Monarch of the Dark Nights - Chapter 107.4

Chapter 107: Arcane-cloud Temple Part 4

It was indeed possible that there might have been more than one road up the mountain. The gunshots just now should have been a few kilometers away from their location, but the altitude was also on the mountainside, roughly equivalent to the altitude of the clearance Yun Tu's team had passed by.

It was also evident that since the other party was able to find this mountain peak, they had also spotted the building complex at the summit, and naturally understood where they could complete the mission.

"Alright, no fooling around. Let's finish the stuff we already started. Let's go!"

With competitors emerging now, it was a must for them to pick up their speed. Yun Tu took the lead to set out even though the other party should be a half beat slower than them, judging from the position where the gunshots came from. However, he wanted to rush to the summit and kill the quest Boss in the monastery at the summit so as to avoid unnecessary troubles.

Everyone was also well aware of the urgency of the situation and stood up as well. They did not wish that the two second-order Blood Crystals for the entrance fee to this Secret Area were spent in vain just because the opportunity was snatched by others.

Yun Tu's team disbanded the formation and accelerated fast to the building complex at the summit. At this time, on another road that led to the summit, the Heavenly Seal Guild's party was nearly met with the exact situation as Yun Tu's party previously.

They also spent a long time exploring the dark region of this Secret Area. With only two Second Level experts in their ranks, they even spent a lot more energy than that of Yun Tu's team. The designer of this Secret Area had probably designed it intentionally since each path that led to the mountainside similarly had a clearance area. Those who were clueless about the risks and consequence of entering a place such as this would definitely stop and take a rest for a while, as did they.

Not long after they took a break, they were immediately besieged by the ferocious beasts of this Secret Area. Realizing that they were in a wrong situation and at a disadvantage, Du Haibo, the team leader of Heavenly Seal Guild forcefully led the charge to fight hard and finally broke through the encirclement. However, some members of the team of five had been severely injured. Even if they immediately took the Hemostatic Flesh Growth Pill made by their Pharmacist, they must rest for at least three-plus hours to regain their previous state and ability to move freely. But they would need a long time to replenish their strength if they wanted to participate in the battle.

'What should we do now? Should I wait here with the injured to get better before continuing, or temporarily leave the two seriously wounded men whereas the lightly injured three others continue forward?'

Du Haibo, the team leader of the Heavenly Seal Guild was in a dilemma. They could hear the sounds of gunfire from the distance coming from a position that was roughly similar to where they were.

'This won't do. This path should not be the only one that leads to the mountaintop. I can't let the Iron Spire snatch this opportunity!'

As he looked at the buildings at the summit, Du Haibo finally steeled himself and sighed, "Sigh. The two of you, stay here to rest and hide carefully. The three of us will continue forward to clear the mission of this Secret Area as per our Guild Master's command!"

"You can't do this to us, Captain! We are not dead yet! You can't leave us alone here!"

"We can still go on, Captain. We can still walk. Don't do this to us…"

The two injured men were instinctively scared after hearing the arrangement from their Captain. They had basically lost their combat power. Being thrown out by their own party in a dark mountain path full of dangers and perils, only ghosts knew whether they could survive until their teammates cleared up the mission.

"Who said we're going to throw you out? You two will naturally come out from this Secret Area once we complete the mission. Do you say that you were left behind? We were all soldiers before joining the Guild, and you all have vowed to follow all the commands Guild Master will give you before hopping on the train! Yet, you only think for yourself just because of some trivial dangers and refuse to finish the Guild's mission?!"

Putting himself on their shoes, Du Haibo could empathize with them. He also understood the feeling of his two badly injured teammates had at this time. Yet, he had to slap and criticize them with a straight face regardless.

"If we hadn't risked our life just now, those beasts would have decimated the whole team, but now…"

The two badly injured team members spoke incoherently, muttering amid despair and helplessness that glinted inside their eyes. They had always been highly valued in the Guild. Never had they imagined that they would be dumped for being injured just because they could be a burden and hampered the team's speed. More so that it was Du Haibo, the team leader himself who abandoned them.

