ASER - Chapter 66
Chapter 66: Lizards
His subordinates were extremely alarmed, fearing that this rather reliable new Cishi would just die suddenly. However, Chen Ran, holding on by a thread, demanded that the government office must help him apprehend the conspirator. He stressed that under no circumstances should his private affairs disrupt official order or tarnish the reputation of the common people, quoting a saying about how great achievements can be ruined by a tiny mistake, and that one must...
He laid on the high-sounding principles thick and fast, and everyone present was filled with admiration.
After hanging up the phone, he endured the pain and finished arranging the meeting. Finally, in front of his subordinates, he let out a sigh of relief and collapsed with a thud, after which he was sent to the hospital.
His daughter had been killed in an explosion; he was too heartbroken. The Cishi had to be hospitalized.
But in the car, he shed his weak demeanor, quickly sat up, picked up his phone, and decisively contacted his allies in the officialdom...
Storm clouds were gathering over Jinling and Lingcheng.
A'Diao didn't care whether Chen Ran knew or not. If Chen Ran lacked even this level of reaction speed and coping ability, and still needed her reminder, the Chen family would sooner or later fall, and she would definitely have run away long ago.
"No. 7 should find the place in a moment. Now, check your wristwatches. If we get separated due to an unexpected situation, remember the positioning signal. If the signal fails, crush the scent pellets I gave you. Song Ling will go to support you immediately. But once we're underground, everyone's mobility will be restricted, so we can't get separated again, unless it's a special situation requiring escape…"
A'Diao didn't talk about grand plans to KO the lizards; first, she instructed them on the retreat route in case of an accident.
Currently, only Song Ling had flight equipment. If something happened, she would be the flexible support.
Everyone confirmed the many details they had discussed beforehand and also made sure that no supplies prepared in their respective backpacks were missing.
At this moment, No. 7 alerted Song Ling.
Song Ling activated a small optical computer and displayed the camera footage secretly sent back by No. 7.
A cave entrance was hidden among overgrown weeds. No. 7, also hiding in the weeds, poked out only half its head. The secretly filmed footage had some blades of grass in view, but they could still see two lizards lying prone at the entrance of the cave.
Each was over two meters long, broad and fat, but their tails were long and robust. Their hide was the color of petrified stone, with protruding hard ridges. Their heads were like rocks, looking impervious to attack unless one used high-penetration thermal weapons or close-combat sharp weapons enhanced with Spirit Power.
However, the group had prepared for many days and no longer needed to come up with a battle plan on the spot. They just moved towards the destination together. When they were a hundred meters away, the group hid in grass as tall as a person. Song Ling controlled No. 7, making it wag its tail...
Rustle, rustle, the grass moved. The two Petrification Lizards at the cave entrance immediately turned around and charged over fiercely, but No. 7 was already nimbly dashing away...
After luring them about five or six meters away, No. 7 suddenly burrowed underground. The two Petrification Lizards seemed to sense danger and were about to attack their surroundings with their tails, but just as their thoughts were about to control their bodies, an invisible telepathic sense entered their brains...
Sluggishness.
They were both slowed.
Taking advantage of this moment, the two wild boars summoned by Rao Xueya ran out and used their four tusks to gore the underbellies of the two lizards respectively.
If it were the previous wild boars, small and not robust enough, they could only gore a person's rear and couldn't even budge these two-meter-long large lizards. But Rao Xueya had spent a lot of time training her two pigs these days, truly embodying what it meant to be a super pig farmer.
The two large wild boars were actually twice as fat as before, and their tusks were very effective; they really did manage to flip the two large lizards onto their backs. But one large lizard's tail, being a freely controlled part, pushed against the ground, and its body was about to flip back over.
A'Diao appeared. She attracted the attention of one lizard, its eyes immediately locking onto hers.
Oh dear, they'd locked eyes.
The Petrification Lizard's pupils changed; it was about to spray petrifying venom. But A'Diao's initial attack speed was faster, second only to a mental attack.
Binding Gaze activated!
In an instant, a strong odor erupted. A small amount of sulfuric acid psst appeared in one lizard's eyes. Originally, the Petrification Lizard's power, aside from tail whips and bites, lay in its eyes, which could spray petrifying venom from a distance. But now its eyes were crippled, and the sulfuric acid penetrated deep into its pupils, instantly corroding its self-protective flesh-and-bone layer.
Amidst its miserable shrieks and howls, Tian Zhongxiang controlled a flying dagger in her palm, imbuing it with Spirit Power... As she pointed her finger.
Swish!
A sharp flying dagger instantly pierced its eye.
The original protective layer was already destroyed, rendering the eyelid's protection useless. In the blink of an eye, the sharp edge of the flying dagger pierced into its brain.
From the start of the attack to its death was only a second or two; one lizard was already KO'd. But at the same moment, the other lizard had already freed itself and was lying prone on its front, its thick, powerful tail whipping fiercely towards A'Diao.
Very fast... BANG!!! A dull, metallic clang. Tian Zhongye, who had charged forward, had imbued his shield with a layer of Spirit Power. The Spirit Power offset part of the force and also enhanced the shield's defense, but it still made his arm tremble. However, this lizard immediately tried to spray venom at him...
Sulfuric acid appeared again.
This lizard, in pain, thrashed its tail wildly, but Tian Zhongye seized the opportunity for an upward slash to its underbelly.
