Chapter 199: The Return of the Dragon Elephant Tyrant Body (I)

The next morning, the group packed up their belongings and left.

Two level 5 mutated beasts that were about twenty meters long, almost as big as large yachts, were piled together with five level 4 beasts ranging from eighteen to twenty-three meters in length. The corpses of ten level 3 beasts, each one over ten meters long, looked like a small moving hill.

Compared to the mountains of corpses, Chen Chu and the others looked like a group of ants transporting food multiple times their size. They moved swiftly, traversing mountains and rivers.

Due to the size of the mutated beasts, travel time ranged from sixty to seventy kilometers per hour on smooth roads, to as low as thirty to forty kilometers per hour on rough terrain. This was already with the assistance of the anti-gravity disks, which suspended the corpses half a meter above the ground. If not for those, only Chen Chu and Li Hao would have been able to move them.

Even this advanced technology had its limits, however. It took six anti-gravity disks to carry the corpses of the two level 5 beasts, which reduced their weight to half.

In addition to transporting the corpses, they also had to contend with attacks from mutated creatures coming from all directions.

Bam!

With the sound of gunfire, the head of a level 2 mutated beast that had been charging out of the woods exploded, leaving a hole the size of a basin, as momentum caused its body to roll far away.

"Heh, more contribution points delivered right to our doorstep." Xia Youhui, who was walking in the middle, ran over with excitement. He dragged the six-meter-long carcass back and tossed it onto the pile of corpses.

𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

He wasn’t the only one. Everyone dragging mutated beast corpses had several more level 2 beasts. The bloody scent emitted by the high-level corpses was highly attractive to ordinary mutated creatures. Despite the intimidating presence of Chen Chu and the others, many mutated creatures still recklessly attempted to ambush them. It was a successful hunt all around.

Standing on the pile of mutated beast bodies, the young woman keenly scanned their surroundings with her sniper cannon. She pulled the trigger, leaving behind an empty bullet shell.

It was rare for people to hunt low-level beasts on the way back from hunting high-level ones, and then dragging those corpses back as well. The strong bloody scent easily attracted more danger... just like right now.

Pew!

With a sharp metal-like screech, a massive mutated bird with wings spanning nearly forty meters appeared in the sky a kilometer above, emitting a ferocious aura. This mutated bird had locked onto Chen Chu and his group; or rather, it had locked onto the two level 5 corpses.

Everyone instantly froze in place, their expressions becoming serious. Luo Fei immediately put on the magnetic energy barrel, already loaded with crystal energy and ready to fire at any moment.

Li Hao lifted his head, looking at the mutated bird in the sky with powerful talons and scales scattered among its feathers, his expression solemn. "Be careful, this beast is very strong."

Although his weapon had been damaged, Li Hao's aura had become even heavier after recovering from most of his injuries.

Chen Chu narrowed his eyes, and in a flash, he appeared on top of the Blood Armored Beast King’s corpse. With a flip of his hand, he drew out his halberd, immediately followed by a domineering and fierce draconic power exploding from his body.

Boom!

In the midst of the flickering black and red true power, Chen Chu emanated an aura so dominating that it seemed tangible. It compressed the surrounding air, forming strong gusts of swirling wind.

This mutated bird was the same one Chen Chu had seen when entering the Yunwu Mountains for the first time. Judging from the aura it emitted, it was probably at the peak of level 5.

Facing such a formidable enemy with an aerial advantage, Chen Chu was prepared to enter his rune state at any time. Although he was weakened, if the mutated bird dared to descend, he would unleash his full strength to cut off one of its wings. Once that happened, the bird’s fate would be in his hands.

Pew!

The mutated bird hovered in the sky a thousand meters high, its outspread wings casting large shadows, but it hesitated to attack, seemingly wary of Chen Chu. Perhaps it also feared the magnetic energy sniper cannon in Luo Fei’s hands.

Finally, after circling for about ten minutes, the mutated bird suddenly spread its wings and soared into the clouds, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Xia Youhui breathed a sigh of relief, cursing. "Damn, that blasted mutated bird finally left."

Li Meng nodded. "These flying creatures are troublesome. They come and go as they please, and before reaching an advanced level, cultivators have no way to deal with them."

Liu Feng shook his head. "It's a pity we don't have any archery combat skills. Learning some would make dealing with these mutated birds much simpler."

Xia Youhui quipped, "Who still uses bows and arrows in this day and age? Aren’t guns way better? Just look at Luo Fei. She’s only at the Third Realm, but with her sniper cannon, she kills level 3 and 4 beasts like she’s swatting flies."

