Chapter 91: Harvest
Chapter 91: Harvest
For this arrow, Ji Xinghuo used a silent arrow.
The arrow transformed into a black shadow as it flew, almost invisible in the dim starlight. It was extremely fast, and in the blink of an eye, it hit the Dagun rider atop the Vine Spirit.
This Dagun was a patrol captain, carrying a longbow, and his profession resembled that of a ranger.
His perception was strong.
However, he did not detect the impending attack at all. The silent arrow struck his eye with pinpoint accuracy. Even though the material of the silent arrow was not as good as an alloy, it easily pierced the fragile eye and instantly penetrated his skull, with the arrowhead exiting the back of his head.
The Dagun man's mouth hung open, but no sound escaped as he toppled over.
It was only when the body fell to the ground that the Vine Spirit beneath him realized he was dead.
The Vine Spirit let out a shrill cry.
However, before the nearby Dagun and Stone Lizard men could react, Ji Xinghuo fired off three more titanium-aluminum alloy arrows in quick succession.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Three Gorau'kak, who had been scouting in the air, screamed as they fell, their bodies already lifeless by the time they hit the ground.
It was only then that the patrol team realized they were under attack.
There was a flurry of shouts and cries.
The Stone Lizard men contracted inward, raising their shields to form a protective barrier, using their bodies as a human wall to safeguard the Dagun in their midst. One of the Dagun raised his hand, and a large expanse of gray-white mist rose up, enveloping the entire team. He couldn't pinpoint the attacker's location, so his first reaction was to disrupt the enemy's arrows.
The gray-white mist swirled and formed a wind wall, creating a solid barrier.
Ji Xinghuo fired an arrow.
The arrow penetrated the mist wall but veered off course since he hadn't activated the Myriad Phenomenon Manifestation for this shot. As a result, the arrow missed its intended target.
However, he didn't stop there.
The light circle on his right eye flickered again, and Ji Xinghuo loaded a piercing arrow, firing once more.
As the arrow passed through the mist wall, it was deflected once more, but it fortuitously struck the Dagun maintaining the mist wall, embedding itself in his forehead.
The Dagun man fell, his eyes wide with disbelief, and the mist wall dissipated.
Ji Xinghuo fired another arrow, this time aiming at a Gorau'kak. Their perception was extremely keen, serving as the eyes of the patrol team, so they had to be taken out first.
The Gorau'kak let out a piercing cry as it fell.
The remaining Gorau'kak finally located the source of the arrows and pointed in Ji Xinghuo's direction, emitting rapid, insect-like cries.
An arrow shot into its mouth, abruptly silencing it.
However, the surviving patrol team members now knew Ji Xinghuo's location, and the Stone Lizard men swiftly formed a defensive formation, their shields raised to create a shield wall, protecting their comrades behind them.
During this process, Ji Xinghuo took out another Dagun who had turned invisible. This Dagun thought he was safe, but until his dying breath, he couldn't understand why he had been singled out as a priority target.
"Advance!"
The last remaining Dagun, now in command, shouted from behind the shield wall.
Ji Xinghuo couldn't understand the Dagun language, but he could grasp a few simple words. As the Dagun gave the order, the Stone Lizard men began to move towards him, their speed not slowing as they charged into the forest where he was hiding. They also threw several spears, though their aim was a bit off.
At a distance of nearly three hundred meters, not just anyone could make an accurate shot.
Ji Xinghuo turned and hid behind the thick tree trunk, temporarily ceasing his attack.
"Charge forward!"
The Dagun man roared in anger.
He didn't notice that by the roadside, behind him, a tiny green snake, only a few centimeters long, had raised its head and opened its mouth, aiming at him.
Four or five arrows appeared almost simultaneously, like a rain of arrows, turning the Dagun man into a porcupine.
Ji Xinghuo was afraid that Qinghong might miss, so he had it fire multiple arrows.
One of the arrows pierced the Dagun man's neck, killing him instantly. The resonance crystal he held for communicating with the military camp fell to the ground, unable to send a signal.
In the blink of an eye, the entire patrol team was left with only the Vine Spirit and ten Stone Lizard men.
The Bei Luoshimen tribe had a strict hierarchy, with the Dagun in absolute ruling power, followed by the Vine Spirits. According to the racial hierarchy, the Vine Spirit should have taken command now, but unlike the other races, it didn't communicate through sound but rather through mental connections.
They rarely spoke to the other two races except when communicating with the Dagun.
The Vine Spirit waved the branches on its body, emitting a series of unintelligible sounds. The Stone Lizard men, with their stone-like heads, struggled to comprehend its meaning.
One by one, the Stone Lizard men's eyes reflected confusion and fear.
They still hadn't caught a glimpse of their enemy.
The arrows striking from behind left them vulnerable on both sides, forcing five of the Stone Lizard men to turn back and form a shield wall, creating a barrel-like formation that resembled a stationary turtle.
The Vine Spirit hid within the formation. Lacking visual and olfactory senses, it relied on vibrations and sounds to discern its surroundings.
Suddenly, it sensed intense heat.
A blast flame arrow traced a parabola in the air, falling from the sky with speed and landing in the middle of the Stone Lizard men's formation. The Vine Spirit quickly wove a plant shield over its head, but the blast flame arrow detonated, igniting its vines, and the fire rapidly spread across its body.
Boom!
The Vine Spirit, afraid of fire, went into a frenzy, rolling on the ground in an attempt to extinguish the flames.
The explosion within the formation threw the Stone Lizard men into disarray.
