This is what I hit.

Fighting in a forest is completely different from fighting in an open and flat area. Rong Xianxian and the others exchanged glances; since they had already arrived, they could not turn back halfway!

"Let's hide the cars in the bushes and siphon all the gas out of the fuel tanks, storing it securely elsewhere. We cannot let anyone drive our vehicles away. In a place like this, we won't find any replacement cars." Rong Xianxian pointed at the dense bushes nearby and said to Cui Lie and the others.

Better safe than sorry.

Seeing the cars thoroughly covered and concealed by the tangled branches, the group felt a little more at ease.

"Everyone, form a defensive array and make sure not to panic or lose your footing." Rong Xianxian led the way with Xiao Luo on her back.

"Mom, there is something glowing over there." Not long after they set off, Xiao Luo pointed in a certain direction from behind Rong Xianxian and shouted.

"Let's go take a look." Sensing that the surrounding environment was relatively safe, Rong Xianxian called the others to follow her.

A mobile phone was glowing. It was a shattered phone, its screen broken into numerous pieces, with the battery lying separately to one side.

Rong Xianxian bent down, intending to pick up the phone to examine it.

*Whoosh.* A shadowy blur flashed past the very instant Rong Xianxian lowered her head.

With a crisp *clang*, the long spear in Jiang Jie's hand thrust directly into the afterimage, producing a harsh, metallic screech.

A wisp of severed hair fluttered and drifted down before Rong Xianxian's eyes. If she hadn't happened to bend down just then, wouldn't that monster have sliced off her head?

Instantly feeling a chill down the back of her neck, Rong Xianxian touched the defensive talisman pinned to her chest; it was intact and undamaged. *Phew, thank goodness.* Relying on the defensive talisman for protection had made her lower her guard. How careless of her! A defensive talisman was best saved for actual combat; if it had been ruined by a sneak attack, it would have been a terrible waste.

Rong Xianxian looked at the monster that had appeared on the scene. Its overall appearance resembled a lion, but its size was three times that of an ordinary lion. Its limbs were thick and sturdy, and its two front paws extended long, sharp claws that gleamed coldly like razor blades. Just now, Jiang Jie's spear had struck the monster's claw directly, yet the spear—imbued with a spirit-storage talisman—had failed to inflict the slightest damage on that claw.

No, wait. The claw that had just blocked Jiang Jie's spear was trembling slightly, as if it dared not bear any weight, while the claw on the other side had already partially retracted beneath its foot.

Jiang Jie's phantom-less spear was as fast as lightning, yet when the sneak attack failed, the monster had still managed to intercept Jiang Jie's spear with its claw. Its combat intuition and reaction speed were truly terrifying.

Rong Xianxian raised her vigilance to the absolute maximum.

In the monster's eyes, there was also a deep sense of caution.

Rong Xianxian gestured to the others, and the group scattered, surrounding the monster in the center.

Cui Lie's hand flashed with a white light, and the monster moved with lightning speed, suddenly darting toward Wang Lin. Wang Lin swung his saber down in a vertical chop, a layer of frost instantly freezing over the blade.

Just as it seemed Wang Lin's strike was about to split the monster in two, a purple shadow flew toward his back from behind him.

"Dodge!" Rong Xianxian shouted. Her narrow-bladed curved knife pierced straight through the monster's heart, and at the same time, she triggered a mechanical dart launcher, firing a projectile toward Wang Lin.

*Clang.* The moment Wang Lin dodged to the side, three purple shadows brushed past the footprints he had just left and embedded themselves deep into the ground. Cold sweat broke out on Wang Lin's forehead. *If I hadn't ducked just then, those three purple things would have driven straight down through the top of my head.*

Even as Wang Lin felt a surge of lingering fear and opened his mouth to speak, with a soft *pop*, the defensive talisman he wore cracked apart.

Right at Wang Lin's back, a purple shadow dropped to the ground, accompanied by the shattering sound of the defensive talisman.

