Chapter 28: Satellite Scout

The four found an empty spot in the camp and set up their tents.

Facing Facing Cang Luo discovered that this camp was not only a temporary resting place for the disciples of the Profound Heaven Sect, but also a trading post.

Many disciples had set up stalls in front of their respective tents, selling items such as medicinal herbs collected from the Demon Beast Forest.

Facing Facing Cang Luo decided to take a look later; perhaps he could find some treasure, like a ring containing an old man or something similar.

After setting up the tents, the four were just about to enter the Demon Beast Forest when, at that moment, an outer sect disciple of the Profound Heaven Sect came running over while shouting for Senior Brother Zang, holding a plant in his hand.

Li Zhanxing looked at the newcomer and said proudly, "He must be here to ask about the grade of the medicinal herb in his hand."

Sure enough, no sooner had Li Zhanxing finished speaking than that disciple ran up to Zang Feng.

Pointing at the medicinal herb with purple-red flower buds in his hand, he asked, "Senior Brother Zang, tell me, what spiritual herb is this?"

Zang Feng did not take it; he glanced at it and said directly, "This is a Grade Two spiritual herb, Blood Origin Rose. Applied externally, it can heal external wounds; refined into pills, it can treat internal organ injuries."

"Unfortunately, this specimen of yours is not yet mature; otherwise, it could be exchanged for a low-grade yuan stone."

"Thank you, Senior Brother Zang." The disciple smiled satisfied, offered his thanks, and then left.

Next, several more disciples brought some spiritual herbs to ask Zang Feng, and Zang Feng answered each one.

Facing Facing Cang Luo admired him and said, "Senior Brother Zang, with so many people coming to the Demon Beast Forest every day to gather spiritual herbs and hunt demons, won't the number of herbs and beasts drop drastically, disrupting the ecological balance?"

"Ecological balance?"

Zang Feng looked at Facing Facing Cang Luo in surprise, mulling over the term 'ecological balance', and said, "You underestimate the Demon Beast Forest. Have you not noticed that the yuan force here is more dense than in the Profound Heaven Sect?"

Hearing this, Facing Facing Cang Luo calmed his mind and sensed carefully; indeed, he found that the yuan force here was denser than in the Profound Heaven Sect.

The absorption efficiency must be at least ten percent higher; one imagines it is even denser inside the Demon Beast Forest.

Facing Facing Cang Luo nodded and said, "Mm, indeed so. If Senior Brother Zang hadn't mentioned it, I really wouldn't have noticed, but what does that matter?"

Zang Feng explained, "The denser the yuan force, the faster spiritual herbs and demons grow and reproduce."

"There is a natural balance within this; mere human martial artists cannot break the Demon Beast Forest's... ecological balance."

"I see..." Facing Facing Cang Luo looked deeply at Zang Feng, thinking this fifteen-year-old boy knew far too much.

There must be a secret!

After a while, seeing that no one came to consult anymore, Zang Feng led the team forward into the Demon Beast Forest...

At a glance, boundless sky-high giant trees stood on the earth.

The short ones were over ten meters tall, the tall ones reached two or three hundred meters, with diameters ranging from dozens of centimeters to two or three meters.

Zang Feng told Facing Facing Cang Luo that these giant trees were called Giant Sequoias, and half the trees in the entire Demon Beast Forest were of this kind.

Though numerous, they had little medicinal value; their only use was for building houses.

Looking at these Giant Sequoias, Cang Luo thought of the tropical rainforests of Africa; he walked under one, patted the trunk, and made a 'thudding' sound, obviously extremely hard.

Tsk tsk tsk! If only he could bring one back to Earth.

Forget research value; just using them to turn beads or make coffee tables could make one wealthy for a lifetime.

At this moment, Zang Feng suddenly said, "Raise your guard; we have entered the activity range of Grade One demons. Liu Xuande, walk at the rear of the formation."

Zang Feng had the highest strength and walked at the front as the team leader to command the whole group; Facing Facing Cang Luo and Li Zhanxing had lower cultivation and walked in the middle.

