White-Tailed Crocodile King

After talking for a while, the members of the Fire Hammer Squad relaxed a little.

"Instructor Ji, our destination is Vanke Dream City, two kilometers ahead. We can't go any farther," Gao Feng, the Fire Hammer Squad's captain, said. "As for Jiabei Country Park, where you're headed, there are simply too many Lord-level monsters inside."

Ji Yun and Ji Shan exchanged contact information with the squad members. Ji Shan was a War God, naturally, and didn't think much of them. But the young man named Luo Feng had caught his interest. He might well become another powerful War God in the future.

"Instructor Ji."

Luo Feng hesitated before speaking.

"I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't reveal that I'm a Psychic Master."

"Oh? Do you have some enemies you need to deal with? They don't know you're a Psychic Master, though."

"Yes." Luo Feng gritted his teeth. "They're enemies of our squad. To get back at me, they fired shots to lure in a herd of monsters. They also left one of our squad's former senior members with a severed arm and a permanent disability."

"All right. I won't tell anyone." Ji Shan gave Luo Feng a long look. If he hadn't thought Luo Feng had good character and the makings of a fine Psychic Master, things might not have ended so simply.

"I'll take you into Vanke Dream City. After that, you'll be on your own," Ji Shan said. "If you run into danger, just contact A-Yun. You young people should get to know each other."

Ji Yun and Ji Shan led the Fire Hammer Squad into Vanke Dream City, then immediately turned and hurried toward their destination.

"I didn't expect a War God to be so easy to talk to," the deputy captain, Chen Gu, said.

"He only did it because of Luo Feng. Otherwise, he would've sent us packing already. An eighteen-year-old Low-Level War General who's also a Psychic Master is worth a War God's attention," Gao Feng said with a smile. "Still, it's also because Ji Shan has a good temper. Other War Gods might not have been so accommodating."

"True." The others chuckled.

"All right, Senior Ji Shan brought us here. Everyone, stay alert. Don't let your guard down."

"Let's go! Hurry upstairs!"

Gao Feng waved his hand.

Meanwhile,

the closer Ji Yun and Ji Shan got to the city center, the more cautiously they moved. The journey was over twenty kilometers, and it took them two hours just to reach the outskirts.

Ji Yun and Ji Shan hid in a collapsed basement, speaking in low voices.

"There's a group of villas nearby, very close to Jiabei Country Park. There are no buildings near the park, so it'll be hard for us to rest or hide there. We'll use the villa community as our base instead."

"I expect there'll be a lot of High-Level Beast Generals roaming around those villas. I'll kill them as soon as they show up. Don't get bogged down fighting," Ji Shan said seriously.

Ji Yun and Ji Shan quickly slipped into a nondescript house with no signs of life and went straight to the basement. The villa had four floors and had once been extremely luxurious, but time had left it in ruins. Its biggest advantage was its proximity to the park, with only a road between them.

They didn't run into any particularly troublesome monsters on the way. Ji Shan killed several Beast Generals with a single thrust of his spear. They collected the materials and hurried away without stopping.

"A-Yun, this is where we'll rest for now," Ji Shan said quietly. "We're very close to Lord Monsters here, so we have to be careful about everything we do."

"I understand, Dad." Ji Yun was cautious too.

The next morning, after a night had passed,

Ji Yun came up from the basement and stood on the villa's third floor, looking toward the park. The cold winter air hung in the morning, brushing his face and jolting him fully awake.

He cracked the window open and scanned the area without pause through his binoculars.

Lord Monsters rarely left the park. The area was also on the outskirts of the city, where there were still a fair number of human Martial Artists. The intelligent Lord Monsters, whose wits were no worse than humans', deliberately kept to their territory.

The entire morning passed without Ji Yun spotting anything.

But patience always paid off. After lunch, Ji Yun resumed watching. A flash of white, appearing and disappearing in the distance, caught his attention.

"What's that?" Ji Yun studied it closely.

