"What! Your daggers are made from the fangs of those monsters?" Zhou Min exclaimed in surprise. Do I imagine it, or has she become too easily surprised lately?
"Yes, you didn't know? Xiao Hou has almost the same ones," I said, shrugging and returning to work, of which there was still a lot.
"And where did he get them from?" she asked, no longer reacting so wildly to everything.
"Well, I showed him my way of fighting, he liked it and asked me to teach him. As a parting gift, I left him a couple of daggers, and then he made himself better ones," I said indifferently.
"I see…" Zhou Min finally calmed down, approaching and examining the monster's corpse from which I was gradually removing the armor.
It took me about an hour to deal with all the armor, and we moved on. In total, we managed to hunt about ten ice armadillos in one day. Of course, not all of them were as easy as the first one; sometimes there were pairs, and then I had to struggle. And sometimes even singles took my soul out and forced me to strain to kill them. So by the end of the day, I was tired like I hadn't been in a long time, but I fulfilled my goal, I managed to get the soul of an ice armadillo, only one, but that would be enough. During all the time of my impoverished stay here, I managed to obtain three more servant souls, so I had five free servant vessels and one leader vessel left.
After the third one, Zhou Min stopped being surprised by anything and walked with a stony face, expressing her complete powerlessness in this situation. However, after the eighth, she started looking at me with frightened eyes, and after the tenth, she sighed with relief because I said that was enough for today. But Jiaxing Er had a completely different reaction; with each armadillo I killed, her eyes sparkled more and more, as if she were looking at a deity and was about to fall before him in prayer. It's not that it annoyed me. No, it was even cute, but still slightly frightening.
"Are you even human?" Zhou Min asked me directly, while Jiaxing Er was preparing dinner. "To kill so many true leader-level monsters in one day! You simply cannot be human!"
"No, I am human, and this is the result of my efforts," I said, slightly hiding my fatigue. "My teacher gave me much more difficult training, which, by the way, awaits you ahead," I chuckled, looking at her.
"Uh… As you say, teacher?" Zhou Min replied, stumbling slightly and smiling awkwardly. "Are we returning tomorrow? You need at least a week of rest to fully recover after this," she added solicitously.
"No, it's too early yet. Tomorrow we will quickly move to the area inhabited by earth armadillos and kill a couple of them, and then we can go home," I chuckled. Leave now? No, of course not! We still haven't gotten everything we need!
"What…?" Zhou Min was surprised, and then continued in a detached voice, staring at the fire. "Do as you wish, teacher, you're definitely crazy!"
"Thank you, I see you regret becoming my student?" I asked.
"Yes! And more than that! I wouldn't wish it on an enemy to learn from a teacher like you! Although if I become just as strong, I can endure it," she said, shrugging.
"As you wish," I shrugged and didn't continue the conversation.
The night passed peacefully, and the next day we reached the earth armadillos, killing about five more, but still not getting a soul. I myself was getting tired of being here, and their soul was not so critical, so I decided to kill one or two more tomorrow and head back. This news greatly pleased Zhou Min. There was another reason for our departure; my spatial bracelet was slowly starting to crack at the seams. I planned to return to Lhasa, which was closer than to the City of Hope, and buy a new spatial bracelet there, and then head to the foothills of Qing-Lun for an earth panda.
On the way back, we killed a couple more earth armadillos, after which the bracelet was stuffed to the brim and refused to take anything else. I was also lucky; I finally got a whole soul, so good souls would go to the shield and armor. The way back was much faster, as we mostly walked and trained much less. Of course, this was not very good for the girls, but they would still have time for systematic training.
After four days, we were already approaching Lhasa. It was at this moment that I decided to remember my plan and, using bait, set a group of beasts on us. Naturally, if the girls found out about this, even Jiaxing Er would consider me crazy, and I would agree with her. However, I am confident in my abilities, and we can definitely escape. Giant Tibetan wolves and kibangs lived here mainly, both beasts of mid-to-high servant level, so even Jiaxing Er, if she tries, can defend herself against them.
At night, from the fourth to the fifth day, I sat down to cultivate as usual, while keeping an eye on the girls. Discreetly taking the bait out of my spatial bracelet and throwing it somewhere was not a problem, but I decided to wait for the right moment. Zhou Min was on watch first, so the attack should happen in the first half of the night. She initially trained, honing her skills, but soon sat under a tree and simply observed the surroundings.
It was at this moment that I realized it was time. Taking the bait out of my spatial bracelet, I used space magic to send it a little further away from myself and opened it. At first, of course, there was no effect; the smell of the bait had to spread around first. In general, it is used by the military for two main purposes. The first is to distract monsters; a wind mage throws the bait somewhere further away, thus clearing the path for the main squad. The second use is to gather monsters from a certain territory in one place for their destruction.
You could say that I am going to help the military using the second application of the bait. After about five minutes, I heard footsteps, which made Zhou Min jump up from under the tree and come to me and the sleeping Jiaxing Er, preparing for battle. She frantically looked around, trying to find the source of the sound. Soon, the first monster appeared, a giant Tibetan wolf, almost the same as the one I set on her on the first day. This time, Zhou Min did not use a fire fist; instead, she used an explosive wave, a third-tier beginner-level magic. She compressed it, albeit a little, but it was enough to scorch the wolf, but not kill it.
