170: Chapter 123: Arrow Bamboo Forest, Rat King, New Camp_4 170: Chapter 123: Arrow Bamboo Forest, Rat King, New Camp_4 Seeing the actions of the four, a trace of emotion flashed in Xia Hong’s eyes.
Shouting, shooting arrows on the ground, it’s all obviously futile, how could Xia Chuan and the Zhao Long brothers not know.
The four were using this method to divert the attention of the underground Rodent King for him, he surely knew.
“Don’t come over, I have my own way!”
Xia Hong’s gaze swept over a big tree nearby, a flash of inspiration in his mind, he shouted at the four, then clenched a long blade in his mouth, enduring the intense pain from his foot, he directly climbed up the tree.
“Since I can’t avoid it, then I’ll draw you out, to see how strong you really are, you fiend!”
The attack range of a normal rodent’s red glow is only one or two meters, extremely limited;
Although the Rodent King is stronger than a normal rodent, judging from the first red glow earlier, it can’t be more than a little over twenty meters.
Standing on the ground, there’s naturally no way to avoid it.
But up in the tree, it’s different.
Xia Hong gritted his teeth and climbed to a height of over twenty meters, then pressed his ear against the tree, focusing on listening for movement inside.
Seeing Xia Hong’s movements, Xia Chuan and the four immediately realized, although they all stopped their bodies, continuing to stand still, their eyes remained full of worry while looking at Xia Hong.
The scene quieted down again, and Xia Hong, lying prone on the big tree, heard a faint but rapid cracking sound, realizing that the Rodent King was digging its way up from the tree’s base.
His pupils suddenly contracted.
“Glad you’re coming!”
In fact, even without distinguishing by sound, Xia Hong had already clearly felt the tree shaking when the Rodent King was digging up to less than five meters.
The noise made by the Rodent King when digging is so loud, not as strong as those ordinary rodents.
Though Xia Hong found it amusing, his hands gripping the Yi Blade already bulged with veins, and the cold gleam in his pupils reached its peak.
The Rodent King seemed determined to get him, tunneling upwards without hesitation, in about four or five breaths of time it had passed the halfway point, now only less than ten meters away.
Xia Hong tightly gripped the Yi Blade, keeping a close eye on the movements below the tree, remaining completely still as the Rodent King dug upwards.
Until the moment the Rodent King reached a position five or six meters away from him and suddenly stopped moving.
He pinpointed the position, leapt down from the tree’s top, using his uninjured foot to fiercely kick off a tree branch, leveraging the recoil to switch his Yi Blade into a spear and thrust it with all his might into the spot where the Rodent King had just paused.
Xia Hong’s basic strength had already reached twenty-one thousand earlier, in the almost month-long frenzy of crafting bows, he hadn’t stopped consuming Cold Beast Meat from rodents and Teng Jiao, adhering to the extreme standard daily.
Although he didn’t specifically test it, Xia Hong estimated his basic strength was at least between twenty-three thousand and twenty-four thousand, definitely enough to pierce through a heap of Cold Beast Bones, let alone mere tree bark.
There was no suspense, the tree’s surface was pierced by the Yi Blade, its force was so great that the Yi Blade’s 1.5-meter blade nearly all went in, leaving only the handle, still in Xia Hong’s grasp, visible outside.
From inside the tree came an angry rodent screech, but instead of fear, Xia Hong’s face showed an excited smile.
He let go immediately, falling while turning to shout at the Zhao Long trio.
“Look at where my blade is!”
The long-formed hunting synergy meant there was no need for Xia Hong’s reminder.
He had only half-spoken when the Zhao Long brothers’ custom iron arrows had already sliced through the air, firmly landing near the Yi Blade’s location.
Not only were the first wave of three arrows complete, but two more waves followed, a total of nine custom iron arrows embedded into the tree, with barely the ends left outside, testifying to their immense power.
Squeak squeak squeak…
The Rodent King inside the tree, struck somewhere unknown, let out a more furious and slightly wretched screech than before.
A tail, seven or eight meters long, suddenly extended, splitting the tree in half from the middle, revealing a giant rodent over four meters long, with its head up and feet down, wedged in the middle of the tree.
The tree collapsed, bringing the giant rodent down to the ground.
Unlike a normal rodent’s silver coat, part of the Rodent King’s fur had already turned golden.
Its pair of bright red small eyes were fixed intensely on Xia Hong, full of hatred and venom, its two huge incisors gleaming with a chilling light, while the seven or eight meter long spiked flesh-colored giant tail behind it swayed menacingly, incredibly intimidating.
Its size is four times that of a normal rodent.
No wonder, no wonder it made such a commotion inside the tree earlier.
Unlike others’ focus, the moment the Rodent King hit the ground, Xia Hong saw a long cut under its armpit and four or five bloody holes on its back.
Evidently, inside the tree earlier, his Yi Blade and the Zhao Long trio’s arrows had inflicted harm on the Rodent King, though not severe, they had at least wounded it.
Furthermore, the moment the Rodent King emerged from the tree, despite its subtle expression, the fleeting sense of disorientation was noticed by Xia Hong, and combining this with the Rodent King’s previous inaction and its choice to attack from underground, Xia Hong easily surmised.
The venomous mist of the Teng Jiao, even the Rodent King would be affected.
“Everyone gather and draw your bows, target it, but don’t shoot!”
As the rodent broke through the tree, the scattered group had already begun to close in, and hearing Xia Hong’s command, they immediately accelerated to cluster together, all simultaneously drawing bows and arrows aimed at the Rodent King.