All Things Are Contracts

Chapter 77: Nest of Beasts

Mist covered the abandoned city area as Zhanyue and Baizhi advanced cautiously. Broken walls and ruins were not uncommon, but even from these fragments, one could see that the architectural style of this ruin was very different from the outside world. Exquisite patterns and strange beast shapes were visible, but unfortunately, Zhanyue didn’t see any writing.

“It’s so quiet,” Baizhi said softly. Her right hand was held by Zhanyue, while her left hand held an illumination stone for light. Zhanyue held her hand with his left, while his right hand had already accumulated scorching flames, extremely compressed into a ball, ready to strike at any moment.

Zhanyue paid attention to his surroundings, not daring to be careless. His caution was justified as suddenly, a group of white bats flew out of a broken waterway. These bats were snow-white like jade, with only their eyes being blood-red.

“Die!” Zhanyue released the flames he had been holding. Where the Solar Essence Fire passed, the bats melted like snow. However, those melted bats reformed again.

“What kind of creature is this?” Zhanyue was shocked. These things weren’t afraid of fire at all.

“Let me try,” Baizhi took action. Her entire form turned into a residual image, her poisoned dagger quickly striking several bats. Those poisoned bats fell to the ground and didn’t move again.

“The poison is effective?” Zhanyue’s eyes lit up. “Indeed, things that can resist fire don’t necessarily resist poison. I’ll leave it to you, Lady Baizhi.”

Baizhi grinned and immediately sprang into action. In no time, the strange white bat swarm all fell, all killed by poison.

“White Jade Bats, third-grade spirit beasts. Unafraid of water and fire, can melt into water and fire. Extremely terrifying when in a swarm. No beast core inside, corpse worth 500 points,” the light-transmitting mirror provided the result.

“As expected of a ruined area, these thirty bats are worth 15,000 points,” Baizhi collected these bats, very happy. She finally felt somewhat useful.

Not long after, the two came to a spacious area where they heard some strange sounds. As they approached, they realized it was snoring.

A grey giant ape was sleeping there, surrounded by various spirit beast bones. The giant ape was covered in grey fur, about four or five times Zhanyue’s size, sleeping very deeply.

“Sixth-grade spirit beast?” Baizhi didn’t speak, but made a six gesture to Zhanyue, who understood her question and nodded.

Zhanyue pointed to a small path nearby. The two decided to take a detour. To face a sixth-grade spirit beast, Zhanyue would need to wear the armor to have any fighting chance. He didn’t want to waste this precious opportunity.

However, how could a sixth-grade spirit beast’s perception be so easily fooled? It suddenly opened its eyes, grabbed a bone beside it, and threw it at Zhanyue and Baizhi. The terrifying force turned the bone into a meteor-like projectile. The two dodged, and the stone destroyed a pathway, even dispersing some of the mist.

“We’ve been discovered!” Zhanyue’s scalp tingled. A sixth-grade spirit beast was comparable to a Moon Profound Realm expert, or even stronger.

The grey ape picked up a bone from some unknown giant beast as a weapon, then leaped in front of Zhanyue and the others.

Without listening to Zhanyue and Baizhi, the ape attacked, wielding the bone club skillfully.

“This spirit beast knows martial arts?” Zhanyue was speechless. One burrowed into the earth, one used Charm Shadow, and the two quickly retreated several hundred meters.

The ape locked onto them again, leaping to chase them, roaring wildly at Zhanyue and Baizhi, its mouth emitting a foul stench.

“Why are you roaring?!” Zhanyue opened his mouth and roared back, activating his Soul-Shaking Roar innate divine ability. The ape’s head went blank, and when it opened its eyes again, the two had run away.

This time it leaped into the air again, ready to chase. However, when it was mid-air, a terrifying fireball came from below, knocking it down, followed by a low, growling sound, as if warning.

