Only Rong Yuan, a Demigod, managed to block the Bat Beasts attack on his mind.

“What are these stupid things? My head hurts so badly!” Fang Yue anguished as he continued to fight with the Bat Beasts in front of him. Large beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. Although the Bat Beasts’ attack on his mind was not life-threatening, it was causing them to go crazy. Not many people could maintain their composure when their brain was under such extreme pain it felt like bursting.

“Hold on! The Bat Beasts’ mind attack will only cause you to feel pain but it will not cause any real damage. The pain will disappear as soon as you kill them.” As someone who had been through this, Wei Lingshu explained to everyone else. Even him, who was physically strong was no better off under the Bat Beasts attack.

Rong Yuan’s heart ached as he protected Gu Lingzhi, making her stand behind him as he fought off the Bat Beasts in all four directions. However, although he could prevent them from physically hurting her, he could not prevent her from suffering the mental attack and Gu Lingzhi’s head was in extreme pain. Her face was pale as sweat rolled down the sides of her face. She was looking extremely miserable.

“Bloody Bat Beasts!” Rong Yuan cursed. He wanted more than anything to suffer in place of Gu Lingzhi. He did not hold back as he slashed at the Bat Beasts. With each strike, he beheaded numerous Bat Beasts.

But the Bat Beasts were simply too many and they were not as easy to deal with as the Insect Beast in which a single strike could kill a huge bunch. In fact, other than Rong Yuan and Wei Lingshu, everyone else had to hit out four to five times before they could take down one Bat Beast. Lin Mengyan was at a disadvantage because of her weapon choice. Her long whip flew wildly in the air and the Bat Beasts that she managed to hit merely cried out louder in pain, increasing the intensity of the mind attack. The speed at which she took down bats was not as fast as Lin Rong.

“Ah!” A miserable cry shot out. Everyone turned abruptly only to see a person rolling on the floor in pain as he held his head. Several pitch-black Bat Beasts pierced the man’s golden coloured skin. In a few moments, the man had become Bat Beast food and all that remained of him was skin over bones.

“Xiong Huan!” Fang Yue choked and cried out, tears streaming down his face.

The Bat Beasts were extremely quick in devouring their food, giving them no time to even attempt to rescue him. They could only watch as the comrade that they were joking and laughing with two days ago turn from a muscular youth to a dried corpse.

“Focus! Do you also want to become a dried corpse?” Wei Lingshu suppressed the pain in his eyes as he reprimanded in a low voice.

The fact that the Heavenly Lands took away their spiritual energy was already bad enough. Today, the Heavenly Lands seemed even more ruthless. This was only their second day that they were in here and they had already lost one of their men. What would happen in the remaining two days?

The pain in his mind prevented him from thinking any further. All he could do now was to try to kill as many Bat Beasts as quickly as possible. It was the only way to ensure their safety.

“This bunch of damn Bat Beasts, I want to kill all of them!” Fang Yue wiped the tears off his face as he directed his anger into his actions and fought with all his might.

Seeming to realise that the tradeoff for their attack was not worth it, the Bat Beasts haphazardly ‘ate’ off the one man and changed their strategy. Hearing a coarse call, the Bat Beasts which were still attacking gave up at the same time, flying up into the air unwillingly.

“They are…just going to leave like that?” Lin Mengyan’s voice trembled as she asked. Her face had gone white from the pain and she stood back to back with Lin Rong for support as she gripped her whip.

“It seems like it.” Gu Lingzhi looked up at the sky. “They seem to want to discuss something.”

“Discuss?” Jin Hao spat, “What does a bunch of beasts have to discuss? Do they actually have some form of intelligence or something?”

Gu Lingzhi’s eyes swept over him and wanted to tell him that even beasts had intelligence. For example, Zi Zi, the Duobao Spiritual Squirrel in the Fenlan Painting had spiritual knowledge.

“It is not a maybe, it is a fact. They are changing the tactic at which they are going to attack us.” Wei Lingshu gave a bitter laugh. “It is documented in the tribe that in every ten thousand Bat Beasts, there is most likely one Bat Beast that has spiritual knowledge and can command the entire group. It is the leader of the group.” Their luck was terrible to have met a group of Bat Beasts in which one of them possessed spiritual knowledge. It is no wonder the three people guarding the night did not detect any abnormalities. If not for Rong Yuan’s warning, they might not have even made it out of the tent before they were surrounded by the Bat Beasts.

Taking the chance when the Bat Beasts were regrouping, Fang Yue’s face was stained with tears as he and Yao Teng carried Xiong Huan’s body back. Seeing how Fang Yue wanted to tie Xiong Huan’s body onto Yao Teng’s back, Rong Yuan said softly, “Pass him to me, I will return him to you when we get back.”

Yao Teng did not reject Rong Yuan’s kind intentions and Wei Lingshu thanked him, “Thank you, Elder.”

“It is no trouble.” As he said this, Rong Yuan simply had the thought in his mind and Xiong Huan’s body was transported into his Storage Ring. The Bat Beasts had regrouped and came back in three groups. They started their mind attacks and targeted Lin Rong, Jin Hao and Lin Mengyan.

They had actually targeted their two weakest members and the one with the worst weapon! They definitely had a Bat Beast with spiritual knowledge!

Everyone’s hearts froze and they did not dare to slow down as they rushed to protect them. Just as their weapons were about to hit the Bat Beasts, the Bat Beasts very agilely dodged the attack and flew up into the sky.

“Damn! If you have any guts then come down! Hiding up there is just cowardice!” Jin Hao could not help but scold. Unable to utilize their spiritual energy or fly, they could not do anything to the Bat Beasts that wanted to play a game with them.

If it was only this, it might have been okay. However, the constant mind attack made it impossible for them to prolong their fight with the Bat Beasts.

They could not go on like this! They were already disadvantaged to begin with. If they could not solve the mind attacks, they would lose even more people here!

Clenching her jaw, Gu Lingzhi retrieved something from her Inheritance Space and threw it into the air.

In a second, the entire sky was covered in magnificent colours. There was pink, red, yellow, blue…it was the colour of the Fenlan Tree.

The Heavenly Lands prevented her from opening her Storage Ring as it required spiritual energy. However, all she needed to do was to focus in order to open the Inheritance Space! Just as the Fenlan Painting had managed to cover all the Bat Beasts, Gu Lingzhi separated her lips lightly and spat out, “Gather them!”

All the Bat Beasts that were torturing them were suddenly engulfed into the brilliant lights emitted by the Fenlan Painting.

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