Zhuge Crossbow Special Modified Version

"This should have only just passed a hundred years, right?" After arriving at Flender's location, he saw the medium-sized Emerald Garlic beneath the man's feet.

Even Zhu Zhuqing nodded in agreement.

"Since you aren't satisfied, we keep looking." Flender didn't say much more and took flight directly from where he stood.

Although Emerald Garlic were gregarious plant-type spirit beasts, their numbers were quite rare; usually, there were only two or three in any given area.

The two they had discovered now were likely all there were.

If they wanted to find other Emerald Garlic, there probably weren't any left in the outer perimeter of the core zone; they might have to search within the core zone itself.

Flender, in the sky, was thinking the same thing and acted accordingly, flying straight toward his chosen target.

Below, Du Hao glanced at the hundred-year-old Emerald Garlic, stood up, and said, "Let's keep looking. If it doesn't work out, we'll just settle your spirit ring first."

"Fine. Anyway, we've already prepared our field supplies, so we should be fine for at least half a month." Their luggage was currently in Flender's storage spirit tool. They had long been prepared for a long-term operation.

After all, it was normal for obtaining a spirit ring to take a while.

They explored forward for about a quarter of an hour, and the sky had gradually begun to dim.

"Wait, there seems to be movement ahead!"

Zhu Zhuqing, who had been scanning her surroundings, suddenly fixed her eyes on a spot not far away, her body quietly crouching low.

"What is it?"

Du Hao, who was searching nearby, hurried over.

Ahead lay a patch of slightly damp mud, surrounded by some thorny bushes. Fortunately, the view here was open, and they could see the sky above.

As long as something went wrong, a single shout would likely alert Flender to the anomaly immediately.

There was no need to worry about safety at all.

"Look over there..." Zhu Zhuqing, who had lowered her body, brushed her fingers over a small mark on the ground.

"It's obvious that a wild beast passed through here, and the claw marks are still fresh..." Clearly, they had entered the territory of another predator.

"We couldn't be that unlucky, could we?" Du Hao, who had been searching all around, furrowed his brows.

He hadn't expected to encounter another beast so soon, and judging by the size of the territory, its strength likely wouldn't be too low.

"Shh! There's movement over there." Zhu Zhuqing pointed toward the bushes not far ahead.

Looking from afar, one could see the bushes constantly shaking; there was clearly a creature over there, though it was unclear what it was doing.

"Retreat first. Once we're further away, we'll see what the situation is." As he spoke, Du Hao took the Zhuge Crossbow off his back.

While remaining vigilant, he kept glancing toward the direction of the sound, his footsteps retreating slowly in sync with Zhu Zhuqing.

As for going up to inspect what kind of spirit beast it was—don't be ridiculous. They were two spirit masters who hadn't even obtained their first ring; if they ran into a hundred-year spirit beast, wouldn't they just be serving themselves up as a meal?

Wasn't it better to just kite it from a distance?

After retreating to a safe distance, Du Hao finally let out a sigh of relief, though his gaze remained fixed on the spot where the bushes were.

A black leopard had appeared where the bushes once were, and it was gnawing on a bloody white antelope.

Its eyes were cold as it cast a glance in their direction.

Immediately after, the black leopard, still holding its prey, began to enjoy its meal right there as if no one else were around.

Faced with this, the two dared not be careless.

"A-Hao, why don't we call the Headmaster over?" Zhu Zhuqing suddenly suggested.

"What's wrong?" Du Hao asked, puzzled.

Zhu Zhuqing stared intently at the black leopard nearby, her eyes filled with longing. "I feel like this spirit beast is very suitable for me; my martial soul has a craving for it. This seems to be the pre-compatibility resonance for martial soul evolution that Grandmaster spoke of."

Martial soul pre-compatibility meant that when a spirit master was about to obtain a spirit ring, their martial soul would produce a palpitation or resonance toward a specific spirit beast.

A spirit beast that produced such resonance usually had extremely positive compatibility with the martial soul, and there was even a certain chance for the martial soul to achieve evolution after the ring was obtained.

Although Du Hao hadn't listened to much of Grandmaster's theory, he knew this much. Besides, his little wildcat had spoken—how could he not help?

"No need to trouble the Headmaster yet; I should be able to handle this. Zhuqing, hold this for me." As he spoke, he handed the Zhuge Crossbow to Zhu Zhuqing and immediately opened the cloth bag at his waist.

His movements were swift as he pulled out various parts, assembling them like building blocks into two long tubes of different sizes.

The leopard in the distance had also noticed the movement, but it didn't react at all.

It simply watched them while eating, its gaze filled with disdain.

After all, in its perception, the two people before it were terrifyingly weak; it felt like a single breath could kill them both. Thus, it didn't take them to heart, focusing instead on enjoying its prey.

"Hold it tight, Zhuqing!" With practiced motions, he attached a slightly longer iron tube to the front of the Zhuge Crossbow, pulling the bowstring forward until it extended to the very tip of the tube.

Finally, he placed the shorter piece onto the aiming mechanism.

"Done!" Looking at the fully assembled Zhuge Crossbow, Du Hao let out a long sigh of relief.

As for the two things he had just assembled, one was a telescope, and the other was an extended ballistic barrel... No! It should be called an arrow barrel.

These were all suggestions he had given to Tang San.

Although it fell short of the original Zhuge Crossbow's rapid-fire capability, its single-shot damage should be able to match the original.

At the very least, it should be enough to deal with the black panther before them.

"What is this?" Zhu Zhuqing asked, her face full of confusion; she couldn't make heads or tails of the object in her hands.

"A Gun-Bow! Tang San made it." Du Hao didn't waste any words, directly loading the arrowheads from the original magazine and adjusting the mechanism.

Once everything was prepared.

Du Hao stepped behind Zhu Zhuqing, reached out to grasp both of her hands, and aimed the weapon directly at the black panther not far away.

"Zhuqing, take a deep breath!"

As Du Hao exhaled near her ear, Zhu Zhuqing's cheeks flushed a slightly unnatural shade of red.

Feeling the warmth of his palms, her delicate body squirmed a little. "How about we just call the headmaster? That would be safer..."

"No need, just listen to me."

Joking aside, if he called the headmaster over, what role would he have left to play?

If he didn't seize this rare moment of intimacy to deepen their bond, wouldn't he be wasting this opportunity?

In the end, Zhu Zhuqing couldn't win against Du Hao and could only force down her agitation.

Deep breath.

After calming down, Zhu Zhuqing opened her eyes again, her gaze clear and locked firmly onto the soul beast opposite them.

Du Hao, guiding her from behind, felt quite gratified and whispered, "Don't tense up too much. That black panther doesn't even have us on its radar. It's a sitting duck right now, just relax..."