When they returned to where the others were, Shuang'er and Se Se heaved a sigh of relief upon seeing Zhao Shuning.
"Leader, you really scared us to death."
However, after a huge spiritual beast emerged from behind Zhao Shuning and Kong Shishuang, everyone froze in place.
The four people present all showed frightened expressions.
"What's wrong?"
"Leader, there's something behind you?"
Zhao Shuning turned around with a smile, looking at the cute little raccoon cat. Then she waved at it, and the little raccoon cat lowered its head and gently rubbed against Zhao Shuning's body.
"Isn't it cute? Don't you like it?"
Everyone quickly shook their heads, fearing that if they were a bit slower, the big cat in front of them would suddenly pounce on them.
"Miss Kong, is the little Li you mentioned before this big cat?"
Kong Shishuang nodded and said, "Little Li, say hello to everyone."
Little Li friendly stretched its head forward, but the four people immediately stepped back in fright.
"Miss Kong, how can you call such a huge creature Little Li?"
"I like it."
Zhao Shuning stepped forward and said, "Don't you like Little Li?"
If Shuang'er and the others really couldn't get along well with Little Li, she would have to come up with a new plan.
Just as Zhao Shuning was feeling a bit troubled and looked at Shuang'er and Se Se again, she found that the two of them had already disappeared. Only A Shui and A Yue were left in place.
"Where are Shuang'er and the others?"
A Shui and A Yue pointed to the position near Little Li. When she looked over, she was also greatly surprised. The two girls who had looked so scared before were now petting the cat.
"How about it? Isn't Little Li very well - behaved?"
"Yeah, Little Li's fur is so smooth."
"It feels so comfortable to touch."
"Little Li is injured. Fortunately, we prepared some herbs specifically for treating stasis. Now it's just right to grind them up and apply them to the wound. Se Se, go and check how many white cloth strips we have left."
"Okay."
"Miss Kong, could you please go and fetch some clean water for me? I need to clean Little Li's wound."
"Yeah."
Kong Shishuang and Shuang'er, who used to be at odds, now got along very harmoniously because of Little Li.
"Leader, do you girls all like those furry animals?"
Zhao Shuning thought for a while and said, "No, I like more majestic ones."
A Shui and A Yue quickly said, "Me too. Great, Leader is really different from other girls."
A row of black lines appeared on Zhao Shuning's forehead. These two boys, A Shui and A Yue, simply regarded worshipping her as a daily activity.
No matter what Zhao Shuning did, they would look at her with extremely worshipful eyes and then say all kinds of flattering words. But according to A Shui and A Yue, this was not flattery. They said it was their most sincere feelings.
At first, Zhao Shuning felt a bit uncomfortable when she heard such words, but later, as this happened more often, she got used to it.
After the three girls finished treating Little Li, everyone gathered together.
Then, Zhao Shuning took out a piece of excellent oil - skin paper mysteriously from behind her.
That guy named Viper really knew how to do things. With this kind of paper, the map would be neither afraid of being soaked by water nor burned by fire.
When Zhao Shuning slowly unfolded the oil - skin paper, everyone became excited.
"A map!"
"Leader, where did you get it?"
"Zhao Shuning, how did you manage to get this?"
"It's nothing. I took it from their tent while Viper was out dealing with that young man."
"Viper is such a cautious person. How could he give you this chance?"
"No matter how cautious a person is, there will be times when they are careless. Kong Shishuang, if you keep talking, get out."
Zhao Shuning found that after being reborn and getting along with Shuang'er and Se Se for a long time, she could tell lies smoothly.
However, Viper deserved it. If he hadn't captured and killed spiritual beasts without permission, Zhao Shuning wouldn't have been so extreme. She originally brought some drawing paper and planned to make a copy, but seeing how despicable Viper was, she gave up the original idea and just took the map.
After opening the map, everyone began to study it.
First of all, it could be seen that their current location was equivalent to the bottom layer of the Dark Marshland. The terrain was flat and there were few dangers, but there was still a long way to the peak.
If they didn't have this map, with so many winding paths in the Dark Marshland, they might not be able to reach the mountaintop even if they walked for half a year or a year.
Going further up, they could encounter quite a few spiritual herbs.
However, spiritual herbs were generally guarded by spiritual beasts. They needed to pick them when the spiritual beasts were away. Since they were bound to get injured in this forest and had to stay here for half a year, if they didn't prepare enough herbs, it would be troublesome if they got injured later and the wounds worsened.
So now their goal was to hike to the first height in the Dark Marshland.
The map divided the height into five levels, and their current position at the bottom layer was not counted.
For Zhao Shuning and the others, they were already one month behind. If they didn't hurry up, it would be a secondary matter if they became repeaters.
The most important thing was that if they couldn't climb to the fifth height and stayed below, the more time passed, the more dangers they would face.
Currently, the spiritual beasts in the Dark Marshland were distributed in a very hierarchical way. But if strong people climbed to a new height each time and the spiritual beasts at the new height couldn't resist those second - year students, those spiritual beasts would definitely run to the next lower height.
"Leader, how do you know everything?"
Zhao Shuning didn't reply. If she didn't even know about the expulsion of spiritual beasts in the Dark Marshland, wouldn't her past life as the empress have been in vain?
"So, the reason we can see Little Li on this level now means that someone has already climbed to the first height?"
"Maybe it's not just the first height. Little Li, which height were you originally at?"
Hearing this, the raccoon cat nodded twice.
"The second height? Is there really someone so fast?"
"It seems that there is indeed a third - rank strong person among the second - year students. Otherwise, he would never have been able to move so fast in just one month."
Judging from that person's strength, it would take him at most four months instead of half a year to reach the highest peak of the Dark Marshland in advance.
"That person should be Zhang Tianyuan from the Tianyuan Sparrow."
"Leader, when shall we set off?"
Everyone looked eager and full of fighting spirit.