Chapter 120: 109: The Strange Cow
Chapter 120: Chapter 109: The Strange Cow
Watching as the surrounding walls gradually solidified.
Chen Xing took a deep breath, sensing something, knowing the most challenging moment had arrived.
The four people around him summoned their Beast Taming companions.
Chen Xing glanced over, the four Beast Tamings being Energy Level 35, 37, 33, and 34 respectively.
All were at max Energy Level, but none had evolved.
In this world, the natural growth of a Beast Taming doesn’t automatically lead to an increase in Energy level within the same tier.
The natural increase in Energy Level is slower than that of the body.
Unless one regularly consumes nutritional potions or other high-energy foods, the increase in a Beast Taming’s Energy Level will be a slow and difficult process.
For most ordinary people, if the family isn’t wealthy or lacking in opportunities, they can only earn enough money for their Beast Taming to evolve by working desperately hard.
This period basically coincides with the junior and senior years of their education.
This is also the typical growth route for most ordinary people’s Beast Tamings.
As for the evolution of a Beast Taming, the price depends on the chosen path, with the first evolution requiring materials that vary greatly in value.
The cheaper ones could be gathered for a few million yuan, while the more expensive materials could total nearly ten million.
For most ordinary people, if their family isn’t wealthy and they lack opportunities, they would have to risk their lives to earn that much money.
“There’s movement,” Chen Xing frowned and looked towards the other side of the labyrinth passage.
Their current location was somewhere within the maze. Without any reference points, they could only orient themselves with the basic directions of front, back, left, and right.
At the end of the corridor was a horizontal passageway, with faint footsteps coming from the right.
Chen Xing furrowed his brows even more.
Having experience with nurturing a Taotie, Chen Xing keenly noticed that the creature approaching from the end wouldn’t be small.
Thick, burly hooves were the first to probe out.
Soon after, muscular dark-yellow thighs appeared.
A four-meter-tall, massively built minotaur slowly emerged from the end of the corridor. Hunchbacked, it dragged a hefty stone pillar in its right arm, emitting a nauseating stench of decay.
A sense of unease tightened in Chen Xing’s heart; he keenly realized that this monster was formidable. Sure enough, as the minotaur stepped fully out of the corridor, its Attribute panel appeared in Chen Xing’s field of view.
[Species] Dungeon Dark Minotaur
[State] Infected, Mutated, Decayed
[Attribute] Death, Earth
[Energy Level] 51
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[Energy Level Limit] 51
[Height] 4.02 meters
[Weight] 5 tons
[Skills]
Primary Skills: Bullish Collision (Beginner), Roar (Beginner), Heavy Strike (Beginner), Rocky Skin (Beginner), Rapid Collision (Beginner), Death Qi Entanglement (Beginner)
Intermediate Skills: Earth Crumble (Beginner), Hell Charge (Beginner), Earth Trample (Beginner)
Advanced Skills: Gate of Dead Realm (Beginner)
After seeing this monster’s Attribute panel, only one thought crossed Chen Xing’s mind.
Did it get its head stuck in a door? Or did it throw its brain out?
All its Skills were at Beginner level, not a single Primary Skill reaching the Proficiency Level of Mastery.
The panel was so pitiful, it was the saddest Chen Xing had ever seen.
This abnormal panel was somewhat unnatural.
Considering its State, Infected, Mutated, Decayed…
Chen Xing suspected its brain might have even started to mold.
It seemed not to have noticed everyone, dragging the stone pillar slowly across from the right passageway, aimlessly heading towards the left passageway.
A Beast Taming next to him let out a sigh of relief, its tensed body relaxing.
Its breathing grew slightly heavier.
On the left side at the end of the passageway, the gradually receding footsteps suddenly paused.
The heavy breathing, like air puffing from a broken bellows, grew louder with footsteps drawing nearer.
Finally, a huge bull’s head peeked around the corner, its murky eyes fixed intently on the people.
The Dungeon Dark Minotaur, dragging the pattern-covered stone pillar, slowly approached the group.
Chen Xing’s expression darkened. Although the monster’s mastery of its Skills was poor, its Energy Level was not low, and it appeared to be physically strong.