Now that he had decided to leave his seriously injured comrades on the road, Du Haibo felt that he could no longer hesitate. He couldn't bear to abandon these two badly injured comrades, but he was a soldier. He didn't think that what he did was wrong. When they had cleared up the mission and these two were not dead yet, their loyalty to the guild may take a hit, but it was the only choice he could do for now.

The two seriously injured men who were left behind could only helplessly walk side by side on the quiet and dark mountain path, whereas the other three men continued marching forward toward the Arcane-cloud Temple at the summit.

Although they all had light injuries, they brought a lot of specially refined medicaments to the Secret Area since the guild also had Pharmacist in their ranks. After taking the medicines on their wounds, they had basically recovered and the wounds didn’t  affect them that much anymore.

So as to speed up their chance to snatch the opportunity, Du Haibo hardened himself and ordered the remaining members, including himself to take a steroidal supplement to boost their physical energy to the limit in a short time. Although their number was reduced, they could move faster now. Yet, he was unaware that Yun Tu's party had entered the site called Arcane-cloud Temple at the summit half an hour before them.

More or less, Yun Tu had heard the strategy to raid the Arcane-cloud Temple in his previous life. The raid strategy was basically emphasizing about the layout of the temple, but he did not remember the full details of how to execute the strategy at all.

As they arrived at the site, they killed several small beasts in the vestibule and the main hall and then spotted a forest of stupas and pagodas covering more than ten acres of land in the backyard. It was the core important point Yun Tu had been after.

That was the location of the Mission Boss of the Arcane-cloud Temple, hidden in the forest of these stupas and pagodas in the backyard. It would also not appear before it saw blood flowing.

Since the requirement for it to appear was to see the flowing blood, certainly, the said blood must be the blood of human beings, whereas the blood of these small beasts did not count. After thinking up there, Yun Tu rolled up his sleeve, albeit reluctantly.

Even though he was a leader, as long as he told the other members what they needed to do, the four people under him would definitely be willing to donate some blood, regardless who it was. Yet, Yun Tu decided to use his own blood as bait.

"What are you doing?"

Seeing Yun Tu rolled up his sleeves and unexpectedly pulled out his dagger to cut his own arm. The sensitive Li Xin immediately grabbed his hand.

"It's nothing. I had once encountered a similar situation where I haven't been able to find the Mission Boss for a long time. It turned out that some mission bosses won't appear if they don't see human blood. We have arrived here and searched the backyard of this temple and found nothing, so I want to try this method." Yun Tu smiled and made up the lie.

"Since you say so, just use my blood!" Pock Face Zhang Feng and Baozi rolled up their sleeves at the same time.

"Guys, I know all of you are loyal to the guild, so roll down your sleeves. There's no need to use much blood to test this method, you know. Besides, I've seen your bravery in the battles, so you don't need to compete with me for taking out such a small amount of blood. It's not that my conjecture is necessarily accurate either." Yun Tu spoke with a stern face so they obliged and put down their arms obediently.

Just as Yun Tu was about to slice his own hand, he suddenly heard some people entering the front yard outside. He could estimate the number of the other party from the sounds of the footsteps.

"They came here this fast? Everyone, hide first!"

Using his blood to lure out the Mission Boss at this time was an unwise act. The Boss was never easy to kill, let alone completing the first kill. If Yun Tu's team were to raid this Mission Boss, and then another party heard the sounds of the battle, it was highly possible for them to launch a sneak attack from behind. He did not even want to entertain the thoughts of what would happen next.

The five people then hid in the back of one of the largest stupas and soon heard the voices of several people.

"Brothers of the Iron Spire, come out! Don't pretend to be ghosts!"

The entrance to the Secret Area is being jointly controlled by our guilds so there are only two parties in the Secret Area now. What do you mean by hiding like this? Are you going to launch your dirty trick against our Heavenly Seal Guild?"

