Chapter 60 – White Bone Scorpion
Liu Ming was cautiously flying hundreds of feet above the black sand. He would often look at the silver compass in his hand.
The gray cloud suddenly jolted and he came to a stop. He subsequently lowered his head and examined the silver compass a few times before he suddenly read out a technique and thrust a hand downward.
A red ball of fire immediately shot toward the ground below.
“Hong!” The flame flew down and a one foot deep sandbox appeared. Simultaneously, the partially destroyed skeleton of a ghost flew out.
Liu Ming lowered his head and looked at the skeleton for a while before finally recognizing its origin.
“It is unexpectedly the low leveled ghost, Corpse Crab. A mature Corpse Crab’s strength can be compared to that of a Warrior Level ghost and still, it was slaughtered. Could it be that there are even stronger ghosts here?”
Liu Ming muttered to himself while his face exuded a pleasantly surprised yet apprehensive expression.
He was pleased by the fact that there were low level ghosts here. But he was also alarmed by the possibility of a ghost with astonishing strength being in the vicinity. If he was not careful, he could possibly end up perishing like the Corpse Crab in front of him.
Liu Ming urged his cloud to circle the area for a while before continuing on his previous course. Except this time, he was even more cautious.
Half a day later, Liu Ming had flown over ten kilometers, but inexplicably, besides the remains of the Corpse Crab, he had not found any other ghosts.
Faced with this situation, a shadow was cast across Liu Ming’s heart.
The only explanation was that there was a powerful ghost here. Otherwise, a low level ghost would mostly likely already have appeared in this large area.
Suddenly, the needle on his compass violently shook and wildly swiveled before pointing in a certain direction and started flashing incessantly.
Liu Ming’s expression changed and his gray cloud stopped moving.
Liu Ming abruptly hit his chest with a hand and three black beams formed a black light shield in front of his body.
At the same time, the sand underneath him made a “whoosh” sound and a black streak shot out from the sand. Its speed was extremely fast, even though Liu Ming could vaguely make out its figure, he was surprisingly unable to evade it.
“Peng!”
The black streak smashed into the light shield, nearly smashing it to pieces!
The front end of this black streak was a sharp, jet black hook, only a few inches long. It also carried a distinct, abominable odor.
Liu Ming was unable to stand firm under the tremendous force and was knocked off his cloud. He was unable to maintain the Soaring Sky Technique and fell down into the sand.
Luckily, Liu Ming cultivated the Dark Bone Method and had previously used Marrow Washing Spirit Liquid, so the sturdiness of his body was not something an ordinary Spirit Apostles could compare with. A Barbarian Ghost Sect disciple on the same level as him would mostly likely have been heavily injured just by that one blow.
“Pu!”
The sand underneath him suddenly rose up and flew at Liu Ming like it had a spirit of its own.
Although Liu Ming was still in the air and stunned by the large force, when he saw what was happening his sleeve shook and a black rope shot out like lightning.
A smothered sound rang through the air.
Drawing help from the quick black rope to ricochet back, his body shook as he, once again, was flung into the air.
At the same time, the nearby bundle of sand instantly ruptured, from within it a green, misty figure flew out. It skimmed by Liu Ming’s body and proceeded to fall back into the sand on the other side of him.
If not for Liu Ming’s quick thinking to launch himself, he would have been pounced on by the green ghost.
Liu Ming took advantage of the situation and quickly formed a one handed sign. A gray cloud condensed into a spiral under him as he once again performed the Soaring Sky technique. He flew up into the sky, and once he was at about three hundred feet above ground, he heaved a sigh of relief and then stared down below him.
Although the ghost within the green gas was extremely terrifying, it seemed as if it was unable to fly. This eased Liu Ming’s fear slightly and he now had a slimmer of hope.
Otherwise, if the ghost could fly, with this ghost’s strength that it displayed at the beginning, Liu Ming would have immediately fled and not bothered to stay in this area.
Liu Ming finally made out the figure of the ghost below him. Astonishingly, it was a three to four foot long flat monster. Its body was covered in light gray bones and its front end was made up of two shiny black gigantic pincers while its back end was a tall black hooked tail. On each side of its triangular white bone head was a flickering green flame that gave one an exceptionally ice cold feeling.
However, this ghost had a fist-sized black hole on its side, with traces of black gas twiddling around the wound. The ghost seemed to have been injured.
“No way! This… this looks like a Warrior Level White Bone Scorpion! That can’t be right! It doesn’t look quite the same as a White Bone Scorpion!” Liu Ming involuntarily cried out before attentively examining the ghost. He was unsure what to make of the ghost and exposed a brooding expression.
Liu Ming quickly retrieved a thick book of records from his bosom and quickly flipped through it. After flipping three pages, he came to a stop.
This page of the ancient text impressively depicted a vivid, lifelike picture of a scorpion-like ghost. The ghost in the drawing was also made up of bones, but its color was a ghastly white. In addition, its front pincers and tail were of the same white color. Furthermore, its head was square shaped and the tail was slightly shorter. On the side of the image was the annotation “Warrior Level White Bone Scorpion Ghost”. Underneath it was myriad of small text, describing the White Bone Scorpion’s habits and attack methods.
