175: Chapter 175 Pterosaur Attack

The cleanup of the battlefield was much faster than Qin Ce had expected.

The collection of resources was an instinct carved into the bones of the Wuji Army and the refugees.

The scraps that the regular army deemed worthless could turn into military merits, food, and the capital to survive in their hands.

The crystal cores were the first to be dug out; one by one, the dark red crystal cores were extracted from the skulls of the Earth Lizards, wrapped in oil paper, and stuffed into special leather pouches.

The leather armor was peeled off in one piece, rolled into cylinders, and bundled with vines.

The claws and teeth were pulled out one by one, classified by size, and bagged.

Even the chunks of meat that had been shredded by Wind Blades were carefully deboned, divided, salted, and packed into military bags.

Everything was packed up properly, taking no more than twenty minutes from start to finish.

The twenty-plus people had a clear division of labor and moved with agility, like a machine that had been operated thousands of times.

Some were responsible for skinning, some for extracting cores, some for dividing meat, some for packing and classifying, and some for vigilance and lookout.

Everyone knew what they were supposed to do; no one slacked off, no one dawdled, and no one collapsed on the ground to catch their breath just because the battle was over.

Qin Ce stood to the side watching, neither intervening nor giving orders.

The team members, who came from refugee backgrounds, were far more skilled at such dirty, tiring work than he was.

He only occasionally swept his gaze across the edge of the battlefield to confirm that no stray Earth Lizards or other ferocious beasts were approaching.

To detect any danger, Qin Ce converted his energy into the energy of Tianlu.

The next moment, his heart suddenly skipped a beat.

An indescribable feeling surged into his heart.

The gray sky, the gray ridgeline, a few crooked withered trees—it was dead silent.

But Qin Ce's intuition was frantically ringing alarm bells; it was an instinct honed on the edge of life and death countless times, and it was as accurate as Tianlu's warning.

"Jiang Mo." Qin Ce's voice was very low. "Get everyone to move faster. Prepare to retreat."

Jiang Mo was stunned for a moment, but he didn't ask any questions and turned to walk toward the crowd.

Qin Ce's orders did not need explanation; they only needed to be executed.

However, just as Jiang Mo walked less than ten steps away.

A shrill cry exploded from the direction of the southern ridgeline.

The sound was so loud that the entire valley was buzzing and shaking.

It was not the hiss or roar of an ordinary ferocious beast, but a sharper, more piercing screech with a metallic texture, like someone scraping a nail against glass, or the scream of something in extreme pain.

Everyone stopped what they were doing.

Those who were skinning, those who were bagging, those who were burying meat, and those who were on lookout duty all raised their heads and looked toward the southern ridgeline.

Under the daylight, at the end of the ridgeline, a huge black shadow was rising.

First the head, triangular and covered with dark gray scales, with deep-set eye sockets containing two balls of dark red light.

Then the neck, thick and powerful like a curved stone pillar, its scales shimmering with a cold metallic luster in the twilight.

Then the torso, a massive, hill-like torso with a huge membrane wing on each side.

The wingspan was thirty meters.

The moment those membrane wings were fully spread, the sunlight was completely obscured.

The Seventh Squad on the hillside felt as if they had been pressed into the shadows by an invisible giant hand.

A Pterosaur!

That was no ordinary Pterosaur; it was a Gold Rank Pterosaur!

Qin Ce's pupils contracted violently.

His Nine-Star Insight locked onto it the moment that figure appeared, and information flooded into his mind like flowing water.

Low-grade Gold.

Peak condition.

Its attributes were a mix of Wind and Metal types.

Extremely fast speed, sharp wing claws, and extremely high defense.

It had no long-range attacks, but its close-combat ability was almost invincible among its peers.

Its wing claws were not ordinary claws; they were keratinized, blade-like sharp edges that could slice through the scale armor of Silver Rank ferocious beasts with a single swipe.

Its eyes were dark red—not the blood-red of a mutation, but a deeper, thicker dark red like congealed blood plasma. There was no reason or thought in them, only a pure, instinctual—fury.

The Pterosaur hovered over the ridgeline, its nostrils slightly flaring.

It was sniffing.

The smell of blood in the air, the scent of Earth Lizard blood, the scent of humans, the scent of Pet Beasts—all of it was inhaled into its nasal cavity and subjected to some sort of primitive, crude analysis in its underdeveloped brain.

Then its gaze landed on the battlefield.

It landed on the corpses of the Earth Lizards.

It landed on the members of the Seventh Squad who were still busy.

It landed on Qin Ce, who was covered in blood.

Its eyes turned blood-red in an instant.

