Chapter 281: Crossing the Swamp
The black shadow was hidden within the mist, but Yi Yun saw through it using the Purple Crystal’s energy vision.
In the energy vision, the black shadow was clearly a huge crocodile that was more than 10 meters long.
This crocodile had a dark hide, which was as strong as rock, as well as a single horn on its head. Thick eyelids covered most of its eyes and its body was covered in toxic and putrid black mud.
It was a Blackwater Ancient Crocodile.
The Blackwater Ancient Crocodile only lived in this corrosive swamp. It had great strength and its hide was extremely tough, making it invulnerable.
It had the peculiar habit of eating corpses, especially rotting corpses.
Yi Yun was still alive, but that did not matter. It did not mind occasionally eating something fresh. It could also kill Yi Yun and drag him into the mud to use him as a food reserve.
Seeing the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile, Yi Yun’s mind lit up. With that, the corner of his mouth curled upwards.
The Blackwater Ancient Crocodile swung its tail as it slowly swam towards Yi Yun. The mud was being pushed aside by its gigantic body.
Although the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile was large in size, it was extremely nimble. Once it locked onto a prey, it would slowly approach it. Once the prey fled, it would then rush out quickly, issuing a strike that was as fast as lightning!
Against a prey like Yi Yun, who looked weak and small but had no intention to flee, the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile found it strange. Its amber eyes locked onto Yi Yun’s every move.
Yi Yun quietly drew out his Tai Cang Bow, with his energy vision, the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile had no way of hiding.
Yi Yun’s retrieval of his weapon angered the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile.
It roared and with a frightening speed, charged to kill Yi Yun!
Yi Yun’s quickly retreated and with a thunderous snap of the bow string, a cold whistling howl sounded as an arrow hit the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile’s belly!
Boom!
The Yuan Qi contained within the arrowhead exploded, sending mud flying everywhere!
The Blackwater Ancient Crocodile felt pain. Although its belly was covered with scales, it still started to bleed from the violent explosion!
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Yi Yun continuously released arrows from his bow. The Blackwater Ancient Crocodile curled its body, trying to use its tough carapace to withstand the attacks.
Yuan Qi continuously exploded and the Wind Chasing Arrows stirred up a mud storm in the swamp.
In the mud swamp, the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile was greatly angered.
It had never expected the that seemingly weak prey it locked onto could make it turn into such a pathetic state.
It growled and its huge body leaped up from the swamp. It’s long tail crashed down like a stone column as it swung towards Yi Yun.
Yi Yun demonstrated his movement technique to an extreme and turned into a series of afterimages. And with a leap, he was more than 30 meters away.
The tail failed to hit, but when it crashed into the ground, it caused a huge bang, sending large amounts of mud flying!
Yi Yun used the Thousand Army Saber to withstand the flying mud before he then turned and fled. The Blackwater Ancient Crocodile growled and chased after Yi Yun. Its large body leaving waves of mud in its wake.
It quickly followed Yi Yun out of the Blackwater Swamp and into the Desolate Lands.
The Blackwater Ancient Crocodile was fast, but it was only so in the mud. Once it left the swamp, its speed clearly decreased.
After angrily chasing Yi Yun for a while, traveling a few kilometers, the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile started to feel a sense of unease.
It felt a tinge of danger, having distanced itself too far from the swamp.
It slowed down and thought of returning to the Blackwater Swamp, but at this moment, Yi Yun also stopped.
Yi Yun smiled. It was not easy to lure this big guy out here, so how could he let it flee?
Yi Yun took his Tai Cang Bow, took out an arrow from his interspatial ring and strung his bow.
Seeing that Yi Yun had no more plans of running and instead planned to attack it, the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile growled again and charged at Yi Yun.
Yi Yun gave a maleficent smile and released his fingers, shooting out the arrow like a shooting star!
Sou!
The arrow pierced through the air with a whistle!
The Blackwater Ancient Crocodile was aware of its strong defense, so it was not afraid of Yi Yun’s arrow. It crashed with the arrow head on! But at the moment the arrow hit the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile…
Peng!
A terrifying explosion sounded. The hidden array bead within the arrowhead exploded! Strands of energy ripples, resembling spider webs, emanated with a mysterious frost power.
Immediately, wherever the energy ripples touched, that place turned into white ice crystals.
For his Divine wilderness trip, Yi Yun had especially prepared many empty arrowheads. He had then placed different kind of array beads within them.
Yi Yun had prepared about 6 of this kind of frost energy array beads.
This type of frost bead was not considered strong, as it could not kill desolate beasts. But it was good at restraining and restricting desolate beasts. It helped warriors capture desolate beasts alive.
Ka-cha!
The Blackwater Ancient Crocodile was completely covered in fine ice crystals after being hit by the Wind Chasing Arrow. The Blackwater Ancient Crocodile was a cold-blooded animal so it had very low resistance against frost ice energy. Due to the Icy Strands array bead, its large body immediately greatly slowed down.
The Blackwater Ancient Crocodile frantically struggled as it shattered the ice crystals using its tremendous force. Although the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile was about to escape, this short amount of time was enough for Yi Yun.
