The searing bullets hissed and spat out, striking the chitinous armor of an Armored Horse precisely. Pale yellow fluid sprayed outwards. Under normal circumstances, this timid beast would have bolted immediately. But now, in its frenzied state, it turned back amidst the torment of pain, its eyes blazing crimson, raising its massive, hard hoof to charge straight towards this position!

The herd of horses, gripped by a strange state of delirium, descended into chaos. The air filled with a pungent, fetid odor. The female Armored Horses excitedly pawed the dirt, anticipating the victor of the duels between the charging stallions. The rogue, enraged horse's actions drew none of their attention.

The Armored Horse had barely plunged into the dense woods when it was abruptly slowed by Reef's "heart-wrenching" roar. Next, a group of long-prepared Contractors swarmed it like wolves and tigers, flawlessly dumping all their attacks onto a single side of its leg.

Although the Armored Horse possessed astonishing defense, its mobility was drastically reduced after both legs on one side were crippled. Everyone then focused their attacks on its chest. This creature's pectoral muscles were arranged in vertical strips, featuring multiple respiratory vents. These numerous valves significantly increased the volume of air inhaled, granting the animal immense speed and stamina.

However, precisely because of this configuration, this area lacked protection and was exceptionally vulnerable—effectively its vital spot, often capable of taking massive damage.

Fang Senyan observed Lil and Yu Ze; their performances were both competent. Lil’s attacks appeared swift, sharp, and fluid; the passing blade left swathes of blood scattered about, brutally fierce and piercing. Yu Ze, however, cautiously aimed his pistol and fired, displaying a rather impressive critical hit rate, favoring a path of single high-damage strikes.

Within a few minutes, the beast collapsed helplessly, twitching with vacant, whitened eyes. Due to the prior agreement—that all spoils belonged to the Ace team during the completion of milestones—Fang Senyan unhesitatingly claimed the white key it dropped, successfully extracting the sharp angle required for "Penetration."

At this moment, Jin Ximin began setting up his sniper rifle, continuing his covert luring. This time, however, he hit the eye of an unlucky one engaged in combat with its own kind. The creature immediately erupted in rage, abandoning its opponent to charge straight over. Its rival stallion was not about to let it off easy and pursued relentlessly—“Hey, you bastard, you kicked me seven or eight times and bit me five or six times, and now you think you can just run?? No way!”

Undoubtedly, Fang Senyan’s team taking on two regular Armored Horses simultaneously was manageable. As time wore on, in less than an hour, Fang Senyan and his group slaughtered the entire herd of Armored Horses, leaving only a few females who fled as if waking from a dream. Among the dropped spoils, besides a few rolls of leather and horse bones, were three bundles of Armored Horse Neural Connection Sheaths marked as valuable, which looked certain to fetch a good price back at RDA’s Hell’s Gate base.

By then, everyone had acquired two long horns from the Armored Horses. Following the prompt from the Nightmare Mark, they presented them directly to the Space, and Fang Senyan received a notification:

“You have offered two Armored Horse Long Horns.” “You have acquired the Title: Penetration.” “Penetration: When you launch an attack against an enemy, there is a chance between three in a thousand and eight in a thousand to ignore its defense and deal full damage. (The faster the attack speed, the more likely it leans toward the three in a thousand range; the slower the attack speed, the more likely it leans toward the eight in a thousand range).” “Only one Title can be effective at any given time. Do you wish to equip the Title/Penetration now?” “Advancement Milestone: Piercing initiated.” “Piercing Achievement Condition: You have acquired five Crystallized Armored Horse Horns.” “Hint: Crystallized Armored Horse Horns can only be obtained from Elite-grade creatures.”

After the Penetration milestone was completed, two Contractors, uninterested in the remaining milestones, took their payment and left according to the previously signed agreement. However, they were pleased with the good faith shown by the small team, Ace, and introduced another Contractor interested in completing the Raider Milestone.

According to Fang Senyan’s plan, the next goal was to complete the Raider Milestone.

This milestone required gathering 1000 units of Pandora Superconducting Ore Crystals (the purity rating of this crystal could not be lower than 16.8%). But Mogansha had already finished this task! He had lingered in the Starship Troopers world for seven additional days, and the crystals harvested from the captured Zerg drone were surprisingly usable in this world!

