One could never be sure about the result when one was about to hunt a sacred-blood creature. The infamy of Ass Freak also added to their lack of confidence in Han Sen.
The gang watched the creature nervously, but it did not have any intention to drink. After chewing on the black vines for more than half an hour, it lay down on a stone and fell into sleep.
Fist Guy and others started to get anxious, as the oxygen cylinder they gave Han Sen was only the size of a palm and the oxygen was quite limited. If the sacred-blood creature spent a long time sleeping, the oxygen would run out.
When they were praying for the creature to get up, it eventually woke up and slowly climbed to the pool, as if their prayers had worked. It stretched its head above the pool and started to lap the water with its tongue. However, Fist Guy and the finger brothers were not too happy about this, as where the creature stayed was far from where Han Sen was hiding. If Han Sen started to swim now however, the waves he made would alarm the sacred-blood creature for sure.
"What now?" The gang members’ hearts raced. Han Sen could not even touch the creature in such distance, let alone kill it.
Unfortunately, the water below was too dark, and they could not see what Han Sen was doing under the water.
Hearts in their mouths, the guys suddenly heard a screech from the bottom.
The sacred-blood creature lifted its head up and there was a black arrow deep in its white jaw, with only less than half the length exposed. Blood was flowing along the arrow shaft.
Not able to find its enemy, the creature wanted to curl up after being injured. However, since its jaw had an arrow in it, it could not curl itself into a perfect ball. Instead, it looked like a jagged tire in an accident, bearing much of its white belly.
Overjoyed, the gang summoned all kinds of weapons and rushed out. The sacred-blood creature was still fierce though badly injured. When it rolled, stones were still crushed under its scales. No one could block it like no one could stand in the way of a bulldozer.
The gang did not dare to fight it head-on and decided to carry on the fight while beating a retreat. Then they saw the creature rolling itself into a tunnel and ran away as fast as it could.
Only then did Han Sen appear from the pool holding Doomsday. The rest paid him no mind and rushed to the cave and chased after the creature.
Han Sen quickly followed them. The creature’s injury did not affect its speed. It soon disappeared in the cave. Fortunately, it had shed a lot of blood, so the gang was able to follow it.
There were toxins on the mutant black stinger arrow and the creature would surely pressure the arrow deeper and deeper as it rolled. Hence its wound had not healed and blood could still be spotted from time to time.
Having chased for more than two hours in the tunnels, they finally saw the light as they had come out of the cave and entered a forest of hoodoos.
The ground was still stained with blood, so apparently the sacred-blood creature had fled among the hoodoos.
"Damn, the vitality of this creature is just incredible. We would have died a long time ago had we shed so much blood, and it was running fast as ever," Thumb cursed.
The terrain was rugged so they could not use their mounts. Everyone kept chasing on foot.
As they were running, Han Sen suddenly heard a voice in his mind, "Sacred-blood creature scaled armadillo killed. The beast soul of scaled armadillo gained. Eat its meat to gain zero to ten sacred geno points randomly."
Han Sen paused and could not believe the scaled armadillo had already died. What was more surprising was that he even gained its beast soul.
Seeing Han Sen suddenly stopped, the rest looked to him and asked, "What happened?"
"The scaled armadillo is dead," replied Han Sen.
"Scaled armadillo?" The rest suddenly realized that scaled armadillo was the name of the sacred-blood creature and all became thrilled.
"Your arrow is poisonous?" Fist Guy quickly asked.
"Yes, but the toxicity does not seem to be strong enough to kill a sacred-blood creature." Han Sen had some doubts himself.
"The scaled armadillo must have rolled itself so hard that the arrow pierced its brain," Ring Finger guessed.
"Yes, that is quite plausible. Let’s hurry," Thumb said eagerly.
The gang followed the blood stain and turned around a corner before they saw the dead scaled armadillo.
However, they all paused. What they saw was different from what they had imagined. The scaled armadillo was dead indeed, but it did not seem to die because of Han Sen’s arrow.
A gorgeous bird more than nine feet tall with silver body and ruby eyes was using its silver hook-like claws to tear the scaled armadillo’s body and peck at its flesh. The scales that even a sacred-blood weapon could not break were torn apart like they were made of paper.
Han Sen now knew that it was indeed not his arrow, but this silver bird that had killed the scaled armadillo. For some reason, it was still counted as his doing.
"S*#t! Another sacred-blood creature, with wings!" Thumb screamed out loud.
His voice turned all faces dark. The bird that was enjoying its meal suddenly cast its ruby-like eyes in their direction. The moment it spotted them, a murderous look appeared in its eyes and it spread its wings like clouds that blocked the sky and flew toward them.
"Scatter!" Fist Guy shouted, turned and bolted. This silver bird was so strong that they were by no means its match. Since even the scales of the scaled armadillo could not withstand its claws, they simply had nothing to fight it with.
Han Sen was also running as fast as his legs could carry him.
The gang had scattered, but as Han Sen looked back, he realized that the silver bird had chosen him to follow, its ferocious bird eyes red as blood gazing at him unblinkingly.
"S*#! Maybe God envies my newly-gained beast soul." Han Sen secretly cursed and continued to run desperately.