I Became the Alchemy Master by Picking Up Trash-Chapter 197 - 195: Xi Yuan Tournament (Part 21)
The Red Armored Scorpion, excited and nervous, ventured into the desert area that even their ancestors dared not approach. Plus, the perfect roasting by the three thousand lotus caused the Red Armored Scorpion’s beast blood to boil, as if it had taken a stimulant.
With a flamboyant and fiery appearance, coupled with the aura of a top-tier high-level Star Beast, all other Star Beasts they encountered calmed their breath and dared not provoke them.
The Red Armored Scorpion moved like an emotionless treadmill, galloping through the vast desert, leaving all others in the dust.
Several hours later, the scorpion and four humans reached the desert center to the southwest, coincidentally not far from where the Desert Boat Team was trapped.
When Shangguan Xian Yu noticed the Red Armored Scorpion, Li Xing had also spotted them. Seeing the Desert Boat Team surrounded by tens of thousands of wind-rolling grass, Li Xing realized the situation was not simple.
Wind-rolling grass has an instinct to collide with living things, but it usually only attacks low-power species and rarely collides with Elemental Spirit Warriors. From her understanding of the Desert Boat Team, unless they had a damage rate of over seventy percent, they would never resort to passive defense against wind-rolling grass.
For the Desert Boat Team to suffer such severe losses, the battle must have been brutal. Yet, there were no remaining traces of Elemental Power nearby and no signs of combat, so it seemed unlikely that the Desert Boat Team was injured.
Analyzing this, there’s only one explanation—the one surrounding them is definitely not wind-rolling grass.
In the desert, there’s only one plant that mimics wind-rolling grass, and that’s the seedling of the Blood-sucking Vine!
Thinking of this, Li Xing’s eyes widened suddenly, and she pulled the reins sharply to the right, shouting, "Da Hong, there’s danger ahead, turn!"
Li Xing suddenly exerted force, yanking the reins. The Red Armored Scorpion, unprepared, lifted its left two walking feet off the ground. If it weren’t for its tail maintaining balance in time, it would have flipped over.
The Red Armored Scorpion roared a "Hoo," adjusted its center of gravity, and dashed forward to the right under the guidance of the reins.
Unfortunately, the vibrations from the ground had already caught the attention of the Blood-sucking Vines. Tens of thousands of Blood-sucking Vine seedlings were racing towards them at an alarming speed from the ten o’clock direction.
The speed of the Red Armored Scorpion wasn’t slow, but compared to the spherical Blood-sucking Vines, there wasn’t a large advantage. Moreover, the Red Armored Scorpion, being flesh and blood, couldn’t maintain a super fast running state indefinitely. Once it reached the limit of its stamina and its speed slowed down, the outcome would be dire.
Li Xing shook the reins sharply, urging the Red Armored Scorpion to quicken its pace while observing the environment to find a way to escape. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺
At this moment, the Desert Boat Team was fleeing in the direction away from the Blood-sucking Vines’ rolling. Watching their four receding figures, Li Xing felt annoyed in her heart.
Who gave you the courage to use our Specialized Rebellion Team as your scapegoat? If we’re caught in trouble, don’t think you can run either!
Li Xing flicked the reins, and the Red Armored Scorpion, understanding the intention, stretched out its legs, pursuing the Desert Boat Team. From an aerial view, the Red Armored Scorpion ran in an arc pattern in the desert, leading the Blood-sucking Vines while approaching the Desert Boat Team.
Chen Qi, carrying Shangguan Xian Yu, ran while transforming the sand beneath into more solid ground using Primordial Spirit. Although this method consumed a lot of Primordial Spirit, it noticeably improved his speed.
Now, only he in the entire team was still in peak state and capable of leading his teammates to safety. Chen Qi finally got his opportunity to shine and put in a lot of effort to demonstrate.
Possibly inspired by the Specialized Rebellion Team’s Beast Riding, Chen Qi came up with a solution to act as the Desert Boat Team’s mount.
He had Shangguan Xian Yu take out a rope, tying the two of them together, then tossed out two rope ends, letting Bai Ling and Shangguan Lin Yuan each grab one.
Thus, the audience saw such a spectacle: Chen Qi, carrying Shangguan Xian Yu on his back, utilized his Primordial Spirit, sprinting madly as two seemingly lifeless figures, Shangguan Lin Yuan and Bai Ling, were dragged along behind him.
Having suppressed his power for over a dozen hours, Chen Qi finally found an outlet, and the joy of breaking free from the Blood-sucking Vine’s swarm made him run faster and more excitedly, much to the suffering of the two teammates dragged behind him, whose legs were almost flying off.
"Chen Qi! Slow down, you bastard, I can’t keep up!" Shangguan Lin Yuan was having a tough time, already exhausted, and now forced to sprint; had he known, he would have activated the Teleportation Talisman!
