Chapter 75: The Dagons

Chapter 75: The Dagons

Ren Mian's trio's expressions shifted slightly as she asked, "How many?"

"One Dagon, one Vine Spirit, and three Gorau Garks," Ji Xinghuo described the situation within the sentry post. "No Stonish Lizardmen."

Ren Mian looked towards the location of the sentry post, obscured by the trees. Her voice echoed in their minds, "This is a hunting party, specialized in hunting humans. Stonish Lizardmen are bulky and slower, not suitable for stealth, so they usually don't bring them along."

"Should we attack?" Chi Zhonglin asked.

"Let's scout the area near this sentry post first. If there are no issues, we will make our move," Ren Mian said cautiously.

Ji Xinghuo was certain that apart from this sentry post, there were no other enemies nearby.

However, he still led the team to circle around the sentry post.

Ren Mian spotted several patches of 'Whistling Grass' planted under the trees. If any beasts or humans passed by, the Whistling Grass would emit a low-frequency sound wave that most humans and beasts couldn't hear, but the keen-eared Gorau Garks and Vine Spirits would detect it and sense the approaching prey.

"Let's get a little closer before we make our move," Ren Mian suggested.

Recognizing the Whistling Grass, the group carefully avoided it to prevent alerting the enemies.

Jiang Nancai activated her Phantom Orb, cloaking the entire team as they slowly moved beneath the trees, drawing closer to the sentry post.

Ji Xinghuo kept a close eye on the sentry post, and the opponents seemed unaware of their presence.

Finally, the four of them stopped behind a large tree, just over a hundred meters from the sentry post. If they looked up, they could see a shadow within the tree shade, occupying an area of less than ten square meters.

This sentry post was hidden amidst the dense branches and leaves. If it weren't for Ji Xinghuo's earlier discovery, they might have unknowingly walked into a trap.

Ji Xinghuo observed the enemies and suggested, "Sister Ren, I'll go to another direction and make the first move to draw them out. You guys can then ambush them from the side. What do you think?"

"Alright," Ren Mian agreed after a few seconds of consideration.

Among the five enemies in this sentry post, their strengths weren't particularly remarkable. Even a direct frontal assault wouldn't be much of a problem. Nevertheless, Ji Xinghuo's proposal was a safer option.

Ji Xinghuo activated his Stealth Ring and quietly moved away from the concealment of the Phantom Orb to the other side of the sentry post, maintaining a distance of about a hundred meters.

Any further, and he would exceed the range of the thought link.

"I'm in position," Ji Xinghuo reminded his three teammates through their mental link.

"Let's begin."

Ji Xinghuo drew a Flame-Tipped Arrow, nocked it on his Dragonhawk Bow, and pulled the string. He counted silently in his mind, "Three, two, one!"

A red light suddenly shot out, angling upwards through the gaps between the trees. In the blink of an eye, it penetrated the branches and twigs that formed the sentry post and exploded inside.

Boom!

The high temperature flames erupted within the sentry post, causing the large tree to shake violently. The branches and leaves caught fire, and a low, muffled roar emanated from within.

Three small figures screamed as they flew out.

They were only about a meter tall, with their bodies divided into three segments—head, chest, and abdomen. They had six insect-like joints, a hard outer shell, and a pair of thin wing membranes behind them, which would usually allow them to fly. However, at this moment, they were engulfed in flames, and as they escaped the sentry post, they fell towards the ground.

With just one Blaze Arrow, the three Gorau Garks had lost their ability to fly.

As they shrieked in agony, one of the Gorau Garks pointed at Ji Xinghuo's location and let out a sharp cry.

Ji Xinghuo was in the process of drawing the bowstring for the second time when he saw a sleek, cyan-blue figure leaping towards him from the trees.

"A Dagon!"

It was the first time he had laid eyes on Earth's greatest enemy, and he couldn't help but observe them for a moment.

