Chapter 21: Difficulty: Hell
Zhu Rong had come here in his past life.
Back then, he was already over a century old and had reached the very limits of his cultivation.
It was right around the time he was still looking for a way to cure his illness, and he’d heard that one of the ingredients that might help him make the medicine was here.
He knew it was a condition that could only be cured in its early stages, and for him it was already too late, but at the time, he hadn’t completely given up yet.
He still wanted to try a high level medicine of the same kind to see if it would help, even just a little.
Unfortunately for him, it didn’t.
Back then, when he passed through this place, he hadn’t run into any big trouble.
Sure, there were a few beasts here and there in the forest, but as far as this part of the lake was concerned, he was sure he hadn’t seen any.
And yet, here it was now, looking at a beast at least 20 meters long emerging from the water like it was nothing.
It had dark scales that reflected the last rays of sunlight, its golden eyes, calm and expressionless, scanning the surroundings with predatory ease, while its jaws shut with a dull thud around a small piece of dried meat, swallowing it without effort.
A Swamp Crocodile!
He had no idea what had happened to this beast in his past life, but it didn’t matter.
What mattered now was figuring out how to deal with a beast like this.
Swamp Crocodiles were spirit beasts known for the dark scales covering their bodies.
They weren’t very agile on land, but in water it was a whole different story.
Not to mention their extremely tough skin, protected by those sturdy scales, which made hunting them even more of a headache.
Judging from the size, he figured this one was probably at least at the third stage of the Mortal Realm.
Even though the way spiritual beasts cultivated was different from humans, their power levels followed a similar classification.
It was clear that in a one on one fight between Liang Yuexin and this beast, she would win
but only if it was out of the water.
As long as it stayed in there, it would be tough to deal with.
He hadn’t expected to run into this kind of problem, and turned to look at Liang Yuexin standing next to him.
"I can’t handle it while it’s in the water. We either take care of it first or move somewhere else," she said, already knowing what he wanted to ask.
In her opinion, it wasnt worth to take a risk like this for a single herb.
It would’ve been smarter to just wait a few days and send someone to pick up that herb somewhere outside the city.
She still didn’t know why Zhu Rong needed it in such a rush, so she couldn’t help but ask again, and failed again.
She was tempted to drag him back with her or just leave him here to deal with the beast alone,
but they’d made a deal, and she wasn’t shameless enough to go back on her word.
Zhu Rong thought for a moment.
There were only a few hours left before sunset, and he needed to get rid of that beast as soon as possible if he wanted the herb.
He’d already come this far, so turning back empty-handed wasn’t an option.
Liang Yuexin stood silently at the side, waiting to see what he would do.
Honestly, for her it wasn’t a huge deal.
With the right prep, you could get that herb, it would just take time and more people, which didn’t seem to be an option for the guy in front of her.
’Who would’ve thought I’d see him in this state so soon,’ she thought, remembering all the ways she’d planned to deal with this guy, who’d been tormenting her for the past years.
Even if he had helped her with her cultivation by giving her a technique that clearly wasn’t ordinary,
it wasn’t enough to wipe away all the trouble he’d caused..
Maybe she wouldn’t kill him, but whether she’d fully get her revenge remained to be seen.
That said, she also looked at the creature down there and thought about how to lure it out.
’Maybe I could use some bait to draw it away,’ she figured, and started working on her idea.
She’d killed several beasts on the way here, some of them at the second and third stage of the Mortal Realm.
She’d stored a few because they might come in handy, and who would’ve thought she’d need them so soon.
Zhu Rong seeing her, did not stop her and waited to see if it would work.
30 minutes later...
The Swamp Crocodile that had been by the little islet was now near the shore.
Except now there were four more of them with it.
Liang Yuexin: "..."
Zhu Rong: "..."
Neither of them had expected there to be more hiding in the lake.
Dealing with one was already a pain, but five?
The difficulty had just shot through the roof in an instant.
Zhu Rong shot a grim look at Liang Yuexin, who quickly looked away, avoiding his gaze.
"Hey, don’t look at me like that. How was I supposed to know there were others in there?" she said, clearly frustrated herself.
At this point, she’d already realized the situation was getting out of hand, and was about ready to force him to turn back.
Zhu Rong wanted to slam his head into something over his rotten luck, and for a second, he even thought maybe the heavens were messing with him on purpose.
He looked toward the group of crocodiles now tearing apart a bear like beast.
’You little bastards... just wait till I get stronger,
I’ll come cook all of you one by one myself,’ he muttered , almost giving up.
But then he noticed something about those crocodiles, and his expression changed.
"Yuexin, what season is it right now?" he asked, his mind racing.
Hearing the way he called her name, Liang Yuexin felt like slapping him, but decided to save it for later and asked confused about why he suddenly cared about that.
"There’s still a couple of months left before the end of summer. Why?"
He ignored the last part, and a wide grin spread across his face.
’Well, desperate times call for desperate measures, right?’