The gray-robed necromancer, Lu Den, was angry.

He had never been so angry in twenty years.

He was just about to get his hand on another beautiful female corpse, but a little kid wet behind his ears had to get in his way!

“I want to kill kill kill him! Make his skeleton into stews and feed them to leeches!” For there wasn’t anything more lowly in Eagle’s Cry Valley. Lu Den crushed yet another bone of the poor skeleton, which was dragged into this unintentionally.

Lu Den licked his lips when he noticed the portal to go back has returned.

[Descend of the Night] made all types of teleportation scrolls and devices useless inside it. However, it can’t interfere with incoming teleportation coordinates already locked.

The instant he was transported to his original location, the top of the crow king’s corpse, Lu Den shouted in indignation, “Where the hell is that brat...” Just when he was wondering about the sudden darkness, he noticed a female figure beside the boulder a distance away. “Ha? Hahaha, although I lost a chance, another girl is knocking on my door. Come to me gir–”

However, before he realized what happened, Lu Den found himself upside down. No matter how much he struggled, he couldn’t get himself free. First, he didn’t know what to do. So he cursed Lu Ben, but no one could hear a thing.

Due to the lack of sense of touch and smell, he failed to notice the strong acidic smell and melting body.

When he finally realized he was being digested, it was already too late as the very first thing to melt was his skull, the core of his soul.

Just like that, another level 6 [Elder] necromancer became fertilizer for [Corpse Feeding Thorny Flower].

Even Yue Yu, who was closest to Lu Den, had no idea what happened to their latter. She only knew something seemed to deal with the grey-robed necromancer, who returned, instantly.

Only Tian Lang knew what happened.

Without caring about a thing, his body disappeared.

Lich Suo Ge was suddenly tense. A figure flashed before the halo shield. With the sword above his head, he brandished it on the shield.

BOOM!

The halo-shield concaved before returning to its original form, earning a click of tongue and frown from Tian Lang. He was naturally unwilling to let go of his war trophies. He hated it so much that he was ready to expose his full strength. However, it was still far from being able to destroy a gold-ranked Grimoire’s Halo Shield.

Suo Ge was so shocked that he started trembling uncontrollably. He stood up immediately and staggered backward, knocking into his chair, flipping it over.

He had to leave immediately or else he would put himself in danger, but the dark mist in the distance had yet to reach its time limit, and he lacked a way to recall it. Furthermore, once the dark mist disappeared, the Grimoire’s Shield would also disappear. In front of this seemingly Innate Ranker, that one-second delay before he could teleport would be too fatal...

Lich Suo Ge reached out and held onto his Golden Grimoire, preparing to summon his last beast to maintain his Shield after the dark mist disappeared. Then he could activate the teleportation orb.

He hoped that his last beast could buy him a few seconds and let him escape safely.

Before Suo Ge made his decision, Tian Lang had long returned back to the girls.

“Hey, do you have a way to get rid of this dark thing?”

However, the royal swordswoman only rigidly backed away, as if she was suffering from intense pressure. Yue Yu thought for a second before handing him a crystal ball.

Tian Lang didn’t even bother listening to anything. He grabbed the ball and disappeared once again.

Madly pouring Qi inside it, he threw it to the sky.

Crack!

An intense holy light burst out of it, dazzling Tian Lang and everyone’s eyes for a second. The dark mist instantly evaporated like steam...

With a ‘pa’ sound, the yellow shield started to shatter and disappear.

Just then, Lich Su Guo happened to summon a Skeletal Knight. Rather than a fighting beast, it looked more like an experiment as it lacked a few bones.

After the shield broke, it wasn’t any use summoning hundreds of beasts.

“I am finished,” Lich Suo Ge watched helplessly as his shield shattered and anxiously pulled out his teleportation orb from his ring, but as he started to pinch and use it, he suddenly felt that his whole body was bound and unable to move.

Tian Lang patted his anxious chest. He was truly afraid for a moment.

The teleportation orb slowly ‘entered’ Suo Ge’s hand, as if dissolved in his body.

With a relieved expression, he cleared Lich Suo Ge’s confusion: “It’s like this. There was once a Demon Commander called something something that escaped my claws. And I REAAALLLLY hate having my prey running away from me, you see. That’s why I had my cute little follower, my Shadow Leopard, stationed under you from the start.

“You can’t move your jawbones? Don’t worry, my follower is only Platinum-ranked Level 5. It is understandable if you cannot move an inch of your body. Now, rest in peace without any worry. I’ll utilize your knowledge if they are worth something!~”

The poor Suo Ge probably didn’t even realize, when Tian Lang spoke of his underling having the best stealth ability, the leopard had long since slipped into the dragon’s shadow. It was really unfortunate that even the Shadow Leopard’s peculiar ability couldn’t bypass the halo shield’s protection.

After defeating Lich Suo Ge, Tian Lang immediately returned to Yue Yu’s side and focused on the Gold-ranked Level 7 Reaper Mantis.

Even though the current Reaper Mantis was weak, it was still a Level 7 Gold King Beast.

Had it not been for its egg, the Giant Frost Dragon, which was formed from combining a Zombie Dragon and the Ice Orb, would not be capable of being its opponent. Then, it would not have ended up in such a dire situation.