Not the faint blood-red of a mutation, but a real, scorching, crazy red like ignited flames.

It opened its mouth and let out an even shriller screech.

There was no doubt or probing in that sound, only a pure, unreserved, and overwhelming fury after confirmation.

Then, it moved.

The massive creature with a thirty-meter wingspan swooped down from the ridgeline.

It was so fast that the air was torn apart at its wingtips, emitting sharp sonic booms. Its wing claws stretched forward, and the front claws on the wingtips popped out half-meter-long, cold-glinting bone blades, like two curved sickles.

The target was the Seventh Squad.

The entire team.

"Scatter!!!" Qin Ce's voice exploded on the battlefield like a thunderclap.

Twenty-plus people moved at the same time.

They didn't run away in panic, but scattered in different directions in the way Qin Ce had taught them countless times during training.

Close-combat fighters to the left, long-range fighters to the right, support in the center, and flyers to the back.

The movements were uniform, the directions clear; there was no hesitation, no delay.

But the Pterosaur was too fast.

The distance from the ridgeline to the battlefield was only a few hundred meters, which for a Gold Rank Pterosaur was just a matter of flapping its wings a few times.

Jiang Mo was still dragging the bag of leather armor.

The pouch was too heavy; he couldn't drag it alone, and Lei Gang was pushing it for him from the side.

The two of them gritted their teeth, their faces flushed red, and the bag dragged a deep groove into the ground.

"Forget the supplies!" Qin Ce shouted sternly. "Run first!!!"

Jiang Mo's hand paused.

He glanced at the bag of leather armor, then at Qin Ce, gritted his teeth, and let go.

Lei Gang also let go, and the two of them turned and ran.

But the Pterosaur had already swooped over the battlefield.

Its wingspan blotted out the sky, and its dark gray scales reflected a cold light in the twilight.

The bone blades at its wingtips carved two visible white trails in the air, like two invisible knives, slashing toward the most densely packed position of the crowd.

Sun Lie was running at the back of the team.

Not because he was slow, but because his Ice-Armored Blazing Rhino was too large and lagged behind the moment they scattered. He rode on the back of the Ice-Armored Blazing Rhino, desperately urging it to accelerate, but the Silver Rank Pet Beast had weak legs under the pressure of the Gold Rank.

The Pterosaur's first strike fell toward Sun Lie.

The bone blade at the wingtip slashed down from above, carrying a screech that tore through the air.

Sun Lie didn't have time to dodge, not even time to jump off the back of the Ice-Armored Blazing Rhino.

He could only instinctively raise his arms to protect his head and face, while simultaneously sending a final order to the Ice-Armored Blazing Rhino through their mental link—attack.

The Ice-Armored Blazing Rhino raised its head and opened its mouth, a dark red fireball condensing deep in its throat.

That was its full-power Lava Bomb, with a temperature hot enough to melt steel.

The fireball erupted from its mouth, shooting straight toward the Pterosaur's abdomen.

But the Pterosaur didn't even dodge.

Its abdomen was covered in thick scales, each the size of a palm, layered over one another like an impenetrable suit of armor.

The Lava Bomb hit the scales, exploding into a ball of scorching flame, and then—it left nothing behind.

The surface of the scales was charred black a little, and that was it.

The Pterosaur didn't even look down.

Its bone blades continued to slash down.

Puchi.

The body of the Ice-Armored Blazing Rhino tilted violently, and a huge wound extended from its shoulder blade to its abdomen, deep enough to see bone, and blood gushed out like a fountain.

It let out a shrill scream, its massive body rolled on the ground twice, and then it lay there motionless, its aura as weak as a candle in the wind.

Sun Lie was thrown more than ten meters away and rolled on the ground several times before stopping.

His arm snapped upon landing, twisting at a weird angle; his face was covered in blood, and blood was also bubbling out of his mouth.

But he was still alive; he struggled to lift his head, looked at his Pet Beast, and his eyes turned red.

"Sun Lie!!!" someone shouted.

But no one dared to rush over.

The Pterosaur was hovering overhead, its shadow shrouding the entire battlefield like a moving dark cloud.

Qin Ce stood in the center of the battlefield, his brain whirring at high speed.

Low-grade Gold, in complete condition.

Not the Raven King from the beast tide that had been heavily injured by the City Lord and exhausted to the brink of death.

This was a real, prime-condition Gold Rank ferocious beast.

He couldn't beat it.

The Azure Bird was currently Upper Bronze Rank, a full major rank away from Gold.

Even with the talent blessing of Nine-fold Azure Sky, and even with the tenfold amplification of Breath Condensation, Bronze fighting Gold was still a fantasy.

