Mountains and giant beasts, cabins in the woods

Upon arrival, they found themselves in a huge pile of rubble.

Not far away is a towering cliff, its jagged rocks seeming to weep in the autumn wind.

It looks like a landslide has occurred; these rocks fell from the mountain.

The largest stone is nearly twenty meters long, piled up haphazardly, with dark caves between the gaps.

Looking at the pile of rubble hidden by withered grass, Liu Xingmo muttered to himself, "These kinds of caves are probably the favorites of weasels and ironheads, right? Are we really going to go in to search for treasure?"

Sumali's expression was also grave: "Perhaps we should go back and find some help."

"Oh, right!" Liu Xingmo suddenly had a flash of inspiration. "Mary! How powerful are the explosives you brought?"

"It'll make a loud noise and shake, potentially collapsing the cave. What, you want to try it?"

"Let's give it a try. Let's scare out any stupid beasts that dare to challenge us! We have two guns and a giant turtle; what kind of insect or animal can't we handle?"

Sumali took a detonator out of the package: "I can ignite it with a bullet, what do you want to do?"

"Blow up the biggest hole over there!"

Liu Xingmo took the detonator from his companion, shook his arm, and threw it forcefully to the bottom of the cave.

Then, he controlled Bao Hei and made it run two hundred meters in one go, and then made the old turtle shrink its whole body into its shell.

Then, he lay down and hid behind other cargo.

"Mary, is it ready?"

That's fine.

Sumali also lay down, looking for cover, then skillfully opened the gun, ejected the bullet, and loaded a specially made incendiary round.

Aim at the distance and pull the trigger.

"Boom—!!!"

A deafening roar erupted, sending earth and rocks flying and withered grass scattering.

A shockwave of air, which turned into a strong wind, came rushing towards us, carrying black soil and yellow leaves, making it impossible to open our eyes.

Liu Xingmo gripped his rifle tightly, wiped his eyes, and gazed into the distance.

Amidst the smoke and dust, a large opening appeared in the rubble cave.

Immediately afterwards, a figure quickly emerged and crawled rapidly through the decaying leaves, making a dense "rustling" sound.

It was a cold, bluish light.

Its glossy black shell, as if coated with tung oil, gleamed with a metallic sheen in the dappled shadows of the trees.

A pair of pincers lashed out at the suspected enemy, while eight legs gripped the damp, black soil firmly.

The sharp spikes on its tail stand tall, and its venom sacs are swollen, radiating a faint, eerie blackness.

What a huge scorpion!

It's two meters long from head to tail!

He's a little tyrant hidden in the cracks of the rocks!

"Click-click!" Sumali quickly reloaded and raised her gun to fire.

"Stop! This guy is the treasure we're after!" Liu Xingmo reached out and grabbed his companion. "We must capture it alive, and capture this scorpion intact."

"Your requests are getting more and more complicated."

"No trouble at all, just watch me this time, I'll handle it perfectly!"

Liu Xingmo first had Bao Hei slowly retreat, then rummaged through the goods and pulled out a fishing net, which he held in his right hand.

Next, he hummed a strange tune and pointed his left hand at the somewhat bewildered scorpion in front of him.

Blood Magic - Weakness!

The giant scorpion convulsed, then its eight legs went limp, and it collapsed onto the withered leaves.

Liu Xingmo immediately ordered Bao Hei to rush over, and then skillfully cast the fishing net.

The net, gathered into a single rope, spread out in a beautiful concentric circle. Pulled by the iron weights at the edges, it expanded into a wide expanse, enveloping the giant scorpion.

The giant scorpion mustered its last strength and writhed and twisted, but like a butterfly caught in a spider's web, it was entangled more and more tightly in its struggle.

Is it a beast, or the most brainless insect, that only instinctively runs away when faced with an explosion, and doesn't even dare to go far, and now it has ended up in this predicament?

Liu Xingmo was overjoyed, but dared not be careless.

Cast the fishing line with the fishing rod, wrap it around the scorpion's tail, and tie it to the thick grass roots by the roadside.

Using the same trick again, he cast out two fishing lines to secure the dangerous, black-glowing stinger.

