Another Treasure Chest

At night, beside the woods downstream of Back River, a campfire burned.

"Jiang the Butcher said you wanted to learn the bow, Chu?" Wu Laoliu asked, sitting beside Chu Danqing with a blade at his waist and simple leather armor on his body.

"I was considering it," Chu Danqing said.

"With your situation, even if you learn it, it'll take three to five years." As Wu Laoliu spoke, he untied a leather pouch from his waist. "Why not try these Sling-stones instead?"

"They're easy to learn, and enough for self-defense."

Chu Danqing took the pouch and opened it. Inside were quite a few smoothly polished pebbles, along with a short stick and a length of rope fitted with a leather pocket.

Chu Danqing did not quite understand what Sling-stones meant, but when he thought of it another way—a sling—he immediately understood.

"If it hits someone in the head, cracking their skull and making them bleed is no problem."

"Once you get skilled, aim for the eyes or nose. It's even more powerful."

"I use it myself most days." Wu Laoliu had found Chu Danqing a lower-tier substitute for a bow. He took it from Chu Danqing's hands and began demonstrating and explaining.

Compared with bows, Sling-stones had obvious shortcomings in accuracy, range, lethality, and every other regard.

But according to Wu Laoliu, he had become very proficient with it after only eight or nine days of practice.

Its ceiling was visible, and its floor was equally clear.

It was perfectly suited to Chu Danqing, who wanted quick results.

Wanting something powerful yet easy to master—where was such a good deal to be found?

"What do you think, Chu? Going with the Sling-stones?" Wu Laoliu said as he handed the leather pouch over.

"I'll use them!" Chu Danqing took it without the slightest hesitation. "I'm not someone who aims too high."

As he spoke, he tied the pouch around his waist, took out the sling, then felt around on the ground for some stones and began practicing.

With Wu Laoliu's guidance, Chu Danqing went from merely hurling it out with brute force to gradually grasping a few tricks.

That was when Wu Laoliu suddenly drew the long blade at his waist and stared solemnly toward Back River.

At some point, a massive black shadow had silently crawled ashore from the water.

Chu Danqing was immersed in practice and had not noticed, but Wu Laoliu had not forgotten what he had come for that night.

So while part of his attention was devoted to teaching Chu Danqing, the rest remained on alert for their surroundings.

"Waa—"

A cry like an infant's wail erupted through the night. Chu Danqing selected a suitable stone and secured it in the leather pocket.

Following Wu Laoliu's instructions, he gripped the stick, adjusted his throwing posture, and used the strength of his waist and arm to rapidly spin and whip the stick.

He estimated the timing and distance in his heart.

The moment the White Dragon Fish Offspring entered the sling's range, he flung the stone out, striking the White Dragon Fish Offspring squarely on the head.

The White Dragon Fish Offspring cried out in pain, and its speed suddenly increased.

Chu Danqing tried to attack again in that opening, but his inexperience caused the second shot to miss.

A moving target was not so easy to hit.

By then, the White Dragon Fish Offspring had drawn close.

Wu Laoliu immediately swung his long blade and severed the rope mechanism. An iron cage above their heads crashed down, enclosing the two of them within.

The White Dragon Fish Offspring was moving too quickly to stop and slammed straight into the iron cage.

The heavy cage was shoved backward by around thirty centimeters.

Seizing the chance, Chu Danqing grabbed the Pudao at his side and, without the slightest hesitation, hacked at the White Dragon Fish Offspring's nose.

Wu Laoliu was even faster, thrusting his long blade toward the White Dragon Fish Offspring's eye.

This White Dragon Fish was enormous, at least four meters long, with thick hide and tough flesh.

If they did not strike its vital points, neither the long blade nor the Pudao could do more than inflict superficial wounds.

As the White Dragon Fish's largest offspring, its reaction speed far surpassed that of the second and third offspring Da Bao had killed before.

Its thick, long neck was tremendously powerful. It performed a wild golden snake dance, using its head as a hammer. Not only did it evade their slash and thrust, it nearly overturned the iron cage.

Had Wu Laoliu not weighted the iron cage beforehand, the two of them truly would not have escaped this calamity.

Seeing that its battering attack was ineffective, the White Dragon Fish Offspring slowly backed away, leaving their attack range.

It began circling the iron cage and observing it, seemingly planning to find a weak point.

The White Dragon Fish's cunning had already begun to reveal itself in its largest offspring.

Seeing this, Chu Danqing set down the Pudao, picked up the Sling-stones, and began attacking, treating it as practice.

His aim and force still needed improvement, and his actions annoyed the White Dragon Fish Offspring endlessly, making it bare its fangs at Chu Danqing.

Its grown cunning restrained it from acting rashly.

After circling twice, just as the White Dragon Fish Offspring was preparing to charge the iron cage again, a huge hand suddenly reached out from the grass behind it.

Caught off guard, its thick neck was seized before it could react.

It tried to turn around and counterattack, but before it could see who it was, another hand clamped onto its neck as well.

The two hands exerted force at once, brutally twisting its neck a full one hundred and eighty degrees.

The one who acted was Da Bao, who had been hiding nearby as the main force.

The whole process was incredibly fast.

At the same time, in Chu Danqing's eyes, a treasure chest appeared over the White Dragon Fish Offspring's corpse.

Even if I didn't kill it, a treasure chest can still appear? Chu Danqing was secretly astonished.

Da Bao put down the corpse, came over, and lifted the iron cage open for them. "Dead dead."

"Da Bao, why did you wait until that bad thing's son had circled twice before attacking?" Chu Danqing did not immediately go to pick up the treasure chest.

"I thought it would be easier to kill then." Da Bao's answer was equally simple. If he thought it was better, that was what he did.

Chu Danqing could be certain that Da Bao definitely possessed some kind of combat or instinctive skill or talent.

He had his own precise judgment for seizing the right moment.

After asking that, the three of them returned to the White Dragon Fish Offspring's corpse. Chu Danqing casually touched the treasure chest and stored it in his Storage Space.

You obtained: Treasure Chest (Common Grade)

"With those three little wretches gone, that White Dragon Fish wretch—" Wu Laoliu said excitedly.

But Chu Danqing noticed Da Bao's gaze. When he had stored away the treasure chest, Da Bao's eyes had been fixed on the river.

"What is it, Da Bao?" Chu Danqing hurriedly asked. He knew Da Bao's senses were extremely sharp.

"The bad thing is here. Seems like it's watching us from the riverbed," Da Bao muttered softly.

In an instant, Chu Danqing's scalp went numb.

Before Chu Danqing could speak, an even larger black shadow rose from the riverbed.

Under the moonlight, it carried a suffocating pressure as it slowly came ashore.

It was at least ten meters long and likely weighed no less than three tons, about the same as Deinosuchus, the largest crocodile of the Early Cretaceous.