The Pterosaur's second dive was coming.

This time, the Pterosaur's target was not Sun Lie, but the most densely packed part of the crowd.

There were seven or eight people there, desperately running toward the edge of the battlefield, but their speed in front of the Pterosaur was as slow as if they were standing still. The Pterosaur's wingtip bone blades spread out like two giant sickles, sweeping across the crowd.

Qin Ce gritted his teeth.

He unbuttoned his collar, revealing the blue-gold tattoo on his chest.

With a thought, the tattoo of the Azure Bird lit up, and blue-gold light surged from his chest, condensing, stretching, and taking shape in the air.

A clear cry pierced the sky.

A ten-meter-wingspan blue-gold bird appeared over the battlefield; its size was only one-third of the Pterosaur's, and its aura was a full major rank inferior.

But it hovered there, its golden eyes staring coldly at the Pterosaur, without retreating, without fear.

"All members, listen to my orders!" Qin Ce's voice exploded on the battlefield. "Take your teammates and retreat to the camp!"

His gaze swept over the figures who were still running, helping each other, and dragging things. "I will hold it off!"

As he finished speaking, he leaped onto the back of the Azure Bird.

The Azure Bird flapped its wings, turning into a blue-gold streak of light, rushing straight toward the Pterosaur.

The moment he rushed out, Qin Ce raised his hand, and a Wind Blade condensed, compressed, and shot out from his palm. The Wind Blade was not large, only palm-length, but it was refined to the extreme, with its edges shimmering in silver-white light.

Shiu.

The Wind Blade accurately shot onto the Pterosaur's eyelid.

That was one of the few places on its entire body not covered by scales.

The Pterosaur's eye blinked instinctively.

The Wind Blade left a shallow white mark on its eyelid; it didn't break the skin, it didn't draw blood, but the stinging pain made it extremely furious.

Its attention shifted from the Seventh Squad members who were fleeing to Qin Ce.

Those dark red eyes stared fixedly at the blue-gold figure.

Its nostrils flared again; it was sniffing.

The special scent on Qin Ce was the strongest.

Instantly, the Pterosaur let out an angry screech, flapped its wings violently, and chased directly after Qin Ce.

Qin Ce did not look back.

He piloted the Azure Bird, climbing into the high sky, flying away from the battlefield.

The Pterosaur chased closely behind; its speed was much faster than the Azure Bird's, and the distance between the two was closing rapidly.

Three hundred meters, two hundred meters, one hundred meters.

On the ground, the Seventh Squad members who were running all stopped in their tracks at the same time.

They looked back at the two figures in the sky that were getting further and further away. One blue, one gray; one big, one small; one in front, one behind.

The blue figure was flying desperately in front, and the gray one was chasing desperately behind, the distance getting closer and closer, closer and closer.

"Captain..." someone muttered, their voice trembling.

Jiang Mo stood in the middle of the crowd, clenching his fists.

His Pet Beast hadn't recovered, he had no weapons in his hands, and he couldn't even run fast.

But he stood there, watching the shrinking blue figure, his lips pressed into a line.

"Why are we running?" Lei Gang's voice came from the side, hoarse, low, and filled with suppressed anger. "The Captain is blocking it for us."

No one spoke.

They watched the sky, watched the blue figure dodging and weaving under the Pterosaur's pursuit, watched the Pterosaur's wing claws brushing past the Azure Bird's tail feathers time and again, watched Qin Ce dancing on the edge of life and death.

"Why are we running?" Lei Gang said again, this time louder. "The Captain is blocking it for us!"

"Then what do you propose we do?" someone shouted. "That is Gold Rank! What can we do if we go back? Go to our deaths?"

Lei Gang didn't answer. He turned and walked toward the southern ridgeline.

"What are you doing?" Jiang Mo called out to him.

Lei Gang didn't look back, just dropped a sentence: "I'm going to see where that beast came from. The Captain said that when you encounter a problem you can't solve, find the cause first."

Jiang Mo was stunned for a moment, then followed.

Then Sun Lie, who had a broken arm, followed behind, stumbling while holding his wound with his other hand.

Then Feng Bao, whose Chi Tiger Beast had been slightly injured in the Pterosaur's first attack but could still run.

Then everyone.

Twenty-plus people, some injured, some empty-handed, some with Pet Beasts still unconscious. They didn't run toward the camp, but climbed toward the southern ridgeline, toward the direction the Pterosaur had flown from.

They didn't know what was up there, didn't know what danger they would encounter, didn't know what they could do.

But they knew their Captain was blocking that beast for them.

They couldn't just run away like this.

They couldn't!

At this moment, the soul of the Seventh Squad was truly established.