Just another couple of minutes passed. They finally arrived at the stone forest that Zhong Shenxiu recognized. It was a stretch of rock formations, with only sparse, not particularly lush, vegetation around.
The stones in this forest stood vertically, rectangular in shape, entirely dark gray. The tallest reached about four meters, while the shortest were only half a meter high!
Charlotte and the others exchanged glances, utterly bewildered as to why Zhong Shenxiu had brought them here. Was he planning some sort of impromptu outdoor combat session?
Zhong Shenxiu offered no explanation, instead beginning to walk around, closely examining the stones. Some he inspected with great scrutiny, while others he merely glanced at in passing. Even stranger, Zhong Shenxiu occasionally picked up a small twig from the ground and stuck it beside a particular stone, as if marking a spot.
Since they had no idea what was happening, Charlotte and the others could only stand there dumbfounded.
Before long, Zhong Shenxiu clapped the dust from his hands and walked over, a wicked grin spreading across his face—predictably, trouble was brewing.
Sure enough, under the gaze of the group, Zhong Shenxiu pulled out tools like hammers and chisels from his magic ring and distributed them into everyone's hands. Who knew when he had prepared these things? It seemed this was all premeditated!
Seeing Zhong Shenxiu produce these implements, Angelia immediately pulled a face as sour as a lemon; she was beginning to guess what was coming!
However, since Charlotte and Reese had no experience with manual labor, they simply stared at the tools in their hands, still completely bewildered. Oh, heavens, may God have mercy on them!
"I have a task for you below, which also serves as a form of tempering!" Zhong Shenxiu cleared his throat and then continued, "See those stones I marked? What you need to do next is extract those stones from the earth."
Since some of these stones were connected to underlying bedrock, digging them out would be no easy feat.
Angelia displayed an expression of "just as I thought," while Charlotte and Reese looked on as if to ask, "How could this be?"
"Did you not understand?" Zhong Shenxiu quickly asked when he saw the group remained still.
Angelia startled, daring not to linger, and immediately picked up her tools to get to work. Seeing Angelia start moving, Charlotte and Reese realized they couldn't just stand around and reluctantly joined in the chiseling.
"Hey, you three, don't huddle together. Each of you take one area, lest someone tries to slack off!" Zhong Shenxiu instructed when he noticed the three were clustered together.
Charlotte and Reese reluctantly found their own targets and set to work.
Perhaps you are wondering why Zhong Shenxiu wanted them to dig up these stones?
It was for the purpose of refining ores, and the ultimate goal of refining ores was artifact crafting. Zhong Shenxiu could now forge items using "Magic Arrays." To pursue perfection, and also just to get his hands dirty, he needed to practice more crafting!
The stones Zhong Shenxiu had them excavate were not rare or precious ores. As for truly valuable ores, it wasn't that he couldn't find them; rather, he couldn't utilize them effectively even if he found them.
This was because to fully unlock the value of any precious ore, it required purification using the Samadhi True Fire, which the current Zhong Shenxiu could not yet generate. Therefore, even finding those precious ores would be useless or, rather, a waste.
The ores being mined now were different. Because they weren't high-grade materials, wasting them or using them for practice felt no great loss! Zhong Shenxiu had already planned that once he mastered the profound mysteries of crafting with "Magic Arrays," he would use the 'Stone of Void Absorption' to forge a powerful artifact for Robin!
Meanwhile, Charlotte suddenly felt a sensation akin to laughing and crying—she, a dignified leader, was reduced to this sort of labor!
Reese's thoughts were rather amusing; he was actually pondering: Can chipping away at stones really make you stronger?
Angelia, however, was able to immerse herself completely in the work, applying the "Battle Qi Control" method Zhong Shenxiu had taught her with intense focus!
In stark contrast, Zhong Shenxiu and Robin sat to the side acting as foremen, doing no work themselves, only continually urging Charlotte and the others to speed up.
Time wore on, and Charlotte and the others had already unearthed quite a few stones. Just then, Zhong Shenxiu's expression tightened; he seemed to have sensed something.
Three minutes later, Angelia, Charlotte, and the others simultaneously stopped working, as they too felt the presence of unwelcome visitors approaching, and there seemed to be quite a few of them!
Then, howls of wolves began to drift in, growing louder as they neared.
It was a wolf pack!
Reese reacted, his expression extremely tense, as he knew he was the weakest among them and understood the terror of demonic wolves in the Beast Forest!
Contrary to their nervousness, Zhong Shenxiu’s expression became strangely calm, as if he hadn't heard anything.
"Senior Sister, did... did you hear that noise?" Reese quietly edged closer to Angelia, constantly scanning their surroundings warily.