More importantly, the purity rating of the Pandora Superconducting Ore Crystals refined by the Zerg was an astonishing 95% or higher. This meant Mogansha only needed to spend less than 200 units of crystals from the Starship Troopers world to fulfill this milestone.

Based on the data previously provided by Yu Ze, there were over six Pandora Superconducting Ore Crystal mines within a fifty-kilometer radius. However, these mines were all small-scale; for the RDA humans, the cost of mining was too high to be worthwhile, so RDA had simply ignored them. Among these six mines, three had a purity rating exceeding 30%.

Clearly, for efficiency, heading to those three mines was the most suitable option. Because once even one unit of high-purity Pandora Superconducting Ore Crystal was picked up, it was equivalent to collecting several units of standard crystals.

But as always, risk walks hand-in-hand with reward. The massive trees known as Home Trees (Elurl) often grow directly upon Pandora Superconducting Ore veins, and the richer the ore vein, the larger the Home Tree that sprouts.

Although the trees themselves posed no threat, to the combat-adept Na’vi tribes, the Home Tree was the entire clan’s sanctuary and habitat. The natural hollows within them served as their homes; the Na’vi slept, ate, wove, danced, and celebrated their Eywa within them...

To put it more plainly, the higher the concentration of Pandora Superconducting Ore Crystals, the larger the resulting Home Tree, and consequently, the larger the Na’vi tribe living there. More critically, all Na’vi held an intense, almost religious fervor for high-purity Pandora Superconducting Ore... This fanatical belief was deeply ingrained in their hearts, whether they were uncontacted or civilized Na’vi.

Therefore, going there to collect the Pandora Superconducting Ore was virtually equivalent to breaking into your house, digging three feet deep, and then snatching the ancestral tablets or Buddha statue without so much as a by-your-leave. Ask yourself, if you encountered such a situation, wouldn't you immediately grab a knife and fight them to the death?

Fang Senyan didn't know if Terrans would, but he knew the Na’vi certainly would. So, once they approached within one kilometer of the destination, everyone became extremely cautious. In fact, traversing this dense tropical rainforest was incredibly difficult: the low-hanging, snake-like purple vines, the knee-high, bulbous, bizarre yellow-green flora, the multi-layered canopy unique to tropical rainforests crisscrossing overhead, the earthy yellow puffballs that would explode upon contact, the highly aggressive insects and creatures...

Even your ears could never find peace: the drone of cicadas, the buzzing of insect wings, and even the croaking from mid-air blended together... No, those were indeed frog calls from mid-air. Many decaying tree trunks had formed hollows, and the rainy, humid weather made these hollows unintentional reservoirs where large numbers of tree frogs bred, and by the way, most of them were highly toxic.

Reef strayed slightly from the path the vanguard was clearing and accidentally snapped a dry twig. With a faint crack, a yellow shadow lunged out beside him! Reef blocked it with his shield just as Lil, who was behind him, struck. His dagger sliced horizontally, not appearing particularly fast, passing by like a gentle breeze, splitting the yellow shadow into two sections.

After falling to the ground in two halves, the shadow thrashed wildly in its death throes. Only after death could one discern it was a serpent-like creature with a triangular head, a protruding jaw, and a mouth full of sharp teeth tightly clamped onto the dry twig, as if determined to take revenge on the world before dying.

Beneath this creature's head grew a pair of mantis-like scythe-legs, which appeared incredibly sharp; if they had struck flesh, they could easily have gouged out a chunk of meat.

Reef glanced at Lil. There was no gratitude in his eyes, nor did he say thank you; he simply continued forward silently. Reef paid little mind to such superfluous acts of goodwill. Lil’s attempt to curry favor failed; the muscles in his face twitched, and with a muffled grunt, he resheathed his dagger.

The trees ahead became sparser, revealing a type of plant with bright orange-red coloring, mostly growing in clusters of three to eight meters high. This plant had no visible veins, appearing as semi-transparent, thin membranes, stacked like numerous conch shells of decreasing size, trending in a spiral ascent.

Magee, piloting the M Exoskeleton System, inadvertently brushed against one of these plants. The plant reacted with startling agility, retracting and disappearing into the ground instantly! Faint sounds of crunching leaves retreating into the distance could be heard. Magee’s pupils contracted sharply as he looked:

“That... could that be a Heliconia? Everyone, be careful! We are very close to the destination, so we could be ambushed by the Na’vi at any moment!”