Liu Xingmo carefully approached the fishing net, carrying a roll of hemp rope. He tied the pair of flapping pincers tightly, then wrapped the scorpion up like a dumpling, net and rope together.

He picked up the scorpion and, under Bao Hei's extremely reluctant gaze, tied the venomous insect to the tortoise shell.

He clapped his hands, a smile spreading across his face. "Done! What a fine ten-year-old scorpion! Maybe it can be raised into a rare beast. I now have the natal contracted beast I need to advance to the second tier."

Sumali dared not be careless, still pointing the gun at the scorpion: "It looks very old, and could die of old age at any moment. Xingmo, are you sure you want to subdue it?"

"Hey~ You can't say that. Although it's true that it's better to choose a younger contracted beast, if it's too old, it means it's durable and capable. In that case, it's either smart enough or powerful enough."

Liu Xingmo climbed onto the tortoise shell, looked down at the large scorpion hanging on the side of the shell, and continued:

"Insects are different from birds and beasts; their shells are their bones. And every now and then they molt and get a larger shell so they can grow bigger."

"That's how scorpions are. They usually live for eight or nine years and grow to a meter long. But this old scorpion we caught probably lived for twelve or thirteen years before it grew this big."

"As the saying goes, one in a thousand insects will become a Gu. In the context of Black Dragon Village, it means that out of thousands of contracted insects, only one will transform into a rare beast, allowing its master to advance to the second tier."

"And this old scorpion is so rare that it's one in ten thousand, so the chances of it transforming are not low."

Sumali understood and put down her rifle: "Then let's hurry back, or things might change."

Without further ado, Liu Xingmo told Bao Hei to run like the wind and quickly return to the camp.

He was secretly delighted.

……

It was still early, just past noon.

There weren't many people in the camp; they were mostly logistics personnel who stayed behind.

They found large hazelnuts and pecans in the nearby woods and were using stones to crack open the hard shells and extract the oily, fragrant nuts.

For families that are not well-off, receiving a large amount of food for the winter is a rare and joyous occasion throughout the year.

So no one complained about even the hard work of cracking fruit shells, for fear that if they brought back too little, their whole family would go hungry in the dead of winter.

The bustling scene was confined to this open space. Beyond that lay the territory of the mountains and fields.

The sky above was a deep blue, with birds occasionally flying by. The surrounding woods were pitch black, with the occasional flash of a ghostly green light, the eyes of some small animal perhaps.

A fox instructor in charge of security lay on a large rock, looking around with his head to the left and right, his tail swaying from side to side.

The fox, with its sharp eyes, spotted the large scorpion on the turtle's back and scurried over on its four slender legs to take a look.

A voice, like a high-pitched female voice, came through: "What a sturdy scorpion! Young man, I'll offer five thousand, sell it to me."

"I won't sell it; I'll keep it for myself," Liu Xingmo refused.

"Don't rush to imprint the soul mark. I'll discuss it with you later. I have a junior who really needs it." The fox flicked its fiery red tail and turned to leave.

Liu Xingmo was somewhat perplexed.

A price of five thousand is indeed very reasonable. The market price is usually only three or four thousand.

After all, this scorpion is too old. Even if it is fed some expensive spiritual medicine to prolong its life, it will most likely die of old age.

Transforming into a mythical beast is a gamble with a very low probability.

If we have to talk about probability, the oldest insects at their maximum size have a 10% chance of metamorphosis. Other contracted insects, however, have less than a one-in-a-thousand chance.

Although Liu Xingmo was unwilling to give up the scorpion, he now had even greater ambitions.

Maybe we can catch a better contracted beast in the future? Then is the quality of this scorpion too low?

Blood Path First Tier, Insect Realm, has ten levels. The Soul Imprint can only suppress crustaceans, forcibly taking them as contracted beasts.

Lower levels, 1-3: Only insects can be contracted.

Middle layer, layers 4-6: Larger reptiles, spiders, scorpions, centipedes.

High floors, 7-9 floors: creatures in the water, such as lobsters and crabs.

Perfection, Level 10: Deep-sea behemoths, such as trilobites.

Liu Xingmo actually wanted to collect a crab and raise it into a first-tier natal contracted beast.