Chapter 193 – Rank Nine Giant Mosquito
Zhao Hai relaxed a little. With regards to the Devouring Blood-Mosquitoes, Zhao Hai was still a bit wary of them since they usually came in very large numbers, then disappeared quickly. It was impossible for a single one mosquito to be evaluated as a Rank Eight magic beast when just considering its destructive power. Instead, they were rated as Rank Two magic beasts.
Devouring Blood-Mosquitoes were hard to deal with, however, and were even stronger than usual Rank Eight magic beasts. Some people even believed that a horde of Devouring Blood-Mosquitoes should be evaluated as a Rank Nine magic beast.
The strength of the Devouring Blood-Mosquitoes was something that not even the Eagle Virtuous Phantasms could cope with. It would also be impossible for Green to deal with them. If there wasn’t the Space, then Green facing these Devouring Blood-Mosquitoes would just result in his death.
Zhao Hai immediately asked Buffy, but Buffy said that during that time when he’d explored, he hadn’t met with any Devouring Blood-Mosquitoes. This caused Zhao Hai’s heart to feel somewhat restless.
At the moment, he wasn’t in the mood to control many of these mosquitoes. When the mosquitoes outside saw the disappearance of the eagle, they didn’t actually stop their aggressiveness. Instead, they moved about restlessly in every direction. Evidently, they wouldn’t go away in just a short amount of time.
With Zhao Hai’s intent, he made the eagle, which had just returned to the Space, come back out again, carrying the Ghost Cane.
As the eagle left the Space, Zhao Hai coldly said, “Discharge Pesticide.” Layers of green mist sprayed out of the Ghost Cane. It was different this time around when compared to what happened previously. The pesticide had been useless against the Devouring Blood-Mosquitoes before, but now, this pesticide made the mosquitoes look drunk as they swung about in the air a few times before tilting downward and crashing into the ground.
The amount of green mist increased more and more, and the mosquitoes fell like rain from the sky. There were a lot of them falling. Following the eagle, more and more of the Devouring Blood-Mosquitoes fell from the air until the screen was almost empty of the mosquitoes.
Zhao Hai and Green were relieved. To be honest, the overwhelming number of mosquitoes had given them a great pressure. Now that they had found a method to deal with those mosquitoes, their hearts felt loose.
Those Devouring Blood-Mosquitoes soon found out that there was something wrong with the smog, thus, they stayed far from the green smog. With that, the path ahead had unexpectedly become clear.
Before long, the eagle escaped the encirclement of the mosquitoes. Since the Devouring Blood-Mosquitoes didn’t pursue, Zhao Hai felt that they had been really affected by the pesticide.
Zhao Hai felt relieved, but still watched the scenery from the screen as he was wary that the Devouring Blood-Mosquitoes might come back. Fortunately, after the eagle left the area of the Devouring Blood-Mosquitoes, those mosquitoes hadn’t pursued.
Zhao Hai and Green felt assured as they sat on the sofa while watching the screen[1]. Green smiled and said, “I had never expected that we would be meeting those Devouring Blood-Mosquitoes here. Fortunately we have the Space, else we would have been defeated.”
Zhao Hai smiled and replied, “If we hadn’t met with these mosquitoes, then we wouldn’t have gotten so many benefits. Ha-ha. Now that we have some Devouring Blood-Mosquitoes, we have another means to save our lives.”
Green smiled and said, “Yes, however, we mustn’t use these Devouring Blood-Mosquitoes carelessly. After all, they are too fierce and can easily affect the continent. If we used them carelessly, then we might find ourselves in troublesome situations.”
Zhao Hai nodded. “Yes, although those Devouring Blood-Mosquitoes are powerful, they are in no way comparable to a Rank Nine expert. But still, having a large-scale area of effect attack is nice to have.”
As they were in discussion, the eagle that flew forward suddenly screamed pitifully and fell from the sky. While the eagle was falling, it’s body suddenly burst, changing into a fog of blood that dissipated afterwards.
The Ghost Cane dropped down from the sky, though it didn’t hit the ground as it unexpectedly hovered in the air.
