Chapter 192: Collaborate

Blood splattered as the bear's snout was knocked askew.

The skinny man, just falling, landed on the giant bear's shoulder and back, then rolled down its smooth fur, grabbing onto the long spear with one hand. The spear was lodged in the bear's rump, already causing it to bleed profusely. Now, with the weight of a full-grown man pressing down, the bear roared in pain and tried to claw at it with a hind paw. Fortunately, using the momentary delay this caused, the skinny man stabilized himself and quickly scrambled down the tree, using both hands and feet.

He had barely regained his footing when the giant bear plummeted from above, slamming onto the ground with a thud, kicking up mud and dust that splattered his face. "Ugh, ptui, ptui!" the skinny man spat, quickly stepping back a few paces. The giant bear lay prostrate and motionless; he couldn't tell if it was dead or just unconscious.

Six or seven people emerged from the trees, the woods, and the sorghum field, gathering around the giant bear. The skinny man gasped for breath, his words disjointed: "The poison... didn't you say if I just held on for twenty breaths, it would... it would die from the poison?" He had been chased for about ten minutes and was scared out of his wits. The bear was truly single-minded, pursuing only him and no one else!

"The bear was too big, the dosage wasn't enough," said the team's only female soldier, a bow strapped to her back. "Didn't I just land two more arrows?" She had delicate brows and eyes, and her face, tanned blackish-red by the sun of the Chipar Plateau, gave her features a tough appearance.

The skinny man was still fuming: "Your aim is terrible! Broken Blade saved me." Otherwise, the bear would have long since chewed him up like a grape, a mouthful of bursting pulp. "Huh? Where's Broken Blade?"

"Here." Another person emerged from behind a tree, having just retrieved the blade that had ripped open the bear's jowls. It was He Lingchuan. In this nine-person squad, he had chosen the nickname "Broken Blade" for himself.

The basic unit of the Coiled Dragon Patrol Army was a "fire," also commonly referred to as a squad. Each fire consisted of ten people and was led by a fire captain. This particular squad had recently lost two members and gained He Lingchuan, so it currently had only nine.

Fire Captain Liu Tong pulled the long spear from the bear's body. "No chitchat, let's get to business! Willow, you chop off the bear's head." Willow was the female archer who had just shot the arrows; her graceful figure indeed resembled a willow branch. At the fire captain's assignment, the skinny man pouted, feeling disgruntled. According to the unwritten rules of the Patrol Army, whoever decapitated an enemy or cut off its ears earned the most merit. He had contributed the most and paid the greatest price in the bear hunt, so by rights, he should have been the one to chop off the bear's head. However, Willow was the most senior member of the team, second only to the fire captain, and she was also the primary attacker.

She took the great axe from her teammate. Even lying prone, the bear demon was like a small hill. She had to place one foot on its head, grip the axe with both hands, and swing down with full force.

Before the axe blade even reached its neck, the unconscious giant bear suddenly erupted. Willow lost her footing and couldn't retreat in time. The giant bear's claw raked her calf, making her cry out in agony. The giant bear pinned her down, about to tear her apart alive. Tigers and leopards would typically strangle their prey before eating it, but bears often preferred to rip open their prey's belly and devour them alive. This giant bear also knew its end was near and wanted only to rip open her chest and tear out her guts, unleashing its full hatred upon its opponent.

Just as its fangs were about to pierce Willow's belly, a cold gleam flashed from above. The bear's head suddenly detached, hot neck blood spraying all over Willow's head and mouth. It was the skinny man, closest to the scene, who had picked up the axe and swung it down. The bear's head rolled twice on the ground, its powerful jaws snapping shut with a "clack," its small, scarlet eyes still wide and glaring. Willow, pinned beneath the massive bear carcass, shivered at the sight. If it had been even a moment later, a large hole would have been ripped in her stomach.

This time, the bear demon was truly dead, and everyone collectively let out a sigh of relief. "Help me..." Willow pleaded with difficulty. The team members struggled to push the bear's corpse away. Willow cried out in pain because the bear's claw was still hooked onto her calf, the wound a bloody, mangled mess. Another burly man, "Door Plank," retrieved wound medicine and helped Willow treat her injury. Liu Tong turned to the others and said, "Go dig graves and bury the villagers."

The team members returned to the village to find hoes and picks. The village was in disarray. Wooden houses had gaping holes, furniture was overturned everywhere, and bodies could be found by following the bloodstains. The bear demon had killed eight people, but it only ate young children and teenagers, especially fond of gouging out eyeballs. The remains were gruesome to behold. One team member had enlisted three months ago and was not new to seeing dead bodies, but as soon as he entered the house, he saw a victim with a wide-open mouth, the empty eye sockets staring straight at him. He couldn't help it and vomited. The scene was too horrific, even for He Lingchuan. He turned his head away, silently repeating to himself, "This is a dream."

The team silently collected the bodies and took them to an open space behind the village for a proper burial. The bear demon had burst out from the mountains. The Military Merit Bureau received a plea for help from the village and dispatched He Lingchuan's squad to eliminate the demon. As they dug the graves, the team members talked, agreeing that the demons they had eliminated recently were far stronger than those from a few months ago.

