Chapter 61: Basalt Body

Ji Xinghuo’s gaze was calm.

Already nocked on the Dragon Falcon Bow was an arrow that he did not redirect, instead shooting the predetermined elite Stone Sickle Spirit.

The gorge beneath his feet was a hundred meters wide and higher than the opposite rock peak, making it impossible even for an uninjured Stone Sickle Giant Spirit to leap across.

Moreover, it was already seriously injured.

Ji Xinghuo calmly drew an explosive flame arrow, pulling the bowstring as the Stone Sickle Giant Spirit leaped into the air, level with him but still far away.

A streak of red light flashed across the night sky.

Like a tracer bullet, it struck the Stone Sickle Giant Spirit accurately.

Boom!

A burst of high-temperature flame exploded, engulfing metallic fragments harshly striking the Stone Sickle Giant Spirit, igniting its hair with flames that quickly spread over its entire body like a firestorm.

The blast wave from the explosion halted the Stone Sickle Giant Spirit’s leap, causing it to plummet into the gorge.

The Stone Sickle Giant Spirit let out a terrible scream.

The material of the explosive flame arrow was special, coated with a flammable metal similar to magnesium from the Star Realm that ignites from frictional heat in high speed and explodes on impact, offering less force than Earth’s explosives.

However, the flames released by the explosive arrow were intense, reaching temperatures above 400 degrees Celsius and were hard to extinguish, burning fiercely over a large area.

Most creatures, upon slight contact with the flames, would burn intensely.

The Stone Sickle Giant Spirit was no ordinary creature.

Its body was as hard as rock, not merely stone-skinned like usual Stone Sickle Spirits but completely sculpted from rock inside out.

Beyond-limit ability “Basalt Body”!

While not as strong as the beyond-limit ability “Earth Pulse,” the defensive power of Basalt Body was superior, nearly impervious to blades and spears, and once activated, it left no weak spots across the entire body.

Although the explosive arrow’s flames burned off the hair, they could not affect the Basalt Body and quickly extinguished.

Nevertheless, the Stone Sickle Giant Spirit had already fallen into the gorge.

Rumble…

Like a massive rolling stone, it crashed into the gorge, the sound echoing off the cliffs.

Ji Xinghuo glanced downwards.

The Stone Sickle Giant Spirit had rolled to the bottom and immediately leapt up, all four stone claws extended, furiously embedding them into the mountain, clawing its way up the cliff towards Ji Xinghuo with crazed effort.

“Silly thing.”

Ji Xinghuo chuckled lightly, ignoring it as he continued shooting arrows at the group of Stone Sickle Spirits.

Over a hundred Stone Sickle Spirits were provoked into a frenzy; unable to see their enemy, they blindly followed their leader, leaping into the gorge.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh…

Ji Xinghuo rapidly released five arrows.

Each arrow striking evolutionarily advanced Stone Sickle Spirits as if calling their names.

At this moment, none were more than two hundred meters from him, within his most confident shooting range. Positioned higher, even in the starry night, he could strike precisely with every arrow hitting the eyes, causing instant death.

With each arrow loosed, the cloaking ring of stealth flickered.

Some sharp-sighted Stone Sickle Spirits finally spotted their enemy.

But it was of no use.

Ji Xinghuo drew an electric capacitor arrow, aiming downward.

By this time, the Stone Sickle Giant Spirit had climbed hundreds of meters, leaving holes in the cliff with trembling platforms beneath its feet.

Manifold Forest activated!

The next second, Ji Xinghuo released the electric capacitor arrow.

Crack!

Like lightning from the sky, it struck the desperately climbing Stone Sickle Giant Spirit, bypassing its wildly swinging arms, threading through gaps to hit directly in its wounded groin.

Although bleeding had stopped and the Basalt Body had hardened the flesh around the wound, this area remained its most vulnerable spot.

The electric capacitor arrow pierced the stone, embedding in the surface and releasing a high-voltage current.

“Awoo…”

The Stone Sickle Giant Spirit cried out in pain and went numb, losing control of its body. After struggling to this height, it convulsed and crashed back down into the gorge.

Boom!

The bottom of the gorge shook; rocks flew, and several Stone Sickle Spirits unfortunate enough to climb there were crushed to death.

The Stone Sickle Giant Spirit also fell hard, its skin cracking.

But it immediately got up again, leaping onto the cliff to continue climbing, having completely lost its reason.

Ji Xinghuo still ignored it, continuing to kill other monster-class Stone Sickle Spirits. In the interface of the Wanxiang Star Pupil, his spiritual source energy continuously incremented: +1, +1, +1…

This group of Stone Sickle Spirits, including fifteen evolved ones, died after two rounds of shooting.

Only the leader and ordinary Stone Sickle Spirits remained.

They did not back down, their ferocity unleashed, crazily climbing up the stone cliff.

Ji Xinghuo’s hands barely stopped; his triple-level Thousand Cunning

Hands skill made his archery extremely adept—quick, stable, and accurate—shooting almost a second per arrow, drawing from arrows planted at his feet.

The Dragon Falcon Bow flapped repeatedly.

Each arrow released caused a climbing Stone Sickle Spirit to fall, already dead before hitting the ground.

He maintained the rhythm, his expression cool.

Not a single Stone Sickle Spirit could climb within thirty meters of the cliff.

The Stone Sickle Giant Spirit finally climbed up again; its speed was fast, surpassing the others as it charged directly at Ji Xinghuo, but it was met again by an electric capacitor arrow.