Now that their common enemy had perished, Tian Lang looked at the Reaper Mantis in vigilance, while the latter did the same.

Actually, Tian Lang had long decided to kill this Reaper Mantis and add a crystal core to his stash and a few dozen eggs. Just when he was about to point his sword, Yue Yu grabbed his arm, “What do you want to do?”

“Of course, kill it. Since it exhausted all energy, now is the best time to attack!” Bullying the weak was Tian Lang’s favorite since his pup days. Else, why would those mice commit suicide in fear? Thankfully nobody mistook him for a cat...

Gasp!

Yue Yu heard the unimaginable. She punched Tian Lang’s arm and complained, “How can you do something like that? You guys fought together, and can’t you see it’s about to become a mother?”

It was at that time, the Reaper Mantis dropped to the ground in pain and started producing a white, foam-like substance.

There were many golden eggs in the white foam, but most of the golden eggs were already broken.

At this moment, the female Reaper Mantis’ look had turned into a motherly gaze, as if it was feeling the pain and despair of its children’s premature deaths. It frantically searched to find a safe and unbroken egg.

It used it’s arm carefully and delicately, searching within the white foam again.

Very soon, it had four eggs separated aside.

It was Tian Lang’s timely help that saved these four eggs.

Naturally, the avaricious chaotic being thought he had a part in it. That being said, with Yue Yu by his side, he wouldn’t be too greedy and unreasonable. So slapping the black sword on the boulder, which elicited a growl from the White Tiger and attention of the Reaper Mantis, Tian Lang raised three fingers, smiling and pointing at himself... as if saying: “I saved your eggs, now send three as a tribute.”

He really loved being able to smile. It expressed his inner kindness like here he meant: I am friendly and not overly demanding.

Towards Tian Lang’s unceasing greed, everyone, including the Reaper Mantis, was gobsmacked. It wanted to search through the broken eggs repeatedly, but due to the existence of greedy creatures like Tian Lang, it could only take the four eggs and fly away while producing a strange cry.

As if it was bullied by an unreasonable brute.

Fight? No joke! She had no intention to fight against someone with such a horrifying presence.

“...”

Tian Lang was speechless. He demanded everything that rightfully belonged to him. He really should have killed this damn Mantis and taken everything for himself. His unending greed meant he shot a dissatisfied look at his harmless rabbit, who was ‘doing the proper job.’

It wasn’t that Tian Lang was utterly unfeeling. However, he really couldn’t understand the Mother Reaper Mantis’s pain.

He had read some records provided by the principal, Shui Wu Hen.

And every year, more often than not, thirty percent of mercenaries’ conflicts start with beast eggs. And if gold-ranked beast eggs were to appear, it wasn’t surprising to see death count up to hundreds.

As for motherly love, the him, who was born inside desolate ruins, such things were just foreign words.

He quickly crouched before the white foam. Since his shirt was damaged due to the Gold Armored Puppet’s blow, he tore it off and started wiping the intact looking eggs.

Yue Yu, who followed behind him, was surprised at his sudden action. Being a maiden meant she couldn’t help but peek shyly at the impressive display, and, ahem... she had no corrupted thoughts other than sneaking glances at him.

One time she got caught and dared not meet his eyes anymore.

However, the more she acted like this, the more suspicious Tian Lang got.

“Sis Yu, don’t worry. I’m not angry at you. Look, I found an intact egg!” Tian Lang handed an intact egg to Yue Yu. He couldn’t bring himself to get angry at his rabbit. For some reason, he had a feeling that no matter what she did, she wouldn’t do it for his disadvantage. It was even slightly more trustable than fleshy mounds being the source of human’s strength, only slightly.

In the end, Tian Lang found another intact and another small cracked egg. Reaper Mantis had scythe arms and could only look through the eggs once. It was understandable if it missed some. However, the cracked egg’s life force had yet to leak, meaning the membrane inside held on.

“Woah, we got three eggs. I get two, Sis Yu gets one, and Tigress gets nothing~”

To both Tian Lang and Yue Yu’s surprise, Qian Qian didn’t even argue. No, as if she wasn’t even listening.

“Ah, but isn’t this one cracked?” Yue Yu was slightly worried as she tried to divert their attention.

“Yeah, but the life force is intact. The membrane held on,” looking at the silent swordswoman, Tian Lang frowned. “How about Sis Yu see if we can save it, and I’ll see what happened to her.”

“Ah, shouldn’t I...?” Yue Yu hinted.

“No worries, I think she has a problem with me,” Tian Lang knocked the sword beside him as he reassured her. “I’ll call you if she is injured. Right, what was that crystal ball?”

Yue Yu’s face changed. “Where is it?”

“It cracked...”

“A-ah, n-never mind then,” her expression and the quivering voice said otherwise.

Tian Lang decided not to inquire. He felt he would lose big time if he did.

Tossing and turning the sword playfully, Tian Lang headed for the glaring royal swordswoman without a sword. She seemed abnormally on edge against him. With a certain distance between them, she took a step backward for every step Tian Lang took.

Helpless, Tian Lang grabbed Qian Qian’s hand before the latter could react and dragged her to a dark corner.

“Hey, what’s your problem. You almost killed me–”

“W-what are you?” before Tian Lang could complain, she asked. Her voice quivering.

Tian Lang smirked.

And Qian Qian fainted.