"Hey, Jiaxing Yun, Jiaxing Er! Get up, we have problems!" she shouted, sending another spell at the wolf.
I opened my eyes; the wolf had sustained serious wounds, but it was not scared by this, but rather enraged and lunged at Zhou Min. The second spell stopped it; burning all the fur and skin on its muzzle, it looked quite unpleasant. At this moment, another wolf emerged from the other side.
"I'll take care of him, you finish this one," I said, jumping to my feet and taking out my daggers.
"Yes!" Zhou Min replied quickly, nodding her head and sending another spell at the wolf.
"Huh? What's happening?" Jiaxing Er asked sleepily, getting to her feet and looking around. "Wolves!" she shouted, seeing the third wolf that had been led. "Where did so many of them come from!" she yelled, quickly forming a clot of poison in her hands and hitting the ground with her fist. A wave of poison traveled thirty meters to the wolf, slowly poisoning it.
"Jiaxing Er, be careful, don't go far from Zhou Min!" I warned her, using a wind rush and jumping onto my wolf, holding my dagger forward.
Jiaxing Er's wolf broke into a run at the same time as mine, but couldn't do much. After running about twenty meters, it fell and rolled right to Jiaxing Er's feet; its paws, body, and muzzle gradually dissolved and turned into an incomprehensible goo, and its tier was gone. However, it wasn't going to give up so easily. It tried to bite the girl standing nearby. But Jiaxing Er jumped back a meter and sent another ball of poison to the wolf's head, after which it stopped moving, and a trickle of dissolving flesh flowed from where the ball had hit. After all, Jiaxing Er's poison is very unusual and strong; it dissolves a high-level servant so easily, being only a first-tier magic!
Meanwhile, my wolf was not an idiot and dodged my direct rush, quickly turning and heading towards me again. But unfortunately for him, he was not a problem for me. Using a wind blade, I swung my dagger, sending the spell directly at the wolf. The reinforced third-tier magic, almost four times stronger, was enough to cut the wolf in half from the chest down, so it quickly fell dead. By this time, Zhou Min was already fighting the second wolf, which was already badly burned.
"Zhou Min, try using ice magic to restrain them; your second tier should be enough for that," I said. Of course, I have nothing against her fighting style, but she should learn to combine ice and fire in battle; it will make her much stronger.
"I'll try! What's happening anyway!" she shouted in response, completing the star path of an ice wave and directing the spell at the wolf approaching her.
Jiaxing Er, meanwhile, was also fighting, creating more and more of her poisonous mist and directing it at the approaching wolves. Of course, it was clear that she was at the limit of her abilities, and without body tempering, she would have fallen long ago, but for now, everything was normal. And the wolves were becoming more and more numerous. I didn't have to rest for long; five approaching wolves attacked me at once.
"You are too annoying," I said, swinging my two daggers simultaneously and immediately cutting down two wolves.
After that, with a jump and a wind rush, I was about twenty meters high and from there I launched three more lightning wraths at the remaining three with a slight delay, compressing them a little harder than usual and aiming precisely at their heads. In shock after the death of their comrades and my sudden, as it might have seemed, disappearance, they didn't immediately understand what had happened, and the spells hit their targets precisely. Three wolves lost their heads, and in their place were scorched remnants. I, right in the air, using wind boots, changed my direction and landed on the nearby trees.
"Aren't you going to help them?" Asura's slightly surprised voice sounded in my head.
"Not entirely, I just want to give them an opportunity to hone their skills, but at the same time, I don't want to turn this into a deadly battle," I replied, killing two more approaching wolves with wind blades, and also assessing the situation on the battlefield. Zhou Min and Jiaxing Er stood almost back to back, leaving space for each other. Thanks to this, the entire clearing where our camp was located was divided into two halves.
The first, where Zhou Min was fighting, was a realm of ice and fire. Here and there fire burned, and the ground was covered with frost. No, this was not precise magic control from Zhou Min; she acted much simpler, attacking different targets with appropriate magic. She burned one wolf, and froze the paws of another, and then burned it. Yes, there is no variety, but her ice alone cannot kill high-level servants, even with the knowledge I gave her. As for her body tempering skills, they are still quite low, and it's too early to judge them.
The second half was shrouded in a greenish mist, not entirely; it gathered closer to its owner, Jiaxing Er. She understood her strength and how she surpassed many mages. If Zhou Min is a mid-level mage and it's not too difficult for her to deal with high-level servant monsters, especially after receiving so much useful information from me, then Jiaxing Er is different.
"Ha, she's only approached the second tier, and she's dealing with high-level monsters! Incredible!" Asura chuckled, interrupting my calm reflections.
"Yes, you're right," I chuckled, killing four more superfluous wolves with lightning wrath. "Her poison is very strong, and its power can even be compared to the third tier, plus its unique properties of literally corroding living flesh make it very useful in battles. And her skills in creating mist and controlling it are also noteworthy."