"Bang~ crackle~ ah!~"
"Ah!~"
"Boom~~ whoosh~!"
"Damn it, these three girls are not simple! Ah!"
"Bang bang~ shoot!~"
"Damn it, catch them alive!"
"Kill that man first, you son of a bitch, I'm going to eat him raw!!"
"Uh~ ah!"
.........
After a series of intense bone-cracking sounds, screams, gunshots, curses, and fighting, the scene was a mess, but had also returned to a state of calm.
From beginning to end, it was basically Wu Ye Lin, Xiao Xiao, and Qiao Ying who were fighting the raiders. Ye Feng didn't make much of a move; he was mostly observing...
"The strength of these raiders is average, mostly bronze and steel, with very few silver... But how were they so well hidden just now!?"
Ye Feng looked at the group of wailing raiders on the ground, feeling quite puzzled.
"Big brother, come here for a moment!"
At this moment, Xiao Xiao called out to Ye Feng.
"Xiao Xiao, what's wrong?"
Ye Feng strode towards Xiao Xiao. As soon as he reached her side, his expression changed slightly.
"This strange scent..."
Ye Feng's nose twitched, and he felt a chill in his heart.
Because he smelled a very strong perfume scent that made him feel a sense of dread. This scent was not unfamiliar to him; it was the same scent as that guy, Ke Le Ji, from the City of Frozen Ice...
Involuntarily, Ye Feng's gaze fell upon Xiao Xiao, who also happened to be looking at Ye Feng, and covered her nose.
Although neither of them spoke, they both understood what the other meant: the burly man lying on the ground, with blood flowing from his head, and a raider's mark tattooed on his chest, was very likely connected to Ke Le Ji!
"Ye Feng, this guy is the leader of these raiders. It was his idea to set up a trap to lure us here!"
At this moment, Wu Ye Lin's voice pulled Ye Feng back from his thoughts.
"Oh!~"
Ye Feng nodded slightly, then kicked the raider leader's broken thigh. "Hey, who told you to ambush us here?"
"Ah!~"
"I'll fuck your mother, if you dare to... ah!~"
"Cao Ni Ma... ah~!"
"If you dare... ah..."
"Ah..."
.........
After a bit of communication with the raider leader using hands and feet, Ye Feng soon continued upstream along the river with Xiao Xiao and Wu Ye Lin...
...........
"Ye Feng, why did you keep asking who told those raiders to ambush us here?"
"Those raiders designed this trap to deal with whoever came... We were purely passing by, and we don't know those people, so it's unlikely they were targeting us specifically!"
Walking on the road, Wu Ye Lin looked at Ye Feng with some confusion. "But I didn't expect the raiders here to specifically target those with wristbands!"
"Oh, I just asked casually..."
Ye Feng changed the subject. "Speaking of which, the strongest among those raiders was only at the peak of Silver. How could they hide so well?"
"Even the raider behind us, less than three meters away, only moved once, trying to emerge from the integrated stone, before I sensed him!"
Ye Feng looked quite perplexed.
"Ye Feng, it should be because of this!"
As she spoke, Wu Ye Lin produced a space rift fragment ring, which she had just obtained from the raiders.
After operating the space rift fragment ring for a while, the ring flashed, and several pieces of paper with strange runes appeared in her hand.
"Arcane Talismans?"
Seeing what Wu Ye Lin was holding, Ye Feng was a little surprised.
"Mhm!"
Wu Ye Lin nodded. "To be precise, this kind of arcane talisman is called 'Tong Xi' (同息),"
"As long as you take a bit of local soil, stones, water, or other things, place them in the circular pattern on the talisman, activate it in a special way, and combine it with your own arcane energy, you can blend into the local environment almost perfectly!"
As her voice fell, Wu Ye Lin frowned slightly. She bent down, picked up a few drops of river water, dripped them into the circular pattern of the Tong Xi talisman, and then formed a series of complex hand seals.
"Splash!~"
The next second, Wu Ye Lin turned into a pool of water and merged into the river.
"Sister Lin?"
After observing the river for a while and finding nothing, Xiao Xiao exclaimed in surprise.
Ye Feng was also astonished. He even reached into the river and sensed it with his arcane energy for a while, but found nothing...
"Splash!~"
At this moment, the river rippled, and a large mass of water rapidly condensed into a human shape. It was Wu Ye Lin who reappeared.
"Damn..."
Ye Feng was greatly surprised because Wu Ye Lin was less than two meters away from him.
"This is the power of the Tong Xi arcane talisman. If used for assassination... it's very troublesome..."
"I had only seen a few from my grandfather before. I didn't expect those low-strength raiders to have so many!"
"But this is also normal. Raiders are the ultimate scoundrels in this world. They dare to kill and rob anyone's supplies, including people from the Seven Great Powers. Perhaps they were lucky and just happened to plunder someone who possessed Tong Xi arcane talismans... Wait a minute..."
As she spoke, Wu Ye Lin's expression suddenly changed.
Because she realized something very important: these raiders could obtain Tong Xi talismans, but the method of using them...
"Ye Feng, these raiders are probably not ordinary raiders!"
"The method of using Tong Xi talismans is known to very few people. Even the Explorer's Guild doesn't know many who can use this thing!"
Wu Ye Lin's expression was quite serious.
"Those guys... are they connected to Ke Le Ji... the Dark Holy Cult?"
Ye Feng turned to look in the direction where the raiders had been, his brow furrowed.
He had asked several raiders earlier, and they had indeed encountered a mysterious person, but they didn't know who it was, or even if it was a man or a woman. They only knew that the person offered them a high reward to capture those with wristbands, and then someone would contact them...
"Big brother, this place is nice. There are no miscellaneous zombies, nor any traces of other humans living here. It's very suitable for collecting water!"
At this moment, Xiao Xiao's cheerful voice rang out.
After Ye Feng surveyed the surroundings, a light flashed in his hand, and the large 20-ton water storage tank, along with the automatic water purification equipment, appeared beside him.
"Let's go! Get water!"
As soon as he spoke, Ye Feng carried the two large items and walked towards the deeper part of the river.
Xiao Xiao also took out a small water purifier and a pile of mineral water bottles, while Wu Ye Lin took out a rather large water storage jar.
Before long, Ye Feng, Xiao Xiao, Qiao Ying, and Wu Ye Lin were all in different spots upstream of the river, filling their containers with water.
.........