Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

After the mass of scorpions emerged from within the body of the female elf, they let out a strange chitter and swarmed toward the nearby Yang Ling like the tide. They had sections of calcified exoskeletons and a pair of giant pincers, as well as the sharp and curled tail stinger… They looked exceptionally frightening!

“Brother Yang, run quick, run quick!”

“Sir, Sir…”

…

The group felt that scalp crawl when they saw the horde of scorpions, wanting desperately to turn around and run away; However, seeing Yang Ling who was sitting on the ground with not enough time to retreat, they shouted in shock. Yuna and Sofia screamed as they charged forward without consideration.

“Hmph, asking for death!”

Seeing the scorpions brazenly swarming toward him, Yang Ling let out a cold grunt, instantly casting the Ice-sealing Domain. He had long been prepared and was on high alert, even before he sat down on the ground.

Chitter…

After the temperature in the surroundings decreased drastically, the scorpions instinctively felt a sense of threat, crying as they moved back quickly. Unfortunately, they were unable to escape no matter how fast they reacted!

A blue light flashed past with Yang Ling at the center, instantly turning all the scorpions it passed through into motionless ice sculptures. Some of them had open mouths, some with raised pincers, some with elongated tail stingers… All of them maintained the action they last did.

After taking a deep breath, Yang Ling unfroze one of the ice sculptures, then knocked out the little scorpion that could not react in time with a finger. He then put it on his hand and observed it closely.

“Brother Yang, I am certain that these are mutated scorpions!” Seeing Yang Ling safe and sound, Sofia who had charged over heaved a sigh of relief, “I’ve never seen or heard of a scorpion as terrifying as this even though I’ve lived in the forest for many years!”

“That’s right, this should be a mutated scorpion. Our family has wandered through countless areas over the millennia, but have never seen such a terrifying creature!” The Dragon Knight Gurt spoke as he walked over quickly after jumping down from the back of the Dark Dragon.

Originally, seeing that the situation was a little off, he had wanted to charge forward riding the Dark Dragon and save Yang Ling who had been surrounded by the scorpions. He could not help but feel awe apart from his surprise when he saw Yang Ling remain motionless, turning the horde of scorpions into ice sculptures within the blink of an eye. His respect for the leader Yang Ling had grown deeper.

Having roamed around the continent for many years, he had seen his fair share of ice element Spellcasters, but he had never seen a Spellcaster whose ice element magic was this alarming!

Originally, he had thought that Yang Ling was a mere Summoner. However, it now seems that he had been sorely mistaken, and that Yang Ling was at least a sage-level Spellcaster. Otherwise, there was no way that he could instantly cast such a terrifying ice element magic without even an incantation!

After observing the creature for a moment, Yang Ling used his Wizard Power and forced out a drop of his Blood Essence, gently pressing it on the head of the scorpion. Unexpectedly, the scorpion underwent no change for the longest time, even though Yang Ling had thought that he could easily tame this creature.

Oh, that’s weird!

In his surprise, Yang Ling released a bolt of his consciousness, closely examining the situation within the little scorpion’s body. Soon, he noticed a ball of strange black gas within the brain of the scorpion.

Perhaps it had detected Yang Ling’s consciousness infiltrating the body, the black gas convulsed as if it were a living creature, actively defending the Essence Crystal about the size of a rice grain. At the same time, Yang Ling could sense an angry ripple of mental energy.

Could it be that this ball of gas has its own will, and was interfering with what he was trying to do?

Confused, Yang Ling silently recited a Wizard Mantra, his hands continuously forming hand gestures as he cast the Soul Tampering Technique. Indeed, under the effects of the Soul Tampering Technique, the black gas got increasingly duller; After dropping another drop of Blood Essence onto the creature’s head, mysterious symbols immediately appeared around the little creature’s body, and it was instantly absorbed into the Wizard’s Pagoda.

Even though the little scorpion was small, it had a vast memory, its tiny brain stuffed with boring, repetitive memories of it eating and sleeping, as if it had lived for tens of thousands of years. After flipping through its memories for some time, Yang Ling could not find any useful pieces of information. All he knew was that these creatures normally lived in a pitch-dark area, and had only recently suddenly appeared at the edge of the forest.

“Argus, get the entire city on defense. Without my orders, no one is to enter the Amazon Forest!” Yang Ling left quickly after giving a terse order, prepared to head to the perimeter of the Amazon Forest to check things out for himself. The Corpse Wizard King, Gurt and the rest followed closely behind him while Argus quickly returned to Jaboli to set up the defenses.

The group was fast, and soon reached the edge of the Amazon Forest.

If even a tiny scorpion was this strange, who knows what other dangers lie within the forest! As a precaution, Yang Ling sat on a small hill and summoned powerful Magical Beasts like the purple rat Little Ice, Thousand-faced Mink and Dark Dragon King to protect himself. He then instructed a team of Horned Bee Beasts to spread out and scout the situation within the forest.

The Horned Bee Beasts were immensely fast, and soon finished scouting the surroundings.

