"What is that? A lion?" Zhang He chuckled. Normal animals that had yet absorbed enough Heaven and Earth essences can't be a challenge for them.
Before everyone's eyes, a two meters long green body jumped from behind the bushes. It has a golden mane on it's back. Following it were two more creatures.
Ren Guang reacted the fastest among them. "Run!" He did not waste time to jump back.
"What are you doing? RUN!" When he saw the others did not react, he threw Yang Xiu that was closest to him to his shoulder then carried him like a sack of rice. He did not stop and continue to run away like his life is on the line.
Wu Leng Jing and Wu Feng were the fastest to follow.
"What? They are just second level Qi Condensation insects!" Wu Yong protested.
Knowing the situation was not good from Ren Guang's abnormal act, Wu Feng threw Wu Yong to his shoulder, imitating Ren Guang.
"Hey, put me down!"
"Shut up for now." the calm Wu Leng Jing gave him a glare, made Wu Yong shut his mouth.
At this time, Yang Xiu had already started running.
"What was that?" He transmitted a soundless message.
Vrrrrr...
From behind, the sounds of insect wings vibrating could be heard.
They turned their head and immediately given a scare. Dozens of mantises with golden mane on their back were flying with inhuman agility, zig-zagging across trees. When they did not have time to evade a tree on their way, they slashed their schytes forward. The trees fell with a clean cut.
"Aah!!!" Yang Xiu screamed while holding his arm. A mantis suddenly jumped on him from the side, gave him a slash on his left arm. He threw a kick and used it to propel him to a nearby tree, then kicked forward with mid-air roll. He was acrobating among the trees and finally shook off all attacks from other mantises that was suddenly intercepted him from other directions.
Wu Leng Jing inhaled a sharp breath witnessing the scene. He threw some knives to the mantises that were chasing Yang Xiu.
"Thanks." Yang Xiu gave him appreciating nod.
Meanwhile, Wu Feng threw Wu Yong to the side. With a flip, Wu Yong landed on his feet then started running.
"It was humiliating! Remember this surname Wu!"
"Hey, hey, don't curse at someone with the same surname as yours. Just thank me later." Wu Feng gave him a wink.
At this time, they spotted Ren Guang and Zhang He up ahead, crouching on top of tree branches on the right and left. They each held a fully drawn bow.
"There they are. These bastards." Wu Feng smiled.
Wu Feng, Wu Yong, and Yang Xiu jumped up high at the same time, as if they were of the same mind. They looked at each other in amazement.
In a split second, they turned their body in the air and threw knives, beads, and needles to the mantises chasing behind.
Ren Guang and Zhang He shot their arrows at the same time. Their hands did not stop working; drawing and releasing arrows.
The other three landed on tree branches above Ren Guang and Zhang He then drew their own bows.
With a barrage of arrows, soon around a dozen mantises were killed.
But suddenly a bigger mantis with a golden scythe roared from the sky. The other mantises stopped their advance.
"Careful! That is a mantis king!" Ran Guang shouted.
"A fourth level Qi Condensation!" Wu Leng Jing said with a frown.
"Fourth level? It's your turn brother!"
Before he could react, Wu Feng caught Wu Yong's hand then throw him into the mantis king.
"Damn you!" Wu Yong shouted resentfully.
All of the other kid's jaws dropped to the ground.
Hey, hey, did you have a grudge towards your brother? They asked inwardly.
Wu Feng drew his brow and shouted, "shoot the other mantises! Don't let them help the mantis king!"
The mantis king draws a wide arc with its two schytes. Wu Yong took out a round metal shield that covers half of his body to meet the mantis king's attack. The shield glows with deep emerald light that dissipates most of the mantis king's attacking power.
He parried the scythe then sidestepped forward. He brandished the standard sword he just received from the Outer Hall and swung it to the mantis king's upper arm.
He did not know if he should call the mantis king's scythes as arms or legs but he did not bother with it, because now is not the time.
"Time to test my new sword!" He bellowed as he swung it hard.
The sword made a clean cut. The mantis king roared. In anger, it whipped the other scythe to Wu Yong.
"Haa!" Wu Yong jumped high. He landed on top of the mantis king's head then thrust his sword down.
The mantis king's body turned stiff. Then it slowly falls to the side.
Wu Yong leaped, made a roll mid-air then landed gracefully in front of the fallen mantis king. Behind him the mantis king's body landed on the ground with a loud boom.
"Good job!" The other kids cheered.
After their king was defeated, the mantises were running away. They carry the wounded mantises in their mouth and held them with their schytes, mounching while running. They vanished beyond the bushes and trees.
The kids drew a long breath of relief.
