Chapter 496: Loophole

Wu Yan’s facial expression was not looking good. The criss-crossed wound was extremely devastating, with the other members not even daring to go near it.

Three thousand card artisans, not reduced to seven hundred! An injury or death rate almost one in four. This was enough to prove how scary the team before them was. The most infuriating thing was the damned chronic poison! He completely did not know when the team started to be poisoned. The medical card artisans who followed the team had no way of dealing with this type of chronic poison, giving a diagnosis of around twenty days! Enduring past these twenty days will prevent these poisoned card artisans from having their senses damaged, instead causing them to strengthen.

Damn it, twenty days! Wu Yan’s heart clenched uncontrollably every time that number came to mind.

Twenty days were enough for too many things to happen!

What was worse was, due to the overly rushed move-out, they did not bring sufficient medication. When the leader of the medical team informed him of this, he wanted to smash the brains of the logistics in-charge into pieces!

Shi Fengfei, Wang Yong and Qi Li walked towards Wu Yan.

“Head!”

“Boss!”

Wang Yong and Qi Li looked at Wu Yan worriedly – his face was not looking good at all.

Shi Fengfei sat down, fatigue showing on her delicate face. Her dark blue, smoky eyes had lost their glow. She was in a sorrowful mood, her voice filled with pain as she said, “The captain of the Section Seven could not be salvaged, and has passed away.”

Wu Yan’s hand made a gesture as his expression hardened. This was the third captain level card artisan that they had lost. The captain of the Section Seventh had a perception strength of grade seven, a competent artisan regardless of where he was deployed at.

“He was shot through the right chest by the energy shuttle,” Qi Li added briefly.

Everyone was in silence. The Snow Worm Card Artisan Team had left a deep impression in them. This type of energy shuttle seems no different from normal energy shuttles on the surface. However, it was extremely fast, and its penetration extremely scary. Facing these energy shuttles, normal energy shields were as weak as a lump of wet paper.

Shi Fengfei bit her lips and said, “We underestimated them.”

This line was what some of them felt most strongly towards. Before this, they had been assuming that this was an easy chase battle, like a cat after a mouse. The Snow Worm Card Artisan Team’s escape merely wasted more of their time. Every Blood Hammer Unit card artisan carried attitudes of complacency – the Blood Hammer Unit being used for a small card artisan team that was completely unheard of, it was like using a cannon against a mosquito. How wasteful!

Despite so, no one would have expected that it was this small, unknown card artisan team that brought them so much trouble and suffering.

The opposition had strong moves, flexible and sharp battle strategies, and powerful attacks, things that only top class card artisan groups possessed!

“Their card artisan shooting attacks are very accurate, extremely accurate!” Shi Fengfei emphasised with a solemn look on her face, “Their shooting rate is extremely quick, and it seems like the environment has little impact on them. Now, I actually kind of believe that they have a large of amount Sniper Card Artisans!”

Shi Fengfei was the long-range card artisan in the Blood Hammer Unit. It was the first time that she had given out such high praise!

No one suggested otherwise. These few days, they deeply felt how accurate the opposition card artisans were. Even hearing the low rumbling sound of a normal energy shuttle now was enough to make their skin jump.

“Yes, they have great chemistry, extremely logical firepower distribution, organised battling style and retreat sequence,” Wang Yong’s wrinkles on his face were mashed together and he said deeply, “I feel that this resembles a military style.”

“Military?” Wang Yong’s words caused a few people to reveal expressions of surprise. As they all recalled the battles over the past few days, their expressions became more solemn.

“Now that Wang mentioned it, I agree that it does have some resemblance,” Shi Fengfei was the first to respond, “With even their retreat formation being so organised, it’s hard to imagine anyone else of such level of precision other than the military.”

Her words made sense – one could tell the battle disciple of a team based on how they retreat.

“Also, their cards!” Qi Li’s face of arrogance in the past was no longer visible. Touching his chin, he said in agreement, “Did you all notice something strange? There were no instruments on the corpses of their artisans! Over the past few days, we did not manage to seize even one of their cards. I could not make sense of it in the past, but now that Wang mentions it, I really think there is a possibility! Why would they care about their cards if they were not from the military? They must be trying to hide their identities!”

The cards used by military card artisans were all custom-made, evidently different from normal card artisans.

“That is possible,” Wang Yong said in a deep voice, “However, proof is still needed to determine whether they are from the military. With their cards being so powerful, it is normal for them to not want the cards to end up in our hands.”

“What if it is the military?” Shi Fengfei voiced the concern of many in the group.

Everyone fell into silence was once.

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If this Snow Worm Card Artisan Team indeed belonged to the military, they are in big trouble. Why would the military want to hide their identities? That was naturally the most curious thing. Regardless of the reason, they are not people that the Scarlet Card Artisan Team could afford to offend.

