Chapter 157: Genius Archer Tiya
The grayish ghost body, like a rotten corpse, gave a strong visual impact, and even before approaching, it was as if one could smell a stench of decay.
Facing such an enemy, without proper means of response, it would be particularly uncomfortable, especially for those professions that only use physical attacks.
Karl methodically unleashed his ability, first using powder to make it visible, then manipulating that ghost cat to constantly harass and distract the opponent, finding opportunities to tear apart this corpse undead.
Unlike battles with living creatures, fights between ghosts do not rely on techniques, but rather on each other’s soul resilience, or rather, the life force of the dark side.
Clearly, although this ghost cat was small in size, its form was much more solid than the corpse undead in front of them, and it was clear-minded. Even with a slight disadvantage in overall nature power, it could still easily slaughter this mindless corpse undead.
About two minutes later, this ghost became weak, as if it could dissipate at any moment. At this time, Karl recalled the ghost cat and took out a special black skull.
He aimed the black skull at that ghost, and under the guidance of the invisible ‘death ash’ power, the ghost was slowly absorbed into the black skull and disappeared.
“Is this over?” Bona had adventured with him several times, but this was the first time she saw Karl use this skull to absorb a ghost.
“Yes, after going back, I can use some secret arts to refine the ghost in the skull into pure ‘death ash’ power, to enhance the black cat or strengthen my own nature.” The principle was roughly similar to ordinary adventurers drinking ‘blood wine’, but one was a thing of ‘blood law’ and the other was a thing of ‘death ash’.
“I’ll take this harvest, and when dividing the spoils later, deduct four gold coins from me.” Karl had Bad Apple note it down.
“Got it.” The other party indicated it was noted.
“But this corpse, does it have no other use?” The short captain walked over and poked the pile of rotten, dried bones with a tree branch.
“No use.” Karl shook his head.
“If it were some powerful bones, or the awakened ghost was very strong, it wouldn’t have been trapped in the dead tree all this time.”
“Let’s burn it with fire; it’s creepy to look at.” Bona raised her hand and suggested.
“Okay.”
Afterward, Bona went to the tree and gently blew on the dead wood. Soon, high-temperature flames rose, igniting the half tree trunk.
After dealing with it, the group set off again, chatting occasionally on the road about knowledge and interesting stories from exploration.
“Generally speaking, the harvest from secret realms is natural resources or monster drops inside, but sometimes, our harvest comes from the people who explored here before, the things they left behind or traces of their activity.”
“For example, in some secret realm, many people died before, until one time the enemies were cleared out, making that place safe, and the relics left by previous adventurers became resource harvests sought by later ones.”
“It sounds a bit melancholy.” Xilutiya thought that the owners of those relics were probably a group of people around their age, full of fantasy and hope when they entered the secret realm.
“At times like this, you can’t think too much, Tiya.” Bona walked beside the maiden, trying to infect her with her own enthusiasm.
“Anyway, everyone will die, so before dying, you must be happy.” This way of comforting made Xilutiya open her mouth, but she really couldn’t refute it.
After passing through a deep woodland path, the tree canopy overhead became a bit sparser, allowing some light to shine into the dim woodland.
There was a sound.
While the others still hadn’t noticed, Xilutiya heard a faint noise, looked up, and discovered some kind of wild beast eating things in the shrubbery hundreds of meters away.
Anything that could survive in this twisted secret realm shouldn’t be an ordinary creature. She stopped and carefully reminded everyone.
“Oh, you can spot prey that far away?” Bad Apple carefully observed that shrubbery for a while before noticing the subtle differences and moving figures.
“And you say you’re not a ‘ranger’; I think ordinary rangers don’t have observation skills as amazing as yours.” This captain complained.
“Can you hit it with one arrow? If you can reduce its escape ability, we can chase it and take it down together.”
“I’ll try.” Xilutiya had never shot prey that far before.
She loaded a ‘sickle thorn vine’ seed into the arrowhead, raised her ebony compound bow, aimed at the distant prey, calmed her mind, and slowly adjusted her state.
At this moment, she focused intently, her vision seemingly piercing through the gaps in the branches and leaves, ‘seeing’ the shape of that prey clearly.
This should be a deer, but its antlers were twisted in shape, and its fur kept changing with the environment, making it hard to discern.
