Although the Night Lizard People have faith, they have little civilization. This tribe lives in the dark underground, subsisting on hunting and plundering passing merchant groups. Professor Lawrence indeed said that they have a feud with humans and never deal with the island's inhabitants.

But heaven knows why the Blood Oath Alliance can muster and mobilize these Night Lizard People.

In fact, a large number of Night Lizard People inhabit Fenris Isle, and they could even be considered the second-largest force on the island outside the Kingdom of Colin Ishurian.

Fang Hong suddenly thought, if the Blood Oath Alliance formed an alliance with these lizardmen, then their power amongst the Invokers on Fenris Isle would be terrifying.

Not just that, looking across the entirety of Colin Ishurian, it was quite rare for the balance of power between Invokers and natives to reach this extent.

With such power, ambition would naturally grow, and Fang Hong easily understood the predicament the Rain Listeners were currently facing.

But it looked like the Blood Oath Alliance's appetite was even bigger than imagined; not only did they want to swallow up the power of Fenris's Invokers within the game, but they were also ruthless in reality.

However, the troubles of the Rain Listener Club seemed to be not so simple.

There was also 'that thing' mentioned by Zhang Leng.

The disputes between the two guilds appeared to be far more complex than what was seen on the surface. What exactly was 'that thing' that could attract the attention of both guilds?

"Speaking of which," Tianlan suddenly said, "We've been fighting these ugly lizardmen all the way and have never encountered anyone from the Blood Oath Alliance."

"We'll meet them soon," Fang Hong replied.

"Why?" The French girl looked puzzled, "Brother Ade how do you know? Have you guessed their direction?"

Lion-man Reed sighed.

"Have you forgotten which direction that Illumination Bomb came from just now, Fuli?"

Tianlan was stunned for a moment before realizing, "Oh, I get it, it's from the valley entrance over there. Do you mean to say there are people in that direction?"

"That should be the outermost perimeter of the Blood Oath Alliance's encirclement. They will definitely have some forces deployed there," Fang Hong nodded, "We can only hope that we don't encounter their main force, but I think we probably won't."

He agreed with Grant that the Blood Oath Alliance would likely place their main forces on the west side of the battlefield since that led to the 'Safe Zone'—the opponent would not be unaware of this.

...

"Kaka, we're out of Illumination Bombs."

On a ridge near the valley entrance in the south, behind a stretch of bare rock, a group of young people were peeking at the combat unfolding in the valley.

The speaker was an elf maiden with platinum short hair named Six Shadows. Her eyelids were painted with a distinctive red eyeshadow, giving her an attractive look.

But she didn't give off a feel of heavy makeup; combined with her facial features, it instead lent her a somewhat ethereal beauty. She turned her head back, finding Kaka, a boy with disheveled hair like weeds, zoning out.

"Kaka!"

"What's up, did we lose? Then we should retreat quickly. I'm a Combat Artisan with no real combat strength. We're not the main force, they'll understand up there."

Six Shadows sighed heavily at this lack of ambition.

Before this operation, she had been looking forward to seeing the partner assigned to her by the higher-ups, but upon seeing this guy, with whom she had almost come to blows during their time in the Youth Training Camp, she knew she was expecting too much.

A cold snort came from the darkness.

"A dog will not spout ivory; so much for the Jiefulite Elite Corps."

The voice belonged to another girl.

Six Shadows frowned and looked in that direction. Behind some dwarf pines, many people were hidden, most of them young and slightly older than them.

They were dressed in the battle robes of the Blood Oath Alliance, but unlike the usual style, they each had a bundle of white feathers on their shoulders.

Few knew that the Blood Oath Alliance had two corps. This one was called Anlan, slightly less powerful than their main corps but consisted mostly of very young members. As a result, their potential was even more highly regarded by the higher-ups of the Blood Oath Alliance.

Before Six Shadows could speak up, the boy beside her naturally responded, "We're not even corps members to begin with."

"Fallen, I know who you are; I just didn't expect someone so devoid of ideals and ambition could mix in with the Elite Corps of the Jiefulite Red Cloak Team."

The girl looked at them coldly, and Six Shadows felt like she'd been hit by ten thousand bullets, although it was clearly this guy's fault.

But the latter was clueless, "Of course I have ideals."

He spread his hands, "My biggest ideal is to become a high school girl. How great would that be—a high school girl—but that's not very realistic, so I had to settle for second best. Dreaming of being a quiet Life Profession Practitioner, waiting to be supported by the guild, isn't that nice?"

"Oh, but how did I end up as a Combat Artisan, it's so troubling."

As he said this, he simply lay down on the ground, eyes closed, and started contemplating life.

The girl watched him, dumbfounded, and then looked at Six Shadows as if asking, "Is he a pervert?"

Six Shadows really wanted to nod but restrained herself considering the reputation of the guild.

