Newbie Guardians

Chapter 23 Ambush

At 10:30 a.m., the five of them gathered at the school gate, where the college had prepared a six-seater SUV. Cheng Ziyu drove, Mu Lingshan sat in the passenger seat, Jin Jun and Huang Xin sat in the second row, and Liu Hanqin sat alone in the back.

After driving on the highway for about an hour, they turned onto a rugged mountain road. The vehicle was well-equipped and very comfortable; amidst the bumpy ride, Huang Xin and the others drifted off to sleep.

At 1:15 PM, the vehicle entered Daohua Village. Upon hearing that people had arrived, Village Chief Wang Changfa hurriedly led the villagers out to greet them. The village was small, with only twenty-one households. The five men arrived at the village chief's house, where they drank tea and listened to him describe what had happened.

"That's the situation. We don't know if the cow was eaten or stolen. Young heroes, please help us think of a solution!"

"Shall we go check out the cowshed first?" Liu Hanqin asked his teammates for their opinion.

"Let's go take a look!" Jin Jun stood up and agreed.

The other teammates had no objections, and the five of them, surrounded by twenty or thirty villagers, arrived at the cowshed. Only the village chief followed them in; the rest of the villagers stood far away, whispering among themselves dozens of meters away.

The teammates split up to investigate the scene, but Huang Xin remained rooted to the spot. Thousands of recurring dream experiences had instilled in him an inexplicable sense of crisis. However, while the cowshed was chaotic, there was nowhere to hide; theoretically, there shouldn't be any possibility of an ambush. But what was emanating this intense sense of oppression?

Suddenly, Huang Xin noticed something that seemed out of place.

"Look, what's that?"

Huang Xin pointed to an inconspicuous corner where a semi-circular fragment of a stone tablet lay. The village chief ran over, picked it up, glanced at it, then quickly threw it back on the ground.

"That's a tombstone! How could there be a tombstone in a cowshed?"

Liu Hanqin stepped forward, picked it up, and while examining it carefully, he secretly glanced at Cheng Ziyu.

"It does indeed look like fragments of a tombstone. Village chief, should we send someone to check the surrounding area to see whose tombstone is broken?"

"Okay! I'll go and inform them right away."

The village chief ran out quickly.

"Ever since he saw this tombstone, he's seemed very scared. Could there be something going on?" Jin Jun asked, looking at the village chief's retreating figure.

"That's true, we'll ask him about it later!" Liu Hanqin also felt that the village chief was a bit strange.

"Remember to bring this tombstone!" Kim Jun added.

Huang Xin looked at the fragments of the tombstone and slowly said,

"Do you think this character is the traditional Chinese character '刘'?"

"It really does look like it. The tomb owner's surname is Liu. So, the village chief must know something," Liu Hanqin realized belatedly.

The five returned to the village chief's house, but he didn't come back for a long time. They went to the village entrance together and saw the village chief and a large group of villagers standing there anxiously waiting. In the distance, a boy of about fifteen or sixteen years old came running in a panic, shouting as he ran.

"Oh no! The Liu family's ancestral graves have been dug up!"

"Quick! Let's go take a look!" the village chief shouted, leading the way as he ran out of the village, with the other villagers following closely behind.

"Let's follow them and see!" Liu Hanqin said.

The five people exchanged glances and followed at a distance.

After following for about twenty minutes, an old-looking grave came into view. It had been dug up, with freshly excavated yellow and black mud everywhere. It didn't look like it had been dug with a shovel or other tools; it looked more like it had been dug by some kind of animal. The coffin lid was off, and the grave was full of broken wood, as if a corner had been gnawed off before it was violently pried open. Inside the coffin were numerous fragments of clothing, already badly decomposed. The body or remains were nowhere to be found.

"Damn it! Who did this?!" the village chief cried out in grief.

Huang Shen pointed to the bushes,

"Look, don't those look like footprints?"

Upon closer inspection, everyone saw clear indentations.

"If it was stepped on, how big would the footprint be?" Huang Xin gestured with her hands to form a circle about half a meter in size.

"No way! The footprints are so big, isn't that a huge monster?" Cheng Ziyu stared wide-eyed, a hint of fear showing in her beautiful eyes.

