Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
There were two types of bichi.
One was the winged bichi and the other was just a bichi.
The former was gray in color and seeing it would give the viewer bad luck. The latter was red in color and was called a mixture of fortune and misfortune, giving bad luck and also bestowing good luck.
Ren Baqian was stunned to see a few large crocodiles that were over 10 meters long and then remembered the time when he obtained a cloud crystal after killing the flower hawk that attacked him.
“Pull them out and kill them!” Ren Baqian ordered.
He felt as if was some freaks were delivering equipment to him.
“What? They are just thunder bones!” The empress looked at him strangely. This type of creature could be found in places where there were big rivers.
Since crocodiles could bite off the bones of their prey and roar like thunder, they were called thunder bones in Dayao.
In the Chen Nation, crocodiles could be found in many places as well, and their local name was quite similar: sudden thunder.
In Great Xia, they were called earth dragons.
“Let’s check what we reaped.” Ren Baqian turned and said, “A mixture of fortune and misfortune—after misfortune, there should be fortune.”
The empress immediately understood.
A few winged cavalry warriors found two skull-sized stones and threw them at the crocodiles.
Bang!
The stones heavily struck the crocodiles, but the crocodiles were very strong. They didn’t seem to be hurt by the stones, endured the pain, and dived down into the water.
Now, they couldn’t hit the crocodiles even if they wanted to.
If they were on the riverside, even eight to 10 crocodiles were no match for one winged cavalry warrior.
However, in the water, the situation was reversed. The aboriginals wouldn’t drown when in the water, but became clumsy and could only use about 10 percent of their power.
For a period of time, they didn’t know what to do.
“Step aside!” The empress frowned at their ineptitude. “Bring me ome arrows!”
In a flash, the empress came out of the carriage holding a primitive bow made of beast horn that had been hanging in the carriage all this time.
Hong Luan took out a quiver that contained more than 10 arrows made of bone.
The empress took one out, put it on the bow, drew back the bowstring only two inches, looked at the river, and released her finger.
The arrow gave a strange buzzing sound and entered the water.
One by one, seven arrows were loosed.
Following the launch of the seventh arrow, the river surface started to turn red. A crocodile floated upside down to the surface, then a second one followed by a third… A bunch of dead crocodiles gathered there as blood flowed from their jaws.
These seven crocodiles looked as though they had been hit by explosives and each head had a wound about the size of a bowl.
“Hurry! Pull them out!” Ren Baqian shouted.
The winged cavalry warriors cut down two trees and used them to move the crocodiles to the shore before pulling them up.
These crocodiles were each about 12 to 13 meters long, weighed about five to six tons, and needed two or three people to pull them from the river.
After pulling all the crocodiles ashore, everyone followed the instructions of Ren Baqian and cut open the stomachs of the crocodiles.
Ren Baqian was expecting some sort of harvest, but after searching thoroughly, there was nothing besides the corpses of some goats.
“Is there anything valuable in the stomachs that we didn’t notice?” Ren Baqian pondered. There was bezoar in a cow’s stomach, cow’s treasure (TLC. Not sure about this term.) in a pig’s stomach… What was inside a crocodile’s stomach?
Ren Baqian refused to give up and searched through one more time, but nothing valuable could be found.
“Seems like the so-called mixture of fortune and misfortune does not live up to its name.” Ren Baqian was disappointed.
“Don’t give up so soon,” the empress suddenly called out.
Ren Baqian turned his head and inquired, “Don’t tell me Your Majesty has discovered something?”
“It seems like a big monster is coming!” The empress hooked her small finger on the bow, snapped it, and caused the bow to spin once in the air.
“Move back!” the empress ordered.
After they left the shore, the river water began to froth and a big tree trunk seemed to float up from the middle of the river.
A giant crocodile floated up with a pair of yellow eyes that looked ferociously at the people on the shore.
“What a big crocodile!” Ren Baqian exclaimed in shock.
A 12 or 13 meter long crocodile was already considered a big animal and would be considered gigantic on Earth.
However, the head of this crocodile was almost as big as a car.
It was at least 20 meters long.
Its jaw bulged, and without opening its mouth, it generated waves and waves of thunderous roars from its body.
