'Fine. I'll let you scout ahead and wear them down a bit.'
His eyes shifted.
A cunning glint, one he hadn't shown before, appeared in Mao Ba's eyes. He deliberately slowed his pace, preparing to reap the rewards from the sidelines.
But he wasn't the only one with that idea.
RUSTLE RUSTLE—
The sound of rustling leaves erupted all around.
Beyond the valley lay a vast marshland. Withered branches and rotting leaves littered the ground, and a foul-smelling mist steamed up, the stench unbearable.
Wu Dao didn't charge ahead to take the lead.
Instead, he leisurely trailed behind Mengqingshan, keeping a careful distance—not too close, but not too far.
A five-hundred-year-old Spirit Monster.
It was no small fry. Even an average human expert in the Cocoon-Breaking Realm would be no match for it.
If it suddenly unleashed a vicious attack,
the one in the lead would undoubtedly be the first to suffer.
Wu Dao wasn't worried that Mengqingshan would get fed up and simply quit.
After all, those two were the ones who found it first.
If he didn't want to lose the trail, he had no choice but to keep leading the way and serve as the vanguard.
'Hmph. Trying to leech off me? In your dreams!'
Up ahead, Mengqingshan had obviously realized what Wu Dao and the others were planning.
But he paid them no mind.
In the face of absolute power, their scheming was nothing but a joke!
His Divine Power was at its peak, his Horizontal Training was complete, and Mr. Ya was a master of the Cocoon-Breaking Realm.
No matter how cunningly the others schemed,
they would ultimately have to face them in a real fight. He had nothing to fear.
Under the silver moon,
a frantic chase ensued.
The Flesh and Blood Tai Sui seemed to be toying with them. Or perhaps because it was an incomplete creation, it had the disposition of a child that loved to play.
Every time it pulled away from the leader of the pursuit, Eagle Shark Mr. Ya, it would make a face and wiggle its rear, taunting him relentlessly.
Just as Mr. Ya was about to catch up, it would instantly dissolve into a bloody shadow and reappear far ahead.
After being tormented like this for some time,
even the most patient members of the group were seething with suppressed rage, their anger pushed to the limit.
Until...
"CHWEE!!"
They crossed a low-lying area, and a deep, dense forest appeared before them once more.
The Flesh and Blood Tai Sui finally stopped. It sat cheerfully on a branch of a towering tree and blew a triumphant whistle.
A trap?!
Hearing the Flesh and Blood Tai Sui's whistle, the group's anger instantly subsided, replaced by alarm and uncertainty as they scanned their surroundings.
All they could see was a deep, dense forest filled with grotesque, rugged rocks, shrouded in pitch-black darkness. The only light from the moon and stars fell upon the circular, gravel-strewn clearing directly in front of them.
"Mr. Ya, stop!"
Even the supremely skilled and daring Mengqingshan hastily stopped Mr. Ya, who was about to press the pursuit.
He knew his own people's situation all too well.
The five sharks of Black Shark Hall.
Although each of them had reached the Cocoon-Breaking Realm, they were merely half-finished products, artificially created by Menghuai Mountain using a Demon Dao Technique.
They lacked any real consciousness.
They only knew how to follow orders.
If he hadn't stopped him, Eagle Shark would have charged headfirst into any trap that lay ahead.
"SKREE SKREE SKREE... YIP YIP YIP..."
The dead silence did not last long. Strange cries, like a mix of bats and foxes, erupted from all directions, mingled with the urgent sound of flapping wings.
"Do... you... like... to play... games...?"
The Flesh and Blood Tai Sui sat on the branch, swinging its short legs. It had the face of an old man but the mannerisms of a child. "The losers... get eaten, you know."
WHIRRRR—
The moment it finished speaking!
The sound of flapping wings from all directions drew nearer, accompanied by a choking, monstrous stench. In the darkness, countless small, jade-green lanterns lit up!
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!!
The frantic flapping of wings kicked up a gale, carrying an overwhelming stench comparable to a chemical weapon. Amidst their strange cries, the first wave of "monsters" leading the charge revealed their true forms!
"SKREEYIP!!"
Wu Dao's thick right arm shot out like lightning—fast, accurate, and ruthless. He clamped down on the attacking creature's neck like a vise, and it began to struggle for its life like a rabid dog.
"What is this?"
Looking at it in the moonlight, Wu Dao was slightly taken aback. The creature's appearance was utterly bizarre.
Overall, it resembled a large fruit bat.
It was as long as a full-grown house cat, its body covered in a layer of red carapace. Its blood-red, insect-like wings were tucked under the shell, and its hind legs were as thick as a grasshopper's.
The truly bizarre part was its head.
It was long and pointed like a fox's, but its features were hairless and eerily human. The overall effect was that of a human face forcibly squeezed into a narrow space, a horrifying sight.
Most importantly, its claws and fangs were long and sharp. The fangs resembled a vampire's, and the claws were like sickles, glinting with a cold, sharp light in the moonlight.
"Such sharp claws and fangs!!"
Wu Dao frowned. As the creature struggled, its claws and fangs scraped several marks onto the back of his hand and his arm. Any deeper, and it would have broken the skin!
