178: Chapter 178 Hook Rope
The Strange Beast War relies on human unity and the mutual support between humans and their Pet Beasts.
The White Fluff Yeti, as an extra credit question for all candidate teams, was designed to test the unity among Beast Tamers.
Whether in terms of its concept or its difficulty, this extra credit question was among the best, aligning with the original intention of screening talent.
The new extra credit question was successfully finalized, and news spread from the Central Army Command Headquarters, quickly reaching the entire Military Fortress.
Lava Mountains.
Smoke rose from the towering crater, dyeing the clouds a dark red even from a hundred miles away, as if the sky itself were burning fiercely.
Gullies split the slightly undulating ground, and flowing rivers of lava served as the veins of this mountain range.
Volcanic rocks and sulfur crystals covered the surface, the air was thick with the scent of sulfur, and geysers and hot springs were scattered throughout.
The figures of the Three Heavenly Kings appeared here.
Upon learning of Su Lixia's team's encounter, they mocked them ruthlessly but did not rush to Frostspine Snow Ridge to help.
The reason was simple.
Safety Officers provided protection throughout the Beast Taming College Entrance Examination; as long as Su Lixia and the other two girls didn't actively seek death, they would be fine.
Compared to rushing to Frostspine Snow Ridge to provide backup, it was more important to find powerful Pet Beasts to challenge.
The volcanic region had a high danger coefficient, and the Pet Beasts living in such extreme geographical environments were generally quite strong.
The Three Heavenly Kings had chosen the Lava Mountains specifically for this reason.
Very few candidate teams dared to come to the Lava Mountains, so those powerful Pet Beasts had rarely been challenged.
This gave the Three Heavenly Kings many more options.
Seeing a Lava Salamander resting by the edge of a lava river, its skin looking like solidified magma, Xu Qingfang wiped away some sweat.
"This place is really too hot!"
In the volcanic region, even the air was scorching hot; wanting to pull open one's collar to dissipate heat was pure fantasy.
Staying here felt like being roasted over a fire; all that was missing was a handful of cumin for them to be ready to eat.
Mo Yu nodded weakly.
As the weak link in the team's combat power, his physical fitness was also inferior to the other two, and he no longer had the energy to speak.
Unlike the frail Beast Tamer, the Nether Horse was like a fish in water in the volcanic region, jumping and frolicking happily.
Yue Yun had long since recalled Miao Sang into the beast space. He waved his hand to drive away those Lava Salamanders and, holding his blade, walked toward the lava river.
Crack!
Under the Safety Officer's puzzled gaze, Yue Yun gripped the blade of his machete and exerted sudden force, snapping it into several pieces.
The fragments of the machete were thrown into the lava river, the terrifyingly high temperature instantly turning them glowing red.
Yue Yun's next move made the Safety Officer turn pale with fright.
Without any protection, he reached out into the boiling magma and fished out those glowing red fragments.
The pain from the magma made Yue Yun's brow furrow slightly.
An illusory health bar appeared above his head, trembling slightly from the damage caused by the magma as a tiny sliver of health was deducted.
"Is he even freaking human?"
The Safety Officer was utterly bewildered.
The shock to the Safety Officer's perception from someone washing their hands in magma was far greater than the shock of seeing health drop during a battle.
Bumps and bruises were unavoidable in battle, but the danger of magma was tangibly right before his eyes.
"A normal person definitely couldn't do that!"
The Safety Officer looked at Yue Yun with a strange expression.
Yue Yun didn't know what the Safety Officer was thinking; he was fully focused on the task at hand.
His hands, as hard as steel bars, were comparable to a workbench. He forcibly kneaded those fragments into a ball, then hammered, squeezed, and bent them into one well-shaped metal part after another.
The Safety Officer didn't dare blink the whole time, staring fixedly at the movements of Yue Yun's hands, finding it more and more absurd the longer he watched.
The material of these parts was iron, right?
Since when could a human destroy iron tools and reshape them into something new using only their bare hands?
So it's purely handcrafted, huh?
"Six-six-six, humans evolved and didn't tell me!"
The Safety Officer was completely speechless.
No wonder Yue Yun had easily killed Chen Hu after he transformed into a killing monster; with this Physical Body and strength, killing anyone would just be a matter of one punch.
Yue Yun continued to process the parts in his hands.
Some parts he wasn't satisfied with were even thrown back into the lava to be heated again, then fished out and kneaded into the desired shape.
Carefully assembling the parts in his hands, Yue Yun laughed out loud when he obtained the Mechanical Device he had envisioned.
"Perfect!"
Xu Qingfang and Mo Yu leaned in.
Seeing the Mechanical Device in Yue Yun's hands, which still held some residual heat, they both revealed similarly satisfied smiles.
Xu Qingfang pulled out a fist-sized ball of silk thread.
Don't be fooled by the small amount of thread.
This was spider silk that the Three Heavenly Kings and Lu Chaoyang had squeezed out of that Fate-Weaving Spider after an in-depth exchange.
The silk of the Fate-Weaving Spider had excellent toughness, enough to meet the requirements of the Mechanical Device and achieve the effect Yue Yun had envisioned.
"Install it and test it out!"
Mo Yu forced himself to cheer up.
This thing had been researched by him and Xue Qin, and then experimented on by Su Lixia, Xu Qingfang, and Yue Yun.
Seeing the final product right before their eyes was truly exciting.
Xu Qingfang also watched with great interest.
Yue Yun placed the spider silk into the slot of the device and then fixed the device to his left forearm before standing up calmly.
"Brothers, keep your eyes peeled and watch closely!"
Xu Qingfang and Mo Yu watched with rapt attention.
The Safety Officer also stared unblinkingly, watching Yue Yun's every move for fear of missing a single detail.
Yue Yun raised his hand to activate the device and fired the Grappling Hook, which accurately locked onto a volcanic rock ten meters ahead following his line of sight.
The moment the hook hit its mark, the device locked, causing the silk thread to suddenly tighten, and the gears engaged to unleash a clever force.
Yue Yun's entire body was pulled rapidly forward by the silk thread, crossing the ten-meter distance in the blink of an eye.
"Whoa!"
Xu Qingfang and Mo Yu let out sounds of envy.
Limited by the conditions in the Secret Realm, the Grappling Hook device Yue Yun made was not the final version of their research, but a simplified one.
The pulling force provided by this device was limited, not enough to pull a young man of normal weight; it could only provide a slight assist.
Therefore, only Yue Yun could use it normally.
The Safety Officer slowly withdrew his gaze.
The Grappling Hook could only reach its full potential in Yue Yun's hands; it didn't hold much significance for ordinary Beast Tamers.
Yue Yun was indeed very satisfied with the Grappling Hook.
He didn't rush to leave, but instead huddled with Xu Qingfang and Mo Yu to study other clever uses for the Grappling Hook.
"The function of this Grappling Hook isn't just to assist with movement; it can also fire silk threads to bind and restrain targets."
"With the assistance of the Grappling Hook, Old Yue's mobility and ability to suppress enemies are greatly increased, and his fighting style can become much more flexible and varied!"
Xu Qingfang and Mo Yu analyzed in a few words.
Yue Yun nodded repeatedly at their words.
He wore a confident and calm smile, already conceiving many combat methods that could be realized with the Grappling Hook.
"Since the Grappling Hook is finished, let's hurry up and find some powerful Pet Beasts!" Mo Yu urged.
Now that the excitement had passed, he was feeling a bit listless again.
Xu Qingfang and Yue Yun looked at each other and smiled.