At the exact moment Rong Xianxian's curved knife struck the purple shadow, Xuanxuan, standing behind Cui Lie, fired the spearhead of her phoenix umbrella, skewering the purple shadow right on the tip of the spear.

This rapid sequence of events happened in the blink of an eye. Even Cui Lie, Xia Kai, and the others, whose cultivation techniques granted them five senses and six perceptions far surpassing ordinary people, failed to react in time.

The lion-like monster was pierced through the heart by Rong Xianxian's curved knife and died instantly, while the sneaking purple shadow was skewered on Xuanxuan's spear and stopped moving entirely.

Wang Lin bent down and pinched the culprit that had destroyed the defensive talisman he wore—it was something resembling a purple steel needle.

The purple shadows that had just buried themselves into the ground must have been things of this exact sort.

"Don't move!" Seeing Xuanxuan make a move to retract her phoenix umbrella, Rong Xianxian hurriedly called out.

*Whoosh.* Another purple shadow shot out from the monster's body. This time, the speed was much slower. Wang Lin, who was closest, blocked with his heavy saber, and with a *ding* sound, the purple shadow collided with the blade and fell to the ground.

A cluster of light slowly detached itself from the purple shadow.

It had been a long time since a treasure had dropped.

"I killed this one." Watching everyone excitedly staring at the slowly rising cluster of light, Xuanxuan emphasized loudly.

Rong Xianxian felt a bit awkward.

This child sure is quick to claim credit.

Rong Xianxian was about to speak.

"Xuanxuan, you are simply amazing! If you hadn't killed the monster in time, Uncle almost would have been killed by it. You saved Uncle." Wang Lin praised without a single hesitation, his expression almost looking... well, somewhat flattering.

"This is the result of everyone's cooperation. Without everyone coordinating, could you have killed the monster?" Rong Xianxian said with a stern face.

"I killed it all by myself! Which of you even touched a single hair on the monster?" Xuanxuan retorted unconvinced.

"This trophy is mine. You guys aren't allowed to snatch things from a child." Xuanxuan pouted and bit her lip, looking very much like she would cry for anyone who dared to speak up again.

"Yours, yours, of course it's yours." Seeing the moisture almost welling up in Xuanxuan's dark, glossy eyes, Wang Lin quickly chimed in.

"Sister Rong, Xuanxuan is right. She killed it all by herself. It must belong to Xuanxuan." Wang Lin looked toward Cui Lie, Xia Kai, and the others.

"Right, right." Several of them echoed in agreement. Xuanxuan happily jumped down from Cui Lie's back and snatched the ball of light into her hands.

Rong Xianxian desperately wanted to ask: *Are all your eyes blind?* Clearly, she had been the first to stab the monster with her knife. Although it hadn't penetrated deeply, it was precisely because she had intercepted it that the monster—which had consecutively fired four purple shadows—happened to be skewered by Xuanxuan's single spear thrust. How on earth did they conclude no one else had touched a single hair of it?

Those purple shadows were thorns growing on the monster's body, serving simultaneously as its weapons and its defense against attacks.

"Sister, you're so amazing! Let me see." Xiao Luo jumped down from Rong Xianxian's back and scampered over.

Watching the two children in high spirits, Rong Xianxian swallowed back a stomach full of words.

Rong Xianxian picked up a dead branch and poked at the shattered mobile phone. Beneath it lay some scattered bones. She continued to sweep away the withered branches and leaves around the phone with the stick, uncovering even more scattered bones.

Unlike cities, monsters in the wild possessed strong territorial awareness, much like wild beasts. Even during this era when territorial disputes among monsters had not yet completely settled, a monster's territory remained relatively fixed.

Generally, unless a new monster challenged them, most monsters entrenched themselves within their own domains.

These bones were likely left by people who had passed through here and been killed by these two beasts. "Let's go and check ahead." Rong Xianxian wanted to see if there were any spiritual herbs or elixirs to be found.