Chapter 24 Dark Bird

Screams of alarm erupted as Steel Tail Scorpions crowded around the legs of the mounts, their pointed tails flashing coldly as they struck at the hooves and legs.

The Alloy Mounts could still withstand the piercing stings of the scorpion tails, but the legs and hooves of those iron pets were not so fortunate. Struck by who knows how many tails, they panicked, lashing out and leaping about, nearly dislodging several Mutators.

"Rescue them, charge through!" Wang Tian'er made a snap decision and charged forward on his mount, pulling a Wang Family Mutator who was about to be thrown off directly onto his mount to ride together.

The others followed suit, pulling those Mutators without Alloy Mounts onto their own mounts, and then they sped towards the front.

By now they had ventured seven or eight miles into the Flower Path, and it was even further to retreat, so they decided to charge straight ahead.

Fortunately, the scorpion tails of the Steel Tail Scorpions hardly damaged the Alloy Creatures. The group charged wildly, trampling who knows how many Steel Tail Scorpions to death.

After a mad dash of four or five miles, the road was teeming with Steel Tail Scorpions; no one knew how many there were.

Far off, they saw a canyon appearing ahead, connected to the Flower Path. There was only a line separating them, yet not a single Color Steel Flower grew in the canyon, and the dense swarm of Steel Tail Scorpions seemed to be held back by a mysterious force, unable to pour into the canyon no matter how they crowded.

Lifting their spirits, everyone accelerated toward the canyon.

Just as the person in the lead was about to reach the mouth of the canyon, a colorful shadow suddenly burst from the ground, and the Mutator at the front, along with his mount, was impaled in an instant.

The man looked down at the bloody hole in his chest and the huge, multicolored scorpion tail protruding at an angle, his face filled with terror. He opened his mouth to say something, but could not utter a sound, only blood gushed forth.

In the shocked gaze of the onlookers, the man's body was lifted into the air along with his mount, behind them the immense, multicolored scorpion tail swayed slowly, causing both man and mount to wobble ceaselessly in the air.

Fear filled everyone's eyes. That Mutator and his mount were of Alloy Level, yet they were so easily pierced; the hardness of that scorpion tail was astonishing.

A few riders were unable to stop in time and tried to rush by the side, but two more colorful scorpion tails shot up from the ground, instantly impaling their mounts.

Fortunately, these two Alloy Mutators reacted quickly, jumping off their mounts to land amidst the dense wave of scorpions.

The scorpion tails of the Steel Tail Scorpions struck their bodies, clinking ceaselessly, but fortunately, they were not enough to pierce through their Alloy Carapace.

After sweeping the Steel Tail Scorpions off themselves, the two quickly jumped up, landing on the mounts of other Mutators who came to their aid.

The ground split open, and the Color Steel Flowers were scattered in all directions as a scorpion as big as an elephant with a colorful body emerged from underground, with three tails waving eerily, carrying corpses behind it.

"That's an Alloy Level Demon Armor Scorpion King... No... the Demon Armor Scorpion King should only have one tail... How does it have three..." Ye stepped in front of Lin Shen, saying with a hint of terror.

With a fierce shake of its three tails, the hanging corpses were flung away like artillery shells, crashing hard into the ground, creating a large crater, and were immediately engulfed by the surging Steel Tail Scorpions. There was no chance they could survive.

The Scorpion King swung its tail again, aiming to pierce other Mutators. One Alloy Mutator couldn't dodge in time and had to block the scorpion tail with his alloy-wrapped arm.

But the force behind the scorpion tail was tremendous. The Alloy Mutator, along with his mount, was knocked to the ground, and cracks appeared on the alloy carapace of his arm.

Seeing this, the other Mutators swiftly dodged to the side. With the Demon Armor Scorpion King with three fearsome tails blocking the way to the canyon, no one dared to charge past for a moment.

"Damn it, courting death." Seeing two of his own Alloy Mutators killed, Wang Tian'er furiously threw out a pet capsule resembling a black crystal.

The pet capsule turned into a pitch-black Black Crystal Great Bird midair, its wings spanning four or five meters, and it charged at the Three-tailed Demon Armor Scorpion King like a bolt of black lightning.

The Three-tailed Demon Armor Scorpion King swung its terrifying tails at the incoming Black Crystal Great Bird, only to see the bird extending its claws, each gripping one of the tails.

The third tail aimed at the bird's chest, but with a peck of its head, the bird actually broke the hard, multicolored alloy scorpion tail in two.

The bird's fierce, hook-like claws forcefully tore, and the other two tails snapped off immediately.

The bird let out a strange cry, flinging the severed tail, tossing the massive body of the scorpion king into the air.

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The great bird flapped its wings mightily, ascending against the grain like a crescent blade severing the heavens, and in an instant it cleaved the Scorpion King's exceptionally hard body into two halves, which crashed heavily to the ground, pounding two large pits into the surface.

