All of the food was allocated.
There was also only a small portion of water left.
Almost all of the sustenance was consumed.
The exploration team sat in the cave mouth and silently ate.
Some of them looked solemn, and some looked at the spear scorpions with murderous intent. All of them knew that the next battle would be the last.
As if sensing that the exploration team’s killing intent was different than before, the scorpion group was also becoming restless as they produced ear-piercing hisses.
Following the usual practice, Zhen Jin ate the most food. Every piece of food was carefully chewed before it was gulped down his throat, passed through his esophagus, and entered his stomach.
This simple process brought to Zhen Jin an indescribable sensation of exhilaration.
His stomach had been hungry and thirsty for a long time, it was like a bottomless pit that devoured everything that entered it.
Zhen Jin quickly felt his stamina recovering by a great deal.
But at the same time, his stomach was still fiercely squirming. It signaled to its master——I want, I still want more food!
But there was none left.
Zhen Jin stood up, jumped a few times, then arrived in front of the scorpion group.
The silver level spear scorpion felt Zhen Jin’s battle fervor and immediately appeared at the forefront.
But this time, Zhen Jin did not entangle himself with it, rather, he suddenly leapt directly into the scorpion group.
He cascaded down from a great height and landed onto the back of an ordinary spear scorpion, then pierced its head with his blade.
The unlucky spear scorpion let out a mournful hiss and its body frantically contorted like a feral horse with an extremely violent temperament. Soon after, tawny blood spread over the ground and it shortly became motionless.
The scorpions were at a standstill for a split second, seemingly stunned by Zhen Jin’s sudden assasination.
Thereafter, the scorpion group exploded in hisses like a poked hornet nest and frantically surged towards Zhen Jin. The silver level spear scorpion was the most berserk of them all.
Zhen Jin laughed loudly then leapt out and ran away before the scorpion group could surround him.
The scorpion group pursued after him closely, and in their rage, they exploded with astonishing speed. If it were a flat terrain like a desert or a prairie, they would have quickly caught up with Zhen Jin. But this was a volcano where Zhen Jin could jump to higher places. Due to the scorpion body being too flat and low to the ground, they could only climb up on flat inclines which gave Zhen Jin many opportunities.
Seeing that they could not catch up with Zhen Jin for the time being, a portion of the scorpion group shifted their attention to the exploration team members in the cave mouth.
Zhen Jin had broken their tacit mutual understanding of his own volition so the scorpion group wanted to attack as vengeance.
“Into the cave!” The exploration team was already prepared and quickly entered the cave behind them.
The spear scorpions were unwilling to let them go and chased after, only to immediately get stuck in the small holes in the cave walls after entering.
These holes were specifically corroded with potions so humans could pass through, but molded such that the enormous size of the spear scorpions would be too great.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, the exploration team members within the cave raised their swords and stabbed ruthlessly at the spear scorpions.
The scorpions’ tough carapaces resisted the pierces.
Their brandished hulking pincers were also constantly slamming the cave walls causing loud bangs.
More and more cracks began to appear in the walls of the small cave hole.
“Retreat!” Sensing that the small cave hole would not last, the exploration team immediately retreated deeper into the cave.
After roughly ten breaths, the first small cave hole collapsed with a bang, the scorpions then let out a hiss as they charged in.
But they soon found that there were five to six more holes that each had the scent of humans.
The scorpions lacked intelligence and did not hesitate to pick holes randomly to smash with their large pincers.
During this time, swords came from these cave holes.
A scorpion’s back was its toughest part of its carapace while its abdomen was relatively softer.
The swords continuously pierced at the scorpions’ abdomen.
One scorpion was quickly stopped as its carapace was pierced, with yellow-brown blood flowing from its wounds. It wanted to retreat but it was very difficult to turn around in the cave. Furthermore, some of its comrades blocked its rear, hindering its retreat.
It died from the swords not long after.
Seeing their comrade die, the spear scorpions behind it became more berserk, they immediately waved their huge pincers to knock the dead scorpion’s carcass away and charged forward.
The exploration team repeated the pattern and killed a second one.
In a direct confrontation, the exploration team would have already all died, but by using proper tactics they surprisingly managed to not lose a single man.
“Just like this!”
“We can kill them!”
The exploration team’s morale rose.
A third scorpion that charged forward quickly fell into the prior plight of its comrades.
It was quickly wounded and painfully hissed. Subsequently, it lashed out its scorpion tail, easily piercing the cave wall.
The exploration team member in the small cave hole did not anticipate this, his entire chest was skewered, splattering scarlet blood, dying on the spot.
The pungent scent of blood provoked both sides even further.
As it turns out, the battle and struggle of the two spear scorpions beforehand had caused the cave wall to collapse quite a bit and opened it up more space, giving the third spear scorpion enough space to maneuver his tail.
The tail was the scorpion’s strongest weapon and the lengths of the exploration team’s swords were limited, for a scorpion to be hit, it needed to be close to a cave hole.
Every stab of a scorpion tail could end an exploration team member’s life.
“Die for me!”
“Kill kill!!”
“Go to hell, drop dead!”
The exploration team members’ eyes were bloodshot and filled with intent to kill, not a single one of them ran away.
Even if they wanted to, they would not be able to escape in this sort of terrain.
They did not have Zhen Jin’s physical constitution, and in an open area or even a mountainous area, they could be easily chased down by the spear scorpions.
There was no running away, the only possibility of survival was to kill the scorpion group in front of them.
In addition, the exploration team knew they had no food left and the only viable source was to kill these spear scorpions.
Desperate straits!
There was no way out.
