Moreover, the newcomer had not been on the ship for long before it won the affection of most people. It first begged a little dried fish from Elisa, then affectionately licked Gita's fingertips, thus turning both of them to the ranks of the 'Cat Protection Party.'

By the way, this was the first faction established within Tianlan's team, with the aim of allowing Lady Cat to stay on board.

However, Fang Hong wasn't in the mood to care about this now. He shook his head and turned his attention back to the forest.

In the darkness, the light from a few torches was drawing nearer.

Near the Maxon Creek camp.

Lan Wuxin considered himself a veteran, being his seventh year as an Invoker. In the earlier years, he had been in and out of other people's adventure groups, accumulating quite a bit of experience.

During that time, there were naturally invitations for him to join various established adventure groups, but his old partner was not very talented, so to help out the old friend, he had always refused.

Later on, he started trying to form his own team, but it wasn't easy, considering the life-and-death stakes of adventuring, and most people wouldn't trust an inexperienced captain.

Luckily, the forest near Tibial Creek had become increasingly inhospitable each winter over recent years, and these undead were a meager yield, causing experienced adventure groups to gradually move south.

This gave him the chance to assemble a ragtag crew. Initially, they only dared to undertake missions during the transition from summer to autumn, slowly building up a bit of reputation, and this time they ventured out on a high-risk mission because the team desperately needed funding.

He initially thought there wouldn't be much danger near the Maxon Creek camp, but the heavens didn't go his way, and they ran into the troublesome Corpse Ghosts and Succubi.

If not for a high-ranking guild member in the team, they would've been wiped out by the Giant Skeleton earlier, but that member had perished in that combat, and the team had suffered significant losses.

Lan Wuxin led the others forward while also noticing the two beams of light piercing through the forest.

The beams didn't lead the way ahead but instead monitored the team from the sides, which brought him a slight sense of relief—unlike the others, he had early on realized that there were a few Corpse Ghosts stealthily tailing them along the flanks, which was precisely why he previously hadn't wanted them to turn back.

That the distant team realized this despite being so far away surprised him a little, yet also brought a sliver of hope—this showed that the other side was at least significantly experienced, and experience often meant strength.

Moreover, the other team seemed willing to lend them a hand, or else they wouldn't have stopped to shine the searchlights in this direction, which in such a snowstorm would also be considerably risky for them.

The other side daring to stay meant either they were foolish or they had confidence.

Lan Wuxin preferred to believe it was the latter—

But clearly, not everyone in the team shared his view; the young Alchemist panted while complaining incessantly, cursing why the other side didn't shine the searchlight over, causing him to trip multiple times in the dark, leaving his face bruised and swollen.

These words made Lan Wuxin wish to strangle the latter; using the searchlight to shine directly on them? Did he think this was a stage spotlight? In such a situation, wasn't this courting death?

The others clearly also disdained the man; initially, someone would help him up when he fell, but eventually, no one bothered with him. Only when he fell too far behind and cried out, did Lan Wuxin wait for him slightly.

Only because of contract obligations.

"It's ahead!" someone suddenly shouted in the team.

Others felt slightly relieved, looking ahead instinctively, but the young man suddenly widened his eyes: "Airship!?"

Not only him, but everyone was also startled; in the interior regions, airships were rare. They first thought they were lucky enough to meet a kingdom's patrol airship, but still had doubts, as they'd never heard of patrol airships venturing out in such stormy weather.

No matter their thoughts, the two beams of light above the forest were clearly shot from above the canopy, making it seem unlikely anything besides an airship could reach such a height.

The group was still amazed when suddenly the light beams swept towards their direction, illuminating a patch of Spruce Forest not far from their flank.

Lan Wuxin instinctively shielded his eyes against snow blindness. Meanwhile, he heard the Alchemist next to him murmur curses, as if blinded by the sudden light, triggering a sense of resignation in his heart: "Isn't this what you asked them to do with the light beam?"

But he understood that, judging from the previous behavior of the other side, this was not without reason. Looking back, he indeed saw a mass of gray-blue 'Revenants' staggering toward them from the forest.

"They're closing in!"

Someone in the team cried out in terror.

For a moment, Lan Wuxin was at a loss, having anticipated the undead would catch up, but not so quickly. Had they been on flat ground, they could have easily outrun the undead, but within the snow-covered terrain, their efforts to run were physically draining.

Yet the undead had no concept of physical exhaustion.

Now everyone was at their limits, completely out of strength and courage for another fight, with their only hope that the 'airship' would arrive in time. The young man had already collapsed in fear, while Lan Wuxin merely drew his sword, standing in front of everyone.

Simultaneously, he couldn't help glancing back.

He happened to see the silver beams glide over their heads, and behind them, a massive shadow sweeping above the canopy. He was dumbfounded—it was closer and much smaller than he'd imagined the 'airship' to be.

Was it merely a patrol boat?

The next moment, Lan Wuxin saw two figures appear by the ship's railing, one clearly instructing the other.

On the platform.

Fang Hong lifted his wind goggles, surveyed the situation below, and turned to Xiangzi: "Go disperse those things below, be careful, those are 'Revenants,' and there must be Corpse Ghosts commanding them from behind."

"No problem, Captain, watch me."

Xiangzi, always full of confidence, looked down on any Corpse Ghosts. Joke's on them; he and the Captain had dealt with countless ones in Fenris's depths.

"Be careful," Fang Hong retorted irritably, obviously not trusting the overly confident fellow.

However, the latter just shrugged and whistled: "Justice descends!" then let go of the net rope and leapt downward.

"Holy crap—!"

Everyone in the forest gasped inwardly at this scene. Though the 'airship's altitude was lower than they'd first expected, it was still about ten meters high—did the guy really jump from there?

In such stormy weather, even using a glider wing wouldn't work, right?

Was he out of his mind?

...

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