Infinite Sun in the East China Sea

Chapter 308 A Little Trick
Most of the mountains on the Middle-earth were created by the gods. Morgoth once created the Mist Mountains in the middle of Middle-earth to hinder the gods' progress.

During the War of Wrath, the final battle between the gods of the First Age and Morgoth, much of western Middle-earth, where the main battleground was located, sank in the fighting.

After that, the Misty Mountains region became relatively west of the entire Central Continent, becoming part of the western part of the Central Continent. In the Third Era, the western part of the Central Continent was divided into two parts, east and west, by this mountain range.

The Gushan Expedition had to traverse this mountain range, which stretches for thousands of kilometers from north to south. They could either detour for thousands of kilometers and pass through Rohan at the end of the Misty Mountains, or cross several relatively easy passages such as the Gao Pass and Hongjiao Pass.

The orc town was located near the high pass.

These orcs guarded key transportation routes, robbing humans and elves who wanted to cross the Misty Mountains like bandits.

Elrond of the Valley's wife was one of the victims.

Elrond is Lady Galadriel's son-in-law.

After marrying him, his wife frequently traveled between the Valley of the Dead and the Golden Forest in order to see her mother, Lady Galadriel. The Valley of the Dead was to the west of the Misty Mountains, while the Golden Forest was to the east. On one occasion, while crossing the Misty Mountains on her way back to her mother's home, the elf was unfortunately ambushed by orcs and became their prisoner.

When Elrond and his two sons rescued his wife from the orcs, the elf was in extremely poor condition and had to return to Valinor to recuperate.

It was no coincidence that the Lonely Mountain Expedition stumbled into the orc town's trap, nor was it due to their lack of vigilance.

Unless they take a longer route, they will inevitably fall into the trap set by the orcs.

But the dwarves needed to reach the Lonely Mountain before the Day of Turin, and at their normal marching speed, there was simply no time to take a detour.

"I don't know if it's just my imagination, but Xu Feng seems to have relaxed a lot after this team battle," Xiangzi whispered to the little witch beside her.

After the two women flew to the vicinity of the orc town, they did not immediately join the Lonely Mountain Expedition. Instead, they sat on a mountain peak and waited for the opportunity to wait for their target to appear.

The pace of the reincarnators is much faster than that of the characters in the story, and the two have enough time to enjoy the scenery while having a heart-to-heart talk.

"is it?"

Mei said without changing her expression, "The captain is probably similar to those previous reincarnation worlds. He's been trying to get stronger every day and hasn't been relaxing."

Xiangzi stared at the little witch's smooth, jade-like face with a half-smile.

At this moment, a thunderstorm was falling in the Misty Mountains. The raindrops fell around the two of them but were blocked by the dim light, so they did not wet their clothes. The sparse raindrops made the little witch's whole body glow.

"Hehe, when the captain was going through the main quest of the reincarnation world... he was very serious. Even if someone tempted him, he was unmoved. This time, someone cheated on him."

Xiangzi knows Xu Feng very well.

This captain never hides his desires when it is safe enough, but he never indulges himself when he first arrives in a certain reincarnation world to carry out a mission. He only acts recklessly when he has figured out the basic situation of the world and is sure that there is no danger in that world.

One of the reasons Xiangzi chose to join forces with Xu Feng was that he resisted the temptations offered to him in the cycle of reincarnation.

But this time... the East Sea team hasn't completed the main quest of the main god yet.

There was something wrong with that person.

Something clearly happened while she was away.

She strongly suspected that the little witch would continue her philandering after returning to Moria and completing the task assigned by Xu Feng.

"Taking something that doesn't belong to you is stealing." Mei's lips curled up slightly.

"How...overconfident!"

Xiangzi rolled her eyes at the shrine maiden, who was scanning the scene hundreds of kilometers away. She said, "We shouldn't worry too much about this newcomer. The chances of them getting on the bus are extremely slim."

"Those two new female recruits who stayed in the Northern Wilderness are doomed. They haven't shown any interest in risking their lives to gain reward points, so they will be eliminated without a doubt."

"As for the one who participated in the expedition... he wasn't good enough either."

Xiangzi paused for a moment, then emphasized, "Yes, it's not good enough for this period of time."