The same arrow, the same spot, the same result.

The Stone Sickle Giant Spirit fell for the third time.

All this was within Ji Xinghuo’s calculations. After firing a few titanium-aluminum alloy arrows, there weren’t many Stone Sickle Spirits left on the cliff.

In the gorge below lay the corpses of Stone Sickle Spirits, their blood dyeing the stream red.

About thirty Stone Sickle Spirits were alive, their instinct to survive causing fear to overwhelm loyalty to their leader. They turned and fled in all directions.

Ji Xinghuo did not chase to waste arrows, as it wouldn’t yield spiritual source energy anyway.

He peered into the gorge.

After falling, the Stone Sickle Giant Spirit made no more noise, but Ji Xinghuo had not gained spiritual source energy, indicating it was not yet dead.

It lay on a large rock, its body cracked and bleeding.

“Playing dead, huh?”

Ji Xinghuo did not rashly go down, unsure of the Stone Sickle Giant Spirit’s capability for a counterattack. Even superior extrahumans can’t withstand the madness of a dying ultra-creature.

He drew another explosive flame arrow and shot it down.

Boom!

The flames engulfed the Stone Sickle Giant Spirit, which screamed and leapt from the fire.

“I knew it was playing dead…”

Ji Xinghuo laughed; ultra-creatures don’t die that easily. Their vitality is unimaginably tough.

The Stone Sickle Giant Spirit did not retry Climbing the cliff but jumped into a deeper part of the gorge, rolling and scrambling between the mountain wall and rocks, rapidly jumping away without looking back.

Ji Xinghuo turned to look at the little green snake in the tree and gestured with his hand.

“Let’s go.”

The little green snake had observed the entire battle, its intelligence allowing it to understand what the creature couldn’t. Shock and curiosity filled its eyes as it grasped Ji Xinghuo’s intent.

It hesitated.

Finally, it quickly slithered over and climbed onto Ji Xinghuo’s shoulder, hiding in the gaps of his ceramic armor.

It wanted to see how Ji Xinghuo would kill the Stone Sickle Giant Spirit.

Ji Xinghuo leapt down from the stone cliff. The cliff below wasn’t a sheer ninety degrees but had a slope, and with his Gale War Boots, he dashed down as if on flat ground, quickly reaching the gorge and following the escaping Stone Sickle Giant Spirit.

By now, the Stone Sickle Giant Spirit had already escaped several hundred meters.

However, Ji Xinghuo had already locked on to it with his magnetic-field sense, maintaining the same speed behind the Stone Sickle Giant Spirit.

He neither closed in nor lagged behind.

The Stone Sickle Giant Spirit was severely injured; there was no need to engage it directly. Simply exhausting its strength would easily kill it.

On his shoulder, the little green snake occasionally peeked out to observe.

It didn’t understand how Ji Xinghuo was tracking the enemy. The formidable creature had long escaped its sense of smell after several changes in direction and hiding, but Ji Xinghuo always immediately found the right direction, unconfused

As one fled and the other chased, the pursuit continued for more than an hour.

The Stone Sickle Giant Spirit had run over thirty kilometers but couldn’t shake off its pursuer, although it was already struggling to keep going.

Several times, it turned around, ready to fight to the death.

Ji Xinghuo did not give it a chance, pulling away immediately whenever it tried to escape in another direction, then quickly catching up again.

“Almost there.”

“Another twenty minutes of exhaustion and it will collapse.”

Ji Xinghuo swiftly moved through the dense valley forest, driving the desperate Stone Sickle Giant Spirit to flee.

Its speed had dropped to less than a third, and it was bleeding increasingly, leaving drips of blood along its path.

The Basalt Body could harden its flesh, greatly boosting defense and temporarily stopping the aggravation of injuries, but it heavily drained physical and star power without self-healing effects.

The fact that the Stone Sickle Giant Spirit had lasted this long was impressive.

Once the Basalt Body wore off, its injuries would flare up, hanging by a thread; even without attack, death was imminent.

So Ji Xinghuo was in no hurry.

“Hmm?”

Running, Ji Xinghuo suddenly frowned; his magnetic-field sense detected others.

It was a hunting team of five individuals, seemingly attracted by the noise of the Stone Sickle Giant Spirit’s escape, coming from ahead.

“Stone Sickle Giant Spirit!”

“It seems injured, quick! Let’s kill it…”

These people spoke in the language of the Western Alliance. Although Ji Xinghuo had graduated from Fengming Language University, his major was Star Realm Language. There wasn’t a job market for learning Western Alliance Language without a translator on Earth, so he could only understand parts of what these people said.

First, there was an exclamation, followed by sounds of battle, and after a mournful cry from the Stone Sickle Giant Spirit, it went silent.

When Ji Xinghuo realized something was wrong, he immediately rushed over at top speed.

Spiritual source energy +27

The interface of the Wanxiang Star Pupil flashed a notification.

Ji Xinghuo’s expression darkened, anticipating trouble, so he covered his face and continued to approach, deliberately making loud footsteps.

“Who?”

“Come out!”

Ji Xinghuo appeared in the forest, a hundred meters from the encounter.

Five extrahumans surrounded the corpse of the Stone Sickle Giant Spirit, already in a defensive formation, intently watching Ji Xinghuo emerge from the starry night.

Each person’s expression varied—surprise, excitement, wariness, caution… a mix of emotions.

But one thing was common in their eyes: greed.