The four had traveled for about ten minutes; they heard beast sounds but saw no beast shadows, though they found quite a bit of demon beast dung, indicating that demons were active nearby.

After traveling another half hour, they still had not found any demons.

The iron sword in Facing Facing Cang Luo's hand was already eager for action; he boredly swung and chopped at branches along the way.

Liu Xuande said, "Junior Brother Cang, don't be anxious; the activity range of Grade One demons spans thousands of li. How far have we walked?"

"Rest assured, as long as luck isn't bad, we will definitely encounter a few today. When we kill demons, all the demon cores obtained will be yours."

Facing Facing Cang Luo sheathed his iron sword and said awkwardly, "I was too anxious. What is a demon core?"

Liu Xuande looked at Facing Facing Cang Luo in confusion, then said, "A demon core is the energy core of a demon beast, storing a large amount of yuan force."

"It is a material for refining pills, or can be consumed directly to increase cultivation, though the effect is inferior to refining it into a pill."

Facing Facing Cang Luo nodded; I see. It seems that for a loser disciple to quickly improve cultivation, the only way is to venture into the Demon Beast Forest.

Not only can one improve strength, but one can also harvest demon cores.

After traveling another half hour, Li Zhanxing said impatiently, "If only we had a flying beast pet as a scout to probe the path; that would make finding them much easier."

The speaker spoke without thinking, but the listener took it to heart; Facing Facing Cang Luo froze.

Scout? Probe the path?

Facing Facing Cang Luo slapped his forehead, cursing himself silently as a big idiot.

I have a satellite!

A satellite is a natural-born scout!

After successfully connecting to the satellite's camera, Facing Facing Cang Luo discovered it would default to positioning the monitoring area at his current location.

This function was very user-friendly, saving the time of searching for oneself.

Although it was only a few seconds, one would know its importance when the situation was critical.

As Zang Feng said, half the trees in the Demon Beast Forest were Giant Sequoias; sparse on the periphery, becoming denser the deeper one went.

As the satellite's field of view delved deeper, Facing Facing Cang Luo found that the satellite's monitoring function was increasingly losing its effect.

Because the crown spread of the Giant Sequoias could reach over ten meters, very dense, almost blocking the satellite camera's field of view.

Facing Facing Cang Luo thought, if only the satellite had the function of an infrared thermal imager, then tree cover wouldn't be a problem; unfortunately, it didn't.

However, it was still easy to monitor the periphery of the Demon Beast Forest; through the sparse woods, Facing Facing Cang Luo could even see ants crawling on the wild grass.

Facing Facing Cang Luo raised his viewing distance to observe the surrounding environment, seeing many small teams composed of three or four people exploring the forest periphery.

These teams included not only disciples of the Profound Heaven Sect, but also martial artists from other factions.

The deeper into the forest, the fewer people there were; occasionally, one could see a few huge demons swiftly darting past.

After watching for a few minutes, Facing Facing Cang Luo fixed the monitoring range to a hundred-meter area centered on himself.

While following behind Li Zhanxing, he carefully searched for demon beasts.

Hard work pays off—about a dozen meters away, a patch of bushes caught Facing Facing Cang Luo's attention; there seemed to be something inside.

Facing Facing Cang Luo immediately switched the surveillance over for a closer look, and saw three black, hook-shaped creatures of unknown species rustling about in the bushes.

Facing Facing Cang Luo estimated each hook was over three meters long—were they serpent-type demon beasts? Or giant pythons?

Facing Facing Cang Luo's heart jolted. Just the part exposed outside the bushes was already three meters, so how big was the body hidden inside?

And there were three of them—could the four of us, mere Wu Shi, even be a match?

Facing Facing Cang Luo suddenly stopped, pointed at the bushes not far away, and said tensely, "There's some movement over there. I saw something burrow in."

"Where?"

The three of them followed Facing Facing Cang Luo's finger with their eyes but found nothing unusual—after all, their angle of observation differed from Facing Facing Cang Luo's.

