An Abrasive Jadeblood Scorpion King!
A mutated form of a Jadeblood King Scorpion.
It was bright green in color. Its arms were almost as long as its entire body which ended in razor-sharp black claws that were giving off a faint black mist.
It had a horrible visage with protruding teeth that could rip a human being in half. On its head were two curved horns, the front one being 3 times as long as the one behind.
Above its shoulders were two arched bony outgrowths that seemed to be connected all the way to the bottom of its thin tale.
There were various sharp protruding outgrowths like this coming out from different parts of its body and of different lengths.
Its entire body was covered in a chitin-like substance where it was hard to the touch, much like the exterior of an arthropod.
It would have been easier to find a heavenly beast than to find something like this.
This beast had only been seen a handful of times in the last few tens of thousands of years and every time it surfaced, the most powerful governing entity of the area would have to immediately dispatch one realmed higher cultivators to kill or capture it, just like how it did this time.
The Scorpion King's body floated calmly in mid-air, about 30 meters above ground. Its eyes were closed and it was in a fetal position. Only its tail was moving around almost independently, kind of like a curious snake.
Fan Xinya and the rest of the Mei cultivators didn't make any sudden moves or sounds. They even talked to each other telepathically.
"What do we do now?" someone asked looking at Fan Xinya, Arizou, and other leaders.
"It depends on what you're willing to do. That thing, whatever it is, none of us can beat it alone, that's for damn sure," Fan Xinya replied while staring at the Scorpion King.
"I think we will need to change the rules for this one then," another person voiced his opinion, getting approval from over 90% of the cultivators.
A short bout of silence followed after as the leaders talked amongst themselves.
This time it was Arizou who spoke.
"Alright. We can work together and suppress it while someone goes from the side and takes away the golden chest. And at the end, we can split it equally among everyone present. How about that?"
The plan was sound because they were in the heart of the temple. Whoever grabbed the gold chest wouldn't be able to get out of here alone, not to mention after getting out of the temple they would be public enemy number one and would get caught sooner or later.
Fan Xinya didn't want to agree with the terms as he wanted to treasure all to himself and he even had a few tricks up his sleeves that could help him achieve his objectives if he was against any of these other people, but not that beast.
It was still asleep and yet the passive energy that was coming off of it was enough to make him want to turn tail and run, so he begrudgingly agreed. It was better to get something out of this than leave empty-handed.
She looked at the small army of spirit realmed cultivators behind her who after a moment of contemplation agreed as well.
Actually, this worked out in their favor. Most of the loot from the battles was given to the person that killed the enemy, and they knew from the get-go that none of them would be able to get their hands on the Gold chest as long as their leaders were there.
The only reason they stuck with these people was that they were more gifted than them and hence could go further on the road of cultivation.
And owing someone who could potentially become a powerhouse in the future a favor or even following them was not a bad thing at all. The weak had to follow the strong to survive, that was how the world worked.
But now they would get a significant amount of capital for doing the same work. Why wouldn't they agree?
They came up with a battle plan and split up into four different teams. Everyone took out every piece of armor they owned and equipped them for the upcoming fight.
For some of them it could very well end being their last battle and they were okay with that. There was no reward without risk.
Fan Xinya and Arizou chose to be in the same team as they were familiar with each other's fighting styles and could communicate better.
The plan was pretty simple. Three teams would attack the beast from the front, the left, and the right.
The last team would stay back and protect their flanks so whenever the Jia soldiers came in they could hold them back long enough for the others to counter.
And lastly, two people were selected with abilities that were able to completely hide their presence.
They were brothers from a long-forgotten assassin school from a 3rd-grade kingdom. The older brother was called Hashim and the younger one was Kreim.
They didn't have particularly high cultivation levels or any strong abilities, it was only this one ability to hide that had gotten them all the way here to this competition.
They were to get the Golden chest and fall back. And when it was done, the others would follow them. From the start they never planned to kill the scorpion king, only hold it back for a little while.
With a loud roar from Arizou the battle started.
Her body doubled in size and her muscles almost tripled. Holding onto two battle swords that were shimmering with a pale green light, she was the first one to attack followed by 1500 other screaming cultivators that unleased every bit of Qi in their body and charged forward.
**
On the other side of the cavern, the Scorpion King was calmly listening in on their entire plan from the start.
He was a creature that had gained sentience a long time ago.
From birth, he had known he was superior to these lesser creatures of flesh and bones. He knew it was his destiny to be a ruler, a King!
And a king had to be ruthless.
Soon after being born he killed and ate his own mother and didn't stop until their entire colony was consumed.
To satiate his bloodthirst, he continued killing until there was no one left to stand in his way. And just like that, he moved from one area to another, laying waste to everything in his path.
No one could stand up to him, no one could stop him. It was….boring.
That is until he attacked and consumed some weak fleshy beings that called themselves humans. There were millions upon millions of them and yet, no one could stop him even from among them.
So he continued his journey, in a world he knew nothing about, in a world where he was the strongest, or so he thought.
It was just a few weeks ago when a group of humans attacked him. These ones were unlike any he had come across before. They were…strong. Strong enough to capture him alive.
Well, it was only because he let them.
He wanted to see for himself just how strong these humans were. Would there be someone that could challenge him? Someone worth fighting?
