Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Dumby slowly turned his head. His stiff spine made loud kacha kacha sounds.
With every inch his head turned, the bones in his neck gave off a sound like a firecracker going off. Dumby’s gently burning soul flames were frozen.
At that moment, the world seemed silent.
Just like his name, Dumby dumbly turned his head around slowly, facing backwards.
The soul flames in Dumby’s eye sockets suddenly shrank back inwards, and then exploded outwards in the next moment.
Flames burned fiercely from his eye sockets, and his Blood Thread Heart began to beat wildly, as though it would explode out of his chest cavity.
Roar!!!
A thunderous roar reverberated across the dense jungle, echoing on and on.
Dumby turned his body around, planting his right foot down forcefully. Dust and sand were sent flying into the air, and leaves fell from the trees above. A black shadow cut through the falling leaves, generating a strong wind that blew past the leaves, before scattering them all around behind the shadow.
Dumby crossed seven to eight meters with each stride of his legs.
She will be fine, she will be fine!
Dumby’s chest cavity whistled like a bellows as wind passed through.
…
It was a monster hunting squad of around a dozen men. They were fully armed, wearing helmets and carrying rifles in their hands.
Nearby them, familiars were agilely sprinting through the dense trees. These familiars were mainly canine monsters. Canines had an extremely acute sense of smell, and coupled with their agility, flexibility, and fierce loyalty to their masters, they were one of the most common types of familiars.
Although the Huaxia areas still strictly controlled gun ownership as they had before the Cataclysm, enforcement wasn’t very tight anymore. With some effort, and through the right avenues, it was still possible to get simple firearms such as hunting rifles.
“Brother Li, why are we going through such trouble to catch these Red River Apes? They aren’t valuable monsters anyway,” asked a burly member of the squad.
Brother Li was the captain of this monster hunting squad. As he inserted bullets one by one into his rifle, he replied plainly, “Miss Zhou of the Zhou Family has recently developed a taste for Red River Ape hearts, and that’s why they are offering a high price for the monsters. Their market price has already tripled.”
The Zhou Family! The burly man who spoke earlier backed down after hearing this, and a hint of admiration flashed across his eyes.
Lizhou City was a small base city. There were only a few powerful business entities there, and one of them was the Zhou Family. But that had nothing to do with the monster hunters. All that mattered to them was the tripled price!
No wonder Brother Li had brought them here to hunt Red River Apes. At that moment, these Red River Apes were no longer apes in their eyes, but living, moving sacks of cash.
The initial attack left the Red River Apes unable to react.
Elite tier monsters and above all had strong defenses against firearms, and Commander tier monsters were practically immune to normal rounds. But for a normal tier monster, guns were still very dangerous. Just like how ferocious beasts like tigers or leopards could hunt down common folk but could also be killed by a single bullet to a vital point.
Brother Li squinted as he raised his head to look at a fleeing female ape in the distance. Her fur was smooth and glossy. From one look he could tell that her heart would definitely fetch a good price.
He raised his rifle, took aim through the sights, and…
Bang!
The shot was a miss. The bullet dug into the ground five or six meters away from the female ape.
Brother Li shuffled another shell and squinted once more as he aimed through the sights, following the movements of the female ape.
This barely felt like a hunt; it was more like a game.
These were just a bunch of normal tier monsters on the shores of the Red Sand River. There was practically no chance of running into any powerful monsters here, so there was no worry of encountering…
Suddenly, he could hear something rustling through the jungle behind him. He could almost feel the heavy thumping of powerful footsteps. From the commotion it was causing, this monster was definitely not small. It was drawn by the sound of gunfire.
Brother Li’s facial expression darkened.
He motioned to his Iron-Backed Wolf familiar, signaling it to stop the monster rushing up behind them. At the same time, he slung his rifle back on his back and immediately ran towards the nearest large tree. With his nimble body, he climbed up onto a branch in just a few movements.
Most monsters were unable to climb trees, and trees also had plenty of leaves which were good for avoiding being seen. Brother Li carefully poked his head out, and cautiously looked in the direction that his Iron-Backed Wolf had run.
Suddenly, through his blood contract, he felt immense fear from his Iron-Backed Wolf, and right after that, he lost connection with it.
Brother Li’s pupils shrank, and he quickly climbed higher.
The more alert members of the squad followed suit immediately, climbing up nearby trees.
These were all veteran hunters used to the wilderness. They knew what to do at the right time, and they weren’t likely to succumb to greed when hunting prey, because greedy people always ended up dead.
A black shape flew out of the jungle behind them. The shape drew an arc in the air, before landing on the ground solidly.
Crash.
It skidded through the leaves, then finally came to a stop under Captain Li’s tree.
All of the Iron-Backed Wolf’s limbs had been broken. Its head was bent unnaturally, turned 180 degrees and facing backwards. Its eyes were opened wide, staring at Captain Li up on the tree. Its tongue hung limply out of its mouth, with blood flowing out from the side.
It looked like a broken rag doll. Bones were sticking out of some of its joints, and the wounds were leaking continuous streams of fresh blood.
The atmosphere of the jungle became immediately still.
This Iron-Backed Wolf was one of the strongest familiars within the squad. Even amongst Elite tier monsters, it would be considered extremely powerful.
Seeing the pitiful state of the Iron-Backed Wolf, all the squad members hiding in the trees felt a chill run deep into their bones.
A burly figure pushed aside the trees. Its strong heart made a dull thumping sound, as though it was heavily beating on all of their hearts like a drum. When they got a clear look at Dumby’s appearance, the squad members were all stunned. Since when did Lizhou have ghoul-type monsters?
Dumby’s strong aura could not be faked; this was definitely a Commander tier monster!
All the squad members lamented. How bad could their luck be, to actually run into a Commander tier monster! Right now, they could only pray that the monster would not notice them, or that it could not climb trees.
Dumby looked all around him, then walked straight ahead in a random direction, all without making a single sound in the process. Dumby did not say anything, so the people up in the trees dared not either, much less the familiars still below the trees.
A small female ape trembled as she looked at the approaching Dumby with eyes that shone brightly. On the female ape’s arm, there was a patch of broken skin. As though smelling something, the small female ape tilted her head as she looked at Dumby. He was not as frightening as she had imagined.
Dumby bent over, picked up the small female ape, and gently put her on his shoulder.
Some Red River Apes roared angrily, starting to rush forward to save the female ape.
Dumby gave a low growl.
All the charging Red River Apes stopped in their tracks, terrified, doubtful, and staring at Dumby with disbelief in their eyes.
At this moment, Stripey leaped high and landed on the ground, breaking apart the leaves on the ground. Gao Peng was sitting on Stripey’s back.
Feeling the Commander tier aura from Stripey, the faces of the squad members up in the trees turned pale. But then, they saw Gao Peng who was sitting on top of Stripey’s back. Suddenly, their will to survive welled up again!
“Brother, save us.” Captain Li frantically signaled to Gao Peng, pleading for help.
