Sima Xian finally raised his head, his face still smeared with a few grains of rice. “Who said I gave up? I’m the kind of guy who gets more courageous with every setback. She doesn’t like bald heads, right? I have medicine for that! Today, I’m going with you again. Can’t I get a fake wig? She doesn’t like priests? I’ll go in armor today!” It turned out that yesterday, this guy had specially put on a priest’s robe to go to the Saint Alliance Auction House with Lin Xin to show he was refined.

Hearing him say this, everyone couldn’t help but laugh. Han Yu chuckled and said, “Sima, keep it up! We’ll support you spiritually. Pluck that little white flower of yours soon!”

Sima Xian wasn’t ugly. On the contrary, he had a masculine kind of handsomeness. His chiseled face was resolute and tough, and coupled with his burly and stalwart physique, he easily gave people a sense of security.

Lin Xin grinned and said, “I think you don’t even need to wear a fake wig. It’s best to show your true colors. Otherwise, even if you manage to win her over, what if she finds out you’re not really like that? Wouldn’t that cause trouble?”

Wang Yuanyuan nodded and said, “Brother Youyao is right. Since you’re pursuing her, the first thing you need to do is be sincere. Without sincerity, what else is there to talk about?”

Sima patted his bald head and said with a look of grief, “So, wooing a girl is this hard! I thought it was pretty easy for the captain!”

“What did you say?” Cai’er, who had been silent, slowly raised her head.

“Uh… I didn’t say anything. I’m full.” With that, the bald man fled in panic.

Cai’er turned to Long Haochen and said, “Is it really easy? Then I’ll create some difficulties for you in the future. I’m full too.” After saying that, she stood up and went back to her room. Long Haochen didn’t see the hint of a smile in her eyes as she left.

Stunned, Long Haochen watched Cai’er leave with an innocent look on his face. “Am I getting shot for no reason?”

Lin Xin chuckled and said, “Boss, I’m not one to stir up trouble, but Sima is creating discord between you and the vice-captain. If I were you, I couldn’t stand it.”

Long Haochen suddenly stood up, gave Lin Xin a faint glance, and said, “I don’t have to stand it!” Immediately after, he shouted towards someone’s room, “Sima Xian, come practice some close combat with me!”

Han Qian, the Vice-Alliance Master of the Saint Alliance, the Vice-Hall Master of the Knight Temple, and the Holy Knight Commander, was in a very good mood recently.

Since Long Haochen, this genius, appeared in the Knight Temple, he had devoted most of his energy to following Long Haochen and his Demon Hunt Squad, in addition to handling various affairs within the temple.

When Long Haochen and his team successfully passed the assessment and became a Commander-grade Demon Hunt Squad, Han Qian was genuinely worried for a while. Although he was Long Haochen’s grandmaster and held a high position in the Saint Alliance, the existence of Demon Hunt Squads had its independence, and even Han Qian couldn’t easily interfere in their affairs.

Han Qian’s purpose in sending a seventh-level Temple Knight to assess Long Haochen was simple: he hoped they wouldn’t pass the Commander-grade Demon Hunt Squad assessment and take on more difficult tasks. “Didn’t the Alliance just give you one million merit points? Stay put for a while and let things settle down.” However, he didn’t expect Long Haochen to be so powerful, actually defeating a Temple Knight single-handedly with his sixth-level strength, without any suspense.

Helplessly, Han Qian couldn’t resort to any other methods. Just when he thought Long Haochen and his Demon Hunt Squad would take on another task and leave Holy City soon, Long Haochen and his companions chose to go into seclusion. They hung a “Seclusion” sign outside the villa, not wanting to be disturbed. And this seclusion lasted for four months.

How could this discovery not please Han Qian? The excellence of these children hadn’t caused them to become overly confident. Under these circumstances, they still chose to settle down and consolidate their strength, practice in seclusion to consolidate what they had learned. It could be said that they already possessed the mentality of a truly powerful Demon Hunt Squad. These young people were even more stable than many veteran Demon Hunt Squads.

Yes, Long Haochen and his team had indeed been in seclusion for more than four months and were still continuing their seclusion. They didn’t plan to end it anytime soon. However, today was also an important day for them.

The Eternal Tower.

Long Haochen, Cai’er, Han Yu, Sima Xian, Wang Yuanyuan, Han Yu, and Chen Ying’er stood in a row.

“Boss, who’s going?” Sima Xian said to Long Haochen, eager to try. Not far in front of the seven of them was the red skeleton that had been constantly fighting and training with them, fully exercising their close combat abilities. It was through constant battles with this skeleton expert that the team gradually mastered some of the secrets of ancient martial arts. And today was the day they had decided to overcome all the trials of the first level of the Eternal Tower.

