'Boom—', an Alchemy Illumination Bomb was fired into the night sky.

The orange-gold light pierced through the treetops, sending beams straight into the forest.

Fang Hong looked up at the blinding light from the roof of the carriage, his thoughts drifting back to a month ago in Tarun. That night was similarly a battle in such a forested mountain, only the combatants had changed.

This time it had shifted to Rain Listener against the Blood Oath Alliance.

Perhaps history had played a medium-sized joke on him, as the latter happened to have an unclear relationship with one of that day's participants, the Jiefulite Red Cloak Team.

This relationship could either be a secret sub-chapter or an alliance, but it had not been officially acknowledged by either party.

The fourth Illumination Bomb was rising slowly above in the night sky, illuminating the valley as bright as day.

It seemed that the Blood Oath Alliance members were confused by Rain Listener's initial breakout route and wanted to use this method to find their true direction.

But in such a complex valley, it was challenging to track each other, and both parties had completely lost the trace of the other's main forces. Only small scattered squads collided with each other, proving that they hadn't broken off contact completely.

It was like two people playing blindfolded hide-and-seek with each other, and everything was just a guess.

The battlefield was in chaos with small-scale fights breaking out occasionally; even Fang Hong couldn't be sure exactly where they were, only roughly judging that they were still heading south.

The last message from Grant had come five minutes earlier, instructing them to cross a valley to the south and informing them that they were not far from the destination.

The valley stretched from north to south, but the wooded areas were piled with dead leaves, roots sprawled in the dark, and it looked untrodden, with no sign of Serpent People ruins.

Fang Hong looked down and saw Luo Yu reinforcing the suspension bridge against time on the platform, with others on guard around them. Tianlan and Gita were each managing a crossbow cannon on the left and right sides.

Learning from their experience in the last night attack, Fang Hong's temporary solution was to install a Crystal spotlight on the Fore Saddle Bridge. The light, the size of a human head, utilized the platform's own Magic Furnace—a sporadically used searchlight that would not overly burden the Magic Guided Engine.

The searchlight was more useful than expected. Its beam could illuminate tens of meters away in the forest, not only blinding the Night Lizards but also serving to navigate and avoid the dangerous terrain traps in the night.

The only downside was that the operator might be exposed to danger, but when operated by Big Cat People and Miss Maid, there usually wasn't much of a problem.

How coincidental.

Just at this moment, Fang Hong saw Miss Maid turn the searchlight to one side as if she had spotted something in that direction.

Then a hissing sound suddenly came from the darkness.

Everyone was all too familiar with this sound. Tianlan exclaimed from the platform below, "Night Lizard People!"

Only then did Fang Hong stand up straight from the roof and looked around. They had already clashed with these creatures before and knew their habits well.

In the next instant, he saw those creatures with dark blue skin moving through the darkness, excellent in climbing and leaping, moving effortlessly along nearby trunks of trees.

Once they got close enough, they would hiss and leap from the tree trunks, agilely landing on Mr. Greyrock's back like gibbons.

Tianlan and Gita were already in motion, cranking the massive crossbow cannon under Parker's guidance with a click-click-click sound.

"On the right!" yelled both the Papalarians observer and Miss Maid in unison.

Tianlan pulled the trigger, and the crossbow bolt as thick as an arm hit one of them, causing the creature to fall from midair. "I hit it!" the young girl yelled excitedly.

But the crossbow cannon was designed to deal with larger foes, and against the numerous Night Lizard People, it was somewhat like a drop in the ocean.

Though Parker, too, was backing them up, it was to no avail, and the Night Lizard People quickly breached the first line of defense.

Just then, a Night Lizard flew through the air with a whoosh from the darkness, landing not far from Fang Hong.

Fang Hong stared at the creature.

Truthfully, it was his first time observing this humanoid creature up close. Night Lizards were cavemen, so they were generally short, averaging around one meter fifty to one meter sixty in height.

They looked thinner than humans, but they were agile and had night vision as well as heat-detection abilities like a snake, and their sense of smell was also extraordinarily keen. They were natural hunters.

Their most distinctive feature was their blue-black skin, similar to that of a rain frog, and a ruff around their necks like that of a frill-necked lizard.

The Night Lizard steadied itself on the roof, brandishing a wooden spear as it approached Fang Hong like a wild beast. It flared its frill, issuing a hissing threat.

Fang Hong couldn't help but think of the discussions he had seen on these creatures in the community forums, mostly derived from papers and works related to Professor Lawrence— the latter being a first-generation Pioneer and an authority on the biology of the New World.

Lawrence believed that Night Lizards didn't live in the shallow rock crevices of the Floating Continent as the Natives imagined, but rather came from an even deeper Underground World.

Because some geologists also supported this view, they calculated after taking into account the buoyancy of Guy Crystals that most floating continents might have a cavity layer below, potentially hosting an ecosystem vastly different from that of the surface Continent.

