Chapter 120: Perception Failure
“Rat.”
The mournful wail released by the Burrowing Rat rang exceptionally harsh within the underground karst cave that had just returned to calm.
The other members of the Poison Sting Squad immediately realized that Rat was already dead.
Only when a Beast Tamer died would their Beast suffer spiritual seed backlash and perish as well—this kind of scene was something they had seen far too often.
After all, when they engaged in black-on-black dealings, their favorite tactic was to bypass the Beast and directly attack the Beast Tamer himself.
Within the squad, Blind Snake—who also commanded a perception-type Beast—had the closest relationship with Rat. The instant the realization struck, fury surged into his heart.
“Calm down.”
Seeing Blind Snake disregard the danger and rush straight toward the underground karst cave, Poison Sting immediately barked in a low voice to stop him.
“Go back and take a look. We must know how Rat died.”
The target had already escaped. There was no way he would leave his own Beast behind, so Poison Sting had to determine the cause no matter what.
One minute later, the four returned to the site of the ambush.
“Boss, Rat died from poisoning. There are venomous snake bite marks on his neck.”
After a brief inspection, Thin Tiger immediately identified the cause of Rat’s death.
“Boss, there’s a new discovery.”
Following Blind Snake’s prompt, they noticed that on the claws and fangs of Rat’s Beast, the Burrowing Rat, several dead Ironthread Snakes had been left behind.
“Ironthread Snakes? They’re all about half a meter long. This doesn’t look like a normal wild state.”
Holding a dagger, Poison Sting casually prodded the dead Ironthread Snakes and immediately sensed something abnormal.
“Artificially bred. But how were these ordinary mutated Ironthread Snakes controlled? Could it be that the person’s Beast was a low-tier Ferocious Beast evolved from an Ironthread Snake, relying on his own Beast to control these Ironthread Snakes?”
Violent Bear, the only one in the squad who was not a Beast Tamer, voiced the control method he could comprehend.
“Impossible.” Poison Sting immediately rejected the hypothesis.
Whether it was mutated animals moving in groups or Ferocious Beasts, selecting a leader was merely a socially driven instinct to ensure the group’s survival.
Once a spiritual seed was implanted by a Beast Tamer, even if it left its original group, it would no longer be acknowledged by others of its kind.
As for existences like queen bees or queen ants, their spiritual consciousness gained reinforcement from collective consciousness, making spiritual seed implantation extremely difficult.
For example, a low-tier Ferocious Beast–level queen bee could only be successfully dominated by an exceedingly rare genius whose aptitude was sufficient to command high-tier Ferocious Beast cubs, allowing them to implant their spiritual seed into the queen bee’s consciousness.
But such a method was a case of gains not outweighing losses—it completely sacrificed one’s own potential in exchange for early-stage strength, to the point where one wouldn’t even know which profession system to advance into.
As for mutated animal–level queen bees and queen ants, ordinary Beast Tamers were unwilling to lose their advancement opportunities either, since aside from sheer numbers, they had no other advantages.
And Zhou Ming, due to the nature of spiritual seeds, could at most control ordinary queen ants and queen bees—things that even normal people could deal with using insecticide.
That was precisely why Violent Bear, who was not a Beast Tamer, had made such an illogical guess.
“Unless this person has mastered some special secret technique, allowing him to rely on his own Beast to control mutated Ironthread Snakes.”
As a perception-type Beast Tamer, Blind Snake was naturally no fool. After regaining his composure, he offered the most logically consistent inference.
“It seems our target isn’t simple. He might be hiding some kind of secret.”
“Since we know his methods now, Blind Snake, watch out for hidden Ironthread Snakes in the surroundings.”
“Thin Tiger, command your Ghost Claw Cat to handle the cleanup.”
“Yes.”
Just as the Poison Sting Squad resumed their pursuit, Zhou Ming used the connection between himself and the Ironthread Snakes to smoothly locate Yang Yi.
