159: Green

As the saying goes, no matter how cunning you are, you'll still end up drinking my foot-washing water.

Greem rapidly moved towards the location of Treasure Chest No. 3, constantly expanding his search radius to find the Wizards from Blood Fortress Academy.

When he encountered powerful and formidable opponents, he would engage in a few direct clashes. However, if Greem realized he couldn't defeat them quickly, he would immediately abandon the target, casually throwing out a few threats.

"I'll be back..."

"Just you wait, I've memorized your aura. I'm going to call for backup now..."

In such situations, most enemy Wizards would hesitate, fearing an ambush, and thus wouldn't dare to pursue Greem further.

If Greem encountered weaker Intermediate Wizard Apprentices or ordinary Grand Knights, he would immediately strike with full force, using sneak attacks, poisons, and unleashing powerful spells from the start—employing every conceivable tactic. Various "practical" strategies were deployed; Greem didn't care about how they looked, only if they were effective, and the results were indeed very good.

In just the first three hours of the competition, Greem encountered 8 waves of Wizards from Blood Fortress, successfully repelling 2 waves of powerful Wizards. The remaining 6 waves were all eliminated by Greem.

His achievements were brilliant: he killed 4 ordinary Grand Knights, 5 Intermediate Wizard Apprentices, and 1 Advanced Wizard Apprentice, crippling one-twentieth of Blood Fortress Academy's (200 people) effective forces.

And this was only Greem's personal record. Plant Heart Wizard Academy had dispatched a full 20 peak-combat-strength hunters.

(Including the 10 Advanced Wizard Apprentices who became death warriors; they would, upon finding a sufficiently valuable target, unlock their life-saving secret arts, unleashing the last brilliant glow of their lives—a 10-minute burst of peak combat power, fearless of death, fighting to the death. Even opponents of equal strength would regret it in the Yellow Springs.)

In this first wave of jungle skirmishes, at least half of Blood Fortress Academy's Wizards would be eliminated!

...This was the advantage of fighting on home ground!

In this vast, withered jungle, the Wizards of Plant Heart Wizard Academy had generally mastered the 0-ring Intermediate Wizardry—Hidden Silence of Withered Wood, which allowed them to effectively use the surrounding environment to conceal themselves.

However, the Wizards of Blood Fortress were different. They certainly practiced more than one type of concealment Wizardry, and its effects were not limited to jungle terrain. Therefore, most Blood Fortress Wizards couldn't hide themselves and were easily discovered.

Three hours of intense combat had greatly exhausted Greem, forcing him to stop and rest.

Greem conducted a self-check: physical stamina depleted by 40%, Life Aura depleted by 80%, Spiritual Power depleted by 50%, mental saturation—extremely excited, arousal level +20%... Estimated full recovery time—5 hours... Inside a tree hollow at the base of a large tree.

This was a small underground cave located three meters below ground, which Greem had carefully chosen from the roots of a dead tree, hollowing out a small portion to temporarily create it.

Greem was meditating quietly, seizing every second to recover using potions.

The Life Aura in his body didn't need attention; after taking a potion, he just needed to wait for its natural recovery.

"Boom..."

Suddenly, a violent elemental roar came from the ground, from a position about twenty to thirty meters to Greem's left. The massive tremor transmitted a lot of information through the soil's vibrations, allowing Greem to accurately pinpoint the exact location.

"Not good!"

Greem's heart sank slightly. That location was a temporary burrow he had dug when searching for a suitable hiding spot, but he had given up on it because it was too small and not well-ventilated.

"Someone's got their eyes on me!"

"Otherwise, it wouldn't be such a coincidence to find the burrow I dug..."

"Hehe, good thing I was careful and made two preparations..."

"Indeed, the world is dangerous; one must be cautious everywhere!"

Greem pondered silently, but he wasn't overly worried. Instead, he continued to recover his condition. No matter how cunning you are, you'll still end up drinking my foot-washing water. Blood Fortress brats, if you want my life, you'll have to find me first...

"Boom boom boom..."

Negative energy orbs were spat out from the mouths of two Blood-colored Bats, blasting a deep pit five or six meters deep into the ground.

The two Blood-colored Bats eagerly wanted to force out the expected enemy, but as time passed, the pit grew larger and larger, yet no one appeared.

"Hudson, stop!"

"Don't do anything useless anymore, this Greem isn't here."

Odysseus, the Great Bat Wizard, stopped in time and said with a grim expression:

"Damn it, this is the fifth place with Greem's aura."

"What's going on? Is this Greem a rat, so good at digging holes? Why does he dig so many holes?"

"Is it fun?"

"Hudson, it's probably not that he dug a hole to escape, but that he's already discovered us and deliberately dug so many holes to mislead us. We've been exposed."

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

"We've been using bloodline transformation, turning into these Crimson Bat forms, flying in the sky. Along the way, we haven't left any clues. How could he have discovered us?"

"Hudson, facts speak louder than words. The reality is this, what's there to argue about? Do you have a better idea?"

"Hmph..."

Hudson, in his Blood-colored Bat form, snorted in displeasure, but he had no better method.

"Odysseus, what do we do now?"

"Keep digging?"

..."No..."

"According to my calculations, all the burrows we've dug are in this area. So, it's very likely that this Greem is hiding in the ground beneath our feet."

"From a time perspective, it's impossible for him to have arranged so many decoy burrows and then quickly leave. Therefore, this cunning Greem Wizard must be hiding in one of the underground burrows."

"Ah..."

"Odysseus, are you crazy? We'd have to dig up such a large area of land. How long would that take?"

"You dig it yourself, I'm not playing along..."

"Hudson, don't be so anxious. My meaning isn't to dig holes; we can wait for the rabbit to come to us."

"This Greem Wizard is an Apprentice of Heart of Plants; he will definitely go to help their Academy compete for the keys in the treasure chests."

"So, Hudson, we just need to wait patiently, wait for him to be unable to hold back and come out himself."

"Hehe..."

"Hudson, you don't want to go to that meat grinder battlefield to contend for the treasure chest keys, do you? As long as the two of us can eliminate this Greem Wizard, the points for this Secret Realm mission will be enough!"

"Hehehe..."

"Odysseus, your brain is still the best. Let's do it this way..."

"Oh, how I miss my old, functional brain. Unfortunately, twenty-eight years ago, I sold it to a Formal Wizard for experiments. This brain, affected by experimental bloodlines, really isn't as good..."

"Waiting for the rabbit, I like it..."