She didn't take the male rookies seriously. The male rookies from the East Sea team were lucky enough to become the next 'Inbang', or talented enough to become the next 'Park Changho'... With Xu Feng intentionally controlling the difficulty, their luck might be better than Inbang and Park Changho, and they might survive longer.

No matter what, it won't affect her and Mei's status.

But it's different for female brides.

If she really encounters a talented and obedient new female recruit, she wouldn't mind having another companion, just like when she noticed Mei's talent and took the initiative to rescue her, although her motives weren't entirely pure at the time.

But before that 'companion' joins, at least we need to decide on the 'size and hierarchy'... just like with her and Mei.

Shoko admitted that she was inferior to Sakurai Mei, this little shrine maiden, in terms of both talent and allure... The Black Twins of the Claymore world, Akame and Kurome of Akame... all of this proves that the lecherous captain probably has twin sisters.

She doesn't have a twin sister.

But Mei had been saved by her several times before she took power. If she hadn't offered her help, the little shrine maiden would have died before she could find the motivation to live. They didn't make those experiences public, but they kept them all in their hearts.

This is also why the little witch was a little nervous when she first faced her.

Later, after she saw through Xu Feng's true colors, she felt no guilt, but she still respected Xiangzi to some extent and acknowledged Xiangzi's status.

If there are female reincarnators among the newcomers who have a chance to rise to the top, Shoko will also try to use Old Wisdom.

That's her cunning.

However, Xiangzi also discovered...

It has become much more difficult for newcomers to rise to the top.

The Sixteen Contemplations Sutra of Pure Land can greatly enhance a person's observation skills.

The beauty of an ordinary person is full of flaws in the eyes of someone who has cultivated the Sixteen Contemplations of Pure Land to a high level. Cosmetics cannot cover it up at all; on the contrary, it will make one look even more 'smelly'. People with insufficient mental state will even feel disgusted when they see such a scene. Xu Feng's mental state can accept such a scene, but ordinary people probably cannot make him like it either.

Moreover... a normal human body simply cannot satisfy Xu Feng.

My physical body is too weak to withstand it!
Even though Xiangzi had already cultivated the Sixteen Contemplations of Pure Land to establish his foundation, he would still be troubled by this at times.

Thinking of this, Shoko glanced at Mei with some resentment.

The practice of the Sixteen Contemplations Sutra of Pure Land will make one's body flawless and immaculate, and after reaching the sixth level of the sutra, one can be considered perfect; the little witch's realm was not high, but she repeatedly invoked the gods, and her body gradually transformed towards the sixth level of the sutra.

To the average person, the two have their own unique appearances and slightly different temperaments.

But to someone with keen observation skills, the little witch's body was far more perfect. "Not necessarily."

Mei smiled and shook her head: "Ordinary people won't always be ordinary people; if she survives this time and unlocks the first-tier gene lock, and then strengthens the appropriate bloodline after returning to the God Space, she may also rise to a higher position; however, unlocking the gene lock requires... a relatively dangerous situation."

Xiangzi toyed with the flying sword in his hand, a mysterious smile on his face: "Yes, that's why I'm still struggling with how much protection to give to the newcomers."

"Let nature take its course," Mei advised.

"The difficulty of unlocking the gene lock for the first time is not low, and even if she can unlock the gene lock, it only means that there is a possibility of successfully getting on board... There is still a very long distance between 'possibility' and reality."

"The stronger the captain is, the higher his demands will be."

"His strength has risen to... an extremely exaggerated level."

Xiangzi nodded, gazing at the small mountain range in the distance, and said, "The mountain giants are starting to move. Do you need my help?"

Those three monsters were much, much bigger than in the original story.

After they stood up, their bodies were half-standing in the clouds, reaching a height of over a thousand meters... The rock giants, over a thousand meters tall, were already incredibly heavy, and the commotion caused by them falling from their upright positions was like a natural disaster.

Moreover, these mountain giants' bodies faintly glowed with white light, clearly indicating that they possessed some kind of extraordinary energy.

The extraordinary power that could support such a massive body must have been of a very high level.

It was during a thunderstorm, and bolts of lightning struck the mountain giant, but they did not cause it any harm.

After the lightning entered the giants' bodies, it seemed to make their physical structure even taller.

