Bab 6: Attack of the Demon Beasts
Editor: Atlas Studios
Using a turtle shell as a pot to cook turtle soup was a common cooking method used by fishermen living by the sea.
Wang Ping threw in a few of the turtle eggs he had found and some of the sea snails he had picked up on the beach.
Soon, the seafood soup was ready.
Xiao Feng liked to eat raw food, and most of the sea turtle meat was soon in its stomach. Meanwhile, Wang Ping reveled in the authentic seafood soup that he had not eaten for a long time.
In terms of taste, this seafood soup was naturally not as delicious as a well-seasoned tonic soup.
However, the taste brought Wang Ping back to when he was a child. To Wang Ping, who had lost his parents at a young age, this seafood soup was the best delicacy he could have eaten back then.
Therefore, Wang Ping was still very satisfied with his meal.
After eating and drinking to his heart's content, Wang Ping patted Xiao Feng's head, which was equally as full, and brought it to another place that was worth reminiscing.
Both he and Xiao Feng headed northwest along the beach. After walking for another two to three miles, they arrived at a reef-covered beach.
He did not know how long the reefs on this reef beach had existed. Despite the fact that almost ten years had passed, the scenery here was still not too different from what Wang Ping had remembered.
He brought Xiao Feng to frolic around the beach for a while, before finding a cave that could fit a seven to an eight-year-old child. This cave was the place he was looking for.
Ten years ago, when Wang Ping was catching crabs at this beach, he crawled into this cave and chanced upon the "Heaven and Earth Shell" stuck in the rock wall.
When he saw the shell, he was so enamored by its beauty that he did everything he could to cut it off from the rock wall.
However, at that time, Wang Ping had yet to be exposed to the path of cultivation and had yet to cultivate his powers. In the face of the clamshell that was so tightly shut that it could not be opened no matter how hard he tried, he only felt that it was strange and did not think much about it.
Later on, when he became a cultivator, he was tidying up some old items when he rediscovered this silver clamshell that he had been treating as a collectible. He remembered that back then, he couldn't open the shell no matter how hard he had tried, so he tried injecting Dharma power into it out of curiosity.
As a result, the clamshell—that couldn't be opened back then— was opened easily because of his Dharma power. It even brought him into the world inside the shell.
What followed afterward was a lot simpler. After Wang Ping dripped his blood onto the pearl that served as the source of light in the world inside the "Heaven and Earth Shell," this strange object acknowledged him as its master and he obtained partial access to its functions.
"I really have no idea how such a wondrous object like the "Heaven and Earth Shell" ended up in this cave. I don't believe that anyone would put it in there. Who would be willing to leave this treasure in such a place?"
As Wang Ping gazed at the cave that he could no longer enter, he could not help but shake his head. He felt that he could never, in his lifetime, find an answer to this question.
He did not stay any longer. He left the reef beach with Xiao Feng to prepare for their return to the White Gull Mountains.
Since he had already completed his goal of visiting and moving his parents' cenotaphs, Wang Ping no longer had any attachments to Golden Shell Village, his birthplace. He reckoned that he would never return to this place again.
However, just as he was passing by the village, a thunderous roar suddenly sounded from the village. The startled screams of the villagers rang out at the same time.
What happened?
Wang Ping's expression changed slightly, and he could not help but stop in his tracks.
Roar! Roar!
Xiao Feng, who was beside him, seemed to feel threatened as well. Unsettled, it pressed its body against Wang Ping's thigh, bared its teeth, and growled in the direction of Golden Shell Village.
"For Xiao Feng to be this nervous, coupled with the fact that the roar was obviously not made by a human, could it be that a demon beast from the sea had come ashore to attack the village?"
Wang Ping's eyes narrowed as he made an instantaneous guess.
There were numerous demon beasts in the sea. Among them, there were some amphibious demon beasts that could come ashore. They would occasionally approach fishing villages or seaside cities to hunt humans for food.
These incidents happened almost every year on Golden Pearl Island.
However, cities like White Sand City were generally protected by cultivators who lived in seclusion within the city. If there were really sea demon beasts that went ashore to eat humans, as long as they were not extremely powerful demon beasts, they would be dealt with by the cultivators.
However, for remote fishing villages like the Golden Shell Village, if they really encountered such demon beasts, the villagers could only wait and see who could outrun the other.
"Let's go and take a look."
After all, this village was his birthplace. He wouldn't have bothered if he hadn't encountered such a situation, but since he happened to encounter it while he was still around here, it would be difficult for him to live with his conscience if he didn't take a look at what was going on.
He patted Xiao Feng on the head and rushed toward the village like he was flying.
After a while, Wang Ping, who had leaped onto the top of a house in the village, saw his target by tracking the direction of the villagers' screams.
Inside the village, there were two peculiar demon beasts that looked like toads but had crocodile-like tails. They jumped around, chasing the panicked villagers.
The tongues of the two strange demon beasts were very long; they were able to stick them out to as long as twenty to thirty feet away. Additionally, there were even meat spikes growing on their tongues.
As long as the villagers were hit by their tongues, they would feel as though they were being stabbed by a spear. Their bodies would be instantly impaled, before getting hooked by the flesh spikes. They would then be directly dragged back into the mouths of the demon beasts.
The two demon beasts had sharp teeth; as long as they closed their mouths, the villagers that were dragged into those mouths would be instantly crunched into pieces and swallowed in.
"They are low-grade tier-1 demon beasts, Alligator-Tailed Toads. It's said that every time this kind of demon beast appears, a male and a female would appear together. Moreover, most of the time they go ashore, they would be looking for a place to lay eggs. I don't know why they are attacking Golden Shell Village!"
Wang Ping watched the demon beasts maul the people from afar. His expression was slightly pained, he had already recognized where the two demon beasts were from.
He had never seen a demon beast like the Alligator-Tailed Toad before, but when he conversed with other cultivators, he had heard of this peculiar low-grade demon beast.
As far as he knew, demon beasts like the Alligator-Tailed Toad mostly only knew one type of innate technique, the Poisonous Water Arrow. It could turn the venom in the poison sacs inside their bodies into water arrows that they would shoot at their opponents. The damage it could inflict was not to be belittled.
However, because the amount of venom in the poison sac was limited, the Alligator-Tailed Toad could only use this technique up to seven or eight times. Therefore, unless they encountered a powerful enemy, they would not use this technique rashly.
"The Alligator-Tailed Toads haven't used the Poisonous Water Arrow too many times, I might be able to use the Illusionary Body Technique to trick them into using the spell. However, I don't know any powerful offensive spells, nor do I have any offensive magic weapons. Killing them won't be easy!"
How tricky!
How incredibly tricky!
Wang Ping did a swift and silent tabulation of the strengths and weaknesses of both himself and the Alligator-Tailed Toads. He then realized that slaying the demons and saving the people would be no easy task.
-- Hadiah diterima