Ch.438 Part 1

　　The Hedgehog Beast’s anguished roars rang out ceaselessly. The Jiao was still devouring the imperishable substance streaming from the wounded Hedgehog Beast.

　　Huang Jing watched all this wearily, waiting for his chance to escape. When he saw that both demon beasts were distracted, Huang Jing abruptly retracted the short sword, and made a run for it!

　　Without the godly weapon to suppress it, the hedgehog began to struggle violently.

　　The Jiao’s eyes betrayed its extreme rage. But at this moment, there’s no time to chase down that puny human. The task at hand is much more important.

　　But the Jiao still need to use the human to deal with the Forbidden Lands. The Jiao could care less if the human left. Afterall, the City ofHope had no affiliations with the Forbidden Lands. But that shorsword! That shortsword with that dumb tree’s scent all over it – that shorsword absolutely can’t leave! The Jiao must get rid of it before that shortsword is used to chop it to pieces! The Jiao began swallowing the substance frantically, all the while watching the escaping Huang Jing with fury in its eyes.

　　What will it do if the human just left like this?

　　But the Hedgehog Beast, the guardian of the entrance to the Forbidden Lands, is still not dead yet. If the Jiao didn’t kill it, the Forbidden Lands will know of this. The Jiao will be done for if the Forbidden Lands Found out.

　　The farther Huang Jing ran, the more agitated the Jiao became. Will it have to attack the City of Demonic Trees to find and destroy that shortsword? But if it went, the Jiao might not come back in one piece.

　　The Jiao really wanted to chase that human, but the Hedgehog Beast is still struggling, the imperishable substance is still spilling forth in torrents, allowing the Hedgehog Beast’s wounds to close. The Jiao’s eyes displayed a hint of impatience and frustration. It decided not to think about Huang Jing，but rather chose to devour the Hedgehog Beast with all its might. The Jiao will first consume this Forbidden Land’s guard dog, before going to chase down that human. Even if the Jiao can’t find the human……there’s still that familiar scent at the Forbidden Land’s entrance! If the Jiao can find that familiar figure, maybe that person can help the Jiao find this human with the shortsword. The Jiao stopped looking at where Huang Jing had gone, and focused on consuming the Hedgehog Beast.

　　After a while, the Hedgehog Beast’s violent struggles became less and less powerful.

　　Another moment passed, the Hedgehog Beast stopped moving completely. The goldenglow of the imperishable substance faded gradually, but the demon beast corpse remained. The Jiao didn’t waste anything this time. It opened its jaws wide and swallowed the corpse down in one huge gulp. Skin, meat, skeleton and all – all of this was swallowed down by the Jiao in an instant, until only a cracked, golden skull remained.

　　The skull had numerous deep marks, all made by the shortsword. These wounds still carried the demon wood’s scent. The Jiao buried the golden skull with a mighty slap of its claw. At this point Huang Jing was nowhere to be found.

　　The Jiao’s eyes narrowed in deep thought. That human ran for so long – there’s little chance of chasing down that human.

　　From far away, the Forbidden Lands have shown some stirring of movement. If the Jiao engages in battle with that runaway human, it might attract those meddlesome king stages from the Forbidden Lands.

　　The Jiao’s thoughts flitted about in its head as it flew towards the Hedgehog Beasts Ridge

　　……

　　Hedgehog Beasts Ridge.

　　Everything was still dead silent.

　　From his position at the foot of the hill, Fang Ping shifted about carefully. There was no spirit energy (精神力) scanning the area.

　　At this point, Fang Ping didn’t dare to look outside. Instead he began to carefully dig at the ground. After a while of digging, Fang Ping stopped and gritted his teeth. Fuck it, the sound of digging is super loud in the thick silence, it’s better to just drill his way out. Fang Ping didnt’ continue his efforts to dig the hole. he walked back, towards the direction that he came from. After a little while of walking, Fang Ping’s expression changed at the sight in front of him. The path ahead was blocked by a landslide!

　　That wasn’t the important part!

　　The important part is……Fang Ping saw something!

　　“Is that a demon beast？”

　　“No no no……such a large body, but it doesn’t have an aura of power at all…… what kind of demon beast is this？”

　　Fang Ping only caught a glance. He didn’t dare look too carefully as he hid himself inside the cavern that was blocked by the landslide.

　　But he really did see a demon beast laying outside of the cavern!

　　There’s no signs of life!

　　“What the heck happened？”

　　Fang Ping’s confusion grew. Why was there a demon beast corpse outside?