The girl was about to say something else when a somewhat stern voice came from behind, "Enough, Asheng." It was a man's voice. He glanced at Six Shadows and Kaka before continuing, "The friends from Jiefulite are here to help us. Less talk from you."

"Captain..."

The girl bit her lip before finally closing her mouth.

Six Shadows let out a light sigh.

But at that moment, the boy lying on the ground suddenly opened his eyes with a surprised, soft gasp.

He sat up from the ground in a rolling motion and reached out his hand, catching a streak of golden light that flew in from the night sky, landing firmly in his palm.

"Someone's coming," the boy said as he rubbed his hair and turned to the others. "About two or three miles north from here, they look quite similar to what you described from that guild."

"It's the Rain Listeners," the girl named Xia Sheng spoke up again, unable to contain herself. "Wait, how do you know it's them? Your Clockwork Fairy can fly out two or three miles? How is that possible? And when did you send it out? I didn't see it."

"Just earlier, what's the problem? Did I break a battle regulation or something?" Kaka looked at the others with a barely-awake expression. "Sorry, I can explain, but please, don't take away my subsidy. If I get fined again, I won't be able to afford high school girls' supplies next month."

Xia Sheng inhaled sharply.

What kind of people are these?

Fortunately, her captain, who had seen it all, said with an unfazed deep voice, "How many people are there?"

"Looks like around ten, mainly agile professionals in their formation, including two Dual Swordsmen and no fewer than five Archers. There's also a possibility of Nightingales and Swift Swordsmen, along with one Warrior, but apart from the Dual Swordsmen and Archers, I can't be sure of the other professions."

"You could see that clearly from so far away?" Xia Sheng asked curiously.

Kaka nodded.

Even the captain seemed surprised and looked at him, "This sounds like a vanguard squad. Could it be that the main force of the enemy is in this direction? Mr. Kaka, can you determine where they came from?"

"I can, but it's a bit troublesome."

"Please, we definitely need your help. It's very important for us. Mr. Kaka, we can compensate you for your assistance." The captain looked peculiar, paying allies for their help—were they really here for combat? But from just a few words, he realized that this young man named Kaka was certainly a top-notch Combat Artisan.

A normal Combat Artisan couldn't possibly control a Clockwork Fairy to this extent.

No wonder he was from the Jiefulite Elite Corps of the Red Cloak Team.

"I'll try," Kaka replied. "As for the compensation, it's not necessary. If the higher-ups find out, I'll probably end up with more penalties than income, and I might even get locked up in solitary confinement, and Kaka definitely doesn't want that."

Xia Sheng couldn't help but giggle at his funny way of speaking, but halfway through her laughter, she realized something and quickly straightened her face and shut her mouth.

Six Shadows looked at the girl and shook his head involuntarily.

Meanwhile, as if the captain hadn't heard anything, he gestured and said, "We'll spread out, keep an eye on the communicators, wait for instructions from Mr. Kaka, and try not to reveal too much strength in taking down the opponents. I suspect their main force might be in this direction."

As he spoke, he reminded Xia Sheng, "Xia Sheng, inform the Captain and relay this information."

The girl nodded hastily.

…

Mr. Greyrock strolled forward, after a night of fierce battles, he was not short on exhaustion either. As he approached the latter half of the valley, his pace gradually slowed down.

The others weren't in a hurry either. Fang Hong leaned against the railing of the platform, occasionally adjusting the lenses of his Wind Goggles.

"Did Brother Ade see anything?" Tianlan asked softly alongside him.

"Tianlan, this is the ninth time you've asked that in the last five minutes," Fang Hong replied irritably. Maneuvering a Clockwork Fairy was not easy in a dark environment, especially in the dense forest, where it was easy to bump into trees.

He also didn't dare to let the Clockwork Fairy fly too high. Although it was unlikely that the Blood Oath Alliance had any professional Combat Artisans, who could be certain?

This little girl kept distracting him, which was annoying.

Tianlan stuck out her tongue playfully, "I'm just bored, Brother Ade."

"Actually, I am pretty bored too."

Fang Hong replied impatiently — indeed bored because the Clockwork Fairy's vision showed nothing but pitch-black images.

Suddenly, he stopped, letting out a light gasp of surprise.

"What's happened?"

"There's a Clockwork Fairy."

"An enemy's Combat Artisan?" Tianlan was taken aback and quickly asked, "Wait, has it spotted us?"

Fang Hong shook his head. The other Clockwork Fairy seemed to be pursuing another team, but even if not, he was confident he could avoid detection.

Yet he frowned, slightly taken aback, murmuring to himself, "Their control method is so unique. It feels familiar, as if I've seen it somewhere."

The flying path of that Clockwork Fairy suddenly overlapped with a memory in his mind.

But for a moment, he couldn't recall where he had seen it before.

…

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