Futile Devices Scans

Almost the instant Xiao Qi finished speaking, the nearby vegetation rustled, and a yellow shadow lunged out!

Xia Yunzhao immediately drew his Short Blade, only to discover that no one needed his help.

The more than twenty people present were all seasoned treasure hunters who worked together with remarkable coordination. In the blink of an eye, they scattered and surrounded the yellow shadow.

One man untied the bundle on his back, flicked his wrist, and threw it forward. A large net instantly spread open and descended from above, while the others immediately drove the yellow shadow toward the center. Even when someone was accidentally injured, no one showed the slightest sign of retreating.

At last, the yellow shadow was trapped beneath the net. Geng Jingwu pulled an enormous axe from the flatbed cart and brought it down on the creature with lightning speed! He struck three times in quick succession, hard enough to curl the edge of the axe, before blood finally sprayed out. The yellow slaughter beast’s neck was at last split open, and after twitching several times, it stopped moving.

Xia Yunzhao stepped forward to look. The beast was covered in brownish-yellow fur, except for two vivid tufts of yellow hair growing from its ears. This should be a Yellow-Eared Civet.

No wonder these people dared set up camp on the mountain. They really did have the skills to back it up.

Everyone had just relaxed and was about to deal with the carcass when Xiao Qi suddenly shouted, “Not good! Get out of the way!”

Geng Jingwu’s pupils contracted as he stepped forward to pull Xia Yunzhao aside, only to find Xia Yunzhao was even faster. An afterimage remained where he had been, but the person himself had already vanished.

That single step forward sent Geng Jingwu directly in front of the enormous black shadow that had suddenly appeared… Even with his steady nerves, four words flashed through his mind: I’m done for!

Suddenly, a gust of wind seemed to sweep past. Xia Yunzhao appeared out of nowhere, grabbed Geng Jingwu’s sleeve, and shoved him aside, leaving behind only the words, “Brother Geng, careful.”

His figure vanished in a flash. When he appeared again, he was already standing in front of someone else. The enormous shadow had lunged over. Xia Yunzhao planted his feet, turned his wrist, and raised the Purple-Patterned Vinewood Shield in front of him—bang!

With a tremendous crash, two gigantic bear paws slammed heavily into the Vinewood Shield!

Xia Yunzhao retreated two steps. The Qi-Guiding Origin-Connecting Art inside him circulated rapidly, and spiritual energy flowed down his right hand into the shield, finally allowing him to withstand the blow.

Only then did everyone see the beast clearly. The creature that had suddenly appeared was an enormous black bear! Standing upright, it was fully three meters tall and so thick that several people joining hands would barely have encircled it. Each enormous paw was nearly as large as Xia Yunzhao’s head!

Its first attack had failed. It immediately raised its claws, searching for another opportunity.

Xia Yunzhao kept the shield raised and said quietly, “Back up.”

Everyone held their breath and slowly retreated with him.

The giant bear paced irritably, unwilling to let this group of prey escape yet wary of the shield in Xia Yunzhao’s hands. Heavy animal breaths rasped from its nose and mouth.

“We can’t keep backing up.” Xiao Qi suddenly said, “Look at its eyes. It isn’t going to let us go. If we retreat any farther, it’ll pounce.”

Xia Yunzhao nodded and stopped. “Do any of you have other trump cards?”

Geng Jingwu remained calm. “I still have one lowest-grade magical treasure. It can launch one more attack. This bear should be a Level-One slaughter beast, so it ought to have some effect.”

Xiao Qi said, “I have a packet of medicinal powder made from spirit herbs. It should be able to interfere with it.”

The man who had thrown the net earlier added, “My younger sister made me a trip rope from slaughter-beast hide. It might be able to restrain it.”

Another person said, “I have a Thunderfire Bomb, but only one left.”

Xia Yunzhao ran through everything they had in his mind. “All right. From now on, listen to me…” He lowered his voice and gave several instructions.

A moment later, everyone scattered.

A short man roared at the giant bear and immediately turned and ran! The bear instinctively chased after him. Despite his small build, the man was extremely fast and agile, deliberately darting through narrow spaces where the bear had difficulty following, leaving it temporarily unable to catch him.

Behind him, two people quickly stretched out the trip rope and tied it between two large trees. Seeing this, the short man immediately led the bear toward it.

