Douluo: What the hell is the academic master development system?

Chapter 205 There are still masters
It was the dead of night, and considering the time needed to travel, by the time they arrived at the bandits' location, it would most likely be around four in the morning, just before sunrise.

This is usually the time when people are sleeping the most soundly.

Although the physical abilities of Soul Masters on Douluo Continent are different from those of ordinary people, even during cultivation, this time is usually when Soul Masters are drowsy and least focused on their training.

He and Ma Xiaotao went to gather intelligence at this time, which was like kicking the cripple's good leg. It was a bit unethical, but it worked.

First, use the flying soul tool to fly to the entrance of the mountain, and then walk into the Mingdou Mountain Range.

Upon arriving at the Mingdou Mountains, Chen Ping emphasized a very important principle—three slows and one fast.

Approaching the target area is slow, the reconnaissance process is slow, and the evacuation preparation is slow; however, the response after exposure is fast.

Unlike in the original story, where Ma Xiaotao and Ling Luochen, two inner court students, were sent to clear the way, this time they were there to conduct close reconnaissance and needed to minimize the traces they left behind.

Traces are intelligence; this principle applies not only to opponents but also to teammates.

What can be bent should not be broken, what can be stepped over should not be trampled, and what can be left unmoved should not be touched.

Following a zigzag route around the dense vegetation, the three traveled quickly yet almost silently, leaving no noticeable traces.

At this moment, they seemed like three leopards that had roamed the Mingdou Mountains since birth—deadly, dangerous, appearing and disappearing without a trace.

Soon, Chen Ping and the others arrived at a patch of warm trees nearby.

Chen Ping clenched his fist, signaling Ma Xiaotao and Ling Luochen to stop, then squatted down, forcing a line of sound.

"This is the Wenlan Tree. Its heartwood can be eaten. For Soul Masters who cultivate Yin-cold Martial Souls, its heartwood not only has an auxiliary effect, but also enhances the internal organs' tolerance to Yin-cold Soul Power."

"Simply put, this thing is suitable for evil spirit masters to use."

Ling Luochen looked at the hollowed-out tree heart and, with remarkable insight, immediately understood, pressing his voice into a sharp line: "You mean, the leader of the Death Hand bandit gang might be an evil soul master?"

Chen Ping nodded slightly: "That's right, but besides that, we can find more information here."

"To find an enemy in such a complex wilderness environment, you can't look for where the person is."

“A bandit carrying a torch, a machete at his waist, and wearing leather armor is a bandit.”

"But the fruit pits left over by bandits, the cigarette butts left after they've smoked, or their excrement also represent bandits."

As he spoke, Chen Ping pointed to the partially buried campfire remnants in the crevices of two rocks near the Wenlan Tree, and the smoke marks on the rocks that could only be vaguely seen with the excellent eyesight of a Soul Master.

“Bandits have lit a fire here, and the charcoal residue from the campfire isn’t particularly damp, which means that at most two days ago, a group of bandits came here to collect tree heartwood.”

"The Wenlan tree is a rare species. Given its rarity, such a vast forest of Wenlan trees would naturally be an extremely valuable resource in the eyes of the leader of the Death Hand bandit gang, so their base must not be too far from here."

Chen Ping rubbed the still quite dry charcoal, and quickly determined the time of the bandits' arrival based on his experience in starting a fire. Realizing that the enemy should be nearby, a look of excitement finally flashed in Ma Xiaotao and Ling Luochen's eyes.

Chen Ping's combat strategies are good, but they are too frustrating. They are simply deliberately suppressing their strength!

With a light tap of her toes, Ma Xiaotao leaped into the air, reaching a height of forty or fifty meters, taking advantage of the cover of night.

The Soul Emperor's eyesight was enhanced to its limit. He quickly scanned the surroundings and soon found the enemy's possible location, following Chen Ping's instructions on finding traces of the enemy.

Using her powerful soul force, Ma Xiaotao took several quick steps in mid-air and gracefully descended from the sky.

"On the left, you can vaguely see a hillside about 500 meters away. There are many footprints heading down the hillside."

Ma Xiaotao proudly reported the clues she had found.

Chen Ping silently wiped the cold sweat from his forehead: "Did you notice if there were any Soul Master sentries behind the hillside? If so, what's the chance they could also spot your location using their own eyesight?"

"If our close reconnaissance mission is discovered, it will be like stirring up trouble. Once exposed, we will lose the element of surprise in our subsequent operations. Have you considered that?"

Upon hearing this, Ma Xiaotao couldn't help but break out in a few beads of cold sweat on her forehead.

Chen Ping's words just now made a lot of sense. If someone with excellent eyesight or equipped with a soul tool similar to a "soul-guided night vision goggles" was indeed stationed on the hillside, Ma Xiaotao's rash actions would inevitably destroy the entire operation.

Fortunately, these scattered and disorganized soldiers, bandits and thieves, didn't seem to have the awareness to equip themselves with that kind of thing, as did the sentries.
The three of them crept silently to the cave entrance, only to find several bandits lying haphazardly asleep on the ground there. Inside the cave, there did seem to be a Soul Master sentinel, but he had already covered himself with an animal skin and gone to sleep.

Hmm. The bandit leader inside the cave relied on the Soul Master sentries to stand guard for him so he could sleep soundly. The Soul Master sentries responsible for guarding the entrance were outsourced to ordinary bandits.

Ordinary bandits naturally didn't have the ability to continue outsourcing, but it was already past midnight, and the bandits who had been guarding for most of the night were too tired to stay awake. Since everyone above was asleep and no one could control them, they naturally huddled together and slept at the door.

6!
Chen Ping was so angry at the sight that he laughed.

He originally thought that Ma Xiaotao's reckless jumping up to search for the enemy's tracks was already undisciplined enough, but comparisons are odious!
They should have been bandits by the mountain, but they didn't value their own lives at all. Their defenses were so lax; they were just waiting for their homes to be ransacked.

Because both sides were sufficiently unaware of their own danger, a strange balance was formed.

It's outrageous that Ma Xiaotao's presumptuous act of jumping up to look for clues is no big deal!
Excitement gleamed in Ma Xiaotao's eyes. Just as Chen Ping had initially predicted, this girl really did want to slaughter all these bandits by herself.

"Let's look for other exits first. There are more than 300 of them in the cave. If the exit is blocked, they'll be finished as soon as the trap is closed. There should be other exits."

Ma Xiaotao and Ling Luochen both looked at Chen Ping with some suspicion. Could these bandits really be that smart?
Chen Ping glanced at the two girls, whose brains were probably full of muscles, and sighed.

In the original story, this group of people rushed in recklessly and got blown up like complete idiots.

If there were no other exit, the Grim Reaper in the original story would have been killed by his own corpse explosion long ago.

(End of this chapter)