Chapter 166 - C.o.c.kroach Assault (1/2)

Hei, his companions, and his other allies positioned themselves in front of a fire to have dinner together. Although it wasn't advisable to keep a fire in the forest in the evening, they were still a rather large and powerful group. Unless it had been a group of many spirit beasts, the latter wouldn't have dared to attack them. And even in that case, it was in doubt as to whether such spirit beasts would have dared to risk deaths among their numbers; after all, the best prey was what you could have with minimal effort.

Thus, Hei and the others had the opportunity to get to know each other and chat. For people raised in ordinary families, it was unimaginable even to think that they could interact with someone important from the Eight Big Families. Yet now, Hei and his other companions were sharing the same food with the family heads' sons of two of the Eight Big Families and the Sun Emperor's son.

Unexpectedly from what might be thought, Long Tian, ​​Feng Chen, and Hu Jie weren't arrogant or disdainful people toward whom didn't come from an influential family. Hu Jie was a very expansive person and said what he thought without dwelling too much on whether it was appropriate or not. He was a free and pure-minded person. Feng Chen was more calm and quiet and mostly preferred to interact with his partner Huli Xieren. But in any case, if he were asked a question, he would kindly answer.

As for Long Tian, ​​he didn't appear to belong to the Imperial Family at all. He had a friendly way of doing things and didn't want to make its origins weigh on others. In fact, he expressed that he didn't want to be called 'Imperial Prince.' In addition to that, although they were his guards, rather than a relationship between boss and subordinate, Long Tian had a relationship between comrades with the four young men assigned to protect him. Dae-Won, Hide, Xinya, and William could indeed openly express their thoughts and suggestions that would be welcomed by Long Tian. Nonetheless, even though Long Tian wanted to appear like an ordinary martial artist, he couldn't hide his origins. There was a feeling hidden in his way of doing and moving that Hei had difficulty describing.

'I can't explain it, but I feel that this person has something special. Even though I only met him today, my instincts tell me that I can trust him.' Hei thought to himself that he was amazed at this fact. Usually, he would feel mistrust of new people until he got to know them to a level he could trust them. But with Long Tian, it was different, even if he didn't know exactly why.

”I really needed a nice meal like this. I have to admit your food, Haruno, was delicious. It wouldn't hurt the White Tiger Family to have a talented cook like you.” Hu Jie complimented Haruno after tasting his cuisine.

Haruno was speechless at this compliment. He didn't expect someone important like Hu Jie to say these words to him, let alone make such an offer. ”Thanks, Hu Jie, about the offer...”

Haruno had been taken aback and looked with Mareo to understand what he had to do. From the little time spent with Hu Jie, he could see that he was a sincere and direct person. Considering that he was the son of the family head, it wasn't unlikely that he could nominate someone for a role within the White Tiger Family. But Mareo, too, was left taken aback and didn't know what words to suggest to Haruno. Fortunately, another person intervened to support them.

”You shouldn't be making such awkward offers Hu Jie,” said Feng Chen, who, despite appearing uninterested, had listened to the conversation from the beginning.

”Awkward? What do you mean, Feng Chen?” Hu Jie asked that he didn't understand what was wrong in his offer.

At that point, Long Tian stepped in to explain what was wrong with the offer made to Haruno. ”Even if you have good intentions Hu Jie, you should learn to weigh your words first. Haruno is a talented martial artist chef. The pasta he prepares is exceptional, considering he is only to the rank of spirit soldier. Therefore, in the future, his fame is likely to grow. To hook him up now using your family name is a little sneaky. Besides, he is currently part of Hei's team. If Haruno accepted your offer, you would involuntarily force him to have him follow you for this test and the rest of the period at the Academy.”

Hearing Long Tian's explanation, Hu Jie finally understood and put his hand on his head. ”Ah! Now I understand. I am sorry, Haruno, I didn't want to put you in such an awkward position. The same goes for you, Hei. I didn't want to try to steal one of your comrades.”

Listening to the apologies of someone like Hu Jie seemed decidedly strange for those unfamiliar with the young man of the White Tiger Family. Feng Chen, Huli Xieren, Long Tian, and his four guards smiled instead because they knew well Hu Jie's character. In the same way that he wouldn't have thought of certain aspects in interacting with others, at the same time, he would have had no problem apologizing and making amends if it was his fault, even if it was someone with common origins.

”Don't worry; you didn't do it with bad intentions,” Hei responded by looking up for a few moments to answer Hu Jie. He could understand a person's character thanks to his instincts, and they told him that Hu Jie was sincere. Then he returned to focus on his little sisters waiting for Hei to cut the meat of one of the jaguars they killed on the first day of the trial.

But unfortunately for the two little divine beasts, their time to taste that meat didn't come. Suddenly, an almost imperceptible buzz could be heard from every corner of the forest. However, this buzz was slowly increasing in intensity as a bad atmosphere began to spread throughout the forest.

”What is happening?” asked Leon, who started to feel uncomfortable all of a sudden. However, it wasn't just him; everyone else had stood up as well as they looked around.

”Fenrir, do you smell anything?” Lang asked Fenrir, who began to sniff to the right and the left.

”Ye, Xing, you too. Warn me if you perceive something.” Hei commanded his little sisters as he began to investigate his surroundings with his eyes.

Unfortunately, Fenrir, Ye, and Xing couldn't find anything. Even if there were sounds, Xing couldn't perceive them nearby, and as far as smells were concerned, there were only those of the spirit beasts that lived nearby. However, none of them was responsible for that strange buzz.

'They can't find the source? How is it possible? Fenrir's nose is highly developed as well as the senses of Ye and Xing. As the buzz gets louder and louder, they should be able to perceive who is causing this sound.' Hei meditated to himself as he began to mull over how to act.

”Wait, maybe I have an idea. You just have to remain silent.” Mareo said before putting his face on the ground, his ear resting on the ground.

Hei nodded to everyone else to do, as Mareo requested. He trusted in Mareo and his hearing skills. Mareo probably had an intuition and wanted to verify it before explaining it to others.

Suddenly though, Mareo got up and screamed aloud, ”Fly high. NOW!”

Without warning, Mareo rose into the air with a shocked face. Hei and his companions followed him without asking questions. Only from Mareo's face could they see that the situation had to be more severe than expected.

Seeing Hei and his team members flying high, Long Tian and the others who weren't part of Hei's team decided to trust Mareo's order anyway. During their brief interaction, they had been able to see that the group contained talented people who knew what to do in battle.

Crack!

In the ground beneath them, cracks suddenly formed and widened more and more. From these splits, large creatures ranging from one meter in length to three to four meters, came out. Even though it was night, thanks to the light produced by the moon and the fire still lit, Hei could see what creatures they were.

”C.o.c.kroaches!” Mia screamed as she felt a sense of vomit when she saw a multitude of c.o.c.kroaches like that. After all, c.o.c.kroaches were a species poorly seen by humans who killed such insects as soon as they saw them.

”How many are there? Are they more than a hundred?” Leon asked that he couldn't believe his eyes.

”Hahaha, fortunately, Mareo told us to fly. Or else we would have found ourselves surrounded.” Lilian laughed but, although she tried not to show it, she too was disgusted by that sight.