Chi Zhonglin’s smile on his face solidified, and he slowly opened his mouth, taking a long time before he finally blurted out:
"That’s over two hundred meters, right..." Ren Mian estimated the distance with a glance, his eyes filled with disbelief, as he sincerely exclaimed, "That arrow of yours, it must have surpassed the standards of a Super Ranger, even a Legendary Ranger is no better!"
Ji Xinghuo turned around and smiled, "It’s all luck, just luck."
Ren Mian smiled meaningfully but said no more.
"Damn it!" Chi Zhonglin finally snapped back to reality, looking at the spider corpses scattered all around, and at his own clean self, he couldn’t help but express his sentiment, "I’ve been in the Star Realm for three or four years, and I’ve never experienced such an easy battle where I didn’t even need to do anything to finish it."
Jiangnan Caiyi’s figure appeared nearby, "Zhonglin, do you think that’s not good?"
"Of course, it’s awesome!"
Chi Zhonglin nodded repeatedly, his eyes filled with eagerness as he looked towards Ji Xinghuo, "So this is what it feels like to have a good marksman in the team; the difficulty of the battle has dropped more than just a notch, and I don’t have to fight tooth and nail anymore."
"Xinghuo is really incredible!"
Jiangnan Caiyi’s face was filled with wonder, as she too had killed a Stalker Spider, but had not exerted much effort otherwise.
Ji Xinghuo gave her a slight smile.
"Clean up the battlefield."
Ren Mian was also in a good mood, but he didn’t forget the task at hand, the battle had ended quickly, but it hadn’t been quiet and might attract other dangers.
A few of them started cutting up the spider corpses.
Jiangnan Caiyi was adept at this; she was proficient in cooking, skilled at dissecting prey organs, and well aware of where the Alien Species were located on the monsters.
Ji Xinghuo learned from her, using a tactical knife to collect the Alien Species.
The Strange Level Stalker Spider, each possessing a "Shadow Escape," which is located in the spider’s brain, was the size of a soybean gland, pitch-black like ink, soft as sheep dung.
"Shadow Escape" is a high-quality Ability.
Although it isn’t the core Ability of the "Shadow Blade" professional template, it is still indispensable and easy to sell, with a price of around 150,000 Ya Yuan.
He collected nine Alien Species from nine spiders, totaling over 1.35 million!
Ji Xinghuo was astonished.
No wonder Mutants are so wealthy, the gains from one battle were equivalent to ten years of salary for an ordinary person.
While cutting out the Alien Species, he also collected the arrows he had shot, only a few of which were damaged or had deformed shafts. With a bit of fix using tools, most could be reused, saving a substantial amount of money on arrows.
Finally, there was the Elite Level spider.
The four of them came to where the corpse lay, looking at the huge spider lying in front of them, its fierce and ugly appearance still somewhat frightening even though it was dead.
There were scorch marks on the spider’s body, clearly caused by high-temperature currents.
The Capacitor Arrow was stuck in it, having penetrated its head with a single arrow.
"That ten thousand Ya Yuan wasn’t wasted."
Ji Xinghuo said to Chi Zhonglin with a smile in response to his earlier comment, then stepped forward to pull out the Capacitor Arrow. The arrow, made of hard superconductive alloy, was undamaged, though the shaft was slightly twisted, but its interior was intact.
Chi Zhonglin was completely convinced.
This Elite Stalker Spider would not have been difficult for him to kill, but it would have been very difficult to stop it if it decided to flee, let alone kill it so effortlessly.
Ren Mian examined the spider corpse for a moment and said, "For an elite leader, there should be more than one Alien Species."
Jiangnan Caiyi used a short knife to cut open the spider’s head, rummaged a bit, and dug out a "Shadow Escape" Alien Species, then carefully sliced open the junction at the center of the chest cavity and the spider legs, digging deep in search of another Alien Species.
