281: Chapter 281 Hunter and Prey

"Watch out!"

Martial General Hu Dachui turned around and shouted a warning.

But he quickly discovered with surprise that the two people behind him had already prepared to respond, their speed even faster than his, a Sixth-Order Ability User.

Due to Malice Perception, Xing Yaoyan was almost the first of the three to discover the crisis.

And the moment Malice Perception sounded the alarm, she warned Qian Mo beside her.

However, even so, the thing's speed was too fast.

Even though Xing Yaoyan and Qian Mo pushed their reactions to the limit, by the time they turned around completely, it had already rushed in front of them, opening its huge mouth to reveal the dense, sharp teeth inside.

An indescribable stench rushed towards their faces...

"Boom!"

Xing Yaoyan's pupils constricted into thin lines.

Just at that critical moment, a long, thin stone pillar rose from the ground, slamming hard into the creature's chin and sending it flying.

The next moment, Xing Yaoyan turned her head as if sensing something, and saw Martial General Hu Dachui standing in place with his arms crossed, his lips curling slightly as if mocking the attacker's overestimation of their own abilities.

Without needing to think, this suddenly rising stone pillar was definitely his doing.

At the same time, she also took the opportunity to see clearly what the thing attacking them was.

A wolf's head and a tiger's body, with sturdy limbs and coiled, powerful muscles; it was quite imposing, especially its back, where several red stripes were particularly eye-catching.

The Red-Striped Wolf Beast, the most numerous Star Beast in the Land of Destruction, bar none.

It grows very fast; as long as it continuously plunders resources, it can improve its strength, and it doesn't require special items or conditions to advance like Xing Yaoyan does.

When she first saw the records about this type of Star Beast in the Longxiang Academy library, Xing Yaoyan had been a bit startled.

At that time, she instantly remembered when she first met Hu Wang, when he said in an exaggerated tone: "As long as they, the Star Beasts, have enough resources, they can reach Seven Marks in three days..."

He must have been talking about Star Beasts like the Red-Striped Wolf Beast.

Of course, although their growth speed is Heaven-Defying, in contrast, they have very little intelligence and no special abilities, relying purely on physical strength in a fight, so they are not difficult to deal with.

In everyone's eyes, they are undoubtedly just slightly tankier punching bags, and they are the Star Beasts most frequently killed by opponents of higher ranks.

Moreover, their meat is delicious and contains a lot of energy, making them a very good food supplement for exploration teams in the Land of Destruction...

That said.

That Red-Striped Wolf Beast had already landed heavily on the open ground in the distance.

It let out a whine, then struggled to get up, shaking its head in a daze.

Xing Yaoyan looked at this creature and silently swallowed her saliva.

Judging from the aura on its body, it should only be at Five Marks, still within the range of being manageable.

The book said its meat is delicious, and the higher the rank, the better it tastes, so she had long wanted to try it...

"You two step back, I will deal with it."

As soon as he finished speaking, Martial General Hu Dachui instantly blocked the two of them behind him, his massive spiritual power surging wantonly.

It must be said that Martial General Hu Dachui is indeed righteous; having said he was inviting her for treatment, he automatically took on all the dirty work on the road.

"How about I help..."

Qian Mo knew that in order to hide her identity in front of this Sixth-Order expert, Xing Yaoyan could not act casually, but it didn't matter for him, so his first thought was to help.

But before he had taken a few steps, Xing Yaoyan pulled him back.

"Don't go... It's not that simple..." Xing Yaoyan used Voice Transmission.

Qian Mo was not stupid; he understood the warning in Xing Yaoyan's words almost instantly.

He also knew that what had just attacked them was a Five Marks Red-Striped Wolf Beast.

The records said that this type of Star Beast has no intelligence and no special abilities, relying purely on physical strength to fight.

Yet, this mindless experience mob in the eyes of everyone in the Land of Destruction was only discovered when it was so close to them, and they had a Sixth-Order Ability User among them...

There was only one truth—besides this Red-Striped Wolf Beast, someone else was targeting them, and... that thing was most likely the master controlling this Red-Striped Wolf Beast...

Suddenly, Qian Mo felt a great force come from the young girl's arm, pulling him away from his original position almost instantly.

The next moment, the soil where Qian Mo had been standing suddenly sank, and two sharp "blades" stabbed out from it, almost piercing him through.

While feeling lucky, Qian Mo turned his head and nodded gratefully at the girl who had saved his life.

The System's notification sound was 0.5 seconds slower than the girl's reaction; if he had been alone just now, although he could have dodged, he certainly wouldn't have been completely unscathed like this.

Over there, Martial General Hu Dachui turned around quickly.

Seeing the two of them still unharmed, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, without even looking at the Red-Striped Wolf Beast behind him that had been skewered into a hedgehog by earth spikes, he arrived above the invading enemy in an instant and stomped down hard.

"Boom..."

A dull thud came from underground.

Xing Yaoyan and Qian Mo felt the ground beneath their feet tremble, and then they saw the two long, thin forelimbs that had just emerged from the ground tremble before quickly hanging limp.

"This is a Five Marks Star Beast—Burrowing Centipede..." Martial General Hu Dachui's face turned completely cold.

He didn't dare to leave the two of them for even a second now.

Xing Yaoyan opened her spiritual eyes and scanned the surroundings.

The guy hiding behind the scenes first used the Red-Striped Wolf Beast to attract attention, then launched a sudden attack while Martial General Hu Dachui was briefly away from them, hoping to catch them off guard with this Burrowing Centipede.

Moreover, these two Star Beasts hadn't revealed a shred of information before their formal attack, coordinating perfectly; if no one was controlling them, she wouldn't believe it even if she died.

A trace of secret killing intent flowed from Xing Yaoyan's eyes.

Judging from the sneak attack just now, the opponent's target was most likely Qian Mo...

Since his first choice wasn't to attack her, her own Star Beast identity probably hadn't been exposed yet.

Combining all possible factors, Xing Yaoyan felt that the biggest reason for this attack was undoubtedly Qian Mo's Star Body.

"That's it! When Martial General Hu Dachui appeared suddenly before, Qian Mo was scared into a stress response, displaying his spiritual power without reservation; the opponent likely smelled the aura of the Star Body because of that..."

A flash of lightning streaked across Xing Yaoyan's mind.

And at this moment, a faint light flashed in her eyes.

She saw it: at the 12 o'clock direction, on a mound a few hundred meters away, a mysterious figure was standing quietly.

It wore an earthy-yellow cloak, almost blending in with the environment of the Land of Destruction.

If it weren't for the enhancement of her spiritual eyes, she wouldn't have been able to discover it at all.

"Over there!"

Xing Yaoyan quickly transmitted the collected information to the two of them.

Seeing all three of them looking towards it, the opponent froze for a moment, but quickly flicked its cloak and hid below the mound.

"A rat that doesn't dare to see the light..."

Martial General Hu Dachui stomped his foot violently, and countless earth spikes chased rapidly in the direction of the peeper...