Chapter 211: The Lure of the Bandits

The closer Lao Bari got to the water-spitting crocodiles gathered together, the more alarmed he became; whether because they had eaten something or because these crocodile monsters had had a sufficient food source in recent years, the several water-spitting crocodiles gathered here were far larger than he had anticipated.

When he had come to scout with the gang leader two years ago, the water-spitting crocodiles entrenched here were only the size of a carriage cabin, four meters long excluding the tail. That was already a terrifying monster size, and these ancient monsters had extremely long lifespans with no limit to their growth, only growing infinitely as they aged.

The monster manual said that similar monsters would eventually starve to death in their nests because they grew too large and could find too little food each day.

So, why are water-spitting crocodiles called stupid crocodiles?

At this moment, by the moonlight on the riverbank, Lao Bari discovered that the largest water-spitting crocodile was nearly three people long excluding its tail, roughly over five meters; if the tail were included, the length easily exceeded ten meters, and its weight was estimated to be more than ten horses.

A water-spitting crocodile monster of this size could likely eat an entire horse in one sitting.

"Damn it, it must be that in the last few years, some merchants even stupider than these stupid crocodiles 'gifted' themselves and their caravan horses to these monsters to eat. No wonder they could grow so fast!"

He looked at the goat kid in his hands, worried about whether this little thing could attract the attention of the water-spitting crocodile. If it couldn't succeed, he would have to use himself as bait. As for Bone and Zanglian, he had already planned it out on the way here; what was truly luring the crocodile monster wasn't the two Forest Long-eared Rabbits that wouldn't even be enough to get stuck in its teeth, but those two truly stupid people themselves.

"Let's try it, hope it works. Little guy, scream loudly in a moment!" Lao Bari slapped the head of the lamb in his hands hard and removed the rope binding its mouth.

"Baa—"

Instantly, the lamb's shrill, milky cry of terror resounded across the riverbank, drowning out even the sound of the babbling river water.

"Good, keep screaming like that!" Seeing the several water-spitting crocodiles nearby that had been lazing about stop and remain motionless, he knew these stupid yet powerful monsters had already discovered something.

He pulled out a Dagger and stabbed the lamb directly in the belly.

Fresh blood flowed out immediately; Lao Bari carefully avoided getting the bait's blood on himself and began to retreat step by step.

Because he saw the nearest medium-sized water-spitting crocodile seem to smell the blood, turning its head over; its massive golden eyes reflected the moonlight from the sky, clearly letting him know it was looking this way.

*Scrape, scrape*, this water-spitting crocodile began to crawl slowly in Lao Bari's direction.

Seeing this scene, Lao Bari stabbed the goat kid acting as bait two more times; the poor little thing cried out even more intensely from the pain, but soon, as its blood drained away, its cries grew weak.

That stupid crocodile whipped its head, knocking over a large Stone Lao Bari had been hiding behind; it extended its head, which was the size of two adult humans, and its pointed nose twitched a few times, detecting the rich scent of blood.

Subsequently, it rapidly moved its legs, which looked ridiculous but were actually thicker than a person's waist, and crawled forward.

Its movements were so large that it crushed and pushed aside the pebbles along the way, emitting a *clatter, clatter* sound of Stone colliding.

Hearing the stupid crocodile approaching rapidly, Lao Bari's heart nearly jumped out of his mouth; although he looked down on this brainless monster, he also knew he was no match for this thing at all. Let alone eating him, if the water-spitting crocodile just ran and rammed into him without even using its special abilities, it could easily crush him to death.

But scattered blood alone was not enough; the crocodile monster was, after all, lazy by nature. After running quickly for a few steps and failing to find the injured prey immediately, it slowed down at once, even intending to give up.

That wouldn't do. Lao Bari immediately grabbed the goat kid's neck with his right hand and used the Dagger in his left hand to slice open the lamb's belly; with a *whoosh*, a pile of the lamb's Viscera fell onto the riverbank.

And as if that weren't enough, Lao Bari stirred the Dagger inside the lamb's Viscera, cutting them up messily to let the fishy smell of the organs drift out, which instantly made the water-spitting crocodile nearby, which had intended to give up the hunt, chase after him again.

Seeing this, Lao Bari grabbed the lamb's neck and turned to run. After running a few steps, he smashed the lamb hard against a Stone on the riverbank, making the lamb cry out in pain once more.

Behind him was the water-spitting crocodile, stepping on the riverbank pebbles and knocking aside everything in its path.