The only way forward was to carve out a bloody path!
1
This was everyone’s consensus.
The battle was gradually tilting towards the scorpion group.
The exploration team had gone all out, and as time passed, they quickly weakened, their attacks grew feebler, and it was getting increasingly difficult to resist the scorpion group’s mad attacks.
Of course, the strength of an ordinary scorpion far outstripped a human’s. Although the corroded walls were firm, but under the unceasing bombardment of the mammoth pincers, it would not last long.
In order to create a favorable terrain, Zi Di had used up all kinds of potions.
The favorable terrain was finite and there seemed to be more scorpions.
The exploration team constantly retreated as the small cave holes were destroyed one after the other until where they finally had nowhere to retreat to.
The team members died one after another.
2
Casualties of the exploration team sharply increased, with severe fatalities.
Zi Di’s pupils suddenly shrunk to the size of a pin!
A scorpion tail pierced through the seemingly frail cave wall like a knight’s charging spear, arriving before the girl in the blink of an eye.
At the moment of life and death, the shadow of a sword flashed.
The scorpion’s tail was directly cut off, it grazed Zi Di’s ear and shot obliquely towards the cave wall behind her, close to the cave floor.
The dying and unconscious Bai Ya was laying there and the scorpion tail landed only one or two centimeters away from his head.
“My lord, you’re back.” Zi Di’s narrow escape and thrill from being on the verge of death made her grab onto Zhen Jin’s hand.
Before she could bloom with pleasant surprise, concerns emerged.
“Ah, you are wounded, my Lord!” Zi Di cried out in alarm.
Zhen Jin’s body was covered in scarlet bloodstains, and since the scorpion blood was tawny, its source was obvious.
Zhen Jin patted the girl’s hand: “Be at ease, it is only a small injury.”
1
He looked around him and was horrified at the casualties the exploration team had taken. The only ones left of the entire team were Zi Di, Cang Xu, as well as the dying Bai Ya. If he had been a moment late, perhaps there would have only been corpses for him to collect.
Zhen Jin had already used up all his strength.
In order to break away from the silver level spear scorpion leader, he did not hesitate in paying with his blood.
But when he returned to the cave, the casualties of the exploration team still made him sorrowful and disheartened.
“Quick, we need to seize the moment and leave this place.” Zhen Jin put Bai Ya on his back as Zi Di and Cang Xu followed closely behind.
However, just as they reached the cave mouth, they saw the silver level spear scorpion leading the scorpion group to surround the cave.
Zi Di and Cang Xu had deathly pale faces.
Zhen Jin’s face also had an unsightly look.
“Go back.” The young knight grinded his teeth, his mouth filled with bitterness.
The exploration team paid a gruesome price but alas, their final struggle was still unsuccessful.
Compared to the squirrel group, the scorpion group was far more powerful.
The silver level scorpion pounced, so Zhen Jin used the limited terrain to confront it.
The scorpion leader’s body was larger than an ordinary scorpion, thus it was difficult for it to turn around in the cave and to even swing its pincers.
After suffering a loss to Zhen Jin, the silver level spear scorpion retreated while hissing.
Under its order, the scorpion group no longer entered the cave, they merely surrounded the cave mouth.
The curtain of night quickly swept over.
The scorpion group laid motionlessly around the cave mouth like they were hibernating, but from time to time they also produced rustling noises.
In the cave, Zhen Jin’s wound had already been properly wrapped up.
Zi Di looked at the pile of dead scorpions with an unsightly expression.
“These cannot be eaten.”
“Their flesh and blood contain granulated metal particles.”
Humans were not spear scorpions that could digest grains of metal. Eating these would cause necrosis in the kidneys and the rest of the digestive system.
Therefore, the only rations left were two canteens of water.
Zi Di rummaged through her handbag and found the once rich potion bag had gone dry long ago. Without basic materials, even if she had so many scorpion corpses, she could not make any new potions.
After a moment, the girl’s shoulders throbbed and she softly began to weep.
“Nothing, I can’t think of anything to do.”
This strong girl who had endured for a long time already finally broke down emotionally.
Zhen Jin tenderly embraced her.
“I have disappointed you, I can’t make any potions that can assist you, my Lord!” Zi Di sobbed spasmodically.
Zhen Jin shook his head and sighed: “It’s alright, you have already done a great job.”
“I was able to live up until now and come to this place because of your assistance.”
“This place where low level magic cannot be used has always been too arduous on you.”
“No, I am the one who got you involved, Lord Zhen Jin. If it were not for my suggestion, we would not have snuck aboard that ship. And we would not have ended up on this island. During the encounter with the lizard and spear scorpion group, you could have abandoned me and survived alone.”
When she said this, Zi Di suddenly realised something and raised her head to look up at Zhen Jin with her amethyst eyes.
She appealed: “Escape, my Lord. Don’t care for me anymore! You can leave this place.”
Zhen Jin laughed lightly, and with a touch of adoration he brushed away the strands of her hair that concealed Zi Di’s eyes: “You are my fiance and I am your knight. Protecting you is my duty. I will protect you, till my life’s end.”
Notes
Man Bai Ya has the thickest plot armor of the cast, if I had his luck I would have gotten 22 star gear by now. Cang Xu continues to survive and remain healthier during that time than any of the unnamed team, I wonder what is up with that.
Deus:
Imagine the current Cang Xu in the corner somewhere, facing the struggles of life and death, then a couple is flirting in front of him. Lmao.
Translation Notes
(hubert intensifies, too bad he is slow as shit) (rip nameless team members, your sacrifice shall be remembered) Editor Notes