Chapter 117 – The Reaper Mantis

“Pa pa pa…“

In the sky, a group of Red-eyed Crows flapped their wings and swept across the air.

After a while, they flew back again, and circled a few rounds in the sky. Some of them landed on branches to search for something, but was eventually unable to find Yue Yang and the royal swordswoman who were hiding within the dense forest and bushes. In the end, flapping their wings noisily, they flew towards another direction.

Ever since Yue Yang killed the first red-eyed crow, in the span of a day and a night, the pack of Red-eyed Crows had flown over Yue Yang’s head at least twenty times.

It was obvious that the Ranker hiding in Gui Jian Chou Eagle’s Cry Valley was extremely talented at controlling crows.

In order to find out where Yue Yang and the royal swordswoman were, this hidden Ranker had controlled at least two hundred crows to search for them. They were dispatched in alternate shifts, searching everywhere, going over Yue Yang’s head time and time again. However, they were fooled by Yue Yang’s camouflage, and were unable to achieve anything in the end. The royal swordswoman, just like Yue Yang, had also abandoned her full-body armour and wore leaves-covered clothes, the kind that were usually used by forest scouts. Whenever there were a pack of crows flying over, they would only need to duck into a cluster of plants, or crouch down and stop moving. This way, the pack of Red-eyed Crows in the sky would be unable to detect their presence.

Although the royal swordswoman’s rage towards Yue Yang’s groping hands did not disappear, she admired how crafty this fellow was.

Using tree branches and leaves to make clothes as a camouflage was really a great idea.

Not only crows, even humans would be unable to find them.

In a mountain gorge that was filled with a fast-flowing stream, countless Iron-clawed Cliff Eagles let loose chaotic cries, flying in all directions (Shiro: this is Eagle’s Cry Valley). A green wyvern with a protruding head appeared, carrying a black-robed man on its back as it spiralled down to the ground. Yue Yang and the royal swordswoman hurriedly hid themselves within the cracks in the gorge, watching the movements of that black-robed man quietly. They only saw him taking out a black skull before he started muttering some chants… A dense, black fog was emitted from the skull, and eventually it condensed into black balls. The black-robed man then threw these black fog balls onto the ground. The black fog dispersed, and with a crackling sound, oddly-shaped skeletons were summoned one after another.

A few of those skeletons still had some items that they possessed when they were living, for example a tattered pair of gloves, a silver chain drenched full of black blood, a rusted longsword…

The face of the royal swordswoman immediately sunk at the sight of this.

Yue Yang could not understand what was going on, but she did. She understood the situation perfectly. She had found her target.

These skeletons were the people they had been looking for, the royal scouting party. However, all of them had died and they had even been turned into skeletons by the black-robed man through the terrifying Dead Soul Summoning Technique. It turned out that the person who destroyed the entire royal scouting party and controlled the crows was this necromancer.

However, necromancers only exist in the demonic abyss. How did one appear in the Soaring Dragon Continent?

How long had this black-robed necromancer hid himself in the Eagle’s Cry Valley in Gui Jian Chou for? What was his purpose?

“My undead servants, move out. Find where those two living people are hiding…“ While chanting, the black-robed man’s hands, that were as thin as if they were only skeletons, summoned balls of green light and projected them into the few dozen skeletons.

These skeletons changed form under the green fluorescent light, changing in colour and increasing in size, becoming gigantic. Within ten seconds, they had turned from Level 1 Shrivelled Skeletons into Level 2 Bony Skeletons.

Among those skeletons, there was one who had absorbed multiple balls of green light. It was strengthened and evolved even further to become a Level 3 Iron-boned Skeleton.

This Iron-boned Skeleton Commander even grew bone blades that were made of iron on both of its arms.

The royal swordswoman knew that this was the controlling technique of the necromancer. As long as there were living things nearby, these skeletons would be able to sense them. Their branches and leaves camouflage would lose effect. Thankfully, the sensing range of the skeletons were limited to around 20-30 metres. Not only that, a stream separated the two of them from the necromancer. If not, they would have been found by these skeletons immediately.

The royal swordswoman tapped on Yue Yang’s back, and lightly drew a circle, signalling him to prepare a surprise attack.

