"If it is a deep exploration of all the corners, how much time do you need to spend?"
After thinking seriously, Qian Renfeng said, "Elder, I would probably need several months. When I fly in the sky, I cannot fully sense the life aura on the ground. And since those people are hiding, they must be hiding in places that even Spirit Beasts have trouble finding."
"If it is only scattered life signs, I cannot sense them at all. Only places where many humans have gathered and left signs of living can I directly discover."
"After all… I simply do not have that kind of detailed sensing and searching ability…"
Qian Renfeng was purely an assault-system Spirit Master. At most, because his Martial Soul was special, he had some abilities in other areas. Anything more than that, he really did not have.
In this era, understanding of spiritual power was basically equal to nothing. Even Titled Douluo did not have the ability to release spiritual power to search. Even by the time of Douluo II, this was still a rare kind of ability.
He dared to fight a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast, but if he was asked to do scouting, he could not promise how well he could do it.
"Feng Ke has scouting abilities. His Martial Soul, the Staff of Wind, allows him to use airflow to scout the surrounding area. However, even in complex environments like forests, his coverage is not fully reliable, and he can only maintain short-term detection."
Feng Ke was one of the two Spirit Douluo protecting Chen Ming, an Level 86 control-system tool Spirit Master. His primary role was to assist Qian Renfeng with support and control, using wind to amplify fire's power.
The other one was an Level 85 beast Martial Soul Spirit Douluo. He was a defense-system Spirit Master, mainly there to block attacks for Chen Ming when needed.
Hearing this, Chen Ming shook his head.
"Forget it. In that case, our strength is not quite enough. Even if we can find them, problems could easily happen. We still need the Heaven Dou Empire's main force to slowly come over. I wonder how far the road has been opened."
After learning the information for some time, Chen Ming returned to the camp.
As time passed, all kinds of support soldiers and supplies were slowly brought over. Information about the surroundings was also slowly being explored. Chen Ming guided the Imperial Guard, whether openly or not, to search in the direction of places where humans were located, leading those disaster-stricken people into the camp. Then, through each delivery of supplies, he sent them out.
But as time passed, the Spirit Beasts gradually reacted. Several times, small groups of Spirit Beasts had charged at the camp. The Spirit Beasts occupying the main roads also began to stir, wanting to attack the human forces.
But Dugu Bo was not someone easy to deal with. The current Dugu Bo had truly reached Level 95. His Martial Soul had transformed into a dragon, and he had two ten-thousand-year Spirit Bones and one Spirit Core on him. His strength was definitely not weak.
With a single strike, Dugu Bo killed several ten-thousand-year Spirit Beasts that had been blocking the main road, forcibly carving a path through their blockade with overwhelming power.
As the human forces gradually cleared the roads and worked to reconnect the isolated towns, the Spirit Beast side's leader finally could no longer remain idle.
By nightfall, the soldiers who had spent the entire day cutting through mountain stone were already asleep. Only a handful of Spirit Masters and well-trained troops remained on watch.
Thick fog soon rolled in under the cover of darkness. Taking advantage of it, dozens of Spirit Beasts silently scaled the higher parts of the mountain.
With a wolf's howl, the dozens of Spirit Beasts activated their Spirit Power.
They intended to trigger another localized earthquake and use falling rocks and landslides to bury both the road the humans had worked so hard to carve out and the workers themselves.
However, Chen Ming's side had long been prepared for this.
Lightning and fire exploded at the same time.
Shui Longjing, holding his Thunder Fire Sword, charged straight into the group of Spirit Beasts.
As his seventh Spirit Ring shone brightly, the Thunder Fire Sword transformed into a massive two-handed sword as tall as a person.
Every swing unleashed devastating area attacks.
"Wild Dance of Lightning!"
The black spirit ring slowly lit up. Lightning transformed into countless electric snakes that surged toward the surrounding Spirit Beasts. These spirit beasts all possessed earth attributes without exception, and each one had a cultivation of at least a thousand years.
The leading Spirit Beast possessed a cultivation of seventy thousand years. None of them were weak. Dozens of Spirit Beasts combined meant that Shui Longjing alone could not possibly contend against them.
But in the shadows, Dugu Bo's poison quietly extended outward, silently enveloping those Spirit Beasts. Because they had prepared in advance, Shui Longjing showed no abnormalities. The Spirit Beasts, however, began to feel their bodies turn weak and numb, gradually losing the strength to exert power.
Lightning danced wildly. The greatsword swung and instantly cut apart the bodies of several Spirit Beasts. The huge earth-attribute demon wolf let out an angry roar. A yellow-brown light burst from its body, and its huge body swelled several times larger, becoming almost bigger than a house. Its giant front claws directly collided with Shui Longjing's Thunder Fire Sword, causing a violent shock.
"Attack!"
Several Spirit Saint-level Spirit Masters led a group of Spirit Emperors and Spirit Kings out from the corners. Their Spirit Abilities, which had long been prepared, directly struck those Spirit Beasts. Although they could not truly threaten the stronger ones among them, they cut off the Spirit Beasts' retreat and killed those thousand-year Spirit Beasts.
The giant wolf's strength was about the same as Shui Longjing's. But after being weakened by poison, its strength clearly dropped a lot. After only a dozen or so exchanges, it fell into a disadvantage. If not for the earth attribute being good at defense, it would probably have been killed on the spot.
Seeing that the human Spirit Masters were about to win greatly in this battle and kill all the earth-attribute Spirit Beasts there, the leader hidden in the shadows finally could not hold back and appeared.
"Humans, do not act so wildly!"
An aged voice sounded from the shadows. A huge ape suddenly jumped out from the shadows, giving off a powerful and overbearing Spirit Power.
A Spirit Beast that could speak human words was, in the eyes of humans, a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast, an existence at the level of a Titled Douluo.
The moment this giant ape appeared, whether it was Shui Longjing or the other humans, their first reaction was to prepare to retreat at once.
But before they had taken more than two steps back, Shui Longjing immediately noticed something wrong. Although the black giant ape had a strong aura, it was not much stronger than him. It did not seem to be a true hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast.
The giant ape beat its chest and roared, as if it could not wait to rush forward and fight the human Spirit Masters to the death. But the aged voice sounded again.
"Ah Zhen, stop. Do not be reckless."
Looking in the direction of the voice, Shui Longjing finally discovered that on the neck of this seven-meter-tall black giant ape, there was actually a short white ape that looked only a little over one and a half meters tall. That aged human voice had come from the mouth of this ape.