Chapter 548: Contest (1/2)

Chapter 548: Contest

Translator: EndlessFantasy TranslationEditor: EndlessFantasy Translation

A red-tailed beast! It was a red-tailed beast! Ye Chong could not believe his eyes. This was the creature, alright. It was a juvenile, with a pair of light red eyes on its angular head. It was young, but the eyes betrayed its vicious nature. The creature looked worn out. The five-meter tall cage was too small for it, such that it must curl in on itself to fit inside. There were no visible injuries on its body. The light red colored arrowhead tail was not fully mature yet. The red-tailed beasts that Ye Chong had seen before had arrowhead tails that were crimson red in color. The maturity of a red-tailed beast was not determined by its size, but by the color of its tail – the redder the arrowhead tail, the stronger the creature.

The only thing that surprised Ye Chong currently was that this creature had five fingers. By his experience, an eight-fingered red-tailed beast was the pinnacle of strength, while six-fingered red-tailed beasts were equivalent to a human tribe's chieftain. Five-fingered red-tailed beasts were not very strong, but they were still quite capable of destruction. This particular red-tailed beast he was looking at had a blue tinge on its body, and he had never seen anything like it before.

Why would there be red-tailed beasts here?

Ye Chong was intrigued. He never expected to have red-tailed beasts in this world. He heard it clearly from the ambassador – Darkniss, the place where the creature was from. Ye Chong had heard of Darkniss a few times. He knew that there were metals there, the so-called gravestones that Sha Ya and the others had told him about. There were also plants like Gold Leaves in the place.

Suddenly, a bold idea came to Ye Chong – could the red-tailed beasts have entered He Yue Galaxy from Darkniss? Was Darkniss home of the red-tailed beasts?

Ye Chong found himself face with many questions.

Sun Sieha did not recognize the red-tailed beast. He asked with faint surprise, ”So it's a mysterious creature. Call Xuan Ning here, perhaps he'd seen it before.”

The other councillors were also curious of the creature. Few of them had ever seen any animal as big as this. The red-tailed beast looked worn out, but they could still imagine the strength that came with it.

Mu Chen maintained a thin smile on his face throughout.

After a moment, Xuan Ning arrived. He was a man in his thirties, with thick eyebrows on a pair of large eyes. He looked like an honest and respectable man.

”Xuan Ning, reporting for duty!” Xuan Ning saluted in military fashion.

”Alright. You're here because I'd like you to have a look at this strange creature. It was captured in Darkniss. Have you seen it before?” Sun Sieha asked gently.

Xuan Ning looked towards the huge cage placed in the centre of the assembly room, and then quickly averted his gaze. ”I have, Your Majesty.”

”Oh, tell us more.” Sun Sieha grew interested. He had travelled far and wide when he was young, but had never been to Darkniss, known for its dangers.

”Five years ago, when I had just reached Level 8, I decided to visit Darkniss. Darkniss is known to be home to many strong creatures, and is a good place for training. I invited two friends to come along. They were Level 7 shooters. The three of us made our preparations for the visit.”

Xuan Ning recalled what happened back then. Everyone in the assembly room was absorbed in his story.

”We entered the Desert from Dual Forest. The journey was smooth at first. The sandlizards did not hinder us. We moved quickly. Later, we encountered sandscorpions. That was horrible. The sandscorpions always appear in hundreds or thousands, spread out for dozens of kilometers. Fortunately for us, there were no sandstorms, or we would have laid down our lives there. After that, we entered the Mist, where a perpetual purple mist covered the area.”

Ye Chong felt his heart tightened. He had heard of the Desert and the Mist, but he never knew that the mist was purple in colour. However, even he was aware of it earlier, he would not have associated it with the red-tailed beasts, for he had not seen the creature here yet. For now, it was still too early to tell I the purple mist was the same as the one he had seen in his own world.

No one noticed Ye Chong's unsettled look. They were all absorbed in Xuan Ning's story.

