Black Shadow

Caught in surprise, the pair of silvermoon apes felt more enraged with the group's sudden but simultaneous barrage.

'Swooosh,' 'swooosh.'

'Roooaar.'

'Waboom.'

'Booom,' 'Booom,'

In retaliation, the two demonic beasts once again activated their combined stalgmites and stalactites—but the attack was evidently, this time, in a complete mess.

'Grooowl,' 'grooowl.'

It was the opportunity everyone was waiting for.

So when Lin Qiao saw the pair of apes activating their skills, she immediately released a huge fireball to parry the attack. She actually aimed her skill not towards the pair of demonic beasts but towards the stalagmites and stalactites themselves.

'Booooom.'

When the entire team saw that the counter attack was effective, even just a little, they all at the same time charged with their strongest attacks bombarding the silvermoon apes with variety of elemental strikes.

'Swiiiish.'

'Thud,' 'thud,' 'thud,' 'thud,' thud,' 'thud,' thud,' 'thud,' 'thud,' 'thud,' 'thud,' 'thud.'

'Booom,' 'booom.'

'Roooaaaaar.'

'Waboooooom,' 'booooooom.'

'Whooosh,' 'whooosh,' whooosh.'

The demonic beasts were stunned.

The ferocious sychronized attacks actually threw them down in separate directions. And when Hao Ren noticed that the two got split, he immediately raised a Metal Wall between them.

And just like when the team earlier fought the 'Blazing Sword Brothers,' the Shu siblings together with Shandian stepped in to fight one of the silvermoon apes.

The fight against the demonic beast, just like back then, became a quick one. With the demonic beasts getting separated, the silvermoon ape's counter attacks became half less effective.

The three Mo Clan disciples on the other hand, learning from the Qai and Shu Liang back in the Darkwood Forest, had devised their own version of three-team assault before entering the wasteland. And this time, they made use of it effectively on to the other half of the silvermoon apes.

The 'current' three were no longer struck by the sight of the Shu siblings, but instead, were themselves looking masterful with their own kind of fearless assault.

Both sides ended the fight quickly and the Mo Clan first team discovered thereafter what the demonic apes were actually trying to hide—on one of the nests, there laid a pair of infant wild apes.

All of them instantly realized how badly they intruded the apes territory. However, there could be nothing else they could do.

The young apes were yet to enter any cultivation level—but certainly silvermoon apes were a rare breed of demonic beasts.

They wouldn't want to leave the infants behind, so in the end, Qai decided to 'tame' them and bring the apes with them.

Although he knew too well that he won't be able to awaken the apes into elemental demonic beasts, he was satisfied enough to include among his 'domesticated' beasts a pair of uncommon breed.

So while the rest of the team was dissecting the slain demonic beasts, Qai put the infant apes on the back of Shandian and instructed the contracted black tiger to protect them in their trip.

***************

Meanwhile in some distant locations inside the wasteland, after the first few days were spent, several groups were busy hunting not demonic beasts but fellow cultivators.

Those were cultivators who thought it easier to gain by simply backstabbing other participants and stealing their haul.

Some of the more notorious groups were the members of the widely known 'Black Shadow.'

In one instance, the participants from the Black Shadow tried to connived with some other group in order to set up an ambush against a team from a known family. But immediately after ambushing the said team, the members of the Black Shadow, double crossed the other group they were in connivance with and immediately attacked them from behind just before the partition of the loot.

Such ploy became widespread among the partipating cultivators and most of them became wary of the presence of the Black Shadow. None would have wanted to ever cross their paths with such cultivators.

The news obviously alerted Qai and his team members as well.

***************

"Who are those 'Black Shadow' anyway?" Shu Liang asked.

"It's a renowned assassins' organization," Hao Ren replied. "We do not particularly know where their base is.. but there's nothing much to worry as of now.. we don't know yet whether those scumbags are legit members of the Black Shadow."

The other Mo Clan members nodded to what Hao Ren said.

"Most likely, they're just using Black Shadow's name to scare people.. but we still have to be careful though..," Mo Shui said, "..they may have already set up some ambush ahead of their next target."

"Not if we ambush them first," Qai confidently suggested while rubbing his nose with a wide grin on his face.

Everyone did not know what to think upon hearing Qai's words. They couldn't figure out whether the idea was brilliant or reckless. Nonetheless, they unanimously thought that Qai was up to something.

In truth, Qai was actually thinking of shamelessly stealing everything that the members of the Black Shadow stole—'thieving the theft,' in a sense.