Chapter 8: She Really Was Unlucky
“This female Giant Salamander is looking for a place to lay its eggs,” Jiang Ning said slowly.
Jiang Ning had observed for a long time. This Giant Salamander clearly had the ability to crush them, yet it didn’t get entangled with them. It was merely acting on instinct to break free from whatever was restraining it, all because it was nearing its due date.
“So?” the group asked, puzzled.
“A female Giant Salamander will have a period of weakness after laying its eggs,” Jiang Ning explained to them.
Everyone present instantly understood Jiang Ning’s meaning.
Even when it wasn’t at its peak, they couldn’t gain any advantage against a B-rank mutated beast. But what about a Giant Salamander in its weakened state?
The group was tempted.
“Why should we believe you?” Scarface narrowed his eyes, looking at her with hostility.
“You’re free not to believe me and continue attacking it like you are now,” Jiang Ning said. “Perhaps if you push this egg-laying female to the brink, she might do something more dangerous, like taking you all down with her. Who knows?”
Seeing Scarface fall silent, Jiang Ning’s gaze swept over his wounds and the two men lying on the ground. “But it’s death either way. If I were you, I’d take a gamble. If you win, not only will you get a B-rank mutated beast, but you’ll also get the B-rank mutated beast eggs it lays.”
Everyone was pondering the truth of Jiang Ning’s words.
After a long while.
A voice broke the silence.
“I believe you.” Yan Zhou looked at Jiang Ning and withdrew the psychic energy he had attached to the Giant Salamander.
In the Giant Salamander’s dark pupils, it couldn’t understand why these people had suddenly let it go.
However, mutated beasts had no intelligence and acted purely on instinct.
Right now, nothing was more important than laying its eggs.
After discovering that the group was no longer attacking it, the Giant Salamander’s four limbs struggled to crawl on the ground.
It just wanted to find a suitable place to lay its eggs now.
“Yan Zhou, you…” Scarface became anxious.
Although he was also hesitant, Jiang Ning was just a child, and there was no substantial evidence in her words to prove that this was indeed a female Giant Salamander about to lay eggs.
Scarface wanted to step forward and stop it.
But a familiar voice stopped him.
“I believe her too.” A dangerous glint flashed in Black Pearl’s eyes.
At her words, both Scarface and Jiang Ning looked over, the same look of astonishment on their faces.
Jiang Ning could understand why Scarface and the people from East District 1 didn’t believe her. After all, if she were in their shoes, she wouldn’t believe the nonsense of a child either.
Why would Black Pearl believe her?
Black Pearl walked over, pinched Jiang Ning’s small face, and smiled wickedly. “If you’re wrong, I’ll sell you.”
Jiang Ning: “…”
So she also dabbled in human trafficking.
Jiang Ning disgustedly slapped away her demonic claw.
Because she was so thin, her face was almost just skin and bones. Even a light pinch was painful.
Black Pearl coldly turned and left, following the trail the Giant Salamander had left behind.
The Giant Salamander stopped at a spot on the edge of the Death Swamp.
Its body burrowed a hole in the mud, and it settled itself inside.
The group hid behind a rock that Yan Zhou had conjured with his earth ability.
They squatted from morning until the sun was about to set, but there was no sign of the mutated beast coming out.
Uncle Li, Auntie Li, and Yan Zhengxiang’s legs were almost numb from squatting. A trace of doubt arose in their hearts.
Had the mutated beast already run away?
Auntie Li changed her position, squatting down next to Jiang Ning, and asked in a low voice, “Jiang Ning, tell Auntie Li quietly, are you confident about this or not?”
She thought her voice was very low, but in reality, everyone heard her.
Black Pearl chose to give up directly. She grabbed Jiang Ning from the ground.
“I’m not waiting anymore. I’m selling you right now!”
If they hadn’t listened to this girl, they might have been able to hunt a C-rank mutated beast by now.
The sky was about to turn dark, and they couldn’t stay here for long.
Black Pearl dragged Jiang Ning towards the truck.
This turn of events happened so suddenly that by the time Auntie Li wanted to pull her back, it was too late.
“The mutated beast! It’s the mutated beast!”
“It’s coming out!”
The few men under Scarface’s command excitedly pointed at the swamp in front of them.
Hearing this, everyone turned to look.
A black protrusion emerged from the swamp mud.
Although the black protrusion was inconspicuous, the group, who had been squatting here for almost a day, quickly recognized it as the female Giant Salamander.
By the time the Giant Salamander fully emerged from the ground, a trap was waiting for it.
Hiss—
A threatening hiss came from the Giant Salamander’s throat.
The group, who had long been prepared, was naturally not afraid.
The Giant Salamander was sick and tired of this group of humans. It hesitated, wanting to retreat into the mud, but the escape route there had already been cut off by Yan Zhou’s ability.
The Giant Salamander roared, preparing for a life-or-death battle with the humans before it.
It stretched out its sharp claws and chose to pounce on Jiang Ning, who looked the least threatening in the crowd.
Jiang Ning closed her eyes. She really was unlucky.
Jiang Ning took a deep breath. Instead of dodging, she slid her body down, avoiding the Giant Salamander’s forelimbs, and slid towards its abdomen.
The Giant Salamander, seeing its prey disappear before its eyes, immediately realized something was wrong and wanted to retreat. But the group, who had already set up a formation around it, would not let it go.
They all took out their respective weapons and attacked the Giant Salamander.
After sliding under the Giant Salamander’s abdomen, Jiang Ning directly took out a short blade she carried with her and cut through the surface skin of its abdomen.
