Chapter Eighty-Eight: If You Have the Guts, Fight Me One on One!

Xiao Yong hurriedly adjusted his stance, but it was already too late to change position. He could only cleave back with all his strength.

Flames wrapped the blade as it sliced through the air and smashed into a bear paw.

Bolstered by the rock-and-earth bear’s twin layers of defense, Xiao Yong’s attack failed to do it the slightest harm.

Instead, the force of the blow sent Xiao Yong flying back a short distance.

He was not injured, but his breathing had grown ragged.

The rock-and-earth bear, finding its strike unsuccessful, let out two furious roars, clearly dissatisfied that it had not been able to crush Xiao Yong with a single slap.

Xiao Yong, however, did not have the leisure to brood over it.

He had barely escaped the bear’s paw when he was immediately beset by three goblins. Under ordinary circumstances, killing those three goblins would take him only a moment, but now he did not have even that moment.

Just as he finished fending off the goblins’ assault, the rock-and-earth bear and the frogman came at him again.

Faced with such a relentless encirclement, Xiao Yong barely held on by virtue of his hard-won combat experience.

A blazing slash forced the frogman back, and Xiao Yong roared in fury, “If you’ve got the guts, fight me one on one!”

Lu Sheng replied lightly, “Sure. Are you planning to take on a group by yourself, or do you want all of us to take you on together?”

Xiao Yong’s face flushed with anger, and even his breath seemed to turn sharper with rage.

Then he looked at the five subordinates already captured on the other side and forced himself to calm down.

At this rate, it would not be long before he was captured as well.

He had no choice but to activate the trap he had laid.

He had set that trap mainly to guard against a situation where Lu Sheng’s strength would be about equal to his own, in which case the trap could play a decisive role.

But he had never expected Lu Sheng to simply overwhelm him with sheer numbers. There had been no real fight at all. Originally, he had even wanted to test whether he could force his way out and save the trap for later.

Now it was clear that was impossible. His very life was hanging by a thread.

With a single slash, he knocked back the rock-and-earth bear, then sprinted in one direction. When the frogman shot after him, Xiao Yong sent out a flaming slash to force it away.

Seeing that the frogman did not dare meet his fire-infused blade head-on, Xiao Yong could not help but sneer. This was the flaw of low-grade monsters: in the same rank, their combat power was pitifully weak.

If only there were not so many of them, what had he to fear?

With the rock-and-earth bear at his heels, Xiao Yong actually smiled. If he could deal with this most troublesome monster, his chances of escaping would only grow greater.

If he stayed and fought to the death, then even if he managed to kill some of the monsters, his own end would still be certain.

Once the rock-and-earth bear had chased him to a certain point, Xiao Yong gave a strange smile. Then the ground beneath the bear’s feet suddenly exploded with violent force.

Boom!

Flames surged straight up from the earth, engulfing the rock-and-earth bear’s massive body completely.

“Roar!!!”

The blow dealt tremendous damage. Even with both of its defensive skills, the rock-and-earth bear could only cry out miserably.

Lu Sheng frowned at the sight. He had not expected so many fifth-rank monsters still to be unable to bring the man down.

In battles between the same rank, low-quality monsters were indeed too weak.

He would still need to find some high-quality monsters to nurture.

At this moment the rock-and-earth bear lay on the ground, its body blackened, having lost all fighting strength.

Lu Sheng immediately summoned the giant crocodile and the stone-throwing goblin, preparing to finish the man off with full force.

“Hahaha! Now let’s see what else can stop me!” Seeing the rock-and-earth bear blasted to the ground, Xiao Yong instantly grew smug.

Without the rock-and-earth bear, what did the rest of the monsters matter, no matter how many there were?

As long as he did not get entangled, as long as he did not fall into an encirclement, he could leave!

But before he could bask in his triumph for long, a giant crocodile over thirty meters away suddenly appeared before him, while not far off, beside Lu Sheng, there appeared also a smoking stone-throwing goblin carrying a basket on its back.

The appearance of these two monsters made the hair all over his body stand on end, and a sense of danger surged through him.

Under Lu Sheng’s command, Green Stone had already hurled three exploding red stones toward Xiao Yong.

Looking at the three crimson stones falling from the air, Xiao Yong’s experience told him they were extremely dangerous.

A flaming slash tore out!

A blade of fire shot toward the red stones, but unfortunately it only intercepted two of them.

Blade energy and the red stones collided in midair, and both burst apart.

The two red stones shattered into countless fragments that shot into the surrounding crags, with thunderous booms echoing without end.

Though he had blocked two of them, one remained.

When Xiao Yong saw the last red stone hurtling toward him, and after witnessing its explosive power, he hastily dodged.

He would not even dare think of taking it head-on. That red stone could explode!

Barely two seconds after he fled the spot, the red stone burst open at the very place he had just stood. Countless fragments sprayed outward, and two fine shards blasted into Xiao Yong’s thigh.

An instant later, searing heat erupted within his leg, a sizzling sound rose from the wound, and a plume of white smoke curled into the air!

“Ah!”

Suffering such an injury, Xiao Yong could not suppress a cry of anguish. With his leg hurt, his movements slowed as well.

At that moment, the giant crocodile’s water cannon finally finished condensing, and a powerful water sphere shot from its gaping maw, smashing toward Xiao Yong.

By then Xiao Yong was too late to dodge and was struck head-on.

At once, his body was sent skidding as if hit by a heavy truck, crossing several dozen meters in a single second before crashing into a boulder and stopping at last.

The water cannon exploded, and Xiao Yong collapsed limply to the ground like a dead dog.

The frogman did not waste the chance. It stepped forward, raised its spear, and viciously drove it into Xiao Yong’s limbs, piercing four bloody holes before escorting him to Lu Sheng’s side.

When Tang You and the others saw the captain’s miserable state, they were all dumbfounded.

Their once invincible captain was now being dragged over like a dead dog.

The five of them had been captured as soon as the battle began. With their strength, they were utterly unable to withstand fifth-rank monsters, even goblins of the lowest quality...

Lu Sheng decided to interrogate them and see whether they knew anything about the drifting sands.

That thing could only be obtained by fighting for it oneself; buying it from someone else was basically impossible. Who would give up an item that could restore one to full condition in an instant?

Unless it were some great expert, but could Lu Sheng afford the price?

He could only get it through his own efforts, and without any intelligence, these people were the best source of information.

After a glance, he saw that Xiao Yong had actually been knocked out cold by the giant crocodile’s water cannon.

“Wake him up.”

At his command, the frogman roused Xiao Yong. Its method was simple and brutal: a single strike from bottom to top, a blow that went straight for the soul, successfully woke him.

The surrounding five all tightened up in fear. Too vicious. Too ferocious.

“Ah!”

A belated cry of agony, sharp enough to tear the heart apart, rang out. At Lu Sheng’s signal, the frogman slapped Xiao Yong across the face, making him shut his mouth.

Standing atop a rock, Lu Sheng looked down upon them all from on high. “From now on, I ask, and you answer. If your answer is unsatisfactory, your fate will be the same as your captain’s.”

The five nodded frantically, like chickens pecking at grain, terrified of displeasing him.

“Good. Remember, this is your only chance to survive. If no one can give me an answer that satisfies me, then I’m very sorry.”

Looking down at the six men pinned beneath him, Lu Sheng said slowly, “Which of you knows the whereabouts of the drifting sands, or the location of the desert giant?”

The crowd froze.

They had no idea how to answer that at all.