Chapter 214: Chapter 209 A decent harvest_1
Translator: 549690339 |
Snakes with crowns or horns on their heads are mostly highly venomous and often belong to exotic species.
When Qin Niu swung his blade, he executed a Slash Martial Skill.
However, he deliberately held back and did not fully reveal his strength at the Innate Realm.
The small snake appeared to be only as thick as a finger and half a foot long, but it was extremely agile. Faced with Qin Niu’s slash, it twisted its body and deftly dodged the blow.
Qin Niu was unconcerned about this.
He had heard a noise from Xie Laizi’s room just now, and now this odd little snake had emerged to attack him, suggesting that there was likely someone hiding in the room.
Moreover, it was highly probable that this person was here to kill him.
Insect Masters had been falling victim to assassinations lately, and it was very likely that Qin Niu was being targeted.
Why would the Nine Insect Gang, which specializes in insect control, go to such lengths to kill an Insect Master from the Black Tiger Gang?
This action was quite puzzling.
If it was merely to render the locust plague uncontrollable, they should have targeted the Insect Masters before the plague began, not wait until now.
Watching the black little snake that had dodged his slash now lunging to bite again, Qin Niu decided to test out the strength of the Termite.
Since the enemy in the room had not yet shown themselves, it was best to avoid exposing his own cultivation level and strength as much as possible.
Then, at the critical moment, he would play his trump cards one after another and kill the enemy with the force of thunder.
A lion must use all its strength even when hunting a rabbit.
This way, he could ensure to the greatest extent that he wouldn’t capsize the boat.
“Fourth, lead the ant swarm to attack this small snake.”
In recent days, Qin Niu had been maintaining a relaxed exterior while remaining vigilant on the inside.
It seemed as if he was going about his usual business every day, but in fact, he always carried a large number of white ants on his body.
When going out, the Golden Toad would certainly be carried in a basket.
The grade of this small snake could not be determined.
So, he could only let the white ants give it a try.
As the ant swarm launched a Mental Attack, the little snake’s attack speed significantly slowed down.
It moved on the ground as if it were drunk.
Seeing such an opportunity, Qin Niu naturally did not let it slip away. With a swift motion of his hand and drop of his blade, he slashed at the snake’s body.
Surprisingly, a metallic clang sounded.
What formidable defensive strength.
“Die!”
Qin Niu utilized a trace of his strength to empower the Ink Blade, and terrifying Blade Qi instantly broke through the little snake’s tough scales and severed it in two.
Even beheaded, the creature still seemed extremely fierce.
Its snake head sprang up trying to bite.
It was blocked by Qin Niu’s King Pig Leather Armor.
He didn’t know any defensive blade techniques and could only perform the two most basic martial skills, the Slash and the Sweeping Strike.
Following the beheading of the little snake, a muffled groan came from Xie Laizi’s room.
Immediately afterward, a figure shot out from inside.
A towering murderous aura solidified as if tangible.
The person who emerged was a middle-aged man with a hooked nose and fierce, triangular eyes filled with violence and resentment, his face twisted to the point of ferocity.
“You deserve to die! Killing my Crow-Crowned Bow Snake, our grudge is irreconcilable. Even if I grind your bones to dust and scatter them, it still wouldn’t quell the hatred in my heart.”
The man held a slim narrow sword, and his movement technique was quite similar to that of the deceased Old Master Huang, indicating that they both practiced the same type of Step-Method Martial Skill. This man’s identity was also basically confirmed as a member of the Nine Insect Gang.
Isn’t the Nine Insect Gang supposed to specialize in rearing insects?
Why does everyone seem to like taming beasts?
The most powerful pet of Old Master Huang turned out to be the Red-eyed Golden Toad, not the Corpse Bee Queen. Although he never managed to tame the Golden Toad, he essentially achieved the effect of having it as a pet by controlling it through insects.
This man’s pet was the little snake that had been killed.
It was called the Crow-Crowned Bow Snake.
Seeing the man’s fierce expression, as if his parents had been killed and his wife violated, Qin Niu secretly guessed that killing that little snake had already dealt a certain blow to the man’s spirit.
Looking at his speed and momentum, it was clear that his cultivation level was not as high as Old Master Huang’s.
At most, it was around the sixth or seventh level of the Houtian stage, far from the Innate Realm.
“Xiao Qing, get out of here first.”
Qin Niu signaled to Xiao Qing and then ‘desperately’ ran towards the direction of the mountains.
“With that speed, you think you can escape? Leave your life behind.”
From the moment the small snake was killed, the middle-aged man had lost his sanity, his heart filled with hatred.
His judgment and observation were not as good as usual.
He completely failed to realize that Qin Niu was deliberately luring him to fight to the death.
The most formidable thing about an Insect Master should not be their cultivation level or martial skills, but the insects they raise.
At this moment, the middle-aged man made a fatal mistake, actually thinking of engaging Qin Niu in hand-to-hand combat.
Merely three or four breaths of time passed before he caught up with Qin Niu using his superior movement technique.
His heart swelled with even greater pride.
The enemy was right in front of him; naturally, the best thing to do was to kill him and then rejoice.
His hand-sword turned into specks of cold stars, enveloping several vital points of Qin Niu’s body.
“Slash!”
At this critical moment, Qin Niu did not hesitate at all, swinging his Ink Blade directly at the middle-aged man who blocked his path.
He no longer concealed his cultivation level.
With full strength activated, the blade of the Ink Blade showed a solid looking Blade Qi, three to four inches long.
This was his true power.
Bang!
Their swords clashed, and the opponent’s narrow sword broke into several pieces.
Qin Niu’s Ink Blade, undiminished in momentum, struck fiercely and quickly on the top of the middle-aged man’s head.