"A White-Tailed Crocodile?"

White-Tailed Crocodiles were a type of freshwater crocodile, mutated from the Yangtze Alligators that had existed before the Great Nirvana. When they reached Beast General Rank, a white mark appeared on their tails. With each subsequent growth, they gained another mark.

This White-Tailed Crocodile already had four white marks on its tail, and a fifth was beginning to form.

It was clearly a White-Tailed Crocodile King at the Elementary Lord level!

White-Tailed Crocodiles weren't particularly impressive among crocodile monsters. They couldn't compare to royal crocodile species like Emperor Crocodiles. But compared with monsters like pigs and cattle, they were powerful creatures.

"Dad, there's a White-Tailed Crocodile King at the Elementary Lord level," Ji Yun reminded Ji Shan quietly.

If you like this book, remember to add it to your bookshelf so you can find it again next time.

Hearing him call, Ji Shan hurried up to the third floor and looked through his binoculars. Sure enough, he saw the White-Tailed Crocodile King too.

"Good. That's our target for today. This White-Tailed Crocodile King suddenly appeared on the outskirts of this wetland park. It probably lost a territorial fight with another Lord Monster and was driven out. This is our chance."

"Come on, A-Yun. I'll draw it out of the park. You keep the Beast General-level monsters from interfering. Let's go."

The two figures leaped out of the three-story building and reached the park in an instant, covering nearly a hundred meters. They were moving so fast that only a few High-Level Beast Generals even reacted. But the two were heading for the park, and none of the monsters dared approach them.

With a slight push off the ground, Ji Yun and Ji Shan charged straight toward the White-Tailed Crocodile King. Ji Shan thrust the Heavy Mountain Spear in his hand into the ground!

Clang!

The tremendous force made the ground tremble.

Ji Shan had always excelled at strength, thanks to his cultivation of Thousand Heavy Mountains. He had recently made another breakthrough, and his physical strength was already close to that of an Intermediate War God.

The White-Tailed Crocodile King, its body covered in Black Scale Armor, lay resting at the edge of the park, its eyes bloodshot. Its foul mouth opened and closed as its nostrils exhaled filthy air that spread around it.

"Roar—" The monster slowly rose. Sensing Ji Yun and Ji Shan's arrival, it fixed them with a pair of blood-red eyes.

The White-Tailed Crocodile King stood about two meters tall, while its body stretched more than ten meters long. Its tail was an astonishing ten meters in length as well, making its overall shape rather slender. Its teeth jutted outward, and the fangs it used to bite were especially sharp.

"Beast, die!" Ji Shan roared. He swung the spear in his hand, pouring tremendous strength into its shaft as he slammed it toward the White-Tailed Crocodile King.

His strength drove the spear's speed, making the strike incredibly swift. The White-Tailed Crocodile King had no time to dodge. Its blood-red eyes narrowed as it turned and swung its enormous tail at Ji Shan. Lord Monsters were all fairly intelligent. It knew Ji Shan's spear would injure it, but its tail could hurt the human too—and monsters were far more resilient than humans.

By sheer coincidence, Ji Shan's spear struck the White-Tailed Crocodile King's tail and sent the monster flying. Its massive body hit the ground with a sound like an earthquake, and the earth sank one or two meters beneath it.

"Roar!"

The White-Tailed Crocodile King howled at the sky. It hadn't expected this human to be so strong—his strength was already comparable to that of an ordinary High-Level Lord.

That was hardly surprising. After improving his physique and advancing his Conception, Ji Shan had already reached the peak strength of a Low-Level War God. With his force amplification, he could unleash three or four times that strength, surpassing the punching-power threshold of a High-Level War God. Although the Conception of Thousand Heavy Mountains was purely defensive, its boost to strength was terrifying.

Run. I can't fight him head-on. The White-Tailed Crocodile King panicked. If it had advanced to Intermediate Lord, with a huge increase in strength, it might have stood a chance. But now it was only at the peak of the Elementary Lord level, and its tail had been injured in that first clash. It had no chance of winning.

