The two men walked through the scarred remains of the Beast Villa. Although night had fallen, many people were still busy cleaning up the traces left by the day’s battle.
There were also people with strange auras constantly returning from outside the villa, carrying specialized equipment used on war beasts. Some of them were even leading war beasts back with them.
Clearly, these were the beast tamers of the villa, out capturing the battle beasts that escaped. However, their efforts didn’t seem to be very effective. These teams of ten, accompanied by a hundred guards, were lucky if one or two tamers returned with a battle beast. Most of the groups came back empty-handed.
Seeing this, Li Daqian’s eyes filled with melancholy.
The villa was not completely destroyed, but it was over half ruined. The carefully nurtured battle beasts had either been killed or fled, resulting in significant losses.
These battle beasts were the essence of the Thousand Beast Villa. Restoring the villa to its former scale would take who knows how long.
After this incident, the villa’s ranking in the country would undoubtedly drop significantly.
Fortunately, after selling the level-nine creature’s corpse, Li Daqian managed to recoup some losses. He had gathered a full set of blue equipment and obtained over forty level-eight demon crystals, more than a dozen job and skill scrolls, and other valuable items.
His personal strength had improved considerably after this incident.
“Master Li, you didn’t come to me just for a walk, did you?” Ye Zhongming asked as he strolled alongside Li Daqian.
Li Daqian laughed. “The most important thing is to express my gratitude. If it weren’t for Cloud Peak’s strong support this time, I shudder to think what the outcome might have been.”
Xia Bai had killed Jiu Long and subdued Jiu Bao. Ye Zhongming had slain Kim Jongyuan, severely injured Palmerk, and subdued Guancheng Chun. Even the female guards had taken down a high-ranking traitorous beast tamer and his battle beast group. It was the presence of Cloud Peak and Ye Zhongming that had shifted the balance of power. Ultimately, because Ye Zhongming held a powerful weapon, Alamos and Janandra were forced to back down and retreat without achieving anything.
Li Daqian’s gratitude was sincere.
“Brother Ye, before you leave, pick some battle beasts from my stables as a token of my appreciation,” Li Daqian said earnestly. Seeing Ye Zhongming about to speak, he quickly added, “Please don’t refuse. The battle beasts in the stables aren’t of high level. After seeing the battle beasts of your female guards, I’m worried you might find them unworthy.”
Ye Zhongming nodded. He knew things weren’t that simple. Li Daqian wouldn’t have sought him out just for this.
After finishing this topic, Li Daqian got to the main point.
“Earlier, underground, which part were you planning to buy, Brother Ye?”
Ye Zhongming narrowed his eyes. He hadn’t expected Li Daqian to bring this up.
Seeing Ye Zhongming’s expression, Li Daqian sighed. Heroes truly emerge from the youth. He said, “I suppose you’ve figured out how I managed to kill that Mantis Snatcher.”
This time, Ye Zhongming was genuinely surprised. He had thought his observations had gone unnoticed, but Li Daqian had seen right through him.
“I wasn’t entirely sure earlier. It was just a guess. But Brother Ye, do you know what struck me about your bidding today?” Li Daqian stroked his chin and said bluntly, “You were holding back.”
“Even though your bids seemed perfectly reasonable to others, you controlled your offers.”
Facing Ye Zhongming’s curious gaze, Li Daqian laughed. “In the early days of the apocalypse, I was overly greedy and learned many seemingly useless but somewhat interesting side jobs and skills.”
He didn’t need to elaborate further. Ye Zhongming understood that Li Daqian likely had some mental-based support jobs, perhaps ones that allowed him to detect subtle expressions or enhance his intuition.
“For someone as skilled and talented as you to hold back on your bids, the only explanation I can think of is that you believed there was a part of the corpse worth spending a fortune on. And there was only one secret…”
“It was pregnant.”
“It was in its gestation period.”
The two men spoke in unison and then laughed together.
Li Daqian sighed. “Fame is not without merit, Brother Ye. Your reputation is well-deserved. I think the world has underestimated you.”
“Deacon Water and Ruan Xiao are giants in the merchant factions. To a certain extent, they rely on their keen eyes to make a living. Yet, neither of them noticed the condition of that level-nine creature. You, on the other hand, saw it immediately. They are far inferior to you in this regard.”
Ye Zhongming shook his head, not wanting to dwell on the idea that everyone had their strengths and weaknesses. Instead, he quickly pondered Li Daqian’s purpose in bringing this up.
“Let’s go take another look.”
Unconsciously, the two had arrived at the mountain earlier in the day. They entered the underground area once more and stood before the stone coffin.
The corpse of the level-nine creature was now incomplete, devoid of its once-overwhelming presence.
Li Daqian took out his blue blade and cut the lower abdomen.
Soon, they found what they were looking for.
It was a nearly transparent section of the intestine; several black biological eggs were wrapped in a milky-white gelatinous layer.
Sure enough, this level-nine creature had been pregnant and in the weakest state of its life cycle, which was why the Beast Manor had been able to seize the opportunity to kill it.
As he observed the eggs radiating a rich life force, Ye Zhongming couldn’t help but marvel at Li Daqian’s incredible luck.
Ye Zhongming had seen illustrations of this creature in his past life and knew some of its characteristics. From this “past experience, ” he had deduced it was in its gestation period. If Li Daqian hadn’t known beforehand, it only proved that this old man dared to challenge a level-nine creature with his own unique methods and an almost heaven-defying amount of luck. If he had known, it demonstrated the Beast Villa’s meticulous planning and decisive action.
“This creature is quite special. When we challenged it, it was in the process of laying an egg underground. It remained motionless as we attacked, only retracting this sharp ovipositor and fighting back after it was severely injured. By then, it had already finished laying its eggs but was too late.”
Li Daqian recalled the battle, still visibly shaken. Even in its severely injured state, the level-nine creature had inflicted heavy losses on them, nearly causing the hunt to fail.
“After killing it, we dug out two mature eggs. Those two were more developed than the ones still inside its body.”
With that, he clapped his hands. A section of the mountain wall suddenly rose, and a young girl in a school uniform, no more than ten years old, walked out holding a long cultivation dish. On it were two objects the size of volleyballs, emanating an intense aura that left Ye Zhongming in awe.