Night fell, and the Soul Hunting Forest grew even more eerie and terrifying.
All sorts of unknown insects chirped one after another, and it felt as though countless eyes were watching from the darkness.
By convention, Soul Masters spending the night in the forest had to take turns keeping watch, scatter snake-repelling powder, and light a bonfire.
But Qin Feng's campsite was completely different.
There was no bonfire.
Only a few cold white LED lights illuminated the camp, making it as bright as day.
Several small boxes blinking with red lights hung from the surrounding tree trunks—Infrared Thermal Alarms.
And at the very center of the camp stood four machines that looked absolutely menacing.
Tripod bases, squat barrels, huge ammunition boxes connected to the top, and muzzles that could rotate automatically.
Automatic Sentry Turrets.
Qin Feng had used the funds he'd previously "borrowed" from Director Su's office, along with the metal materials they'd scavenged along the way, to have Grey Wolf hastily build them overnight.
The core Control Chip used the "Foolproof IFF System" from Grey Wolf's world.
Any creature without a specific beacon that entered within fifty meters would automatically be identified as a target.
"Th-this is way over the top, isn't it?"
Yu Xiaogang sat in a folding chair in the middle of camp, holding a bowl of freshly heated self-heating rice. He felt as if he were dreaming.
Whenever he'd entered the Soul Hunting Forest in the past, he'd been on edge the whole time, never even able to sleep soundly.
But now?
They had lights, hot food, and even time to soak their feet?
"Over the top?"
Qin Feng sat in front of the Industrial Mother Machine (somehow, Grey Wolf had even modified the thing into a foldable mobile unit), grinding down a Mandragora Snake bone he'd just obtained.
"Grandmaster, this is called scientific rigor."
"Humans stand at the top of the food chain not because our teeth are sharp, but because we know how to use tools."
"Leave safety to the tools, and save your energy for thinking."
Suddenly.
"Awooo—"
A mournful wolf howl tore through the night sky.
Immediately afterward, countless pairs of glowing green eyes appeared in the surrounding bushes.
Densely packed—at least a hundred pairs!
"It's a pack of Nether Wolves!"
Yu Xiaogang's face changed drastically, and he nearly dropped his bowl.
"This is bad! There are so many of them! There's at least one hundred-year-old Wolf King!"
"We're surrounded! Turn off the lights! The light will attract them!"
He instinctively started to summon Luo Sanpao.
Luo Sanpao might have been useless in a fight, but even farting could buy them some time.
"Relax, Grandmaster."
Qin Feng didn't even look up, remaining focused on the bone in his hands.
"Why turn off the lights?"
"If we turn them off, the cameras' night-vision mode will consume even more power."
"Brother Wolf, activate automatic cleanup mode."
Grey Wolf, who was beside them, greedily gnawing on a roast wild rabbit with grease all over his mouth, gave a muffled reply.
He reached out with a greasy paw and pressed a button on a nearby remote.
"Click!"
All four Sentry Turrets made the mechanical sound of loading at the same time.
Red laser sights instantly formed a web of death, covering every bush around the camp.
The Nether Wolves had clearly never seen anything like this.
At the lead wolf's command, a dozen vanguard wolves bared their teeth and leaped forward like black lightning.
They were fast, but in the face of a fire-control radar capable of millions of calculations per second, they looked as if they were moving in slow motion.
"Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat—!!!"
All four machine guns opened fire at once.
Tongues of flame burst from the muzzles, blooming into dazzling flowers of death in the darkness.
The Metal Storm instantly ripped through the quiet night sky.
The Nether Wolves pouncing through the air didn't even have time to scream.
Their bodies burst apart in midair like watermelons crushed by sledgehammers, erupting into clouds of blood.
Limbs flew everywhere.
For these ten-year Nether Wolves, 7.62-millimeter bullets were devastating.
"This..."
Yu Xiaogang stared at the scene before him, utterly speechless.
No Soul Power, no maneuvering, no teamwork.
All they had to do was sit there and press a button.
The pack that struck fear into low-ranked Soul Masters had been reduced to a pile of minced meat.