It split him straight to the bottom.
Directly cleaving the man in two.
His death was no different from Old Master Huang’s.
“To think such a trashy cultivation level could attempt to kill an Innate Realm expert wearing a King Pig Leather Armor? What a joke.”
Qin Niu dispatched his enemy with a single blow.
Concerned that allies of the enemies might still be hidden inside the house, he had already sent several termites to scout it out.
Meanwhile, he was quickly looting the spoils of battle and dealing with the bodies.
His movements were actually quite adept.
Do this a few times, and you naturally get used to it.
The corpse clad in the black-crowned bow outfit was a treasure; feeding it to the Ant Queen should help her progress significantly.
Because when he had the ants launch a mental attack on the small snake earlier, it was somewhat effective, but they were unable to control it.
This suggested that its level might have reached Grade Six.
Moreover, its scales were as hard as steel, and the pure force of the Ink Blade had almost failed to kill it.
This indicated that its defense was incredibly abnormal.
Therefore, Qin Niu estimated that its level should be Grade Six.
Packing the snake’s corpse into a jar, he began searching the bodies.
He found a gold note of a hundred taels and about six or seven silver notes of varying denominations.
The smallest was a silver note of fifty taels each.
Added up, the total was precisely nine hundred and fifty taels.
A gold note of a hundred taels could be exchanged for a thousand Silver Money.
The wealth of this man didn’t even amount to two thousand taels.
“Poor devil!”
Qin Niu pocketed the man’s entire possessions and still had to curse him.
In addition, he found a Nine Insect Command.
Inner disciple: Wu Hao.
So he was just an inner disciple; no wonder his cultivation level wasn’t as good as Old Master Huang’s, and his net worth was even worse.
This was the second member of the Nine Insect Gang that Qin Niu had killed.
Beyond that, he found three insect pouches and a bamboo tube on the man.
The insects inside were all dead.
One of the pouches contained two Green-footed Centipedes, one large and one small.
The larger one was nearly half a foot long, its shell was hard, and even though it was dead, its fangs looked frightening.
He felt that these two centipedes might be a mother and child.
The larger one was at least a Grade Five insect.
The smaller one was much weaker, around a Grade Three.
The second pouch contained a grey moth. He couldn’t identify the specific species but could roughly estimate that its level was around Grade Four. He felt that the scale powder on its body was poisonous.
The third pouch contained a scorpion.
It had an unusual pair of eyes on the shell on its back. This was a Four-eyed Poison Scorpion, a very common species.
It could often be found for sale in the Insect Market, where one could buy one for five pieces of silver.
But raising it to this size was no easy feat.
When he opened the bamboo tube, the corpse of a Black Venomous Spider rolled out.
Its abdomen looked like a human face.
This spider was a Human-faced Spider, a variant of the Black Widow.
Its venom was extremely domineering; not only did it possess a venom that could paralyze an enemy, it also had another type of venom that could directly dissolve and digest an enemy’s body.
Moreover, its silk was tough, light, and colorless.
People who bought it at a high price would use its silk to make threads sharper than a blade. By setting them up in the woods or at home, enemies who trespassed would easily be sliced into pieces.
Aside from territories controlled by the Nine Insect Gang, many government offices had issued notices prohibiting the use of Human-faced Spider silk to make lethal weapons.
The risk it posed was simply too great.
People often set it up in the mountains, and whether it was wild animals, woodcutters going up the mountain, or Hunters, they could easily be decapitated.
But with market demand, official announcements do little.
The more it was forbidden, the more people secretly bought and raised them.
Specifically to harvest the silk.
A qian of silk could sell for ten taels of silver. With such profits, naturally, some people will take the risk.
The dead Human-faced Spider was almost as big as a child’s fist, its belly round, and its silk-spinning end was extremely developed. It must have been that the disciple named Wu Hao was raising it specifically to sell the silk.
He also unexpectedly found a Sword Technique Manual on the man.
Named the Seven-Star Sword Technique, with one strike, points of cold starlight would aim for the enemy’s vitals.
The highest realm of the Seven-Star Sword Technique was rumored to be where a single stab transformed into seven points of cold starlight, covering the enemy’s vital spots with the constellation of the Big Dipper, leaving no room for evasion.
This sword technique was also for sale in the Supreme Sea.
Qin Niu hadn’t paid attention to its price at the time, just glanced over it.
Since it was placed at the very top, it certainly wouldn’t be cheap.
It must be at least five hundred taels of silver or more.
“Xiao Qing, this Sword Technique Manual is for your cultivation. Once you’ve mastered it, give it back to me.”
Qin Niu had always been extremely good to the people around him.
Xiao Qing had just witnessed her master skillfully kill a powerful enemy with one strike, her heart full of horror. She still looked like she hadn’t quite recovered.
“Take it, what are you thinking about?”
Qin Niu turned his head to look at her.
“Oh, oh, yes, thank you, master!”
Xiao Qing took over the Seven-Star Sword Technique Manual, still looking a bit dazed.
“I need to deal with the bodies; you go home and wait for me.”
After ensuring there were no other enemies nearby, Qin Niu told her to go home first.
“Remember, don’t talk about what happened here to anyone.”
“Understood!”
She naturally understood the serious implications.
Qin Niu carried the bodies and threw them directly into the maze of the Ancient Banyan Tree, and after coming back, he cleaned up the scene once again.
The Nine Insect Gang didn’t know how many people they had infiltrated into the territory of the Black Tiger Gang.
The death of the disciple called Wu Hao would definitely prompt an investigation by the Nine Insect Gang.
Fortunately, the Nine Insect Gang, being the guilty party, couldn’t investigate openly.
As long as he was careful and cautious, he shouldn’t have any major problems.