The Dagons were a typical humanoid race, possessing limbs, a torso, and a head. They stood upright, with an average height of about 1.7 meters. Their skin had a cyan-blue hue, tough and smooth. They had four fingers on each hand, with webbed digits, and their legs were segmented into three joints. A flexible tail, similar to that of a monkey, extended from their backs.

The most distinct difference in appearance between Dagons and humans was their heads.

They had no hair, and their scalp was as smooth as the rest of their body. Their faces had a pair of round eyes, devoid of eyebrows or eyelashes, and a fin-like ridge at the back of their head. Their large, deep green eyes were set left and right in the middle of their faces, with a vertical bony ridge running between them, connecting to the fin at the back. When their mouth was closed, only a thin slit was visible.

The Dagons had no nose, and they breathed through gill-like organs on either side of their thick necks.

This physical structure resembled that of fish.

In fact, on their home planet, the Dagons spent most of their time in the water. They were excellent swimmers and could breathe underwater.

The Dagons possessed highly developed intelligence, and their natural affinity with water meant that their abilities tended towards the "Water Master" profession template, but they were far more powerful than the Water Masters.

In addition to controlling water, the Dagons also mastered ice-based abilities.

At this moment, the Dagon was covered in a layer of ice armor, and a water current surrounded the ice armor, protecting it from the flames.

The Dagon had strong eyesight and immediately located Ji Xinghuo. As it leaped through the air, it pointed its right hand in Ji Xinghuo's direction.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

Water vapor instantly condensed into several transparent ice blades, slicing through the air with arrow-like speed.

At the same time, a thick fog enveloped the area around the Dagon, spreading to cover the forest within a radius of several dozen meters, creating a favorable combat environment for itself.

Ji Xinghuo stood his ground and fired a second arrow.

The arrow's shadow flickered.

The fog that had just enveloped the area was pierced by a tiny gap, and the titanium-aluminum alloy arrow struck the leaping Dagon, penetrating its large eye.

Bang! The Dagon's corpse slammed into the ground, its head, now blasted open, leaking pale blue blood.

The ice blades it had shot out before its death didn't even come close to touching Ji Xinghuo's clothes.

Pa pa pa!

Ji Xinghuo swiftly pulled the bowstring, firing three arrows in quick succession, taking down the three screaming, fleeing Gorau Garks. The forest fell silent.

Ji Xinghuo remained calm and even had the leisure to observe this peculiar enemy.

Vine Spirits were a semi-animal, semi-plant race with intelligence and formidable individual strength. If not for their scarce numbers, the Dagons would not have been able to defeat them and become the rulers of Bei Luo Shimen.

Each Dagon hunting team in the Starry World would have a Vine Spirit with them.

They could quickly set up camps, heal their tribesmen, transform into mounts to carry their teammates forward, and also possessed formidable combat strength.

The weakness of the Vine Spirits was their fear of fire.

At this moment, it absorbed the surrounding plants, causing its body to swell, transforming into a two-meter-tall plant cheetah, and charged towards Ji Xinghuo.

Ji Xinghuo did not draw his bow but merely watched it.

"Hey!"

A loud shout rang out.

Chi Zhonglin's figure appeared beside the Vine Spirit, his muscles taut as he threw the lava spear in his hand, now glowing red-hot.

The spear flew over a hundred meters and instantly pierced through the plant cheetah form of the Vine Spirit, pinning it to the trunk of a large tree. The heat from the spear caused the surrounding vegetation to ignite in flames.

The Vine Spirit let out a painful cry.

The vines contracted and writhed, reverting to a large clump of vines that crawled up the tree trunk.

Ji Xinghuo shot another Blaze Arrow, and the ensuing explosion sent it falling from the tree, its body now burned to half its original size. When severely injured, Vine Spirits would discard non-essential parts to protect their core.

Jiang Nancai's figure appeared beneath the tree, and with a flash of her blade, she sliced the Vine Spirit, now shrunk to only half a meter in size, into two pieces.

The piercing shriek came to an abrupt end.

The battle had lasted less than ten seconds, and Ren Mian hadn't even needed to lift a finger.

