Jiang Hao's eyes widened as he turned to look at Yun Xinghe and said, "Why are there so many jackals here? There are already 800,000, and they keep coming out of the teleportation array. There are also 100,000 humans, like... like their suicide squad."
Upon hearing that there were so many gnolls, everyone was filled with fear. Qiu Si's legs went weak, and he could barely stand.
Yun Xinghe pondered for a moment and said, "General Ling Shun belongs to the Gnoll Empire's expeditionary force. Although the Gnoll legion he leads isn't very strong, they have one characteristic: they won't come unless there's something valuable to be found. Without enough profit, they simply won't be attracted to come here. Logically speaking, a harsh and cold place like this, due to its extreme difficulty in development, should have long been designated as an abandoned land by the Gnoll Empire. How could it possibly set foot in this place on its own initiative?"
Yun Xinghe's expression suddenly turned somewhat grim. He pondered for a moment and muttered to himself, "It has to be him. He was forced to come here. And the one who could mobilize him must be the command of the Jackal Empire's expeditionary force."
"Have they made up their minds to develop this territory?"
Yun Xinghe shook his head and said, "No, no, that's not right either. The Command must be aware of the difficulty of developing this realm. If they wanted to develop this place, they would at least send one of the Five Tiger Legions of the Expeditionary Force, or at the very least two of the Ten Wolves Legion. Why would they send Ling Shun?"
Yun Xinghe's eyes lit up as he said, "Do you think it's possible that something good has appeared here, something that's good enough to attract the gnolls?"
Upon hearing that it was something good, everyone else's eyes lit up.
Jiang Hao was also a little excited and said, "What? It could be something good?"
Yun Xinghe said, "It could be a large spirit stone mine, or a large number of magical beasts with magic cores inside their bodies."
The light in everyone's eyes turned into little stars.
Jiang Hao became even more excited and said, "A large spirit stone mine? A large number of magical beasts? We're rich! But what are all these things for?"
Yun Xinghe was completely baffled by him, and frowned as she said, "Huh? No, you don't even know what these two things are, so what are you so excited about?"
Jiang Hao feigned innocence, saying, "How could something good that can attract the Gnoll Empire be bad? Tell me quickly, what are these two things used for?"
Yun Xinghe nodded, looking at Jiang Hao with a half-smile, and said, "Both of these things are related to teleportation arrays. Spirit stones are used to construct teleportation arrays, and magic cores are used to activate them for teleportation. Surprised? Unexpected?"
Jiang Hao immediately lost interest.
He can't even build a teleportation array, so what would he need spirit stones for? The magic cores are even more useless; the account doesn't have a single usable teleportation array anymore. Does he intend to take those magic cores back and give them to kids as marbles? How idle is he?
Instead of wasting time like this, you might as well remotely summon a gnoll and kill it for fun; you could even increase your main attribute!
Thinking of this, Jiang Hao quickly raised his staff, about to activate a ranged monster-pulling spell, but Yun Xinghe grabbed his arm early on.
"What are you trying to do? You're not planning to fight monsters right now, are you?"
"Is that not allowed?"
All the other teammates were completely bewildered; by this point, they couldn't understand the two's conversation anymore. Fighting monsters? Are there monsters here?
Only Yun Xinghe had no doubt that, once he had a field of vision, Jiang Hao could really pull the monsters he saw over one by one, even if there were snow and wind dozens of kilometers in between.
Yun Xinghe shook his head and said, "It's not the right time yet. Let's go find the Spirit Yang Wood first. Once we have enough Spirit Yang Wood, we can then rob the jackal people of their spirit stone mines and magic cores. Wouldn't that be better?"
At this point, Yun Xinghe winked smugly at Jiang Hao. Then the two of them started laughing lewdly again.
"Hey, hey, hey, can you two pause for a moment? I need to consume mana to maintain my talent borrowing."
Zuo Ming said somewhat aggrievedly from the side.
Jiang Hao was a little embarrassed and said, "Oh, well, let's remove the talent. We can get it back when we need it. By the way, how long can you maintain this talent borrowing at most?"
Zuo Ming held up two fingers.
Jiang Hao asked, "Two minutes?"
Zuo Ming smiled and shook his head, saying, "Two days! With my mana, I can last at least two days. But that also consumes mana."
Oh well.
With his distant view suddenly disappearing, Jiang Hao had no choice but to look at the wind and snow in front of him again.
The group decided to head north, cross the edge of the boundary, and then go deeper into the area to search for the Spirit Yang Wood.
After discussing the plan, Jiang Hao, full of fighting spirit, took the lead and paved the way, with the others following him. Qiu Si, in particular, refused to fall behind Jiang Hao.
Yun Xinghe called out from behind the group, "Um... why walk when you have mounts? Are you planning to sightsee on foot?"
Huh? Yeah, that's right.
Just as everyone was about to summon their mounts, Jiang Hao had already summoned the Skeleton Roc.
The enormous skeletal roc, resembling a giant passenger plane, landed beside the group. Jiang Hao, taking the lead, leaped from between its bones into its belly.
After everyone else had climbed up and been helped up, Jiang Hao had a thought, and the skeletal roc pushed off with its legs and flapped its wings, plunging headfirst into the snowstorm above.
The biting north wind, carrying icy snow, fell on them, quickly stripping everyone of their body heat. Jiang Hao was alright, as his higher attribute value allowed him to endure it. As for Yun Xinghe, Qiu Si, and Zhu Lin, they were unaffected because of a magical shield around them. But the others were no match. They were all shivering from the cold, especially Zuo Ming. The snot bubbles that had just appeared on his nose were blown apart by the cold wind, turning into ice shards that nearly cut his face.
If this continued for too long, they might die from hypothermia, so Zhu Lin, without waiting for their requests, cast a magical shield on each of them.
The pale faces of the group gradually regained their color, their bodies stopped trembling, and they looked more energetic. They either looked up at the swirling snow or stared curiously at the giant skeletal roc, looking around.
Jiang Hao felt much more at ease after the magical shield was placed on him. He thought to himself, why not take advantage of everyone's presence and learn that ancient martial arts manual?
After greeting Yun Xinghe and the others, Jiang Hao opened the Dingbei City token. Upon opening the Ancient Martial Arts Pavilion, he found the Dragon Body Technique, priced at 200,000 professional points, still there. Without hesitation, Jiang Hao used his last exchange opportunity and immediately chose to learn it.
Just like the process of learning the Thunderclap Skill, extreme pain struck, causing him to collapse. After a long time, just when everyone thought he was dead, Jiang Hao slowly woke up. After wiping the black substance off his face, Jiang Hao began to guzzle blood-replenishing potion.
In this way, the two opportunities to redeem basic ancient martial arts techniques for free have been completely used up.
I have finally successfully learned two ancient martial arts techniques: one that increases attack speed by 30% and attack power by 30%, and another that increases all three attributes (strength, agility, and intelligence) by 30%.
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