The sky suddenly darkened, and a light drizzle began to fall.
Tu You said, “A-Chu, don’t you feel like something has been following us?”
Sang Chu nodded. “Mm. It started back when we passed the reed marsh.”
The girl and the rabbit whispered quietly.
Before the rain started, she could still hear faint movements—something she would never have detected before awakening her abilities.
But now, with the light rain making the air damp and the ground muddy, that faint sound had vanished.
Yet she was certain that thing was still trailing behind them.
“Ah—!”
With a startled cry, Sang Chu stumbled and fell toward the ground.
At that moment, a crocodile that had been lying in ambush suddenly leapt from behind her. Its massive jaws opened wide, revealing sharp teeth as it lunged toward her neck.
But in the next second, Sang Chu reacted as if already prepared.
Suspended midair, she twisted her body, sending a wind blade flying as she kicked off the ground, her back skimming over the surface as she shot forward at high speed.
The frustrated crocodile roared in anger.
All around, crocodiles lurking in the mud stuck out their heads.
This crocodile was part of a hunting pack!
Their sizes were normal, but their teeth and tails were abnormally powerful.
Sang Chu filled her body with wind energy, making herself as light as a sheet of paper, skimming the ground at high speed as she fled through the crocodiles’ encirclement.
Clang—
Her wind blade was bitten apart by a crocodile!
Eyes widening, she stared at the crocodile rapidly crawling toward her. She hurriedly took out the bamboo spear from the giant frog and threw it at the creature.
The crocodile opened its jaws carelessly; its sharp teeth snapped the bamboo in half and even began chewing it!
Sang Chu exclaimed, “Tu You, what level is this crocodile?!”
Tu You checked the light-brain and found that the crocodile was only Level 2—but the bounty was a staggering 800,000!
“A-Chu, even though it’s only Level 2, the bounty is high. We can take it down!”
“I think they are taking me down!!!”
She was speechless—could it not see that abilities and bamboo weapons didn’t work on them?!
Sang Chu forced herself to focus, sensing the flow of the wind around her.
She made herself the center of that flow and constructed a wind wall.
A crocodile’s tail, hard as iron, lashed toward her.
Boom—
The tail collided with the wind wall she built using the surrounding strong winds.
Barely blocked.
Then, two more crocodiles appeared. Their tails hammered wildly against the wind wall.
The ambushing crocodile seized the chance, swinging its tail to shatter the wind wall and lunging with its gaping jaws.
Sang Chu sent wind blades flying as if they cost nothing.
But there were too many crocodiles. Keeping her body low and speeding along the ground was already draining her energy, and she still had to keep forming wind blades.
Borrowing external wind to build the wall wasn’t enough. Sang Chu had no choice but to put more of her power into dodging.
Bang—
A huge explosion echoed in her ears.
Was her body exploding?
No—no, it was that invisible wall!
She felt that the wall inside her was slowly cracking. As it broke, her wind blades burst forth even more violently.
Her wind energy depleted, her body dropped from the air to the muddy ground, splashing mud everywhere.
Seeing their prey fall, the herd of crocodiles rushed at her.
Five, four, three, two, one—
They were only inches away.
Sang Chu dug her fingers into the mud, silently counting the timing.
Now!
“Land Sink!”
“Rock Shield!”
“Pierce!”
A series of sharp shouts—Sang Chu unleashed the three earth-type abilities she and Lu Minfeng had researched.
The crocodiles, unable to evade, were impaled by the rocky spikes rising from the ground, blood flowing everywhere.
Hidden deep within the tightly sealed earth, Sang Chu gasped for air.
Tu You hated the pitch-black environment. It tugged at her hair. “A-Chu, can we go out now?”
Sang Chu pressed her hand against the hard rock above. “I don’t know if those spikes worked.”
“Then I’ll go check! Let me out!”
Knowing it hated darkness, Sang Chu nodded. “Be careful.”
She opened a small hole for Tu You. In moments, its excited voice returned. “It worked! A-Chu, it worked! They’re all dead!”
All dead?
Sang Chu broke out in cold sweat. She had fought with her back against the wall, unsure whether the earth abilities would even work or if she had really awakened them. It had only been a faint feeling.
“Release.”
The rock shield overhead slowly opened. Sang Chu took deep, heavy breaths. Sure enough, crocodile corpses lay everywhere, each pierced through by rocky spikes.
Luckily, she had held back a reserve. But now, her energy was completely drained.
“Tu You, help me put them away. I… I can’t move anymore.”
Collapsed on the ground, Sang Chu couldn’t even lift a finger. Tu You quickly hopped over, opened the storage box, and collected more than ten crocodile corpses.
“Do we go to the hovercar to rest now?”
“Mm. Take out a recovery potion for me, then we’ll camp back in the bamboo forest from earlier.”
“Okay~!”
Tu You released the hovercar from her light-brain and fed her the recovery potion. Only then could Sang Chu barely stand.
Back in the vehicle, she switched on auto-drive and finally lay on the bed to rest.
“Tu You, how much prey do we have now?”
“Let me see~”
It squatted on the stool, holding the storage box, and projected the floating image to check the contents.
“One mutated frog… fifteen crocodiles… three mutated long-tail fish… two goldfish… five mutated rats… and a massive swarm of giant mosquitoes, flies, and bees… Let me upload everything and let the professionals calculate.”
It connected to the guild’s marketplace through Sang Chu’s mercenary ID. Soon, the price popped up.
Tu You’s eyes widened. “Wow! It’s already over 13 million!!!”
“A-Chu, you’re amazing! You can buy me now!”
Seeing how happy it was, Sang Chu laughed. “How much do I still owe?”
Tu You replied, “You don’t owe anything! After buying me and paying back Hua Xi, you still have more than two million left.”
“All that stuff is worth less than a hundred million?”
“There’s a discount! Anything bought through the mercenary guild is half the price of what you’d pay outside. Otherwise why would there be so many mercenaries? You saw how dangerous the wild is—mercenaries risk their lives for money, so the world gives them convenience.”
Tu You looked at the storage box’s contents with great fondness.
Sang Chu asked, “So how do I buy you?”
“Your mental strength is still too weak, and we aren’t bound yet, so you can’t use the time-space marketplace. After you sell everything, just transfer the money to me.”
“Alright. I’m going to sleep for a bit. Once I recover, I’ll continue hunting mutated creatures.”
“You’re still hunting? You have money now—can’t you rest?”
Sang Chu shook her head. She needed to kill as many mutated creatures as possible to earn money. She only had a little more than ten days left and couldn’t waste time on anything else.
(End of this chapter)