Chapter 50: Counterattack (1)

“You guys took the time it takes for four incense sticks to burn to get here. If anyone else was responsible for delaying the giant ape, they would have died three or four times over...... You’d better give me a good excuse.”

After absorbing the last mote of light and completing his “ceremony”, Su Chen turned around to look at Zheng Xia.

His gaze was unsettling.

Anyone in this situation would not be happy no matter who they were.

“Sorry, we ran into an unexpected issue,” Wang Doushan followed up.

“Something unexpected really did happen, master. We tried our hardest to hurry over.”

Upon hearing Wang Doushan and Iron Cliff say so, Su Chen’s anger decreased slightly. He glanced at the group and saw that they were drenched in sweat and their expressions were fatigued. Evidently, they had charged over here as fast as they could, but for some unknown reason Cloud Leopard wasn’t with them.

“What exactly happened?”

The rest of them began to explain the situation.

After Su Chen had drawn the giant ape away, the seven of them had begun to deal with the Giant Adamantine Ape at full force.

Even though the Giant Adamantine Ape was extremely powerful, there was no way it could withstand the furious assault of the seven of them.

They all had thrown everything they had at it. Just when they were about to defeat the giant ape, however, another group of people showed up.

“Another group showed up?” Su Chen’s eyebrows furrowed. “Who were they?”

“It was that garbage Zhang Sheng’an,” Wang Doushan replied, infuriated. “As soon as he arrived, he told us that this Giant Adamantine Ape belonged to them, and that we should give up on it.”

“He wanted to take your giant ape?” Su Chen was stunned. “How could those arrogant people fall to the point that they have to rob others?”

“No, they wanted it alive,” Wang Doushan replied.

Su Chen thought for a moment before it dawned on him. “Jin Ling’er?”

The Giant Adamantine Ape was powerful both in terms of offense and defense. Although its battle tactics were simple, they are very practical. If Jin Ling’er could control it, in the future she could use it as a human shield and combine her strength with it. The best part, however, was that Giant Adamantine Apes are pretty easy to control, so it was no surprise that they were interested in it.

Long before this, Zhang Sheng’an and the others had been looking for a high-tier Vicious Beast that was relatively easy to use for Jin Ling’er, but they had never found a suitable target.

This time, they had unintentionally stumbled upon Team Bright battling a Giant Adamantine Ape, and they instantly came up with the idea of seizing it by force.

After all, they were just a group of students without bloodlines, so they didn’t care.

Within the Hidden Dragon Institute, students from Bloodline Nobility Clans and students without bloodlines were always at odds. Sometimes one party would look to actively incite conflict for no reason, let alone under such circumstances.

Team Bright naturally was unwilling, and they began to fight over it. Unfortunately, there was no way they could fight back against Zhang Sheng’an. Even if they had been initially, they had expended a lot of energy battling the Giant Adamantine Ape. There was no way that they were going to defeat their opponents.

In the end, they could only watch as their opponents took the giant ape away.

Su Chen turned to ask Wang Doushan, “Jin Ling’er just watched them take away what belonged to us?”

“She tried to plead with Zhang Sheng’an and the others, but it didn’t do much,” Wang Doushan sighed.

He left out that part of the story where Jin Ling’er had clearly also been tempted by the giant ape.

Thus, her attempts to dissuade Zhang Sheng’an and the others were not very firm.

Even so, Su Chen was able to perceive that point.

If Jin Ling’er hadn’t been tempted by it, Zhang Sheng’an probably wouldn’t have acted so brazenly.

Su Chen didn’t comment on it. All he did was coldly harrumph, “Then what happened afterwards? Why didn’t you try and come back immediately?”

Since the giant ape had been seized, why not come back to help him? Why waste so much time?

“It was Blood Demon Zhong Ding.” Wang Doushan angrily clenched his fists. “That bastard realized something after noticing that you weren’t there, so he purposefully tried to delay us by talking to us. The more we wanted to leave, the more he wouldn’t let us.”

Su Chen squinted his eyes.

Giant Adamantine Apes often traveled in pairs, so the fact that Zhong Ding had realized something was off wasn’t really that strange.

But why had Zhong Ding targeted him?

He had never offended Zhong Ding before.

Although he had defeated Zhong Ding before during the Three Mountains Region competition, that was necessitated by the exam. In addition, he and Jin Ling’er had already teamed up.

But Su Chen’s experiences had taught him that often, people did things for reasons other than personal benefit.

There were certain people who would go out of their way to make trouble for you simply because they looked down on you, or even just because they wanted to have some fun at your expense.

Su Chen wasn’t wrong. The matter really was that simple.

In fact, Zhong Ding just wanted to see Team Bright become agitated like they were constipated, which was why he had provoked them in the first place.

All he needed to say was something like, “Don’t be in such a hurry to leave. Why don’t we talk for a bit?” to toy with the group of people like they were little girls. Zhong Ding enjoyed those sort of feelings very much.

Of course, he was just toying with them for amusement, but for Su Chen this was a matter of life and death.

It wasn’t until Team Bright was about to go insane and Jin Ling’er was unable to watch anymore did Zhong Ding finally let them go.

This conflict had prevented Team Bright from coming to Su Chen’s aid, putting him in perilous danger.

After understanding what had happened, Su Chen squinted his eyes slightly. “Where’s Cloud Leopard? Why isn’t he here?”

The others all glanced at each other. Wang Doushan was the first to speak. “Cloud Leopard couldn’t endure this insult, so he followed them.”

A trace of coldness flashed across Su Chen’s eyes. He suddenly said, “Which direction did they go in?”

Du Qing pointed towards the West.

Su Chen flew into motion and moved as quickly as possible, making him as fast as a wisp of smoke. He left behind a sentence that floated in the air, “Wait for me here. I’ll be back soon.”

Du Qing felt her vision blur as Su Chen quickly disappeared. She exclaimed, “So fast!”

Su Chen made no attempt to conceal his strength, shocking everyone present.

Even Wang Doushan was caught off-guard. He glanced at Iron Cliff and said, “I thought your master was always holed up in his tower performing research? How has his strength increased again?”

Iron Cliff replied seriously, “Master always says that knowledge is power.”

“……”

Su Chen charged forward at high speed.

As soon as Zhang Sheng’an had left, Team Bright had come to find him, so they had not gone very far.

Very quickly, Su Chen saw a group of people appear in the distance.

It was Zhang Sheng’an and the others.

However, he couldn’t spot Cloud Leopard.

Su Chen understood Cloud Leopard’s personality. He might as well have been born in the forest; if he didn’t want to be found, it was almost impossible to discover him.

While Su Chen frantically searching around, he suddenly heard a voice. “Why are you here?”

He turned around and found Cloud Leopard right behind him.

This guy had discovered him at an unknown time and crept up behind him.

Su Chen sighed in relief. “I’m here to stop you. Don’t do something stupid, Leopard.”

“They took something that belonged to us,” Cloud Leopard replied. “No one can do that without paying a price.”

“I think so too.” Su Chen pulled Cloud Leopard back. “But I wouldn’t do it like this. I know that you are powerful in the forest, but the opponents aren’t weak either. Do you really think you can take care of all of them on your own?”

This time, Cloud Leopard remained silent.

Evidently, he didn’t have that confidence.

But even if he didn’t have that confidence, he still needed to do it.

That was Cloud Leopard’s personality.

Su Chen also understood. He patted Cloud Leopard’s shoulder and said, “Leave it to me. Sometimes, you need to find a gentler method to be able to teach someone a lesson.”