Blackbird

Several cries of alarm rang out at once. Steel Tail Scorpions packed densely around the mounts' legs, their tail tips glinting coldly as they stabbed at hooves and limbs.

The alloy mounts could still withstand the scorpions' stings, but those steel pets were not so fortunate. Countless scorpion tails pierced their legs and hooves. Startled, they kicked and leaped desperately, nearly throwing several Gene Mutators from their backs.

"Save them! Charge through!" Wang Tianer made the decision without hesitation. He spurred his mount forward, hauled over a Wang Family Gene Mutator who was about to be thrown off, and the two rode together.

The others followed suit, pulling the Gene Mutators without alloy mounts onto their own mounts before charging ahead at speed.

They had already gone seven or eight li into the flower path. Retreating would mean going even farther, so they might as well charge forward.

Fortunately, the Steel Tail Scorpions' tails found it difficult to injure alloy pets. The group thundered through, trampling who knew how many Steel Tail Scorpions to death.

They charged another four or five li, and the road was still covered in densely swarming Steel Tail Scorpions. There was no telling how many of the things there were.

In the distance, they saw a gorge ahead. It connected directly to the flower path, yet though only a single line separated them, there was not a single Colored Steel Flower inside the gorge. The dense Steel Tail Scorpions also seemed to be blocked by some mysterious force. No matter how they crowded forward, none entered the gorge.

Everyone's spirits rose, and they accelerated toward the gorge.

Just as the foremost riders were about to reach the gorge entrance, a streak of colored light suddenly burst from beneath the ground. The Gene Mutator at the very front, together with his mount, was pierced clean through.

The man lowered his head and looked at the bloody hole in his chest, as well as the enormous, brilliantly colored scorpion tail protruding diagonally from it. His face was full of terror. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but no sound came out. Only streams of blood poured forth.

Before everyone's horrified eyes, the man and his mount were lifted straight into the air. Behind them, a giant, brilliantly colored scorpion tail swayed slowly, making both man and mount sway endlessly in midair.

Everyone's eyes were filled with shock. That man and his mount had both been Alloy Grade, yet they had been pierced so easily. The scorpion tail's hardness was terrifying.

Several riders could not rein in their mounts in time and tried to rush past from the side. But two more colored scorpion tails burst from the ground and instantly pierced their mounts.

Fortunately, the two Alloy Gene Mutators reacted quickly enough. They leaped sideways off their mounts and landed amid the dense tide of scorpions.

Steel Tail Scorpion tails struck their bodies with a constant clanging, but fortunately, the Steel Tail Scorpions were still incapable of piercing their Alloy Carapaces.

The two swept the Steel Tail Scorpions off themselves, immediately jumped again, and landed atop the mounts of Gene Mutators who had come to receive them.

The earth split open, and Colored Steel Flowers flew in all directions. A scorpion as huge as an elephant, its body a riot of colors, crawled out from underground. Three scorpion tails behind it dangled corpses and danced eerily.

"That's an Alloy Grade Armored Demon Scorpion King... No, that can't be right... The Armored Demon Scorpion King should only have one tail... How does it have three..." Lao Ye stood in front of Lin Shen and said in alarm.

The Armored Demon Scorpion King's three tails whipped fiercely, flinging the corpses hanging from them away like cannonballs. They smashed viciously into the ground, blasting huge pits into the earth. In an instant, they were swallowed by the surging Steel Tail Scorpions. There was no chance they had survived.

The Scorpion King swung its tails, preparing to stab at other Gene Mutators. An Alloy Gene Mutator failed to dodge in time and could only raise an alloy-covered arm to block the scorpion tail.

Who would have thought the tail's force would be so overwhelming? The Alloy Gene Mutator and his mount were smashed flat to the ground together, and cracks spread across the Alloy Carapace on his arm.

The other Gene Mutators scattered in retreat. The Three-Tailed Scorpion King, its ferocious aura soaring to the heavens, blocked the gorge entrance. For a moment, no one dared charge through.

"Damn it, you're courting death." Seeing two Alloy Gene Mutators from his own family killed, Wang Tianer flew into a rage and threw out a Pet Capsule black as crystal.

The Pet Capsule transformed in midair into a huge black crystal bird. With a wingspan of four or five meters, it turned into a bolt of black lightning and shot toward the Three-Tailed Scorpion King.

The Three-Tailed Scorpion King lashed its terrifying tails toward the charging black crystal bird, but the bird thrust out both claws and actually seized one scorpion tail in each.

The third tail stabbed toward the bird's chest. The bird lowered its head and pecked, snapping that hard, multicolored alloy tail in two.

Its hook-like, blade-like claws tightened sharply, and the other two scorpion tails broke as well.

The bird let out a strange cry, grabbed the severed tails, and flung them, tossing the enormous Scorpion King's body into the air.

