Blood Scorpions were a type of demonic bug that lived in large groups.

　　 Since a scorpion is poisonous, a Blood Scorpion would be too. Other scorpions only had poisonous stingers on their tails, but for a Blood Scorpion, even its blood was poisonous.

　　 “Girl, move aside!” Yi Jiao shouted loudly, “Don’t let them touch you!”

　　 Luckily, Lu Mingshu avoided it. She swiftly dodged to the side and dived behind the huge rock as soon as she had spotted the Blood Scorpions.

　　 Yi Jiao cursed as she launched her mystic force. “Shing!” , she lit up in radiance similar to that of having hard armour on her whole body.

　　 The nest of scorpions flocked out and collided with her body head-on, and yet it was the scorpions that were knocked back.

　　 Mystic force in the Harmonization Realm could be used as solid mystic armour. The hardness of such armour was in no way inferior to a bulletproof vest.

　　 With a strike, Yi Jiao forced the Blood Scorpions into retreat, before tumbling to the side.

　　 They weren’t too strong as each of them would at most only be at the Inner Breath Realm. However, they were too large in numbers; there were at least over a hundred in this nest of scorpions.

　　 After some observation, Lu Mingshu rushed to the other side of the rock at lightning speed.

　　 A nest of scorpions turned in her direction and started rushing towards her after her appearance.

　　 “Didn’t I tell you to dodge?!” Yi Jiao shouted in her anxiousness and anger. This girl listened to my command earlier, yet now she acted on her own at a key moment. How could the Blood Scorpions be dealt with by an Inner Breath Realm? There are so many of them and so small in size! Once it gets you, there is no way for you to get it off! 

　　 Lu Mingshu started running in circles. She was practically announcing herself as a piece of fragrant fat meat to all the Blood Scorpions with such a running style, calling on them to come and bite her. More and more Blood Scorpions began to tail her.

　　 Yi Jiao was panic-stricken with anxiety. However, she was busy dealing with the White Hoof Rhinoceros. Was she going to fail the very first time she brought someone new along?

　　 What she failed to notice was that Lu Mingshu was not just running, but sprinkling something as well.

　　 After running around four or five times, almost all the Blood Scorpions had been lured over to her. Lu Mingshu finally stopped.

　　 The Blood Scorpions rushed towards her at lightning speed, creating a blood-red scene that flowed like blood.

　　 “You’ve even stopped running?” Yi Jiao was in a stare at her in utter disbelief. Does this girl resent the short life humans have that she wish that her life would end right here?

　　 Lu Mingshu remained silent, counting down in her heart.

　　 Three.

　　 Two.

　　 One.

　　 It’s time!

　　 She took out something and threw it onto the ground.

　　 “Boom!”

　　 The tremendous sound caused Yi Jiao to jump in fright.

　　 A streak of fire began to burn from the place she had tossed the thing to; it spread out quickly and engulfed the nest of Blood Scorpions.

　　 The Blood Scorpions scattered off all directions.

　　 But before they could disperse, Lu Mingshu rolled backwards and triggered the trap she had set up earlier.

　　 “Szzz, zzz!”

　　 Densely-packed needles flew into the fire.

　　 The Blood Scorpions that surged like a sea of blood were first engulfed by flames prior to being completely pierced by the flying needles. Unable to make their escape, they could only be barbequed by the fire which produced a sizzling sound as they squirmed and struggled, before finally becoming burnt black.

　　 Towards the scorpions that had avoided the mass slaughter, Lu Mingshu drew her sword and flicked them effortlessly and cheerfully into the fire, one by one.

　　 No more than three seconds passed between the moment when Lu Mingshu had lit the fire and the mass slaughter. There was a complete one-eighty reversal to the situation.

　　 Yi Jiao was stupefied by this. Only when she was knocked into by the White Hoof Rhinoceros did she come back to her senses.

　　 Her brain processes slowed. What happened?! That was a huge nest of Blood Scorpions, at least a hundred in number! Even I myself would not have been able to kill them all in one shot …

　　 A fragrant smell from the barbequed Blood Scorpions wafted over, making Lu Mingshu salivate at the thought of eating them. What a shame as the barbeque was poisonous …

　　 Once the fire died down, she took out a bag and tossed the barbequed Blood Scorpions into it.

　　 Lu Mingshu then continued to the entrance to capture the ones that had escaped. Here, she picked up a few more preys below the Inner Breath Realm.

