13: Chapter 13 The Hunt Begins

A chaotic mix of information flooded the island channel.

"Trade for food! Anyone want to trade for food? Anything edible will do!"

"Damn, I saw those devils from Tribe 14 this morning."

"You're late to the party, upstairs. Those bastards move fast; I heard they've already reached the edge of the beauty nest. Damn, they're going to get the first bite of the fat."

"What's going on with Tribe 21? They've already lost ten people? Did they run into a beast herd? Or was it infighting?"

Amidst this torrent of chaotic information, one message suddenly began to flood the screen!

"Declaring war on Tribe 14! Here, I demonstrate to everyone that whoever holds malice toward our Tribe will meet the same fate as Tribe 14 tomorrow."

"Declaring war on Tribe 14! Here, I demonstrate to everyone that whoever holds malice toward our Tribe will meet the same fate as Tribe 14 tomorrow."

Xia Jin kept spamming the message, but this behavior lasted less than ten seconds...

"System Prompt: User '01 Tribe (Xia Jin)' has been temporarily muted for 10 minutes due to spamming."

The spamming stopped abruptly. But after a brief silence, a more turbulent wave of mockery, filled with sarcasm and malice, rose up, almost completely drowning out the declaration of war.

"Tribe 01? The one rumored to be all chicks? Hahahaha! I'm dying of laughter!"

"The only guy there, don't tell me he's a sissy? Maybe he's even more cowardly than the women!"

"What are you using to declare war? Suffocating Zhang Qiang with your tits?"

"Ahem, to the beauties of Tribe 01, take my advice. A wise person submits to circumstances. Our 09 Tribe is rich in resources, and our leader is benevolent; we are willing to open our arms to accept all of you (though the guy can forget it)."

"Fight! Fight! I love watching beauties get bullied into tears! A live stream would be best!"

Almost no one took the declaration of war seriously, viewing it only as a laughable and futile struggle in a desperate situation, or even a stupid move that invited disaster.

Xia Jin stared at the "muted" prompt before her and closed the channel interface.

Mock all you want, mock to your heart's content.

Next... it's up to you, Qi Yun.

...

Qi Yun sensed the Space Imprint left on Xiao Er moving continuously in that direction.

Xiao Er, whom he had let go, had nowhere to go and could only return to the Tribe.

Inside the central thatched hut at the Tribe 14 stronghold.

On a "chair" crudely pieced together from stones.

Zhang Qiang sat with a bold, imposing posture, looking at Zhang Lei, whose face was still a bit pale.

Zhang Lei stood in the center of the room, licked his dry lips, and tried hard to make his voice sound angrier and more aggrieved:

"Brother! Damn it, the only guy in that beauty Tribe is incredibly eerie!"

Zhang Lei spat, as if trying to spit out the bad luck in his mouth.

"After I brought Xiao Er and found the location, that bastard popped out from who knows which crack in the rocks without making a sound!"

"It's definitely a rare class. He attacked with a sneak attack right from the start, aiming straight for me, and I was caught off guard... I suffered a small loss."

Before Zhang Qiang could speak, "Sharp-Mouth," who was leaning against a wooden pillar, spoke up first:

"Lei, are you saying that kid can turn invisible? A rare class? Don't tell me you're bluffing?"

"Bullshit!" Zhang Lei jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

"I saw it with my own eyes! It's more like 'teleportation'! And his strength is ridiculously high! One kick nearly caved in my chest! It's definitely a combat-type rare class!"

The dozen or so men gathered around, upon hearing this, were not afraid. Instead, they clamored even more excitedly:

"So what if it's a rare class? Isn't our Brother Qiang also a rare class, 'Wolf Transformation'? Are we afraid of some pretty boy?"

"If you ask me, we should gather the men now and raid them! Grab all those chicks, and chop that guy up to feed the chickens!"

"Exactly! How well can a pretty boy fight? He must have used some underhanded tricks!"

Zhang Qiang raised his hand and pressed it down; the clamoring gradually subsided.

"My brother, I will discipline him myself."

He spoke, his voice hoarse and low, like sandpaper rubbing against stone.

"But if an outsider touches him, it must be repaid with blood."

