45: Chapter 45 There are crocodiles in the river, and more than one.

Zhou Xiang leaned against Chen Rui, his face deathly pale and extremely weak. He looked at Cao Yun, who was holding his arm, his eyes gradually glazing over, but the inner annoyance kept him from passing out directly.

On his left wrist, the Parasitic Bracelet had gradually turned gray. Clearly, the injuries to his chest and severed arm had caused the Parasitic Bracelet to determine that Zhou Xiang was in a moribund state.

"Are we just going to carry Zhou Xiang like this?"

Chen Rui's words were like a stone thrown into a calm pool, forcing Cao Yun, who was silently moving forward, to pay attention to the current situation.

"His bracelet has changed color. The Class Competition agreement states that the school will do its best to ensure the lives of us students. If I'm not mistaken, the rescue team should be here in a minute or two."

It must be said that this news comforted Chen Rui to a great extent, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's good. I still want to try and see if we can get into the top three. Although we have to go down the mountain tomorrow afternoon for the tally, there's still a day left. If we work hard, we might just make it."

Upon hearing this, Cao Yun seemed to have moved on from the recent incident. However, when he turned to look at Chen Rui, he inadvertently glanced at Zhou Xiang, who was as good as unconscious, and couldn't help but feel annoyed.

"Covering the rear," he said? He was just pinned to the ground like a dead dog. It was a waste to have his Claw Cat go help him, and as a result, his own Claw Cat got injured.

The more he thought about it, the angrier Cao Yun became. In the end, he sighed helplessly. After all, they were doing this together, and since they failed, he had no right to blame Zhou Xiang too much.

"If it really doesn't work out, we can work hard to get one person into the top ten, and we can split it later."

As soon as this suggestion was made, Chen Rui's expression instantly brightened. "That's a good suggestion. Let's do that."

Just then, a huge tiger jumped out from nowhere, blocking the three of them.

It was the Fire-Treading Tiger, and on its back was naturally the School Doctor, only this time, there was no one hanging on the Fire-Treading Tiger.

After all, dragging corpses around wasn't appropriate, and the families had to be notified to come to the school to claim them. However, with the Class Competition agreement in place, no trouble would arise.

"Severed arm, four broken ribs, claw marks on the chest..."

For some reason, seeing the wound on Zhou Xiang's chest, the School Doctor felt it looked familiar. He stared at Chen Rui and the other for a while, and when the two became nervous from being stared at, the School Doctor spoke.

"Did you... also go and look for trouble with Qin Ding?"

Chen Rui and Cao Yun: ?

The two looked at each other in confusion.

What did he mean by "also"? Could it be that someone else had looked for... wait, it couldn't be Li Dong and the other two, could it?

"Is... this 'also'... could it be Li Dong, Zhou Chang, and Zhou Shen..."

Chen Rui swallowed hard. Upon learning that they weren't the only ones who had gone to look for Qin Ding, he curiously confirmed with the School Doctor.

However, the School Doctor just glanced at the three of them speechlessly. "Yes, all three of them are dead."

"I'm actually curious, Qin Ding has such a large wolf there. Did you not see it before going up to cause trouble? I'm wondering, Qin Ding is a loner and an orphan, how did he offend you?"

Instantly, hearing this, Chen Rui saw the School Doctor's speechless look and was choked up. Cao Yun, however, collected his thoughts and told the whole story from beginning to end.

"Oh, so that's how it is. You lot are quite bold. You saw that wolf clearly, yet one dared to think it, and two dared to follow."

After hearing the explanation, the School Doctor's speechlessness deepened. You saw the black wolf in the river clearly and still rushed up? What is your strength compared to his?

Even if he let you get a head start, you didn't actually think you could get away, did you?

Shaking his head, the School Doctor, too lazy to argue about this matter, looked at Chen Rui and the other one last time as he was about to leave.

"Do you want to continue participating? If not, I can take you down with me."

"No, no, we plan to continue participating."

The two looked at each other, their eyes becoming helpless.

Now it's great. Not explaining is embarrassing, and explaining is even more embarrassing...

On the other side, Qin Ding and the others walked along the river, trying to find spirit beasts drinking water by the river.

Wan Kang, whose mood was gradually improving, took charge of everything, loading two snake-skin bags and one urea bag onto the Pink Pig.

With more than a day left, Wan Kang felt that he was almost guaranteed third place. Even if they didn't hunt any spirit beasts for the whole day today, as long as another pack of wolves came at night, it would be done.

"Strange, we've walked for a distance... why haven't we seen a single spirit beast coming to drink water?"

Seeing that they were almost at the downstream area and still hadn't seen a single spirit beast drinking water by the river, Wan Kang felt a bit suspicious.

Logically speaking, spirit beasts should be quite dense near the river. At the very least, they shouldn't have walked all the way here without seeing a single one.

Hearing Qin Ding's words, Bai Muxue looked at the river, which was gradually turning from clear to somewhat muddy, and a thought arose in her heart.

"Perhaps there is some powerful spirit beast in the downstream of the creek, making the nearby spirit beasts afraid to approach..."

Qin Ding paused and turned to look at the relaxed-looking Big Black. "Earth Dog, did you smell anything different?"

Earth Dog blinked, nodded, and then shook its head.

"Awoo."

[There is some unknown scent of blood, but it is very faint. There is more of a muddy smell, and the source is even further ahead.]

Earth Dog's words directly brought the answer to the mystery to the surface, though it was no wonder Earth Dog didn't make a sound; they were still a distance away.

"Even further ahead, huh... then let's speed up."

Ten minutes later, they reached the location Earth Dog mentioned. Qin Ding fell silent, Bai Muxue helplessly covered her forehead, and Wan Kang tried his best to hold down the Pink Pig to keep it from going into the river.

Because the river in front of them was muddy, and for a pig, it liked this kind of river that was similar to mud. But the problem was, there was something in the river.

There were three crocodiles that were nearly three meters or even more than three meters in size.

Regarding this, Wan Kang couldn't help but mutter in a low voice.

"Oh my goodness... is this really a mountain used for the Class Competition? From wolf packs to gregarious crocodiles... is this right?"

[Spirit Beast: Sharp-Toothed Crocodile]

[Potential: Inferior - Ordinary]

[Element: None]

[Level: 7-8 (Low-tier)]

[Ability: Sharp Teeth]

[Bloodline: Crocodile (100%)]

[Evolution Path Crocodile: Needs to reach level 11]

[Potential Improvement: ...]

[Introduction: A type of crocodile that lives in the downstream area. It has a relatively small body size but sharp teeth. Its physical strength is average among crocodile-type spirit beasts, and it has decent cultivation value.]