The White-Tailed Crocodile King turned and fled from the park at incredible speed, even reaching the speed of sound.

Ji Shan was delighted. He had guessed that if he could wound the White-Tailed Crocodile King, it would flee the park. Its lair had already been taken over, so it could only run somewhere else. That meant it was less likely to attract other Lord Monsters, and would be easier to hunt.

The White-Tailed Crocodile King and Ji Shan raced out of the park one after the other, passing through its long-ruined outer buildings. Ji Yun followed behind, using the wind to maintain his speed. The White-Tailed Crocodile King smashed through the buildings around it, including residential blocks. Their concrete walls crumbled like tofu when it hit them. The reinforced concrete collapsed onto the White-Tailed Crocodile King, slowing it down considerably.

The White-Tailed Crocodile King knew it couldn't flee deeper into the city. High-Level Lords were everywhere there, and the slightest misstep could turn it into prey. Only in the Wilderness Zone on the outskirts did it have a chance of survival.

The chase covered only a few kilometers.

Ji Shan suddenly surged forward and caught up with the White-Tailed Crocodile King. He drove his spear toward the base of its tail. The crocodile was focused on escaping and didn't even notice the forceful gust behind it.

Whoosh!

The powerful spearhead pierced the base of its tail, sending the crocodile into a frenzy of pain. But Ji Shan's strength held the spear firmly in place. The crocodile could only twist its upper body, unable even to turn around and attack.

Ji Shan pulled out his spear, and blood gushed from the wound. The White-Tailed Crocodile King's tail was nearly severed at the base. It immediately tried to flee again, but with half its tail gone, its speed had dropped by a whole level.

Ji Shan had already broken the sound barrier. He leaped onto the White-Tailed Crocodile King's head and brought his spear down. Terror showed in the creature's blood-red eyes. It leaped forward, desperately trying to accelerate, but its head collided with the spear.

Bam...

The White-Tailed Crocodile King was slammed into the ground. Boom! Its entire head burst open in a spray of blood, and it died instantly.

Only then did Ji Yun arrive, just in time to witness the bloody scene.

I wonder how Dad used to help the military region fight. Ji Yun clicked his tongue in amazement.

"All right, A-Yun. Collect the materials. We'll rest for a few days before our second hunt." Ji Shan's face was flushed. Clearly, constantly using the Thousand Heavy Mountains secret technique had taken quite a toll on him.

Four days later, Ji Yun and Ji Shan hunted another Elementary Lord, an Earth-Walking Dragon.

It was called a dragon, but it was really just an earthworm that had mutated. It was skilled at burrowing, however, and caused Ji Yun and Ji Shan quite a bit of trouble. Its constant dives underground left Ji Shan's strength with nowhere to land. In the end, Ji Shan managed to smash through the Earth-Walking Dragon's body with a single powerful strike, which finally turned the tide.

But Earth-Walking Dragons were famously tough. Even after being broken in two, it tried to escape in two separate pieces. Though badly wounded, each half still had the strength of a High-Level Beast General. Its scales were intact, but its speed and strength had fallen sharply. Working together, Ji Shan and Ji Yun hunted both halves down and killed the Earth-Walking Dragon.

"Whew." Ji Yun steadied his heavy breathing.

It was the strongest monster he had ever fought. Even weakened, an injured Lord was still a peak Beast General. Ji Yun had been in danger several times. If not for his Conception of Wind, which had let him dodge again and again, the Lord Monster's immense impact would have likely shaken him until he lost the ability to fight, allowing the Earth-Walking Dragon to split apart and escape.

"Dad, should we head back first?" Ji Yun was exhausted. After such an intense fight, he desperately needed to rest.

Ji Shan looked excited. He was about to earn the title of War God, a member of humanity's most elite circle—something everyone aspired to.

"All right, let's head back first. Once my combat record has been assessed, I'll take you to the Wilderness Zone to get some practice."