He paused, his tone firm and unquestionable:

"This face must be recovered. Not just for Lei, but for everyone in our Tribe 14!"

"I want everyone on this island to see clearly what happens when you mess with our Tribe 14!"

"Brother Qiang is mighty!" The crowd perked up and shouted in unison.

Seeing his brother injured, and with so many subordinates watching, Zhang Qiang knew he had to reclaim this face immediately and forcefully.

Otherwise, if morale scattered, the team would be hard to lead.

"Now, everyone eat and drink your fill, and get rested!"

Zhang Qiang waved his hand to order, his gaze cold.

"Lei, when midnight hits, you lead the way, and we'll directly raid that beauty nest!"

"I want to twist that pretty boy's head off with my own hands and kick it around like a ball in front of those women!"

Zhang Lei perked up and quickly replied: "Yes, Brother Qiang!"

"Everyone else, those who are on night watch, keep watch; those who need to rest, get to resting! Tonight, no one better screw up on me!"

"Roar!" The crowd responded and dispersed.

The injured Xiao Er leaned against a tree, and seeing the familiar environment and thatched hut, he let out a sigh of relief. He had finally returned.

Qi Yun, through the Space Imprint on Xiao Er's back, had teleported behind Xiao Er early on.

But he did not strike; instead, he secretly hid himself.

A mobile Space Imprint was still valuable to him.

Just as Xiao Er dragged his exhausted body into the house, the real hunter was already in position...

Qi Yun silently lurked in the branches of a dense ancient tree about fifty meters behind the thatched hut.

After leveling up to Lv4, his Space Perception radius had expanded to nearly 150 meters, acting like an invisible radar at this moment.

The terrain structure and the precise positions of the guards on sentry duty were presented in his mind like a 3D map.

"Four of them—southeast, northeast, southwest, northwest, one in each direction, about thirty to forty meters from the camp core. I have to take them out first."

Qi Yun analyzed calmly.

He gently drew a throwing knife given by Xia Jin from the leather sheath at his waist.

The first target, the sentry in the southeast direction.

That guy was leaning against a tree, boredly fiddling with a bone knife, occasionally looking up at the dark jungle, but most of the time his eyelids were drooping.

Now is the time.

Qi Yun's eyes narrowed, and he gave his wrist a light flick.

"Whoosh."

The throwing knife shot out.

It wasn't aimed at the sentry, but at a thick, horizontally extending branch about a meter above his head!

With Space Perception, Qi Yun's grasp of the throwing knife's flight trajectory was comparable to that of a master.

"Thud."

A dull sound, so faint it was almost non-existent.

The throwing knife plunged deep into the branch, and the Space Imprint on it instantly established a clear connection with Qi Yun.

The sentry under the tree seemed to hear something and looked up in confusion at the branch above, but he couldn't see anything in the darkness.

Qi Yun, on the tree more than forty meters away, suddenly blurred and vanished!

The next moment, like a ghost, he appeared out of thin air on the branch above the sentry, exactly where the throwing knife had been inserted! Short-range space blink, precise positioning!

The sentry just felt a breeze pass over his head, and before he could react, a cold, powerful hand had silently covered his mouth and nose from behind.

In the other hand, the lightless Blade of Space cut across his carotid artery as easily as slicing through butter.

The sentry's body stiffened, then went limp. Qi Yun caught him and laid him gently on the ground without making any extra noise.

Qi Yun's figure vanished from the branch again, blinking back to the ancient tree where he had been lurking.

He repeated the process.

The second throwing knife was shot toward the back of a waist-high rock beside the sentry in the northeast direction.

Blink, appear, slit throat, clean up the traces. The northeast sentry, eliminated.

The third throwing knife, the sentry in the northwest direction, was also taken out using the same method.

The fourth throwing knife was shot into the depths of a dense bush near the position of the southwest sentry.

This time, this sentry seemed slightly more alert.

When the faint sound of the throwing knife entering the bush came, he turned his head sharply and whispered: "Who?!"

However, as soon as the voice fell, Qi Yun had already flashed out from the shadows behind him.

The Blade of Space went from bottom to top, precisely piercing into his back and instantly shredding his heart.

All four sentries had been dealt with.