Chapter 213: Tremors of the Earth

Chapter 213: Tremors of the Earth

Whoosh!

An invisible titanium arrow shot forth, piercing the head of an Elite Stone Scythefiend that was drinking by the river. The arrow continued on, taking out another Stone Scythefiend behind it.

The group of monsters froze for a second before erupting into chaos.

However, they couldn't pinpoint the source of the attack, and as more of their kind had their heads pierced, they scattered in all directions like headless flies.

Some Stone Scythefiends even fled towards the direction of Ji Xinghuo's tree, but he ignored them for the moment, focusing on taking out targets in other directions. Arrow after arrow flew, and despite the agility of these monsters, they couldn't escape their fate of having their heads exploded.

One by one, the Stone Scythefiends fell, turning into corpses, some closer, some farther away.

Spiritual Source Energy +2

Spiritual Source Energy +3

Ji Xinghuo's vision was filled with an interface, the values constantly rising.

By the time he took out the last Stone Scythefiend that had run to the tree, he had harvested over 30 points of Spiritual Source Energy, wiping out the entire group of monsters.

Looking at the Invisible Sting in his hand, he felt that it was a bit overkill for these creatures.

"It's been more than half a year since I last used a bow and arrow, but not only have my skills not deteriorated, I feel like I've improved a bit."

Ji Xinghuo nodded in satisfaction.

He slid down from the tree, touching each of the Stone Scythefiend corpses to check their information. Most of them had conventional variant abilities like "Rockskin", "Leap", and "Toughness".

They weren't particularly valuable.

However, Ji Xinghuo didn't discriminate, spending about ten minutes to collect all the variants, storing them in his Dimensional Pouch.

"This should be worth more than 200,000 at least. Every little bit helps."

"Many a little makes a mickle."

He hadn't forgotten that he still owed five billion, and on this trip into the Star Realm, his primary goal was to find expansion curiosities, with Spiritual Source Energy and making money coming second and third respectively.

The three goals didn't conflict and sometimes even aligned.

Qinghong landed and enlarged.

Ji Xinghuo jumped onto its back and continued his rapid journey through the Valley of Extremes.

He extended his electromagnetic sensing, merging it with the electrostatic field, expanding his sensing radius to about three kilometers. Within this range, his perception of objects was more detailed and specific, although the images in his mind were still somewhat abstract. Nonetheless, he had grown accustomed to this way of perceiving the world.

In fact, he now felt that this method was closer to the essence of things.

He headed west.

Before long, Ji Xinghuo discovered another group of Stone Scythefiends and casually harvested a wave of Spiritual Source Energy, gaining over 20 points.

After traveling through the Valley of Extremes for half a day, he noticed something peculiar.

The number of Stone Scythefiends had increased!

"Strange."

Ji Xinghuo furrowed his brows in thought. The breeding period of Stone Scythefiends was quite long. Although they were difficult to reproduce, it would take two to three Earth years for them to mature. Then, after another three to five years, they would have a chance to evolve into monsters, and the probability of awakening within their group was not high.

He had been to this area of the Valley of Extremes the previous year.

Back then, he had hunted for several months, wiping out the nearby Stone Scythefiend groups. Why had new groups appeared so quickly?

Moreover, the number of individuals in each group was significantly higher, with over twenty members in half of the groups.

"Did they migrate from elsewhere?"

Ji Xinghuo wasn't sure.

As night fell,

Qinghong had already run to the central region of the Valley of Extremes. On just the first day, Ji Xinghuo had eliminated four groups of Stone Scythefiends, harvesting over 100 points of Spiritual Source Energy—an extremely efficient haul, not much less than what he would have gained on the Star Realm's frontlines against the Beiluosimen Tribe. And it was much safer here.

He was quite tempted to stay longer.

"Let's set up camp first."

On a platform between two sheer cliffs, hundreds of meters above the ground, Ji Xinghuo pitched his tent. This location was very safe; unless a monster could fly, it wouldn't be able to reach him.

After feeding Qinghong and having some dry rations himself, he immediately crawled into his tent to sleep.

In the latter half of the night, the starry sky emerged.

