Chapter 478: Long Legs

Of course, this battle array was also divided into several levels according to energy consumption and coverage range. The set of array talismans everyone used now was the smallest one, covering only a radius of twenty zhang, and could be assembled with only seven array talismans. He Lingchuan couldn't possibly have this kind of thing in his hands; this set of array talismans was borrowed from the county by the government runners, along with the mysterious crystals that drove it.

Of course, it had to be returned after use.

But such a wealthy move still shocked He Lingchuan.

A mere county magistrate could approve mysterious crystals to activate a battle array with a stroke of a pen; this was unimaginable in the Yuan Nation.

Just from this small matter, one could see that Zhitian Township was truly rich.

Now the monster's escape technique had failed, and not only was the momentum of sinking curbed, but the part that had already sunk was instead as if imprisoned in cement, unable to be pulled out.

This was the effect He Lingchuan and the others wanted.

Following the trail all the way, he basically concluded that this monster under Mr. Mai's command specialized in stealth + disguise, which was how it could kill so many victims without anyone noticing.

However, the initiative of this ambush battle was in their own hands, and he only needed to make targeted arrangements.

Jiao Yu and General Ling, after seeing the mucus at the crime scene, unanimously confirmed that this was a monster similar to a snail.

The most significant characteristic of this type of creature was its slow movement. So it was reasonable for it to use escape techniques to make up for this shortcoming.

Now the prohibition array trapped it in place and unable to dive, and the slow-moving monster was meat on the chopping block, so they could strive for enough time to slowly slaughter it.

He Lingchuan then revealed his figure from the rear, his blade light like a bolt of silk, but it made a series of dense overlapping sounds when it slashed on the medicinal warehouse.

Just now, he had watched with his own eyes as the monster swallowed the medicinal warehouse in one gulp. If it weren't for his and Jiao Yu's quick reactions, they would be in its belly by now.

The battle was very dangerous from the beginning.

He seemed to have only slashed once, but in fact, seven strikes were connected, each precisely hitting the same spot.

The medicinal warehouse cracked a small opening.

He Lingchuan made persistent efforts, and this time the Floating Life Blade finally exerted its characteristics, piercing in a palm deep with a "du" sound.

He used all his strength to pull back the precious blade, and there wasn't a trace of blood on the edge.

And he was sure that the inside of the hard shell was empty! This thing was harder than a turtle shell and thicker than a turtle shell, and with the sharpness of Floating Life, he still hadn't damaged its main body! Was it really created by Dong Rui? He Lingchuan couldn't believe it.

If this monster was so capable, why didn't Dong Rui drive it to escape Beijia himself, instead of giving it to someone else?

There must be something strange! The current situation didn't allow for much thought, so He Lingchuan grabbed a hook claw and stabbed it into the wound cut by the Floating Life Blade with his bare hands.

With another press of the mechanism, the claw tip opened in the hollow space inside with a "ceng" sound, firmly embedded in the wound.

He threw the rope to a Drilling Wind Beast, which caught it in its mouth, and started a charge toward the nearest large tree. It really showed the speed of Drilling Wind, circling five or six trees in a row.

The thickest tree was nearly one and a half zhang in diameter.

This warehouse area was originally a forest farm, and at the request of the tree monsters, people kept about one-third of the trees, most of which were thick giant trees.

The other government runners were also chopping, but their weapons weren't that powerful, and they couldn't even grind out a scratch.

For everyone, this was simply incredible.

Government runners all came with meta-power to handle cases, and naturally had an advantage against mountain monsters and wild beasts. But what was going on with this thing?

Only He Lingchuan knew that the monster puppets created by Dong Rui had high resistance to meta-power. Unless a master from the Chi Yan Kingdom came in person, it would be difficult for these few government runners to cause any substantial damage to it.

These twenty-odd people kept clanging, as if they were repairing a house.

But their attack was not without effect; the medicinal warehouse changed shape under everyone's eyes, and in the blink of an eye, it turned into a hard shell two zhang high, with fine patterns on the dark brown surface, like patterns and like runes.

Showdown, no more pretending.

The familiar spiral pattern shrank a hundred times, just like the food they ate daily...

Xu Dayou gasped: "Snail?"

"Sure enough, it's a snail!" General Ling jumped from the rear and knocked him flying.

Thanks to its sharp eyes and quick hooves, although Xu Dayou fell more than a zhang away and fell into a dog-eating-mud, a giant claw suddenly lifted from under the snail shell, pia-ing on the spot where he had been standing.

If he hadn't moved, he would have been a meat patty by now.

The government runners on the other side of the giant shell weren't so lucky; two of them were standing close, so they were crushed into the mud together, not even having time to scream.

"This thing has legs!" Jiao Yu had circled it several times before, but had nowhere to bite, and now that he finally saw something he could bite, how could he let it go? He pounced like a hungry tiger, but was lifted off the ground.

Another thunderbolt illuminated the world, and everyone was shocked looking at the monster in front of them:

This thing not only had legs, but also four long legs!

Long legs that could bend forward like human legs, with a sticky and shiny surface, and the foot claws were wide and flat, with webs between the claw gaps.

