He had barely finished speaking when the man sighed, ceasing all resistance. He craned his neck, closed his eyes, and awaited death.

Royal Sky decisively unleashed the Tracking Arrow he had prepared long ago. With a soft "whoosh," the white light arrow pierced the man, instantly transforming him into white light and sending him back to the city.

The exhilarating battle ended in just two minutes, leaving the assembled experts feeling rather pleased with themselves. Wounded War God was about to return his greatsword to his pocket and boast a few words when Young Master Han, wearing a serious expression, preemptively said, "Enough chatter. Let's hurry on."

"How come the Hundred Lifetimes Mercenary Corps wasn't with them? What's going on?" You Ge wondered aloud as they walked.

"What's so strange about that? A mercenary corps like the Hundred Lifetimes Mercenary Corps, capable of suppressing even a guild, wouldn't bother cooperating with others, would they?" Young Master Han said nonchalantly.

"You thought of that already?" You Ge asked.

"Of course," Young Master Han replied.

"If Bai Shi Jing Lun saw through our plan and brought his men here..." You Ge felt a chill run down his spine. The Hundred Lifetimes Mercenary Corps didn't cooperate with other mercenary groups, meaning if he discovered the plan, he could bring his entire force to intercept them in the valley. Their mercenary corps seemed to be full of kung fu experts. Even a few of them would be difficult to deal with. If they really brought eighty to a hundred, even though they were all top-tier experts, they might end up losing this time.

Young Master Han smiled dismissively. "Level and IQ are two different things. I don't think he's smart enough to see through our plan."

"Why?" You Ge asked, puzzled.

"Sending five people to block the road and 'show you our skills'? Is that something a smart person would do? If they had the time for that, wouldn't it be better to just come directly and complete the task?" Young Master Han scoffed at Bai Shi Jing Lun's actions.

"That guy's been killed and sent back. I wonder what he'll do," You Ge said, starting to worry.

"He'll be back," Young Master Han said confidently.

"He suffered a great loss last time. He'll definitely inform all his companions this time!" You Ge said.

"Don't worry, he won't."

"Why?"

"Precisely because he suffered a great loss, he's even less likely to. He wanted to monopolize the reward from the start, and now he's already paid the price for it. To make up for this loss, he'll be even more eager to monopolize the task. We may be strong, but there are only six of us. He'll definitely think that as long as he brings a few more people, eliminating six experts is still possible. So, he'll still act alone," Young Master Han said confidently.

"That makes sense," You Ge nodded.

"There's another even more important reason. He absolutely can't let his allied partners know that he wanted to eat alone," Young Master Han said.

"How would his allies know about that?" Wounded War God, who had been listening to their conversation, interjected. "He wouldn't be stupid enough to tell his companions that he already fought us but didn't win, so he's looking for them, would he?"

Young Master Han looked at Wounded War God. "He wouldn't be stupid enough to say it himself, but when he brings his allies over, would you be stupid enough to say nothing?"

Wounded War God was stunned, suddenly realizing. "So you're afraid we'll tell them..."

Young Master Han rolled his eyes. "Even if we're outsiders, this kind of thing is too sensitive. Besides, they're just temporary allies, and there's probably not much trust between them to begin with."

"In that case, that guy's situation is really a bit awkward!" You Ge said.

"People who are too clever for their own good never have a good ending. If he had informed everyone of his discovery from the start, he wouldn't have so much trouble now," Young Master Han said coldly.

"What do we do now?" To be honest, no one cared about that guy's situation. They were just analyzing his situation in order to make their own moves.

"He already knows our strength. If he brings more people, they should be people who will be very difficult for us to deal with. So we need to change our route," Young Master Han said.

"How do we change it?" Royal Sky was very sensitive to the idea of changing routes, afraid of getting lost.

"There's a fork further up the valley. One side leads to Sunset City, and the other is a dead end. We'll take the dead end," Young Master Han took out his telescope again and peered ahead a few times. "It's not far. Let's hurry!"

"Take the dead end? That's not auspicious at all!" Wounded War God grumbled.

"Then you stay here and see who dies first, you or us," Young Master Han said.

Wounded War God fell silent and strode ahead.

"Everything is already in your grasp!" You Ge exclaimed.

Young Master Han smiled and said nothing, stepping to follow Wounded War God's pace.

"This brother is a master!" Drifting was deeply impressed after listening to Young Master Han's series of analyses.

The group continued forward. Before long, they saw the fork that Young Master Han had mentioned. Young Master Han pointed his hand, and they headed towards the left.

Behind them, Jian Nan You and his group walked along the valley for a long time but still couldn't find their opponents'踪迹. In terms of movement speed, both teams were multi-class combinations, so their overall speed was about the same. It was difficult to catch up by chasing from behind. But Jian Nan You was certain that the opponents would encounter enemies along the way, which would delay them, so he was confident that they would be able to catch up. He didn't expect to have walked this far and still not see a trace of them.