　　 Seeing the smoke became thicker and thicker, it was virtually impossible for her to collect anything more. Even if the ferocious beasts were not afraid of this kind of grass, they would not be able to stand so much smoke.

　　 Yi Jiao beheaded that Harmonization Realm White Hoof Rhinoceros and immediately questioned Lu Mingshu before she could even catch her breath. “Hey, what did you do just now? How were those Blood Scorpions burned so easily?”

　　 Lu Mingshu blinked and raised up a small flask. “I … poured wine on them …”

　　 Yi Jiao was stunned.

　　 This wine was for expelling the cold. They each would bring a flask in order to counter the night-time coldness in the depths of the mountain.

　　 “And then?”

　　 “And then they all burned up!”

　　 “…” Yi Jiao realised that she had just asked a stupid question. She knew that wine was flammable, so there was nothing wrong with the Blood Scorpions being set on fire so easily after the wine was poured on them. However, to have gathered so many Blood Scorpions together, and to even lure them all to the trap where they were shot … it really was not an easy task no matter how she thought about it.

　　 Especially with how overtly calm she was while performing the slaughter; even Yi Jiao had goosebumps at the thought of facing so many Blood Scorpions. Yet, Lu Mingshu was actually able to stand there and wait for the right moment before throwing out the fire tinder.

　　 Yi Jiao could not help but feel that the newbie she had brought along was a queer fish.

　　 With her three views* refreshed, Yi Jiao rested quietly for a while as she bundled up a few prey before tossing it onto her shoulders.

　　 “Let’s go and help out.”

　　 “Mhmm.” Lu Mingshu helped carry a few of the small bundles as she followed behind her.

　　 Before long, they had spotted the three who were surrounded by the prey.

　　 The Silver-shelled Rats were not big; an adult Silver-shelled Rat was about the size of a kitten. However, they lived together in groups. There would usually be at least several hundred living together, with numbers that could reach into the thousands.

　　 The battle here was drawing to a close.

　　 They had nets set up all around which the three continuously drove the Silver-shelled Rats towards.

　　 Seeing both of them approaching, Lin Chen swept his gaze over. “Yo, good harvest huh!” It was indeed a good harvest with a Harmonization Realm ferocious beast.

　　 Still in a trance, Yi Jiao helped to drive the beasts into the nets silently.

　　 Lu Mingshu squatted with Gao Xiang to collect the nets.

　　 The battle ended after not much longer.

　　 They set the pregnant and young Silver-shelled Rats free before tying the remaining Silver-shelled Rats into bundles.

　　  “Let’s go, our harvest for today is enough.”

　　 With such a good catch, it could be considered that they were off to a good start.

　　 The five of them found a small creek and began skinning and washing them.

　　 Even though they had let a portion of the Silver-shelled Rats go, there were still hundreds left to be skinned. There was quite a lot to go along with the White Hoof Rhinoceros.

　　 Lu Mingshu took out the bag of Blood Scorpions and asked, “How should we handle this?”

　　 “What’s that?” Lin Chen’s mouth fell wide open after he peeped into the bag. “This …”

　　 “What is it?” Lin Chen’s reaction aroused Zhu Jingliang’s curiosity. He peeped into the bag as well, which stupefied him too.

　　 “Blood Scorpions?” Zhu Jingliang asked in shock, “They are barbequed?”

　　 Lu Mingshu nodded. “I heard there’s a use for the Blood Scorpion’s shell? Is it still useful after it’s burned?”

　　 This isn’t the main point! Zhu Jingliang hurriedly asked, “What’s going on? How did the two of you barbeque so many Blood Scorpions?”

　　 “We barbequed them by pouring wine …” Lu Mingshu gave a rough explanation and stared at them oddly, “What’s wrong?” Why were they looking at her so strangely?

　　After a while, Zhu Jingliang gave her a big thumbs-up. “Not bad, you show promise!”

　　 It would have been fine if it was a veteran, but it was truly incredible for a newbie to think of such an idea under such a tight situation and execute the idea calmly. Thinking back to when they were still newbies, where would they get such guts to execute such an idea on their first hunt? Gao Xiang’s performance earlier was very commendable, while Lu Mingshu’s ability to analyse and execute an idea calmly was magnificent. This year’s batch of newbies was awesome.

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