Chapter 13: Scorpion Horde

"Ah, scorpions! So many of them..." Wang Xiaohua began to shriek after a moment of stupefied silence.

Indeed, scorpions. Countless scorpions with a violet, crystalline exoskeleton were skittering out of the cave and the greenery surrounding them, fading in and out of existence as though they were ghostly spirits.

They were only palm-sized, but could move surprisingly quickly. The tips of their stingers was a dark violet, and they were of a breed that even Qin Xiaotian didn't recognize. In an instant, the scorpions surrounded Qin Xiaotian's team.

Strangely enough, there were also quite a few scorpions by Zhang Lie's side, but even though they crawled on his body, they showed no signs of attacking him.

"Haha, they're finally here! These venombane scorpions hate fire, so I hope you're all prepared to die!" Zhang Lie no longer bothered to hide his killing intent.

Ding! Ding! Qin Xiaotian's body glowed golden, and he began swinging his blade. Wang Xiaohua, Fang Qiong, and the others all took on fighting stances, killing the scorpions which swarmed toward them from within the cave. Even the scorpions' blood was purple in color, and sprays of purple mist began filling the air.

"Hah, is this all you can do?" Qin Xiaotian scoffed, having defeated the first wave of scorpions with ease.

"Oh, we're just getting started," Zhang Lie called out, laughing. He sat down by the top of the hill, lazing luxuriantly as he watched Qin Xiaotian.

As furious as he was, Qin Xiaotian and his team was surrounded by a veritable sea of scorpions, and he had no way of attacking him over such a distance.

The scorpions seemed to come at them in an endless tide.

Qin Xiaotian bellowed, "Just you wait, you bastard! I'll make you suffer a fate worse than death!"

Then, he immediately began commanding his team. "Fang Qiong, use the four-spirit formation we devised!"

Beside him, Fang Qiong and three of his other teammates each activated a transformation-type soulshard and morphed into a lava tiger, a vine asp, a firebird, and a crysturtle, four curious lifeforms.

The tiger howled, the snake hissed, the bird called out, and the turtle bayed. After their transformation, they had lost the agility and techniques of their human form, but their size and strength were magnified.

The combination of the four transformations was devastating.

But although they were able to beat back the tide of scorpions, the scorpions continued swarming at them without any sign of stopping, no matter how many carcasses of their own kind they had to wade through.

The four lifeforms were arrayed at each corner of a square formation, protecting the rest of their teammates within. They tried to rush out of the entrapment, towards the hill Zhang Lie was on.

Most of the venombane scorpions were only regular-grade lifeforms, with a few mutated-grade ones scattered among them. Even the most advanced scorpions were only superior-grade. But no matter their level of evolution, all venombane scorpions shared two characteristics:

First, a surprising level of stealth.

Second, venomous poison, of a particularly dangerous sort!

Qin Xiaotian's team had already experienced the scorpions' stealth: after all, even Qin Xiaotian, who had quite a few superior gene fragments, hadn't noticed anything amiss upon entering the glade.

The poison was even more frightening, and was rightly the characteristic by which these venombane scorpions were named.

The scorpions actually had two types of poison: one from their poison sacs and released through their stingers, which would quickly induce cell apoptosis and death. Without the antidote or suppression by genetic energy, it could kill a hunter in a matter of seconds.

The second type of poison was from their blood, which rapidly vaporized when exposed to the atmosphere, forming a poison mist. Those who came in contact with the mist would find the poison seeping through their skin, leading to paralysis.

"Be careful, they're poisonous!" As the mist grew more and more dense around Qin Xiaotian's team, he shouted out a warning.

A large part of Qin Xiaotian's strength was due to his connections and wealth, yes, but he wasn't stupid. Scorpion-type lifeforms were closely linked to poison, and he had been wary of the possibility since the beginning. However, he had noticed the poisonous mist far too late.

Zhang Lie had laid out his plan carefully, and he wouldn't have lured them here if he didn't think he could get away with it. Despite the hunters' attempts to flee the sea of scorpions, there were simply so many scorpions that they were stuck no matter what they did.

The problem was especially bad in Fang Qiong's corner of the square formation: despite knowing that his body was covered in flames, anathema to the scorpions, they still swarmed him preferentially, choosing to die just to inject their venom into his body through their stingers.

Of course, under the effects of a mutated-grade soulshard, regular-grade venombane scorpions could do nothing to him. With the four transformation-type soulshards active, although they couldn't force their way out, neither could the scorpions break through their defenses. Unfortunately, the transformation-type soulshards consumed so much genetic energy that they couldn't keep it up for long.