From this perspective, it's not without reason that these mountain giants come out to play during thunderstorms; they're not just playing.

Of course, what these giants thought was a game could bring great danger to passersby... If the Lonely Mountain Expedition team hadn't been lucky enough, they would have been killed by stones thrown by these mountain giants.

In a sense, they are just carefree brats, natural disasters that act entirely on instinct and nature.

“No need. You’ve already killed a lot of monsters in this world. The reward points I’ve earned aren’t even enough for the God to deduct,” Mei said with her eyes closed.

When she opened her eyes again, her whole body radiated golden light from the inside out.

“My power in this state is very closely connected with the captain’s power. The stronger he is, the stronger I am… This connection includes more than just realms. The more knowledge the captain possesses, the stronger the power I can borrow from him.”

"At this point, I have already surpassed the limits that Murasame could reach."

Mei confidently stated, "Right now, I don't even need a second strike to kill the Mountain Giant."

"The only thing we need to worry about is not damaging the cores of these giants... those are precious materials!"

Shinmura Ame was drawn from its sheath, and a blazing golden light extended from the blade.

This golden light was even longer than the sword energy unleashed by Zhao Zhuikong using 'Pale Justice', and the power it contained was more than one order of magnitude higher.

After the flash of the blade, the thunder and rain within a radius of several thousand meters stopped for a moment.

A mountain giant who had just stood up was looking for playmates, but soon found that his body was a little unbalanced.

A huge rift runs from the right shoulder to the lower left abdomen, dividing it into two parts.

The upper body fell from a great height due to gravity, and after hitting the ground, the rock-like head broke off from the body.

Mei's eyes swept over the body of the Death Mountain Giant, and soon a smile appeared on her face: "As expected, such a large giant must need a lot of energy to move around, and there must be one or more energy cores! And I have found its location!"

After the mountain giant died, the light on the other two giants seemed to grow even brighter.

—They seemed to be angry about the death of their companion.

The two mountain giants sensed the source of the sword light during the attack and quickly locked onto the attacker.

So he strode with his enormous legs toward the two women, seemingly slowly but actually fast, throwing huge stones at them as he went.

These stones, with a radius of tens of meters, are also enveloped in a special white energy.

One of the stones grazed past Xiangzi and his companion, and even crashed into and collapsed several mountain peaks.

But Mei didn't care at all; such clumsy attacks were too easy to dodge.

She didn't continue swinging the sword, but instead let the light of the blade envelop her, transforming herself into a giant samurai sword, and instantly flew more than ten kilometers away.

Murasame's sword energy pierced through the bodies of the two mountain giants as easily as if it were tofu.

The white, extraordinary energy and the body forged by lightning were as thin as paper under the blade's aura.

When Mei reappeared, the light of the blade around her was already enveloping two jade spheres about ten meters in diameter.

The light emanating from the two mountain giants, now devoid of their jade spheres, dimmed instantly.

They moved forward a few more steps due to inertia, but then their bodies collapsed like ordinary rocks.

"I'm going to hand over the energy cores of these three mountain giants to Xu Feng. The rest is up to you." Mei waved to Xiangzi with a smile after taking the jade sphere from the first mountain giant.

These mountain giants have nothing special about them except for their energy cores.

Their bodies contained a large amount of gold, silver and iron ore, but they were all ordinary minerals. Xu Feng had mined countless minerals while mining mithril in Moria, so he didn't need those materials.

Although Moria is a mithril mine, this substance is rarer than gold in ore.

Normally, one ton of gold ore can be refined into a few grams of gold, while it takes several tons or even more than ten tons of mithril ore to refine one gram of mithril. The refined ore contains common materials such as iron ore.

"Tsk tsk, the little witch is actually this strong when she goes all out..."

Shoko dodged the flying rocks kicked up by the collapse of the mountain giant: "Is this the benefit of cheating? It seems... I shouldn't share anymore. A person's energy is ultimately limited."

"The identity of a mental controller allows me to stabilize my identity, but this identity also forces me to be distracted, making my progress slower than others."

Xiangzi gazed at the distant Lonely Mountain Expedition Team.

"Let's show more of our power later, after all, there are quite a few orcs in the orc kingdom."

(End of this chapter)