"Ahem! Guns are fine, but not everyone can afford them, and they won’t really help with the true martial arts path I’m going on in the future."

While the guys were chatting away, the girl standing on the mutated corpse exhaled lightly. She reloaded her sniper cannon and continued to keep watch.

Meanwhile, Chen Chu jumped down from the Beast King's body. After facing such a situation, he also pondered whether to learn a long-range combat skill or secret art.

The group had already reached the edge of the Yunwu Mountains. Once they crossed the cliff, the route ahead would be much safer.

Chen Chu turned back and said, "Brothers, let's get going. And, please, can you guys aim higher? Stop picking up level 2 beasts."

Everyone had been prepared for encounters with mutated creatures while carrying high-level corpses back. Previously, when Xia Youhui and the others went on their missions, they would be cautious and were always quick to enter a fixed safe route. Being on the edge of the Jiuhuan Mountains meant encountering fewer attacks, but the Yunwu Mountains were different and more dangerous.

Chen Chu had reminded them to be prepared to kill some level 3 beasts to bring back, but so far, they hadn’t encountered any other strong mutated creatures along the way, only many more level 2 beasts. This was both a lucky and unlucky situation, but these guys acted like they’d never seen any contribution points before, and wouldn’t even spare level 2 beasts.

Now, they’d just arrived at the edge of the Yunwu Mountains, but had already picked up more than a dozen level 2 beasts, leaving them exhausted from transportation.

"Can’t help it, Ah Chu. We haven't seen a single level 4. We can only pick up some level 2s to bring back. As small as they are, they’re still meat." Xia Youhui chuckled.

On a slope of one of the Jiuhuan Mountains, a squad of three people looked down in amazement. "Damn, who are those guys? They actually killed so many mutated beasts in one go!"

On the mountain path below was a hundred-meter-long train of over forty mutated beast corpses, piled up like mountains. It was a rather awe-inspiring sight.

After crossing mountains and valleys, with stops and breaks, Chen Chu and the group finally returned to the base after about a day and a half.

"Finally, we're here," Liu Feng said as he sat on the ground.

Looking at the piles of mutated corpses in front of them, Hong Shan was somewhat surprised. "Young Chen, did you guys team up to kill a mutated beast group?"

Chen Chu also breathed a sigh of relief and nodded. "We were lucky to find one this time. Supervisor Hong, please help us calculate the gains from this trip."

"Right, we also plan to extract the essence of that king beast."

"No problem, let me call a few people over!"

Upon Hong Shan's call, five staff members began to move and count the mutated beast corpses. Soon after, Hong Shan approached Chen Chu and the others.

"Young Chen, the bodies of these high-level mutated beasts are quite damaged, so I can only offer you the basic standard prices," Hong Shan explained.

"The Winged Dragon in the beginning stage of level 5 is valued at 130 contribution points, and the combined value of the five level 4 beasts in the middle and beginning stages is 255 points. With the level 3 beasts, because their bodies are relatively intact, the twelve of them are valued at 355 points. And for the twelve ordinary level 2 beasts, they are valued at 84 points.

"As for the level 5 king beast, most of its flesh and blood became useless after you requested the extraction of its essence. And after deducting the extraction fee, the remaining body parts are worth 50 points.

"In total, it's 874 points. Please review and let me know if you have any objections. If not, I'll register them into your inventory."

Chen Chu nodded. "No problem."

Officially, the prices for recovering level 5 mutated beasts ranged from 130 to 180, and for level 4, it was between 50 to 70. However, due to the damage, only the basic standard prices were given.

With robust bodies, the flesh of mutated beasts was generally still held together after death. They reflexively locked away most of their blood, which contained rich energy.

Extracting essence from the blood would yield one or two portions per beast. However, Chen Chu's fighting style was too aggressive, which resulted in either shattered heads or large wounds on the bodies. This internal and external damage caused significant blood loss, which decreased their value significantly.

Unfortunately, Chen Chu couldn't fully control the explosiveness of his Dragon Elephant True Power. Coupled with the heavy strikes of his halberd, there was no chance of leaving intact corpses. In addition, the situation usually didn't allow him to hold back; he needed to act swiftly and decisively. So, leaving some wreckage behind was inevitable.

Despite all of this, however, the given price wasn’t too far off from what they had originally estimated. After handing the corpses over to the warehouse, the group, who had been on the move outside for three days, returned to their dormitories to shower and clean up.