Good heavens, what strength! With one slash, he lifted its abdomen. Then, the two wild boars gored the vital organ area of its belly. Its abdomen was breached, and Tian Zhongxiang controlled her flying dagger to pierce its internal organs.
Its internal organs ruptured, and the lizard twitched a few times and died.
There was no lingering fear; after all, this battle had been quite easy. Everyone had consumed little Spirit Power and recovered it in a short time.
During this time, they quickly extracted four eyeballs and two spirit cores.
The sulfuric acid would damage the eyeballs, but the petrifying toxin was hidden in the core of the eyeball; as long as the inside wasn't damaged, it wouldn't affect its value. Plus, the spirit cores were all placed in special pouches and given to Tian Zhongye, who had the best stamina, to carry in his backpack.
This time, the strongest members, A'Diao and Song Ling, hadn't used their full strength; they were merely using these two lizards to practice real combat coordination.
They had actually fought cooperatively as a team once before, but since they hadn't faced demonic spirits as opponents, it wasn't as effective as actual combat.
"If we're unlucky and encounter Level 2 ones, we'll stick to this rhythm. But against Level 1 Petrification Lizards, we'll split up: Rao Xueya with me, you two together, and Song Ling will provide support to both sides."
This distribution had been discussed before, but at that time, they weren't sure how difficult these lizards would be to deal with or how effective their attacks would be against them. So, they started together and would reconfigure after gathering data.
Song Ling, with her advanced equipment, had already obtained data on the Petrification Lizards. They were basically within the range that the five of them could handle when split up.
And in comparison, in terms of individual combat power, pairing Rao Xueya with the strongest, A'Diao, indeed balanced their combat strength.
"OK, let's do it this way."
After dealing with the two lizards, Tian Zhongxiang, Tian Zhongye, and Rao Xueya, who were originally nervous, felt much more at ease. But Rao Xueya noticed that A'Diao and Song Ling showed no emotional fluctuation at all. She predicted that these two must have independently killed demonic spirits before, so they were very accustomed to such scenes.
There were no more Petrification Lizards at the entrance. The opening wasn't small and looked like a cave extending downwards, from which the sound of dripping water could occasionally be heard.
They could go down, but they all rested on the spot for a while.
The group observed the muddy ground around the cave entrance. Finding no other human footprints, they felt relieved. But then they saw their team leader, A'Diao, squatting in front of some droppings, examining them very seriously.
Holy crap!
Tian Zhongye: It's not mealtime yet...
Rao Xueya: You can't eat that.
Tian Zhongxiang: ???
Probably only Song Ling could keep up with A'Diao's train of thought. "These lizards don't defecate much; their diet is poor. They must be very hungry."
A'Diao stood up. "Mm, so they'll come out very quickly later."
Tian Zhongxiang and the others were waiting, absorbing the trace amounts of Spiritual Energy in the air to replenish their consumed Spirit Power, when they saw A'Diao take out... two bento boxes?
A'Diao opened one, revealing a strong-smelling meat paste inside.
"What's this?"
A'Diao: "Highly compressed mealworm meat paste."
Then she evenly sprinkled this meat paste at the cave entrance and placed a miniature hairdryer beside it.
Once the hairdryer was turned on, the strong meaty smell was blown into the cave.
"Alright, now we just wait."
Everyone understood; this was to lure the lizards out.
But Song Ling glanced at the other bento box, then turned her face away and didn't say much to the others.
Because the location of this catacomb was not good, and there weren't many people around for them to eat, these lizards' droppings were small and very dry. A'Diao figured that in their starved state, smelling this mealworm paste would make them rush out like crazy.
So, before they hid, she sprinkled the contents of the other bento box around the area—it was a crimson powder.
While the lizards hadn't come out yet, Tian Zhongye curiously asked A'Diao what that powder was.
A'Diao: "Hard to say. You'll see in a bit."
So mysterious.
But three minutes later, a group of lizards rushed out.
Initially, there seemed to be ten of them, but more and more followed, and soon their numbers reached thirty.
The number was still increasing.
How could there be so many!
Everyone was very surprised; even A'Diao was a bit suspicious. For typical demonic spirit catacombs, especially for creatures the size of Petrification Lizards, the living space would usually limit their numbers. Their original prediction was around thirty. Now, it seemed that including some Petrification Lizards possibly hidden deeper underground in the catacomb, the total number might be fifty.
This wasn't quite normal.
Unless...
While A'Diao was pondering, these starving Petrification Lizards were already frantically licking and gnawing the ground, ingesting the crimson powder along with it.
The five of them were hiding on a hillside over a hundred meters away, watching this scene. Rao Xueya suddenly lowered her voice and said, "This reminds me of how you three eat."
Song Ling was amused; she lowered her eyes and smiled faintly.
A'Diao and the other two: "..."
We're a team, no infighting, OK!
However, Rao Xueya soon found herself speechless, because these large lizards, while gnawing the ground, started... doing that.
A'Diao: "Oh my, not bad, the effect is good, faster than I expected. Song Ling, your idea was great, and the stuff you provided is good too."
Tian Zhongxiang, Tian Zhongye, and Rao Xueya looked at Song Ling in disbelief.
Song Ling: "..."
This A'Diao... was truly mischievous.
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