Within a patch of bushes was a large group of mutated scorpions, forming hordes, their numbers so large that it was impossible to count. Around the scorpions were a group of Wind Wolves sprawled on the ground, catching their breaths, a large group of roaring Violent Earth Bears, as well as a bunch of pythons coiled up against each other…

Roar…

Perhaps it had went berserk, or perhaps it was pissed off by the Wind Wolf not far away, a Violent Earth Bear roared as it pounced explosively toward it. The red-eyed Wind Wolf was not afraid, instantly standing up and arching its body, ready to strike, coldly glaring at the approaching Violent Earth Bear.

Influenced by these two creatures, the Violent Earth Bears and Wind Wolves in the area gathered around, their eyes filled with bloodlust, raring to go. However, just as the chaotic battle was about the erupt, a surprising scene unfolded!

A team of ferocious scorpions suddenly emerged from within the bushes, chattering loudly as they drove away the manic Wind Wolves and Violent Earth Bears. A Violent Earth Bear that was reluctant to retreat had just let out a roar when it instantly got reduced to a pile of bleached bones by the ferocious scorpions. Witnessing this terrifying scene, both the Wind Wolves and the Violent Earth Bears fearfully dodged to the side!

Could these scorpions be the culprit?

Yang Ling’s heart shook when he saw this surprising scene. He had a thought as he recalled the conscious black gas within the brain of the scorpion.

There were many complicated Wizard Techniques recorded on the stele, and amongst those was a way to control puppets using a portion of one’s consciousness. As long as he was able to leave a mark of his soul within the brain of his enemies, he would be able to control the consciousness of the other party.

Currently, it looks like all of the scorpions were being controlled, the situation extremely similar to the one recorded on the stele. However, even after searching for some time, Yang Ling was unable to find the Scorpion King, nor did he find anything out of the ordinary.

Within the bush, almost all of the little scorpions were of the same size, the ripples of their mental energy nearly identical. Yang Ling could not differentiate a champion amongst them that was stronger than the rest. He did not find any suspicious creatures even after instructing the Horned Bee Beasts to head deep into the Amazon Forest and search the area of a dozen-mile-radius closely.

Do I get the entire Magical Beast Army to swarm forward and seize the opportunity to tame them, or…

He could naturally increase the scale of his Magical Beast Army if he managed to tame the scorpions, Wind Wolves, pythons and Violent Earth Bears. However, looking at the horde of countless scorpions within the bushes, thinking about the black gas in their brain that was hard to remove, Yang Ling shook his head.

The number of creatures within his Magical Beast Army had already reached an alarming state, and he would not see an obvious improvement to the overall abilities of the army even if he tamed a large amount of low-level Magical Beasts. Currently, what he needed was a substantial amount of high-level Magical Beasts like Twin-legged Flying Dragons and Chimeras.

He could tame these scorpions, but it would unfortunately take up too much time, Wizard Power and mental energy, making him lose more than he gained! Since that is the case, there was only one course of action, and that was to completely exterminate them!

After a moment’s deliberation, Yang Ling came up with an idea. He instructed Gurt, the Corpse Demon King and the rest of the group by his side to be on high alert, then silently recited a Wizard Mantra and set up a large scale Imprisonment Restriction. He then layered on an Illusory Formation and Killing Formation to trap and kill all of the Magical Beasts.

Having advanced to mid-level Divine Wizard, as his Wizard Power and mental energy got deeper, the speed in which he could set up restrictions increased. His hands continually formed hand gestures, dizzying the people observing him.

The restriction was undetectable when not activated. Not only did it not release pulses of Magical Energy, it also did not give off any obvious ripples of energy. Thus, at the start, the Magical Beasts within the forest were completely oblivious about the threat that was about to befall them. They only sensed that something was off after Yang Ling activated the restriction, but it was unfortunately too late!

“Quick, use fire, burn them to ashes!” Yang Ling let out a cold laugh and gave an order as he saw the Magical Beasts trying to escape in all directions in fear, yet unable to find the exit.

The Dark Dragon King led the Dark Dragons in spewing out waves of purple flames. Everywhere the flames passed, even the soil erupted in flames, much less the trees; Yuna cast fire element spells, causing a rain of fireballs to descend onto the area; The Moon Priestess Sofia used wind element magic, fanning the flames…

Roar…

In the face of the blazing flames, the Wind Wolves, pythons and Violent Earth Bears that were trapped in the restriction let out pitiful cries, struggling with all their effort. Unfortunately, all of their efforts were for naught! Soon, they were burnt to a crisp, some even reduced to a pile of ash.

In front of the towering flames, the horde of scorpions had initially scurried in all directions. However, after understanding that there was nowhere for them to go, they bunched up together. Soon after, the group was faced with another alarming scene.

The horde of scorpions bunched up tightly against each other, soon forming a moving humanoid monster. The creature had a broad waist and back, its facial features faintly visible. The scorpions that were crawling nonstop around its body looked exceptionally ferocious and terrifying, so much so that Sofia and Yuna instantly turned around and vomited!