This large crocodile had only entered a hunting state stimulated by the fishy smell of the Viscera, but when it passed the pile of intestines on the ground, it did not pay attention to such a small amount of animal Viscera.

A water-spitting crocodile of this size did not rely on eating such a tiny morsel to survive.

When the distance was about right, Lao Bari let go of the lamb in his hand and jumped into the nearby river naked. He had no intention of swimming to the other side, but simply hid his whole body in the river, exposing only half his head to observe the situation outside.

That poor little lamb tried to crawl up and escape a few times after landing; although its belly was torn and its Viscera spilled everywhere, the tenacious life force of cattle and sheep meant it wouldn't die immediately.

But the next moment, a huge mouth extended from the darkness, opened and closed silently, snatched up the little lamb, and with an easy flick, it fell entirely into the water-spitting crocodile's massive maw.

No tearing, no rolling; a goat kid of this size didn't require those hunting techniques at all. The water-spitting crocodile swallowed the bait in one gulp, feeling much like a Human eating a peanut.

The water-spitting crocodile that had eaten the bait stopped in its tracks, originally intending to turn around and crawl back into the river to drift downstream to its companions to save energy. But its nose at the very front of its body twitched a few times, letting a scent that even reptiles detested drift into the air; while it had been focused on finding the source of the blood, it hadn't noticed this smell.

But now, having eaten the bait, this water-spitting crocodile sensed this scent that they detested.

Lao Bari had half his face submerged in the river, his exposed eyes expressionless, but he knew that the raw materials for the snake-repellent powder they had used earlier were said to come from the excrement of another type of Monster, dried and then mixed with other powdered Herbs.

When he bought it, the clerk at the general store had introduced it to him, saying this stuff had a very good repellent effect on ordinary snakes because those small snakes, whether poisonous or not, would sniff out the scent of the Monster excrement used in the powder.

They wouldn't dare provoke it, thinking a powerful predator Monster was nearby, so they would flee quickly. This was the method of how the snake-repellent powder worked.

However, the clerk had warned that when facing other powerful existences similar to snakes or that were snakes themselves—generally referring to Monster species, or ordinary animals that had grown to a huge size over the years—they would think a predator Monster had invaded their territory. Not only would they not be afraid, but they would actively seek it out and attack anyone who had this scent on them.

Just like now.

Lao Bari saw that huge water-spitting crocodile, after smelling the scent of the powder, immediately crawl toward the upper reaches of the river where Bone and Zanglian were located.

And it seemed provoked, looking aggressive.

Those two guys probably still thought this stupid crocodile was lured by the rabbit bait they had slaughtered and bled, right? Ha, guys as stupid as the stupid crocodile, I'm truly sorry.

"Ha, haha, sorry you two, I have to do the job the boss assigned, and I don't want to die in this dangerous luring operation, so I can only let you two pull for me. Don't blame me; if you want to blame someone, blame this stupid crocodile that is about to eat you, and blame the boss of our gang. It was he who forced us to do this life-risking thing; if you want to blame someone, blame yourselves for choosing this line of work where you have to gamble with your lives. When you come out to be a Bandit, you have to be prepared to betray others and be betrayed by your own people."

Laughing in a low voice, Lao Bari drifted downstream along the river without looking back; his clothes and other equipment were still left at the place where the water-spitting crocodile had appeared.

"It's here!"

Hearing the heavy crawling sound, Bone immediately threw the Forest Long-eared Rabbit he had bled and gutted, with most of its Viscera falling out, hard toward the upper reaches.

And he himself lowered his body, nimbly bypassed the stones on the riverbank, and hid behind a large Stone.

His heart was pounding; he couldn't help but be nervous, because from far away, by the moonlight, he saw what a huge monster the water-spitting crocodile lured by Lao Bari really was.

He had heard others in the gang talk about this kind of monster entrenched in this area, but he had never seen what this monster looked like with his own eyes before. Only now, seeing this monster with his own eyes, did he realize what the size of "two people long excluding the tail" that others had talked about really meant!

Those pieces of shit, this monster was longer than a heavy-duty carriage pulled by four horses! When it ran, it could directly knock aside half-person-sized stones that blocked its way, and the movement when it crawled and stepped could be clearly heard from over a hundred meters away.

Not to mention that when the monster crawled past at this moment, his soles could feel the subtle vibrations of the stones on the ground.

And these vibrations were becoming more and more intense, more and more intense.

No!

He had just realized something and turned his head to look, and he was scared silly, because separated by only a half-person-high riverbank Stone, a nine-meter-long, multi-ton crocodile monster was staring at him with mottled golden snake-like pupils!