In the world of Coiled Dragon City, two months had passed since the Imperial Nectar appeared. The after-effects of the Imperial Nectar event were now evident: new demons imbued with power were sprouting up like mushrooms across the entire Coiled Dragon Wilderness, and older demons were growing increasingly powerful. Newly enlightened demons were like teenagers aged fourteen or fifteen: their power surged, their confidence soared, giving them the delusion of being invincible. Their nascent intelligence was still a bit naive, but their temperaments had become exceptionally juvenile and belligerent, only slowly calming down over several months. At such a time, they posed a great threat to humans. Reports of demon attacks on people were endless, both in the Coiled Dragon Wilderness and on the Chipar Plateau. Population was one of Coiled Dragon City's most valuable resources, and the authorities would not allow man-eating demons to roam free.

Since joining the Patrol Army, He Lingchuan had already completed seven demon-elimination missions. Veteran members said that before the Imperial Nectar, the Chipar Plateau had been very peaceful, and it would take more than half a year to accumulate so many cases. Before the burial, He Lingchuan reached out and closed the eyes of a deceased villager. This was the trial he was destined to undergo. Combat and slaughter were the best ways to sharpen one's blade and will. Yet human life was so fragile, whether in Coiled Dragon City or the real world.

Door Plank found a few sticks of incense, lit them at the graves, and recited a eulogy, wishing the deceased peaceful passage to the divine realm. He Lingchuan had heard this many times before and knew that the deity they prayed to was "Empress Mitian," the goddess who had bestowed the Great Square Pot and General Hong, and who had always protected Coiled Dragon City.

After attending to the villagers' funerals, the squad found a hay cart to transport the bear's carcass, hitched a horse to it, and set off towards Coiled Dragon City. This was the squad's spoils of war. The bear's head would be taken to the Military Merit Bureau as proof for registration, while the rest would be distributed among the team members by the fire captain, with those who earned more merit receiving more, and those who earned less receiving less.

Just as they finished loading the bear's corpse, a gigantic spotted deer suddenly ambled out of the forest. Moss grew on its magnificent antlers, and two small flowers bloomed there. Showing no fear of humans, it approached and spoke in human tongue: "The Mountain and River Spirits of Thousand Peaks asked me to convey that many unfamiliar demons have appeared near Mount Baitou, both avian and beastly."

Fire Captain Liu Tong stepped forward. "Aren't they newly born demons?"

"No," the spotted deer replied. "They appeared alongside the new tide of demons after the Imperial Nectar, attempting to blend in. But the Mountain and River Spirits have determined they are outsiders."

"Thank you for the information. We will report it as soon as possible."

Since the advent of the Imperial Nectar, strange occurrences had become common, some naturally occurring, others man-made. The spotted deer nodded, then slowly ambled back into the forest.

As the overlord of the wilderness, Coiled Dragon City firmly controlled the entire Chipar Plateau behind it. All the mountain, swamp, and water spirits there were enfeoffed by it and served in a co-management capacity. Otherwise, given how vast and open the plateau was, enemy spies and scouts could always infiltrate, and Coiled Dragon City's human forces alone would never be enough to repel them.

At this moment, the Chipar Plateau's distant slopes were ablaze with colorful forests, showcasing the grandeur of the mountains. Rivers, clear as jade sashes, meandered through the golden plains. The world was so vast and magnificent, enough to sweep away the misery and anger the team had just experienced. He Lingchuan took a deep breath; the air here felt sweet. Yet he had indeed seen the Chipar Plateau two hundred years in the future. What kind of power could transform vibrant, beautiful mountains and rivers into a desolate, monotonous sea of sand? Now, he might be walking in a world constructed by such a power. The thought itself was a little exciting.

Soon after, the team returned to Coiled Dragon City and headed straight for the Military Merit Bureau. Only after handing in their mission could they distribute the spoils. All industries thrived in Coiled Dragon City, with a highly specialized division of labor. There were even professional hunting lodges to process the spoils that patrol members obtained from the wilderness. Bear demons were among the most popular species; their claws and teeth could be forged into weapons, their fur made into soft armor or cloaks, and their gallbladders, eyeballs, and inner cores could be used for alchemy. Every part of them was valuable.

He Lingchuan also calculated in his mind that after receiving this merit, his accumulated military achievements should be enough to exchange for another divine ability. He had already decided; he wanted the Plum-Peach Substitution Technique. The description of this divine ability was also very simple: it allowed the user and a specific "cicada shell" to instantly swap positions, provided both were in the same space and no more than five *zhang* apart. It could only be used once every three *shichen*. That single sentence alone was enough to spark countless imagined scenarios. Needless to say, the Plum-Peach Substitution not only made He Lingchuan's combat methods more flexible but also provided an additional life-saving skill.

As for the spoils, He Lingchuan received half a bear's paw and a bear kidney. The skinny man also handed him an eyeball. This was also an unwritten rule: if your life was saved by a teammate, you had to offer a material reward. So He Lingchuan did not decline and accepted it gladly. Such highly potent items were rarely consumed directly. He Lingchuan could ask Alo to process them into medicinal pills, hand them over to the Military Merit Bureau for merit, or simply sell them, as they had many uses.

Meanwhile, the skinny man was dejected. He had served as bait, leading the bear on a wild chase, only to be slapped into a tree by it and have a protective talisman destroyed. Without the talisman's protection, the bear demon's single paw strike might have ripped open his back. Such a life-saving item was not cheap, and he felt a pang of heartache just thinking about it, not to mention the faint ache in his back. Just then, Willow walked over and straightforwardly handed him the most valuable item, the bear's gallbladder, as thanks for saving her life. The skinny man's resentment immediately vanished, and he grinned from ear to ear.