At first, Liang Chen thought that Lei Qiang had been exaggerating somewhat when he spoke about the difficulty of hunting solo in the stone forest, but he quickly changed his mind after they actually entered it. There was enough space between the tall stones for everyone to walk shoulder to shoulder, protecting the person next to them. But even then, they had to be on guard at all times, vigilantly keeping an eye on their surroundings.
The Demonic beasts within the stone forest had already adapted to it, so most of them were able to camouflage themselves almost perfectly, blending into the surroundings as they waited for suitable prey to pass by them. Because of the fact that all the stones attracted lightning, there were also frequent storms that battered the forest, torrential rain and thunderous lightning striking the forest, forcing the group to raise their defenses as to not suffer any injuries.
After just one day in the stone forest, the group had already experienced three different storms, drastically decreasing their speed. There was also another factor that made it hard to traverse the stone forest, but to Liang Chen, that factor was just as much a blessing as it was a curse. And that factor was the very lightning that struck the stones around them.
The lightning didn't leave the stones, it instead stayed within the stones, slowly getting compressed as more and more lightning struck the stones. Because of this, even while walking or resting, the group had to raise their defenses somewhat, otherwise, the lightning would enter their bodies and scorch their veins and organs.
The reason this was both a blessing and a curse for Liang Chen was that the lightning that struck this stone forest was a light blue in color, not the same red that he had seen right after he entered the hidden realm. This light blue lightning was weaker than the red lightning but still stronger than Liang Chen's golden lightning. With the lightning coursing through all the stones around them, it was very easy for Liang Chen to slowly absorb small amounts, using it to temper his body as well as his Ascended Tower.
But the ever-present lightning also blocked up his senses, overloading his mind with information. After increasing his strength, Liang Chen had somewhat regained the ability to sense the movements of anything living in the surroundings, tracking them through the electricity that flowed through their bodies. But now that there was lightning all around him, whenever he tried to sense the surroundings, his mind would be flooded with information, every strand of lightning appearing in his mind, each of them virtually indistinguishable from the other.
Because of that, he was forced to spend a great deal of his concentration on filtering out the useful information from the useless one, a process that was slow and exhausting. But even this served as both a blessing and a curse, as he could take the chance to train his mind, allowing it to work faster and faster as he trained it.
Liang Chen's group was currently huddled together, hiding behind one of the smaller stone trees as they peered past it. A bit of a distance ahead of them was a rather large boulder that was covered in spiky moss, a few thin arcs of lightning flashing along the surface. Sun Xia stretched our her arm, pointing at a spot on the boulder, letting out a quiet whisper.
"It's over there, hanging horizontally onto that boulder over there. Those tiny brown dots? Those should be its eyes. I do not believe that it has spotted us yet."
A few hours ago, the group had found tracks of a Demonic beast that seemed to be weak enough for them to hunt it, so they had started following the tracks. The beast was using the boulder as camouflage, but as Sun Xia specialized in the element of stone, she was able to somewhat sense its position even when it hid itself. The group focused their gazes on the five brown spots that Sun Xia had pointed at, Lei Qiang giving a slight nod.
"Alright. I and Xia will draw its attention and do our best to keep it focused on us. Chao, you stay a bit further back and launch ranged attacks, aim for the eyes and joints to disturb its movement. Chen, you dash in and out, using your speed to whittle it down, aim for any spot that seems soft and weak."
The rest of the group had no problem with Lei Qiang's orders, as they sounded very reasonable. The group quickly prepared, Tang Chao pulling out a bow made out of a flexible silver metal, Lei Qiang pulling out a long halberd that was neatly polished and covered in brown runes, and Sun Xia pulling out a thin shortsword and a large cross-shaped shield that was almost half her size. Compared to their neatly polished and clearly valuable weapons, Liang Chen's completely normal sword was rather out of place. Lei Qiang seemed to think so at least, as he could not help but furrow his eyebrows.
"That's your weapon?"
