104: Crocodile group

Qingsha Village is located in a relatively large plain situated between several mountains.

Not far from Qingsha Village is a shoal created by the Qingsha River, and the Villagers' main supplementary livelihood comes from this shoal.

In this shoal, there is a type of green sand that emits a spiritual glow, which is collected by many spiritual material shops in town.

In the past, when there was little farm work, most of the Villagers of Qingsha Village would gather here to pan for the green sand.

However, ever since the strange crocodile appeared and injured several Villagers, the Villagers of Qingsha Village dared not come anymore, and the busiest place suddenly became the most desolate.

Chu Jingyu was led by Liu Qinghe, the Village Chief of Qingsha Village, to this shoal.

At this moment, the wind was calm, the waves were still, and the winding river flowed slowly, seemingly without anything unusual.

"Master, the crocodile appeared right here before and injured several of our Villagers."

Chu Jingyu squatted down, grabbed a handful of distinct gray-green sand particles, examined them closely, and then looked toward the water surface.

The Golden Armored Jade Pupil Beast and the White-Browed Mountain Eagle appeared beside him simultaneously. The White-Browed Mountain Eagle had completely recovered after the treatment it received from Sun Chunchen last time, coupled with several days of recuperation.

Looking through the water surface, Chu Jingyu's gaze seemed fixed on something underwater. He frowned slightly, knowing that neither of his two Source Beasts were good at underwater combat, so they needed to lure the fellow out first.

The Golden Armored Jade Pupil Beast pressed its pincers against the ground, using the Heart of the Earth Vein to sense which direction in the water had the strongest energy fluctuation.

Although it couldn't clearly see the appearance of the Source Beast, the Golden Armored Jade Pupil Beast raised its head and stared intently in a certain direction underwater.

It then gradually submerged below the water surface along the beach. As a golden light flashed, it quickly and slowly swam underwater.

The Qingsha River wasn't very deep to begin with, so the Golden Armored Jade Pupil Beast quickly reached the vicinity of the riverbed and saw the true face of the malevolent Source Beast mentioned by Liu Qinghe.

Its appearance was indeed similar to a crocodile, but a row of raised spikes grew along its spine all the way to its tail. Its skin was gray-green, making its figure almost invisible when hidden underwater.

Just as the Golden Armored Jade Pupil Beast saw the crocodile, the crocodile also sensed the Golden Armored Jade Pupil Beast's arrival.

Without any friendly greeting, the crocodile's eyes flashed fiercely, and a water cannon, compressed to the extreme within its mouth, distorted the surrounding current and blasted toward the Golden Armored Jade Pupil Beast.

Since the Golden Armored Jade Pupil Beast was not skilled in water combat, it didn't have time to adjust its direction underwater. It only managed to stack two layers of Golden Jade Scales on its body before the water cannon struck it. The outermost layer of scales shattered, and its body involuntarily shot backward.

It took considerable effort for the Golden Armored Jade Pupil Beast to stabilize itself, but before it could make any other move, the crocodile lunged forward, swinging its spiked tail down toward the Golden Armored Jade Pupil Beast's head.

Golden Jade extended its pincers just in time to barely block the attack. It felt extremely frustrated internally, sensing that this was completely wrong—it, an Uncommon Rank High-Tier Source Beast, was being suppressed by an Intermediate Alien Tier Source Beast.

Golden Jade used the tremendous force from the crocodile's tail to propel itself toward the deeper parts of the riverbed. After reaching the bottom, Golden Jade's Qi instantly vanished from the crocodile Source Beast's perception.

The crocodile gently flicked its tail and arrived at the riverbed where the Golden Armored Jade Pupil Beast had disappeared, looking around in confusion, seemingly unable to understand where such a large Source Beast had gone.

However, it did not stay there for long, but instead swam back toward its nest very quickly.

When it looked back toward its nest, it was instantly terrified. It saw Golden Jade, who had just vanished, standing right next to its nest.

At that moment, it was holding a crocodile egg the size of a human head with one pincer.

The water cannon reformed in the crocodile's mouth, but fearing it would hit the egg, it ultimately didn't dare to fire it.

