103: Lure the tiger away from the mountain

"What?"

The group present was stunned at first, then erupted in fury.

"Bastards, who did this? How dare they kill Zhu Yufang?"

"What about Chen Jie and the others? What are those guys good for?"

"Chen Jie hasn't returned either. Could they all be dead?"

"That can't be. A five-man team of Two-Star Martial Artists, plus a powerful Ability User like Zhu Yufang—unless it was a Three-Star Martial Artist, who would dare to strike?"

"Team Leader, have you notified the mentor?"

Someone in the crowd asked softly.

Even at the Hanghai Martial Arts Academy, Ability Users are not common.

The entire Hanghai Martial Arts Academy only recruits about ten Ability Users a year!

As the top key martial arts academy in Shenxia Country, it is definitely the academy that Ability Users most hope to apply to.

Even so, the number is still very scarce. This is enough to show how rare Ability Users are.

"Not yet." Zhou Xinyang shook his head. "We must catch the culprit first. Otherwise, if Teacher Su comes, I'm afraid she won't spare us!"

Upon hearing this, everyone was stunned for a moment, then shuddered.

Zhu Yufang was a key protégé of the academy, and even more so, the apple of Teacher Su's eye!

"If Teacher Su finds out about this, she will definitely be furious!"

"We must find the culprit as soon as possible! Otherwise, we're going to be in trouble!"

Some even vented their resentment on Chen Jie and the others.

"Those trash—it's one thing that they died themselves, but they didn't even know how to protect Zhu Yufang!"

"I said Zhu Yufang should have just waited safely for graduation, but she had to go and take risks."

Everyone couldn't help but feel anxious.

"Wang An, He Qiang, you are better at tracking. Go and see which way the culprit ran."

Zhou Xinyang led the group to the location where the bloodstains had been.

Nearby, footprints, claw marks, and various other tracks were everywhere. Finding the real culprit was not as easy as imagined.

"Let's search separately. Before dark today, we must find the culprit!"

Wang An and the other person immediately began searching for clues in the surrounding area separately.

Ten minutes later, the two looked at Zhou Xinyang, who was resting with his eyes closed.

"Team Leader, if nothing goes wrong, the culprit should have run that way."

Wang An pointed in the direction Li Canglan had fled.

"Should?" Zhou Xinyang frowned slightly. "I don't have time to deal with your 'shoulds'. I need concrete information."

The two were shocked and quickly guaranteed, "We are sure."

"Good." Zhou Xinyang nodded, looking at the others who were glaring around. "You stay here."

As soon as these words were spoken, the group, who were aggressive and ready to avenge Zhu Yufang, was stunned.

"Team Leader, what do you mean by this?"

"To be able to kill Zhu Yufang and Chen Jie and the others, if the culprit is alone, their strength is likely infinitely close to a Three-Star Martial Artist."

"If you follow, it will only cause unnecessary casualties."

Everyone fell silent. In terms of strength, let alone Zhou Xinyang, even Zhu Yufang could easily beat any one of them.

"Alright, Team Leader, please be careful."

Zhou Xinyang nodded and quickly sped away with Wang An and He Qiang, the two students good at tracking.

Zhou Xinyang wasn't just doing this for the safety of the other students. If there were too many people, it would be easy to alert the enemy and be discovered. It was better for him to take the two, as a smaller target was harder to detect. Moreover, having others follow wouldn't help in the fight.

As for the enemy's strength, Zhou Xinyang was confident. This area had not yet entered the habitat of Three-Star Demonic Beasts. If the culprit was a Three-Star Martial Artist, they shouldn't be lingering in the habitat of Two-star Demonic Beasts.

In a tall forest in the distance, Li Canglan watched with his own eyes as Zhou Xinyang and the others left, a smirk curling on his lips.

"It's fortunate that I finished my Cultivation early, otherwise I really would have been caught like a turtle in a jar."

The traces here were not left intentionally. It was just that he was in too much of a hurry when escaping and didn't have time to clean them up. Therefore, after quickly absorbing the energy, Li Canglan left the cave immediately.

He knew that it wouldn't be long before Zhou Xinyang caught up with his people. However, near the cave, he had carefully selected many traces, enough to let them have a great harvest!

And Li Canglan, lurking back here, was just to kill!

Theoretically, he had no grievances with these people from the Hanghai Martial Arts Academy. But because of Zhu Yufang, the two sides had actually reached a situation of irreconcilable enmity. At the very least, as long as he didn't leave, these people wouldn't let him go.

Li Canglan didn't want to deal with endless dangers that could appear at any time. Since that was the case, he could only send these people to meet Zhu Yufang!

After confirming that Zhou Xinyang and the others had chased after the tracks he left behind, Li Canglan quietly snuck up.

"Sigh, by the way, have you completed your mission?"

"Not yet, still need two Two-star Demonic Beasts and a Water Heart Lotus."

"Haha, then you won't be named an outstanding graduate this time."

"What are you thinking? With Brother Zhou and the others here, where would we get a share of the outstanding graduates?"

"You really don't say, after coming to this countryside, I realized that these local Martial Artists... their strength is too weak."

"How so?"

"My graduation project required ten pieces of Hundred-Pattern Silver Ore, and it just so happened I ran into a group of Martial Artists."

That person said with a grin, "There were only ten pieces of Silver Ore there in total, just enough for me to complete my mission."

"That group of Martial Artists said they wanted to use the Silver Ore to forge a weapon for their nephew, and they refused to give the Silver Ore to us no matter what."

"At first, I thought it would be a tough battle. But those people, the strongest Martial Skill they mastered was only C-rank, and the proficiency was pathetically low, at most just reaching Minor Achievement."

"Hu Fei and I easily defeated them."

"However, the figure of that female Martial Artist was quite good..."

Speaking of this, his companion Hu Fei's eyes also flashed with a trace of desire. Clearly, he was savoring some things that were not convenient to talk about.

The surrounding classmates immediately chuckled.

The female students glanced at them with disgust.

With these two starting it off, others also began to show off their own battle achievements.

Their strength was about the same, so what they showed off was naturally not how many Demonic Beasts they had hunted, but how many girls they had picked up and how many people they had killed in this area.

"These country bumpkins only managed to grind their way to a Two-Star Martial Artist by relying on time."

"When they heard I was from the Hanghai Martial Arts Academy, the way their eyes lit up was just ridiculous."

"They actually said they wanted to apply to our academy back then, but didn't get in."

"Some unmarried female Martial Artists were even more shameless, directly clinging to us, wanting to use this to latch onto the big, thick leg of our academy."

"These people are really not from the same world as us."

A group of people wantonly mocked the ordinary Martial Artists they encountered.

This represented the thoughts of a considerable number of people who held themselves high above others.

The weak think that after the strong become strong, they will protect them. But in reality, most people will embark on another path.

The life and death of the weak, to them, mean nothing at all.

Therefore, those who can always stick to their original heart can be called the guardians of humanity. Only then can they be called heroes.