Turns out, this was where the energy which fuelled the hollow bamboo shoots’ growth originated from.
Qin Feng picked the fish scale off the floor.
The moment he made physical contact with the piece of scale, he could feel the overwhelming amount of energy that was contained within.
“King tier!”
This must have been a massive beast king.
Theoretically speaking, even if it were an aquatic creature, a beast king could survive for extended periods of time away from water. What was more, these granite walls should pose little to no resistance to its ability to pass through.
However, Qin Feng soon found the reason for this beast king’s demise. Backing away, he discovered that what laid in front of him was just the tail-end of the creature’s entire body.
The frontmost section of the skeleton appeared to have been crushed by something immensely powerful.
“It must’ve been sliced in half by the spatial rift!” As if she could read Qin Feng’s mind, Bai Li’s suggestion mirrored what he deduced had happened to this unfortunate beast king.
“I understand now!”
It was exactly like what had happened in the Zimu Mountains. A great number of zombies were unable to return to their realm as they too, were sliced in half at the waist as the spatial rift closed shut.
Perhaps the beast king was slightly more intelligent. It must have sensed that something was wrong with the spatial rift and attempted to crawl back where it came from but that was precisely when disaster struck, leaving its severed tail here in this granite prison.
And after eons had come to pass, it was Qin Feng’s destiny to reap the precious resource, left behind at the beast king’s expense!
Qin Feng immediately ordered for Bai Li to tuck away the goods, freeing his hands so he could scan the cavern one more time. There seemed to be nothing else here that could top the value of his previous find.
But that was enough! Qin Feng’s thirst for profit had, for now, been satisfied.
It was a great harvest today!
At Qin Feng’s current level, he would still have to practice extreme caution when facing off with an E-tier beast king.
If his enemy was D-tier and above, a fight would be completely out of the question.
This was where the fish skeleton came into play. It was an integral part that would enable him to defeat much stronger opponents in the future.
After leaving the cavern, Qin Feng peered downstream of the pool. There was a tiny stream around which plants grew thick and succulent, as if injected with tons of steroids. They were a stark contrast from the surrounding jungle plants, most of which had been harvested, presumably by the Wilderness Rangers.
There did not seem to be a whole lot more for Qin Feng to scavenge, thus he brought Bai Li back to Yang Sanhu and his troop’s campsite.
***
On the second day, Qin Feng woke up in his usual manner, as if nothing had happened the night before. The Wilderness Rangers were of course, completely oblivious to the fact that they had missed out on the chance to strike it rich.
Qin Feng received an invitation to Yang Sanhu’s command center. Not long after, they were already deep into a conversation in a hover tank that was moving swiftly across the jungle floor.
“Because you said you are going over to Sea City, I’ve made some alterations to the direction which we’re gonna travel in. It’ll be easier for you to reach there!”
Yang Sanhu produced a map from his pocket, on which there were some markings on certain points.
“On this point, nearest to us, I bumped into a large bush of man-eating vines but the place seems to be chock-full of valuable resources. Though, because of the vine’s existence, it has become something like a hunting park where humans are the prey. I’ve even received reports of an F-tier yellow wasp king roaming around the area. If not for those darned man-eating vines, I would’ve rushed toward that point!”
It was not that Yang Sanhu did not try using glider wings or flying devices in an attempt to get past the predators. Sending a lone E-tier aptitude user to face an F-tier beast king was almost impossible to pull off successfully, especially after considering the fact that these man-eating vines could throw their opponents off with psychedelic poisoning.
He had no choice but to give up the fight.
“And here, I suspect that this mountain was teleported here from another plane through a spatial rift. It’s very likely that you’re gonna find rare metal deposits as part of its makeup. Unfortunately, there lives a group of other-worldly entities on this mountain, the rock-skinned people to be exact.”
“There’s a herd of silver-horned buffaloes here. As you probably know, they’re covered in a layer of precious gems, which could all be sold for 3 to 4 million on the market. However, I’m scared of provoking them. My men and I would all surely be crushed if they start stampeding.”
Yang Sanhu introduced the first three points, all of which covered relatively large portions of the jungle.
