Tall fern-like plants blotted out the sky, and the concentration of Spiritual Qi in the air was also noticeably higher.
"Sa old plan. Wang ng and I will clear the way up front. Fan Jian, you take the rear. Everyone else, support from the middle."
Zhang Hao quickly gave the orders.
"Han Feng, you’re in the sky. Be our eyes."
"Roger."
Han Feng didn’t land. He remained seated cross-legged on the back of the Iron-Feathered Vulture.
The unlucky raptor had completely resigned itself to its fate.
It even tried to curry favor, gently rubbing Han Feng’s pant leg with its hard beak.
"Go."
Han Feng patted the bird’s head.
The Iron-Feathered Vulture beat its wings and soared high, circling two hundred ters above the team.
The ground team began to advance, and Han Feng wasn’t idle in the sky either.
He discovered that although this Iron-Feathered Vulture’s combat prowess was pathetic, its flight was exceptionally stable under the guidance of his Divine Sense.
’Perfect. I’ll use you for so practice.’
With a thought, Han Feng didn’t use any Sword Essence. Instead, he purely used his Divine Sense to guide the Iron-Feathered Vulture through various high-difficulty maneuvers in the air.
"Spiral Charge!"
The Iron-Feathered Vulture’s massive body suddenly began to spin in mid-air, thrusting forward with great force.
Although its movents were a bit clumsy, it used the wind to its advantage and its speed was surprisingly fast.
[Ding! Skill Proficiency for ’Spiral Charge’ 1]
"Reversal of Heaven and Earth!"
Under Han Feng’s control, the Iron-Feathered Vulture was forced to complete an extrely tight roll in mid-air that defied aerodynamics.
[Ding! Skill Proficiency for ’Reversal of Heaven and Earth’ 1]
Han Feng was amused.
This was basically a perfect, fully-automatic, skill-grinding tool of a bird.
While directing the big bird to do sorsaults in the sky, he activated his [Spiritual Vision] and Perception Field, scanning the jungle below like the most precise radar.
In his vision, the dense jungle transford into a three-dinsional world composed of countless lines and clusters of light.
"Captain, ten o’clock, one hundred and fifty ters, there’s a nest of Tier Two Early Stage ’Gold-devouring Rats.’"
Han Feng’s voice ca through the communicators, clear in everyone’s ears.
"There’s a strong Gold Attribute Energy reaction near the rat nest. It should be an accompanying Spirit Ore."
"Roger."
"Wang ng, go clear them out."
Zhang Hao’s command followed imdiately.
Before long, the sounds of fierce battle drifted up from below, along with Wang ng’s signature excited roar.
"We’re rich! It’s Tier Two Middle Grade Red Gold Ore! There are five or six whole pieces!"
"Keep advancing."
Han Feng’s voice remained calm.
"Two o’clock, three hundred ters away. There’s a big snake hidden under that patch of vines. Energy reaction... Tier Two Middle Stage. Go around it."
"Understood."
Under the guidance of Han Feng’s precise Perception, the Sharp Sword Club’s advance was terrifyingly efficient.
They avoided all pointless battles and potential dangers, precisely harvesting every high-value resource point.
In just two short hours, the haul in everyone’s backpacks had already surpassed the total from the entire previous day.
Even the usually sowhat arrogant Gu Yun now looked at the big bird in the sky with a hint of admiration.
The sense of security and the incredible profits that ca with this god’s-eye view were just too good.
Just as the team was advancing into a low-lying area in the center of the island, Han Feng suddenly had the Iron-Feathered Vulture hover in the air.
His brows furrowed.
In his Spiritual Vision, the depression below showed no flicker of spiritual light.
Instead, it was shrouded in a layer of grayish-black mist so faint it was almost invisible.
The aura it gave off made him feel a strange sense of unease.
It was neither the savagery of a Demon Beast nor the chilling cold of a Spirit Body.
But rather... a dead, decaying scent.
"Captain, sothing’s wrong with the low ground ahead."
Han Feng keyed his communicator.
"The energy signature is strange. It’s not a living thing."
Hearing this, Zhang Hao on the ground imdiately gave a hand signal, and the entire team halted, taking cover where they stood.
"What’s the specific situation?"
"I can’t see through it. Sothing’s blocking my Perception. It’s like... a Shielding Array."
