Chapter 217: Revealing Power
One day later, within an unnamed mountain valley deep in the Panlong Mountain Range, a patrol team of foreign races was slowly advancing.
Centaur warriors roamed around, probing for traces left behind by Beast Tamers, their muscular, sinewy arms constantly resting on their bows, ever alert against ambushes from the shadows.
Circling high above, Harpies used only a few feathers to barely conceal their naked bodies, their sharp eyes continuously scanning the ground below.
Over the span of one and a half years, both Blue Star humanity and the foreign races had suffered casualties. The Blue Star Alliance placed merit bounties on the foreign races, while the foreign races likewise used military merits to bolster morale.
The newly added Transcendent-level foreign races within the Panlong Mountain Range were basically all chieftains and elders of the Werejackals, Centaurs, and Harpies.
At the same time, a large number of ordinary foreign races relied on battle merits to advance into professional-level existences.
Therefore, even though lower-tier foreign races like the Werejackals suffered heavy casualties, they showed not the slightest fear of battle.
Compared to their own lives, the foreign races possessed an instinctive craving for power—perhaps a choice shaped by their harsh living environments.
At the other end of the valley, atop a smooth and precipitous cliff, Zhou Ming’s figure quietly appeared.
Looking at the Harpies circling high in the distance, Zhou Ming had no intention of employing any schemes or tricks. Instead, he planned to use the foreign race patrol team before him to verify the gains he had made over the past year.
The shadows beneath his feet stirred slightly, and Ironthread Snake swarms cascaded down into the valley like a plunging waterfall.
As the Gathering Sand Secret Technique Model within Zhou Ming’s Spiritual Sea was activated, the Ironthread Snake swarm began to converge like flowing water, eventually forming a giant python over fifty meters long.
Its base color was a mysterious dark gold, adorned with noble purple patterns, with a blood-colored bone-spike crown atop its head.
A single hiss radiated ferocious brutality, and like a sudden mountain flood, it charged straight toward the foreign race patrol team.
The moment the Dark-gold Purple-patterned Python appeared, the foreign race patrol team immediately detected it and responded at once.
Several piercing sounds tore through the air as arrows reinforced with energy particles shot toward the Dark-gold Purple-patterned Python with violent force.
With the enhancement of energy particles, the arrows fired by the Centaur Warriors were no weaker than armor-piercing shells.
Yet the Dark-gold Purple-patterned Python did not choose to evade. The purple patterns on its body flowed with hazy violet light, forcibly receiving the Centaur Warriors’ arrows with its flesh alone.
Because the Dark-gold Purple-patterned Python was formed through the fusion of Ironthread Snake swarms, various attribute-based energy particles influenced one another, and its consciousness was actively governed by the Snake Swarm Will. As a result, it was unable to cast specific spells and could only enhance itself with energy particles.
Regarding this situation, after repeated consideration, Zhou Ming had not attempted to grant the Dark-gold Purple-patterned Python spellcasting ability.
This was because for Ferocious Beasts to cast innate spells, aside from their bloodline talents, their own spiritual consciousness also played a role.
Since that was the case, when optimizing the Gathering Sand Secret Technique Model, Zhou Ming had deliberately guided the energy particles toward strengthening the physical body, thereby enhancing talents related to the flesh.
After withstanding several waves of arrow attacks from the Centaur Warriors, the Dark-gold Purple-patterned Python successfully closed in on the foreign race patrol team. Instead of immediately launching an attack, it raised its head high and spewed out purple poisonous mist.
Under Zhou Ming’s control, the purple poisonous mist focused mainly on paralysis and did not corrode the foreign races’ flesh—after all, he still needed their heads to exchange for merits.
For a moment, the purple poisonous mist spread like a heavenly net, covering several hundred meters. The massive body of the Dark-gold Purple-patterned Python, like a flood dragon entering the sea, plunged into the mist and began slaughtering.
Having abandoned spellcasting ability, the Dark-gold Purple-patterned Python’s physical body—enhanced by energy particles and further strengthened by the Silver Scale and Iron Block talents—could only be described as terrifying.
Whether physical attacks or the spell attacks cast by accompanying priests, none could inflict effective damage on the massive Dark-gold Purple-patterned Python.