Facing Facing Cang Luo was looking down from above, with fewer obstacles in the way.

They were looking straight ahead, with trees and bushes blocking their view.

"Where? Are you just too nervous and seeing things?" Li Zhanxing didn't believe Facing Facing Cang Luo could spot a demon beast before Cang Feng.

In his eyes, Senior Brother Cang was omnipotent—if even Senior Brother Cang hadn't noticed, how could Facing Facing Cang Luo possibly have?

Facing Facing Cang Luo didn't know how to explain; he couldn't exactly tell them he saw it with his 'Heavenly Eye,' could he?

After a moment's hesitation, Facing Facing Cang Luo picked up a stone from the ground and crept quietly toward the bushes.

The three exchanged glances, figuring either Facing Facing Cang Luo was too nervous and seeing things, or it was just some small animal.

Still, they followed behind Facing Facing Cang Luo, just in case something happened so they could provide support in time.

Facing Facing Cang Luo gripped the stone, tiptoed toward that patch of bushes, and when he was about a dozen meters from the target, suddenly hurled the stone in his hand—then quickly retreated.

The stone struck the bushes with only a faint rustling sound; nothing unusual happened.

"See? I told you, you were seeing things. Let's go—we just need to follow behind Senior Brother Cang."

Li Zhanxing complained. It had been over a full shichen without spotting a demon beast, and he was getting a bit irritated.

But just then, from that distant patch of bushes came an unpleasant hissing sound, like a venomous snake flicking its tongue, enough to make one's scalp crawl.

The next moment, everyone saw a black monster with three hook-shaped tails burst violently out of the bushes.

"A scorp—scorpion?"

Facing Facing Cang Luo stared, dumbfounded, unable to believe the creature that had appeared before his eyes.

A body over half a meter tall plus three three-meter-long tails—a six-meter-long black giant scorpion stared menacingly at the group, its two pincers in front still clutching the carcass of some unknown demon beast.

Liu Xuande and Li Zhanxing were startled. They hadn't expected Facing Facing Cang Luo to be telling the truth, and both looked to Cang Feng.

Cang Feng remained calm and immediately commanded, "Spread out and hide behind the giant cedars. Use them to restrict its movement."

The moment his words fell, Liu Xuande and Li Zhanxing immediately obeyed, each taking cover behind a giant cedar and waiting for Cang Feng's next instruction.

Facing Facing Cang Luo also found a giant cedar about a meter thick for cover, gripping his iron sword with both hands, his heart racing, not daring to look back.

Fortunately, he still had the satellite—every move the giant scorpion made could not escape his surveillance.

Facing Facing Cang Luo was secretly shocked. How could scorpions on the Yuanwu Continent be this big? Is this what a demon beast is?

And it even has three tails—one strike from those hooks and you'd either die or be crippled.

What rank demon beast is this? Do we run or fight?

Facing Facing Cang Luo glanced at Cang Feng through the satellite, saw him calm and composed, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Then he looked back at the giant scorpion. Its terrifying mouthparts kept emitting hissing sounds as it shifted its body left and right, looking first at Li Zhanxing's side, then at his own—clearly considering which one to attack first.

As if it knew that among the four of them, Facing Facing Cang Luo and Li Zhanxing were the weakest, so it would pick the soft persimmons to squeeze.

At this moment, Cang Feng said calmly, "Don't be afraid. This is a first-rank demon beast, the Three-Tailed Giant Scorpion. It has two weak points.

One is its abdomen, but the defense there is tight and hard to attack. The other is the excretory opening beneath its tail.

Wait—I'll draw its attention from the front. You three circle around to the back and attack its excretory opening. Be careful of its tail—it's highly venomous.

But don't worry, its tail can't reach targets behind it. Just mind your positioning."

Liu and Li exchanged a glance after hearing Cang Feng's words, and each saw in the other's eyes their trust and admiration for Cang Feng.

Facing Facing Cang Luo suddenly felt this was a bit like playing an online game—a great god leading three lackeys to fight a BOSS......