He ducked beneath the rope himself, but the giant bear failed to react in time and was sent crashing onto its back. Enraged, it lashed out with both paws and knocked down the two trees—just as both its paws swung outward and left its center exposed, a dart shot through the air with a whoosh!

Geng Jingwu lowered his blowpipe and immediately left his position without even checking whether the dart had struck.

The dart had indeed hit! It landed squarely inside the giant bear’s mouth, making it roar in fury. Unfortunately, the damage caused by the dart was limited.

The bear angrily charged after Geng Jingwu, forgetting that the person it had been deeply wary of earlier had not appeared for quite some time.

It pursued Geng Jingwu as the distance between them steadily narrowed. It could almost smell the delicious scent of the human ahead… Its blood-red animal eyes brimmed with greed and cruelty as it raised one massive paw and brought it down!

That hateful shield appeared again, firmly blocking the descending paw! The bear roared furiously. That hateful little bug!

Xia Yunzhao chuckled. “You like eating people? Want me to roast you first?”

As his words fell, a burst of fire shot up from behind the shield. The flames moved like living snakes, racing up the bear’s paw before curling around its entire body and setting it ablaze.

Thick smoke billowed as flames spread everywhere. The giant bear threw back its head and howled in agony.

“Keep going.” Xia Yunzhao’s figure swept past several stunned people. “One Flame Talisman won’t burn it to death.”

Everyone immediately snapped back to attention. “Right!”

Sure enough, the flames gradually died away. The giant bear’s fur had been burned patchy and uneven, with black smoke still rising from it, and the beast only became more enraged.

Slaughter beasts possessed no intelligence. It had been thoroughly provoked and now wanted nothing more than to kill the little bug that had dared burn it. Suddenly, it spotted the shield glowing with purple light. It remembered! That little bug had been hiding behind this shield!

It charged forward and crashed into the shield! The tremendous impact knocked it over—only for the bear to discover that the shield had merely been propped against a tree. There was no one behind it, only a Thunderfire Bomb.

Bang! The Thunderfire Bomb exploded!

An explosive made by mortals naturally could not injure it, but the tremendous noise at such close range temporarily overwhelmed its sensitive hearing. At that exact moment, the corner of a robe suddenly appeared beside it, followed by—

Boom!

Flames erupted once more!

Wrapped in fire, the giant bear could no longer hold itself up and crashed heavily to the ground. The flames had burned its eyes blind, driving it into a frenzy. It flattened several nearby trees, and its huge paws smashed deep claw marks into the earth.

Xia Yunzhao watched coldly until he saw his chance. He pushed the Lightness Technique to its limit, the Short Blade appearing in his hand as he rushed forward and sliced through the bear’s throat.

Blood sprayed out, and the giant bear stopped breathing.

Only after a long while did everyone behind him finally release the breath they had been holding. They looked at one another in disbelief… They had actually killed a Level-One bear-type slaughter beast!

Even among Level-One slaughter beasts, there were differences in combat strength. It was the same as cultivators in the Qi Refining stage: someone at Great Completion of the twelfth layer of Qi Refining naturally possessed very different combat strength from someone who had only just entered the first layer.

Compared with this giant bear, that Yellow-Eared Civet from earlier suddenly seemed downright adorable.

Xia Yunzhao shook out his slightly numb hand. After circulating his cultivation method a few times, the discomfort quickly disappeared. “How is everyone? Anyone hurt?”

Geng Jingwu said, “Three people were injured, but they’re all minor wounds. Nothing serious.”

Xia Yunzhao nodded. That was good.

When he turned around and saw everyone preparing to lift the giant bear onto the flatbed cart, he hurriedly said, “I’ll do it!”

You people really know how to dream. A bear this huge has to weigh at least a thousand jin. Wouldn’t that little cart collapse under it? And can you even lift it…?

With that, he raised one hand and stored the giant bear inside his storage pouch. Fortunately, he had recently cleared out quite a few resources, or there might not have been enough room for this enormous thing.

Everyone gasped as they watched the giant bear disappear from where it lay.

Xia Yunzhao explained, “It’s my storage pouch. We can divide the meat once we’re back at camp.”