"It's alright, it's alright, we're here, we'll protect you! Jin Jun, Huang Xin, you agree, right?" Liu Hanqin comforted her.

No one paid him any attention; everyone was lost in thought.

Seeing that everything was beyond repair, the village chief had no choice but to accept his fate and led the villagers back. The villagers were all dejected, and no one noticed Huang Xin and the others who were watching from a distance.

Seeing that the villagers had all gone far away, the five of them walked towards the footprints. After observing them carefully at close range, they deduced from the pressure marks in the soil that they were indeed huge footprints, and they all agreed with Huang Xin's judgment.

Following the footprints, the five people cautiously moved forward. As darkness fell, a full moon hung in the sky, illuminating the desolate wilderness as if it were daytime. A cool breeze blew by, and Huang Shen shivered; the feeling of being watched resurfaced.

"Be careful, pay attention to your surroundings, watch out for ambushes!" Huang Xin warned.

All five drew their weapons: Jin Jun carried a spear, Huang Xin a longbow, and the other three carried staffs. Jin Jun took out a bundle of fire arrows and handed it to Huang Xin.

"What if a fire breaks out?"

"Don't worry, Mu Lingshan is a water elemental, so she can't be burned. Fire usually overcomes everything and has a deterrent effect on all kinds of ferocious beasts. It can also provide light."

Huang Shen nodded to indicate that he understood, took the arrow bag, and carried it on his back. It weighed about 20 or 30 pounds, which wasn't too heavy.

Suddenly, Mu Lingshan seemed to have discovered something.

"Huh! What's this?"

Everyone looked and saw a small puddle, its surface emitting a strange green glow under the moonlight.

Mu Lingshan walked forward, Huang Xin followed closely behind, and the other teams followed as well. Suddenly, Huang Xin saw a second and a third similar puddle not far away, and quickly grabbed Mu Lingshan's hand.

Mu Lingshan's gaze turned cold. She was about to break free when she noticed that Huang Xin wasn't looking at her but was staring intently ahead. Puzzled, she unconsciously followed his gaze and saw two identical puddles not far ahead.

"It's a formation!"

As soon as Mu Lingshan finished speaking, the three puddles emitted light simultaneously. After converging in the middle, a beam of green light flew towards Mu Lingshan. It was too fast; Mu Lingshan hadn't even reacted yet. Huang Xin suddenly released his grip and slammed into her, sending Mu Lingshan flying. In mid-air, she turned her head and watched as Huang Xin was struck by the beam of light, his figure vanishing without a trace in an instant. The warmth of the light lingered in her palm.

After a moment of disorientation, Huang Xin found himself in a dense forest. A message appeared before his eyes:

You have entered the Forest of Death.

The Forest of Death is an extremely dangerous death-type secret realm. Since no one has survived to this day, the difficulty level of the secret realm is unknown.

Meanwhile, there is another task information:

You have completed the trial mission. Please claim your mission rewards.

Since you achieved a perfect score, you've gained dual-class abilities. Given your strengths in speed and reflexes, we recommend choosing the Night Archer or the Stealth. You can choose to accept this option or select one of the other two classes.

Night Archer, an extremely rare archer class. Possessing superhuman vision, they are unaffected by light and can see everything clearly even in the dark, leaving opponents nowhere to hide.

The Stealth is an extremely rare assassin class. They possess abilities such as stealth, strong resistance, and shadow strikes.

Huang Shen accepted without hesitation.

New information has emerged:

You have successfully advanced to Night Archer and unlocked the passive ability – Super Vision.

You have successfully advanced to the Stealth class and unlocked Active Skill 1: Stealth.

Stealth: Upon activation, you will enter a 15-second advanced stealth state, during which you can move freely. Casting any skill or making any attack will immediately break the stealth state. Cooldown: 5 minutes.

Unlock Active Skill 2: Powerful Resistance.

Powerful Resistance: Once activated, you can resist any attack once. Note that this skill cannot resist damage from falls from heights. Cooldown: 5 minutes.

Unlock Active Skill 3: Shadow Strike.

Shadow Strike: Once activated, you can instantly dash behind an opponent within 15 meters, causing a 100% chance of stunning them for half a second. During this time, all your attacks have a 100% hit rate on the target, and no attack can be dodged.