As the Spotted Mice charged toward him, Liu Xing calmly bent down and scooped up a handful of pebbles. His hands flicked rapidly, sending pebble after pebble whistling toward the swarm with piercing shrieks through the air.
Those utterly unremarkable pebbles seemed equipped with the most precise guidance systems, each striking a Spotted Mouse without a single miss. Their destructive power was astonishing, too. A single hit sent these little beasts, famed for their copper hides and iron bones, tumbling through the air. By the time they landed, almost all were dead.
The swarm closed to within fifty meters of Liu Xing, but left at least thirty corpses along the way. The Spotted Mouse King at the head of the pack began to feel afraid. How could this unfamiliar creature be so terrifying? At this rate, how many of us will still be alive by the time we reach him?
Another pebble whistled through the air and struck the Spotted Mouse King squarely. It let out a miserable shriek and flipped through the air. But it was the leader of the swarm, after all. Though the pebble severely wounded it, it did not die on the spot like the other Spotted Mice.
The pain of that blow made the Spotted Mouse King recognize its opponent's strength. Fear rose in its heart, and it tucked its tail between its legs and limped away like a defeated general.
Once the Spotted Mouse King fled, the remaining Spotted Mice lost their courage to fight. They immediately tucked their tails between their legs and followed it, leaving more than thirty mouse corpses strewn across the ground.
Liu Xing was a little surprised as well. He had not expected the Spotted Mouse King to have enough strength left to flee after taking a hit. It was his target this time. How could he let it slip away right before his eyes?
Liu Xing tossed aside the pebbles still in his hand and drove his feet hard against the ground. Air burst outward and loose stones scattered as he instantly leaped more than fifty meters, landing directly behind the Spotted Mouse King.
The Spotted Mouse King had some ability, naturally, to have become the leader of the swarm. Without even looking back, it knew that the terrifying stranger had caught up behind it.
By now, the Spotted Mouse King lacked the courage to turn and fight Liu Xing to the death. It gave two urgent squeaks, and the two Spotted Mice beside it immediately sprang diagonally backward, jaws open to bite Liu Xing. The Spotted Mouse King, meanwhile, tucked its tail in and fled even faster.
Liu Xing frowned. This Spotted Mouse King was cunning enough to have its underlings hold him up and buy it time to escape. Still, he hardly considered the two Spotted Mice lunging at him a threat.
With another powerful push of his feet, Liu Xing shot several meters forward. That burst of speed carried him easily past the two attacking Spotted Mice and brought him behind the Spotted Mouse King once more.
Liu Xing thrust out his large hand to seize the Spotted Mouse King by the neck. Knowing it could no longer evade him, it desperately turned and snapped at him.
Liu Xing reacted with astonishing speed. He bent a finger slightly and flicked it, catching the Spotted Mouse King right on the tip of its nose. His strength was easy to imagine-even a mere flick of his finger carried hundreds of pounds of force. How could the Spotted Mouse King withstand that? It was instantly sent tumbling into the air.
Before the Spotted Mouse King could land, Liu Xing grabbed it by the back of the neck and gave it a forceful shake, dislocating its spine at once. Though it had not yet breathed its last, it went limp and could no longer move.
Seeing their king captured in a single exchange terrified the dozens of remaining Spotted Mice. They stood rooted to the spot, unsure whether to keep fleeing or rush forward to save their king.
Liu Xing bellowed, "Get lost! Do you all want to die?"
His shout rang like clashing metal, piercing clouds and splitting stone. It shattered the last trace of the Spotted Mice's fighting spirit. No longer able to spare a thought for their king, the survivors scattered and fled.
With that, the swarm of Spotted Mice was utterly broken.
Beaming, Liu Xing hefted the Spotted Mouse King in his hand and muttered to himself, "A king among mice indeed. No ordinary Spotted Mouse can compare to its size or weight. It should taste even better, too."
With that, Liu Xing carried the Spotted Mouse King away in a series of bounding leaps, not even glancing at the corpses scattered across the ground. Each leap took him seventy or eighty meters, and every push of his feet left a small crater. It was clear just how immense his strength had become after practicing the Nine Great Wilderness Forms.
Liu Xing kept bounding along like that for more than half an hour. After covering over two hundred kilometers, he finally returned to the hills.
Ducking into the cave, Liu Xing went straight to the pool and began preparing the Spotted Mouse King.
The Spotted Mouse King had long since died. Its limp body no longer bore the slightest resemblance to an overlord of the Frozen Earth Plains. Spotted Mice had tough hides and thick flesh that an ordinary person might struggle to cut even with a knife, but that was nothing to Liu Xing.
As easily as tearing paper, Liu Xing cut up the Spotted Mouse King. He deftly removed its fur and skin, cleaned out its innards, and washed it thoroughly. Then he found a long branch and skewered it, completing all the preparations for roasting the Spotted Mouse King.
In the middle of the stone cave lay a pile of ashes about half a meter high, where Liu Xing kept embers to make roasting food convenient. He carefully brushed aside the ashes, revealing a faint ember hidden within. Using it to ignite some dry branches, he finally got a campfire going.
Liu Xing held the branch skewering the Spotted Mouse King over the fire and began roasting it. Before long, the cave was filled with the aroma of meat. Grease coated the carcass, and excess fat dripped into the flames with a sizzling sound.
Spotted Mice were a rare delicacy on Connors Star. Their meat was fragrant and rich in fat, yet, more remarkably, never greasy, with a satisfyingly chewy texture. The only pity was that their carcasses could not be kept for long. Generally, after more than three hours, the meat spoiled and became unbearably sour, impossible to swallow. That was precisely why Liu Xing had not brought back the other mouse corpses. No matter how many he collected, they would only go to waste.
PS: Votes! Votes! Where are you??? As I updated this chapter, those words kept echoing in my mind like heavenly music! :)
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