　　The size of demon beasts us related to their power. This demon beast isn’t any smaller than that Hegehog Beast. Doesn’t that mean……

　　“It’s also a high tiered beast?”

　　“It’s dead？”

　　Fang Ping’ s heart pounded in his chest as his unease grew. He tentatively began to detect the surrounding area. Very quickly, Fang Ping became certain of his initial thought – the demon beast is really dead!

　　“There’s another high tier demon beast corpse, what kind of day is this?”

　　“Who killed it?”

　　“Wait……That Jiao demon beast was followed by another demon beast，could it be this corpse belong to that demon beast?”

　　“Could it be ……that the Jiao killed its companion？”

　　Fang Ping’s brain felt like mush from thinking too much！

　　What the fuck is going on？

　　The day has been so out of the ordinary that Fang Pind just didn’t know what to make of it.

　　First it’s finding out that the Hedgehog Beasts Ridge has another eighth tier demon beast, and then Fang Ping though he saw the Jiao from a few hundred miles away, and then following that, Fang Ping finds the demon beast that’s been following the Jiao, dead on the ground. Where did the Jiao go?

　　Did the Jiao kill this demon beast？

　　But before this, weren’t the two together? When did the in-fighting start?

　　“Argh! Feels like there’s not enough brain cells for me to sue！”

　　“Do I go outside? Did the Jiao leave yet？”

　　Fang Ping sunk into the depths of an internal struggle. He was really confused now.

　　After a while, Fang Ping clenched his jaw and made a difficult decision. I’d have to be stupid to pass up such a good opportunity that’s right there in front of me.

　　He knows how hard it is to kill a seventh tier demon beast. After all, not even an eight tier or ninth tier practitioner can easily do it.

　　It’s not only about killing the demon beast, it’s about how to keep the body in one piece while killing the demon beast. How can you prevent the demon beast from self-imploding?

　　Furthermore, how can you kill a demon beast without alerting other people, who might arrive at the scene with the intention of stealing loot.

　　These are all factors that must be considered when hunting demon beasts.

　　Fang Ping carefully walked out from the collapsed pathway, and made his way to the dead demon beast. Fang Ping’s brows knit in thought. Is the heart core (心核) and the brain core (脑核) still there?

　　As well, this demon beast isn’t that small, so it’s really hard to take away.

　　It isn’t easy to increase Fang Ping’s storage space (储物空间) right now.

　　The main problem is that Fang Ping doesn’t have the money to do it!

　　The System still hasn’t counted Fang Ping’s wealth. The last time Fang Ping tried to increase his storage space, he had to use around 130 billion wealth units (财富值). He only has less than 40 billion.

　　If he did try to increase the storage space size, that meagre amount can only increase the space by around 8 square meters. There’s still no way that the demon beast’s corpse would fit.

　　“What a waste, looks like I can only opt for digging out the most useful stuff.”

　　Fang Ping was a little regretful, but he was also quite wary.

　　The System didn’t increase the wealth points yet. This could only mean that he hasn’t fully escaped from danger!

　　Right now, Fang Jing has to be extra vigilant, extra careful.

　　Fang Ping sucked in a breath, and began to walk carefully towards the direction of the demon beast’s corpse. Once he was there, Fang Ping looked about him. The Hedgehog Beasts Ridge is still silent to the extreme. It was a little terrifying.

　　“Screw it. Let’s just first dig out the heart core and the brain core! ”

　　Very quickly, Fang Ping walked forward with the shovel, intent on dissecting the demon beast.

　　Just as he was about to start, Fang Ping’s face suddenly contorted in shock！

　　Fuck, it actually came back！

　　At this moment, a streak of golden light was rapidly approaching.

　　Fang Ping didn’t dare to wait around and see what’s going to happen next. He dove underground in a state of fright and confusion. Didn’t the Jiao leave already? Why the heck is it coming back?

　　Just a little bit after Fang Ping hid himself, the ginormous figure of the Jiao landed heavily on the ground. a giant pair of pupils swivelled around, scanning the surroundings.

　　Then, the Jiao’s nostrils flared as it scented the air.

　　That chef’s true strength is quite ordinary. Even if he ran, he couldn’t have gotten far.

　　But……not being able to sense the chef’s rough location still made the Jiao pretty surprised.

　　The Jiao sniffed at the cavern that Fang Ping had been in just a little while ago. The scent here seemed to be stronger.

　　The Jiao stomped down. The entire ground beneath it collapsed, revealing the many caverns just below the surface.

　　The Jiao kept on sniffing, breaking more and more of the earth in his search.

