They didn't sleep for long, as Chloe crawled out of her sleeping bag around four in the morning.
Instead of waking her companions, she stepped out of the tent, her gaze falling on the branches stuck in the ground near the campfire.
The soul fire was still burning, though its color had dimmed somewhat.
Chloe walked over, pulled out the branch, and casually extinguished the flame. Then she noticed some complex footprints in the muddy ground nearby.
She stared at the footprints for a moment before opening her terminal to send a message to Ren Yunying.
[World's Most Handsome]: Dear Instructor Ren, if you don't want your beloved student's beautiful and noble life to end in the Forest of Life, please send reinforcements.
After three seconds, the other side sent back a question mark.
Chloe didn't pay it any more attention. She turned off the terminal and suddenly threw the branch in her hand!
The sharpened end, coupled with Chloe's incredible strength, pierced straight through some creature's neck. The sound of blood gushing out came from not far away.
The surrounding bushes instantly erupted into a frenzy of movement.
Chloe's lips curled up slightly as she returned to the tent to wake up Qin Huaibei and the others.
"Get up, it's time to work."
The first thing the groggy Daniel did upon sitting up was to take out his wolf-tooth mace from his spatial ring.
"They came so quickly?" Katherine asked.
Chloe: "Yes, they've probably been lying in ambush for a long time."
She paused briefly before continuing, "But it's better for them to come out during the day than at night. At least their movements are easier to track."
"That's true."
Everyone packed up their gear and walked out of the tent.
In just a few minutes, the area outside the tent had been surrounded by layers upon layers of transparent monsters.
They flexed their muscles, their sharp claws scratching the muddy ground a couple of times, turning the once relatively even terrain into a mess.
Unintelligible "hisses" came from their throats.
Chloe raised an eyebrow: "Well, well, so many little bastards."
As soon as she finished speaking, the transparent monsters' bodies began to tremble, emitting threatening roars.
Seeing this, she was slightly surprised: "They actually know I'm insulting them. Pretty high IQ."
Everyone: "..."
Katherine nocked an arrow and fired with lightning speed, shooting off the head of a little bastard trying to sneak up on Chloe from behind.
The sharp twang of the bowstring seemed to serve as some kind of attack signal. The moment the sound faded, Chloe charged forward with her blade.
In an instant, the scene descended into chaos.
A sea of monsters surged towards them, their sharp claws and teeth and the foul saliva from their mouths making Chloe feel utterly disgusted.
Not only did she have to swing her blade efficiently, but she also had to remain completely focused on observing the monsters' movements.
Since her perception abilities weren't working, Chloe couldn't know in advance where these creatures skilled in concealment were hiding. She had to be on high alert at all times.
Of course, today was much safer than yesterday.
This time, Chloe wasn't alone. She had companions watching her back.
All in all, it was much easier than before.
The monsters came charging in wave after wave, from all directions, blanketing the sky. For a moment, it seemed as if these creatures were the only beings left in the world.
Daniel cursed: "Damn, has this forest been completely taken over by these bastards?"
Chloe thought to herself that it probably had. If they kept killing like this, who knew how long it would take.
The soul fire in her hand surged violently, the blue flames shooting straight up into the sky, forming a streaming fire dragon.
The fire dragon spread out in a circular radius, precisely incinerating the heads of a large wave of monsters in front of them.
The area of effect was so large that it caused the monsters in that area to hesitate, taking half a step back.
Seeing this, Qin Huaibei glanced in her direction and then whistled like she had done earlier:
"Nice work."
Chloe didn't reply, but flashed a heart sign back at Qin Huaibei before charging back into the horde of monsters.
The intimidation was only temporary. Once its effect wore off, the death of their kind would only further stimulate the monsters' bloodlust and ferocity.
There wasn't much time for Chloe and the others to compliment each other.
Qin Huaibei's long sword erupted with a bright, holy white light. Just looking at it, one could tell it was extremely hot and scorching.
The sword cleanly sliced through the monsters' heads, even emitting the smell of burnt flesh, with wisps of white smoke rising.
The young man released his grip on the sword hilt, controlling it from a distance. In an instant, the sword grew to three times its size. Following Qin Huaibei's hand gestures, it moved like a giant silver fish, swiftly cutting through the heads of a row of monsters.
Katherine put away her bow and arrows, and thick vines sprouted from her palms.
The Elven Holy Maiden had formed a connection with this forest. Green vines suddenly burst from the ground, instantly restraining a large wave of monsters.
Looking at the group of monsters held fast by vines around their ankles and bodies, Katherine's gaze remained calm as she extended her hand—
Vines gushed forth, wrapping tightly around the monsters' necks like ghostly hands. With just a slight outward pull, there was a "crack" sound as their necks shattered.
Hearing this sound, Daniel smashed his wolf-tooth mace hard onto a monster's head. After confirming that its brains had splattered and it had no chance of getting up again, he muttered:
"I didn't expect Katherine to be so brutal."
Anderson, who was assisting Chloe nearby, glanced at the monster brains stuck to the bottom of his shoes. His lips twitched, but in the end, he said nothing.
Brutal? Who here was the most brutal? Everyone knew in their hearts, they just didn't say it out loud.
Time passed minute by minute. Despite everyone's various abilities, they couldn't withstand the sheer number of monsters here.
Chloe couldn't take it anymore. Her fire dragon grew dozens of times larger, incinerating the heads of all the monsters present in one go.
But the next moment, many more leapt out from the bushes.
They were so densely packed, they almost blocked out the sky.
Chloe said in frustration: "Is the Viper Group so bored that they keep churning out these monsters? Don't they have anything better to do?!"
"There are so many, they must have moved their entire breeding lab here!"
Daniel chimed in: "They might even be hiding somewhere, continuously creating more. Those beasts!"
As he spoke, Daniel spat in disgust.
But hearing this, Chloe paused for a moment.
Indeed, no matter how many monsters there were, it shouldn't be possible to kill for so long without finishing them off.
The Forest of Life was so vast, could these monsters really be everywhere? That didn't seem likely.
Unless someone was indeed continuously creating these monsters and releasing them.
This person must still be in the Forest of Life right now.
Just as she was thinking this, the roar of a spaceship suddenly came from above.
Chloe looked up and saw Ren Yunying peering down from the ship's entrance.
The next instant, Ren Yunying raised her hand, and a group of young people who looked like soldiers jumped down from the spaceship.
The reinforcements had arrived!