"Xiaotian, we won't be able to break through this sea of scorpions. We need to retreat; we can't last too long like this!"

"Right, Captain, he's just a rookie! We can nab him whenever we want, there's no need to waste our time here!

In the midst of the formation, Wang Xiaohua and Qin Xiaotian's remaining team members tried to persuade him to retreat, especially Wang Xiaohua.

The moment she saw these scorpions, she felt a strange premonition of impending doom, a prickling sensation that grew worse upon seeing Zhang Lie's bloodthirsty gaze. At the moment, she couldn't think of anything else besides fleeing.

"No, we have to teach him a lesson now! He won't get away with luring us into this trap!" He raised an outstretched hand, and a resplendent golden javelin began to manifest.

"[Demonbreaker Javelin]! Die!" With a yell, the javelin in Qin Xiaotian's hand began to glow.

The golden light flashed so quickly toward Zhang Lie that it reached him in the blink of an eye. However, unexpectedly, a thick, translucent wall popped into existence just as the spear was about to hit him. The javelin, tossed with great strength, shot toward the wall like a comet, only to be trapped halfway into the wall. It exploded in a burst of golden light.

Zhang Lie didn't even flinch.

Qin Xiaotian's eyes widened in shock. "How—how can this be?! That was a mutated-grade one-use javelin, and it'd be able to break through the defenses of even a regular superior-grade lifeform! How could the attack have been blocked by that technique?!

"Unless, unless… No, that's impossible! How could a guy like that have gotten his hands on a soulshard of that caliber... no, something had to have gone wrong!"

"Xiaotian, stop muttering to yourself! We need to leave, or we'll die!"

"Captain, look at Zhou Ming's firebird transformation! He's moving a little woodenly, and I think something's wrong!"

While Qin Xiaotian continued to gape in shock, Wang Xiaohua and his subordinates continued trying to persuade him to leave. The poison mist was spreading all around them, and Qin Xiaotian knew that they would all be in serious danger if they didn't leave now.

He glared at Zhang Lie and bitterly called out, "Retreat! We'll leave through the cave and get this bastard some other time!"

Of course, the venombane scorpions certainly weren't going to let this crowd of intruders leave so easily. As if sensing that the other party had just called a retreat, the already-furious scorpions swarmed toward Qin Xiaotian's team in even greater numbers than before.

Even worse, the mutated-grade venombane scorpions, dispersed within the crowd, had also begun to attack.

Suddenly, whirling winds surrounded the time. As Fang Qiong’s firebird form flapped its wings furiously, the venombane scorpions surrounding the team were all flung aside. But just as he thought that the coast was clear, a burst of violet light darted toward the teammates behind him.

"Argh!" With a pained yelp, behind the firebird, one of Qin Xiaotian's subordinates collapsed.

.

"He Feng!" Qin Xiaotian and another subordinate shouted He Feng's name simultaneously.

However, He Feng didn't respond. He slumped onto the ground like a marionette whose strings had been cut. By the right side of his neck, a hole about as wide as a finger was leaking purple blood, and the flesh around the wound was quickly necrotizing.

"Be careful! There are mutated-grade scorpions around us!" A hunter on the left flank fortuitously dodged another flash of purple light. Just as he called out, however, the scorpion struck again, tearing his ear apart.

Qin Xiaotian, scowling fiercely, a golden sword in his hands, sliced at an incoming blur. "Watch out, there's more than one!"

Even Zhang Lie had to admit that he wasn't a weakling.

Mutated-grade venombane scorpions wouldn't drop their stealth until the moment right before their attack, and the fact that he was able to notice and respond so quickly meant that he had to have at least twenty superior gene fragments. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to defeat them with a single blow.

Zhang Lie was very glad that he hadn't opted for a direct confrontation.

Of course, killing just a single mutated-grade venombane scorption didn't change things; after all, the entire glade was a nest of scorpions. A death or two were meaningless in terms of the number of scorpions that were still swarming toward them.

And even if Qin Xiaotian was able to handle a mutated-grade venombane scorpion, the rest of his teammates and Wang Xiaohua could not. He might be able to save one or two of them, but there were bound to be more casualties.

Shouting in pain, another hunter fell to the ground. Even the four transformed hunters were starting to falter, and the square formation was breaking apart. If Qin Xiaotian didn't do something, the team that he had worked so hard to build would all perish in this nightmarish glade.