Nine Evolutions of the True Spirit - Chapter 128
Chapter 128 – Primal Giant Crocodile
Ai Botao deliberately spoke loudly so that not only did Lu Ping and his group of cultivators hear him, but even the other North Ocean cultivators and Ocean Overturning Gang cultivators also could hear him.
The crowd were initially overtaken by panic which made them ignore that the monster wasn’t fully humanoid. Where assuming a humanoid form, was something only the monster race’s Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters could do.
The commotion amongst the human cultivators settled down, as they breathed out a collective sigh of relief, sweeping away the despairing atmosphere. This was because be it humans or monsters, the Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters were unchallengeable to Blood Condensation Realm cultivators.
At this time, from the west water pillar came a giggling sound and a female’s voice could be heard saying, “Brother, you didn’t scare them this time. Oh my, this human’s blood essence is exuberant. My brothers, please don’t fight for him with this little sister, hehe!”
The voice that spoke was coquettish, but the cultivators couldn’t see the speaker on the west water pillar.
Suddenly, the leader of the Xuan Ling Sect’s cultivators exclaimed as he remembered something, “Primal Giant Crocodiles, you are the Primal Giant Crocodiles of the monster race! Only they can rely on their bloodline heritage to be half-humanoid in the Late Blood Condensation Realm.”
Another half-humanoid monster also appeared on the north water pillar. This monster not only had the mouth of a crocodile, but also a long crocodile tail behind it.
The monster laughed, “I never thought you would have a few knowledgeable guys among you. But so what, you humans claim to be intelligent, but today you have still fallen into our four siblings’ calculations.”
The Xuan Ling Sect cultivator’s face changed, “I didn’t expect the Ocean Overturning Gang to collude with the monster race to set up this trap today!”
Every other human cultivator who heard the speculation were shocked and immediately put up their mystic instruments to defend themselves against the Ocean Overturning Gang.
All of a sudden, it seemed that the human cultivators were going to fight among themselves first, before they were killed by the monster race.
The Ocean Overturning Gang’s Division Master hurriedly refuted loudly, “Han Wei-Yun you bullshitter! Even if Ocean Overturning Gang was to collude with the monster race, our targets would also be the Core Forging Realm Enlightened Masters; you Blood Condensation Realm weaklings are nothing in our eyes!”
The human cultivators heard the Red Robe Division Master’s proclamation. Those who still had a little bit of sense knew that the Ocean Overturning Gang didn’t collude with the monster race. Besides, looking at the monster race’s array formation, it was obvious that the Ocean Overturning Gang would be exterminated together with everyone else. Hence, there was no reason for the Ocean Overturning Gang to cover up their actions at this time.
Ai Botao saw that the monsters had already surrounded them tightly in the center. The monsters had obviously planned for a long time and intended to kill all the human cultivators. So, he quickly said, “We should put aside our grudges and work together to break out of the monsters’ encirclement.”
Han Wei-Yun and the Red Robe Division Master also realized the situation and didn’t refute Ai Botao. Their lack of rebuttal implying that they gave their acquiescence to the proposal to join forces.
Ai Botao saw that the morale among the human cultivators had stabilized, so he turned to the Primal Giant Crocodile in the east and asked, “You just said that today’s situation was a set-up, may I ask how you laid down this trap?”
The Primal Giant Crocodile on the east water pillar was obviously the leader of the monsters, “You humans can take our monsters as monster pets, so why can’t us monsters take you humans as our human pets?”
Ai Botao listened to the monster leader’s explanation and was suddenly enlightened. Lu Ping also guessed the method used by the monsters, but was a little surprised that there were human cultivators who were willing to be pets to the monsters. However, from the perspective of the monster race, this Giant Croc leader’s points weren’t without logic.
The Red Robe Division Master was also a quick thinker and instantly guessed the monster’s method and he asked, “So the sea pirates that were eliminated by my Ocean Overturning Gang were the bait you guys put out?”
The Giant Croc on the north water pillar said proudly, “Yes, on top of that, not only was the treasure map forged by us, but we also revealed the news of the treasure map and your whereabouts to the other cultivators.”
The more the monster said, the more he was proud of himself and couldn’t help but laugh loudly.
Lu Ping was impressed by the monster’s wisdom and threw away his contempt for the monster’s intelligence.
At this time, another half-humanoid Giant Croc also appeared on the south water pillar. This monster not only still had the crocodile’s mouth and tail, but his upper limbs also remained in crocodile form.
This Giant Croc roared and said sternly, “Stop nagging, it’s annoying. What is there to say to these petty humans? Just break their necks and serve them to father. Why still talk all this nonsense to them!”
The female Giant Croc who hadn’t shown herself said, “Little brother is still this impatient, don’t you think it’s a great sense of accomplishment to outsmart these humans who have always prided themselves on their intelligence?”
The Primal Giant Crocodile on the south water pillar stuck his big tongue out and licked his mouth, splashing saliva in all directions, “I don’t feel a sense of accomplishment, but looking at so many human cultivators, I do feel a sense of hunger.”
The female Giant Croc laughed uproariously, while the Giant Croc directly on the north rolled his eyes. The Giant Croc on the east pillar also laughed, “This time there is enough human food, in addition to the offerings to father, little brother can eat the rest.”
The Giant Croc on the south pillar roared and said happily, “It is still big brother who knows me best.”
The Giant Croc on the east pillar said with a solemn face, “Well, we are done talking. I think you humans have taken the time to recover your arcane energy, but you aren’t the only ones.”
After that, the Giant Croc waved his hand and four giant war drums suddenly rose from the four water pillars. Each drum was surrounded by four Mid Blood Condensation Realm monsters who were beating the drums.