"Both of our guilds have a fore agreement that we must not attack each other after entering this Secret Area! Whoever kills the Mission Boss will take the rewards. Even though you arrived at this core point first, the Mission Boss itself has yet to appear so the result will depend on our own skills!"

The voice reverberated inside the vestibule. Evidently, Du Haibo of the Heavenly Seal Guild saw the corpses of the small beasts slain by Yun Tu's team and he took it for granted that the people of Iron Spire Guild had rushed ahead of them. He kept shouting for three or four warnings and yet there was no response at all.

The shout from Du Haibo made Yun Tu and the rest inadvertently learn that some issues had happened outside the Secret Area. Connecting the dots with the other series of gunshots of these two parties a while ago, they could grasp the rough overall situation.

It seemed that the cooperation between these two parties was a superficial one with some unknown stories under the surface. However, since both parties had joined forces to block the entry of other guilds to enter the Secret Area, it was undoubtedly good news for Yun Tu, or else they would have more competitors here. Yet, whether they could ultimately snatch the mission rewards was something nobody was able to guarantee.

The Heavenly Seal Guild's party only had three people, meaning that at least two of them had been gravely wounded or killed in the battle. It was unknown how many from the Iron Spire would come and what situation happened to them.

As of now, the opponent was still inside the vestibule more than 100 meters away from the forest of these stupas. As long as they stayed motionless at their hiding spots, the other party would not spot them, so he decided to wait and see.

The people of the Iron Spire Guild were still on the mountain path. Their pace was a half slower than those of the Heavenly Seal Guild, but their luck was better than their counterpart because they took the path Yun Tu's team had passed.

Therefore, when they came to the clearance at the mountainside, the fierce beasts of this Secret Area had long appeared there. Even though they could not break through and run away in the same fashion as Yun Tu's team did, they could see those beasts ahead of time so they could get into much better positions, unlike the Heavenly Seal Guild's party who rested in that place and then were straightly surrounded by those beasts.

After discovering this flock of fierce beasts, the Iron Spire team leader, Zhou Xiongbing immediately decided to lead his team to sprint through the clearance at flying speed. Even though they also engaged in some small fights here and there, his strategy to not engage in fighting allowed them to pay the risk of only having two of their members slightly injured as they passed through the little hurdle on the way.

Following that, they also discovered the corpse of the beasts that had been dissected by Yun Tu's party. He also thought that this was the trace of the Heavenly Seal Guild's party in front of him. However, there was something he could not figure out, which was where the other sound of gunfire came from as it was definitely not from this road.

After passing through the most dangerous part of the road, he finally realized that there were at least two other parties that had rushed ahead of his Iron Spire's party. Zhou Xiongbing also picked up the speed and when their team of five came to the gate of Arcane-cloud Temple, the people of Heavenly Seal Guild's party had carefully explored and entered the backyard.

"You're just a motherfucker coward, Zhou Xiongbing! Why aren't you coming out? Do you want to keep playing hide and seek with us until dawn?"

Despite the fear of being attacked by the Iron Spire Guild's party, the Heavenly Seal Guild's party were pacing inside and outside to find them while swearing at them.

'Since this Heavenly Seal Guild's Du Haibo is definitely thinking that our Iron Spire people have come earlier than them, it seems like there's no doubt that the third party has come earlier to this Secret Area!" Mused Zhou Xiongbing while rushing forward.

With this thought in mind, they quietly paced forward to the courtyard and entered the front main hall without making many sounds, and then hid behind a large Bodhisattva statue.

Although they had tried to make their steps as light as feather, Yun Tu's team had long noticed the appearance of this party. They had been keeping their ears on the ground and closely monitored their arrival, so Yun Tu had already noticed their arrival the very moment they came even before they entered courtyard in front of the main hall. He also concluded that there was a woman in their party by distinguishing the sounds of their footsteps.

This situation now became complicated and more intense!