But it had many negative States, which could mean it was strong on the outside but weak on the inside.
“Sìxiàng,” Chen Xing said to Sìxiàng. “Try out its weight.”
Sìxiàng, standing next to Chen Xing, waved his hand, and a beam of lightning converged in his palm.
The blinding flash in the dim labyrinth was exceptionally striking, the purple lightning held in his hand like the Thunder Spear of the thunder god.
Bang!
A loud explosion.
The Thunder Spear vanished from its place.
In the dim corridors of the maze, the purple lightning tore through the oppressive air, transforming into a purple afterimage hurtling towards the giant minotaur.
The Dungeon Dark Minotaur seemed startled by this sudden attack, its murky eyes rotating in an attempt to lock onto the source. However, the Thunder Spear was too fast; it reached the monster’s face in an instant.
Bang!
The Thunder Spear struck the Dungeon Dark Minotaur’s chest, scattering purple electrical currents that lit up the surrounding maze upon impact. The minotaur let out a painful roar, its body shuddering slightly.
The Dungeon Dark Minotaur’s chest was hit by the Thunder Spear, leaving behind a charred wound with signs of penetration.
Chen Xing squinted his eyes, remarking that the defense didn’t seem to be that strong.
The Dungeon Dark Bull Monster roared in rage, swinging the patterned stone column in its hands, its body surfacing a cold and biting gale, but the next moment, the wind dissipated, and the skill release failed.
The Dungeon Dark Bull Monster roared to the sky again, this time its body covered with a layer of faint red glow, and this time the skill was finally released successfully.
Its body turned into an afterimage as it charged towards the Sìxiàng!
Taotie stepped forward, standing in front, its massive frame shifting just slightly, like a rather short wall blocking off half of the corridor.
With a ferocious swing of its claw, Taotie lashed out!
The two large creatures clashed head-on.
Taotie stumbled back several steps, but the Dungeon Dark Bull Monster’s rush halted then and there.
Now Chen Xing had a rough idea of the monster’s physical strength.
Sìxiàng remained calm, swinging the Thunder Spear in hand for a counterattack.
After each release of the Thunder Spear, it had to rest for a few seconds, waiting for the overloaded skill to recover before releasing it again.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The labyrinth echoed with the thunderous roars and the bull monster’s bellowing. Each collision added more wounds to the Dungeon Dark Bull Monster, which, furious, sought to attack Sìxiàng but was firmly blocked by Taotie, a seemingly impregnable wall standing before it.
Gradually, Sìxiàng observed the Dungeon Dark Bull Monster’s weakness. It found that the defense of its legs was relatively weak, so it began to focus its attacks there.
The Thunder Spear repeatedly struck at the bull monster’s legs, and although it didn’t bring it down immediately, it did slow its movements considerably.
Finally, after a fierce attack, the Dungeon Dark Bull Monster’s massive body crashed down, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Chen Xing, observing the battle, noted that the creature’s intelligence seemed to be lacking as well.
When attacked, it only focused on causing trouble for Sìxiàng, generally ignoring Taotie in front of it, and only lashing out with its stone column at Taotie when in extreme rage.
But to the thick-skinned Taotie, such attacks were inconsequential.
The Dungeon Dark Bull Monster lying on the ground suddenly let out a piercing roar, its body beginning to tremble violently. Subsequently, a formidable energy burst forth from within, blasting the surrounding dust and debris away.
Chen Xing cursed silently, realizing this might be the Dungeon Dark Bull Monster’s death throes. He quickly retreated, directing Taotie and Sìxiàng to follow suit.
The Dungeon Dark Bull Monster’s body burst into a blinding purple light, dissolving its entire frame.
The dazzling purple light expanded outward, eventually forming a three-meter tall, pitch-black skeletal gate.
In the center of the gate was a black vortex, leading to an unknown place.
The Gate of Dead Realm!?
It seemed vaguely familiar; Chen Xing hastened to check his phone for information on the skill.
There was an offline APP on his phone, a comprehensive tool specifically for recording various known skills.
Chen Xing quickly found the description of the Gate of Dead Realm.