In the throes of escalating adrenaline, Chen Qi couldn’t care less:
"Don’t talk, let the Blood-sucking Vines hear us, and they’ll chase us again! If you can’t keep up, lie flat, I’ll drag you!"
Shangguan Lin Yuan: "..."
Alas, no matter how fast Chen Qi’s two legs could carry him, he still couldn’t outrun the Red Armored Scorpion with its six. The Desert Boat Team ran in a straight line, while the Red Armored Scorpion galloped in an arc; what seemed like a significant distance was steadily decreasing under Li Xing’s deliberate manipulation.
Witnessing the rapidly approaching Red Armored Scorpion and the tidal wave of pursuing Blood-sucking Vines, Chen Qi screamed in desperation, "Aaaaaah—! Don’t come near—!"
Unfortunately, his resistance was meaningless in front of Li Xing. Three minutes later, the Red Armored Scorpion arrived at their side, less than five meters away from them.
Chen Qi despaired, caught between luscious, juicy humans on one side and a thick-shelled, sour-blooded Red Armored Scorpion on the other; even the mindless Blood-sucking Vines knew it was more worthwhile to grab them.
It’s like Li Xing is insane, preferring to loop around just to bring back the Blood-sucking Vines!
Chen Qi shouted angrily: "Li Xing, you’re cruel! Let us up!"
Li Xing kept a tense expression, looking at Chen Qi with eyes that seemed to regard a fool: "Why? We’re competition!"
"When a competing team is faced with life-threatening situations by Star Beasts or plants, passing teams are obligated to help. After escaping, they should then face off against each other again for victory or loss. Don’t you read the competition rules, Li Xing?"
Li Xing looked blankly at Ye Qingting, who nodded at her.
"Ah Xing, the competition does have such a rule. In the face of threats from Star Beasts and plants, humanity is a community of shared destiny. Whether in practice or competition, the principle of human life above all stands. Except where they choose to forfeit themselves, we cannot stand by and do nothing."
"Sigh—okay, okay."
Li Xing sighed reluctantly, regretting that such a good opportunity to reduce team members was lost.
The unapologetic regret on Li Xing’s face startled Chen Qi so much his soul almost left his body.
Was this still the kind, lovable, and shy junior who sold him dried meat snacks so politely? What’s with this cold and disdainful gaze?
Could it be that the reason she lured back the Blood-sucking Vines was to get rid of them? Damn, he felt so anxious, what should he do?
The Red Armored Scorpion was tamed by Li Xing, and she was the sole decision-maker in whether to let the Desert Boat Team aboard.
The Desert Boat Team was driven to exhaustion by the Blood-sucking Vines, both fearful and weary, but Li Xing felt no empathy with them whatsoever, standing atop the scorpion, looking down at them in contemplation.
If she let them aboard, it would add the weight of four more individuals; Da Hong would undoubtedly struggle more when running, its speed would slow, and shaking off the Blood-sucking Vines would become exceedingly difficult.
Conversely, not letting them on would result in the Specialized Rebellion Team being penalized by the competition authorities, and public opinion would be unmanageable as well.
Sigh, how annoying! Had she known about this crappy rule, she wouldn’t have returned to trouble the Desert Boat Team.
With Li Xing not making her stance clear, the other three members of the Specialized Rebellion Team also stood on the Red Armored Scorpion’s back, on the side facing the Desert Boat Team, arms crossed, enjoying the spectacle.
Being observed in such a peculiar manner made Bai Ling and her group feel both embarrassed and angry, but they were helpless to do anything, so they tried their best to wear distant expressions, pretending not to care.
Cui Tianxiao, however, never took the situation seriously, pointing at the comically contorted Chen Qi while laughing heartily:
"I say, you guys are really useless, huh? Just a mere group of wind-rolling grass, and you’ve been driven to the brink? Out of courtesy for being Military Academy Alliance classmates, let this young master lend you a hand!"
"Don’t—!" "Stop!"
Li Xing was horrified, and Bai Ling also voiced her opposition, yet Cui Tianxiao’s hands were quicker than his thoughts. With his voice barely finishing, an arrow was let loose with a thunderous momentum, shooting straight into the mass of Blood-sucking Vines.
The brown thorny balls were instantly engulfed by purple lightning, and in the blink of an eye, all thorny balls shrank to the size of a fist.
This large number of Blood-sucking Vines had converged from different directions, with varying sizes among them. This caused the occurrence of larger balls crushing smaller ones, smaller balls hindering larger ones during their movement, which slowed the swarm of Blood-sucking Vines down.
But now, everything was uniform in size, making their movement incredibly fast!
Chen Qi broke down: "Aaaaaah—! Cui Tianxiao, you damned—!"
