As the fears of the tragic, cruel battle began to disappear, a glint of eagerness shone in the eyes of the
six teammates.
Naturally, they were excited to obtain the earth spirit fruit!
Eliminating the two evil apes meant the precious earth spirit fruit would be easy to get.
"The earth spirit fruit should be about a mile from here, hidden. If the steward gets there ahead of us,
all our efforts will have been for naught! So, we need to get a move on it and pick some!" reminded
Austin, looking at the other five bruised and tired people.
Mindy was applying medicine to William and George's injuries.
Ralf took a cyan colored bottle out, tipped it, allowing a pill to spill out, and popped it in his mouth
before he sat on the ground and crossed his legs. Closing his eyes, he utilized his vital energy to
hasten the pill's absorption.
After that, he skillfully reset his fractured bone which had been broken by the female evil ape.
Realizing his comrades were hurt seriously, Austin shook his head. He asked," Do you need my help?"
"No! Thanks anyway!" stated Mindy with a small smile of gratitude at his kind offer.
Since she, William and George knew each other a long time and wanted to be part of the Beast
Mountain trials, they had formed the hunting team.
Some disciples opted to form groups of five, six, while others included over a dozen members.
But, Mindy's team was made up of only three members. What made their team mightier than the ones
that had twelve members even, was that the base level of their vital energy was powerful.
Originally, it was the trio who launched the Evil Ape Hunting Team.
After hearing about it, Ralf, Marvin and Austin joined them.
William and George glanced up at Austin, the gratitude in their eyes silently thanking him. As a salute,
Austin nodded in return.
Austin believed that these three were genuinely sincere in how they dealt with him.
While everyone else was busily tending wounds, Marvin retrieved his jade fan. He strolled casually, as
if there was no rush.
"Oh yeah, that's right! The evil apes should have beast cores. Austin, since you made the greatest
contribution to killing the apes, it's only fair for you to take the cores," suggested Marvin out of the blue.
The rest of the group members nodded in agreement with him.
Mulling it over, Austin determined, 'Although beast core from a diabolic beast is second grade and not a
big deal in comparison to the earth spirit fruit, they are worth a small fortune.'
After he'd thought it over and determined he could add a little more funds for his cultivating resources,
Austin accepted Marvin's offer.
So, he went over to the evil ape corpses, drew his sword, and stabbed the ape in its bloody head.
A brilliant flash of light shone where his sword sliced into the beast and out tumbled a crystal beast
core from its head.
Just as Austin bent to retrieve the cores, several loud ear-piercing screams filled the quiet air, and
Mindy shouted loudly," What the hell are you doing, Marvin?
Startled, Austin jerked his head around to find out what was going on. The sight he saw stunned him.
The scene before him was grim, as Marvin stood over the lifeless form of George, and Marvin was
casually retrieving the silver trident he had thrust deeply into George.
No sooner had Marvin recovered his silver trident before he lunged at Mindy, hacking at her fiercely
with deadly blows.
Glancing in the direction of the two others on the field, Austin noticed Ralf first. Although he was still
sitting cross-legged, his frame was slumped forward, and his head touched the ground. Blood oozed
from a horrible gash in his back.
Lying facedown on the ground, near where Mindy had been tending her wounds, he saw William, his
head matted with blood and pieces of brain.
In a blink of an eye, the three injured people were massacred. It was clear that Marvin was the
assailant.
"Austin! Help me! He wants to snatch all the earth spirit fruit himself!" Mindy yelled as she gasped and
tried to evade Marvin's assault.
Under Marvin's full force, Mindy immediately felt inferior. Clothes disheveled, hair sticking on her head,
and panting, Mindy desperately continued to defend herself.
As he advanced on Mindy, Marvin saw that the torn clothes clung to her form due to the sweat and
while she heaved deeply, desperate to fill her lung with air, he saw how her well-shaped figure stood
out.
Even with the grime and sweat, Mindy was very attractive.