The dull and majestic sound of the drums had a strange rhythm. When the human cultivators heard it, their arcane energy seemed to be out of control again, so they silently used their cultivation method to control their arcane energy.
Lu Ping also felt uncomfortable at first, but he circulated the [North Ocean Wave Listening Scripture] for a little while, and the drumming no longer affected him. Lu Ping looked around and found that the Late Blood Condensation Realm human cultivators were also practically unaffected as well.
On the contrary, the monsters around them were stepping to the beat of the drums’ rhythms, treading on the waters away from the water pillars. They were slowly approaching the human cultivators in a formation, gradually shrinking the encirclement.
The strange sound of the war drums not only had no effect on the monsters, but also increased the monsters’ morale. Their eyes looked at the human cultivators with a burst of bloodthirsty, murderous aura.
The Red Robe Division Master said, “Not good, they are not ordinary monsters, they are a well-trained monster army. They have taken advantage of the time we spent talking to stand in position, we mustn’t let them form the formation again.”
After saying that, he took the lead to cast his mystic instrument and attacked the monsters that came towards them. The Ocean Overturning Gang cultivators also followed suit and rushed out, sending out attacks.
On the contrary, the other human cultivators were a bit hesitant.
Ai Botao’s face changed when he heard the Red Robe Division Master mention the monster army. He hastily commanded the Xi Ling Island cultivators to follow the Ocean Overturning Gang to attack.
The North Ocean cultivators on the other side were the slowest to react and attacked in a disorganized manner under Han Wei-Yun’s command.
The Primal Giant Crocodile on the east side laughed and said, “Finally, you’ve noticed. But it’s too late now!”
The Giant Croc waved the banner in his hand, and the monster army’s formation changed.
Several Early Blood Condensation Realm monster soldiers centered around a Mid Blood Condensation Realm monster soldier to form a small round formation. Then, several small round formations formed a large formation under the command of a Late Blood Condensation Realm monster general.
These formations were interlocked and supported each other. The monster army blocked every single one of human cultivator’s first wave of attacks without a single death, and only a few dozen were wounded.
The nearby monster generals in command changed the formation pattern, and the wounded monsters were rotated to the rear to recover.
Although Lu Ping had heard about army formations for a long time, this was the first time he witnessed the power of them.
It was said that army formations were often able to empower a group of cultivators to challenge cultivators beyond their cultivation realm. However, Lu Ping initially didn’t believe that very much. To him, being able to challenge cultivators beyond their cultivation layer, was already very remarkable.
But seeing the power of the army formations before his eyes, Lu Ping couldn’t help but believe it now.
A dozen Late Blood Condensation Realm human cultivators attacked together and only wounded a dozen Early Blood Condensation Realm monster soldiers. This one encounter let Lu Ping really experience the power of the monster army formation.
The army formation consisted of four general formations, and each general formation consisted of more than 50 monsters. The general formations surrounded the human cultivators in the center and adopted a steady strategy to press the humans in the encirclement from all around.
The human cultivators were trying to break out of the monster general formations but with each cultivator fighting on their own, not only did they not break out of the formations, but more than a dozen of them were killed in just a short while.
The Red Robe Division Master hurriedly said, “This isn’t working, the monsters have surrounded us from all sides. We have to work together to attack in one direction.”
After he finished his piece, he led the Ocean Overturning Gang to take the lead in attacking the monster general formation in the west.
Ai Botao didn’t hesitate and commanded his cultivators to join the attack on the monster formation in the west. Han Wei-Yun and the North Ocean cultivators also followed suit.
All of a sudden, more than 150 human cultivators were attacking the west monster formation of only 50 monster soldiers, putting the monster general formation in a precarious position.
However, despite all these attacks, the monster formation in the west still managed to resist and hold off the human cultivators.
The Primal Giant Crocodile, who presided over this monster formation, couldn’t sit still and watch from the pillar anymore.
She quickly urged the monster array formations on the other three sides to catch up and assist her formation. She flew out from the water pillar with several Late Blood Condensation Realm monsters by her side.
She was heading for the Late Blood Condensation Realm humans and hoped to ease the pressure on her monster army formation.
Lu Ping instinctively looked at the monster cultivators on the water pillar when they came down to join the fight and saw the Primal Giant Croc spearheading the Late Blood Condensation Realm monsters.
She was in the Eighth Layer Blood Condensation Realm, dressed in a human lady’s flowery clothes, but had a big crocodile mouth, and a long crocodile tail that dragged behind her back. Horrible wasn’t enough to describe how she looked.
When he saw her, Lu Ping immediately knew why only the female Giant Croc didn’t show up when the four Primal Giant Crocodiles were talking just now. Obviously, she knew that as a female in the monster race, she wasn’t able to hold her own in front of the human race with this half-humanoid figure.
The female Giant Croc had rushed out in a hurry to stop the humans when she found that they were going to break out of her monster formation. However, when she rushed out, she found that several human cultivators who were facing her were avoiding her face.
Naturally, the female Giant Croc who was smart enough to calculate against the human cultivators, could easily guess the reason behind their reactions. She was immediately infuriated and stormed out in fury, dragging three Late Blood Condensation Realm human cultivators into a fight suppressing them with her dominating prowess.
The human cultivators saw this and secretly marveled that the Primal Giant Crocodile species’ prowess was worthy of being a noble species in the monster race. At the same time, they worried even more whether they would succeed in surviving this predicament.
On the contrary, when the monster soldiers saw their leader’s dominance, their morale instantly surged and they once again stabilized their defense line that was about to collapse.
At the same time, the monster general formations from the other three directions finally tightened the encirclement and tightly surrounded the human cultivators again.