Slipping in Through the Opening

The boy gave a low shout, and the First Soul Ring on his right arm lit up.

Amid intense fluctuations of soul power, a dragon claw about a foot across took shape, condensed from blue-violet lightning.

Then it slammed down hard at the Touch Dragon King beneath him and the girl.

First Soul Skill, Thunder Dragon Claw!

"Boom!"

The Thunder Dragon Claw unleashed by the boy called Bei Bei exploded squarely against the Touch Dragon King's carapace.

For a moment, lightning flashed and sparks flew everywhere, as though an enormous spark fountain had been set off on the spot.

But it was all smoke and no damage. Though Bei Bei's Thunder Dragon Claw looked powerful, its electricity could not penetrate the Touch Dragon King's thick carapace at all.

That single strike only blackened the Touch Dragon King's golden shell slightly, leaving it otherwise largely unchanged.

"No, no. This Touch Dragon King may only have a little over a thousand years of cultivation, but its defenses are stronger than those of plenty of three- or four-thousand-year soul beasts."

After delivering that strike, Bei Bei did not even need to see the Touch Dragon King's reaction. The sensation coming from his right arm, numbed by the recoil, told him just how difficult it would be to deal with.

The girl nimbly kicked off a tree and sprang upward, drawing the dozen or so centipedes behind her up the trunk before leaping down to rejoin Bei Bei.

"What if I restrain the Touch Dragon King with Blue Silver Grass? And you add Thunderous Fury?"

A trace of unwillingness shone in the girl's eyes. A Touch Dragon King with just over a thousand years of cultivation was far too rare a find, its quality in no way inferior to a Man Faced Demon Spider of the same age.

It was even a tier or two above a target soul beast like the Mandala Snake.

However, soul beasts like the Touch Dragon King were cautious from an early age. Once the cave entrance they used to forage outside was exposed, they would immediately lead their touch dragons underground and leave. Catching them again would be nothing but a dream.

The Touch Dragon King had not yet fled with its touch dragons for two reasons. First, the pair had enraged it, and it intended to have a meal before leaving. Second, there was the realgar powder.

Remember why the girl had initially asked whether Bei Bei had any realgar powder left?

The rotten little minx had scattered all her realgar powder across their cave entrance. As if the Touch Dragon King could swallow that insult! How was that any different from taking a dump on someone's doorstep?

Those two reasons together were why the Touch Dragon King was relentlessly chasing and attacking Bei Bei and the girl.

"Even with Thunderous Fury, it'd be a long shot."

Bei Bei shook his head. Thunderous Fury could instantly increase the effectiveness of his soul power attacks by over fifty percent and multiply their lightning attribute severalfold, but trying to punch straight through the toughest part of its shell would be difficult!

A carapace like that had its defenses against both elemental and bladed attacks maxed out. A blunt weapon was what it took to get the job done.

As a soul beast, the Touch Dragon King was at least in the same tier of top-class martial souls and soul beasts as his own Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon.

Although it could not squeeze into the ranks of super soul beasts, it was absolutely not something low-, mid-, or high-tier martial souls and soul beasts could pretend to rival. It was the very model of having damage when damage was needed and defense when defense was needed.

Unless Xiao Ya could use her Blue Silver Grass to pull the Touch Dragon King over and expose its softer belly, he would not have a chance, even with Thunderous Fury active.

But Bei Bei ultimately could not bear to disappoint his girlfriend, and finally made up his mind. "Then it'll depend on your skill with Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon. Xiao Ya, I'll draw the Touch Dragon King's attention. You find a way to flip it over!"

Meanwhile, outside the Great Centipede Cave in the Venomous Insect Woodland, Chen Ping's eyes grew brighter and brighter.

Tsk, so before Bei Bei and Tang Ya met Huo Yuhao, they'd made more than one trip to the Star Dou Forest for a third soul ring.

In that case, these two definitely won't catch the thousand-year Touch Dragon King outside the Great Centipede Cave.

Otherwise, Xiao Ya wouldn't have had to settle for second best later and only catch that Mandala Snake with Huo Gua's Spiritual Detection.

He alerted neither the pair nor the Touch Dragon King and the touch dragons around it.

Chen Ping glanced at the layer of realgar powder Tang Ya had scattered outside the cave entrance, gritted his teeth, and scurried furtively inside.

The cave's size exceeded Chen Ping's expectations. About a hundred paces in, he could even feel a breeze blowing toward him.

That meant the cave had more than just the single exit he had entered through.

This was definitely good news for Chen Ping. After all, another exit meant another way to retreat.

Chen Ping gently sniffed the air inside. It did not smell dry; instead, it carried a faint, rank odor and a hint of dampness.

Bending down, Chen Ping scraped up a little soil with his index finger, examined the black granules the size of rice grains, then sniffed them. His eyes immediately lit up.

It was the smell of bat droppings.

All my life, I've accumulated virtue and done good deeds just so I could come across this much bat shit!

Bat droppings, also known as night-luminous sand, heavenly rat droppings, stone liver, and black sand star, were an excellent material for clearing the liver, improving eyesight, dispersing blood stasis, and clearing accumulations.

Unfortunately, bat roosts often also housed large numbers of venomous creatures, such as centipedes, snakes, and scorpions, which fed on bat droppings and carcasses.

As a result, there was not actually much bat shit on the ground, only a thin layer. Though gathering it could earn him a fair amount of money, it clearly was not Chen Ping's most urgent priority.

Chen Ping continued deeper into the cave, his steps growing somewhat cautious.

It happened to be daytime, when bats slept. As long as he did not disturb them, they could not be bothered to pay attention to a big fellow like Chen Ping.

Not every bat in the world was a vampire bat. Most ate only small insects, fruit, or nectar, and that was all.

Chen Ping quietly made up his mind and continued following the airflow. Though the cave was spacious, its terrain was quite rugged.

Several paths led to different areas. Fortunately, thanks to the bat shit on the ground, Chen Ping followed the chaotic tracks the touch dragons had left when they hurried out of the cave and found the right route as though guided by divine aid.

Although the vast majority of the bats had already gone out to forage, that did not mean the cave was completely devoid of other creatures.

Switching on a cheap, unranked Soul Guidance Lamp, Chen Ping caught sight of scattered Rock Scorpions, Blind Snakes, Long-Winged Flat-Headed Bats, and a small troop of Drill Ants heading out together, just from the corner of his eye.

However, because touch dragons lived here, these little creatures barely qualified as soul beasts. They were usually eaten by the touch dragons before reaching ten years of cultivation.

Chen Ping silently estimated how much time Tang Ya and Bei Bei could buy him.

The pair still intended to hunt down the thousand-year Touch Dragon King outside, and they clearly had plenty of soul power left. They could keep fighting it for at least the time it took an incense stick to burn.

That was all the time he had to deal with the Lesser Touch Dragon King inside the cave and retreat. He could only be faster, never slower.