Chapter 168: Bafflement of Shi Tianhai
The beast general was a large fella, standing at almost two meters tall. Its bulging belly could easily fit two full-grown men inside. Its abdomen hung low, staying close to the ground which owing to its weight, slowed down the beast by a considerable margin.
In comparison to the one Qin Feng bumped into last time at the hotel, this blade mantis was multitudes stronger.
After feasting continuously for the past few days, allowing it to further grow its strength, this blade mantis possessed the potential to evolve into a king-tier enemy.
Too bad, it crossed paths with Qin Feng.
It was apparent that this beast general would be laying its eggs soon. However, this process had been cut off by Qin Feng completely annihilating its nest which of course, agitated this blade mantis to its limits.
Rage as it might but that was not enough to interrupt Qin Feng's search and destroy mission.
"Wowee, look at what we've got here! A diamond in the rough, I must say!"
Clasping the Verdant Emperor Saber in hand, Qin Feng climbed off the umbra stallion. In the next instant, he dashed toward the female beast general with insane speed.
Without hesitation, he started hacking away with the sword in hand.
Clang!
If there were swordmasters among the insectoids, then the blade mantises would be the pioneering species in perfecting this deadly art. It was precisely this reason that this particular group of insectoids was notorious for their ferocity.
Qin Feng's strike was parried by the blade mantis with ease!
However, Qin Feng's attacks were rarely so simple.
At this distance, Qin Feng was practically face-to-face with the great monster. From his point of view, a beam of red light could be seen shining on the blade mantis's hardened neck
A split second later, the blade mantis leaned back powerlessly and where the red light shone, a patch of charred flesh appeared. Even so, the beast general was far from dead.
Qin Feng raised his arm and prepared to strike down once more but the blade mantis too, raised its own scythe-like forelimbs and prepared to slash right into its enemy's neck.
"Phantom Maze!"
Qin Feng avoided the beast general's attack and moved swiftly behind it. Then, the tip of the Verdant Emperor Saber emerged on the other side of its body, smack right at the center of the great mantis's belly.
Splish!
The saber sliced through the beast general as if it was nothing but a block of soft tofu. Qin Feng ripped a large opening on the blade mantis's belly out of which oozed brown blood as well as hundreds of translucent eggs all of which were around the size of a human fist.
"Screech!"
The blade mantis wailed out in pain.
Its body thrashed around violently but the more it moved, the larger the hole in its belly became.
Not wanting to waste anymore time, Qin Feng went in for the final blow. With a wave of the Verdant Emperor Saber which was accompanied by a streak of burning flames, the blade mantis was decapitated with one clean cut.
It did not even take ten minutes for Qin Feng to flawlessly bring down the enemy beast general. The speed at which the battle ended was terrifying to a great deal of regular human beings.
Even Chi Long, who was observing the drone footage, was taken aback.
He reflected, if it were up to him, how long would it take for him to bring down an F-tier beast king?
It did not matter that he was an E-tier aptitude user. His speed, strength and all other aspects could barely match that of a beast general. Area effect weapons were of course an option but more often than not, there would not even be a single item left to collect after reducing the enemy into mere atoms. Gunners were reluctant to take part in such fruitless battles.
What about the good ol' fashioned way of hunting these critters?
'Perhaps half an hour was needed?' Chi Long estimated. He could dash from hiding spot to hiding spot, using shoot and scoot tactics to bring down the enemy. After all, he was a gunner!
Qin Feng was an ancient warrior. No, he was also an ability user.
His speed was faster than the beast general, his swordsmanship, even more precise, and his strength far exceeded the opponent's.
He was practically a hybrid between a human and an ultra beast!
In the drone footage, Qin Feng had started an uncontrollable wildfire that slowly engulfed the entire agricultural field.
To start a fire of such a scale, the ability user was pretty much engaging in genocide against the lord of the ultra beasts.
"That man... who is he?" Chi Long murmured to himself. He could not comprehend just where such a strong ability user came from. The ability user who also possessed skills of an ancient warrior.