Ji Xinghuo suddenly opened his eyes in his sleep, and Qinghong, curled up in a corner of the tent, also lifted his head to look in a certain direction.

"Woom woom woom!"

A roar echoed from a distance, the distinctive call of a Stone Scythefiend.

Ji Xinghuo crawled out of his tent. Under the starlight, the radiance of "Silver Radiance" bathed the serene Valley of Extremes, as if coating the mountains and canyons with a layer of silver light.

The direction of the roar was blocked by a mountain peak, and his electromagnetic sensing couldn't reach that far.

"Woom woom woom..."

Every few minutes, a roar would sound out, but it gradually grew more distant and harder to hear.

Ji Xinghuo thought for a moment before deciding to follow.

He quickly packed up his tent and sleeping bag into his Dimensional Pouch, jumped onto Qinghong's back, and clamped his legs tightly around its body. Qinghong immediately began climbing down the sheer cliff, and after reaching the ground, it sprinted towards the direction of the roars. In less than five minutes, a group of Stone Scythefiends entered the range of Ji Xinghuo's electromagnetic sensing.

"Slow down."

Ji Xinghuo whispered, and Qinghong immediately slowed its pace.

It crouched low, using the terrain and trees as cover as it slowly trailed behind the group of Stone Scythefiends.

This group of Stone Scythefiends was on the move.

Ji Xinghuo's electromagnetic sensing picked up on an exceptional Stone Scythefiend among them—a massive creature over two meters tall with four thick, pillar-like arms.

It ran at the front of the group, followed by over fifty Stone Scythefiends.

This was a large group of monsters.

"Where are they going?"

Ji Xinghuo was puzzled but soon thought of a possibility.

The location where he had discovered the Stone Scythefiend Giant the previous year wasn't far from here. Back then, that Nascent Soul-level Stone Scythefiend Giant had led over a thousand subordinates to surround and hunt their prey in the night.

However, this situation seemed a bit different.

Ji Xinghuo trailed them from a distance. The group of Stone Scythefiends roared as they ran, calling out to their kin. Gradually, other groups joined them, increasing their numbers to over two hundred. There were four Superb-level Stone Scythefiends and over twenty Elites, with the rest being ordinary monsters.

With his current strength, coupled with Qinghong, as long as his tactics were sound, it wouldn't be impossible to annihilate this entire group of Stone Scythefiends.

"Let's wait a little longer and see how the situation develops."

After trailing them for over a hundred kilometers, this group of Stone Scythefiends merged with another large tribe, forming a monstrous group of over five hundred.

Ji Xinghuo's pupils narrowed.

The leader of this group of Stone Scythefiends was particularly conspicuous—it was a Stone Scythefiend Giant! However, it wasn't the one he had encountered the previous year. This one was slightly smaller, standing at about four meters tall, and the size of its tribe was also about half the size.

This Stone Scythefiend Giant was evidently younger.

But it was still a Calamity-level monster!

Through his electromagnetic sensing, Ji Xinghuo noticed that its magnetic field intensity was not as strong as the Nile Giant Lizard's, suggesting that it hadn't evolved into a Calamity monster long ago.

Its body bore numerous massive scars, evidently caused by coarse claws. Even though they had healed, one could still tell that it had suffered severe injuries in the past. In particular, there was one scar that ran from its face all the way to its neck, almost splitting its head open.

This made it look even more ferocious, its pair of red eyes gleaming with a hint of intelligence.

Ji Xinghuo sensed the danger.

His intuition told him that this Stone Scythefiend Giant was not to be trifled with.

"Woohoo-hoohoo..."

The Stone Scythefiend Giant leaped onto a massive boulder, and the other Stone Scythefiends surrounded it, jumping and dancing on the boulder and letting out cries.

It was communicating with its subjects in a way that humans couldn't understand.

After a series of roars and physical gestures, the more than five hundred Stone Scythefiends went wild, their bloodlust stirred, creating a frenzied atmosphere.

Ji Xinghuo watched with his eyes wide.

This was just like a cult gathering; he never expected that even monsters would learn how to boost their morale.

"Roar!"