"Awooo!!!"
The Wolf King was furious.
It was a massive hundred-year-old Nether Wolf. It hadn't expected these seemingly weak humans to be so difficult to deal with.
It threw back its head and howled, activating the group-enhancing Soul Skill—Bloodlust!
The remaining Nether Wolves' eyes turned scarlet, and their speed and strength surged. They charged forward recklessly, heedless of their lives.
Even the Wolf King itself took advantage of the pack's cover to silently circle around to the side, preparing to ambush the seemingly weakest one, Yu Xiaogang.
"Take out the leader first? This wolf's got some brains."
Qin Feng smiled and set down the bone in his hands.
"Too bad. Against thermal imaging, stealth is a joke."
He snapped his fingers.
"Brother Wolf, give the Wolf King a close-up."
One of the turrets suddenly stopped rotating.
A small launcher on top of its barrel popped open.
"Whoosh—!"
A tiny missile, no thicker than a finger, shot out.
It was a... "Tracking Missile (Budget Version)."
It wasn't loaded with explosives, but with highly concentrated... anesthetic.
The Wolf King was just about to pounce when it saw a little black dot flying straight toward it.
It instinctively slapped at it with a paw.
"Pop!"
The missile burst against its paw, and a cloud of purple smoke enveloped it in an instant.
Three seconds.
Just three seconds.
The mighty hundred-year-old Wolf King swayed twice as if drunk, then toppled to the ground with a thud, foaming at the mouth, its tongue lolling out.
With the Wolf King no longer directing them, the remaining wolves immediately fell into disarray.
Under the Sentry Turrets' merciless slaughter, they soon left dozens of corpses behind and fled with their tails between their legs.
The gunfire stopped.
The camp fell silent again, with only the heavy stench of blood lingering in the air.
"Done."
Qin Feng stood up and stretched.
"Brother Wolf, clean up the battlefield."
"The wolf pelts are a little torn, but we can patch them up and still make a few coats."
"The meat's sour, but we can turn it into jerky and use it as emergency rations."
"The most important thing is the Wolf King."
Qin Feng walked over to the unconscious Wolf King, crouched down, and stroked its sleek, glossy fur.
"A hundred-year-old biological specimen. Its spinal fluid is valuable."
"Grandmaster, don't just stand there."
"Get the test tubes. Class is about to begin."
Yu Xiaogang walked over mechanically and watched Qin Feng expertly draw blood from the Wolf King.
He suddenly realized that, in front of this boy, so-called Soul Beasts and so-called danger...
Had all become a joke.
An ambition unlike anything he'd felt before quietly took root in Yu Xiaogang's long-dormant heart.
If... if I could master this kind of power too...
Could I prove myself to the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan?
Could I tell Bibi Dong that I'm not a good-for-nothing?
Just then.
The radar in Qin Feng's hand began beeping again.
This time, the sound was more urgent and shrill than ever before!
"Beep-beep-beep-beep—!!!"
On the screen, a huge purple dot was moving toward them at astonishing speed.
"It's here."
Qin Feng stood up, his expression more solemn than ever, but also brimming with unconcealed excitement.
"The smell of blood brought it here."
"A thousand-year-old Thunder Lizard!"
"Or maybe... the Thunder Hell Vine?"
Whichever it was.
It was the "high-energy battery" Qin Feng had dreamed of obtaining.
"Brother Wolf, retract the turrets!"
"Switch to heavy weapons!"
"Bring out the 'gift' we prepared for Tang Hao, and let it see the sunlight!"
Grey Wolf dropped the wolf leg in his hand and pulled out a huge coilgun crackling with blue electricity from behind his back.
"Hehehe, honey, we're having roasted lizard tonight!"
Deep in the forest.
A thick bolt of lightning struck down.
A massive shadow emerged slowly amid rolling thunder.
It was a giant lizard more than six meters long, its whole body wreathed in blue lightning.
Each of its scales looked like purple crystal.
A thousand-year Soul Beast—the Thunder Tyrannosaurus!
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