"Should... should be gone... the gargoyles..."
Meeting Ye Feng's gaze, Li Yidao spoke somewhat numbly.
"What's going on, why are there only three gargoyles!"
Hearing this, Ye Feng was immediately depressed, as killing one gargoyle earned him as many usable points as killing fifty zombies.
"..."
Upon hearing Ye Feng's words, Li Yidao's mouth twitched.
"These gargoyles are so terrifying. If an expedition team encounters one in the wild without anything to counter it, they basically become its food."
"Even cultivators of wood-attribute arcane energy find them incredibly troublesome; a slight mistake can lead to doom. Yet this person encountered three at once and still complained about there being too few..."
Li Yidao thought this but dared not say it aloud.
"Heh... heh... Mr. Ye... Mr. Ye is joking..."
Li Yidao chuckled dryly and patted his subordinates, trying to ease their tense and fearful expressions.
After waiting for a while longer, with still no sign of gargoyles, Ye Feng sheathed his Tang knife and, with Xiaoxiao, returned to the stream to continue cleaning the half-processed steel-scaled hide.
"Bro... Brother Dao, they're not running away?"
"And... they're still cleaning the steel-scaled hide?"
"Their nerves are too thick... aren't they afraid of encountering other monsters?"
...
Seeing Ye Feng and Xiaoxiao's figures, Li Yidao's subordinates were dumbfounded. Li Yidao was also quite surprised.
"Boss... Boss, are we still exploring the Red Shore Ruins...?"
After a moment, a subordinate spoke to Li Yidao.
As his words fell, many people showed signs of wanting to retreat. After all, they had only just entered the outer perimeter of the Red Shore Ruins and had already encountered monsters of this caliber. If they went further in...
"Meow~! Meow meow~"
Suddenly, several cat-like meows echoed from all around.
"Hmm? Cats?"
Ye Feng, who was by the stream, heard the sound and stood up, looking towards its source.
Behind a large tree where the meows originated, a leopard slowly emerged. It was two meters long, with sharp teeth and a fiery red mane on its head, its body covered in various gray spots.
"Meow meow... meow..."
A few more meows sounded, and several more similarly looking leopards appeared in the forest around Ye Feng's location.
"Mr. Ye, get away from there quickly, it's a Flame-Headed Leopard!"
Just as Ye Feng was wondering what those strangely shaped leopards were, Li Yidao's voice rang out.
"Meow~"
As Li Yidao's words fell, a Flame-Headed Leopard close to Ye Feng opened its mouth wide and leaped towards him.
As the Flame-Headed Leopard flew into the air, a ball of fire suddenly erupted from its head, which was clearly fire-attribute arcane energy.
"Meow~"
"Crack~Hiss~"
The Flame-Headed Leopard roared and pounced at Ye Feng, but its attack missed. The sharp teeth clashed with a crisp sound, and the flames on its head whizzed past Ye Feng.
"Damn..."
Ye Feng was somewhat surprised, seeing the scorched marks on his sleeve.
He had dodged the leaping Flame-Headed Leopard with a sidestep, but he hadn't expected the fire-attribute arcane energy extending from the leopard's fangs to scorch a tusk-shaped mark on his sleeve.
"Mr. Ye, the Flame-Headed Leopard's head emits fire-attribute arcane energy. Before its teeth bite the target, the fire-attribute arcane energy will pierce the target first, which is very dangerous!"
At this moment, Li Yidao's voice came again.
"Meow~!"
Having missed its attack, the Flame-Headed Leopard meowed again and charged at Ye Feng.
"Fire-attribute arcane energy, huh..."
Ye Feng frowned slightly. Instead of taking out his ice-attribute arcane energy firearm, which could counter the Flame-Headed Leopard, he gathered his Origin Arcane Energy in his right hand and punched the charging leopard.
"Bang!"
A dull thud echoed as Ye Feng's fist, glowing with white light, struck the Flame-Headed Leopard's head, instantly causing the flames to dissipate.
The Flame-Headed Leopard was sent flying backward by Ye Feng's blow, landing on the ground and rolling a few times before falling silent. The flames on its head soon completely vanished...
Ye Feng, however, looked with interest at the fire-attribute arcane energy on his fist, which was intertwined with his Origin Arcane Energy. After his punch hit the Flame-Headed Leopard's head, his arcane energy had actually retained a portion of the fire-attribute arcane energy...
Immediately, Ye Feng's gaze sharpened, and with a surge of arcane energy in his hand, those fire-attribute arcane energies dispersed...
"It seems my Origin Arcane Energy, even without an attribute, can still attack these elemental arcane energies!"
Ye Feng was quite pleased to have confirmed this. He had been worried that his arcane energy, lacking an attribute, would be unable to counter or attack certain elemental arcane energies when facing other arcane energy cultivators.
After all, Bing had said that combat between arcane energy cultivators depended not only on the mastery of arcane energy techniques and the density of arcane energy but, more importantly, on elemental advantages and disadvantages...
"Ding~ Host has killed one Flame-Headed Leopard, gaining 10 usable points~"
At this moment, the system's mechanical voice pulled Ye Feng back from his thoughts.
"Eh~ There are usable points!"
Hearing this, Ye Feng became even happier and immediately ran towards the Flame-Headed Leopards that were staring at Li Yidao and the others.
"Boom!!~ Whoosh~!"
"Meow meow~"
"Bang~ Crack~..."
...
Following this, sounds of collisions, whistling flames, roars of Flame-Headed Leopards, and broken bones echoed continuously.
"Bang!~"
"Creak~ Crackle crackle~"
With the sound of a gunshot, a series of freezing sounds followed. The arcane energy flames on the last Flame-Headed Leopard's head dissipated, having been hit by Ye Feng's ice-attribute arcane energy rifle.
The previously boisterous forest returned to silence.
"Phew~!"
Ye Feng surveyed the surroundings and let out a light breath, putting away his arcane energy rifle.
"Th... thank you!"
Li Yidao, who had remained frozen, looked at Ye Feng with immense shock and instinctively parted his lips, slowly uttering two words.
As for Li Yidao's subordinates, they were utterly stunned and hadn't even reacted.
First, it was the steel-scaled bear, then the tree demon, then the gargoyles, and afterward, they even faced so many Flame-Headed Leopards. They had already despaired...
But Ye Feng had charged forward and, without a word, had wiped out the Flame-Headed Leopards. This made them feel as if they were in an unreal dream...
"Oh, you're welcome!"
Ye Feng waved his hand casually. He hadn't specifically saved them.
Subsequently, Ye Feng and Xiaoxiao quickly walked back to the location of the previous steel-scaled bear, preparing to cut off some bones and meat, as this was a great tonic.
"Mr. Ye, the spine of the steel-scaled bear is the best for treating bone injuries. As for the meat, the ribs are the best, tender and chewy!"
"And the bones of the steel-scaled bear, once boiled and dried, can be used as medicine. When needed, cut off some, grind it, and consume it!"
Seeing Ye Feng looking somewhat perplexed with his Tang knife, Li Yidao, who had followed, spoke up.
"Is that so~"
Ye Feng nodded and began to busy himself on the steel-scaled bear with his Tang knife in hand.
...