At the command of the Stone Scythefiend Giant, the group of over five hundred monsters began to run through the Valley of Extremes like a mighty army.

Ji Xinghuo had a rough idea of what was going on.

A moment later.

As he followed the Stone Scythefiends into a canyon, he noticed that the terrain was narrow and elongated, like a ditch, with steep cliffs on both sides that were difficult to climb. The canyon was a few hundred meters wide, and this group of Stone Scythefiends had entered from one end, while more Stone Scythefiends appeared at the other end.

It was like two armies meeting on a narrow road, and the two groups stopped about two hundred meters apart.

At this moment, Ji Xinghuo had climbed up one of the cliffs and was lying on the edge, observing the situation in the canyon below.

The two Stone Scythefiend Giants stood at the forefront of their respective groups.

One was the one he had just seen, and the other was also an "old acquaintance"—it was the Stone Scythefiend Giant he had encountered the previous year.

Its massive body stood at over five meters tall, resembling a sculpture carved from rock, and its body also bore scars.

It was even stronger and older than the other.

However, it was blind in one eye, as if its right eye had been forcibly gouged out.

Moreover, Ji Xinghuo noticed that the number of Stone Scythefiends following this Stone Scythefiend Giant had decreased. Previously, it had over a thousand followers, but now there were only about six to seven hundred.

Either they had been killed, or they had defected to the younger Stone Scythefiend Giant's camp.

"How interesting!"

Ji Xinghuo murmured to himself.

The saying 'a mountain cannot accommodate two tigers' applied to the creatures of the Star Realm as well.

The younger Stone Scythefiend Giant had recently evolved into a Calamity monster, and it was eager to challenge the older leader, vying for territory and followers. This was a common occurrence in the animal kingdom. Only after a clear winner emerged and a new king was decided would this cruel struggle come to an end.

"Roar!"

The two Stone Scythefiend Giants roared simultaneously, pounding their four arms against their chests and creating a deafening sound.

Without any communication, they immediately lunged at each other.

Boom!

The two colossal beings collided without any fancy moves, their eight arms entangled and furiously slashing at each other with their sharp claws. Blood splattered everywhere.

The ground of the canyon shook, and roars echoed through the valley.

The Stone Scythefiends on both sides were shouting and stirring, some of their eyes turning red as they prepared to charge into battle.

Debris flew everywhere, and dust rose from the disturbed vegetation.

Ji Xinghuo's gaze was fixed on the two Stone Scythefiend Giants as they fought. Their defensive capabilities were extremely strong, and their regenerative abilities were astonishing. The wounds inflicted by their sharp claws were healing at a visible rate, as if they had an endless supply of energy.

"Basaltic body and Earth Pulse!" He shook his head.

The former, he had obtained an exotic variant from a Superb-level Stone Scythefiend Giant he had hunted in the past.

The latter was precisely the ultra-limit exotic variant that Lin Zhongyin had been longing for.

Earth Pulse was the core template of the "Earth Walker," possessing an ultra-strong vibration sense. It could perceive changes through the vibrations in the ground and amplify its strength while standing on the ground, drawing energy from the earth to restore its stamina and heal its wounds, making it almost perpetually tireless.

Although the two Stone Scythefiend Giants seemed to be fighting with all their might, their actual strength gap wasn't significant enough to make a decisive difference.

It would be challenging for either of them to kill the other.

This section of the canyon's ground had long been flattened, devoid of any vegetation, indicating that they had fought here countless times.

Ji Xinghuo did not act rashly.

The battle raged from night until daybreak, and the supporting Stone Scythefiends had shouted themselves hoarse for half the night, yet these two giants still had abundant stamina.

They continued to bite, slash, and roar at each other relentlessly.

When the first rays of sunlight shone into the canyon, they seemed to have a tacit understanding, suddenly separating.

Then, each led their respective group of Stone Scythefiends and withdrew from the canyon.

Above the cliffs, Ji Xinghuo stood up and watched the departing monster groups, stroking his chin as a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.

"Since you two can't decide the victor, I'll be a good Samaritan and lend a hand." He said quietly to himself.

A new volume begins!

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end