"Could it be that they didn't leave anyone in the valley?" The mage in the seven-person group began to doubt Jian Nan You's judgment.

"They went this way." The archer named Jiao Shui pointed his hand confidently. "Look, there are footprints in the valley."

The others didn't have eagle eyes and couldn't see anything at all. Jian Nan You waved his hand, and everyone jumped down into the valley together.

The valley wasn't covered in yellow sand with footprints everywhere, but Jiao Shui pointed to a few places where footprints were still clearly visible.

"Someone did pass by not long ago!" The mage squatted down, carefully examining the footprints. After confirming that they weren't terrain features carved into the ground by the system, he said affirmatively. Footprints like these would be refreshed by the system from time to time. The fact that they were still there meant that someone had passed by not long ago.

"Still no enemies encountered?" Jian Nan You wondered. He felt that if they had encountered enemies and been delayed, they wouldn't be unable to see even their shadows by now.

Everyone looked at Jian Nan You. If the opponents really hadn't encountered any enemies at all, then their plan to pick up the scraps would have fallen through.

"Let's keep going and see. Everyone, switch to speaking in the channel," Jian Nan You said. He was worried that the opponents were nearby and would notice them if they heard them talking.

Everyone nodded. The group continued forward cautiously along the valley. The valley had twists and turns, so it was impossible to see all the way to the end. In any case, there was no one within sight. The seven of them carefully peeked around sharp bends to observe before proceeding.

They continued to pursue in this way but still found nothing. Just when Jian Nan You himself was beginning to doubt his judgment, the mage in the group suddenly sent a message in the channel: "Come look here."

"What's going on?" Everyone was speaking in the channel, but their expressions were lively and their eyes were communicating with each other. The valley was quiet, creating a somewhat eerie scene.

"There was a fight here," the mage said, examining the soil on the ground again.

Jian Nan You walked over and patted him on the shoulder, signaling him to continue.

"This area!" The mage sent a message in the channel while gesturing with his hands in an awkward manner, but he persisted in explaining. "This is the mark of being hit by the Heavenly Fire Wheel (Tian Jiang Huo Lun)."

"Is that so..." The other six frowned together. They couldn't see anything special at all.

"Trust my judgment!" the mage said with great confidence. "This Parallel World game is very detailed. Not only can I tell that this is the mark of the Heavenly Fire Wheel, but I can also tell that the mage's damage was very high."

"Is he really a video mage?" someone murmured.

"Well, it seems we haven't gone the wrong way," Jian Nan You rubbed the sand on the ground but still couldn't see how it was the mark of being hit by the Heavenly Fire Wheel. Did it smell burnt? Although he thought so, he managed to resist the urge to hold it up to his nose and sniff it. He stood up and patted the mage. "Ran Yi is indeed an expert in fire magic."

"Hmph, the two main paths for mages are electricity and water. To just abandon the fire path like that is ridiculous," the mage, whose full name was Huo Ran Yi, was a die-hard fan of fire magic. He had always been indignant about the game's setting where mages had fire magic at the start, but then branched into electricity and water.

"Look at this rock!" At this moment, the rogue on the other side called out to the group. Everyone hurried over. The rogue touched the several slash marks on the rock. "This looks like it was made by a warrior's Whirlwind Slash, right?"

Jian Nan You himself was a warrior, so he was naturally an expert. He came up to touch and look, but he didn't dare to draw a conclusion lightly. However, as he lowered his head, he saw some fragments scattered below the rock. He picked them up and looked at them, then nodded and said, "Regardless of what skill made these marks, they should have been made recently."

"So they've already encountered enemies?" someone said.

"And they've already taken care of the enemies," another person said.

"Isn't that a bit too fast?"

"We're already chasing as fast as we can..." Jian Nan You calculated the distance between the two sides at the beginning. "To have already dealt with their opponents without us knowing anything, this battle didn't last more than three minutes!"

The three of them were silent. In a one-on-one fight, three minutes to decide the winner was considered long, but in a group fight, with cooperation between classes, healers providing support, and mutual assistance, ending the battle within three minutes meant it was an overwhelming massacre. The opponents had only put up a token resistance before disappearing into smoke.

"They're indeed experts," Jiao Shui sighed.

"Or maybe it's because their opponents were too weak," the rogue said, still unconvinced.

"It's useless to say more. Let's continue to chase! Although these guys won, their plan has also been exposed. Their opponents will definitely gather more manpower. Our plan isn't outdated yet," Jian Nan You said.

===

Uh, some enthusiastic comrades are communicating with me using Qidian account text messages, which is very welcome... However, some comrades are severely criticizing Butterfly for not replying to messages. I have to shout here: Big brother, please remember to clean up your message box in time, otherwise I can't send the message in...