Chapter 247: Bound

Watching the Dao Yi Sect disciples busily enjoying themselves, this male spirit frog essence slipped away quietly, heading straight for the stone cave underwater.

But it didn't know that, although it thought its movements were undiscovered, from the very beginning they had been seen by Xu Jie and the other inner disciples.

At this moment, Zhong Ling and Xu Jie exchanged a glance, and both, in perfect unison, refrained from moving to capture this male spirit frog essence.

It would be a joke—if they captured these spirit frog essences, how would they eat spirit frogs in the future, and still expect these essences to breed more spirit frogs?

The male spirit frog essence that had safely returned to the underwater stone cave also truthfully told the female spirit frog essence everything it had seen.

Upon hearing that the Dao Yi Sect disciples were frantically catching spirit frogs, the female spirit frog essence was also completely bewildered.

What's going on with these people? They don't come looking for them, but instead go madly catching ordinary spirit frogs—what does that mean?

But soon, the female spirit frog essence seemed to think of something, and immediately a confident smile appeared on its face as it said.

"I see."

"Madam, what's wrong?"

Seeing this, the four male spirit frog essences all asked doubtfully; upon hearing the words, the female spirit frog essence wore a self-satisfied look.

"These humans definitely can't find our whereabouts, so they're using this clumsy method, hoping to deal with us by catching spirit frogs."

Saying this, the confidence in the female spirit frog essence's eyes grew stronger, as if it had seen through everything, and it spoke with a cold smile.

"But all of this will only be in vain; they probably don't realize the breeding speed of our spirit frog clan."

Saying that, she gave the four male spirit frog essences a glance; seeing this, their expressions changed, but they still obediently stepped forward.

Not long after, tadpoles kept swimming out from the stone cave.

If the Dao Yi Sect wants to catch all the spirit frogs, it will let them know just how naive that idea is.

Over the next few days, the Dao Yi Sect disciples were blissful to the extreme—this was practically a heavenly life.

First, there was an endless supply of ingredients; the number of spirit frogs was large, so they never had to worry about food in the short term.

Second, Ye Zhangqing prepared meals for twenty thousand people each day these past few days.

This made the disciples overjoyed; they could eat without fighting for seats—a scene that had only appeared in dreams until recently.

But now, they have been eating Junior Brother Changqing's cooking for several days straight.

Ye Zhangqing did this also hoping to quickly resolve the spirit frog matter; thus, basically, however many spirit frogs the senior brothers brought back, he would cook that many.

Besides, skinning, gutting, and cleaning were helped by the various senior brothers, so it wasn't too troublesome.

Days passed most enjoyably—spicy hot pot spirit frogs, numbing-spicy spirit frogs, garlic fragrance spirit frogs, ginger sprout spirit frogs.

The disciples tried every flavor of spirit frog, yet they still felt unsatisfied.

Under such a pleasant life, as time slowly passed, another few days went by, and the disciples discovered an extremely serious problem.

Namely, the growth rate of the spirit frogs in this river is continually slowing down.

The scene where the entire river was once packed full of spirit frogs no longer exists; now, when the disciples go to the riverbank to catch spirit frogs, they have to search for them.

This put the disciples in a bad mood—Xu Jie, Zhao Zhengping, Zhao Rou, Zhong Ling and the other inner disciples stood by the riverbank, looking at the now-normal river surface, and there wasn't even a shadow of a spirit frog to be seen.

"Damn it, wasn't the spirit frog clan's breeding capacity supposed to be terrifying? Is this it?"

"So disappointing."

They muttered curses, never having laid a hand on the spirit frog essences behind the scenes—wasn't it precisely to let them breed freely?

But now it seems these spirit frog essences are utterly useless; you've been given the chance, yet you damn well can't seize it.

"What should we do now?"

"What can we do? Looking at it this way, those spirit frog essences are already struggling to keep up with our pace."

The breeding speed can't keep up with everyone's eating speed; after saying that, a few people exchanged glances, and although they didn't speak, they clearly had a plan in mind.

They immediately leapt into the river and swam toward the underwater stone cave where the spirit frog essences were located.

Actually, Xu Jie and the others had long known exactly where the spirit frog essences were; they just delayed acting, wasn't that to give them a chance?

But now, since you've failed to seize this opportunity, don't blame us.

Unbeknownst to them that everyone was rushing straight toward them, at this moment inside the underwater stone cave, the four male spirit frog essences were already filled with terror, their bodies emaciated—compared to a few days ago, they had grown far too weak.

Their eyes looking at the female spirit frog essence were also full of fear, and they kept shaking their heads as they said.

"I can't anymore, really can't."

"Madam, there's nothing left; I truly have nothing at all."

"I can't produce even a bit."

"Madam, let's rest a bit; these Dao Yi Sect disciples are basically not human."

Who knows how they've managed these past few days; at first they were full of confidence, after all, the spirit frog clan's greatest ability should be breeding.

These humans still wanted to capture all their offspring—utterly fantastical.

But as time passed, the development of this matter turned out to be completely unlike what they had imagined.

They have been breeding with all their might, yet the number of spirit frogs continues to plummet cliff-like.

Those Dao Yi Sect disciples are basically beasts; I don't know why they're catching so many spirit frogs.

Those spirit frogs—almost as soon as one grows up, it gets snatched away; catching them day after day is like trying to fill a bottomless pit.

The four male spirit frog essences have exhausted everything, yet the result is still that they can't keep up with the speed at which the Dao Yi Sect disciples catch them.

Not to mention them; even the female spirit frog essence now looks worn out.

It had never felt that breeding was such a painful thing; before, producing offspring was as easy as letting out a fart.

But now, this damn thing is life-threatening; its old life is almost half gone.

Exhausted, completely exhausted, they've already pushed to the limit—but now, the spirit frogs in the Heaven-Reaching River are down to one in ten; what will they do next?

Should they continue to fight to the death against the Dao Yi Sect disciples?

If that's really the case, perhaps the Dao Yi Sect disciples wouldn't even need to act; they would simply work themselves to death.

"Let's go, change locations."

After a long silence, finally, this female spirit frog essence chose to flee; facing the Dao Yi Sect disciples, it was left with nothing but utter despair, unable even to survive—what else could it do?

But just as the words fell, outside the stone cave, several burly men suddenly rushed in.

Led by Xu Jie and Zhao Zhengping, facing this sudden group of burly men, the five spirit frog essences were startled, but before they could react, Xu Jie made a quick decision, waved his hand, and said in a low voice.

"Tie them up."

"Who are you? What do you want?"

"Stop it, what are you doing?"

They didn't give the five spirit frog essences any chance to react; with a sack thrown over them, they were directly bound and taken away, the whole process went smoothly without a hitch.