Sneak Attack

In the silent Yuanshuo Mountains, Lin Chen and his group of twelve walked quietly, with Li Yin from the Hunter Alliance leading the way.

Having spoken with Professor Gu Jing before, Lin Chen already knew that Li Yin was also a master hunter. Under his guidance, the group had been traveling safely outside the Anjie, and had not encountered any demons so far.

"We're about to enter the depths of the mountains and forests. The number of demons and their ferocity will be far greater than before. Everyone, be on high alert," Li Yin suddenly said.

Upon hearing this, everyone immediately became alert. Even those following behind Li Yin constantly scanned the dark corners of the surrounding trees with their eyes, ready to deal with any possible emergencies.

As high-level mages and talented juniors from various forces, although it was their first time working together, they were able to maintain a certain level of understanding. Several times, when they encountered sudden attacks from demons, they relied on the danger signals revealed in each other's eyes to successfully turn danger into safety and kill the demons without taking any damage.

After continuing to walk deeper into the Yuanshuo Mountains, Lin Chen gradually moved to the back of the group. After the first eleven people had passed through a thicket of bushes, Lin Chen quickly scanned the surrounding area. Finding nothing unusual, Lin Chen quickened his pace and caught up with the people in front.

As Lin Chen was about to leave the bushes, a strange sense of crisis suddenly enveloped his heart.

Lin Chen suddenly accelerated, moving at more than twice the speed of before.

The moment Lin Chen left the bushes, he instinctively lunged forward. Almost simultaneously, the ground where the bushes stood cracked open, and a thick, long black shadow burst forth, rushing towards Lin Chen's location.

Fortunately, Lin Chen managed to dodge the attack by falling to the ground in time. The noise made when the shadowy figure appeared also attracted the attention of the people walking in front.

Professor Gu Jing stared at the scene before her, her expression turning extremely grim. She knew Lin Chen was very strong, but Lin Chen was a summoning mage. All his strength lay in his summoned beasts, yet Lin Chen hadn't summoned his Digimon beforehand.

This made Professor Gu Jing feel extremely guilty. Even though Lin Chen was a genius, his wilderness survival experience was definitely not as rich as hers and the others. She had forgotten to remind Lin Chen to summon his Digimon beforehand because there were many people in the team and they were quite strong.

Professor Gu Jing and the others rushed towards Lin Chen, trying to rescue him from the shadowy figure. However, Lin Chen was too close to the shadowy figure to cast a mid-level spell in time, so they could only cast a low-level spell first. But the low-level spell was difficult to be effective.

Before Professor Gu Jing and the others could unleash their magic to attack the dark figure, they were stunned by what they saw.

Lin Chen, who had fallen to the ground, felt that the crisis looming over him had not yet dissipated. He quickly stood up and looked ahead.

Not far from him, a large, eyeless, yellowish-brown snake, as thick as a water bucket and nearly ten meters long, twisted its body and darted out in a flash, opening its huge mouth again to pounce on Lin Chen.

Just as the eyeless, yellowish-brown serpent was about to pounce on Lin Chen, Lin Chen unleashed a punch, instantly drawing a dazzling star map. A massive flame, carrying intense heat, roared out and swallowed the oncoming eyeless, yellowish-brown serpent whole.

The eyeless, yellowish-brown snake writhed and rolled in the scorching flames, trying to extinguish the fire. But the flames only grew stronger and stronger, and soon the snake was burned to death.

"Is this a Star Chart?" A moment later, Li Yin's exclamation broke the frozen atmosphere in the room.

"This battle ended too quickly! Our basic spells hadn't even touched the giant snake before Lin Chen took care of it!" said Dongfang Xiang, a junior from the Dongfang family.

"Isn't he supposed to be the top summoner? His main focus should be summoning, right? How come he can even create a Star Chart with a single thought for his mid-level fire magic?" Bai Ziming, a high-level mage from the Bai family, felt a little uneasy. If he could also create a Star Chart with a single thought, his speed in casting high-level magic would be much faster, and his strength would be greatly enhanced.

Hearing the exclamations of surprise from the other factions, Professor Gu Jing's face lit up with joy. Although he didn't know exactly what was going on, it was still a good thing: "See? This is the strength of the geniuses at our Pearl Academy. They're not the monkeys some people are talking about."

Upon hearing this, the two members of the Zu family looked rather grim. They knew that Gu Jing was mocking them, but they hadn't expected Lin Chen to be so strong. A mere fire cultivator could actually create a star map with a single thought.

No! Fire magic can create a star map with a single thought, so this must be Lin Chen's main skill. Summoning magic should be Lin Chen's secondary skill.

After realizing they had figured out the truth, the two members of the Zu family looked much better.

Since fire is the main skill and summoning is the secondary skill, then the summoning skill must not be very good. It's still just a monkey.

Professor Gu Jing didn't care what the Zu family members were thinking at this moment, and quickly walked towards Lin Chen.

"Lin Chen, are you alright?!" Professor Gu Jing asked with concern before she even reached Lin Chen.

"It's nothing, just a scrape." Lin Chen smiled slightly, then asked, "Professor Gu, what kind of monster is this? How come it's hiding underground without making a sound? You know, I specifically checked the surrounding area, and this big snake doesn't even have eyes."

Upon hearing Lin Chen's question, Professor Gu Jing quickly walked to the side of the monster's corpse and began to examine it carefully.

Professor Gu Jing truly lived up to her reputation as a giant in the field of demon biology. Even though the demon was burned to a crisp, Professor Gu Jing quickly drew conclusions based on the surrounding conditions and the demon's corpse.

"This isn't a snake, it's an earthworm. It likes to hide underground and is very difficult to spot," Professor Gu Jing explained. "It's fortunate that you used fire magic to burn it to death. Its vitality is very strong. If you had used other magic, even if it had split into several parts, it could still have launched a fatal attack on you."

Lin Chen nodded, a sense of relief flashing through his mind. Luckily, he had used magic; if he had used a demon-slaying tool, he might have been dead.

After seeing that Lin Chen was alright, Li Yin continued to lead the way.

However, after Lin Chen's sneak attack, everyone became more vigilant, since not everyone can achieve the One Thought Star Chart like Lin Chen.

After this incident, Lin Chen stopped being so arrogant. Before Professor Gu Jing could even remind him, he summoned Garurumon, sat on its back, and leisurely followed behind the group.

At this moment, Jiang Shaoxu, who had been walking in the middle of the group, slowed down for some reason and was overtaken by one person after another until she finally came to be at the same level as Lin Chen.