Fang Hong gazed at the white eyes of the Night Lizard, coated with a silvery film, and felt a sudden epiphany. This was a typical trait of life in low-light environments. At that moment, his first thought was not of combat, but a realization that felt superficial until experienced for himself.

The longer he stayed in this world, the more he felt that he had not come to the wrong place. Every bizarre corner of this world deeply attracted the adventurous spirit flowing in his veins.

Even underneath this beauty, the same danger lurks.

Seeing him unmoved, the Night Lizard People must have thought this human had been scared stiff, so they shrieked and launched an attack. It was only then that Fang Hong came to his senses, and with a raise of his right hand, he fired off a Rocket Fist with a bang.

However, Night Lizard People were incredibly agile, and with just a slight crouch, they avoided his punch. It was about to grip its spear and lung forward when suddenly a deep humming filled its ears.

That was the sound of a small Magic Guided Engine—

Fang Hong's arm armor's integrated winch was working hard to retract the cable, the cord attached to the Flying Fist suddenly tensed into a straight line. The Night Lizard People realized the danger at the last moment, turned its head, and only saw a shadow whistling towards it.

Fang Hong pulled his palm back, allowing the returning hand-armor to slash the Night Lizard on the bridge of its nose with a backhand chop. It squealed in pain, its head spinning, unable to distinguish north from south.

With a click, Fang Hong retracted his gauntlet, and at the same time, he stepped forward and gave a fierce push, toppling the dizzy Lizardman from the platform.

Meanwhile, three or four more Night Lizard People landed on the rooftop.

Fang Hong was just turning around when a shield suddenly flew out of the darkness, smacking around the four Night Lizard People in quick succession, knocking them all away before returning along its original path.

The Big Cat People caught the shield with a raised hand, then with a click, attached it back to their right forearm.

"Thanks, Mr. Reed!"

"No problem, get down from there, kid. I don't know where you get such boldness from." The Lion Paladin shook his head; when he first met this human boy, he thought him a bit naïve, but over time, he noticed another quality in him.

Utter carefreeness.

Only those with great skills and boldness, or the incredibly foolish, would dare to climb on top of the carriage in such times. And strangely enough, he was just a Combat Artisan, half an Alchemist—both professions generally tried to keep as far from danger as possible.

"Rest assured, Mr. Reed, I can handle one Night Lizard," Fang Hong smoothly jumped down from above: "Actually, if Mr. Reed hadn't intervened, I could have tried to deal with those three Night Lizard People myself."

"Stop kidding," Reed turned and with a slash, cut down a Night Lizard that was climbing up. While looking back, he replied, "If you got hurt, Atira wouldn't let me off the hook."

"Elf Miss is just a bit too anxious. What's an adventure without a few injuries?"

"Then you go talk to her about it."

Fang Hong chuckled, not daring to do so.

He actually climbed up there just to observe the situation in the valley—who would have expected to encounter Combat? Yet, he was also intending to practice his close-range combat abilities, wasn't that the purpose of dabbling in the Supreme Choice School? If he learned related skills and knowledge but didn't master them, what was the difference from wasting his experience?

At least, he was very satisfied with his Rocket Fist technique; he had many more ideas yet to be utilized. When it came to the breadth of theoretical knowledge, Fang Hong was confident that few trainees from the Grand Guild could match him.

Of course.

In truly dangerous situations, he would never recklessly put himself in harm's way.

He was bold, but that didn't mean he was foolhardy.

This battle was within his calculations, not much different in nature from previous ones—just a small-scale skirmish.

He didn't see any Lizardman Wizards or numerous Ritualists, indicating the enemy was just a small squad.

Indeed, after a few vigorous assaults on the platform and taking a couple of Explosive Shots from Parker, they left behind more than a dozen burnt corpses and hurriedly retreated from the battlefield.

The light from the Illumination Bomb had completely vanished, and the forest was once again engulfed in darkness.

Fang Hong watched the shadows gradually disappear into the woods, then turned to Reed and said, "That should be the last of the Night Lizard People. The further north we go, the more of them there are, but since they fled northward, there should be no more of these creatures ahead."

"Does that mean we've successfully broken through?"

The Big Cat lifted a Lizardman corpse with its claw and tossed it off the platform where it turned into white points of light midair, vanishing into nothingness.

In the dark, Reed struck a match and lit his pipe.

Holding the pipe in his mouth, he looked up at the swirling points of light in the forest and exhaled a puff of smoke: "What on earth is the relationship between these ghostly things and the Blood Oath Alliance? I've heard they never interact with humans."

"Ahem." Tianlan walked over from not far away, getting a mouthful of smoke. She looked a bit pale from the tension and couldn't help but complain, "Big Cat, you're smoking again!"

Reed took the pipe out of his mouth, his expression softened as he asked, "Did it bother you?"

Tianlan shook her head and graciously said, "Never mind, keep smoking." As she spoke, she stepped back a few paces.

As for the Lion's question, Fang Hong had no answer, either.

...

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