Chapter 143: Know Yourself and Your Enemies, and You Will Never Be Defeated
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Vigilante A concealed his presence with his talisman Aura-Masking Jade and his own martial skills. In a few hours, he managed to get to the place where the mutated Blood Porcupine demons were resting.
He hid behind a hill and started to observe his surroundings carefully/
It was a location abundant with life.
A wide lake was placed here, and as the wind blew, ripples started forming on its surface. Clumps of reeds swayed along the breeze, and the lake reflected the scenery of the bank like a mirror.
The lakeside was a huge meadow with the occasional hills. Bushes littered the place, showing its vitality.
Judging with only the scenery, the lake was really a good location for a vacation.
That is, if the red-eyed porcupines were not there… They were all panting, aggressively digging the earth with their mouth. Occasionally, they would look into a specific direction with their eyes betraying a hint of fear.
In the direction they were looking, there was a hill full of bushes and grass patches. Aside from some of the bushes being strewn about, nothing else looked out of place.
Aside from that, a bountiful lake like this should have been a paradise for birds, but there was not a single bird in sight, only some fish leaping out of water occasionally.
As usual, Fang Ning hid inside the System Space and was only looking at the System Map and comparing the actual scenery through the System View.
It was definitely a good spot with stunning scenery. In the hands of the right people, it would not fall into desolation. It would have been a good place to develop into a tourist spot or a fishery.
However, for unknown reasons, his danger senses kept tingling, but the trigger was not those porcupine demons.
‘Could it be those bad guys controlling the porcupine demons? Are they hiding around here?’
‘The Whitetail Monkey king said those people were short and dark-skinned. Their language sounded weird, and they were cunning.’
Fang Ning scrutinized the System Map, which only showed the porcupine demons and nothing else.
Each of the Blood Porcupine demons was colored red with a hint of black on the System Map. The area they took up was huge and overlapping, it all looked very creepy.
The monster in this Instance Dungeon was very different from the main map. Things like this would not have been seen on the main map of China.
In the game book, these porcupine demons were described as ‘above Pond-level’, one of them was even as large as three swimming pools, that must be the Porcupine King.
Fang Ning noticed the System seemed to be observing as well, not rushing into it.
Fang Ning said, “There’s something dangerous there but not from those porcupines, so be careful. Hou Dabai said someone was controlling them from afar, but I don’t see them. What do we do?”
The System answered, “Stay put.”
Fang Ning was shocked, “Sir, you have always been the kind that jumps at the monsters headfirst, how are you so cautious this time?”
The System sneered, “I always jump at the monster headfirst, but I didn’t become stupid as soon as I see them…”
Fang Ning did not have any comeback to that, “Are you saying these guys are hard to deal with? So why did you want to farm these porcupine demons?”
The System said, “The battlefield is ever-changing. I only saw them on the map. If it’s just them, I still have ways to kill them after getting some information on them.”
“But when we got here, I realized there’s someone far more dangerous controlling them. The map couldn’t show where it is, and I only had a sense of where it is. This hisser is so stealthy, it’s almost better than the Greater Rat demons.”
Fang Ning shuddered having heard the System, ” ‘Hisser’? It’s not a snake, is it?”
The System said, “Huh? Did you see enough of snake demons to identify them? This one is much more dangerous than your snake demon master though. It’s not as kind as her, it’s evil.”
Fang Ning shuddered a second time, “Idiot, you just said it’s a hisser, so of course I would guess the thing I fear the most. Or do you want to activate the True Vision effect for me?”
The System said, “Don’t waste my Morality Bar. It’s not something we can fight off by ourselves. What we need to do is look for the people Hou Dabai mentioned. They are definitely not as strong, or else they would have ruled the outside world a long time ago, and Anderson would have reminded you.”
Fang Ning sighed a sigh of relief, ‘As long as Sir System knew to only bully the pushovers.’
He looked at the scenery through the System View again, failing to find where the snake hid.
However, the lingering feeling of danger as well as Sir System’s past combats had told him that the System was not wrong.
Fang Ning sighed, ‘Sir System is really a good ally to have on the battlefield. At least with this enemy, its observation was on point. In a way, that’s like ‘knowing oneself and the enemy’.’
‘No wonder it could always make sure it had a certain tactical advantage before engaging, it wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t confident…’
‘This created an illusion that it can ‘never lose’. 1
After sighing, Fang Ning asked, “Why can’t I see the snake? How do you keep spotting them without using any abilities, what is this skill?”
The System answered, “Oh, you’re really a combat noob, can’t you tell? Remember the time that I distinguished the real and impostor Ding Xiang?”
