Chapter 186 - Salamander
“So exciting?” Lin Li got a fright. From the beginning, he’d known that the mission of the six mercenary corps would be extremely dangerous, but he’d never thought it would be this dangerous. What was the concept of legendary magical beasts? They could be said to be at the top of the magical beast food chain. Each had lived for at least hundreds of thousands of years, and their IQ was even higher than that of the vast majority of humans. Their naturally strong body, coupled with the wisdom brought by the passage of time, was an incomparably perfect combination.
Despite also being at the same legendary realm, the probability for a legendary human powerhouse to win against a legendary magical beast would never exceed 30 percent.
No wonder…
Lin Li understood at once. No wonder the tyrannical Sword Sage of the Storm had to hire the six mercenary corps.
However, as this question was resolved, more questions emerged one after another.
What Lin Li did not understand most was that the strength of the six major mercenary corps was as good as cannon fodder’s in front of the legendary magical beast. Even if the Sword Sage had gathered them, how much of a role could they play? Was he really going to use them as cannon fodder?
This was impossible…
“Wait…” It was that withered forest before them again, but Lin Li stopped short outside it, for he discovered a pool of blood.
The blood stretched out from the woods. It was warm and sticky to the touch—which meant it should be human blood…
This puzzled Lin Li. He had just been to the woods yesterday, and he knew nothing better than what was in it. Apart from that Abyss Fiendish Iron mineral vein, there were only trees that lingered on with their last breath of life; where was the blood from? Surely there wasn’t another magical beast that had appeared out of the blue?
“Sean, be careful not to make a noise.” Lin Li unleashed two Hastening Spells—one for himself and one for Sean. In the meantime, he released a Life Detection Spell, which nicely covered most of the woods.
Under the coverage of the Life Detection Spell, Lin Li tried his best to lighten his footsteps, and slowly went deep into the forest.
There were no powerful magical beasts on the way, but the bodies of some adventurers and traces of fierce fighting were found by them. From the emblems on the bodies, it seemed that they were people from all the six major mercenary corps, including two members of the Silver Hand…
The surroundings were in disorder. There were traces left behind by swords, as well as of bombardment by spells. A large area of trees was burned; even the bodies on the ground were mostly incomplete. From the wounds on them, some were led to their deaths after being torn by some ferocious magical beast, while others were obviously burned to death by fire. They looked like blocks of black coal from a distance.
“Firewolves, it’s definitely the Firewolves!” This was probably the most dangerous thing in the Fire Plume Ridge besides the Salamander. Lin Li vividly remembered reading about it from an Archmage’s adventure diary back in the Omniscient Tower. Firewolf—a level-10 magical beast—had sharp claws and the speed of wind. They traveled around in packs, forming a pool of brilliant red as if of sunrise. In the Archmage’s adventure diary, this creature once killed nearly half of his companions in an instant…