Chapter 216: Shadow Cat Clan
After entering the Panlong Mountain Range, Zhou Ming did not immediately begin hunting the foreign races. Instead, he wandered through the Panlong Mountain Range for half a month.
Although he had entered the Panlong Mountain Range many times before, after a year and a half, what changes had occurred inside the Panlong Mountain Range was still unknown to him.
After all, among the foreign races in the Panlong Mountain Range, there were thousands whose strength rivaled that of professional Beast Tamers, and there were even dozens of transcendent-level giants.
Now that his strength had reached high-level professional rank, he was confident that no foreign race of the same level could threaten his life, but that did not mean the opponent would fight him one-on-one.
Once he fell into an encirclement, given the current situation in the Panlong Mountain Range, facing the risk of death was not impossible.
Summer was approaching. In the mountains, the chirping of insects rose one after another. The dazzling scorching sun shone among the mountain ranges, revealing a scene full of vitality.
However, the warm sunlight could not dispel the chill brought by slaughter, and the warm breeze even carried a strong scent of blood.
Inside a dense forest with luxuriant branches and leaves where sunlight could hardly penetrate, a black shadow rapidly flashed past. After confirming that there was no danger, the black shadow quietly stopped on a large tree to replenish water.
Just as the other party raised the water bottle, a black lightning bolt suddenly shot out from behind him.
Faced with the sudden sneak attack, the black shadow reacted instantly, and his body immediately became blurred.
However, in the next moment, his body clearly showed a brief stagnation. The chance to survive brushed past him, as the black lightning struck directly at his neck.
“Bang…”
In less than three seconds, the black shadow lost all signs of life and fell from a tree dozens of meters high.
As the sound of fallen leaves being stepped on rang out, Zhou Ming revealed himself from behind a large tree, and Inkband, who had just carried out the sneak attack, appeared beside him.
“Not bad.”
Although he had provided assistance during the sneak attack just now, Inkband’s performance still satisfied Zhou Ming.
After giving Inkband a brief compliment, he then walked toward the target’s corpse.
“The Shadow Cat Clan?”
The corpse at Zhou Ming’s feet resembled a thin human, yet its body was covered with extremely short and unusually dense fine fur. Its facial features looked like a fusion of a cat and a human.
During the period when Zhou Ming had left the Panlong Mountain Range, while Blue Star humanity adjusted its strategy against the foreign races, changes had also occurred among the foreign races led by the Giant Race.
Aside from the centaur and harpy patrols visible on the surface, the Shadow Cat Clan had also appeared in the shadows.
According to the information provided by the outposts, although the Shadow Cat Clan was also a lower-tier foreign race, once they reached adulthood they possessed strength comparable to low-tier ferocious beasts, and their probability of advancing to professional rank was far higher than that of other lower-tier foreign races.
In addition, the Shadow Cat Clan was innately close to shadow energy particles and possessed the ability to conceal their bodies by borrowing shadows. They were natural assassins and scouts among the foreign races.
Perhaps due to the influence of shadow energy particles, although the Shadow Cat Clan was a lower-tier foreign race, their fertility rate was close to that of upper-tier foreign races.
According to the Alliance’s investigation results, there were only a little over one hundred high-tier Shadow Cats appearing in the Panlong Mountain Range. They should belong to a small Shadow Cat tribal group that had attached itself to the Giant Race.
Fortunately, the number of high-tier Shadow Cats was not too large. Otherwise, the level of threat they posed to the Alliance would far exceed that of the Giant Race.
Even so, they had still caused massive casualties among Alliance professional Beast Tamers, to the point that professional Beast Tamers with special perception abilities saw their status rise sharply at every outpost.
As for Zhou Ming, his interest in the Shadow Cat Clan came more from the catwomen within this race.
When members of the Shadow Cat Clan advanced to high-tier Shadow Cats, female Shadow Cats had a certain probability of undergoing bloodline mutation.
The mutated female Shadow Cats were called catwomen. They possessed the appearance of human women, while also having cat ears and cat tails.
Catwomen were the royal lineage of the Shadow Cat Clan. As long as they did not fall midway during their growth, they would basically all advance to the transcendent level.
On the western battlefield where humans clashed with foreign races, there had once been a transcendent Beast Tamer who captured a high-tier catwoman.
Regarding catwomen, that transcendent Beast Tamer had given such an evaluation.
“Catwomen taste exquisitely wonderful.”
With just this short sentence, male Beast Tamers who knew of the existence of catwomen were filled with longing, all wanting to experience for themselves whether the taste was truly as that lord had said.
As for Zhou Ming, his interest in catwomen lay more in curiosity about their bloodline changes.
If he could obtain a catwoman, he would absolutely not bring her to bed, but instead send her to a cold experimental platform.
After briefly recalling the information regarding the Shadow Cat Clan, ordinary Ironthread Snakes immediately surged out from beneath Zhou Ming’s feet, then scattered in all directions and vanished into the dense forest.
After setting up vigilance, Zhou Ming took out a sharp scalpel, squatted down, and began a simple dissection of the Shadow Cat corpse before him.
More than ten minutes later, aside from the head used to exchange for contribution points, the Shadow Cat’s corpse had already been divided into dozens of pieces of varying sizes.
Zhou Ming gained a deeper understanding of the Shadow Cat Clan. Their muscles and bones were inferior to those of other foreign races of the same level, and their physical strength was only barely higher than that of low-tier ferocious beasts.
If relying purely on physical strength, Zhou Ming estimated that the Thunder Type-2 Revolver would be enough to pose a fatal threat to a high-tier Shadow Cat.
However, the Shadow Cat’s blood contained abundant shadow energy particles. Coupled with the traces left by the circulation of shadow energy particles within their flesh and bones, the Shadow Cat’s main strength clearly did not rely primarily on physical power.
Unfortunately, conditions were limited, and Zhou Ming could not conduct detailed research. He could only preserve the Shadow Cat’s blood.
Just as Zhou Ming was clearing traces and preparing to leave, intense sounds of slaughter suddenly came from afar.
Before Zhou Ming could react, he sensed that one ordinary Ironthread Snake had suffered collateral damage and died on the spot amid the suddenly erupting battle.
Zhou Ming, whose expression had been cold and indifferent, immediately narrowed his eyes slightly, and the Ironthread Snake swarm was quickly recalled by him.
In the next moment, his figure twisted slightly and disappeared into the dense forest before him.
Outside the dense forest where sunlight could reach, several professional Beast Tamers were tightly surrounded by foreign races.
Two giants, three high-tier harpies, five centaur warriors, and ten werejackal warriors.
This was an elite foreign race squad, with the two giants at the lead comparable to high-level professional Beast Tamers.
Judging by the situation, it should have been the foreign races taking the initiative to hunt human professional Beast Tamers.
Seeing foreign races surrounding and killing his own kind before him, Zhou Ming did not choose to intervene.
Since one entered the Panlong Mountain Range, one had to be prepared for death. The identities of hunter and prey could change at any time.
Moreover, given the number of powerful foreign races present, even Zhou Ming did not dare guarantee that he could retreat unscathed. He would not put himself in danger just to play the good guy.
After scanning the surroundings, Zhou Ming took advantage of the moment when the professional Beast Tamers were resisting with all their might and the foreign races had yet to finish them off. His figure once again retreated into the dense forest and chose to leave.
After all, even if the foreign races discovered his traces, as long as he did not make a move, they would not abandon their current prey to come after him.
As for the final fate of those professional Beast Tamers, Zhou Ming did not pay them much heed.
Preserving himself was the best strategy.