Ji Xinghuo reappeared, and the Dragon Falcon Eagle Bow fired in rapid succession. Each titanium-aluminum alloy arrow was like a deathly edict, piercing through the cracks in their armor and finding vital spots—eyes, throat, and more—taking their lives.
When the Vine Spirit finally extinguished the flames on its body, it found that all the Stone Lizardmen were dead, and it was the only one left.
It decisively transformed back into the Plant Cheetah and turned to flee.
Clap!
A thunderclap suddenly rang out, and a flash of lightning caused the Vine Spirit to fall instantly, curling into a ball. Its vines turned black and trembled, and it lost all resistance.
It had no idea where the lightning had come from, and its mind went blank.
After spitting out the lightning, Qinghong immediately burrowed into the grass to hide.
Soon, Ji Xinghuo swung over to the Vine Spirit's side using the nano-rope. With a swing of his Lei Chi battle knife, he split the Vine Spirit in two.
He squatted down and reached out. Qinghong crawled onto his palm and looked up, its eyes filled with pride.
"Well done!" Ji Xinghuo praised, putting it back into his pocket.
Then he began to collect the spoils of war.
First was the scalp of the Dagun man, the most valuable part of their body. The unique bluish pattern on the top of their heads was about half the size of a palm. With a deft move of the Lei Chi knife, Ji Xinghuo sliced off the scalp. This was worth more than the "water-gathering" ability of the Dagun race.
Ji Xinghuo worked efficiently, and within two minutes, he had finished harvesting and collecting.
Four patterned scalps, one plant core, five tentacles, ten scaled tail tips, and several exotic species were all carefully placed into two bags and then into Qinghong's dimensional stomach.
The bounty for a third-rank Dagun was 200,000, and for a second-rank, it was 100,000.
The Vine Spirit was priced the same.
Just from these five Dagun and the Vine Spirit, he would receive 600,000 in bounty, and with the addition of the tentacles and tail tips, the total would be over 700,000!
"Making money is too easy!" Ji Xinghuo exclaimed. No wonder capable outsiders were willing to become bounty hunters.
However, for him, the bounty and points were secondary.
The most important thing was the spiritual source energy he could obtain.
This patrol team provided 27 points of spiritual source energy, equivalent to a full day's worth of hunting in the Absolute Peak Valley. Whether it was harvesting spiritual source energy or exchanging it for bounty, the efficiency was several times higher than hunting the Stone Golems!
And the night's hunt had just begun.
On the ground, the resonance crystal was buzzing.
This was the tool used by the Dagun for communication and could transmit sound within a few hundred kilometers; humans also used it.
Ji Xinghuo crushed the resonance crystal underfoot and quickly left.
He dared not linger in this area, immediately moving to another location to avoid being traced by powerful members of the Bei Luoshimen tribe and having his escape route cut off.
Over an hour later.
Ji Xinghuo arrived at another location more than twenty kilometers away from the previous area. As usual, he first conducted reconnaissance, using his magnetic field perception like a radar to scan the area and understand the situation before ambushing another patrol team.
He didn't have to wait long before his prey appeared.
This patrol team seemed to have not received any news and was patrolling as usual.
Their configuration was identical to the previous patrol team: ten Stone Lizardmen, five Gorau'kak, one Vine Spirit, and four Dagun, with the most powerful Dagun as the captain.
Ji Xinghuo repeated his strategy.
He first used a silent arrow to shoot and kill the captain, then took out the Gorau'kak, which had scouting abilities, rendering the patrol team blind.
Then, he shot and killed each target one by one, using Myriad Phenomenon Manifestation if they proved to be tricky.
Qinghong lay in ambush nearby, taking the opportunity to spit out arrows or lightning to launch surprise attacks on the enemy.
The entire battle lasted less than a minute.
After collecting the spoils, Ji Xinghuo left with a bounty of several hundred thousand and an additional 25 points of spiritual source energy, having an even smoother time than with the previous patrol team.
He kept changing locations after each attack.
During this starlit night, Ji Xinghuo consecutively eliminated four patrol teams, becoming more and more proficient with each engagement.
From start to finish, none of the Bei Luoshimen tribe's enemies came close to him. Under the cover of the starlight, the three-hundred-meter shooting advantage was immense. Additionally, with the Stealth Ring, apart from the initial Dagun and Gorau'kak, the other enemies didn't even see his shadow.
As night fell, the patrols ceased.
Ji Xinghuo did not linger in the area, his keen senses alerting him to the presence of powerful enemies searching for him. The annihilation of four patrol teams had evidently raised alarms within the Bei Luoshimen tribe.
However, he did not stop there.
Instead, he returned to the Earth side of the buffer zone, traveled far away for dozens of kilometers, and then crossed back over the buffer zone, sneaking into a highly concealed outpost in the darkness.
This outpost was built in a cave in the mountainside, with only five enemies present.
The cave entrance was concealed by plants, and during the night, only one Gorau'kak was on guard, sitting behind a rock at the cave mouth, completely unaware.
From a distance, Ji Xinghuo shot out a silent arrow, and the Gorau'kak quietly fell, becoming a corpse.
Then, in his stealth state, he walked into the cave.
The four members of the Bei Luoshimen tribe were all fast asleep and did not sense the approaching enemy. Ji Xinghuo's hands lit up with electric light as the stray starlight within him converged, growing brighter and brighter. However, in his stealth state, very little light and no sound escaped.
Boom!
A sudden thunderclap lit up the cave, bright as day, and the four members of the Bei Luoshimen tribe lost their lives in their sleep.
Ji Xinghuo quickly collected the spoils and retreated before the commotion attracted attention.
Then he continued to search for his next target.
(End of Chapter)
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