The second thought was a miserable scream as he reached for his own face: “Has Fat Lord’s face been ruined?”

Large black spots were left on his face, but Brian Cooper shook his head without hesitation. “Not at all.” He had a good reputation among the group, so King had no reason to doubt him.

Chapter 0013: Utterly Vulnerable (Part 1)

Brian Cooper’s shoulder was injured, so he directed Eric King to clean up: “Pick up the Blood Refining Pills that fell on the ground, and also that Ba Mosquito—gather anything useful from its body as well.”

Ba Mosquito, as in the “Ba” from Ba Snake.

The Blood Refining Pills were those blood-red miraculous medicines. Eric King obediently picked up the few pills that had fallen to the ground and packed them away, but suddenly grew curious: “Where did you get these miraculous medicines?”

Brian Cooper replied offhandedly, “Bought them. Pay attention—the Ba Mosquito’s proboscis, wings, and several hidden parts of its shell are all valuable. They can be used for refining treasures.”

Ordinary mosquitoes, of course, don’t have shells, but the Ba Mosquito is huge and needs a shell to support its body.

“Oh.” Eric King responded, reluctantly going about the task. He was too lazy to move, but he couldn’t let Brian Cooper work while injured, so he didn’t notice Brian Cooper changing the subject.

Besides what Brian Cooper mentioned, the most precious thing on wild beasts and monstrous insects is the “essence soul,” which is the core of their power. Once Eric King had collected everything of value and put it into his spatial ring, the two of them didn’t dare linger and left, supporting each other.

……

In the darkness, four drifting shadows were scattered around, crawling on the ground, occasionally raising their heads to sniff the air. Jason Clark was in the middle, chains fastened to his arms. He was extremely nervous, paying attention to every tiny movement around him. Even with the ghost hounds on guard, he still couldn’t relax.

This was the depths of the Forbidden Domain! Anything that popped up here could tear him and his pets to shreds.

“Damn it, how did I end up in this place for no reason? Is that imperial edict really so cursed?”

He cursed irritably, but in his heart, he didn’t dare show the slightest disrespect to the heavenly fire or the imperial edict! When he woke up, he was halfway up a small hillside. At the foot of the hill, a fierce battle was raging. Among the five great battalions of the Seventh Garrison, the commander of the Mountain-Shaking Battalion, Matthew King, was leading dozens of his personal guards in a fierce fight against a colossal beast!

Matthew King, at the mid-stage of the Destiny Realm, practiced a family-inherited technique. He stood over eight feet tall, like a giant, his strength at the very limit of the human body. Five high-grade magical artifacts circled around him, and he wielded a massive axe weighing a thousand catties, splitting mountains and cleaving peaks, his bravery unmatched.

With the help of his well-trained personal guards, they formed a military formation, advancing and retreating in unison. In midair, they condensed an eight-hundred-zhang-long phantom of Xiangliu, multiplying their strength several times over!

Yet even such a figure was steadily forced back by the colossal beast. It was a rare Locust Tiger Beast, a hybrid between a tier-eight wild beast, the Dark Demon Tiger, and a tier-eight monstrous insect, the Extinction Locust. Such hybrids were extremely rare, and this one was undoubtedly a tier-nine wild beast.

Even among tier-nines, it was a top-tier existence!

Its two antennae were like chains or steel whips. With a flick, it grabbed the phantom of Xiangliu formed by the military formation, tore it apart with a ripping sound, and the personal guards in the formation all spat blood and fell.

Matthew King roared and charged forward. The five high-grade magical artifacts protected him in midair, empowering him with tremendous strength. He swung his axe to split the mountain, but the Locust Tiger Beast merely raised its head and rammed him. The spiritual light of the magical artifacts around Matthew King shattered, and he was sent flying, spewing blood!

Matthew King, with his deep family heritage, was the strongest among the five battalion commanders, but against a tier-nine giant beast, he was utterly powerless!

Jason Clark didn’t need to think—cold sweat pouring down, he quietly retreated. If the Locust Tiger Beast finished off Matthew King, he wouldn’t even have a chance to run.

He retreated three miles when he heard a miserable scream from Matthew King. In that direction, several flashes of spiritual light exploded—that was the self-destruction of magical artifacts.

Jason Clark was wondering whether the self-destruction of Matthew King’s magical artifacts had injured the Locust Tiger Beast, when a huge black shadow whooshed over his head, flapping its wings and flying ten miles before landing on a peak ahead—it was the Locust Tiger Beast. Jason Clark instantly felt a chill all over, thinking he was doomed.

But the Locust Tiger Beast didn’t even look back. With a single landing, it flapped its wings again and disappeared another ten miles away.

Jason Clark gave a bitter laugh. He had really “overestimated” himself—he was nothing but a morsel, not even enough to get stuck in the beast’s teeth. He was filled with fear of this place. His first thought was to find his comrades—the closer to death, the more he wanted to find the people he trusted most.

……

Brian Cooper and Eric King huddled together, their backs pressed against a massive piece of black tortoise steel rock. Ten yards ahead of them, a strange snake covered in barbs slithered across the rock.

The two of them held their breath, not daring to move a muscle, even using their spiritual energy to control their heartbeats.

That snake was “only” a tier-five wild beast, a Wasp Snake—in the depths of the Divine Cinders Mountain’s Forbidden Domain, such “small fry” were indeed at the very bottom, but even a tier-five was an unbeatable opponent for two lowly soldiers.

Just as the twenty-zhang-long Wasp Snake was about to pass by, it suddenly sensed something, jerked its head up, and turned toward the two of them.