”Visibility is low, but as shooters, our parapsychic sense helps us to navigate. In the Mist was a thick forest. Vines and branches surrounded us. Humidity was high, and there was no sunlight. It was a place that was difficult for shooting. We were lucky to have avoided anything really troublesome. There was only a pack of gliresaurs we had to deal with.”

Xuan Ning described his experience mildly, but his audience could imagine how terrifying the battle must have been.

”After we crossed the Mist, we finally entered Darkniss. There is no sunlight in Darkniss, but there are strange plants that give off light in there. There is also flowing lava that glows a fiery red here and there, painting a red tinge on anything you see in there.”

When Xuan Ning began to talk about Darkniss, his voice turned low and serious.

”Once we entered Darkniss, we proceeded carefully. We knew the place was dangerous. We walked along one of the lava flows that was about 20 meters wide. However, we had our first dangerous encounter on our first day in Darkniss. We were attacked by 14 black-striped gray dragons. They were huge, standing up to about seven or eight meters tall. The creatures were fast in the air, and had strong and sharp beaks and claws. All three of us were injured from that battle. The dragons swooped down from above. We shot them to death, but they were coming down too quickly. We were injured by the gravestones that were sent flying from their crashing into the ground. Fortunately, we were not too heavily injured, and the experience taught us to be more careful. We would never have survived the visit otherwise.”

Xuan Ning looked like he had not fully gotten over the encounter yet.

”After that, we encountered other creatures, but none were as strong as the black-striped gray dragons. On our 13th day in Darkniss, we lost our way. We were panicking. That was also the day we met one of this strange creature. Our records don't have anything on it, so that was our first time seeing it. The one we met was stronger than this one in the cage. It was fighting against a pack of black-striped gray dragons. There were no less than 30 of the dragons dead on the ground when we saw them. The black-striped gray dragons were fast, but not as agile as the unknown creature. Its arrowhead tail was quick and deadly. The sharp beaks and claws of the dragons did not leave any marks on the unknown creature. We stayed in our dark hiding spot until all the black-striped gray dragons were killed by the unknown creature. We counted the number of dragon bodies on the ground. The tally came up to 55.”

The people in the assembly room were disturbed by Xuan Ning's story. They realized now how powerful the creature in the cage was. Some of them almost called out for the guards. The red-tailed beast seemed to notice the fear and panic of the people around it. Its light red eyes gleamed condescendingly.

”Oh, so this officer did not catch the strange creature,” Mu Shen commented with mock surprise.

Xuan Ning ignored him entirely and continued, ”This creature is not yet mature, but no human can catch it alive. I don't think it's possible without deploying a huge fleet of fighters.”

”Then how do you think this particular animal was caught?” Mu Shen asked Xuan Ning with a smile.

Xuan Ning replied coldly, ”Aside from strong creatures, Darkniss also has all kinds of poisonous things. Any shooter who visited Darkniss would know that water puddles found in the place are not safe to drink from. I've seen a tumoric bear drank from a puddle where tiny blue flowers were growing. After that, the tumoric bear became weakened. Its body had a shade of blue, just like this creature we have here. I would guess that this creature had drank the same kind of poison, and was later found by someone. The fact that there are no visible wounds on this creature supports my theory. What do you think, Sir Mu?”

Xuan Ning spoke confidently, supporting his argument with sound evidence. He looked at Mu Shen sharply.

Mu Shen squirmed inside and replied with a softened tone, ”As mentioned earlier, I know nothing about these things. Sir Xuan Ning has opened my eyes. Sir Xuan Ning is truly knowledgeable.” Xuan Ning's deductions were accurate. The creature was not captured by them. It was a tribute from a few shooters who entered Darkniss to the King of Western Frost.

Xuan Ning was not interested in exchanging further words with Mu Shen. He bowed to Sun Sieha. ”Your Majesty, I take my leave.”

Sun Sieha was pleased to see Mu Shen intimidated. He was familiar with the temperament of this particular subordinate of his. ”Alright, you may leave.”

Xuan Ning turned to bow to the other nobilities in the assembly room. The nobles returned the gesture before Xuan Ning left the assembly room.