The big bird then let out another long cry, returning to circle above Wang Tian'er's head.

"Is that the Dark Bird?" Lin Shen scrutinized the Black Crystal Great Bird, which resembled a phoenix without feathers and a crow yet its cry sounded like that of a phoenix.

The reason why Dark Bird Base got its name was that, originally, a nest of Crystal Base Level Dark Bird eggs was discovered nearby, and the Lin, Qi, and Wang Families had all risen to power because of the Dark Bird.

It was said that the ancestors of the Lin, Qi, and Wang Families found the nest of the Dark Bird together and each obtained a Dark Bird egg, on the strength of which they established the Dark Bird Base.

Later, the Lin Family lost their Dark Bird and declined to the verge of being expelled from the alliance of the three families; fortunately, Mr. Lin Yin emerged from the Lin Family to stabilize the situation.

Up to today, the Dark Bird still remained the most powerful pet of Dark Bird Base, even though later the three families were able to acquire Crystal Base Level pets through other means, they still found it hard to compare with the Dark Bird. It was rumored that the Dark Bird might be one of the top-tier Crystal-based Creatures encompassing all aspects.

Since the Lin Family no longer had a Dark Bird, Lin Shen had never seen one in person; his knowledge of it was all from what he had heard from his family.

The Dark Birds of the Qi and Wang Families had been passed down and rarely showed themselves. Now, Qi Shuheng and Wang Tian'er represented the faces of their families, so it was no surprise that the Dark Birds were with them.

No one knew if it was the intimidating might of the Dark Bird or the death of the Scorpion King that caused the waves of Steel Tail Scorpions to stop attacking everyone; they started burrowing into the ground, retreating completely within moments.

"Lin wasn't lying to me; the Dark Bird truly is a top-level Crystal Base Creature," Bai Shenfei remarked as she gazed at the Dark Bird.

"Just a Dark Bird, here in our little place, it's considered pretty good. But at a place like Sea Corn Base, it wouldn't be worth much," said Wang Tian'er, as he instructed his people to collect the Base Mutation Fluid from inside the Scorpion King.

Everyone could see his intentions; using the Dark Bird to slay the Scorpion King was not only for avenging his own people—more likely, it was his wish to claim the Scorpion King for himself.

The Scorpion King was clearly not an ordinary Alloy Creature, with both its body materials and the Base Mutation Fluid being rare and valuable commodities.

Since Wang Tian'er had killed the Scorpion King himself, naturally no one would dispute him over it, and he was allowed to collect the Base Mutation Fluid unchallenged.

They couldn't leave the Scorpion King's body there, so Wang Tian'er directly ordered two Mutators with pets to drag the corpse back to the base.

After everyone entered the canyon, it was almost dark, so the families consulted and decided to rest here for the night and continue their journey in the early morning.

Lin Shen and Ye stayed together inside the tent, while Wei Wufu kept watch outside the tent.

Lin Shen asked Ye for the tent, but Wei Wufu refused to use one, simply sitting outside Lin Shen's tent, resting with his eyes closed against his backpack.

"Fourth Master, there was something fishy about the Flower Path today," Ye said in a hushed tone inside the tent to Lin Shen.

"What was fishy?" Lin Shen inquired.

"On the first two scouting attempts, we didn't find any Steel Tail Scorpions. It wasn't until we reached a point of no return inside that those Steel Tail Scorpions abruptly attacked. It clearly was premeditated; normal Base Variant Creatures don't possess such intelligence. Besides, that Demon Armor Scorpion King with three tails seemed much more formidable than any we had encountered before. The Base Variant Creatures around here are quite unusual," Ye explained.

"The Base Variant Creatures indeed seem a bit strange," Lin Shen nodded slightly.

"That's not the main problem. What's truly peculiar is that Dark Bird," Ye said, his eyes flickering.

"Are you suggesting the Dark Bird is too strong?" Lin Shen asked, puzzled.

Ye shook his head, "The Dark Bird has always been strong, there's no doubt about it, or else the three families wouldn't have been able to establish their base with it."

After a pause, Ye's voice dropped even lower, "Didn't you notice? Those Steel Tail Scorpions were very afraid of the Dark Bird. Not just them; even the Three-tailed Demon Armor Scorpion King seemed afraid of the Dark Bird. When it saw the Dark Bird, its movements became somewhat stiff, which is why it was killed so quickly."

"Maybe it was just because the Dark Bird is indeed very strong, after all, there's a level difference," Lin Shen speculated.

Ye neither agreed nor disagreed, mysteriously adding, "Lin Shen, I seem to remember the Fourth Master mentioning that the place where our ancestors originally discovered the Dark Bird eggs is near this canyon."

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