Geng Jingwu immediately said, “No dividing. It’s all yours.” He looked at Xia Yunzhao, his tone leaving no room for argument. “Based on everyone’s contributions just now, you should already receive eighty percent of the spoils, while everyone else divides the remaining twenty. But without you, all of us would have been wiped out by this giant bear. I’m making the decision that the remaining twenty percent goes to you as thanks. Besides, those two magical treasures that produced fire couldn’t have been cheap, right? Consider this compensation.”

Everyone nodded. “That’s right.” “Exactly. If we’d had the ability to escape on our own, we wouldn’t be giving you that twenty percent.”

Xia Yunzhao rubbed his forehead. “You all helped too, you know.”

No one listened to him. Xiao Qi even asked whether Xia Yunzhao could put him inside that magical storage pouch so he could experience it for himself.

Xia Yunzhao thought, At this point, you’re more magical than the storage pouch… He explained that a storage pouch could not hold living people, finally extinguishing Xiao Qi’s idea.

Fine. If they insisted on giving everything to him, then everything could be his. At worst, he would simply take some of the meat back out and share it with everyone later.

Perhaps the giant bear’s scent still lingered on them, because they encountered no further danger along the way and returned safely to camp.

By then, dusk had already fallen. Xia Yunzhao took the bear back out, and its massive body instantly filled the already-small clearing in front of the camp.

Everyone who gathered around to look exclaimed in amazement.

Several men skilled at butchering stripped off their outer clothes, took up their knives, and eagerly came over to help break down the carcass. Ordinary blades could barely cut through a slaughter beast like this; they had to put their full strength behind every stroke. Fortunately, the camp had no shortage of strong people.

The others began preparing dinner. The children had spent the whole day helping with work too, so now it was finally time for them to play. Xia Yunzhao took out the pastries he had brought back and distributed them. The little monkeys rarely had the chance to eat such sweet pastries and happily swayed their heads as they chewed, looking like a whole group of big-headed dolls bobbing in unison.

He also gave the colorful thread to Granny. Sure enough, she was delighted and pulled Xiao Xia over to chatter at him for a long time. The “grandmother and grandson” pair did not bother finding a translator, so neither understood a word the other was saying.

After finishing his conversation with Granny, Xia Yunzhao took the pastries he had deliberately saved and went looking for Xing Wenyu. He found him sitting beside the bonfire with the young woman who caught fish seated opposite him. She was gesturing with her hands as though explaining something.

Xia Yunzhao waited until the young woman left looking satisfied, then went over with a smile. “Brother Xing, what were you talking to that girl about? She’s incredibly generous. I only spoke to her for a few sentences this morning and she gave me a fish. You talked for that long—she’ll probably bring you an entire pig later.”

Xing Wenyu pointed at the wooden stump in front of him, telling Xia Yunzhao to sit. “That child is called Chang Haiping. Geng Jingwu has chosen her as his successor. If anything happens to him, this entire large family will become her responsibility. She has an active mind. She was just telling me that relying only on fishing for money isn’t stable enough. Once the lake freezes in winter, wouldn’t the whole family simply eat through everything they have? She said she often sees abandoned hunting traps in the forest and asked whether I knew how to make them.”

Xia Yunzhao sat on the small wooden stump and looked up at him. “Can you?”

“Of course not.” Xing Wenyu laughed at the question. “The Hundred-Hunt Trap is a Level-Two magical treasure. It requires a Level-Two artifact refiner to make one. How could an ordinary person casually produce something like that? But I explained the trap’s structure to her. She said she’d try making a few tonight using ordinary materials.”

Xia Yunzhao was surprised. “The Hundred-Hunt Trap is a Level-Two magical treasure? The outer reaches of Liancui Mountain only have lowest-level slaughter beasts, Level One at most. Isn’t putting a Level-Two magical treasure there a waste?”

If Level-One slaughter beasts corresponded to Qi Refining cultivators, then Level-Two slaughter beasts should correspond to Foundation Establishment cultivators. On Liancui Mountain, they could practically walk sideways without fear.

Xing Wenyu smiled and changed the subject. “I heard you led Geng Jingwu and the others in killing a Mighty Slaughter Bear? Impressive.”

“They helped too. And I used two Flame Talismans.” At the thought of those talismans, Xia Yunzhao’s heart genuinely ached. They had cost one thousand spirit pearls each. Who knew how much this bear carcass would sell for… No. He had to find a way to earn those two thousand spirit pearls back.