At this moment, Yang Yi was being attacked by two Cave Spiders.
The two Cave Spiders, each exceeding one meter in size, not only possessed armor as hard as steel, but also moved with agility within the complex environment of the karst cave.
Fortunately, Yang Yi’s Ironfang was a mutated Double-headed Gale Wolf. Combined with Yang Yi’s firearm support, he was barely able to hold on.
“Back against the rock wall to reduce the attack angles. Don’t fire randomly and waste ammunition. Reduce the frequency of magazine changes to avoid firepower gaps. You just need to restrain one Cave Spider—let your Ironfang go all out to kill the other.”
Toward Yang Yi, the son of a wealthy family, although his abilities and temperament were lacking, he at least knew how to obey orders without asking questions.
For the sake of the spirit materials as payment, Zhou Ming casually offered a few pointers.
“Big Brother.”
Hearing that Zhou Ming had returned, Yang Yi’s confidence immediately surged, and he hurriedly followed his Big Brother’s instructions.
In less than a few minutes, Cave Spiders—bottom-tier existences among low-tier Ferocious Beasts—were quickly dealt with through Yang Yi’s coordination with his own Beast.
“Not bad. Why was your performance so poor before?”
Seeing Yang Yi follow his commands without hesitation, Zhou Ming’s impression of him improved considerably.
“Grandfather said that several elders in the family had already died, and he didn’t want me going into the wilderness to train.”
After hearing this, Zhou Ming recalled the information he had gathered.
Yang Yi’s grandfather, the founder of Yang’s Paper Industry, seemed to have met a major figure through an accidental opportunity, allowing him to rise from an ordinary man to become a wealthy magnate of Qinshan Base.
However, being born an ordinary person, he lacked decisiveness in his actions. Otherwise, Yang’s Paper Industry would not have fallen into its current predicament.
But in recent years, after Yang Yi’s father took over Yang’s Paper Industry, his style of conduct was completely different from his own father’s.
Still, time was ultimately insufficient—it was very difficult to change Yang’s Paper Industry’s situation in a short period.
“Let’s go. The people chasing us aren’t simple. If we confront them head-on, we’ll have to pay a price.”
With the Ironthread Snakes left behind being killed, Zhou Ming also knew that the other side had noticed his methods.
In response to this, Zhou Ming showed no panic.
In the extraordinary world of Blue Star, it was impossible for him to roam freely just by relying on the Radar Sensory Domain constructed from Ironthread Snakes.
Mentally prepared, Zhou Ming immediately recalled most of the Ironthread Snakes, leaving only a very small number to track the enemy’s movements.
“Alright, Big Brother.”
As for Big Brother’s orders, Yang Yi was now accustomed to obeying them.
Before leaving, Zhou Ming did not forget to take the most valuable part from the Cave Spiders—the silk-spinning sacs, which could extract exceptionally tough spider silk and be used to craft high-grade protective suits.
Currently penniless, he would not let any spoils that had fallen into his hands slip away.
At the same time, he planted two booby traps beneath the Cave Spiders’ corpses. Whether there would be gains or not was another matter—after all, with a Spatial Ring, he carried plenty of grenades on him.
After entering the lower levels of the karst cave, Zhou Ming led Yang Yi in circles through the vast underground cave system, with no intention of giving the Poison Sting Squad a chance to make contact.
As long as Yang Yi did not die, his objective had already been achieved, and Yang Yi’s father would definitely have arranged for rescue forces to arrive.
Right now, the ones in the greatest hurry were not him, but those pursuing Yang Yi.
While wandering through what felt like a massive underground maze, Zhou Ming also tested the sturdiness of the karst cave, confirming that grenade explosions would not cause a collapse. He silently lowered his head in thought.
If necessary, he could play a bigger game with them.
As for the stunned-looking Yang Yi, he believed that his Big Brother was determining their current position, completely unaware that Zhou Ming was already preparing for the worst.