Under the blazing sun, the ten students continued to sprint non-stop.
7 White, 3 Asian.
On the way they saw many student corpses, baked dry by the scorch of the sun.
Some students were walking and suddenly fell to the ground due to heat stroke and couldn’t get up again. Some were killed and robbed of their nutritional serum or water bottle.
Here, water bottles were very important. If you have a few extra water bottles and fill them all to begin with, you don’t have to travel hundreds of kilometres every day to collect water under the extreme heat.
The dangers of having to fetching water are severe. It is not only taxing on the body, but people also risk the danger of being attacked and murdered en route.
Jiang Li could carry tens of tonnes of water, a huge advantage of his.
After running for 3 hours, Jiang Li finally perceived a barren mountain range, with so many caves and holes it was discernible from that distance.
If it hadn’t been for the students dawdling behind him, keeping him back, Jiang Li could have arrived within an hour.
“Let’s get into the caves, it’s too painful here under this heat.” Henry waved his hand, signalling to lead everyone toward the crisscrossing caverns.
“Wait!” cried Jiang Li.
He moved forward, formed a lightning seal with his hand and yelled towards the dark caves, “Come out!”
Gezi!
A sharp sound emanated from the caves, and a black silhouette dashed out. It was like a huge bat, it’s flight bringing with it a cutting wind current. Heavy, murderous intent poured from its black body, making the surrounding crowd feel as if a demon had just descended upon the earth.
“...Luo Sha beast?” Jiang Li hazarded.
Jiang Li slashed with his palm at this black figure, using his destructive fist power that could smash flat a metal ball. It only stumbled back in agony and knocked into a rock. Immediately it got back up and started to retreat from the threat.
He then saw the Luo Sha beast’s true form. It walked upright like a human, and had a human profile. But scales covered his face and ferocious fangs protracted from his mouth, as a vampire’s in the movies.
From its back protruded a black pair of wings that looked very powerful. With the slightest motion, they made a sound like whizzing metal fans.
“It really does look like a demon,” Anyone who saw this 1.3 metre tall Luo Sha beast would definitely have the first impression of a demon that’d come from hell.
Moreover, the Luo Sha beast seemed to have a sinister thought in its mind, a desire to rip apart all living organisms. Its extreme power meant it could even defend against Jiang Li’s hypnosis, only feeling slightly dizzy.
On top of that, with a strength of 2 life force, Jiang Li couldn’t even kill it with one blow. From this, it was scarily clear how tough the Luo Sha beast’s body was.
The Luo Sha beast bared its teeth and suddenly took off into the sky, as if to swoop down on everyone and attack again. In the same instant, every person felt a bloody gush of qi radiate from its body.
“Amazing, it can even make people hallucinate; it naturally has the ability to hypnotise. No wonder that even with my stasis techniques, I still couldn’t hypnotise it. But it is still inferior, it can’t escape from my hands!” Jiang Li had a smile on his face and thought to himself, “I’m no ordinary, secondary hypnotist…”
“Come down!” Jiang Li boomed again.
He utilized the brain of the universe and projected a strike of lightning from his eyes. With him as the centre, a wave of thought spread out and everyone near him felt as though his body and limbs spanned kilometres wide and tall. With hands like large mountains, he reached into the sky and ‘grasped’ the Luo Sha beast.
At this time, the Luo Sha beast seemed to have really been clutched in his grip and wriggled desperately, trying to escape. It eventually fell to the ground and drew its legs, dying soon thereafter.
“Hypnotising him to death was 100 times harder than doing it to a normal person.” Jiang Li bluntly observed. Looking at the dead Luo Sha beast, Jiang Li’s expression was not pleased. It had been very hard to kill the demon-like creature with his fists. Only hypnosis could destroy its cerebral nerves, and it was highly taxing on Jiang Li’s mental energy.
Quickly calculating the brain power it had taken to hypnotise this one Luo Sha beast, Jiang Li concluded it was approximately 100 times that of a normal human!
In his current state, ‘thought killing’ 3 to 5 Luo Sha beasts was his absolute limit. If he did any more, it would damage his brain cells.
“You’re a hypnotist? And, a secondary hypnotist?” Henry looked at the dead Luo Sha beast. He was almost staring his eyeballs out. “The Luo Sha beast is strongest in daylight; under the bright luminosity of the sun, its battle strength multiplies! It would be much easier to deal with them at night. You actually killed it that easily in daylight?”
“Is that so? No wonder it was so strong,” Jiang Li replied. He walked up and grabbed the Luo Sha beast. The corpse felt very heavy. Jiang LI jabbed at it with his finger, and it made a brass, metallic sound as though he had hit a metal statue; not a body of flesh and bones.
“The Luo Sha beast’s flesh is made out of a life metal. After extraction, it is a great material for making battle ships and mechanical machines,” Lara walked up and examined. “Why did humans establish a base on planet Luo Sha? Because they are of course interested in the metal resource of Luo Sha beast. Unfortunately, they are far too hard to catch. In particular, in every ten thousand Luo Sha beasts, there is a leader called the Luo Sha beast king. These can radiate a mental energy that makes people experience deep hallucinations. Their offensive power is also extremely strong; normal secondary mechas can’t do anything to them. Large caliber guns can at most do only a little damage, but its body, which is made of fluid metal, would recover rapidly. As long as they absorb starlight, they have an endless supply of energy.”