Zhao Hai and Green, both of whom had been carefully watching the screen, were shocked. They didn’t know what just happened. Just as Zhao Hai was about to retrieve the Ghost Cane[2], Green suddenly said, “Young Master, don’t move. It must be a Rank Nine expert as only they can suddenly kill the eagle just like that. This appears to have been an attack by a Rank Nine expert.”
Zhao Hai stilled and didn’t recover the Ghost Cane. Remember that the Ghost Cane was bound to him, so even a Rank Nine expert wouldn’t have any way of using it. As long as he wanted to, he could easily take it back at any time.
Due to this, he wasn’t too worried about it being taken. He wanted to have a look at what that Rank Nine expert was, as he hadn’t been able to observe a Rank Nine expert closely[3].
Green’s words made Meirin and others quite tense[4]. All of them motionlessly watched the screen, wondering what kind of Rank Nine expert it was.
They were very clear that this couldn’t be a Rank Nine Terran[5] expert, as they didn’t have a foothold here in the Carrion Swamp.
No matter what their race was, however, as long as they reached Rank Nine, they would receive the proper respect. Even if it were a magic beast, so long as they were able to reach Rank Nine, then their intelligence would be the same as humans. Furthermore, they could observe their surrounding using their divine sense[6]. Thus, no matter what race it were, they would be regarded as deities on the continent.
Before long, a giant Devouring Blood-Mosquito appeared in front of them. This Devouring Blood-Mosquito was very large, around 10 meters in height. It had a red colored body and its crystal-like wings were curved, glittering and translucent. What Zhao Hai felt was a lot more strange was it’s unexpectedly coiled proboscis, which was currently rolled up and stuck to its head.
The Ghost Cane stopped in front of the giant mosquito. The giant mosquito observed it carefully, its movements resembling that of a curious animal.
Zhao Hai turned his head towards Green and said, “Grandpa Green, what should we do? If we retrieve the Ghost Cane right now, I fear that we will have a lot more difficulty in reaching the Flower City.”
Green understood what Zhao Hai meant, this giant mosquito should have a secret and inseparable relationship with those smaller Devouring Blood-Mosquitoes. They had killed a lot of those smaller mosquitoes and had also retrieved the eagle back into the Space. This giant mosquito would certainly know if they retrieve the Ghost Cane back into the Space. Afterwards, this giant mosquito would certainly be waiting. Sadly, the Ghost Cane wouldn’t be able to reach the Flower City at that time.
Zhao Hai could release undead or magic beasts while ordering the Ghost Cane to move quickly and proceed on its route. Unfortunately, there was no way for them to hide against the divine sense of this giant mosquito. One must know that a Rank Nine magic beast’s divine sense was a lot stronger when compared to a Rank Nine Terran expert.
If they don’t continue forward on this route, then they could only return to Fort Iron Mountain and re-enter the Carrion Swamp. It would be the same as saying that everything they’d done had all been in vain.
There was also another issue. If they withdrew now from the Carrion Swamp, then they could not follow the map that Buffy drew afterwards. If they don’t follow the map, then they would have to erratically change their route and find their way, which might cause them not to be able to reach Flower City[7].
A Rank Nine could live a long life. Up till now, nobody had calculated up to what age they could live to. In any case, they could have a thousand children and live up to 800 years of age. And this was only for Terrans. As for how long a magic beast could live up to, no one knows. They feared that when the time came that the Buda clan faced immediate destruction, this giant mosquito would probably still be alive.
If they decided to wait for the giant mosquito to leave before heading to Flower City, then that would be impossible. Rank Nine experts tended to do close-door cultivation in order to understand the heavens, and to one day find the road to reach the Rank Ten God level. They can cultivate in any place, and for an unknown amount of time. Therefore, waiting for the giant mosquito to leave would not be a good option.
Green felt it was strange that Buffy hadn’t encountered this giant mosquito previously, and yet, they had met it this time around.
What Green and the others didn’t know was that the reason this giant mosquito hadn’t appeared back then was due to the threat Buffy represented. Now, however, there wasn’t any threat so it appeared.