Danger lurked around every corner in the wilderness. Yang Sanhu might appear to be quite the joker the way he spoke, but every year, he would patrol around this jungle, on the lookout for any changes that might turn out to be an existential threat to Chengbei colony.
Chengbei colony’s location overlapped with Chengyang City’s and could be considered as cannon fodder for the main city should all hell break loose.
Hence, the danger they faced was greater than any place else.
“I don’t think these will all be a problem for me!”
“Very well! We’ll head straight for the first one! My men will follow behind to clean up the battlefield!”
“Roger that!”
It turned out to be a win-win situation for the both of them.
***
Eight days later, Qin Feng and the rest of their team were now deep in the wild heartlands.
Where he stood, it was a great distance away from Chengbei colony. In fact, they would bump into a new micro-colony if they were to travel forward for three days’ time.
Of course, the micro-colony and its people were clueless that the silver-horned buffaloes were roaming so close to their settlement only three months ago.
They would stay that way forever too!
Under the setting sun, the sound of metal slicing through flesh echoed through the orange sky.
Qin Feng was covered in blood from head to toe. The massive buffaloes already had him encircled and were currently charging toward him. However, no matter how many times they tried, they just could not get him pinned between their pointy horns.
“Disorienting steps!”
Qin Feng dodged the combined attacks of the buffalo herd. The Verdant Emperor Saber he was clutching was continually waved around in the air.
A blade of flame rose into the air and in the blink of an eye, yet another silver-horned buffalo fell to Qin Feng’s attack.
Facing Qin Feng’s relentless attacks, the buffalo herd was being whittled down fast.
In order to avoid damaging the precious gems on their body, Qin Feng refrained from summoning the fire dragon to battle. Instead, the only thing that he was using during the fight was the Verdant Emperor Saber.
The star steel amalgamation paid off in this fight. It increased the sharpness of the saber’s blade quite significantly, allowing Qin Feng to slice through the E-tier ultra beasts effortlessly like a hot knife through butter.
At this point, Qin Feng had already gone numb from all the killing. This feeling reminded him of the time before his rebirth. He lashed out ruthlessly in the middle of the herd, like an unsinkable boat, or an invincible piece of rock.
As night fell, Qin Feng’s combat power only grew stronger.
“Dark Shroud!”
Lending the night sky’s color, dark runes materialised around these silver-horned buffaloes, turning the entire battlefield into a slaughterhouse.
Thud!
One of the bulls was decapitated in an instant. Its lumbering body jerked once before smashing into the ground dead.
Qin Feng waved the Verdant Emperor Saber but instead of striking at his enemies, he sliced down through empty air.
Around him, only the slain carcasses of the buffaloes remained!
Yang Sanhu emerged from the shadows.
“Mayor Qin, are you alright?” Yang Sanhu was well-known for being a meathead but seeing Qin Feng covered entirely in blood, he unexpectedly felt his knees buckle.
Emerging fresh out from the massacre, Qin Feng was still emanating a murderous aura which would make even the manliest of all men feel fear.
“No problem. I’m going to clean myself up. Send your men to clear this place!”
Qin Feng spoke while walking toward a nearby river.
“Hahh!”
Manipulating the cool river water, Qin Feng washed off the buffalo blood that had caked up all over his skin before slowly loosening up.
With seven or eight days of continuous slaughter, this was definitely the first time he had exerted so much combat power after his rebirth.
Though, this kind of fighting only served to increase Qin Feng’s fleshly strength and nothing else.
‘I still need quite a lot more strength. Thank God for Sea City’s upcoming auction!’
Qin Feng thought to himself. His fighting spirit was burning stronger than ever.
Tweaking his internal strength, the water that clung onto his body turned into steam and evaporated off. Then, Qin Feng made his way back to the Wilderness Rangers’ temporary campsite.
For fear of attracting other predators to their camp, these men quickly let the blood out of these buffaloes and carved them up in a timely fashion. It did not take them too long before the processing of these three hundred silver-horned buffaloes reached its end phase, which was dealt with by a beloved F-tier water attribute ability user.
After a night of sorting, everything was divided up equally and Qin Feng was given eighty percent of his promised share. For the items that were too large for him to carry alone, like buffalo meat, he had the rangers help ship them back to Fengli colony.