Marvin involuntarily licked his lips and gulped, swallowing his saliva.
Then, he smiled lasciviously, and in a husky tone he said," If I had the chance to meet you again, I'd
choose to meet you in my bed. Such a shame…"
Out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed Austin rushing at him, and Marvin pulled all the vital energy
from within, drawing a powerful energy force.
The faint aura of his vital energy was visible to the naked eye, and Austin could see it was wrapped
around the silver trident that Marvin clutched.
All at once, the silver trident transformed into a silver dragon and baring its teeth and claws, it pounced
at Mindy.
Just before the silver dragon fell on Mindy, the vital energy blew towards Mindy with such force that her
clothes were whipped up, and hair blown into a wild mess which made her look wanton and sexy.
Marvin struck with his full force.
As Mindy felt the great power of silver trident bearing down on her, she knew it would be impossible to
repel his powerful attack with her strength alone.
She sighed deeply while in her heart she contemplated the situation, 'Maybe, this was the wrong time
to have established a team to slay the evil apes.
Greedy Marvin, has decided to rob the rest of us of the rewards. What a jerk!' Mindy glared furiously at
Marvin as she thought.
While she glowered, she waved her hand, and a brocade handkerchief with seven brightly glowing
colors appeared, and she infused it with her vital energy, before giving it a gentle shake.
A dazzling flash of white light shot from the brocade handkerchief, and instantly shrouded Mindy.
Afterward, it formed itself into a flexible cover made up of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and
colorful violet lights circulating.
It circled like countless, small rainbows, all intertwined, giving it a rather beautiful mesmerizing appeal.
Simultaneously, Marvin's silver trident struck the colorful cover enveloping Mindy, but, it was ineffective,
and bounced off like it had collided with a rubber wall.
The shield of seven lights curved inwards, and sprang back, causing Marvin to stumble back a few
steps.
"She was using a secret weapon!" seethed Marvin under his breath.
Obviously, it hadn't crossed Marvin's mind that Mindy would have such a powerful secret weapon to be
able to defend against attacks, and he believed Mindy would be dead after he struck her once with his
full force.
He speculated that because of the power of the secret weapon, it would take a lot more energy to kill
Mindy.
It was apparent that even with a secret weapon, he didn't think much of Mindy's might.
As soon as he turned, Marvin saw Austin.
Seeing how fast and nimbly Austin moved, Marvin decided to kill him first.
"Run Austin! He's too strong for you!" warned Mindy anxiously. During the hunting expedition, she had
good feeling about Austin.
Austin was slightly surprised as Mindy pulled secret, defensive weapon out.
'What's going on? Suddenly, everyone has secret weapons? When did they become all the rage?'
wondered Austin.
Looking into Marvin's murderous eyes, a small grin formed on Austin's lips.
"You become so greedy at the thought of riches that forget righteousness, and slaughter the disciples
from the same sect. Aren't you afraid that the sect will hunt you down?" demanded Austin angrily.
Marvin's actions disgusted Austin.
"Ha-ha-ha! Hunted by my sect?"
questioned Marvin laughing in an exaggerated and delirious manner, like someone had told a hilarious
joke.
"Boy, are you that naive? Do you genuinely believe that anyone from the sect would bother to
investigate deaths during the Beast Mountain trials?
Where there are masses gathered, there are deaths. In fact, the sect accepted this as part of the trials
a long time ago!" said Marvin mockingly.
What he said was true. Almost half of the disciples participating in the trials every year perished at the
hands of their peers.
Killing others to rob them of their winnings was a frequent occurrence, while the sect hunting the
murderers down never happened.
It seemed the sects just accepted this as how things were.
"Hey, it's impressive how skillfully you escaped before. But, I don't think you will be able to get away
this time!"
As Marvin spoke, he slipped into a position that blocked the valley's entrance.
Austin knew his ability to move wasn't bad, but his base level of vital energy was rather too low
compared to Marvin's.
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