Sou!
Yi Yun moved like a cheetah and leaped onto the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile’s head. His body emitted a series of popping sounds!
With a grab, he took out a brick-like weapon from his interspatial ring.
This was especially prepared by Yi Yun before he came into the Divine wilderness for training. It was easy to spill blood the moment the Thousand Army Saber was unsheathed, but most of the time, Yi Yun did not necessarily need to kill his opponent.
During the rookie ranking competition, Yi Yun had found the brick to be quite handy. Hence, he had prepared one for this training experience.
A brick that did not have any array engraved within it had only one advantage. It was heavy enough! And it was hard enough!
Yi Yun tightened his waist like an aquatic dragon. Energy surged into both his arms as he smashed the brick down onto the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile’s snout!
According to the records in the “Divine Wilderness” book, the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile was covered in extremely thick scales that gave it invulnerability. Its carapace was even more so. Its belly was always stuck close to the ground, so many people lost interest in attacking it.
But, it had one weakness. Halfway along its snout, there was a spot which contained a large number of the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile’s nerves. The Blackwater Ancient Crocodile would feel numbness once that spot was heavily attacked.
Generally, the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile would always pay attention to protect its weakness. It just needed to fling its head to dodge an attack which aimed for its snout. But, this did not include the situation of when a person would ride on its body and hit its snout with a brick!
Dang!
A metallic ring sounded. Yi Yun’s attack was heavy with the force of a million pounds!
The Blackwater Ancient Crocodile’s mind became muddled after being smashed by Yi Yun. It never expected, even with its originally less agile mind, that a human that had been pursued by it would suddenly grabbed onto its head to smash it!
The Blackwater Ancient Crocodile was angered by having its weakness attacked. It roared and just as he was about to pull down Yi Yun with a bite, Yi Yun used his brick a second time!
Dang!
With another loud ring, the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile’s roar muffled immediately.
This second hit had made the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile’s brain to feel groggy. Its amber eyes were seeing stars.
It struggled with its last bit of strength, rolling its body, hoping to lose Yi Yun using the ground.
But Yi Yun’s legs were like iron straps as he lodged onto the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile’s neck. No matter how it tossed and turned, it could do nothing to Yi Yun.
This was also the reason why Yi Yun chose to lure the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile out of the Blackwater Swamp. If it were to roll in the Blackwater Swamp, it would cause Yi Yun trouble if his body was immersed in the toxic mud.
“You still have the strength to do this death roll?” Yi Yun chuckled and sent his third brick strike!
Dong!
The Blackwater Ancient Crocodile’s snout was smashed apart by Yi Yun. Blood flowed out as the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile’s body twitched!
Ever since its body was frozen by that arrow, its motions had been slowed down, allowing Yi Yun to easily attack its weak point.
Dong! Dong! Dong!
The fourth, fifth and sixth hit. Yi Yun got addicted to smashing.
From the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile’s initial roar and tossing, to its whimper at the end, its large body had tightened into a clump as it trembled.
It had previously seen cultivators from the Divine wilderness. It had previously eaten the corpses of cultivators and had also chased cultivators away.
But it had never seen such a brutal human that used such a method in beating it up.
Yes, this was not a battle, but a beating.
It also knew that it was no match against this terrifying human.
Seeing the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile turn into a sorry mess after being beaten up, Yi Yun slowly stopped. His legs were still lodged against the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile’s neck. That golden brick was still hanging around the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile’s snout. To the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile, it was a terrifying threat.
“You!” Yi Yun said, “I do not know if you can understand what I’m saying, but now, you will be my temporary mount and ferry me across the Blackwater Swamp. If you have any nefarious thoughts, such as diving into the swamp halfway, I will guarantee you that your snout will bloom immediately!”
Yi Yun held the brick in one hand and the Thousand Army Saber in the other. The cold saber blade landed onto the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile’s snout.
“I may have to consume my Yuan Qi if I were to fall into the Blackwater Swamp, but I can easily last for about 2-4 hours. That will be plenty of time for me to kill you.”
As Yi Yun said those words, the Thousand Army Saber slid across the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile snout. Although it did not cut through the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile’s scales, it gave the snout a cold feeling that scared the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile out of its wits.
Desolate beasts had naturally higher levels of intelligence. Now, with its life being under threat and having been beaten up by Yi Yun, it seemed to understand Yi Yun’s intentions.
If it did not resist and followed Yi Yun’s intentions, then its life was not in trouble.
“Proceed!”
Yi Yun pointed with his Thousand Army Saber. The Blackwater Ancient Crocodile was stunned for a while before it finally barely understood Yi Yun’s intentions. It then began crawling in the direction Yi Yun pointed.
Slowly, it began to crawl faster as it charged into the Blackwater Swamp.
With the Blackwater Ancient Crocodile as a mount, Yi Yun was able to prevent his body from entering the swamp and wasting large amounts of Yuan Qi. As such, Yi Yun just needed to use Yuan Qi to disperse the miasma.
This way, he could maintain his stamina as well as quickly cross the Blackwater Swamp.