The skin on its abdomen was much softer than elsewhere. After being cut open by Jiang Ning, blood continuously flowed out.
At the same time, the Giant Salamander felt the pain and suddenly began to struggle violently.
Its giant body pressed down on Jiang Ning’s position, trying to crush the annoying ant beneath it.
Seeing that she was about to be flattened, Jiang Ning immediately rolled to the side and, in a reverse motion, grabbed onto its tail.
The Giant Salamander felt a weight on its tail and began to whip it frantically, trying to shake Jiang Ning off.
“Jiang Ning!”
By the time Yan Zhou and the others noticed her, Jiang Ning had already climbed up its back along its tail.
“Li Xiang, give me the sword,” Jiang Ning shouted to Li Xiang, who was closest to her.
Li Xiang’s hand, holding the sword, was trembling. It was only after being pushed from behind by Yan Zhengxiang that he came to his senses and threw the long sword in Jiang Ning’s direction.
The long sword spun a few times in the air and was steadily caught by Jiang Ning.
Black Pearl, who was the first to realize what Jiang Ning wanted to do, said to the others, “Hold it down.”
At this critical moment, no one had any objections.
Whenever the Giant Salamander tried to grab the girl on its back, someone would provoke it from the front.
The Giant Salamander was both angry and anxious.
Finally, with all her strength, Jiang Ning climbed to the center of the Giant Salamander’s head.
At this moment, her body was covered in a mixture of various slimes, including that of the Thorny Devil Lizard from yesterday.
Jiang Ning remained calm and took a deep breath.
“Retch—”
Damn it, she stank.
Jiang Ning squatted on the Giant Salamander’s head and fumbled around. After several attempts, she finally felt a spot of soft cartilage.
She stabbed into it without hesitation.
The Giant Salamander immediately struggled even more violently, its movements so large that it almost threw Jiang Ning off.
The group around them had no choice but to retreat to a safer area to avoid being accidentally injured by the Giant Salamander.
Jiang Ning’s hand gripped the sword tightly to prevent herself from being thrown off.
A moment later, the Giant Salamander’s movements visibly slowed down.
It wasn’t until it stopped moving completely that Yan Zhou, Black Pearl, and Scarface approached.
Jiang Ning had slid off the Giant Salamander at some point and had fainted from exhaustion.
Yan Zhou stopped in front of Jiang Ning and patted her face.
No reaction.
The rest of the group now gathered around.
Seeing the bruises on Jiang Ning’s exposed skin, Auntie Li’s heart ached.
She carefully held Jiang Ning in her arms.
Scarface and Black Pearl walked up to the Giant Salamander to check it, then took out their nano-rings and stored it away.
The mutated beast was dealt with, but what about its eggs?
“Yan Zhou,” Black Pearl called from behind.
Only Yan Zhou had an ability, so it was most appropriate for him to search for them now.
Yan Zhou’s eyes flickered. He said to the people from his district, “Auntie Li, Dad, you guys take Jiang Ning back to the truck first. I’ll be right there.”
“Okay, son. Be careful, and watch out for those people from the East District,” Yan Zhengxiang said. “Those people are not honest.”
“I’ll be careful.”
After that, the group carried Jiang Ning back to where they had parked the truck.
The Carrion Ants were gone, and Scarface’s truck had been righted.
The five of them waited in the truck until only the last glimmer of light remained on the horizon before Yan Zhou and the people from East District 1 appeared in the distance.
Although the group was disheveled, their faces still wore smiles.
This trip had been very fruitful.
When they got back, there would be enough for both districts to share.
After Yan Zhou got into the truck, Yan Zhengxiang started the engine and drove away from the Death Swamp.
It was still a two-and-a-half-hour drive to the outskirts of their city. They could only hope not to encounter any other mutated beasts along the way.
After driving for nearly four hours, the group finally made it back to the city.
It was almost ten o’clock at night. Fearing that the trading market would be closed, the two districts went there first.
When Yan Zhengxiang arrived at the market, the owner was just about to close up.
The owner told them to wait until tomorrow. No matter how much they pleaded, they couldn’t change his mind.
It wasn’t until the owner saw Scarface’s group get out of the truck.
These people were familiar faces at the market, and they always sold a large number of mutated beasts each time.
“Are you with them?”
“Yes, yes.”
After getting an affirmative answer, the owner reluctantly agreed.
“If you had said you were with Scarface earlier… I’ll just work some overtime. Take out the mutated beasts you want to sell.” The owner led the group to the mutated beast warehouse behind the market.
This place was as large as ten football fields.
Everyone released the mutated beasts they had hunted from their nano-rings.
The corpses of twenty to thirty mutated beasts piled up like a small mountain, quickly blocking their view.
Seeing that this was a big order, the owner immediately put on a beaming smile. Although they were all low-level mutated beasts like the Thorny Devil Lizard, there were a lot of them.
The owner immediately began to count the mutated beasts in the warehouse.
Ten minutes later, the owner returned to the group and brought up a calculator on his Star Brain. “A total of 36 Thorny Devil Lizards. 36 times 32 is 1152 star coins.”
The owner looked up and asked, “So, whose account should I transfer it to?”
“32?” Yan Zhengxiang thought he had misheard.
“Isn’t a Thorny Devil Lizard 35 each?”
“That was the price two days ago. Today, the price for a Thorny Devil Lizard is 32.” The owner chuckled lightly and pulled up today’s mutated beast price list on his Star Brain.
“It dropped so fast?” Everyone’s heart sank.
Thorny Devil Lizards were so hard to hunt, and with just a few words from the people above, their price had dropped again.