Angelia merely nodded softly, saying nothing, but her eyes were fixed on Zhong Shenxiu and Robin.
"Senior Sister, what should we do? Reese asked anxiously, recalling a previous excursion where he encountered a large wolf pack and barely escaped with his life.
Angelia remained silent, but her gaze shifted when she saw Zhong Shenxiu standing up.
The wolf howls were now significantly clearer, giving the impression that they were surrounded!
Charlotte had already drawn her longsword from her ring, ready for battle!
However, at that moment, Zhong Shenxiu's voice cut through: "Don't stop, keep working! I'll handle this here!"
As Zhong Shenxiu finished speaking, he actually summoned his four skeletal roosters!
The appearance of these four skeletal roosters instantly turned Charlotte and Reese into statues; neither had imagined Zhong Shenxiu possessed such things!
What in the world were these? And why were they moving?
The four skeletal roosters flapped their bone wings, shook their chicken heads, and then positioned themselves facing the four cardinal directions—East, South, West, and North—perfectly encircling and protecting Zhong Shenxiu and the others.
Before long, the wolves came into view—they were Level Five Beasts: Fire-Tooth Wolves!
Seeing Fire-Tooth Wolves, Reese’s face turned ashen. The last time they encountered only Level Four Wind-Chasing Wolves, it nearly cost them their lives; now, facing Fire-Tooth Wolves, was there any hope?
Not only Reese was frightened; Charlotte and Angelia also began to frown. If it were just a few Fire-Tooth Wolves, they wouldn't have minded, but judging by the situation, there were at least a hundred of them—that made things tricky!
These Fire-Tooth Wolves seemed intelligent; they only blocked the path ahead of Zhong Shenxiu's group and didn't immediately attack, instead observing them.
However, this standoff did not last long as the encircling formation of Fire-Tooth Wolves began to contract.
Just as Charlotte and the others were on high alert, a scene that shocked them unfolded: the skeletal roosters stationed at the four points suddenly unleashed magic! Countless wind blades, making a whistling sound, swept towards the wolf pack.
The scene was utterly thrilling; the flying wind blades were like an indiscriminate machine gun with limitless ammunition, continuously strafing the Fire-Tooth Wolves.
The clouds of kicked-up dust made it impossible to see how many Fire-Tooth Wolves fell beneath this brutal assault; all that could be heard were continuous, agonizing howls erupting from the wolves.
At this point, the three—Angelia, Charlotte, and Reese—were staring in stunned silence, about to smoke from sheer disbelief, never imagining such a bizarre yet soul-shaking event could happen before their eyes!
This... this must be fake?
How is this possible??
Am I... am I seeing things???
Yet, the three of them did not know that this was merely the prelude; the truly shocking part was yet to come!
This place was destined to be the stage for these skeletal roosters, and they were about to use their power to show the world: Skeletons can be crazy too!
After a burst of continuous firing, the skeletal roosters paused. But this did not mean they were finished; on the contrary, they were preparing for a new round of attacks!
Instantly, the four skeletal roosters shot out like cannonballs, their speed so great it seemed as though they had vanished into thin air. Where they had stood, two gruesome claw marks were left impressed in the ground!
Who can tell me what I just witnessed?
Charlotte had journeyed far and wide for many years, and she had certainly seen Necromancer summons, but she had never seen anything this monstrously overpowered!
As the surrounding dust began to clear, the figures of the four skeletal roosters finally became visible. They stood proudly amidst the wolf pack—most of them now just dead wolves.
What... what is that?
Angelia and the others finally saw the changes on the skeletal roosters.
It appeared as though something had been added to the bodies of the skeletal roosters. A horn seemed to have sprouted from each head, and their wings looked inlaid with sharp blades. Oddly, all these additions were black!
Perhaps you have already guessed it—this was the materialization function of "Black Battle Qi"!
What made Charlotte and the others tremble with fear was that the weapons on these skeletal roosters could extend and retract at will. Just a moment ago, a Fire-Tooth Wolf ten meters away had been pierced right through the heart by the black horn on a rooster's head!
Terrifying, this was absolutely terrifying!
The Fire-Tooth Wolves, which had previously formed an impenetrable wall, now had not a single one left breathing. They were all dispatched. To annihilate this many Fire-Tooth Wolves in such a short span of time must surely set a Guinness World Record.
Yet, what was slightly baffling was that despite this incredible display of power, Zhong Shenxiu only graded these skeletal roosters a seventy out of one hundred. One could only imagine how insane his definition of a perfect score must be!
The battle seemed to be over, the danger seemingly averted—but was the shock truly finished?
No!
Because in Zhong Shenxiu’s mind, a strange new thought had just appeared: Obtaining a few 'Skeletal Wolves' to serve as watchdogs might not be a bad idea!