“It is too late to think about all these now,” Wu Yan said coldly, “The trouble has already been caused. What’s the point of thinking about it? Even if they are from the military, we will finish them off this time! Killing them off is the only way for us to survive!”

A few of the people’s expressions changed drastically as they mulled over the words of their leader before a moment of enlightenment!

That’s right! The only way to survive was to win!

“Their overall strength is powerful, and furthermore, their leader is extremely skilled, we are not their match!” Wu Yan said without any reservation, “This is the first time I’ve seen a leader of this level of strength. Who would have thought that a small card artisan team would have such a formidable figure hiding within it! However,”

Everyone got their spirits back up.

“Their overall strength is strong, their battle chemistry unrivalled. However, there is a loophold!” Wu Yan’s stone-cold face did not contain any expression as he spoke word by word, “They do not have an elite!”

Qi Li’s eyes sparkled as he slapped his leg and said excitedly, “Yes, yes, yes! Not facing a proper opponent has gotten me perplexed over the last few days. Turns out, they do not have any elites!”

Wang Yong and Shi Fengfei were both extremely excited.

Shi Fengfei’s beautiful eyes sparkled as she said calmly, “That’s right. If they do have an elite, just by sending the elite to harass us discreetly would have increased our injury and death rates by half! The losses on their side would have been much less as well. The opposition not sending out an elite even at this point must be due to the fact that there are so few of them!”

“This is our only chance!” Wu Yan said coldly, the criss-crossed wound on his wound unmoved.

“What are our casualty numbers?” Bogner snatched the tea in front of Xi Ping and took a wild gulp.

“77 dead, 206 wounded,” Jiang Liang stood upright in front of Bogner as he accurately reported the casualty figures.

“Hmm, better than I had imagined.” Bogner nodded his head as his glance turned to Sue Lochiro. Considering the fact that this team had never been through hard battles and had pathetically minimal experience surviving in the woods, these casualty numbers were far better than what he had predicted.”

Coming to his sense, Sue Lochiro reported, “The amount of medication that we had brought is sufficient. Out of the 206, 140 of them will be able to recover in a week, while the remaining 64 will need more time.”

“Alright.” The frown between Bogner’s brows had dissipated significantly, “This time, it is all thanks to Lady Sue Lochiro. If not for you, our casualty numbers would definitely have been increased by more than half.”

Bogner’s praise made Sue Lochiro blush slightly as everyone looked at her with admiration. Sue Lochiro’s efforts were not only seen from a medical aspect, but also evident in the battlefield, especially the chronic poison that she had concocted. Before they set off, Bogner requested her to create a chronic poison that can cover a wide range. While not exactly willing, Sue Lochiro still delivered the completed product.

Not long after they entered the woods, Bogner secretly poured the chronic poison on the bushes that he walked past. Within the woods, the smells were extremely complicated, making the chronic poison, which gave out a sweet scent similar to certain types of flowers, hard to be detected. Once consumed into one’s body, the poison takes three days for clear symptoms to surface. Its only function was to temporarily invade one’s perception. Those who did not take the antidote would experience the effects for twenty days.

If they were to be able to endure the twenty days, the poisoned card artisans would instead experience significant growth in their perception strength.

This chronic poison was an unexpected property that Sue Lochiro possessed. Her initial intentions were to invent a medication that could help increase the perception strength of card artisans. Due to Bogner rushing her for time, she thought of a half-completed product.

After she told Bogner about the functions of it in detail, Bogner immediately decided that that was what he was looking for!

In truth, Bogner’s foresight had always been extremely sharp. When this poison unleashes its decisive function, the poisoned card artisans’ perception strength will become two thirds of its original strength level. The only downside is that this poison had no effect on overly powerful card artisans. For those elites in the Blood Hammer Unit with grade seven perception strength, the poison had no impact on them. Among the 283 casualties, nearly half of them were such elites.

This was the most pressing concern for Bogner. In this aspect, the elites were leaps and bounds above them. Especially in complicated environments such as the forest, the instinctive abilities and ruthlessness of elite card artisans were extremely frightening.

However, what came as certain comfort for everyone was the fact that the casualties suffered by the opposition was significantly greater than the rest.

While the Blood Hammer Unit had forest experts as well, it was obvious that Bogner was still sharper than them. Furthermore, Bogner’s strength was using his geographical environment to attack his enemy – a swamp, a blood-sucking vein, and even various wild beasts in the woods could become the most devastating weapon in his hands. With their perception strength lowered by a third, for these card artisans, the dangers of the forests were greatly increased.

Non-battle members were the greatest problem for any leader.

As for the card-setting artisan under Bogner, they have formed a strong chemistry after this period of training as well.

Bogner put down the tea cup in hand and smiled, “After this long, they should have more or less detected something. Little Ginger, let’s start preparing for Plan Number Two.”

Little Ginger…

The veins inside Jiang Liang’s brain started to jump.