With one beat of its wings, the bird rose against the current, like a crescent blade cleaving the sky. In an instant, it cut the Scorpion King's incomparably hard body in half. The two pieces crashed heavily to the ground, smashing two great pits into the earth.

The bird raised its head and gave another long cry, then flew back to Wang Tianer's side and circled above his head.

"Is that the Blackbird?" Lin Shen studied the black crystal bird. It resembled a phoenix but had no plumes, resembled a crow but cried like a phoenix.

Blackbird Base had received its name because a nest of Crystal Gene Level Blackbird Eggs had been discovered nearby back then. The Lin, Qi, and Wang Families had all risen to prominence through Blackbirds.

It was said that the ancestors of the Lin, Qi, and Wang Families had found the Blackbird nest together, each obtaining a Blackbird Egg. Relying on the Blackbirds' might, they established Blackbird Base.

Later, the Lin Family lost its Blackbird and declined to the point that it was nearly kicked out of the three families. Fortunately, the Lin Family produced Lin Yin, the Second Master, who allowed the family to stabilize its position.

Even today, Blackbirds remained the strongest pets of Blackbird Base. Although the three families later acquired Crystal Gene Level pets through other channels, they still found them difficult to compare with Blackbirds. Legend had it that Blackbirds might be top-tier Crystal Grade Creatures with all four attributes maxed out.

Since the Lin Family no longer had a Blackbird, Lin Shen had never seen one. He had only heard these things from his family.

The Blackbirds of the Qi and Wang Families had been passed down continuously and rarely appeared anymore. Now, Qi Shuheng and Wang Tianer were the public faces of their respective families, so it was no surprise that the Blackbirds were with them.

Whether intimidated by the Blackbird's savage might or because their king had died, the tide-like Steel Tail Scorpions stopped attacking. They all burrowed underground, and within moments, they had retreated completely.

"Senior Brother Lin truly did not deceive me. The Blackbird really is a top-tier Crystal Grade Creature." Bai Shenfei gazed at the Blackbird and said.

"It's only a Blackbird. It's decent enough in a little place like ours, but in a place like Seahorn Base, it wouldn't amount to much." Wang Tianer spoke as he had people collect the Gene Mutation Fluid from the Scorpion King's body.

Everyone saw through his intentions. He had used the Blackbird to kill the Scorpion King directly. Other than avenging his own people, he probably wanted even more to claim the Scorpion King for himself.

The Scorpion King was clearly no ordinary Alloy Creature. Whether its body materials or its Gene Mutation Fluid, both were rare and valuable treasures.

Wang Tianer had killed the Scorpion King, so naturally no one competed with him. They allowed him to collect the Gene Mutation Fluid.

Naturally, the Scorpion King's corpse could not be left here. Wang Tianer directly ordered two Gene Mutators to have their pets drag the corpse back to the base.

By the time the group entered the gorge, the sky was nearly dark. After several families discussed it, they decided to rest here for the night and continue onward early the next morning.

Lin Shen and Lao Ye stayed in the same tent, while Wei Wufu kept night watch outside.

Lin Shen had Lao Ye give him the tent, but Wei Wufu refused to use it. He simply sat outside Lin Shen's tent, leaned against his backpack, and rested with his eyes closed.

"Fourth Master, something seemed off about what happened on the flower path today." Inside the tent, Lao Ye lowered his voice as he spoke to Lin Shen.

"What was off?" Lin Shen asked.

"During the first two scouting trips, we found no Steel Tail Scorpions. Only after we entered and reached a point where we could neither advance nor retreat did those Steel Tail Scorpions suddenly attack. It was clearly premeditated. Ordinary Gene Mutation Creatures do not possess that kind of intelligence. And that Armored Demon Scorpion King had three tails. It was also much stronger than any Armored Demon Scorpion King we had seen before. The Gene Mutation Creatures here are highly unusual," Lao Ye said.

"The Gene Mutation Creatures here are indeed rather strange." Lin Shen nodded slightly.

"But that isn't the main issue. The truly strange one is that Blackbird." Lao Ye's eyes flickered.

"You mean the Blackbird was too strong?" Lin Shen asked doubtfully.

Lao Ye shook his head. "Blackbirds are inherently powerful. There is no question about that. Otherwise, the three families could not have established a base by relying on Blackbirds."

After a pause, Lao Ye lowered his voice further. "Didn't you notice? Those Steel Tail Scorpions were terrified of the Blackbird. Not just the Steel Tail Scorpions—even that three-tailed Armored Demon Scorpion King was deeply afraid of it. When it saw the Blackbird, even its movements became somewhat stiff. Otherwise, it would not have been killed in just a couple of exchanges."

"Perhaps it was simply because the Blackbird was too strong. After all, they were an entire grade apart." Lin Shen pondered.

Lao Ye neither agreed nor disagreed, saying mysteriously, "Fifth Brother, I seem to have heard Fourth Master say that the place where the ancestors of the three families discovered the Blackbird Eggs was somewhere near this gorge."