He hadn't expected Liang Chen to pull out anything fancy, but he had not expected his weapon of choice to be such a normal sword. It didn't even have any runes or arrays that strengthened it! Liang Chen gave the halberd a slight glance, simply shrugging his shoulders.
"It's not as neat as yours, but it is sharp enough."
Even with the weapons he had scavenged from the bandits, the sword he had been given by Yi Huang was still his preferred weapon. It was sturdy, sharp, and he had already gotten used to it. Lei Qiang seemed quite pleased at having his halberd praised, as his face broke out into a smile as he let out a giggle, showing off the halberd.
"Hehe, it really is rather pretty, isn't it? My father gifted it to me when I turned 15 and graduated from the military academy. It has yet to fail me. Yours too, Xia, it seems like it cost quite a bit."
Lei Qiang glanced at Sun Xia's cross-shaped shield and could not refrain from commenting. The shield was thick and large, but it was clearly quite light in weight, Sun Xia easily able to swing it around. Sun Xia gave the shield a soft pat, shuddering slightly as she finished her sentence.
"No joke. My parents had to save up for three years just to be able to afford this shield, so you can imagine the hell that awaits me if I ruin it."
Lei Qiang and Sun Xia looked like they wanted to continue talking about their weapons, but Tang Chao luckily managed to stop them before they could get going, rapping them on the head with his bow.
"Alright guys, focus on the task ahead."
Tang Chao was in the same boat as Liang Chen, his weapon was not something gifted to him by his parents, it was something he had ordered from a blacksmith after finding a piece of mysterious ore.
The expressions of Sun Xia and Lei Qiang immediately grew serious, the previous cheerful atmosphere instantly vanishing. The two jumped out from the hiding spot, dashing towards the hidden Demonic beast. While running, Sun Xia let out a loud laugh, taunting the beast.
"Hey there, Fucko! Care to have a little dance with me?"
As she taunted, she slammed her shield onto the ground, causing rocks to fly into the air, which she then propelled towards the beast. After getting hit by the rocks, the five brown spots that she had pointed out earlier opened, revealing five completely black eyes. The beast dropped down from the boulder, revealing its full body.
It had the body of a large scorpion, almost four meters long But the curved tail that stretched out behind it ended in a three-pronged spike, and instead of its two arms ending in claws, they ended in long and thin scythes. Its entire body was covered by a layer of moss-covered stone, faint arcs of lightning coiling around its tail.
All five eyes of the beast locked onto Sun Xia, its eight legs producing clicking sounds as it charged towards her. Sun Xia slammed her shield onto the ground, crouching behind it and supporting it with her shoulder, completely blocking the charge of the beast. Lei Qian took this chance to dash forward and slam his halberd down onto the back of the beast, the head of the weapon growing thicker as a layer of earth gathered on it.
The scorpion had not forgotten about Lei Qiang, its tail intercepting the halberd, the spikes at the tip turning soft as they coiled around the halberd. Tang Chao and Liang Chen chose this moment to move into action, Liang Chen dashing in while Tang Chao let loose three arrows made out of highly compressed water. Two of the arrows aimed at the beast's eyes, while the third arrow aimed at the topmost joint of the tail. The arrows hit, but the beast merely closed its eyes to block the two arrows, the third one unable to create a proper wound on the tail.
Liang Chen dashed in, his body coated with lightning as his speed reached its peak. If one paid very close attention to the golden arcs that danced around him, one would be able to spot a nearly undetectable trace of blue hidden within the golden. The lightning transferred to his sword as he sent a slash down onto the topmost joint of the tail, aiming to completely sever it.
The scorpion wanted to pull its tail back, but since its spikes were coiled around the halberd, Lei Qiang took the chance to pull on his weapon, forcing the tail to stay in position. Liang Chen's sword hit its mark, sparks flying as he carved a small scar into the layer of stone that covered the beast.
The beast let out a low roar that sounded like two rocks being scraped together, the lightning that coiled around its tail shooting towards Liang Chen. At the same time, the stones on the ground around it started to wriggle, flying into the air and turning into blurs as they shot towards the three others, forcing everyone to quickly dodge and move away from the beast.