The huge monster's nostrils were constantly opening and closing, seeming very angry, and less than two meters in front of it, the young Bandit was scared silly.

"Eek—no!"

His shout seemed to startle and enrage this monster; the water-spitting crocodile turned its head and opened its mouth, bypassed the blocking Stone, and bit the Bandit in one gulp. Despite its seemingly huge size, the actual pouncing action was shockingly fast; the young Bandit didn't even react before he had already been bitten horizontally by the monster.

"Help—"

Before the plea for help could be finished, the monster exerted force and bit down, and the whole person was bitten into three sections by the monster. An arm along with half a shoulder and the head fell to the ground, two lower legs were kicked and flung away, the shoes even fell off, revealing toes on a twisted, dirty, and smelly foot.

And the Bandit's entire body was naturally within the water-spitting crocodile's massive teeth; the monster tilted its head, opened and closed its mouth a few times, and swallowed most of the entire body.

But soon, it spat out a few pieces of hard, deformed objects from its mouth with a *pfft*—they were the bent Long Sword and Dagger, spat out by the Water-Spitting Crocodile. It was not that the Monster could not eat these things, nor that its digestive system could not handle these Human weapons; the strong gastric acid in the Monster's stomach could naturally corrode these metal items, it was simply that this Monster did not like to eat these things.

Having swallowed more than half a person in one gulp, the Monster did not waste anything, picking up the Human head and two lower legs from the ground and sending them into its mouth like a small snack.

Only after eating the entire person did it stop smelling the scent of the natural predator that made it feel nervous. The entire Water-Spitting Crocodile relaxed lazily and prepared to head back along the route it had come from.

This stupid thing actually mistook the Human carrying the scent of its natural predator for its natural predator. Having eaten the person, it was as if it had resolved the whole matter.

If it had even a bit of brains, it would know something was wrong.

However, when it crawled back to the riverbank, it once again smelled the scent of the natural predator that made it nervous and vigilant.

How could there be another one!?

It sniffed carefully; it was actually still upstream!

Thus, it continued to crawl toward the upper reaches of the river, not even bothering with a delicious rabbit that had been disemboweled as it passed by, heading straight and quickly toward the source of the scent.

At the same time, while heading to meet the enemy, it aggressively made a *pat-da-da-da* sound with its mouth; this was the sound of its tongue slapping against the gums of its lower jaw, used to mark its territory, warn enemies, and display its imposing manner!

Passing by a puddle on the riverbank, it also took a large gulp of water, temporarily storing a large amount of water in a pouch behind its mouth, which could be used as material for its water-spitting ability at any time.

—

Zanglian was lying on the riverbank not far from the Jier Yingdi; he had just carefully avoided the sight of the sentries and discarded the disemboweled Forest long-eared rabbit bait on the gentle slope near the Yingdi.

There was no need to actually throw the bait into the Yingdi, which was unrealistic; it was only necessary for the Monster to be discovered by the people in the Yingdi, to attract their attention and counterattack, and for the Monster to discover the Yingdi full of people.

His mission of luring would be perfectly completed!

"Hmph, not that hard."

Zanglian muttered softly; he suddenly turned his head toward the downstream of the river, as if he had heard a short shout from not far away?

"That guy Bone..."

Muttering about whether his companion had messed things up, he heard the heavy crawling sound coming from downstream, as well as the strange *pat-da-ka-ka* sound.

"It's here, it's here!"

He became nervous and excited, unable to wait to see the terrified expressions of those people in the Yingdi as they were bitten to death and devoured one by one by the Water-Spitting Crocodile.

Who told those people not to show them respect, even killing the toll checkpoint their gang had set up on the Shanglu!

Killing their people meant they deserved to die! People had to die!

But things seemed a bit wrong; the increasingly close crawling sound of the Monster was not heading toward the Shanglu according to the blood scent and Viscera distribution he had specifically left behind.

Instead, it seemed to be coming toward the position where he was hiding?

When he realized this, the Water-Spitting Crocodile under the moonlight was already only twenty-some meters away from him, and it swung its body and rushed straight toward him aggressively!

"Ah!!!"

Not wanting to die in the Monster's mouth, Zanglian could no longer care about hiding; he jumped up from the ground and ran straight toward the Yingdi where the caravan was spending the night.

And the Water-Spitting Crocodile, following the scent, immediately turned around and spat a small but intense stream of water at Zanglian.

This was the reason why the Water-Spitting Crocodile was called by this name.