There had been a lot of Rank Nine experts that had ventured into the Carrion Swamp, but most of them weren’t able to reach Flower City. Most of the Rank Nine experts that explored were killed by the colorful poisoned smog of the Carrion Swamp, and only a very few have ever reached Flower City.
Buffy was unexpectedly lucky during the time he’d explored, thus he’d been able to reach Flower City. Unfortunately, he had attacked the flower and it’s vines, causing him to be assaulted and chased by Rank Nine experts. This was the reason why he’d turned back. He knew how dangerous Carrion Swamp was, so during his return he took the route he’d used when he’d entered. Later, the Rank Nine experts scattered. Originally, there weren’t any Rank Nine magic beasts around this area, but after Buffy ran, a Rank Nine expert had stayed to defend the place. This was the Rank Nine Giant Devouring Blood-Mosquito.
Zhao Hai certainly didn’t know of these reasons[8], so they were worried right now. If they couldn’t get past the giant mosquito, then there was no way they could reach Flower City. Without reaching Flower City, they wouldn’t be able to solve the threat of the Carrion Swamp and there would never be peace in the Black Waste. All of this was interconnected.
Green and the others frowned. They understood that forcibly rushing through wouldn’t be right. They didn’t have any Rank Nine experts with them, and Green had previously been severely injured with just one attack from Buffy. Facing the giant mosquito, which was evidently not weaker than Buffy, and rushing past it would only be courting death[9].
They also weren’t willing to retreat. Since they had already reached this far and only needed a little more time to reach Flower City, retreating would be a pity.
After some time, Zhao Hai breathed in deeply, turned his head to Green, and said, “Grandpa Green, does this Devouring Blood-Mosquito, being a Rank Nine magic beast, have the intelligence of a human?”
Green nodded and said, “It isn’t that highly intelligent, but they are smarter than most humans. Young Master, what do you intend to do?”
Zhao Hai replied, “I will go out and have a chat with it[10]. Dragging this matter isn’t a good idea.”
Green was shocked for a moment. His complexion changed as he said, “No, absolutely not. Young Master, that is a Rank Nine expert. Just a little mistake and you’ll die. You cannot meet with such an accident.”
Zhao Hai knitted his brow and said, “What should we do then? Always waiting isn’t a good idea, and if we retreat then we might not find Flower City in our lifetime. Then the Black Waste won’t have peace.”
Green frowned as he certainly understood the situation, however, he couldn’t think of a good solution. In any case, Zhao Hai wasn’t allowed to meet with the giant mosquito as it was too dangerous.
Notes:
-This chapter was MTL’ed. Please leave a comment for constructive criticisms and advice. Thanks.
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-Please check out the Editor’s footnotes, thanks.
Footnotes:
[1] I kinda wanna see a black robed young mage and an old knight sitting on sofas, flipping through the t.v. channels… ↩
[2] I honestly don’t know why he keeps taking this back. It’s basically an indestructible part of the Space. He could probably throw it at the sun and somehow use the actual sun as a source of energy. That’s what I would do if I went the tech route of this story, instead of the agricultural route it’s taking… ↩
[3] That battle with Buffy wasn’t close enough? He was literally in your white gloved grip and you even smacked him around a few times… ↩
[4] Where the hell did these guys pop up from… ↩
[5] Again, this is humans. ↩
[6] Just a recap for those who’ve forgotten. Divine Sense is the ability to view things with your consciousness externally and at a great distance. Spiritual Sense is internally, significantly less useful. Rank Nines are the only ones who can use Divine Sense. ↩
[7] Again, that t.v. of theirs has already uncovered a great deal of fog and should work as a feasible map. It’s basically impossible to get lost with such a map. I don’t understand the idea of getting lost when you literally have a minimap that automatically records the terrain… ↩
[8] And we shouldn’t either. ↩
[9] But not their deaths, because, again, they’re inside the space. ↩
[10] I’m pretty sure he could communicate from inside the space. He did it once when confronting Garan, no? Alien held the cane, he was inside the space… Sighs. ↩