At the same time, Shi Tianhai, who was also in the combat operations room, looked at the drone feed with a look of amazement painted across his face.
"That man... he... his name is Qin Feng!" Shi Tianhai exclaimed.
His brain churned a great deal before recalling the name that Liu Xue had uttered to him once. Back then, he was still wearing a G-tier aptitude user badge. He remembered that even then, he already possessed the powers of an F-tier user but due to sheer exhaustion from his work, Shi Tianhai paid no heed to the young man.
Who would have thought that the next time they met, his powers would have grown by such a significant amount!
Qin Feng's powers were simply too strong!
Right at that moment, Shi Tianhai finally understood why Qin Feng was able to guide so many out of the fallen Han Town on his own. Alone, his strength matched that of hundreds of regular human beings.
"Qin Feng? Do we have any intel on him?" Chi Long replied hurriedly. " For there to be such a strong ability user... with his strength, we can seriously recapture Han Town once and for all!"
Hearing this, Shi Tianhai's emotions were stirred up. However, there was a lingering sense of despair in his heart.
Based on Chi Long's words, he gathered that the successful conquest of Han Town was never guaranteed, and the possibility of giving up on it had always been an option.
If not for Qin Feng, would this nightmare turn into a reality?
Fearing the worst, Shi Tianhai quickly replied, "I'll go gather information on that man right this instant! One of my underlings should know a whole lot about him!"
Chi Long nodded. "Don't let him misunderstand our intent. We must approach him with the goal of peace in mind."
"Of course!"
They were going to get down on their knees and beg Qin Feng to lend them his strength!
Still oblivious as to the happenings in the battle operations room, Qin Feng bent down to dig the crystal core of the beast general out of its nasty guts. Alongside hundreds of other mantis eggs, the core was stored into his spatial runic equipment.
Without their mother's body, these eggs could not hatch. Though, if they did hatch, the hatchlings would fetch a price tenfold of what these eggs could at their highest.
These eggs could at least serve as a high-protein snack for Qin Feng.
After that was done, Qin Feng continued burning the fields, killing off the remnants of blade mantises that escaped his previous wave of attacks.
"Halt!"
Qin Feng stopped his Hellfire attack. The ground had been charred black and not a single blade of grass survived the fiery hell. Similarly, carbonised remains of blade mantises littered the landscape, leaving behind their iron-tough forelimbs which were unscratched.
Qin Feng lifted his eyes to see the drone hovering above him.
In the operations room, Chi Long stared into Qin Feng's eyes. There, he took a deep breath and a feeling of awe finally set in.
Within two hours, Qin Feng had completely burned down the agricultural fields alongside a large number of blade mantises.
The drone did not keep count of the bodies but there must have been at least a thousand dead mantises across the ground.
This ability user was a force to be reckoned with.
Perhaps, someday in the future, his powers could change the course of history!
Chi Long ordered for the drone to withdraw from the battlefield. At the same time, he barked out an order, "I don't want our drones spying on his every move but I want you all to focus on the areas he will move through. I want regular updates on those places, understood?"
"Yes, commander!"
The staff members replied respectfully.
Noticing that the drone had left the scene, Qin Feng concluded that the commander must be a sensible man.
It was fine and all to oversee the battlefield but when it came to reaping rewards after the battle was over, Qin Feng often felt infringed if a drone were to remain floating above his head!
These rewards not only brought about money but also one's bane.
If the drone were to overstay its welcome, Qin Feng would have no choice but to take the entire thing down!
"Scan the battlefield!"
Qin Feng ordered.
Riding the umbra stallion, Bai Li galloped across the fields. Where she flew past, the materials would all vanish into thin air. As the entire plot was not too big to begin with, Bai Li was done collecting the loot within five minutes!
After storing the goodies into the spatial runic equipment, Qin Feng climbed onto the horse by grabbing onto Bai Li's waist. Once again, they resumed their journey into Han Town.