Da Zi lifted one of its maxillipeds to Stripey's mouth.
"Here! You can have it." Da Zi gave its limb one final look before stuffing it inside of Stripey's mouth.
All of Stripey's eyes gleamed in bewilderment. Da Zi's character was beginning to confound it. Just which one was Da Zi's real side?
Stripey's little brain struggled to figure out this centipede.
In the end, Stripey decided not to eat any of Da Zi's limbs. From his experience, Da Zi was a centipede that tended to hold grudges.
If one of its limbs was actually torn off, Da Zi might have held it against Stripey for a long time.
After giving it much thought, Gao Peng realized that this mountain was luring other monsters into it.
He was now even more wary of it. He had no interest in solving its mystery. Such a suspicious-looking thing needed to be left to others to figure out.
Gao Peng began leading the other familiars away from the mountain. Just then, he was seized by the sudden impulse to continue walking towards the mountain. He suddenly felt as if all of his wants and needs would be met if he went inside.
The mountain's trying to tempt me, thought Gao Peng. Climbing up Dumby's ribs, he said to the others, "Let's go!"
Something was definitely trying to influence his thoughts from deep inside the mountain. Gao Peng decided that he needed to put some distance between himself and the mountain.
When he had left the mountain far behind him, Gao Peng finally let out a sigh of relief and looked back at it. Suddenly, a curious thought occurred to him. This mountain really looked as if...
Gao Peng had marked out three regions on the map where he thought he would be able to find plenty of Earth Spirit Cores. The first region had seemed way too shady. There hadn't seemed to be any Earth Spirit Cores to be found. However, this wasn't a huge problem. Gao Peng was still patient enough to search the other two regions.
After three days, they finally reached the second region.
It was a mountainous region, which was conducive to the formation of Earth Spirit Cores. However, the soil there didn't seem fertile enough. The entire region was just an empty shell.
"Am I really that unlucky?" said Gao Peng with a heavy sigh.
The last region was only a day's trip away from the second region.
After climbing past a small hill, Gao Peng found himself standing in front of a stone forest. Gray-white stone jutted out from the ground in disorder. Hardy fern-like plants grew in the cracks between the stones.
If there was one thing Gao Peng had learned in the past few days, it was that monsters usually lurked in peculiar terrains like the stone forest in front of him.
The stranger the terrain, the more monsters one could find.
Gao Peng's main priority now was to find the necessary ingredients for Stripey's evolution. Everything else was secondary. The core crystals that could be obtained from killing other monsters didn't mean much to Gao Peng at that moment.
He was now able to earn an astronomical sum from selling the drugs that he had developed through the Southern Sky Group. Anything that could be bought with money held the same value to him at this point.
Suddenly, Gao Peng heard the sound of pincers clacking somewhere. The sound resounded clearly and rhythmically from the stone forest.
A gray scorpion crawled out from the stone forest. Its color was almost the same as the surrounding gray stone. It let out a threatening hiss as it waved its thick tail incessantly.
The Adamantine Duck fearlessly quacked back at it.
The scorpion furiously lunged at the duck. Da Zi cried out, its eyes flashing dangerously. It had accepted the Adamantine Duck as its new brother. Anyone who tried to bully any of its brothers would have to answer to it.
Gao Peng waved a hand at Da Zi before it could do anything. The striped rock scorpion was only Level 13. Even though it was three levels higher than the Adamantine Duck, it was only a Normal-tiered monster. Gao Peng also wanted to see just how strong the duck really was.
Ten minutes passed.
Both the scorpion and duck simply hissed and quacked angrily at each other for ten minutes. Neither one of them knew what the other was saying. However, both of them seemed to be having the time of their lives.
Flamy yawned. Just how long can these two continue this shouting match?
"Let's just go," said Gao Peng, shaking his head.
The Adamantine Duck turned around and warningly quacked at the scorpion, telling it not to come any closer, or else it would be sorry.
The striped rock scorpion wildly waved its pincers back at it.
Back on the road, Gao Peng gave the Adamantine Duck a strange look. "How on earth did you manage to survive for so long?"
"Quack quack?" The Adamantine Duck tilted its head at Gao Peng, as if it hadn't understood a word that Gao Peng had just said.
"Forget it," said Gao Peng. Sooner or later, an answer to this question would present itself.
Before the group stood a tall mountain range with lush mountain peaks. The mountain range encircled a small hill, upon which grew all kinds of plant life.
Gao Peng's eyes were now fixed on this small hill.
"Let's go up there," said Gao Peng. He then added, "Be careful, everyone."
Along the way, they encountered a couple of low-level insects, which were cleared away easily by Da Zi.
They finally reached the foot of the hill, which seemed larger than most hills.
After going around the hill a number of times, Gao Peng found a small cave at the back. The cave was only two feet tall. Stripey, Dumby, and Flamy were unable to enter, as only Da Zi and Silly could wriggle into it. Gao Peng could also crawl into it. However, he feared that he would get stuck inside it.
"Da Zi, could you take a look inside the cave?" asked Gao Peng.
Without a moment's hesitation, Da Zi began crawling towards the cave's entrance.
"Be careful. Come out quickly if you come across any monsters in there. Don't push yourself," reminded Gao Peng.
Da Zi impatiently waved its claws. Gao Peng was nagging more every day.
Gao Peng tensed up as Da Zi began wriggling into the cave.
Before the Cataclysm, Gao Peng had never had a pet. Back then, he had found it difficult to imagine how human beings could connect to animals.
Gao Peng smiled bitterly. He now understood the relationship between man and animals.
Ten minutes later, he heard Da Zi's voice in his head.
"Gao Peng, I killed a huge rat," it said triumphantly, as if expecting praise from its master.
"Didn't I just tell you not to do anything if you came across any monsters in there? What if you bit off more than you could chew?"
"The rat started it," said Da Zi.
It had originally thought that Gao Peng would praise it for a job well done after killing the rat. Instead, what Da Zi received was more of its master's nagging. It felt bad about what it had done.
"All right, the rat started it. Keep on looking. Can you sense anything in there that's giving off an earth-elemental aura?" said Gao Peng, trying to console it.
After a while, he heard Da Zi's voice again. "Gao Peng, I've found it!"