As soon as he was reminded, Fang Ning understood. He immediately went to see through the System View again to examine the scenery near the lake and finally detected abnormalities.
He realized, on the hill where those porcupines stared, some of the bushes were flattened. In addition to that, there were signs of slithering all over. If the images of those signs were fed into a computer to process, it would be easy to recognize that those are the unique ‘footprints’ of snakes.
He had finally understood how powerful the System was.
While Fang Ning was trying to suss out the snake, the System did not interrupt or urge to leave but instead allowing him enough time to make sufficient observation.
Afterward, Fang Ning said, impressed, “So that’s how it is. You’re still a system, your analytical ability is far beyond normal biological creatures. The scenery looked so normal, and normal people would ignore it most of the time. Even powerhouses could only sense its danger but not recognize where the danger is coming from straight away.”
“However, you can immediately combine different details from the scene, coupled with your energy-sensing ability, to put together a picture of what is here.”
The System praised him, “Host, your imagination really is active. You’ve gotten almost all of them right, barring some.”
“Vigilante A is immune to illusive magical effects, but if a dangerous surrounding was covered up, I could also use Spirit Gaze to trigger the True Vision ability. That way, I could get details of the scenery before I analysis the whereabouts of the enemies. Of course, I can’t see through things.”
Fang Ning nodded and said, “The people Hous Dabai mentioned, where are you going to find them? I have been staring at the System Map the whole time just now. I didn’t see even a speckle of them around.”
As Vigilante A was making his way to the lake, Fang Ning had been looking for the people who were controlling the mutated Blood Porcupine demons on the System Map.
There were a plethora of creatures in this Land of Heritage, causing the System Map to be filled with colored dots.
Red dots, yellow dots, some were pretty loose, some others were clumped together. Some as large as a pond, some as tiny as a grain of rice. There were places overfilling with innumerable dots, and there were places with just one, or very scattered.
The porcupines were all huddled together in a wide field, so they were easy to find. With some others, Fang Ning could not tell between one another at all.
It was clear, the distinction between a brainiac and a noob.
The System said, “They were not nearly as sneaky, so I can see them fine. They had left here about a day ago, and they congregated at one spot, not sure what they were discussing. Just come along.”
As he finished, Vigilante A left the peaceful lake quietly.
Long after he had left, bushes rattled on a hill as a hole appeared behind the branches.
A king cobra with its neck erect emerged from the hole.
It had a flat head with sinister, cunning eyes. Its scarlet, forked tongue and long torso held a commanding, frightening presence.
As the king cobra emerged, the porcupines that were digging dirt immediately quietened, their eyes colored with a mix between bloodlust and fear.
The king cobra ignored them and turned its head toward the direction Vigilante A had left, its gaze showing a hint of confusion.
After a while, it snapped its head back at the porcupines as it hissed at them.
Immediately, the porcupines gradually started moving and charged in one direction. Their quills were glinting with coldness, and their crimson eyes looked like they were choosing their prey.
***************
In the lush forest, there was a clearing, in which were several modern tents arranged in a circular formation.
In its center, several dark-skinned men were surrounding a tall, pale man.
The pale man said, “Sadi, your pal, Shaz had left you for eight years. You could still control it when you’re around, but now that the Stygian snake had found us, we moved our camp here, which is quite far away. Are you sure it will still listen to your orders?”
A shorter man with really dark skin replied as he bowed hurriedly, “Priest, sir, if Shaz was only a normal king cobra, it’ll definitely defy me by now, but Shaz is a Snake Deity that has developed sapience, and it could possibly become one of God of Destruction’s incarnation, so it won’t ignore our orders. Even though it is powerful, it has entered a bottleneck stage. If it wants to breakthrough, it must rely on us.”
The white-skinned man nodded satisfactorily, “That’s good news. We shall wait for it to control the creatures, then force the Chinese to give us a piece of land to cultivate. That should save us some effort and time for the exploration.”
Sadi answered, “Of course. Those beasts had no one to lead them, so they were not a huge problem to the Chinese. Now that Shaz has teamed up with us, they wouldn’t be able to go past this stage without some huge sacrifice.”
The white-skinned man chortled, “That’s right. You did us a great service. Our original plan was just to poach some of the rarer creatures. I didn’t expect us to find such a terrifying king cobra, and surprise, surprise. It was the one that ran away from you eight years ago!”
“So it had been summoned by the God of Destruction himself. It found the entrance, stayed inside here and grew into such powerful state. What’s more, it still recognizes you! Thank the gods! Even though we’ve lagged behind the Chinese for twelve years, but as long as we have this king cobra, the Land of Heritage will eventually fall into our hands.”
The other dark-skinned people laughed along with him after hearing his speech.
