Anyway, this mission counted heads. The more heads they collected, the more generous their commission would be. They hadn't expected Situ Yi and the others not to disappear.
When Madam Qiao Qiao had cheated with the storage talisman earlier, only a few people had noticed. Now, as she released people from the storage talisman again, there was a flash of brilliant light. The area was suddenly filled with Situ Yi, Little Fatty, and about twenty other people.
Little Fatty rubbed his palms, chuckled, and then abruptly summoned his divine beast, the Radiant Ironclad Turtle. He weighed the twin hammers in his hand for a moment before charging into the mercenary group first. Behind him, Duanmu Qing's wood spirit quickly spread out, reinforcing Little Fatty's earth shield with another layer of defense.
When it came to group combat experience, no one was more seasoned than the Sky Star combat team. When they usually trained together, they researched various cooperative tactics, so they could execute dozens of combat maneuvers in mere minutes. They had been utterly frustrated just now; those turtle-sons had caused trouble in the forest, making them scramble initially, having to deal with the giant tree-vine monsters in the illusion array and these little mice as well. It was infuriating. Now that they had the chance, they naturally intended to reclaim their dignity completely!
The mercenaries began to have bad luck. They hadn't expected such a fierce counterattack, and in just a few moves, their formation was broken. They weren't even from the same mercenary group to begin with; a dozen or so mercenary groups had cobbled together a disorganized band of stragglers, so how could they have any teamwork?
Now that they were suddenly scattered, the mercenaries panicked a bit, and a few, seeing the situation was dire, immediately tried to slip away.
Duo Ya narrowed her eyes, and a surging water spirit instantly smashed into one of the mercenaries. She quickly pounced, using her knee to skillfully pin the person's chest. Without a word, she drew a sharp blade strapped to her calf and coldly slit the person's throat. The entire sequence of movements was almost seamless, without any unnecessary flourish.
Qiao Mu secretly nodded, greatly admiring her Senior Sister Duo Ya.
This chaotic battle ended in no time at all.
Qiao Mu grabbed one man by his hair, forcing the rather ordinary-looking male to lift his head. "Did the Divine Hall give you a mission to kill us?" Qiao Mu asked coldly.
The man stiffened his neck and remained silent.
"Who's your leader?" Qiao Mu's eyes turned cold as she pressed on.
The man grimaced in pain, initially stubborn and refusing to speak. Qiao Mu, however, couldn't be bothered with his nonsense. She directly applied a Truth Talisman, making him spill everything like beans from a bamboo tube.
It turned out that the Divine Hall had gathered nearly a thousand spiritual masters above level eight this time, forcibly entering the array to secretly deal with them. The leader was said to be a level twelve Grand Spiritual Master named Qiong Hao, a man of considerable means.
When Qiao Mu heard the name, she felt a slight sense of familiarity, but she couldn't recall if she had ever encountered him before.
When Qiao Mu asked about the corpse puppets, the man appeared somewhat bewildered. He clearly knew nothing about them.
At this, Qiao Mu's expression grew even more grim. This meant that the Divine Hall hadn't just sent this group of mercenaries to intercept them. They had also prepared a backup plan: if the mercenaries didn't suffice, they intended to use the special army of corpse puppets to harm them.
It seems the situation is more complicated than just a mercenary ambush. What do you think Qiao Mu will do with this new information about the corpse puppets and Qiong Hao?