Half an hour later, Ning Fan was still sitting by the campfire, staring intently at the map.

In the firelight, his face was focused, oblivious to everything around him.

"Eat something."

A roasted beef bone was thrust in front of him.

Ning Fan looked up in surprise, seeing a kind face.

Da Zhuang.

"It's shadow dog meat. Don't eat too much; the miasma content is too high."

Da Zhuang smiled: "We're risking our lives here. Treat yourself to something good. This meal's on me."

Beef bone, Upper City food.

Though there wasn't much meat, it smelled delicious.

And it was healthy too.

The aroma wafting from the beef bone was incomparable to shadow dog meat. Just the smell made Ning Fan's mouth water.

But what made him happiest wasn't the beef bone itself.

It was that from this moment on, the Stray Dog Pack seemed to have accepted him.

He was now considered one of the little stray dogs in this den!

"Thank you."

Ning Fan didn't stand on ceremony.

Da Zhuang laughed: "In our dog den, we don't say thanks. When you earn some Solas, you can treat me back."

"Sure! Brother Da Zhuang, I'll treat you to beef next time!"

Da Zhuang nodded with satisfaction, then leaned in to look at the map: "Brother Chuan said you're making the plan, right?"

"Yeah."

Ning Fan scratched his head: "But I'm a bit nervous."

"What's there to be nervous about?"

Da Zhuang patted his shoulder with his greasy hand: "Brother Chuan said your brain works better than ours. We trust Brother Chuan, so we trust you too."

Although Da Zhuang was trying to encourage Ning Fan, it only added to his pressure.

Ning Fan just noticed that Da Zhuang's left hand only had a thumb.

The other four fingers seemed to have been chopped off by something.

But Ning Fan didn't ask, and tried not to look too much, feeling it might be impolite.

Soon, everyone had rested and gathered around.

"Kid, how's it going?"

Lin Chuan yawned, his demeanor showing no sign that they might soon be fighting for their lives.

"Brother Chuan, I've thought of three plans. You can choose one."

Just as Ning Fan was about to explain all three plans, Lin Chuan interrupted him.

"Don't make it so complicated. Just tell us the one you think is best."

Ning Fan frowned.

After much consideration, Ning Fan finally steeled himself and looked at Qiao Fei.

"Sister Fei, you're the only one with a Ten-Soul level Soul Servant, so for this mission, I've decided to make you the core!"

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Qiao Fei, who was polishing her katana, paused briefly, then nodded indifferently.

"Alright."

......

On a gray hillock in the Ghost Mist Forest.

A tall, square-faced man with a nearly burnt-out cigar in his mouth gazed down at the misty forest below.

"Damn, staring's making my eyes hurt."

The square-faced man cursed: "Why haven't those stray dogs shown up yet?"

This man was Sun Wang, the leader of the War Bears.

"Brother, do you think... they might not have taken this route?"

Beside him, a man as thin as a monkey cautiously asked, "What if they went through the Snake Hole? Wouldn't we have wasted our time?"

Sun Wang frowned, thought for a moment, then shook his head: "They shouldn't. Didn't Yang Beihai say? These stray dogs are very cautious. The Snake Hole is risky, they'll definitely choose the safest route."

"But this is taking too long!"

The monkey-like man checked the time and sneered, "Could they have fallen along the way?"

"That would be best, save us the trouble!"

Sun Wang snorted coldly: "But I don't think that's likely. According to Yang Beihai, these stray dogs are quite formidable! There aren't any strong aberrant beasts on this route that could threaten them."

The monkey-man was about to speak when Sun Wang's gaze suddenly sharpened.

"They're here!"

Through the haze, a car assembled from scrap metal slowly approached.

Sun Wang's eyes lit up, and he waved his hand: "Time to work!"

The eight men behind him stood up simultaneously, moving to the edge of the hillock, staring at the car moving through the mist.

"Can you see clearly? Is it the car Yang Beihai mentioned? Don't fucking attack the wrong people!"

Sun Wang confirmed once more.

The monkey-man squinted for a while: "That's the one! Green canopy, red wheels!"

"What are we waiting for then? Get them!"

Sun Wang made a quick decision: "Let's do this quickly and disperse! After this job, we'll go back and have some fun with the ladies!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a fireball half a meter in diameter suddenly fell from the hillock, moving at an incredible speed!

At the same time, the monkey-man, true to his nickname, began leaping and bounding down the hillock, jumping from tree to tree in the Ghost Mist Forest, approaching the car.

Sun Wang took off his leather jacket and tossed it aside, revealing his solid chest.

"Stray dogs? Haha! No matter how tough they are, they're still dogs! How can they compare to bears?"

As he spoke, Sun Wang led his men in a charge.

As they sprinted, they released their Soul Servants, launching a near-devastating attack on the car.

In the blink of an eye, the car was unrecognizable, completely blackened with smoke continuously billowing from it.

Under such a powerful attack, even if there were immortals sitting in the car, they would be dead for sure.

However, when the monkey-man was the first to reach the vicinity of the car, he realized something was wrong.

"Brother! The number of people in the car... it's not right!"

The monkey-man shouted from the tree to Sun Wang.

Sun Wang was stunned.

But then, a flash of electricity sparked!

"Soul Servant, Spark!"

From a distant tree, Old Duan's face was cold as he swung his long staff!

Before the monkey-man could react, he felt a crackling sound around his body!

"Ah!!"

The monkey-man was electrocuted and convulsed, falling from the tree.

He landed right in front of Sun Wang.

Sun Wang and his men were stunned.

The monkey-man's teeth chattered as he forced out the words: "In the car... there's only... one corpse..."

Sun Wang felt a chill run down his spine!

The time rewound to an hour earlier.

"Actually, after careful consideration, although we don't know the War Bears' information, on the flip side, they might not have an absolute information advantage either."

Ning Fan sat by the campfire, his gaze sweeping across everyone: "At the very least, they probably don't know that we've already foreseen their ambush."

Lin Chuan's eyes lit up, not interrupting Ning Fan.

"I tried to look at this from the War Bears' perspective and suddenly realized a problem: how are they identifying us?"

Ning Fan rubbed his chin, getting into his rhythm: "They can't possibly stand in the middle of the road waiting for us, that would negate their ambush advantage! And with the Ghost Mist Forest perpetually shrouded in mist, if they're too far away, they shouldn't be able to see our faces clearly."

"So..."

Ning Fan pointed outside the cave: "I think I understand why Yang Beihai prepared this car for us in advance!"