The gap in strength was too vast. The strongest Dagons and Vine Spirits were only third-stage, equivalent to advanced superhumans. Having lost the initiative, they stood no chance at all.

Without any hesitation, Ren Mian instructed, "Collect their exotic species."

One advantage the Bei Luo Shimen tribe had over Earth humans was that in the hundreds of years since their entry into the Starry World, their genes had evolved, and more and more tribe members had developed exotic abilities. Eventually, they formed their own racial talents, similar to the exotic tribes of the Starry World.

The Dagons had "underwater breathing," and with each life evolution, they would awaken the ability to "gather water." The Vine Spirits had "plant manipulation," and the Gorau Garks had "echolocation."

'Gather Water' was an exceptional exotic ability and could serve as a core ability for a 'Water Master.'

'Plant Manipulation' was a quality exotic ability, slightly better than the 'Forest Tongue' of the Xun Lin tribe, but not as good as Qing Luo Xing Gen's ability.

Both 'Echolocation' and 'Underwater Breathing' were basic exotic abilities and weren't worth much.

Ji Xinghuo lightly touched each corpse, but he did not find any other exotic species.

Their weapons and equipment were also of little value. Constrained by the lack of resources on their home planet, the Bei Luo Shimen tribe lacked many critical materials, so their technological level wasn't much more advanced than Earth's and even lagged in some aspects.

After collecting the exotic species, the team immediately withdrew.

Chi Zhonglin took the lead, clearing the path with his long spear, pushing aside the grass and shrubs. With a sense of satisfaction, he said, "It would be great if we could face more of these kinds of enemies. The more Bei Luo Shimen tribesmen we kill, the fewer Earth soldiers will die on the battlefield in the future."

"They're just ordinary sentry post soldiers and won't affect the grand scheme of things," Ren Mian shook her head.

But Chi Zhonglin disagreed, "Killing one is still one less enemy!"

After a moment of silence, Ren Mian suddenly said, "The real key to determining the victory between Earth and the Bei Luo Shimen tribe lies in which side's high-ranking strong individuals can break through their shackles and become a Star Shepherd."

Upon hearing these words, Ji Xinghuo's heart trembled.

Star Shepherd! The path of evolution for superhumans was to undergo life evolution repeatedly. The more times one evolved, the higher their rank and strength would be.

Above the superhumans were the Legends, and above the Legends were the Heavenly Kings.

According to the standards of the Starry World, Heavenly Kings were considered sixth-stage, and even in the vast expanse of the Starry World, Heavenly Kings were formidable powers who ruled over vast territories and countless subjects.

However, Heavenly Kings were still not enough to shake the Starry World. The true rulers of the Starry World were the seventh-stage powerhouses.

They were called Star Shepherds! As the name implied, a Star Shepherd could suppress an entire planet. That planet would become their pasture, and the people living on it would be like sheep to be herded.

They held the power of life and death, their might unmatched! Star Shepherds were creators of life miracles, but breaking through from the sixth-stage Heavenly King to the seventh-stage was hundreds of times more difficult than all the previous breakthroughs combined.

The Bei Luo Shimen tribe had been in the Starry World for over a thousand years, yet they had not given birth to a Star Shepherd.

Out of the 49 Heavenly Kings on Earth, only a handful had the opportunity to attempt this breakthrough, and even then, their chances of success were infinitesimally slim.

Only with the emergence of a Star Shepherd would a race truly establish its footing in the Starry World.

The Tian Yu Wang Ting had three Star Shepherds, which was why they could firmly rule over the Qian Feng Yuan Lin and suppress the eight extraterrestrial races within their domain.

"It's difficult..."

Chi Zhonglin sighed, "In my opinion, none of the Heavenly Kings on Earth currently have the hope of breaking through to the seventh stage. As for the sixth-stage powerhouses of the Bei Luo Shimen tribe, they're not much better off. We can still fight them, and even if we fight for another few hundred years, neither side will be able to emerge victorious."

Ji Xinghuo shared the same sentiment.

However, Ren Mian smiled meaningfully, "That's not necessarily true."

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end