Then, the four saw a miraculous and unbelievable sight.
Meng Chao might have jumped straight at two Blade Shattering Pythons, but the moment he was about to be bitten, he curled up as much as he could and rolled away from the fangs.
Instead, the two Blade Shattering Pythons, which had pounced on him at the same time, stuck their fangs into one another and got tangled up. No matter how hard they tried to remove themselves from each other, they could not break free, as if they were Siamese twins.
Meng Chao sped up and moved among the thirty Blade Shattering Pythons. He lured them after him and tempted them into attacking.
But every single time, their fangs missed their target and landed on their comrades.
And every time they sank deep into the flesh of their comrades, they also pierced their comrades’ scales.
The raging Blade Shattering Pythons then launched the most brutal attack. They attempted to bind Meng Chao and crush him into minced meat.
But Meng Chao looked as if he was covered in oil and moved like a loach filled with life. Not only did he manage to break free of the Blade Shattering Pythons surrounding him, he got them entangled among themselves, and in the end, their bodies ended up knotted together!
In just a short ten minutes, practically all the Blade Shattering Pythons were entangled until they became a giant mountain of flesh due to Meng Chao’s ingenious kiting, and some of them even started devouring their comrades from their tails.
They struggled under great pain, and the knot became tighter.
“…”
If Meng Chao had drawn his sabers and cut all the Blade Shattering Pythons into pieces, Sun Ya and the other three would not have been as shocked.
But right from the start to the end, he didn’t even touch his saber’s hilt. The two Surging Lightnings—one was the Youthful Version, and the other was the flagship model—were firmly sheathed.
Meng Chao relied on the matchless movements from the Ultimate Style to dodge, and it was enough to make thirty evolved Blade Shattering Pythons get entangled with each other. Sun Ya and the other three rubber their eyes while wondering whether they were hallucinating.
“How… can this be?” Once the battle ended, the four of them went forward and observed the pile of Blade Shattering Pythons. Xie Feng could not help but exclaim in surprise, “No matter how agile you are, python-type monsters aren’t normal pythons. Why were they so stupid as to get entangled with each other? Why couldn’t they break free?”
Meng Chao looked at him calmly. His breathing hadn’t even become short. “Because I used drugs. The Blade Shattering Pythons have bad eyesight, so they mainly rely on scent and changes in heat to sense their enemies.
“I brought with me biological medicine made from more than twenty monsters commonly seen in this area. Before I pounced forward, I sprayed it on myself, so the Blade Shattering Pythons would lose their sense of smell, which made it very difficult for them to identify me.
“As for why they got entangled and couldn’t break free? That’s easy. When I brushed past them, I injected a quick-acting, high density muscle stiffener in them. It can make them stiff for half an hour.”
While speaking, Meng Chao unbuttoned his waterproof battle trench coat so that they could see the throwing knives, syringes, exploratory needles, and all sorts of harvesting tools in there.
Xie Feng gulped and stammered, “B-But, the needles on the syringes aren’t firm. The scales of the Blade Shattering Pythons are famous for being as tough as steel. The edges are also very sharp, and they stand tall. How did you manage to jab the needles into the pythons?”
“No matter how tough the scales are, they still need to move. The Blade Shattering Pythons need a lot of space to move when they want to bind a prey and crush it, so gaps and folds often appear between the scales,” Meng Chao explained patiently.
“For example, there is a ring-shaped fold very close to its spine and central nervous system at the spot seven inches under its head. As long as you can find the weakest part of the fold and jab the syringe gently inside it, the muscle stiffener will immediately enter the spine. It will release a false command to the central nervous system that a powerful enemy has come to attack them, and the creature will instinctively stiffen up their muscles.
“As long as I calculate the time properly and make sure that the python wrapped around itself or was bound around its comrade, I can make sure that despite being soft when it just bound itself to its comrade, it will soon be as stiff as a board. For half an hour, it will be vulnerable for slaughter.”
Even though Meng Chao made it sound easy, when the four thought about it carefully, they found that it was just impossible.
He had to move around at high speed and dodge in a tiny area. During that time, he had to accurately find the fold seven inches below a python’s head, and he had to do it with all thirty Blade Shattering Pythons.
Once he found the fold, he had to inject the solution into the pythons, but he also had to calculate the precise time it took for the medicine to take effect so that he could lure them to get entangled with each other. That was just too ridiculous!
“When did you use the syringe? Why didn’t we notice it?” Xie Feng was puzzled.
“The fog might be too thick.” Meng Chao shrugged.
Suddenly, his pupils shrank, and horror rose on his face ss he stared at the bush behind Xie Feng.
Xie Feng shuddered, and goosebumps nearly broke out on his skin. He instinctively turned his head around, but there was nothing behind him.
“What—?”
He sensed a cold chill on his neck.
At the moment he turned his head around, Meng Chao brought out a syringe as if he had conjured it out of thin air. The needle tip was pressed against his artery.
“Look. It’s just a simple trick.” Meng Chao withdrew the syringe and said with a smile, “The monsters’ intelligence might have increased, but it’s not entirely detrimentery to us. At the very least, it’s easier to trick them. They’ve become anxious about what they can gain and lose, and they overthink things. And once they let their attention wander, they step into our trap.
“Instead, the monsters who are simple-minded and only know how to charge forward blindly are sometimes the hardest to deal with.”
As he spoke, Meng Chao went to the pile of Blade Shattering Pythons and brought out a set of harvesting tools that could be easily carried around from his backpack. He inserted the largest needle he had in a syringe and groped around the area seven inches under the head of a Blade Shattering Python. Then, he jabbed it there.
The fingers of his left hand shuddered at high frequency while he controlled the needle with his right hand gently and meticulously. Soon, he sucked out three light golden drops from the Blade Shattering Python. They were its precious blood from the heart.