Jiang Li replied, “There’s a piece of genetic meat inside its body as well. It is where all its essence is gathered at. But right now, it looks like I can’t obtain it.” Jiang Li tried to hoist the body and crush it with his fingers, but the body was too hard. Even diamond wouldn’t have been able to cut it. He sighed. “Looks like I’ll have to wait until night when the temperature is lower. The metallic flesh will gradually soften and only then will I be able to extract the genetic meat.”
The Luo Sha beast had a special habit, and that was liking the heat. They wouldn’t be afraid of the sunlight outside no matter how blazing it was. Instead, they would feel very comfortable. But what they did fear was the cold. The cold made the metallic flesh on their body soften and become weak.
“There’s no danger in the caves.” Jiang Li said. He went inside first, and used his ‘thought’ to scan it. Everything inside became clearly imprinted in his eyesight.
This cave was much more spacious than the one Wang Changshan had lived in. The only problem was that it was too far from any source of water. To go up and back again, it was a distance in excess of 100 kilometres each day.
The cave was deep and intricate, like a zigzagging maze. Some paths branched off into many other dark crevices. It was very easy to get lost inside.
But Jiang Li didn’t care, because he wouldn’t get lost at all. His ‘thought’ radiated out from him as the centre, and everything within a 1 kilometer radius was all be imprinted in his heart like a clear mirror reflection showing the smallest things.
He swiftly made his way into a big stone room. It was around 200-300 square metres with a ceiling about 3 meters high. It was very spacious and was covered with dry grass everywhere. It looked like some fugitive had been killed by these group of students and robbed of his cave.
“It’s is pretty comfortable; the only pity is how inconvenient it is to acquire water. At night, there will still be attacks by Luo Sha beasts. Yesterday, many of our comrades were killed…” Henry trailed off into silence. He brought the dead Luo Sha beast inside. Without sunlight, the body softened as expected.
Jiang Li brought a bottle of water and tipped it over the Luo Sha beast’s body. The temperature dropped once again, and this time when he tore at it with his hands, the flesh ripped apart immediately. As expected, he found a snow white piece of genetic meat inside. It released an aromatic smell scenting a nutritious substance.
He dug his fingers in, ripped a yellow, pea-sized piece and ate it. It was like a jade liquid that melted immediately and flowed into his stomach. His body felt full of vigour, and even some of the expended brain power he’d used on the Luo Sha beast was replenished.
“You guys have some too.” Jiang Li offered some to Lara and Liana. “These things taste pretty good.”
This fragment of genetic meat was only fingernail-sized. It was gone very quickly when shared between the 3 of them.
Henry and those students gulped down saliva, only able to watch on the side. This Luo Sha beast was killed by Jiang Li, so it was only right that he enjoyed it. And at night, when large groups of Luo Sha beasts struck, they still needed Jiang Li to defend them.
“These things are definitely nutritious and is very beneficial for brain cells.” Lara explained as she ate. “Luo Sha beast are naturally proficient in hypnosis. This small piece of genetic meat actually contained the energy converted from starlight. The protein and water content is all compressed energy. It has undergone mutation, the super protein humans created was not in the same league as this…”
“Again…” Liana laughed. “Aren’t you tired? You’re still just being pedantic.”
Lara glared at Liana with her beautiful but dangerous eyes and pretended she was going to choke her.
Jiang Li hurried and pulled them apart. He chuckled, “Haha that’s enough, you guys are tired, get some rest.”
Earlier, Jiang Li had spent 100,000 star-coins for a tube of super-protein that greatly increased his physical capabilities and performance.
But that type of super protein could not compare with the protein inside the genetic meat of a Luo Sha beast.
A student exclaimed: “Water! They use precious water to cool the temperature…” A few White students saw Jiang Li pour the water down and felt he was being too extravagant. “How can you waste water like that … at night, the body of the Luo Sha beast will soften itself,” they criticised.
Jiang Li was expressionless, ignoring the White girls. There was water in his pocket dimension, so he didn’t have to worry about any water being wasted. But of course, he couldn’t expose it publicly. He would fill one bottle up later secretly.
“Okay, let’s rest. Everyone’s tired after a day of basking under the sun. We need to preserve our stamina. There will still be an intense battle at night.” Henry instructed, “Prepare some stones to block the cave’s entrance. Otherwise at night, the Luo Sha beast will easily rush in to attack and we will suffer heavy casualties.”
The stone room doorway was piled with many stones. But they also couldn’t block it fully or they’d suffocate.
Of course, the force of a Luo Sha beast claws could easily tear apart stones, but at least the stones would serve as a defense.
In no time, the whole stone room quieted down. Henry and the White students were all resting. Jiang Li was also meditating with his eyes closed, waiting for nightfall.
Approximately a few hours later, the whole cave darkened. A cold breeze howled outside.
Jiang Li felt an endless expanse of evil energy covering the heavens and Earth. It even permeated the cave’s walls. He concluded it must’ve been a Luo Sha herd.
Of course, thousands of Luo Sha beast rushed into the caves to find a warm place to hide. Coincidentally, the place Jiang Li was in was the warmest. Because of the qi of live bodies, this made their stone room the most enticing for Luo Sha beasts.
“They’re coming in! Be careful everyone!”
Henry and the students were scared awake, looking closely at the sealed doorway as it was approached by the enemy creatures.
The doorway was left with a hole just big enough so that one Luo Sha beast could come in. This way, the Luo Sha beast’s first instinct would be to go through the gap, individually, and not break the other stones.
“You guys, prop your bodies against them to hold the stones, we must not let more Luo Sha beasts come in!” Henry ordered commandingly.
At this moment, there was the sound of a crash and a black silhouette burst into the room through the hole. Its eyes smoldered red like pale ruby stones.
Translated by Tim
Edited by Arman