It was the first time Ji Xinghuo had seen such a large creature up close, and curious, he reached out to touch it.
As his hand touched the icy skin, suddenly, an interface popped up in his view, his expression subtly changed but then quickly returned to normal.
This interface was also split into two parts, left and right. The left side showed the monster information, while the right displayed a virtual form of the spider.
[Monster: Stalker Spider]
[Alien Species: Shadow Escape, Balance, Mind Scream]
The left side displayed information about the monster, and on the right side, the location of the Alien Species was marked in the virtual form. Shadow Escape was located in the brain, already removed; Balance at the junction of the chest and the eight spider legs, exactly where Jiangnan Caiyi had cut; and there was one more Alien Species in the head.
Ji Xinghuo looked carefully, and the Alien Species for Mind Scream was a cerebral membrane mixed with the brain matter, very difficult to detect.
Jiangnan Caiyi used the tip of her knife to pick out a white fiber mass from the spider’s chest cavity, resembling tangled hair, slowly wriggling as if alive.
This was the "Balance" Alien Species.
It was a Basic Ability, found in many monsters, thus its value was not very high, with a market price of around 30,000 Ya Yuan.
"Let me see." Ji Xinghuo took the Alien Species directly with his hand.
The Ranger’s professional template included Balance, and he was somewhat interested. As he held it, an information interface opened up before him.
[Alien Species: Balance]
[Fusion Success Rate: 81%]
Ji Xinghuo thought to himself, only an 81% Fusion_Success Rate. According to his previous assumptions, the higher the Fusion_Success Rate, the higher the compatibility, and though the success rate for Balance was not bad, it was much lower compared to Flash Step and Star Force.
"It seems I shouldn’t fuse with Balance." He had already ruled out this Alien Species.
After Jiangnan Caiyi extracted the Balance Alien Species, she didn’t stop. She switched to a samurai sword and chopped off six of the spider’s legs, but only kept the ends of them.
Ji Xinghuo was somewhat puzzled.
"The leg meat of the Shadow Wandering Spider is a delicacy, especially the lower leg part. I cut it off to take with us, and I’ll cook a delicious meal for everyone when we camp," Jiangnan Caiyi explained with a smile, "At that time, I will ask Xinghuo to give us his feedback."
"I am already looking forward to it."
Ji Xinghuo replied, and then, pretending to be curious, he squatted down and cut a few times into the spider’s brain, casually asking, "Could there be Alien Species?"
"Oh?" Ren Mian raised an eyebrow beside him, "Do you think there is?"
"I detected it emitting a very unique magnetic field earlier, something I have never seen before, different from other Shadow Wandering Spiders," Ji Xinghuo said, seven parts truth and three parts lie.
Ren Mian took out a piece of thorn.
Under her control, the thorn quickly grew into the spider’s brain, then like inflating a balloon, it spread and filled the entire head without bursting it open, allowing clear visibility of each organ within the brain.
"There actually is one!" She immediately found the Alien Species, the thorn wrapping around a piece of brain tissue and bringing it to the forefront.
Ren Mian quickly identified it, excitedly exclaiming, "It turns out to be a Mind Screamer."
Chi Zhonglin and Jiangnan Caiyi were also very surprised.
The Mind Screamer is a superior Alien Species, not very high in quality but extremely rare and capable of launching an invisible mental attack on its target, which is very hard to defend against.
It was one of the baseline abilities of the "Mind Hacker" template, valued at about 800,000 Ya Yuan.
"I’m lucky that this monster didn’t come close to me; otherwise, I would have suffered quite a bit," Chi Zhonglin said with a relieved look on his face.
If affected by the Mind Screamer, the body might be fine, but the headache could last for several days.
Ren Mian pondered deeply, "I felt it was odd just now; this spider swarm is overly numerous, more than half more than usual. It turns out it controlled such a large swarm using the Mind Screamer. I had heard before that there’s a very low probability that the Shadow Wandering Spider could awaken a Mind Screamer, but today we actually encountered one."