Han Feng had the Iron-Feathered Vulture lower its altitude and circle once above the depression.
"But I can see the surrounding Spiritual Qi converging in that direction, and then... disappearing."
Zhang Hao pondered for a mont.
"Fan Jian, you co with to check it out. Everyone else, stay here on guard."
The two of them crouched low, using the tall shrubs for cover as they silently crept to the edge of the depression.
Peeking through the dense grass, the scene before him made the corner of Zhang Hao’s eye twitch violently.
It wasn’t a natural depression at all, but a circular clearing that had been artificially created.
In the center of the clearing stood a small altar, built from grayish-white stones.
Surrounding the altar lay more than a dozen desiccated corpses of Demon Beasts.
Their flesh and blood seed to have been completely drained, leaving only shriveled husks of skin clinging tightly to their bones.
And at the top of the altar, a small, tattered black flag fluttered despite the lack of wind.
"This thing..."
Zhang Hao’s voice was extrely low, yet it carried a chill.
"It’s almost identical to the Blood Feeding Sect altar we saw at Golden Ears Farm."
He crouched down, running a finger over the rough stone surface. His fingertip ca away coated in a layer of dark red powder.
He raised it to his nose and sniffed.
A stale, tallic sll, mixed with an indescribably cloying, sweet aroma.
"It’s not new."
Zhang Hao stood up, his expression grim.
"This thing has been here for at least a few years."
Fan Jian gripped his short blade, warily scanning the surroundings, his voice tight.
"But this flag is new."
The tattered black flag atop the altar, though damaged, still had resilient fibers. It was definitely not so ancient relic.
"Su Yue, can you see anything?"
Zhang Hao turned to look at Su Yue, who was adjusting a portable scanner.
Su Yue pushed up her glasses, her brows knitting tighter as she stared at the chaotic stream of data flickering on the screen.
"The structure is crude, but its logic is vicious."
"This thing is a two-way pump. The core Runes’ functions are ’to strip’ and ’to gather’."
"It’s forcibly extracting the Qi Blood and Spiritual essence from surrounding life forms and channeling it underground."
She pointed at the ground beneath her feet.
"There’s so kind of energy transfer channel under here, leading sowhere deeper."
"Sowhere deeper?"
Wang ng scratched his head.
"What else could be down there? If you dig through this, you hit the Cloud Sea, and then... the Blood Sea."
As soon as he said that, everyone’s expressions changed.
At that mont, Han Feng was still seated cross-legged on the Iron-Feathered Vulture’s back, high in the air. He hadn’t co down.
He had activated his Energy Perception, which had a range of two hundred ters, and his gaze seed to pierce through the surface vegetation and rock layers.
In his view, the altar was like an evil source, still faintly pulsating.
Underground, countless fine, dark-red energy threads extended to the extre depths below.
They finally converged into a region of pure darkness that he could not see through.
That darkness caused the Innate Sword Bone inside his body to generate an instinctive revulsion and disgust.
"Captain, this place is very wrong."
Han Feng said through the communicator.
Zhang Hao didn’t hesitate for a second, making a decisive call.
"Abort the exploration! Retreat imdiately!"
"Wang ng, stop prying at that stone!"
Wang ng was clutching a dark-red Crystal Stone embedded in the base of the altar.
It was a highly concentrated Qi Blood Crystal, commonly known as a "Blood Essence Stone." A piece the size of a fist was worth at least two hundred Spirit Coins on the Black Market.
"I’m coming, I’m coming!"
Wang ng was greedy, but he valued his life more.
With a forceful pry, he stuffed the stone into his pocket, grabbed his Large Axe, and started running back.
Just then!
The once-quiet jungle suddenly erupted into chaos.
No Demon Beasts were attacking, but from all directions ca a rising and falling chorus of terrified growls and shrieks.
Countless birds burst from the forest canopy, scattering and colliding in a panic.
The grass on the ground shook violently as innurable small beasts fled frantically, hugging the ground.
Their direction... was away from the island’s center, toward the cliffs!
They would rather jump off the cliffs than stay here for another second!
Old Liu, holding his sniper rifle, watched the scene of the mass animal exodus, his voice dry.
"The rats are abandoning ship. Sothing huge is about to happen."
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