Chapter 139 – Mutual Destruction
After the rain, the ground was muddy, and Tu Ran trudged forward with uneven steps.
Where are the Pao Xiaos?
Why hadn’t she seen any after walking for so long?
In the past, when she didn’t want to encounter them, they appeared in groups of three. Now that she wanted to find them quickly, she couldn’t see a single one!
In a fit of anger, Tu Ran slashed a small sapling that hadn’t grown tall yet.
It was such an eyesore! It might as well be dead!
Walking too fast, Tu Ran slipped and nearly fell.
Luckily, she reacted quickly and used her knife to brace herself against the ground, avoiding a fall into the mud.
Standing up, Tu Ran vented her anger by stabbing the ground several more times.
“What a lousy mountain god! Cursing me! Actually cursing me! Hmph! I’ll stab your face to pieces! Stab it! Stab it! Damn!”
After cursing in one breath, Tu Ran felt much better.
Taking a couple of deep breaths, she quickly calmed herself.
Anger makes a person lose their reason and the ability to correctly judge danger, which was not good for what she was about to do.
Since she couldn’t find the Pao Xiaos, she would make them come to her.
She planned to lure them out and destroy them all at once.
Climbing a tall tree, Tu Ran squatted on a branch and fired bullets into the sky.
The gunshots echoed loudly in the forest after the rain.
After one round of firing, Tu Ran loaded another magazine.
Squatting in the tree for ten or twenty minutes, she began firing into the sky again.
After this round of shooting, Tu Ran installed a new magazine but didn’t continue firing.
Next came the long wait.
Half an hour later, the first Pao Xiao approached.
It didn’t notice Tu Ran in the tree but looked around, sniffing, searching for traces of food.
Tu Ran shouted from the tree, “Hey, the food is here.”
Hearing the human voice, the Pao Xiao immediately raised its head and looked up at the tree.
Of course, for the Pao Xiaos, whose eyes were in their armpits, looking up was just a way to confuse their enemies. The eyes in their armpits were where their real vision lay.
The tree was over twenty meters tall, and the food was squatting on a branch, at least ten meters up.
It couldn’t climb up.
The food was right in front of it, but it couldn’t eat it.
It howled at Tu Ran a few times, pacing anxiously around the base of the tree.
“Idiot, are you waiting for me to fall?” Tu Ran mocked coldly.
The Pao Xiao clearly understood her insult and glared at her angrily.
“Human! Just you wait!”
After howling at Tu Ran, it turned and left.
‘Going to get help?’ Tu Ran guessed.
Then get as many as possible, bring all the Pao Xiaos from the nest.
She waited another half hour, but no Pao Xiaos returned.
Tu Ran was already hungry. She took out the fruit from her backpack that could keep her full for a day and started eating.
After finishing the fruit and drinking some nutrient solution, she was re-energized, just in time for a group of Pao Xiaos to arrive.
Perfect timing.
Tu Ran put the nutrient solution back in her backpack and looked down at the Pao Xiaos below.
“One, two, three… eleven.”
Only eleven.
Far fewer than she had hoped for.
But then she thought of a good plan.
Biting her finger, Tu Ran let her blood drip onto her left shoulder, where a colorful mushroom quickly grew.
Staring at the Pao Xiaos below, Tu Ran silently commanded, “Go bring all the Pao Xiaos from this mountain here.”
The eleven Pao Xiaos, their eyes vacant, heard her command and scattered.
Watching them leave, Tu Ran sat back on the branch, leisurely resting.
She really was quite clever.
By gathering all the Pao Xiaos here, she could then order them to kill each other, letting them deplete their numbers first. The rest would be easy for her to handle, saving her a lot of effort.
One by one, more Pao Xiaos started arriving.
Some of the Pao Xiaos had already been controlled by Tu Ran, while others were newcomers, not yet under her control. Upon seeing Tu Ran, they immediately scrambled to climb the tree.
One particularly active Pao Xiao, with gray fur, stood out.
It spoke to the Pao Xiao beside it, “You lie down here. When I run from behind and jump on you, you immediately push me up, and I’ll be able to bite her down in one go.”
It didn’t know that the Pao Xiao beside it was already under Tu Ran’s control.
Without Tu Ran’s command, that Pao Xiao remained motionless.
“Hey, don’t you want to? How about I lie down, and you jump up?”
The other Pao Xiao didn’t respond.
Gray Fur got angry, “What’s wrong with you? Why are you so uncooperative? Humans are very cunning. If we don’t hurry, she might escape!”
“Oh, have you never tasted human flesh?” Gray Fur shared its experience, trying every way to incite its companion’s desire. “Humans are really delicious, rich but not greasy, lean but not tough, and the texture is superb, especially the lungs. Once you taste them, you’ll never forget the flavor.”
Tu Ran, listening to this description, began to wonder if her lungs were really that tasty.
In consideration of Gray Fur’s enthusiastic description, Tu Ran commanded the controlled Pao Xiao to agree and lie down where Gray Fur indicated.
Gray Fur was delighted, “That’s the spirit! I’ll share half of this human’s lungs with you.”
As it spoke, it stepped back to find the right distance, calculated the angle, and began its run.
Its hind legs pressed down hard on its companion’s back.
As long as the Pao Xiao below pushed it up a bit, Gray Fur could use its own strength to reach the human on the branch.
However, Tu Ran wouldn’t let it succeed so easily.
‘Lie down!’ she silently commanded.
The Pao Xiao under Gray Fur immediately released its supporting front legs and lay flat on the ground.
Gray Fur was caught off guard and had no time to react, watching helplessly as it went from just about to pounce on Tu Ran to crashing into the tree trunk.
“Thud! Crack!”
It hit the tree and then fell to the ground.
The sound alone indicated how painful it was.
It lay on the ground, face up, dizzy and disoriented.
More Pao Xiaos gathered around.
Before long, the ground was densely packed with them.
Tu Ran counted, at least forty of them.
That was enough.
She activated [Illusion Realm].
‘Kill your companions and become the last Pao Xiao standing.’
‘Kill your companions and become the last Pao Xiao standing…’
These two sentences echoed in the minds of every Pao Xiao, and they couldn’t resist.
They turned their fangs on their companions.
They had only one thought: kill!
A bloody melee began, centered around the tree where Tu Ran was perched, spreading outward.
The sounds of crashing, wailing, roaring, and gnashing mixed together, creating a cacophony that couldn’t awaken a single controlled Pao Xiao.
The power of the ability was truly overwhelming.
Especially with an ability like [Illusion Realm]. This was only the effect of a primary level; Tu Ran couldn’t imagine the world-shattering impact of an advanced [Illusion Realm].