With the distance, it was slightly difficult to perform a sneak attack, and the success rate was not high. But, they still had to give it a shot. Otherwise, if this black-robed man riding a Poison Wyvern rose up to the sky, they would have no way of catching him again. The royal swordswoman estimated that this black-robed necromancer probably had the strength of a Level 6 [Elder]. There would be a high chance to kill him off if their surprise attack succeeded. The only problem was that this guy was also extremely cautious. The place where the wyvern landed was a stone that jutted out. As long as the wyvern jumped, he would easily be able to escape into the sky.

Aside from the Bloody Queen, she and the big pervert could only watch with folded arms with regard to an aerial battle.

With just a single Gold-ranked Level 3 Bloody Queen, it was quite hard to kill off this Bronze-rank Level 6 Poison Wyvern, not to mention that there was a necromancer with the strength of a Level 6 [Elder] riding on top of it.

“Shh.” Yue Yang caught hold of the royal swordswoman’s hand. When she was about to struggle free, he signalled her to keep quiet and not move at all, no matter what happened.

“…” The royal swordswoman glared at him, but eventually listened to what he said, not daring to take any sudden actions.

She wanted to take her hand back, but Yue Yang acted as if he didn’t know about it. He did not let go of her hand after he had caught it, taking the chance to take advantage of her. The royal swordswoman could not help but want to kick him into the stream. However, the black-robed man was still present. If he was kicked into the stream, they would lose their chance to mount a surprise attack. She could only drop this idea. She had originally wanted to punch him, but a moment later, she had completely forgotten about this. She grabbed Yue Yang’s back nervously. Her great mounds unconsciously squeezed on him, trying to press his body down to go lower and lower to the ground.

This was because, looking in the same direction as Yue Yang was, the royal swordswoman had seen that on top of the steep cliff rock, a terrifying life form was standing absolutely still, having appeared out of nowhere.

It did not move at all, and its breathing was completely hidden. It was stuck on the cliff wall as if it was a rock.

Its target was the black-robed man below it and the Poison Wyvern he was riding on. However, even the alert black-robed man and the Poison Wyvern was completely unable to sense the presence of this terrifying life form… When the Poison Wyvern flapped its giant wings and started to ascend slowly with the black-robed man, that terrifying life form suddenly moved as if it was lightning. Moving its two huge arms that were like sickles as if they were black lightning, it severed the space and took the giant Poison Wyvern captive with its arms. The Bronze-rank Level 6 Poison Wyvern could not even struggle. It could only whine repeatedly.

That terrifying life form immediately opened its mouth full of razor-sharp teeth and ate the head of the Poison Wyvern alive. It did not kill its prey beforehand but rather ate them alive.

The screeches of the Poison Wyvern resounded throughout the entire valley…

At this time, the entire valley was deathly still. All the creatures were so scared that they did not even know where to hide.

When the terrifying life form was eating the Poison Wyvern alive, the black-robed man was struggling. His body was also clamped down by the giant arms of this creature, so tightly that he could not struggle free at all. Seeing that the little worm had actually dared to struggle, the terrifying life-form instantly bent its head forward to bite the black-robed man’s head off… The black-robed man’s actions were extremely quick, and instantly took out a teleportation ball, smashing it with his blackened bony hand.

The teleportation pillar shone within a second.

However, the instant before he disappeared during his teleportation, the terrifying life form angrily raised one of its sickle arms, and cut them down towards the black-robed man…

Pa!

The lower half of the black-robed man who was still teleporting was immediately severed in the teleportation space. The teleportation pillar was also shattered, and half of his body fell onto the ground with a thump.

If not for escaping fast enough, this black robed man with the strength of a Level 6 [Elder] would have been instantly killed.

Yue Yang and the royal swordswoman watched the whole scene until their scalps exploded. This terrifying life form was actually the legendary Gold-rank Level 7 Reaper Mantis that was said to have been extinct. Not only that, it was actually a Gold King Beast.

The guy who from another dimension was sweating madly and cried out in his heart: My God!

Who had said that Reaper Mantises were extinct? There was one right in front of his eyes! Its body was a few times larger than a wyvern, and even larger than a fighter plane. Could this kind of terrifying life form really existed in the Soaring Dragon Continent? Thankfully, it did not fly out of Gui Jian Chou. Otherwise, everyone would have been eaten by it already.

That Bronze-rank Level 6 Poison Wyvern did not even have the time to struggle, and was eaten in a mouthful… Meeting its nemesis, this Poison Wyvern had really bad luck.