For more than four months, at Cai’er’s suggestion, Long Haochen decided to lead his companions to focus on cultivating their inner spiritual energy, calming their restless hearts, experiencing the changes in their strength since breaking through the sixth level, honing the skills they had acquired, seeking to purchase legendary equipment, and using the demon crystal of the Reverse Dragon Demon Clan, combined with various precious medicinal materials, to boil water and soak their bodies.

The demon crystal of the Reverse Dragon Demon turned out to have an even greater effect than imagined. After removing impurities and dark properties through some rare medicinal materials, each soak allowed Long Haochen and others to feel its powerful effect of washing marrow and improving their physique. Whether it was strength, flexibility, defense, or attack, everything was comprehensively improved.

However, each time they used it, the volume of the demon crystal would also decrease, until it disappeared completely. Over the past four months, they had used three demon crystals of the Reverse Dragon Demon, and everyone felt that the improvement in their outer spiritual energy was minimal. Only then did they stop soaking. However, these outer spiritual energies weren’t increased for nothing, as the auxiliary medicines they used cost them nearly four million gold coins plus fifteen thousand merit points.

Legendary equipment only added two more pieces. As everyone wished, one of them was for Han Yu, a legendary heavy sword. The other belonged to Chen Ying’er, a legendary accessory called the Prayer Necklace.

The legendary heavy sword was exchanged for the Ice and Snow Pride plus one hundred thousand merit points. Then, in addition to the Prayer Necklace, Long Haochen also purchased a Radiance-level heavy sword and some secret techniques. Now, the team’s remaining merit points totaled only around fifty thousand. The seemingly large amount of one million merit points had been spent completely.

For more than four months, they could say they had been consuming these merit points, and now they had naturally consumed almost all of them… “I’ll go. This skeleton senior taught us what invasion like fire is. I hope to truly defeat him in a one-on-one situation, which won’t waste his time accompanying us for so long,” Long Haochen said in a deep voice.

Everyone had no objections and dispersed slightly backward, giving him enough space.

Holding the Brilliant Holy Shield in his left hand and the Light Ripple heavy sword, which he had just purchased, in his right, Long Haochen strode towards the red skeleton standing like a mountain.

The two sides quickly approached. Behind Long Haochen, golden light shone, and dazzling four wings had already spread out. When he approached within twenty meters of the red skeleton, the flames in the red skeleton’s eyes instantly lit up, and the three-meter-tall burly body rushed towards Long Haochen like a jet of flame.

Long Haochen didn’t retreat at all. He suddenly accelerated his pace and rushed towards the red skeleton at the same time, but he didn’t use any charge or assault skills.

The distance between the two sides quickly shortened. Seeing that they were approaching within five meters, the red skeleton suddenly made a squatting motion, and the huge bone knife in his hand cleverly cut straight towards Long Haochen’s neck.

Long Haochen didn’t know how many times he had fought him, so he naturally knew that this red skeleton’s squatting motion had endless follow-up moves. His forward pace remained unchanged, but his footsteps slowed down a bit and became much more agile. He suddenly bent down and retracted his arms slightly, dodging the red skeleton’s knife.

The red skeleton exerted force with his legs, and his body suddenly burst up, making a half-turning motion. At the same time, the shield in his left hand swept towards Long Haochen with overwhelming force.

The red skeleton itself was large, and the shield was also extremely wide, giving Long Haochen the feeling that he couldn’t avoid it.

Of course, Long Haochen could fly up with his spiritual wings, but he didn’t do that. In the Eternal Tower, height was also limited. If he forcibly flew up, it would be difficult for him not to hit the no-fly barrier in the air.

What was unimaginable was that Long Haochen, who seemed unable to dodge, actually made a move that was almost impossible in battle: crawling.

Yes, at the moment when the red skeleton’s shield swung out horizontally, he actually crawled down to the ground. The huge shield almost brushed past his back.

Shield Blocking Rebound. The shield blocking rebound aimed at the ground caused Long Haochen to bounce up the next moment after crawling. The Light Ripple bloomed with hundreds of rays of light, covering the red skeleton that had temporarily lost the protection of its shield. It was the Demon Slaying Flash.

It could be said that Long Haochen’s response was enough to be described as extremely subtle. As his outer spiritual energy was improved by the dragon crystal, his flexibility was greatly enhanced, enough to support himself in making many moves that he couldn’t do before.

The red skeleton didn’t panic because of Long Haochen’s surprise attack. The huge bone knife instantly made a slashing motion, actually the Asura Slash. That’s right, he used the Asura Slash with one hand. And he also caught the impact force brought by the swinging shield.

In many battles with the red skeleton, the most profound point Long Haochen and his companions learned was that in battle, no action was superfluous.

However, this time the red skeleton was clearly miscalculated. The thousands of cold rays suddenly condensed into one point, directly hitting the blade of his bone knife.

With a crisp sound, the red skeleton’s huge body was actually shaken back a step, so that the subsequent move with his left-hand shield couldn’t be launched. At this time, Long Haochen, who was in passive defense, launched a full counterattack.

(To be continued)