The bowstring was drawn, the arrow nocked, Xilutiya held her breath, and when the prey’s position aligned with the arrow’s trajectory in her perception, she released her fingers.
The black arrow swiftly passed through the branches and leaves, silently embedding into the prey’s body.
This deer-like monster let out a startled cry, then began running, charging into the depths of the deep forest.
It leaped and ran all the way, then black thorny vines overflowed from the wound, constantly wrapping around the deer’s body until they spread to its legs, causing it to fall, then it was enveloped in layers of black thorny vines, unable to move.
【Twisted Forest Deer】（First Order·Emerald Honey）; A forest deer eroded by ‘twisted’ nature, with deformed antlers, most of its intellect lost, but still instinctively grazing on plants, fur can change with the environment to protect itself from detection.
The group hurried over, and then Bad Apple gripped his short sword, precisely stabbing into the deer’s eye socket, killing it and ending its struggles.
“Oh oh, newbies do have good luck.”
Bad Apple checked the dead forest deer, then stood up.
“This deer’s antlers and blood both have good value. Unfortunately, we just set out not long ago; if we’d encountered it on the return trip, we could drag it straight back to town.”
“The fur is very good; I’ll help you skin it later, Tiya.” Bona spoke up as well.
Although others in the team could also skin, none were as good as Bona, the professional chef. Through her hands, the fur could be peeled off intact to the maximum extent and sold for a high price.
“Just this one deer alone, the harvest is over 10 gold coins.”
The group stopped and stayed a while: first Bona skinned it, then Karl extracted the blood, Yarn helped saw off the antlers, Bad Apple cut off the deer meat. After a short busyness, their bags had more things.
【Twisted Deer Antler】（Good）: Twisted and tough antlers, not suitable for crafting tools, better for grinding into powder for potion making.
【Color-Changing Deer Hide】（Excellent）: Can be made into special capes that change color with the environment, favorites of certain thieves and assassins.
【Deer Blood】（Passable）: Beast blood containing ‘blood law’ power, usable for making blood wine, but lower quality due to pollution.
Later on the way, they encountered some other creatures: some were strange crows that flitted by, others prepared to ambush but were spotted early by Xilutiya, often taken down with one arrow, nailing flying birds or poisonous snakes to trees, where they twisted but couldn’t escape.
With this seemingly delicate maiden in the team, the journey felt exceptionally easy; the others just needed to finish off and collect the prey. Clearly supposed to be the one needing care, the newbie member seemed to have become the team’s main force today.
After killing these monsters along the way, their backpacks had quite a few more spoils.
Thus, until evening, they found a relatively safe place to camp overnight.
The orange campfire burned as the group, having walked all day, gathered around the fire to rest, watching Bona prepare the evening meal.
“Roasted deer meat, mushroom vegetable soup; wait a bit and it’ll be ready.”
Being able to eat hot, delicious food in this dark wilderness greatly restored morale.
Xilutiya now placed her compound bow on her knees, patiently checking it by the firelight; her slender legs reflected the firelight, tinged with a faint golden color.
Today, using the bow and arrow felt even smoother, even a bit addictive.
Sensing, aiming, finding the rhythm of the trajectory, confirming, releasing the arrow, hitting.
The arrows were like her arms, hitting wherever she pointed, extremely precise; this positive feedback was captivating.
On the other side, Karl was checking his various carried powder reagents, Yarn was lying on the grassland resting, and Bad Apple nimbly leaped onto a tree branch to observe the surroundings and stand guard.
Everyone was doing their duties; although not talking much at the moment, there was an intangible rapport.
Soon, Xilutiya smelled the aroma of roasting meat at the tip of her nose. She looked over curiously, watching Bona barbecue with special techniques: the heat containing ‘golden steam’ penetrated the ingredients, heating the inside and gradually transforming their properties to make them more nutritious. The original ‘twisted’ pollution also slowly transformed and dissipated during the cooking process.
Chef seems very interesting.
It was now hard for her to further improve crop quality, but if she could process ‘perfect’ quality food in this way, could she break the limit and create second order nature advanced food? It was said such food not only replenished stamina and nutrients but also had various special effects.
If there was a chance in the future, she wanted to learn related cooking knowledge from Bona; even if not as a career, making delicious food for herself would be very worthwhile.