The black eyes of the beast started to fill with a faint red color as it swept the group in front of it, the scraping roar sounding out once more, more and more lightning charging out from its body. Sun Xia quickly jumped in front of Tang Chao, blocking the lightning so that Tang Chao could fully focus on letting loose more arrows. Lei Qiang did the same for Liang Chen, dodging in front of him and parrying the lightning with his halberd, which was now fully covered in a thick layer of earth.
Tang Chao continued to send out arrows, and Liang Chen continued to attack the beast with guerilla tactics, quickly in and quickly out. But besides leaving several scars on the layer of stone around its body, they were unable to produce any actual wounds. While Liang Chen was pondering over how he should finish the beast off, Sun Xia let out a loud shout, pointing at one of the beast's legs.
"Chen! Hit the underside, a little to the right of the place where its fifth leg is connected to the body!"
Liang Chen followed Sun Xia's finger, spotting a small crack in the defensive shield of the beast, a wound from a previous battle. He gave a nod of his head and immediately dashed forward, Tang Chao and Sun Xia drawing the attention of the beast with their ranged attacks, while Lei Qiang ran alongside Liang Chen and parried any attack that came at him.
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Liang Chen had slowed down his speed to a point where Lei Qiang could follow at his side, but he still quickly reached the beast. Once he was in front of the beast, he threw his body to the ground and transferred all his momentum into a slide that took him under the beast's body. The scorpion seemed to have realized what he was aiming for, as it not only stabbed at him with its tail but even twisted one of the long scythes into an unnatural position to slash at him.
Lei Qiang could only block one of the attacks, and Sun Xia was too far away to block the other, so no matter what, one of the attacks would reach him if he did not pull back. Lei Qiang chose to block the scythe, using the weight of his body to hold it back. Liang Chen glanced at the incoming spikes, but his eyes merely narrowed for a short moment as he locked onto the old wound.
He twisted his body and stabbed out with his sword, opening the old wound and drenching his face in blood in the process. He ignored the searing pain that was a result of the blood hitting his face, letting go of his sword and digging his hand into the wound. As his hand pierced into the body of the beast, the tail of the beast hit his body, which had twisted a bit more to avoid the brunt of the attack, the spikes tearing out a large chunk of flesh from his left shoulder.
But it was already too late, he had managed to make contact with the beast. With his hand inside the beast, he was free to unleash as much of his poison as he wanted, the others would never know. But he could not fully poison it, as the meat and blood might end up becoming toxic like that. His poison was carefully maneuvered, flooding only the brain of the beast, shutting it down and slightly melting it.
The beast's eyes turned dull as its body slumped forward. Had it not been for Lei Qiang quickly pushing it aside with his halberd, it would have fallen right onto Liang Chen. Lei Qiang helped Liang Chen stand up, taking care to not move his wounded shoulder too much. Sun Xia and Tang Chao quickly came running, Sun Xia looking at the beast with utter amazement.
"Wow, your attacks pack quite a punch! I know you hit one of the weaker spots on its body, but just how much lightning did you pump into it, for it to fall almost immediately?"
She had expected Liang Chen to focus several attacks on the old wound, slowly bleeding the beast to death, she had never expected him to kill it just like that. Liang Chen quickly wiped away the Demonic beast blood on his face and hand, delivering a quick lie.
"Not too much, I just had to fill its body with enough lightning to shut down its brain and heart, surprisingly easy once you know how."
He made it sound easy, but Sun Xia and the others could not help but shudder slightly. Just how much experience did he have with shutting down hearts and brains with his lightning, to be able to do it so easily? Lei Qiang quickly shook his head, his eyes landing on the hideous wound on Liang Chen's shoulder.
"You say that, but it still messed up your shoulder pretty bad, I am amazed you managed to take it with a straight face."
The wound on his shoulder was so bad that one could see the bone, blood pouring down his arm and back. Liang Chen's eyes landed on the wound, but he merely gave a low response.