As for the Harpies’ mental attacks, the backlash from the Snake Swarm Will instantly caused them splitting headaches, sending them crashing straight to the ground.
In just a few minutes, the foreign race patrol team led by three Centaur Warriors and two high-tier Harpies was completely crushed by the Dark-gold Purple-patterned Python.
In the blink of an eye, the valley was filled with the stench of blood, mutilated corpses scattered everywhere, resembling a slaughterhouse.
As the foreign race patrol team was swiftly eliminated, the Dark-gold Purple-patterned Python opened its massive jaws and swallowed all the purple poisonous mist lingering around.
In an instant, the valley returned to a deathly silence.
Soon after, the sound of footsteps rang out—it was Zhou Ming, arriving to collect the fruits of victory.
Seeing its master appear, the Dark-gold Purple-patterned Python lowered its head, which was as large as a truck, carefully touching Zhou Ming’s body.
“Did well.”
Facing the Dark-gold Purple-patterned Python, whose single scale was larger than his own palm, Zhou Ming offered a simple praise before placing his right hand against its body.
His palm immediately seemed to form a miniature black hole, and the Dark-gold Purple-patterned Python’s enormous body rapidly flowed like liquid into Zhou Ming’s body.
After retrieving the Dark-gold Purple-patterned Python, Zhou Ming then began collecting his spoils of war.
Aside from the heads of same-rank foreign races, he did not spare the equipment they used either.
Although the Centaur Warriors and high-tier Harpies were lower-tier foreign races, the equipment on their bodies was by no means inferior, after all, they were existences comparable to Professional Beast Tamers.
After cleaning up the battlefield at the fastest speed possible, Zhou Ming immediately concealed his traces and withdrew.
Because, just as he had expected, elite foreign race hunting squads would soon arrive.
Not long after, furious roars erupted from the valley where Zhou Ming had slaughtered the foreign race patrol team.
Judging from the sound, it should have been the angry roar of a Giant.
……
On the third day, within a canyon that seemed like a slit in the heavens, shrill sounds of slaughter echoed all around.
The foreign race camp originally built here was now迎来 its moment of destruction.
Facing the massive size of the Dark-gold Purple-patterned Python, the Werejackal Warriors gathered the Werejackal Warriors into a battle formation and, under the enhancement of Werejackal Priest spells, launched a grand charge against the Dark-gold Purple-patterned Python.
From afar, it looked like two mountain floods surging into the canyon, each carrying an unstoppable momentum as they collided.
“Boom……”
Like an earth dragon turning over, like mountains collapsing, countless碎 stones instantly fell from the cliffs on both sides of the canyon.
The massive body of the Dark-gold Purple-patterned Python was actually forced back several meters when facing the charge of the Werejackal battle formation, a wound several meters long appearing on its abdomen.
Although the wound healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, it was enough to demonstrate the might of the Werejackal battle formation.
“Battle formations truly are the greatest invention of the Tamu World. Aside from Legends who can draw upon the power of heaven and earth, as long as the scale of a battle formation is large enough, even Transcendent-level experts can be matched.”
In the distance, witnessing the scene before him, Zhou Ming could not help but praise battle formations repeatedly.
However, time waited for no one. Zhou Ming did not wish to be tracked down by elite foreign race hunting squads, so he immediately recalled the Dark-gold Purple-patterned Python and fused it into himself.
Serpentfolk form, Blood Descendant Secret Technique · Snake Tide.
Using the Blood Descendant Secret Technique to draw upon the Ironthread Snake bloodline aura, merging it with the snake venom within Zhou Ming’s body, and activating it through the Snake Devour of the Dark-gold Serpent Pupils, tens of thousands of surging snake shadows appeared before Zhou Ming like a raging tide.
Each black snake shadow was like an Ironthread Snake enlarged tenfold, with terrifying venom condensed within the shadow without the slightest leakage.
The black snake tide resembled super-strong aqua regia, and upon coming into contact with the Werejackal battle formation, it corroded it at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Harnessing the power of numbers had always been Zhou Ming’s specialty, so he naturally knew how to use the smallest force to break a battle formation.
The once-confident Werejackals immediately revealed looks of terror, losing their lives amid waves of agonized screams.