After the Reaper Mantis ate the head of the Poison Wyvern, it suddenly lost interest on the giant carcass of the wyvern and threw it away.

With a flap of its wings, it instantly flew up into the sky, disappearing into thin air.

If not for the wyvern’s carcass falling onto the ground loudly in front of their eyes, Yue Yang and the royal swordswoman would both have doubted that the Reaper Mantis had even appeared before.

“Looks like it really likes eating the magic cores of wyverns…“ Yue Yang cried ‘that was close’ in his heart. Thankfully, before he left, he had given his wyvern magic cores to Yue Bing for safekeeping. Otherwise, the ones who would be ambushed by the Reaper Mantis would probably not just be the Poison Wyvern alone.

“It’s a female mantis. I don’t know if it has laid eggs, but if we find those eggs, then we can find the larvae of the Reaper Mantis.” The royal swordswoman held a little desire. The Reaper Mantis’ larvae were Gold-rank beasts, and their potential for growth was limitless. When Yue Yang heard it, he jumped in fright, and quickly waved his hands, saying, “If you want to court death then go ahead! Don’t drag me along, I haven’t enjoyed my happy life yet!” (Sephilia: same sexual pun, happy life = sexual life )

“You coward!” The royal swordswoman was angry. She had only said it in passing. Did he really think that there would be any Reaper Mantises larvae waiting for them?

“I feel that the most sensible course of action right now is to kill off that black-robed man.” Yue Yang was used to bullying the weak. He would rather be afraid of the tough and bully the weak.

“But he already escaped. How do we find him? Who knows where he’s hiding.” The royal swordswoman now felt that it was a little dangerous to move in Eagle’s Cry Valley. After all, a Gold-rank Level 7 Reaper Mantis was hidden somewhere, and could attack them from behind at any time. This kind of feeling made people’s hairs stand on end.

“Look…“ Yue Yang pointed at the skeletons, who were dragging the severed lower half of the black-robed man and the giant wyvern carcass.

“Is that fellow rushing back here? Fine, we’ll go with what you said this time, let’s wait.” The royal swordswoman felt that the necromancer was absolutely unlucky. First, he had let the Reaper Mantis ambush him, killing off his Bronze-rank Level 6 Poison Wyvern. Now, he would be ambushed again by her and this big pervert. With this double attack, it would be hard for the fellow to survive even if he wanted to.

Although the royal swordswoman was still extremely angry at Yue Yang, she had no choice but to stay close to him.

The two people were physically touching each other, their bodies leaning on each other in an intimate fashion. For the ambush to succeed, the two people quietly hid themselves within the cracks of the rocks. As for the ravenous expression that showed how Yue Yang was enjoying himself inside, the royal swordswoman was angry out of her mind. Eventually, being afraid that she could not resist the temptation to bash him in the face and affect the ambush, she could only act as if she did not see it.

Just like this, the two people quietly awaited the return of the heavily-injured black-robed man to the stream, unmoving.

After around half an hour, a grey-robed male stood on top of a giant Iron-winged Crow King’s back, accompanying the black-robed man who only had the upper-half of his body, back to the sky above the stream.

That black-robed man cursed in rage, saying, “I’m really too unlucky. I took so much effort to get this body! I didn’t expect that, within half a month, it would be sliced into half by a Reaper Mantis. I probably won’t be able to recover the body to its initial state without at least a year’s time. Didn’t Master Suo Ge say that there were no more Reaper Mantises in Gui Jian Chou? I really met a ghost then. If not for me running fast, my head would probably be bitten off like my wyvern. Lu Dun, help me out a little, connect my body together.”

The grey-robed man snickered, “Your luck is really bad. I’ve been staying in Gui Jian Chou for almost ten years and I’ve never seen a Reaper Mantis. It’s probably the fault of your wyvern. Who asked you to like wyverns so much and contract with one to make it your mount? Eh, how come there’s still the presence of a Golden King Beast around?”

“What Golden King Beast?” The black-robed man still had some lingering fears. Listening to this, he was scared to the point that his entire body was trembling.

“Don’t be afraid, that’s my Bloody Queen, I guarantee that she doesn’t like eating human heads, especially DEAD people’s heads.” Yue Yang’s silhouette appeared behind the black-robed man. His smile was as brilliant as the sun.

Of course, in the eyes of the black-robed man, it was more like a devil’s grin…