indianbanksassociation Chapter 242 The Beast King Holds a Meeting
Chapter 242 The Beast King Holds a Meeting
In the southern part of Nanjiang, there is a black, miasma-ridden jungle.
This rainforest covers a large area at the southernmost tip of Nam Giang Province, with its canopy blocking out the sun and the ground shrouded in miasma produced by the fermentation of decaying leaves year-round.
An ordinary person can only stay inside for half an hour, but for the strange beasts, this is the most comfortable lair.
For fifty years, the Black Miasma Forest has been one of the areas with the highest density of exotic beasts in Nanjiang Province, and no martial artist has dared to venture more than ten kilometers into it.
At this moment, inside a natural cave deep in the jungle, the atmosphere was even more oppressive than the miasma outside.
The cave is very high, with a crack in the top letting in sunlight, which shines on the pool of water at the bottom of the cave, reflecting a faint green light.
A dozen or so strange beasts sat around the pool. The smallest of them was fifty or sixty meters long, while the largest one was coiled in the very center of the pool, its body as big as a mountain.
It was a black dragon with golden eyes, over three hundred meters long, its entire body covered in jet-black scales, each scale edge gleaming with a dark golden luster.
Its head rested on the edge of the pool, its golden vertical pupils half-open and half-closed, with two pale golden lines in the pupils, a sign that it was about to break through to the level of Beast King.
The Golden-Eyed Black Dragon is the undisputed overlord of Nanjiang Province, at the peak of the fifth rank, just one step away from the sixth rank.
All the beast kings of the second-level nests in the entire Nanjiang region have to bow their heads in the face of it. For fifty years, humans have never dared to provoke it in the territory of Nanjiang.
And it is quite sensible, generally not coming out to harm humans.
But now, the vertical pupils of this King of Nanjiang no longer hold any of his former majesty.
fear.
Fear was clearly written in the vertical pupils of the golden-eyed black dragon.
Under Song Chen's brutal slaughter, the remaining beast kings of Nanjiang gathered together.
"The Iron-Bone Python of Cangwu Mountain is dead." A black-scaled leopard, two hundred meters long, crouched on the edge of the cave, speaking in a deep, hoarse voice in the standard Daxia dialect.
"The two rock armored lizards at Eagle's Beak Cliff are also dead, as are the burrowing scorpions in Yunxi, the poisonous swamp crocodiles in Blackwater Swamp, the iron-backed bears in Woniu Ridge, and the golden-winged eagles in Shimen Gorge... In just three days, all twenty-three beast kings have died."
The mythical beasts naturally have their own languages, but they cannot communicate with each other and generally choose to use the Xia language, which everyone understands.
Every time the black-scaled leopard announced a name, a strange beast in the cave would stir restlessly.
After reporting, it thought for a few seconds, then added in a lower voice, "Falling Star Lake, Wild Boar Forest, White Wolf Gully, Panlong Gorge, Black Wind Valley, Snake Bone Ridge... they're all gone this morning too."
"I only received the latest battle report half an hour ago. The poisonous dragon lizard of Snake Bone Ridge was beheaded by Song Chen with a single strike, just one strike."
The cave was deathly silent.
Sitting on the muddy ground by the pool was an iron-armed behemoth, eighty meters tall, with its two forearms as thick as two train carriages.
It slammed its fist into the ground, sending pebbles flying dozens of meters high, its voice rough and hoarse, like stones grinding in its throat: "How many does he want to kill? Twenty-three fifth-tier beasts aren't enough? Now, with the six nests from today, almost half of Nanjiang's fifth-tier beasts are dead!"
"Half?" A gray-blue falcon perched on a high stalagmite, its wings folded, its eyes gleaming with anxiety.
"At this rate, in five days, there won't be a single fifth-tier beast left in Nanjiang. It'll be our turn soon, won't it? Who do you think can withstand a single blow from Song Chen?"
The Iron-Armed Violent Ape opened its mouth but didn't reply.
"Damn the Sky Wolf Clan!" The Black Scale Leopard suddenly let out a low roar, its tail lashing against the stone wall, sending pebbles tumbling down.
"It's all the fault of the Sirius Clan. Why did they have to go and fight the Ice Demon Clan? As a result, the humans took advantage of our weakness and dragged us down with them."