"Ren, you really are knowledgeable," Ji Xinghuo timely flattered.
"If it weren’t for your reminder, I would have missed it," Ren Mian humbly replied. "You killed this leader; we did not exert much effort; and this Alien Species was discovered because of you, so, you deserve this Alien Species."
"Little Chi, Caiyi, what do you think?"
Both naturally had no objections.
Ji Xinghuo did not hold back in modesty, thanked her, and took the Alien Species.
Upon receiving it, the Wanxiang Star Pupil interface showed that the fusion success rate of the Mind Screamer was only 73%, indicating it wasn’t very suitable for him.
The team collected and packed up the Alien Species and then immediately left the forest.
Beneath the Galaxy reflection, the four moved through the dim forest.
Their speed at Star Night was naturally much slower than in daylight; with no path in the forest and complex terrain, the team only managed to cover less than thirty miles after about ten hours.
During this time, they encountered three battles.
Each time, Ji Xinghuo detected them in advance, warning his teammates.
Then Ren Mian activated the "Mind Necklace" worn around her neck, linking everyone’s minds together and seamlessly preparing for combat.
However, these fights were not fierce; they involved only one or two Strange creatures and no Elites, and the numbers were also quite few.
It was all wrapped up quickly by Ji Xinghuo firing a few arrows.
As night fell, Ren Mian chose a camping ground hidden under a tree in a secluded hollow.
First, she set up a large tent big enough for four people to move around between several trees; she then scattered a handful of seeds around which grew into a thicket of sturdy, thorny bushes in minutes, covering the entire tent, serving as protection and preventing light from the tent from escaping outside.
The bushes were interspersed with a few Beast Repelling Grass plants, emitting a sharp, unpleasant smell that drove many wild animals and insects away.
On the outermost layer on the ground were planted "Bell Flowers" which would make a noise when stepped on, acting like an alarm bell.
Between the tent’s bushes and the "Bell Flowers", from mid-air to the ground, tough thorns and a type of exploding chestnut were scattered about, which would detonate upon touch, showering spikes around.
Ji Xinghuo was amazed by the sight.
The functionality of a Plant Witch was incredibly robust, seemingly omnipotent.
The inside of the large tent was very spacious, almost half the size of a room, and not cramped at all; a glowing lantern hung from the top of the tent.
This too was a type of plant, emitting a bright light.
Jiangnan Caiyi prepared a dinner using spider leg meat for everyone, and as she said, it was extremely delicious!
"Tonight I’ll take the first watch with Xinghuo," Ren Mian announced after dinner, "I’ll take the first half of the night, Xinghuo, you take the latter half."
"Okay," Ji Xinghuo agreed without any issues.
Another duty of a Ranger is night watch, typically the responsibility of the team members with the strongest perception, taking turns.
Ren Mian sat down at the tent entrance.
Ji Xinghuo and the other two teammates took out their sleeping bags, each crawling in, and soon there were steady breathing sounds beside him.
Just before sleep, he opened the Wanxiang Star Pupil interface, tallying up today’s gain of 15 Spiritual Origin Ability points.
Thirteen of those came from the spiders, with the Elite Shadow Wandering Spider contributing 4 points, while the remaining 2 were from the later fights.
Ji Xinghuo felt exhilarated.
The progress of Rotating Magnetic Field was First Level 102/359; managing to gain over 10 Spiritual Origin Ability points daily, in just over a month he could ascend to Second Level!
Aside from Spiritual Origin Ability, there was also the Mind Screamer Alien Species worth 800,000, and profits from other Alien Species, today’s earnings would definitely exceed one million Ya Yuan.
The first day of hunting had already recouped the money spent on equipment that day.
It was an absolute bounty!
After counting his gains, feeling content, and looking forward to the upcoming hunting journey, Ji Xinghuo quickly drifted off to sleep as well.