"That was close. They are Golden Mane Mantis. Even though they are weak, but they like to ambush their prey. Before we knew it, we would have been surrounded when our attention was attracted to the mantises in front of us. That was their way of hunting. They are also very good at tracking us through our body heat."
Ren Guang said again.
"I apologize for running suddenly."
"No. It was thanks to your warning we can run away in time." Wu Feng said with a smile.
"Right. Thank you leader." Yang Xiu also thanked him, followed by the others.
They were still in trepidation when they recall that just a while ago they were almost surrounded by Golden Mane mantises. They never fought a lot of Qi Condensation realm enemies at the same time before.
The battle they had just experienced was a life and death battle that can cost them their lives if they made just a slight mistake.
If they got surrounded, they had to fought tooth and nail in a close quarter. If they did not bring long range weapons, they could not have dispatched the mantises with such leisure and ease. If Wu Yong did not have his shield treasure the fight with the Golden Mane Mantis King would be a hard battle.
"So, should we roast these mantises?" Wu Yong stared at the mantis carcasses scattered around.
"Uh, can we even eat it that?" Wu Feng looked at them with disgust.
"They are delicious. They are actually one of the favorite foods to go for loose cultivators when we can't find decent beasts to eat." Ren Guang replied. He walked over to the nearest mantis carcass then stored it.
"I'll treat you all to my special roast mantis recipe later." He turned his head back with an innocent smile.
At this time, Wu Leng Jing walked over. "I've read that some parts of spirit beast carcass can be made into weapons or armors. But I've never read about Golden Mane Mantis before."
Ren Guang nodded, his hand did not stop. "You are right. Their scythes can be refined into weapon and their wings can also be made into flying treasures."
"Flying treasures!" Wu Feng's eyes sparkled.
"We can trade some of them with some contribution points in the sect then. I never thought I will make a contribution this early." Zhang He swiped his qiankun pouch with a smile.
They worked fast to avoid beasts that might be attracted by the smell of blood then moved out from the place.
After walking for a few hours, they found a small creek.
The kids decided to rest there for the night.
Other than Ren Guang, the silk pant kids used their throwing weapons to catch fish. They did not trust his peculiar culinary menu at all.
"All right, it was enough fish." Wu Leng Jing stopped them from catching any more fish.
"Why did you caught that many anyway?" He asked.
"Because it was fun?" Wu Yong and Wu Feng replied at the same time.
Wu Leng Jing was already used to their habit.
Wu Feng was mischievous and had too much energy, while Wu Yong was brave and a muscle head. But sometimes these two would act the same way. And there was the demoness too. Maybe it was in the blood.
"Ah, so tired." Yang Xiu was lying down atop the green grasses.
Ren Guang and Wu Leng Jing were roasting the mantises. Zhang He was busy gutting the fishes in the creek.
When night came, they sat around the fire, eating today's harvest.
"I never expect roasted mantis to be delicious." Wu Yong commented with a mouth full of food.
"Right, it tasted like chicken, with crispy skin like fried chicken wing." Wu Feng had also forgotten his disgust.
Ren Guang glanced at him, but his hands did not stop working on his food.
"In the wilderness you can not be picky about food."
"Right, but I never expected that one day I will eat something like this." Wi Leng Jing sighed, but he had to admit that Ren Guang's cooking is not bad.
"Same here." Zhang He and Yang Xiu chimed in.
Ren Guang snickered. "I also never expect that one day I will babysit silk pants on training outing."
The other's faces changed when they heard that. They shouted at him one by one.
"What did you say?"
"Repeat it again if you dare!"
"Yeah. You might be older but we will show you who will babysit who."
"Right. Just wait until we finished eating."
They exchanged intimidating looks with each other.
A moment later, they laughed loudly.
"Eat, eat. There are more still waiting to be roasted."
"I have good wine here. I stole from my father's collection before I got sent here."
"Hahaha, now that is a good brother."
"Fishes, where is the fish?"
"Ack, Wu Yong, damn, that was mine!"
They soon got rowdy. After a few cups of wine, they started to wrestle with each other on the ground.
The spring cicadas sang under the moon. The sparkling creek glittered with calm waves. The hoots of owls sound strangely soothing. The chill night air was peculiarly refreshing.
"Sigh. This is life."
"Yeah."
They sprawled on the ground. No one was spared from bumps and pain.
They watched the river of stars up high on the sky, and fallen asleep just like that.
Ren Guang looked around him. He could not help but broke into a helpless smile.
"Heh. Silk pants. It seems that I really have to babysit them. Oh well, just for tonight though."
He got up then sat on top of a fairly big stone. He kept watch there for the entire night.