“Could it be that this is a mutated White Bone Scorpion? Or is it a young child scorpion?” Following the description and the picture, the ghost in front of him could only be one of these two options.
According to the ancient text, if the ghost was in a normal condition, the scorpion would be unable to fly for long distances, but it could still soar in the air for a short period of time. It seemed that this scorpion had suffered a serious injury, thus it had currently lost its ability to soar. If that was the case, then this was a golden opportunity bestowed by heaven.
Despite the scorpion being heavily injured, its attack power was still frightening. How much more terrifying would it be if it was at its peak state? Perhaps it ranked among the top Warrior Level ghosts. If Liu Ming was able to tame it as his Spirit Ghost, it would surpass those low Soldier Level ghosts by an unimaginable amount.
Although Liu Ming was quite steady and thought things thoroughly before acting, once he imagined the possibilities that would come after subduing this Ghost, he couldn’t help but palpitate with eagerness.
At this time, the White Bone Scorpion enshrouded by green gas underneath Liu Ming suddenly moved. It unexpectedly dug into the sand below it.
Though Liu Ming was startled, he recited an incantation without hesitation. One of his hands was then covered by a green light as a wind blade subsequently shot downward.
“Pu!”
The White Bone Scorpion instantly dodged the wind blade but was surprised and didn’t proceed to dig into the nearby sand. Its body moved and leaped back.
Liu Ming’s eyes lit up and he immediately urged his gray cloud to give chase.
The White Bone Scorpion quickly fled, once it was further away, its tail once again waved as it dug into the ground. Its speed was incomparably fast and in an instant, half of its body was already halfway into the ground.
However at this time, a scarlet ball of flame dropped down from the sky.
“Hong!”
Once the flame scattered, a large hole appeared underneath. The White Bone Scorpion was caught in the collateral area but after rolling over once, it acted as if nothing was wrong and continued to frantically flee.
In the same manner, Liu Ming rode his cloud and tenaciously followed this ghost for a period of time. Whenever the opposition wanted to crawl underground, Liu Ming would promptly generate a wind blade or ball of flame to scare it.
Although this White Bone Scorpion was not weak, it apparently did not have very high intellect, and it was continually chased by Liu Ming for a hundred miles in this manner. After suffering a series of assaults, its body finally bore a few scars, and the green gas surrounding it had slightly decreased.
From the sky, when Liu Ming saw this, he was naturally ecstatic. Unfortunately, he had expended a lot of Fa Li. Unless the ghost planned on going underground, he would not dare to use techniques to attack the ghost.
At this moment, Liu Ming felt slight remorse over the low level of his Soul Shackling Chain.
If he had used a better quality Spirit to forge the chain, his Soul Shackling Chain attack would have greater range. He would therefore not have to fear the scorpion’s tail hook attack and could merely fly at a marginally lower altitude and assault it from there.
Moreover, he was unsure whether this White Bone Scorpion’s aura was extremely terrifying or whether the desert didn’t have too many ghosts. Throughout the game of cat and mouse with him and the White Bone Scorpion, no other ghost was seen.
……
Half a day later, after the White Bone Scorpion was hit by a ball of flame, the green gas on its body finally dissipated. However, the White Bone Scorpion’s legs did not stop moving and it continued to quickly crawl.
When Liu Ming saw this from the air, he couldn’t help but reveal a bitter grin.
In his current state, the Fa Li in his body was running low. Since he was expending his Fa Li by maintaining the Soaring Sky technique, he was unwilling to attack the White Bone Scorpion more than necessary.
“Don’t tell me that I have to give up here!”
Liu Ming’s face became clouded for a while before he abruptly ground his teeth and lowered the gray cloud. He was now giving chase at an altitude of about a hundred feet instead of three hundred feet.
However, the next time the White Bone Scorpion attempted to crawl underground, Liu Ming’s figure suddenly dashed downward. At the same time, a black rope shot out from his sleeve.
“Peng!”
The White Bone Scorpion rolled over once to dodge and without raising its head, continued on its path. It unexpectedly did not have the intention of using its tail to retaliate.
Liu Ming’s hands, which were originally in front of his chest, immediately froze. Soon after, he came to a sudden realization.
Evidently, after being chased for such a long time, the White Bone Scorpion’s actions had already become subconscious and it had forgotten to counterattack.
When Liu Ming realized this, he was naturally overjoyed.
In the proceeding period of time, Liu Ming did not use any techniques to attack and instead used his Soul Shackling Chain to occasionally flog the ghost. This way, it was not able to crawl into the black sand while his Fa Li was consumed at a much lower rate.
Of course, Liu Ming kept a hand on the Three Star Shield at all times. If any circumstances were to arise, he would immediately need the Practitioner Weapon as defense.
Finally, after another dozen kilometers, the White Bone Scorpion’s movements became sluggish. Sometimes, it even was unable to dodge the Soul Shackling Chain lashing down and was hit squarely by it.
After another strike, the scorpion finally could no longer find the strength to run. It lay on black sand, obviously weakened.