The falcon swooped down from the stalagmite, its shrill voice rising several octaves: "When the Sirius King was alive, he rode on our heads and lorded it over us. Now that he's dead, he's trying to kill us too."
"Do you remember the kill order it issued before it died? Hunt down Song Chen? Was its brain malfunctioned by a nuclear bomb? It's already a miracle that Song Chen isn't coming after us, let alone hunting him down?"
A scaly turtle, huddled in a corner of the cave, its neck mostly tucked into its shell, poked out half its head and spoke in a muffled voice: "What's the use of saying all this now? The Sirius King is dead, the Sirius Clan is too busy taking care of itself, who will stand up for us?"
"The whale clan and the sea dragon clan watched from the other side of the ocean, hoping that all the land beasts would die out so they could come ashore and divide the territory."
The Iron-Armed Berserker Ape suddenly stood up, clapping his fists together with a dull thud: "Then let's fight!"
"Launch a beast tide. All the nests in Nanjiang will be mobilized simultaneously to attack the base city from the east, west, and south."
"No matter how good Song Chen is at fighting, he's only one person. Can he defend all the base cities in Nanjiang at the same time?"
"madness."
The golden-eyed black dragon finally spoke.
Its sound wasn't loud, but the cave instantly fell silent.
The golden-eyed black dragon slowly raised its upper body, its three-hundred-meter-long body unfolding, its dark vertical pupils sweeping over every strange beast present.
"Violent Ape, you just said that you would launch a beast tide to attack every base city in Nanjiang."
"I ask you, how many divisions does Nanjiang Province have right now? How many cannons are on the city walls? How many spaceships are in the sky?"
The voice of the golden-eyed black dragon echoed like rolling thunder in the cave.
"Even if I piled up all the beast hordes I've accumulated over the past fifty years, how many cities could I conquer? One? Two? And then what? After Song Chen finishes killing the outer lairs, he turns around and wipes us all out outside the city, one by one?"
It looked down at the Iron-Armed Violent Ape: "You think this is risking your life? This is suicide."
The Iron-Armed Violent Ape slowly sat down, its eighty-meter-tall body shrinking into a ball, and it stopped speaking.
The black-scaled leopard's voice was filled with despair: "Then what do you suggest we do? We can't beat them in a fight, we can't win in a battle, are we just going to stand here and wait for them to come to us one by one?"
"escape."
The golden-eyed black dragon uttered a single word.
The cave fell silent again, all the strange beasts staring at it.
"Where to escape to?" Feng Jun asked.
"South." The golden vertical pupils of the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon seemed to pierce through the cave walls, allowing it to see into the distance.
"Once we cross the border and enter the tropical jungles of Southeast Asia, the spiritual energy is abundant, and the number of strange beasts is no less than here. Humans won't be able to reach there in a short time, and we can survive there."
It paused, then added another direction: "Or we could go to the sea. Although the whale race looks down on land beasts, there are now two royal families in the sea. After humans counterattack the land, the next step will definitely be the ocean. The whale race and the sea dragon race also need cannon fodder."
"We're all fifth-tier cultivators, after all. If we go, we'll be a vital force, and they won't refuse to take us in."
The black-scaled leopard thought for a long time before speaking, "Are you sure he'll chase after us? What if we run away and he doesn't follow?"
Upon hearing this foolish question, a hint of weariness flashed in the vertical pupils of the golden-eyed black dragon: "Everyone, don't you understand? Song Chen isn't here to reclaim lost territory; he's here to clear the area. If we stay here, the only outcome will be death."
No more strange beasts spoke in the cave.
Light streamed through the cracks and shone on the pool.
The water reflected the faces of strange beasts, displaying a variety of expressions including fear, anger, resentment, and despair.
But they lacked any will to fight.
The golden-eyed black dragon looked around and finally said two words: "Vote."
The twenty-odd beast kings looked at each other in bewilderment. Then the Black Scale Leopard was the first to raise its claws, followed by the Wind Falcon's wings. The Scaled Turtle poked its head out of its shell and nodded. The Iron-Armed Violent Ape hesitated for a long time before finally raising the thick arm that had once tried to smash Song Chen.
It was quickly passed unanimously.
The golden-eyed black dragon nodded in satisfaction: "Set off before dark. Don't take what you can't take. Disperse."