Centipede

Riding Pidgeot, Lu Su quickly arrived at the mountaintop.

The structure of this mountain was strange. Its summit was not an open platform, but the entrance to a cave.

If this had been an untouched cave, its pitch-black environment would indeed have been extremely dangerous.

However, the Association had already installed plenty of lighting throughout this cave. It was not particularly bright, but at least entering it would not leave one blind.

After pondering at the entrance for a while, Lu Su still decided to explore the cave.

The Association Card Master in the secret realm had said that no monsters above Black Iron Grade would appear, so nothing should go wrong.

He summoned Tsugikuni Yoriichi, and the two entered the cave side by side.

In the surveillance room, the Captain of the card masters ate biscuits while watching the monitors. "Young people these days are really bold. He actually dared to go in and explore? If I remember correctly, there's a Mukade in that cave, isn't there?"

The Captain truly admired Lu Su's courage. If it had been him at that age, he definitely would not have dared to explore the cave.

Seeing no response, the Captain turned curiously toward Old Wang, who was staring blankly into space. "Old Wang? Old Wang?"

When Old Wang still did not react, the Captain asked with some concern, "Are you feeling unwell? Do you want to go back and rest for a while first?"

"You've seemed strange all day."

As if he had not heard the Captain calling him, Old Wang continued staring at the screen in a daze.

Only after a long while did he seem to wake from a dream. "Huh? No, no. I was just thinking about my mother."

Hearing that, the Captain shook his head and said nothing more. "Let's get prepared first. If this student can't handle it, we'll need to go rescue him."

Old Wang had once again returned to his vacant state. After thinking for a moment, the Captain swallowed the comforting words that had reached his lips.

They were all here to coast into retirement. What was there to say?

"Tap, tap, tap."

The footsteps of Lu Su and Tsugikuni Yoriichi echoed through the hollow cave.

"Strange. Why haven't we encountered any monsters?" Lu Su found it odd. They had been inside the cave for quite some time, yet they had not seen even a single monster—let alone a strand of monster fur.

Just as Lu Su wondered why there were no monsters, he faintly caught a fishy, foul stench. He could not help turning to Tsugikuni Yoriichi. "Yoriichi, do you smell something?"

Tsugikuni Yoriichi nodded. He had also smelled the strange odor.

Seeing that Tsugikuni Yoriichi felt the same, Lu Su's expression turned serious, and he frowned. "Be careful, Yoriichi. There might be a relatively powerful demon in here."

What situation would leave an area completely devoid of demons? Naturally, it meant there was a powerful existence here that crushed all the other demons.

The two unconsciously softened their footsteps and continued forward slowly.

After a long time, they arrived in a spacious open area.

Lu Su stared at the scene before him in shock and muttered, "So this is Thousand-Legged."

Before them lay a Centipede nearly a hundred meters long, its enormous body reflecting a jet-black sheen.

However, this Centipede had already been severed at the waist, leaving only a corpse.

Before the two could marvel at it, a rustling sound beneath the corpse drew their attention.

"That is..." Lu Su focused his gaze and saw a Centipede around eight or nine meters long.

"Can you handle it, Yoriichi?" Lu Su asked Tsugikuni Yoriichi for his opinion. "If not, we'll leave now."

Lu Su was not some reckless fool. If they could not win in this situation, what else was there to do but run?

But Tsugikuni Yoriichi merely silently drew the long blade in his hand.

Lu Su naturally understood what he meant. "Then I'll leave it to you."

After thinking for a moment, Lu Su summoned Pidgeot as well.

He stroked Pidgeot's head and said, "You go help Yoriichi too."

Although Pidgeot was only a Green Card, birds naturally had some advantage over Centipedes. It would be able to help somehow.

Pidgeot gently nuzzled Lu Su's hand, then took the lead in flying toward the giant Centipede.

The Centipede that had been moving beneath the corpse was also drawn to the approaching Pidgeot.

"Hiss!" The Centipede raised the front half of its body straight up, released a piercing cry from its mouthparts, and suddenly shot from the ground toward Pidgeot.

With an agile turn, Pidgeot evaded the Centipede's lunge.

The Centipede fell from midair toward the ground, while Tsugikuni Yoriichi had already been waiting beneath it for quite some time.

Flames rose from the ground and surged toward the Centipede.

But this Centipede was clearly an elite monster. How could it be so easily dealt with?

No one knew where it found the leverage, but it suddenly spun in midair, using its hard carapace to face Yoriichi's blade.

Sizzle!

Although it had not completely blocked Yoriichi's attack, it had avoided sharing its predecessor's fate of being cut in two with a single strike.

The Centipede crashed heavily onto the ground, opened its grotesque mouthparts, and spewed out a cloud of Purple poison mist.

If Yoriichi had been alone, this situation would indeed have been troublesome.

Fortunately, Pidgeot was there. Yoriichi grabbed one of Pidgeot's ankles with one hand and was lifted into the air, easily evading the poisonous mist.

Sun Breathing, Seventh Form: Scorching Bone Sun!

A crimson blade wrapped in flames descended from the sky, and whirling firelight instantly engulfed the Centipede on the ground.

The Centipede let out piercing cries as the flames scorched it.

Pidgeot slowly carried Yoriichi back down beside Lu Su, and the two men and one bird quietly watched the giant Centipede struggle in agony on the ground.

After a long while, the Centipede finally stopped moving.

"Pidgeot, sorry to trouble you, but go test it again." Lu Su maintained his basic caution. He did not want to stumble in a situation that should have been a guaranteed victory.

Sure enough, just as Pidgeot approached the Centipede, the creature, which had shown no movement at all, suddenly lunged at Pidgeot.

Unfortunately, it no longer had the strength. It fell to the ground without even touching Pidgeot.

After that, no matter how Pidgeot poked bloody holes into its body, it gave no response.

Only then did Lu Su dare approach the Centipede's corpse on the ground and begin condensing the material.

Black Iron Grade Thousand-Legged (Purple).

Looking at the material in his hand, Lu Su could not help sighing inwardly. Fortunately, Jiang Nanxi had reminded him to make a mount-type card. Otherwise, he would never have thought to create Pidgeot.

Without Pidgeot, Yoriichi could still have killed this Centipede, but it certainly would not have been so easy.

"Wow, this student is pretty capable." In the surveillance room, the Captain praised Lu Su after watching him kill Thousand-Legged. "Old Wang, you really should take a look."

Just as the Captain wondered why Old Wang had gone silent again, a burst of heavy breathing came from behind him.

"Haah, haah, haah."

The Captain hurriedly tried to turn around and see what was happening, but unfortunately, it was already too late. A scarlet claw had pierced through his chest.

Then, he saw his vision continuously spinning.

"O-Old Wang? Is that... my corpse?"

Accompanied by the sound of a heavy body hitting the floor, a scarlet figure violently shoved open the door to the surveillance room.

The scarlet figure sniffed the air, then suddenly charged in one direction.

No one knew of the drastic change that had occurred in the surveillance room. Only the blood gradually flowing out from it bore witness to the tragedy.