The large truck exploded into two sections. Before the Beast Tamers could react, a rain of blood-red arrows descended upon them.
Upon closer inspection, these blood arrows were triangular insects, flapping their wings to attack, their lethality comparable to bullets from firearms.
Despite the Pet Beasts’ desperate attempts to fend them off, they couldn’t stop the overwhelming swarm of blood insects.
A few moments later, the entire truck was riddled with holes. Several hidden Beast Tamers had been pierced by the insects through their ears, nostrils, and eyes. The creatures voraciously consumed their flesh from within, their screams echoing.
Bones lay starkly visible, a shocking sight.
Blood stained the ground, intertwining with fire, hosting a macabre banquet of slaughter.
This Beast Taming squad found itself in an unprecedented predicament.
"Lin Xing, have your Wood Charm release the Breath of Life!" the Beast Taming Captain urged.
But soon, the Captain saw a blood-misted silhouette struggling. Half of Lin Xing’s face was engulfed as he pleaded for help.
Meanwhile, the Wood Charm’s tree-like body had its limbs gnawed off by the blood insects, leaving it resembling a crippled puppet.
The Captain, no longer worried about accidentally harming his teammates, ordered the Flaming Vulture to spew flames and drive away the blood insects.
However, the greed of the blood insects surpassed all imagination. Even as they ignited, they continued to feast on Lin Xing’s flesh.
This caused Lin Xing to thrash in a sea of fire. The flames also ignited other blood insects, which in turn indirectly set off the truck’s fuel tank.
The Captain felt a massive force from the explosion surge toward him, like being hit by a car traveling at one hundred kilometers per hour, and was brutally thrown to the ground.
His head throbbed with pain as he scrambled up, only to witness a blazing inferno.
But the Beast Tamers’ constitution was resilient. Despite being scorched by the flames, they didn’t perish instantly but instead howled in torment.
"Damn it, who the hell is it!"
The Captain’s face turned pale. He inwardly cursed his own incompetence for leading the team into such despair.
The sand stirred, and the ground beneath him sank.
A sharp Spider Spear swiftly stabbed him from behind, emerging from his chest, impaling him completely!
"A nice collection piece. The King will surely like it."
An oddly dressed middle-aged man excitedly gazed at the sacrifices scattered across the ground.
An eyeball emerged from between his brows, rotating slowly before finally settling on the dazed Captain.
"An Evil God... Cultist..."
A chill ran down the Captain’s spine, his limbs turning cold as despair filled his heart. He had unexpectedly encountered an Evil God Cultist.
The Flaming Vulture flew in, spewing a beam of molten lava it had been charging for some time.
"Clever, but what a pity."
The middle-aged man raised his hand. It swelled rapidly like an airbag, releasing countless tendrils that shot out to entangle the Flaming Vulture, which was tens of meters away.
These blood-red filaments were like forged steel, penetrating its body and slicing its flesh with terrifying sharpness.
In the blink of an eye, the Flaming Vulture was enveloped in a cocoon of these tendrils, which even seemed impervious to its flames.
The man then tugged with his large hand. With a slight exertion of force, the cocoon rapidly shrank, seeping droplets of blood.
His Pet Beast had died, and the contract was severed.
The Captain’s face flushed crimson, his eyes wide with grief and fury as he watched the Pet Beast, his companion since childhood, die brutally in a pool of its own blood. An expression of agony contorted his features.
"Alright, now it’s your turn."
The middle-aged man turned back. A pair of horns sprouted from his forehead, and he revealed a bloodthirsty smile.
It was the Horned Man who had fled the hotel.
An insect burrowed out from the sand, emitting a rapid cry.
The Horned Man’s expression shifted slightly, and he furrowed his brow.
"Have they caught up again? What a nuisance."
With that, he looked toward a direction where there were traces of a battle.
His figure burrowed into the sand, and the swarm of blood insects followed, dragging the corpses in after him.
「Half an hour later.」
A convoy of vehicles arrived, each one modified for wilderness combat.
"Another squad wiped out. Seems they were newbies."
"The target isn’t far from here. Notify everyone to tighten the encirclement."
"The Forbidden Items are still on him. Pursue!"
After the guards conversed, they took out reconnaissance devices to detect underground movements and soon set off again.
The vehicle treads rolled slowly, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Jiang Qiuyun raised her knife and fork, cutting into a black pepper steak, her cheeks stuffed full.
Her delicate, rosy lips parted slightly, dabbed with a bit of pepper sauce.
Her pearly white teeth gnawed at the steak, sharp as a meat grinder. She chewed slowly, then swallowed, her beautiful eyes sparkling with happiness.
Truly a set of good teeth, Chu Yi thought, glancing at them. If she were to eat a lollipop, she’d shatter it with the first bite.
The Dragon Eagle edged slightly closer, provoking Chu Yi’s alertness. He stroked Jiang Qiuyun’s smooth neck while glancing sideways at the creature.
The Dragon Eagle retreated a step in anger.
A moment later, it edged closer again. In the end, this devolved into a pattern of advancing and retreating, as if taunting, "I’m out again! Now I’m back in! How about that, huh? Hit me, you fool!"
Chu Yi couldn’t be bothered with it and had Jiang Qiuyun retract it into her Beast Taming Space to ’serve its sentence’ obediently.
A dozen skeletal, dog-like Beasts gathered around Chu Yi’s trouser leg, hopping back and forth.
These were Tooth Beasts, summons revived by Ghost Hand from flesh and blood.
Bika’s excessive commotion had attracted some Demons. Chu Yi used Ghost Hand to deal with them, earning 5 evolution points. Their Souls were gnawed, and their corpses transformed into Tooth Beasts.
Tooth Beasts are Undead creatures. Their combat capability isn’t high, but under Ghost Hand’s control, they can comprehend complex orders, making them suitable as scouts.
The evolution should be complete soon, Chu Yi thought.
After waiting for a little longer, Chu Yi went to check on Bika’s evolution status.
The flames around the ink-colored crystalline eggshell had subsided; they were no longer in the frenzy they displayed at first.
The calmer it became, the more a powerful aura emanated from the egg—a vast field of life energy, signaling its transformation from a servant-class to an elite-class creature.
It seemed the evolution had succeeded.
Right, Bika doesn’t have a contract mark, Chu Yi mused. I need to forge one, otherwise, it could easily be mistaken for a wild Pet Beast and taken by someone else.
Chu Yi had no intention of letting the Pet Beast he had painstakingly cultivated become a prize for another.
The eggshell split open, and a brilliant golden light poured out from the fissures.
"It’s a success!" Chu Yi rejoiced.
Just then, Chu Yi keenly sensed something. The surrounding sand began to stir.
Fine sand billowed, and worms and snakes crawled out.
A Spider Spear shot out from behind, aimed at Chu Yi.
In that split second, the Tooth Beasts guarding around his legs leaped up, only to be effortlessly impaled by the Spider Spear.
The tip of the spear struck a hand wreathed in Shadow Power, merely sending sparks flying and leaving a white mark.
Chu Yi shot out his left arm and grabbed the Spider Spear. Boundless strength surged from him, yet he was unable to budge the spear in the slightest.
A War General-level opponent?
Having assessed the opponent’s strength, Chu Yi let go and retreated.
The dragging Spider Spear also retracted. The sand stirred, and the Horned Man emerged, clad in tattered robes.
"A Pet Beast that underwent a Mutated Evolution? I’ve truly hit the jackpot!"
The Horned Man paid no attention to Chu Yi, his gaze captivated by something far more significant.
He glanced at the ink-colored eggshell, still gleaming with golden light, unable to conceal the ecstasy on his face.