The sound caused the water to ripple out turbulently on the surface of the river.
“Killing the small ones attracted this big guy, probably because of the smell of blood,” the empress said after glancing at it.
“It’s powerful, about Kismet Heaven level, and if it wasn’t discovered today, it would have become a powerful spirit since it has no natural enemies in the river,” the empress said as she raised her bow again.
When the empress shot those crocodiles earlier, she only pulled back the bowstring by two inches, but this time she pulled it half way.
The giant crocodile seemed to feel that something was wrong and immediately dived down.
Nevertheless, by coming up to take a look, its fate was sealed.
The arrow was seen leaving the bow without any sound and soared into the air.
The crocodile didn’t seem to react as its eye was pierced through to the brain. Then, red and white liquid came out from the eye.
The buzzing sound of the arrow was heard after.
“Pull it out,” the empress ordered before handing the bow to Hong Luan.
This time, it took a lot of effort to pull the crocodile out.
It weighed at least 20 tons.
It was big. Everyone felt that it was big, as big as a huge monster.
Ren Baqian had estimated it to be more than 20 meters long when he saw it in the middle of the river.
It was at least 24 meters long as measured by Ren Baqian’s footsteps or about the combined length of four or five cars. Lying on the ground, the body was almost as tall as a man.
“Cut it open. There should be some reward this time around,” Ren Baqian ordered.
They turned the crocodile over and stabbed its white belly. It was as hard as a stone and required a lot of strength to slice open.
Due to the size of this crocodile, everyone was ready to jump in and search.
It took some time to get everything out of its underside. There was a giant heart, a giant phallus, giant organs, a giant skeleton, and tons of crocodile meat.
However, the rare treasure anticipated by Ren Baqian wasn’t found.
On the contrary, it was the crowd who found the skin to be practically impenetrable to knives and spears. Even when the winged cavalry warriors used a lot of strength, it was hard to cut.
After being disappointed, Ren Baqian revised his thinking. The skin could be considered a good return as it could be used as armor.
As for the rest of the stuff, they could be valuable, but since he didn’t know much about crocodiles, he could be mistakenly treating treasure as rubbish.
As a result, dinner for the next few days had been supplied.
Although the crocodile was killed by the empress after surfacing, the empress had mentioned that it was equivalent in strength to a Kismet Heaven expert. Such a powerful beast would be a great tonic if eaten as food.
Although he consoled himself this way, he still instructed people to look for the crocodile’s lair and hopefully find something.
Unfortunately, after searching for half a day, it was of no avail.
As it was getting dark, they needed to pitch the tents. Some people were sent to cut down trees to build a pontoon bridge.
Ren Baqian took a little bit of every part of the crocodile, including the heart, internal organs, meat, tail, and phallus, and brought it back to Earth.
Since there were no other gains, he could only let the laboratory run tests to determine whether this crocodile had any value.
After greeting the empress, Ren Baqian went to the carriage to prepare for his return to Earth. Previously, he would depart from a bedroom or a hidden place, but he was outside the city now and had to do it in the carriage.
Actually, Ren Baqian also wanted to test one thing. After his departure, if the carriage was moved to another place, would he still appear in the carriage?
After saying goodbye, Ren Baqian concentrated his mind, and the surrounding space began to warp.
At that moment, the empress’s expression changed when she saw a ray of red light enter the body of Ren Baqian.
In an instant, Ren Baqian disappeared without a trace.
Disappearing along with him was… the imperial carriage.
The thick fur used as a bed by the empress, the table where the fruits and wine were placed, and the boxes where the clothes were stored all fell to the ground.
Qing Yuan and Hong Luan were caught off guard and almost landed face first on the ground.
The empress fell to the ground and saw the empty surroundings and the many winged cavalry warriors gaping at her. Her face turned cold amid the disorder of this windy night.
Right at this moment, a bolt of lightning split the night sky and then a clap of thunder rumbled.
“Your Majesty…” Commander Gong Zhen came forward with a stunned expression. He very much wanted to ask the empress where the carriage was.
“Don’t say anything. I’m in a bad mood.” As the empress looked around, her mouth twitched slightly. She raised her eyebrows and went to the back to look for a cart to rest in.