"It's just a bit of pain, I'm already quite used to it."
How much pain, emotional and physical, hadn't Liang Chen already experienced to reach this point? Compared to the pain he felt when he saw his own parents' heads roll, this shoulder wound was nothing. Lei Qiang looked at the wound a bit more, beckoning Tang Chao over.
"What do you think, Chao, will it take long to heal?"
Tang Chao was the one in charge of healing wounds and curing poisons, so depending on his answer, Lei Qiang was considering having the party leave the stone forest while they waited for Liang Chen to heal. Tang Chao inspected the wound up close, even touching the corners of it. He fondled his chin for a short moment, thinking it over before he gave his response.
"If we can find a somewhat safe spot, I should be able to heal it in about one day's time, but it is unavoidable that it will leave a rather nasty scar. You should have pulled back and waited for a new chance."
When he said one day's time, he meant 24 hours of continuous healing and medicine use, so it would require quite a lot of work. After hearing the advice of Tang Chao, Liang Chen shook his head slightly.
"There is no telling how long we would have to wait for a new chance, and we can't risk any prolonged battles in this environment, so I found it better to suffer a slight injury rather than extend the battle for an unknown amount of time."
The smell of blood and sounds of battle would quickly attract more Demonic beasts, or even other people looking to acquire some easy spoils. Liang Chen was not willing to risk it, so he wanted to finish the battle as fast as possible. Tang Chao was about to say something, but Sun Xia used her knuckles to hit him on the head, interrupting him.
"Enough about that, let's discuss how we split up the spoils."
The damage had already been done, so there was no point in arguing over it, it was better to quickly finish their business here and move on to a safer place. Tang Chao raised his arms in surrender, taking out some bandages and medicine from his interspatial ring, starting the treatment on Liang Chen's shoulder, before he accidentally bleeds to death. Lei Qiang quickly jumped on the chance to talk about how to split the spoils, stating his idea.
"Chen was the one who felled the beast and suffered the worst wound, so I say that he should get first pick. What do you think?"
He swept the others with his gaze, but none of them had any counter-argument, nodding their head. Liang Chen was indeed the one who contributed most, so it was only fair that he gets to choose first. Liang Chen did not even need to think about the answer, pointing at the base of the beast's tail.
"It has an organ that allows it to store and discharge lightning, that organ is the only thing of use to me, so you guys can divide the rest."
Liang Chen had noticed the organ while he flooded the brain of the scorpion with poison. Unlike the rest of the beast, which had both the stone and lightning element, that particular organ only had the lightning element, so it was the only suitable part for Liang Chen. Hearing his response, Lei Qiang could not help but raise his eyebrows in surprise.
"Just the single organ, are you sure?"
He did not want the Demon Crystal or any of its blood, the most valuable parts? Facing their surprise, Liang Chen merely shrugged his unwounded shoulder.
"As I said, the rest isn't very useful to me, so I don't have a reason to take any."
How was he supposed to explain to them that his body seemed to be unable to accept the blood and flesh of Demonic beasts that had any element other than poison and lightning? Since he could not think of a way to explain it, he simply chose to not talk about it, skirting around the subject. Since Liang Chen had said it twice already, there was no need for them to be polite, Lei Qiang matching eyes with Sun Xia.
"Very well. Xia, can you help me cut the beast apart quickly?"
Sun Xia nodded her head, putting away her shield and joining Lei Qiang in taking apart the beast. They quickly cut it into smaller pieces, separating the tail, legs, scythes, and head from the body, storing them into separate interspatial rings. Once they had taken the beast apart, Lei Qiang handed Liang Chen an organ that resembled a blue heart. The heart was a bit larger than Liang Chen's head, arcs of lightning still coiling around it.
"Here, the organ you wanted. Now let us find a place where we can at least get a modicum of rest and comfort while we divide the rest of the spoils."
The rest of the group quickly nodded their heads, Tang Chao continuing the healing process on Liang Chen's shoulder as they swiftly left the scene to find a more secluded location.