At the same time, this monster also poked its head out of the hard shell, its braincase square, its front snout wide and round, and a big mouth split to the back of its head, opening like a bottomless abyss.

There were two antenna-like feelers in front of its forehead, thin and long, like needles and like arrows.

Of course, this thing also had a snail-like body, with faint brown spots on the surface, which were not very conspicuous in the dark; a tail was thick and long, but the tip was gone, which was when it was held by General Ling's horns in the porcupine nest, breaking its tail to survive.

Several government runners were stunned: "What the hell is this!"

Chi Yan Kingdom was also a land of monsters, but no one had ever seen such a strange monster.

Clearly it had a snail's body and hard shell, but it had frog-like limbs and a head.

Nothing was coordinated, as if someone had forcibly pieced these parts together.

Everyone could see clearly that these limbs and heads were stretched out from its body, just like the feelers poked out by a snail, and could be retracted at any time.

General Ling was also stunned: "Could it be a salamander?"

If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have guessed in his wildest dreams that the real culprit of the series of murders would look like this.

Seeing the monster's appearance, He Lingchuan secretly gave a thumbs up, Dong Rui, oh Dong Rui, you really deserve your reputation.

Seeing the monster's appearance, he was instead certain that this was Dong Rui's work.

The monster happened to have a government runner running past three zhang in front of it, holding a torch in his hand. He thought the monster couldn't move, so his avoidance movement was a bit slow. Where did he know that the monster suddenly opened its mouth, and a red shadow faster than the naked eye could see flashed, and the government runner went into its mouth with a long scream.

"Tongue?" General Ling roared, "Don't stand in front of its mouth, this thing catches prey with its tongue!"

Now he finally knew how that big mouth was used; this was clearly a frog mouth.

How a frog catches prey, this thing eats people the same way.

Everyone retreated one after another, no one dared to stop by its mouth.

Just that big mouth, it didn't look like it would mind stuffing ten people in at once.

The monster puppet swallowed the government runner without even chewing, and immediately after, its two hind legs pushed hard, jumping on the spot!

He Lingchuan originally couldn't imagine how a monster as heavy as a small mountain would jump high, but he finally opened his eyes today.

Probably because the hard shell on its body was too heavy, this monster actually lunged forward, hovering less than eight feet in the air before landing, shaking the ground with a bang.

It looked like thunder, but the distance of this leap was only three zhang, not even as good as a rock sheep's leap.

But the frequency of its continuous lunging was very fast, and in the blink of an eye, it lunged twenty-four or five zhang, which was already out of the range of the Escape Technique Prohibition array.

The monster had its own sense, and wanted to dive into the ground.

As long as it could sink, it would be safe, and by the way, it could take away the full warehouse of self-heal as rations for a long time to come.

However, its victorious escape was only one step away.

The monster tried its best to sink with a momentum, but it still couldn't go down.

It wasn't that the array was effective, but that there was a force dragging it from behind, preventing it from moving forward.

The hook rope He Lingchuan tied to its hard shell finally took effect.

Now this set of hook ropes was stuck in the snail shell at one end, and the other end was wrapped around five or six large trees, tightly tied to the most magnificent tree by the Drilling Wind Beast.

If it wanted to sink successfully, it had to pull down these few large trees first.

The monster puppet exerted force again, and the rope tightened suddenly, the trunks of two large trees creaked, and a circle of bark broke.

This thing was really strong, but the quality of the rope and hook claw was also really good.

The rope was recently made for He Lingchuan by Li Qingge, the Lord of Songyang Prefecture, and the main material had been changed to cloud brocade he got in the Demon Nest Swamp.

This was the top-grade spider silk produced by the cave spider, light as nothing, but the toughness and elasticity were extremely amazing; Zhu Erniang could hang herself on a tree to swing at will with just this one spider silk.

Its body size was not much different from this monster puppet.

Therefore, He Lingchuan was very confident in its strength; after all, Zhu Erniang's products were fine products.

As for the hook claw, it was Li Fubo's proud work, claiming to be the best work in the past three years, and it hadn't broken under such extreme pulling by the monster puppet.

Uh, not yet.

Naturally, the bystanders were terrified, fearing that if the monster puppet exerted force again, this small thin rope would snap with a "pa" sound.

"Jiao Yu, come back!"

The fierce tiger retreated at the sound. This thing was too big, and its sharp teeth and claws couldn't hurt the essence of the other party.

He Lingchuan then ordered: "Load the crossbow, quickly! Hurry up and give it a few more shots!"

Xu Dayou grabbed his hat from the ground and put it on, fumbled for a black-and-white short thorn, installed it on the crossbow as an arrow. The subordinates also followed suit, then raised their crossbows and shot at the monster's soft body.

Previously, it was hiding in the hard shell, and no one could do anything about it. Now it was exposing its head and butt, and its size was so big, who could miss?

These were not ordinary arrows, but porcupine spikes picked up from under Mount Yulun!

The porcupine spikes themselves had the characteristics of decay and filth, and He Lingchuan had manually added ingredients to them, each coated with the cave spider poison gland gifted by Zhu Erniang.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 479 =====