It was an Advanced Summoning Skill of the Death Attribute, which upon release could randomly summon creatures from the Dead Realm to fight on the summoner’s behalf.
At the same time, this skill had a special effect – Sacrifice.
The summoner could sacrifice their own life to ensure that the next summon would definitely bring forth a powerful creature from the Dead Realm.
“`
On the other side of the skeletal gate, the crisp sound of horse hooves came through, and a knight’s silhouette faintly emerged through the dark fog…
Suddenly, the gate to the Dead Realm trembled, shook a few times, and then collapsed with a roar, turning into a black mist that disappeared.
Had the skill failed?
Chen Xing and the others felt a huge relief.
During that brief moment when the mysterious knight appeared, Chen Xing had been paralyzed with fear because he had already seen some of its attributes.
[Species]Dead Realm Spirit Knight
[Attribute]Death
[Energy Level]100+
[Energy Level Limit]100+
Fortunately, in the end, the gate to the Dead Realm collapsed.
It left behind only a stone column that had been used by a dark dungeon beast.
Following the principle of not letting anything go to waste, Chen Xing had Taotie carry the column back.
After Taotie brought back the column with it in its mouth, Chen Xing took a close look and discovered that this column wasn’t just a simple stone pillar.
One end was carved with a ram’s head, and the surface was covered in many carvings that vaguely resembled four fierce faces, with silver metal inlaid within these faces.
The pillar itself was gray, and with the intertwining of the silver metal, especially since it was set into the recessed parts, it wasn’t very noticeable from a distance.
…
While everyone was tensely preparing for combat, footsteps were heard again from afar.
This time, a man riding on the back of a golden lion appeared in their line of sight.
He waved at Chen Xing and the others, signaling them to come over.
Huang Haoming recognized the man; the uniform he wore was similar to that of the people who had previously claimed to be from the Safety Department. The man introduced himself, “I am Yu Lie from the Safety Department. The projection of the Secret Realm just descended in our vicinity and it might last for a while. Follow me, I’ll ensure your safety.”
Saying so, he showed his ID to prove his identity. His gaze lingered on the stone column on the back of Taotie for a while, a hint of an unusual color flashing through his eyes, but he said nothing more about it.
After considering for a moment, Chen Xing decided to follow Yu Lie. The presence of a Level 51 dark dungeon beast indicated that the creatures that could appear in this Secret Realm were probably of high energy level.
Chen Xing noticed that the lion the man was riding was a Level 72 Flaming Golden Lion, and following him obviously felt much safer.
On their way back, they indeed encountered two groups of roaming magical creatures within the maze. One was a Level 58 Explosive Eye Demon with huge eyeballs and terrifying tentacles, while the other was a Level 63 Cursed Magic Box, which looked like ordinary boxes but possessed intelligence and had the ability to cast curses and traps.
Under Yu Lie’s guidance, they successfully avoided these creatures’ attacks and safely returned to the location of the Safety Department personnel.
A campfire had been lit here, and several people were warming themselves by the fire. Yu Lie gestured for Chen Xing and the others to also warm up by the fire and explained, “It’s a bit cold inside this labyrinth. You all warm up by the fire first.”
However, just then, an old man warming up by the fire loudly challenged, “Why didn’t you seal off the area and prevent others from entering? Since I managed to get here, you should take full responsibility!”
Yu Lie glanced at him, with a trace of impatience in his eyes, but still tried to maintain a calm tone as he explained, “I’m sorry, sir, we can’t predict the size of a Secret Realm’s projection in advance, so we don’t know how large of an area it will cover. Additionally, the exact timing of the projection’s descent is unknown; we can only take action as soon as it’s discovered. We’ve sacrificed a lot to protect everyone’s safety, including any possible treasures that might be present.”
Yu Lie’s tone grew colder as he continued, “I’ve abandoned such a big interest to come to the rescue instead, not to have someone like you question me here. If you’re unhappy, you can leave right now, but don’t blame me for not warning you that there are many creatures wandering outside.”
The old man wanted to say more, but the man next to him quickly persuaded him to stop, reminding him that this was a Secret Realm and if he wished to die, he shouldn’t drag them down with him.