　　Not far from where the Jiao is, Fang Ping’s face was turning green.

　　What the hell is it doing?

　　Is this Jiao going to flip the entire mountain range over just to search for him?

　　Even when he blew up that Giant Willow City, those warriors from the damaged city didn’t even go this far to search for him.

　　What did he do to this Jiao? That the Jiao had to go to such lengths to search for him?

　　Normally, even when demon beasts are intent on killing humans. As long as you didn’t fuck with their nests, or steal their treasure, the demon beasts will give up after a while of searching.

　　Like the first couple of times that he escaped. Jiao didn’t even bother to look that hard for him.

　　But what the heck is happening today?

　　Could it be because he ran away a couple times before, and the Jiao had been bottling it up? So now the Jiao’s so angry that it’s intent on killing him?

　　Or is it because the Jiao’s still angry from the last time, when Fang Ping brought it a seventh tier?

　　Watching the Jiao’s progress through the area, Fang Ping knew that if he didn’t move from his position, it’ll only be a matter of time until he got caught.

　　Right now, Fang Ping didn’t even bother with anything else. The situation at the Hedgehog Beasts Ridge is unsettling – it’s too quiet！

　　There’s not a single sound from a demon beast. It’s as if all signs of life has been wiped from the mountain range. Under these conditions, it’ll be really hard for Fang Ping to find and escape route.

　　Fang Ping gritted his teeth and took out the shovel again, continuing to dig forward. Even thought the digging made a little noise, there’s nothing Fang Ping can do about it.

　　Fang Ping has already used spiritual energy to create a barrier. The sound of his digging isn’t actually that loud, not to the point of reverberating outside of the barrier. What Fang Ping has to worry about……is the Jiao picking up on the tremors in the ground created by Fang Ping’s digging.

　　Luckily the Jiao is still busy wrecking the landscape. The commotion from the collapsing ground completely hid the small tremors in the ground from digging.

　　Fang Ping dug quickly. After a while, he switched his path and continued to dig.

　　“It seems that after I learned to dig tunnels, I’ve always been doing it”

　　Fang Ping felt like laughing humorlessly. He’s really becoming quite the digging expert.

　　Ever since that time at NanJiang (南江), where he first began to dig holes, Fang Ping had found himself digging so much that it’s almost become a habit.

　　The Fang Ping right now, truly does have enough experience to be an expert. He knows where to find underground reservoirs of water, he knows how to read the signs for a collapse. Fang Ping jokingly thought he should just settle down into a life of archaeology.

　　“On the surface, I have zero sense of direction. I’d get lost without markers on the side of the road. But underground, I suddenly have a sense of direction. What the hell is wrong with me,”

　　Even as he was thinking these self-deprecating thoughts, Fang Ping was praying for the Jiao to just give up on its search.

　　Was the Jiao freaking bored?

　　The Jiao is a full eighth tier spirit beast – why is it so intent on sticking to a pungy human like Fang Ping? If the Jiao was that freaking bored, why doesn’t it go find another eighth tier demon beast to fight with?

　　Fang Ping was unhappy. The Jiao was also unhappy.

　　Where did the chef go?

　　The Jiao already sensed that the chef was nearby. The ground is about to fully collapse. If this continues, the Forbidden Lands will notice. If the Forbidden Lands sends another messenger, then the Jiao would have absolutely no time to find that escaped warrior and that shortsword!

　　The Jiao needs to find that runaway human, and use that shorsword to cut itself and fabricate some wounds.

　　The Jiao was very agitated. For some unknown reason, the Jiao suddenly stopped its onslaught on the ground.

　　In a faraway area, the ground shook slightly before stopping quickly.

　　But not quick enough to escape the Jiao’s notice.

　　The Jiao’s eyes showed a smug expression. The chef is still somewhere around here.

　　In the next second, the Jiao appeared on the flat terrain and slammed its claws down!

　　Beneath the Jiao’s enormous claw, a tiny hole appeared. The chef is nowhere to be found!

　　The Jiao was completely infuriated. The chef’s gone again!

　　In its anger the Jiao went on a rampage. The once flat earth in this area became riddled with sunken holes.

　　The Jiao stopped, suddenly remembering something. Strands of vitality appeared, like scarlet threads of silk, winding themselves around the golden horn of the Jiao.

　　The Jiao still has some tricks up its sleeve for that chef who has a hobby of running away.

　　In the next moment, a weak thread of vitality broke free from the Jiao’s horn and floated in the air. The strand moved as if it was a living thing. Winding a path through the air, it began to drift away from the Jiao, moving forward like a thin snake.