The fireball didn’t hurt the grey ape, but it didn’t dare to continue chasing. It wasn’t its territory inside. Many sixth and seventh-grade spirit beasts were entrenched in this ruin, each with a fixed area, and not very large. The mist wasn’t some illusion, but a special gas that wasn’t always present. It just happened to appear now. The mist was very beneficial to demon races, and many spirit beasts had come from various places to cultivate. Zhanyue and Baizhi didn’t know that this place had now become a gathering of demons, a beast’s nest. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have dared to enter.

The two hid in an abandoned pavilion, panting heavily, only to find that the grey ape hadn’t chased after them.

“Sixth-grade spirit beasts, how terrifying,” Zhanyue said, still shaken. That beast’s aura was too overwhelming.

“Do you feel like something is watching us?” Baizhi tightly gripped Zhanyue’s hand, her palm sweating, very nervous.

A white giant python was coiled around the abandoned pavilion, its entire head hidden in the mist. As the mist thinned, Zhanyue and Baizhi felt a chill down their spines. A huge white head was staring at them, then opened its bloody maw to attack.

“Dodge!” Baizhi quickly evaded, but Zhanyue didn’t panic. A fifth-grade pill appeared in his hand, instantly flicked into the snake’s mouth, before he burrowed into the ground. The white snake missed, and the pill in its mouth exploded with a muffled boom.

The white snake’s body struggled violently, pushing down all the surrounding buildings. The pill couldn’t kill it, but exploding in its mouth caused intense pain it couldn’t bear. It took a long time to calm down, blood still dripping from its mouth. Zhanyue and Baizhi had long since fled. The white snake’s eyes were full of helplessness, having suffered a loss.

“Don’t sixth-grade spirit beasts have a strong sense of territory? How did two appear in this not-so-large area?” Zhanyue sensed something was wrong and immediately put on his armor. After some thought, he put the Sun Divine Stone inside. The silver-white armor turned fiery red, looking majestic. With this, Zhanyue finally felt confident. At least sixth-grade spirit beasts were no longer a problem.

Baizhi looked at Zhanyue with starry eyes. Clad in armor, he looked valiant and handsome, his already good looks elevated several notches.

“Let’s go.” Zhanyue protected Baizhi by his side as they continued deeper. Sure enough, not far ahead, another sixth-grade spirit beast blocked their way. It was a black tiger with a pair of human hands growing on its back, each holding a weapon – a sword and a dagger, though both were clearly very broken, ancient artifacts.

Zhanyue wasn’t here to hunt spirit beasts. Killing sixth-grade spirit beasts was very taxing, requiring the consumption of the Sun Divine Stone’s power or top-grade spirit stones, possibly not worth it. But this tiger had two weapons on it, which made it quite cost-effective.

“Let me try first,” Baizhi, now quite battle-hungry, turned into a residual image and struck at the black tiger with her dagger. However, the dagger couldn’t penetrate the tiger’s fur at all. The hands on the tiger’s back immediately gave Baizhi a slash, but fortunately, she was extremely fast and dodged.

“It’s no use, I can’t break through its defense,” Baizhi was frustrated. She had speed but lacked killing power.

“Leave it to me. A sixth-grade spirit beast isn’t something you can match with just one divine ability. The gap is too large,” Zhanyue said, then launched a frontal attack. Instantly, mist scattered and dust clouded the air. The tiger had a mouth, a tail, claws, and the arms on its back, giving it many attack methods. Even among sixth-grade spirit beasts, it was extremely powerful. The pair of arms on its back was its innate divine ability. Having wings like a tiger was naturally good, but an extra pair of hands also doubled its combat power.

The ji halberd clashed with the sword and dagger, the metallic sound spreading around. However, other spirit beasts only cast curious glances, with no intention of intervening.

“So strong, even more powerful than the grey ape and white python from before,” Zhanyue judged, even though he hadn’t fought the previous two. “Can’t hold back, need to end this quickly.”