After all,
while the defense of his skin had not yet reached the level of Copper Skin and Iron Bones,
it was still covered in a layer of keratin as tough as yellow jade, like a turtle's shell. The muscles beneath were like intertwined copper wires. An ordinary person striking with a blade at full force wouldn't even be able to scratch him.
Yet this monster had broken his skin just by struggling for a few moments, a clear testament to its ferocity!
"Red Armored Bat Fox!!"
Zhao Wei, who was nearby, seemed to recognize the creature. "Brother Wu, be careful!" he exclaimed. "This monster can eat copper and iron! Its claws and fangs are incredibly powerful, and it has poison glands in its mouth. If you're poisoned, your bones will soften and your muscles will go limp..."
FWOOSH!!
But before Zhao Wei could finish, more Red Armored Bat Foxes swarmed out from all directions in seemingly countless numbers.
The largest among them were the size of small calves, their outstretched wings blotting out the sky as they descended upon the group in a mad frenzy.
SQUELCH!
The head of the Red Armored Bat Fox struggling in his hand abruptly burst into a spray of blood.
Chong Ghosts?
Wu Dao's gaze swept past the sky-blotting wings to the giggling Flesh and Blood Tai Sui on the branch, and a thought clicked into place.
Since the Flesh and Blood Tai Sui could enslave demonic creatures,
it stood to reason that it could also control these savage, low-intelligence beasts.
But,
could a newly transformed Spirit Monster really command a swarm of hundreds, even thousands, of Red Armored Bat Foxes?
A swarm of bees has its queen!
This flock of Red Armored Bat Foxes must have a leader, too—and the Flesh and Blood Tai Sui was controlling it!
In a flash,
Wu Dao's mind raced. He dodged the attacks of the Bat Fox swarm while searching for the Bat King.
But it was difficult!
There were too many of them!
They were as dense as a plague of locusts.
Even an elephant can be killed by enough ants, to say nothing of a swarm of monsters that could chew through iron and stone. Despite their strength, Wu Dao and the others could barely move, exhausted from fending off the attacks.
Worse, the swarm was densest at the periphery, forming an iron-tight cage around the area and sealing off all avenues of escape!
However,
Wu Dao wasn't worried.
They had two "capable individuals" in their group, and a situation like this was not enough to trap them.
BAM!
With this in mind,
Wu Dao smashed a Bat Fox's head with a single punch. He exchanged a glance with Zhao Wei, and they both began to subconsciously drift closer to Mao Ba.
It was unclear what Talisman or Technique the old Taoist was using,
but he was enveloped in a faint green light. Any Bat Fox that came within ten feet of him seemed to go limp, losing half its strength, and was easily dispatched.
'This guy...'
Mao Ba swung his Celestial Banner Ruler relentlessly, a small mountain of Bat Fox corpses piling up at his feet. When he glanced over and saw Wu Dao slacking off behind him, his eye couldn't help but twitch.
He had originally thought Wu Dao was just a reckless thug who charged in blindly, screaming for blood, a mindless brute in a fight. He never expected that, after spending some time with him, he'd turn out to be as cunning as a demon.
He would never put in any effort if he could get away with slacking.
He would never play the fool if there was an advantage to be gained.
In contrast,
Cloud Heaven Flow was much more "upright."
His sword was drawn, and he was bathed in blood, on the verge of a killing frenzy, not slacking off in the slightest.
But Mao Ba didn't know,
that Cloud Heaven Flow was suffering in silence.
Due to his position,
when the Red Armored Bat Fox Group appeared, he had been unlucky enough to face the densest part of the swarm. He couldn't have retreated even if he wanted to. Did they really think he was a fool?
'So this is the Cocoon-Breaking Realm. Truly extraordinary.'
While slacking off,
Wu Dao also took note of Eagle Shark Mr. Ya.
Compared to their own desperate struggle, Eagle Shark was a veritable meat grinder. No matter how large the Red Armored Bat Fox, a single sweep of his claws would tear it to pieces!
Mengqingshan was no less impressive!
It was unclear what Cultivation Technique he practiced,
but after his clothes were shredded, they revealed a towering, dark physique that resembled a tower of black iron. The bites and scratches of the Red Armored Bat Foxes were mere tickles to him. He was unstoppable, like a dark-skinned version of the Hulk.
However,
Mengqingshan was no sucker, either. He didn't just mindlessly slaughter the creatures or act as the hero who broke the stalemate. Instead, his gaze frequently drifted toward Mao Ba.
His intentions were self-evident.
And so, the stalemate dragged on.
The Flesh and Blood Tai Sui made no move to join the fight, seemingly content to watch them all be toyed with to death. It leaped up and down on the branch, clapping its hands and giggling like a mischievous Village child watching a play.
This, he figured, was the drawback of its incomplete transformation. Its intelligence was no greater than a child's, and its innate, mischievous cruelty held sway.
If its intelligence were fully developed,
it would have taken advantage of the fact that they were pinned down by the Red Armored Bat Foxes to pick them off one by one, a strategy that would have been unstoppable.