It could only vigorously shake its tail, rapidly approaching the location of the nest.

The Golden Armored Jade Pupil Beast glanced regretfully at the last egg in the nest, and then swam toward the water surface before the crocodile could arrive.

As the time spent underwater increased, the Golden Armored Jade Pupil Beast seemed to grow more familiar with the aquatic environment, and its swimming speed unexpectedly increased significantly.

Before the crocodile could get close to it, it reached the surface first, then rapidly moved toward the edge of the shoal.

The crocodile pursued relentlessly, following it to the shoal and slowly revealing its body from beneath the water.

Just then, a golden flying wheel descended from the sky, and golden feather blades spun rapidly, cutting toward the neck of the crocodile Source Beast.

Blood splattered instantly, but this crocodile was also the tough, thick-skinned type. This sudden strike from the White-Browed Mountain Eagle did not take its life.

The bright red blood stained the surrounding river water. The crocodile seemed to have regained its senses from its rage. It weakly glanced at the White-Browed Mountain Eagle in the air, then looked longingly at the two crocodile eggs held in the Golden Armored Jade Pupil Beast's pincers.

The surrounding water rapidly spun, forming a whirlpool, while its body slowly retreated, about to be completely hidden beneath the water surface.

"Don't let it retreat. Try to capture it alive." Chu Jingyu quickly instructed.

The Golden Armored Jade Pupil Beast quickly tossed the two eggs to Chu Jingyu. With a light wave of its pincer, the gray-green sand particles were instantly dyed gold, transforming into streaks of golden light that rushed into the whirlpool.

The White-Browed Mountain Eagle was even faster. Almost the moment Chu Jingyu spoke, golden feather wings shot out from beneath its own wings, striking the crocodile—which had not yet fully submerged—before the Golden Armored Jade Pupil Beast's Golden Sand could reach it.

The red color in the adjacent water expanded further, but the crocodile's figure was completely submerged beneath the surface.

The Golden Armored Jade Pupil Beast quickly returned underwater. Chu Jingyu and the Village Chief, who was trembling with fear outside the water, could only see the water surface violently churning.

After about two or three minutes, the Golden Armored Jade Pupil Beast slowly emerged onto the shoal from beneath the water, dragging the tail of the dying crocodile Source Beast.

Honestly, this scene was highly impactful: the Golden Armored Jade Pupil Beast, which was not even the size of the crocodile Source Beast's tail, was dragging a Source Beast nearly twenty times its own size—it was like a four or five-year-old child carrying two men nearly two meters tall.

Chu Jingyu waded to the shoal, pulled out a special rope from his jade pendant designed to suppress the use of Source Beast abilities, and tied it around the crocodile Source Beast.

He then took out a piece of emerald green leaf and fed it into the crocodile Source Beast's mouth.

Visible to the naked eye, the dense wounds on its body were slowly repaired, and it gradually recovered some of its strength.

Seeing Chu Jingyu, the human, right in front of it, it opened its mouth, ready to bite down, but the Golden Armored Jade Pupil Beast jumped onto its head and smashed down with a pincer, instantly causing the crocodile's head to drop into the shoal, filling its open mouth with sand.

Chu Jingyu walked out of the shoal, patted the two crocodile eggs, and smiled slightly, "I didn't expect to have an unexpected gain."

"Sizzle, sizzle."

A grating sound rang out, and a rift slowly opened at the location of the shoal, then instantly expanded to roughly four or five meters wide.

Chu Jingyu held the two crocodile eggs in one hand, silently staring at the entrance, which resembled a passage leading Beyond the Border, without waiting for him to speculate further.

One after another, crocodile-like Source Beasts slowly crawled out of it. Their appearance and size were identical to the crocodile Source Beast that had just fought the Golden Armored Jade Pupil Beast.

Chu Jingyu swallowed hard. Although he didn't quite understand the current situation, he didn't believe he could handle fighting a dozen Intermediate Alien Tier Source Beasts all at once by himself.

Therefore, he decisively shouted to the Village Chief beside him, "Retreat."