They were the essence of the monster and also the source of its vitality magnetic field. If a Blade Shattering Python had the blood from its heart extracted, it might not die, but it would become listless and would no longer be as fierce as it was in the past.
Meng Chao did the same thing to the other pythons, and his smooth movements caused the other four to gasp in amazement. If they believed that they were on equal grounds with Meng Chao when it came to the field of martial arts, then, when it came to harvesting, they could only be obedient students before him.
But they were puzzled. “Why didn’t you kill the Blade Shattering Pythons and only extracted the blood from their hearts?”
“It’s still early, and we can hunt more monsters. The road is muddy right now, and the fog is thick. The transportation vehicles from the logistics department can’t come over and transport all the monster carcasses back. There’s no meaning in killing them. It’ll be better if we make them contribute more to the battle.”
As Meng Chao spoke, he switched to another syringe and injected a deep purple drug into the Blade Shattering Pythons.
“What’s that?” Xie Feng and Sun Ya looked at each other at a loss. They just could not understand what Meng Chao was doing.
“It’s a drug I created using Death After Crossing a Mountain, Crimson Centipede, Thousand-ring Snake, and the poison glands and venom from dozens of other creatures. I also added eight nerve agents into the mix.
“It’s a unique, secret, slow-acting poison. Its greatest specialty is that the poison can be passed to other monsters and accumulate in them. It’s very difficult to dissolve it completely.”
Meng Chao gave a mysterious smile. He patted the head of a Blade Shattering Python that he had just poisoned and said faintly, “The fight for survival in the wild is very brutal, and even if the monsters are showing signs of working together, they still act on their instincts when hunger kicks in. They still fight against each other and devour each other.
“Blade Shattering Pythons are the kings of normal monsters, so they seldom find mortal enemies in Shattered Starlake.
“But now, I’ve extracted the blood from their hearts, so they’re incredibly injured. They’re basically afflicted with an incurable heart disease. Forget about fighting, they will be left gasping for breath if they crawl a little faster.
“Think, will hungry monsters lurking in the depths of the fog let go of such tasty prey?
“Trust me, before these Blade Shattering Pythons die from the poison, they’ll be surrounded by other monsters and torn to shreds. Even their bones will be devoured by the microorganisms in the swamp and the creatures that feed on carrion.
“Then, the poison will spread to those monsters, and just like a virus, it will continue spreading down the monsters’ food chain and kill a lot more monsters.
“Based on my estimations, the entire process will last around ten days to half a month. After that, the poison will completely disappear. It will completely degrade without causing harm to the land nor polluting anything. It will not affect our safety either.
“Even if the poisoned monsters are killed by humans and are dragged back for eating, it’s fine, because this poison can’t stand high temperatures. If the monster flesh is boiled for five-ten minutes, it’ll lose its poisonous properties.”
The four people were dumbfounded.
Then, they shuddered because of his smile.
“You’re… really familiar with this. Could it be that this isn’t the first time you did this?” Xie Feng found this unbelievable.
“Yeah. When I hunt every day, I only bring one-tenth of my loot back to the base. I deal with the other monsters using similar methods. Of course, I don’t always poison them. I sometimes use harvesting to stimulate the propagation of the viruses or microorganisms in their bodies and intentionally cause their carcasses to change. It’s to turn them into powerful biochemical bombs,” Meng Chao said.
“But that’s only limited to when I speculate that there is a superbeast’s or a powerful monster’s nest around and there are absolutely no humans in the area. I don’t know whether I’ve managed to gain anything from it, though.”
He only brought one-tenth of the monsters he killed back to the base every day!
The four people were shocked once more.
It took them three minutes to somewhat digest the shocking news. Sun Ya summoned her courage and extended a hand. “Meng Chao, let’s go and hunt in Graveyard Forest!”
Sun Ya told Meng Chao that after fighting fiercely for a few months, the superhuman squads led by Heaven Realm deities had cleared the perimeter of Graveyard Forest, and the stronger Hell Beasts had all been killed or chased further into Graveyard Forest.
Right now, all the Heaven Realm deities were deep in Graveyard Forest and pushing forward to the part where Graveyard Forest connected with Raging Waves in hopes to conquer Graveyard Forest as soon as possible.
Due to the storm and the fog, the war situation had become really worrisome, and their soldiers were surrounded by troubles.
The higher-ups had quickly mobilized the elites of low-grade superhumans to enter the perimeter of Graveyard Forest and search for monsters that might have escaped and get rid of carnivorous etherealized plants so that they could build a base to advance further. The new base could then provide protection for the Heaven Realm deities when they carried out their operations.
“The large scale battle in Shattered Starlake won’t last for long. You can leave the remaining small fry to the other students!” Sun Ya said heroically while swinging her fists. “We should go into Graveyard Forest and create a name for ourselves!”
Meng Chao listened to her quietly before he shook his head.
“Huh?” Sun Ya was stunned. “You’re not going? Why?”
“Well, it’s too dangerous,” Meng Chao said.
“No way.” Sun Ya could not help but laugh. “Don’t worry. We know that the Ultimate Style is only suited for killing normal monsters. That’s why we asked you to join us. When the four of us release our beast souls at the same time, even if we run into Grade Two superbeasts, we’ll still have a chance to win. Besides, your movements are really ingenious. Even if we can’t win, you can definitely run away!”
“You misunderstand.”
Meng Chao stared into the depths of the fog, where Graveyard Forest was, baring its teeth like a demon. He also stared at Raging Waves, which stood tall like an ancient deity behind the forest.
“I’ll definitely be going to Graveyard Forest, but not with you. Because if you form a party with me, it’ll be too dangerous for you.”