Wang Cheng crouched in the grass more than ten meters away from the shallow edge of the riverbank, controlling the corpse of a low-level beast that weighed several hundred kilograms. He moved it slowly at the river's edge, making it look like the beast was drinking water.
The movement of the corpse at the river quickly attracted monsters from the water. In an instant, a crocodile-like monster leapt out.
The monster that sprang out of the water resembled a crocodile in form, but the size was vastly different—this monster was over ten meters long, and its head alone was the size of a water tank.
The multi-ton monster lunged out and bit down on the bait beast's corpse in one go, nearly swallowing the several-hundred-kilogram corpse entirely into its mouth.
But the crocodile-like monster looked a bit stunned: I haven't even applied force yet, so why did it suddenly stop moving? It didn't even need to drag the prey underwater—it could directly eat it here.
While the crocodile-like monster was still dazed, Wang Cheng seized the opportunity. A streak of black light instantly tore through the air, heading straight for the monster's eyes.
The monster barely had time to close its eyelids, but the black light pierced through the eyelid without the slightest resistance.
"Shhh!"
With a faint sound, the black light went straight through the eyelid and into the eye socket, heading directly for the monster's brain.
Just as the monster was about to struggle in reaction to the pain in its eyelid, a sharp pain struck its brain, and it lost consciousness.
On the riverbank, all that remained was the crocodile-like monster's body twitching and the bait beast's corpse, now riddled with bite holes.
Seeing the results, Wang Cheng was thrilled. Over the past few days, he had cleared out all the monsters around Lake You Shui.
As he had anticipated, he harvested over ten thousand monster corpses and countless monster materials—though most were low-level apprentice beasts.
Thanks to the intense use of his psychic power, Wang Cheng had also become extremely proficient at controlling it.
If he didn't have to constantly divert mental attention for his own safety, he could probably control two throwing knives in combat.
Unfortunately, now that he had wiped out all the monsters in the area, it would be hard to find another densely packed monster nest like this.
Originally, he had no good way of dealing with aquatic monsters, but after observing how they hunted, he came up with the idea that led to the earlier scene.
This wasn't even his first time using the corpse of a low-level beast to lure mid-level apprentice monsters from the lake.
Most of the monsters he could lure from the lake were mid-level apprentices. So even though he lost some low-level beast corpses as bait, the gains were substantial.
Just then, Wang Cheng suddenly received a call request. Seeing that it was from his mom, he immediately answered, and her holographic image appeared before him:
"Cheng, where are you? Hurry back into the fortress! There's been a change in the inner perimeter—a lot of beast roars were just heard. If nothing goes wrong, the beast tide is about to erupt. If you're out in the wild, get back right away!"
Hearing this, Wang Cheng grew worried and asked, "Mom, where are you and Dad? Don't tell me you haven't started retreating yet. Get out of there immediately! No matter what treasures you see along the way, just ignore them—nothing's more important than your lives. I'm not far from the fortress and can get back quickly, so don't worry about me. But you two must stay safe. Leave right away!"
Leng Yan's expression eased a little, but she still hurriedly said, "Cheng, your dad and I are already escaping—just get back quickly. Don't linger outside, understand?"
After the call ended, Wang Cheng moved swiftly, appearing above the bushes in an instant.
No wonder he hadn't noticed anything—after all, he had already wiped out all the monsters in the area. Naturally, there were no signs of agitation from beast groups.
Still, even though there were no monsters here, he wasn't planning to stay. After packing everything up, he shot off toward the fortress.
On the way, Wang Cheng didn't hold back at all. He used his quadruple-strength technique and sprinted full force. It took him less than ten minutes to reach the fortress gate.
At that moment, the fortress gate was also a scene of chaos. Countless beast hunters had already returned to the fortress.
Suddenly, a red alert message was pushed to his wristwatch. Wang Cheng opened it and a voice sounded:
"Red Alert! Red Alert! A beast tide is about to erupt between the inner and outer wilderness zones. All personnel, return immediately!…"
As the alert message was broadcast, the entire fortress and its walls revealed countless gun barrels of varying sizes—the fortress's defensive combat system had been activated.
Seeing the rows upon rows of terrifying gun barrels atop the fortress, Wang Cheng instead felt an odd sense of security.
But even so, he was still extremely anxious—after all, he hadn't seen any sign of Wang Hao and Leng Yan. He hoped nothing bad had happened to them.
Just as he was worrying, Leng Yan's call request came through again. Wang Cheng instantly picked up and asked anxiously:
"Dad, Mom, where are you now? I'm waiting for you right at the fortress gate."
"Why aren't you inside yet? Go in now! Your dad and I are only a few dozen kilometers from the gate—we'll be there in a few minutes. Get inside first!"
But Wang Cheng firmly refused: "No, I'm waiting here for you two. Hurry up—I'm sending you my location now."
With that, Wang Cheng hung up the call and shared his location with Wang Hao and Leng Yan.
Over thirty kilometers from the fortress wall, several ragged figures were rushing toward the fortress at full speed.
Two of the figures running side-by-side were none other than Leng Yan and Wang Hao, who had just spoken with Wang Cheng. At this moment, they were sprinting at top speed without a moment's pause.
Of course, it was Wang Hao who was carrying Leng Yan forward at high speed—his speed was significantly faster than hers.
"This brat Cheng never listens! Told him to go inside and he refused. When we get back, I'm going to twist his ears off." Though Leng Yan sounded harsh, her face couldn't hide the relief and pride in her expression.
Wang Hao focused intently as he ran at full speed: "That's how it should be. But thankfully, we were just bringing Cheng out for training this time, so we didn't go too deep—only a few hundred kilometers into the outer perimeter. If we'd gone thousands of kilometers like usual, we probably wouldn't have made it back this time."
Leng Yan felt a wave of lingering fear at his words. For sixth-tier apprentice martial artists, thirty kilometers only took less than two minutes to cover.
With the shared location, they quickly spotted their child, who was standing near the fortress gate watching for them.
"Dad! Mom! You're okay—thank goodness! Come on, let's get inside!"
Seeing that Wang Hao and Leng Yan, though dusty and disheveled, were unharmed, Wang Cheng finally relaxed. Together, the three of them quickly passed through the gates and entered the fortress.
(End of Chapter)
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