Chapter 976 - 629: Demon Cactus (Part 2)

[Palm palm palm!] xN

Three or four more cacti popped their heads out.

"It's not even me doing it, you guys should go find the real killer."

He pointed at Caocao.

[Grass!]

Caocao: That's not very righteous of you, Summoner!

But Chai Pan was right, the number of these guys was really way too high.

Li Pu had absolutely not expected that under this seemingly peaceful Gobi, there were actually so many Demon Cacti hidden.

In the blink of an eye, more than a hundred had already surrounded them, all drilling out from underground.

"Forget it."

Thinking it over, he didn't feel like wasting time with them.

So he called over No. 2, and took the summons and Chai Pan straight up into the air.

In no time, they'd risen to a height where the cacti's spines couldn't possibly reach.

"Teacher Chai, this should be fine now, right?"

Looking at the Demon Cacti below, whose numbers had already climbed to several hundred, Li Pu turned to Chai Pan.

"It works… but have you thought about the later rounds?"

Chai Pan's tone was hesitant.

He'd originally felt this troublemaker had a pretty decent shot at getting into the top 10.

But he'd barely landed and already provoked the Demon Cacti—how's he supposed to keep playing after this?

"Uh…"

Li Pu was slightly stunned; that line really woke him up like a dreamer.

If these guys are really as annoying as Chai Pan says, then he's going to be seriously tied down for the rest of the match.

"Wait, what's going on down there."

At that moment Chai Pan's gaze shifted downward.

Most of what he knew about Demon Cacti was just hearsay; he'd never actually seen or experienced them himself.

Now, seeing that they couldn't reach Li Pu in the sky, all the Demon Cacti had gathered together.

Then they started sticking to each other, piecing themselves together.

Countless spines stabbed into the surface of their neighbors, giving this "stick-stick" method a very solid tightness.

"Interesting, like ants."

From Li Pu's angle, their behavior really did look like ants.

"I've heard these Demon Cacti can fuse, and after fusing they transmit nerve signals through the spines to form a kind of collective mind."

"But I didn't expect this to be how they fuse."

Chai Pan held his chin, watching the Demon Cacti squirm.

Slowly, that big lump of green started to condense into a shape.

Li Pu could see it now: they were building a huge green hand.

At the current rate, that giant hand really would be able to reach their height.

Of course, he wasn't stupid; ordering No. 2 to fly higher would take seconds.

No matter how many Demon Cacti there were, they couldn't exactly stack up to the sky.

"Go down, let's meet it."

So after thinking for a moment, he kicked Caocao straight down.

[Graaaass~~~~~]

Caocao was caught off guard and screamed miserably.

But vine-wings wove themselves together in just a few seconds, helping it land safely.

[Mmm mmm mmm… Grass!]

Receiving the Summoner's command, the huge shadow of the grass Godzilla appeared behind it.

Then vines wrapped around it, and Big Vinesla took shape.

However, the arm built by the Demon Cacti was truly massive; even with half its Godzilla phantom manifested, Big Vinesla was only about as tall as it.

[Palm!]

The main body appeared in front; the cactus didn't hesitate and slapped down with a giant palm.

[Grass!]

Big Vinesla raised both foreclaws and caught the cactus palm.

At first, the cactus's strength couldn't compare to Big Vinesla's, and was easily held back.

But as more newborn power kept surging up from the ground to join in, the two sides gradually reached a balance.

Both the cactus and Big Vinesla began to tremble slightly under that stalemate.

"Impressive."

Li Pu knew how strong Big Vinesla was; it was no weaker than the Void Giant after liberation.

Yet right now this cactus arm actually looked like it was about to take the upper hand.

"Quit playing."

He knew Caocao wasn't using all its tricks.

[Grass grass grass!]

Sure enough, as soon as it focused, it activated [Void Power].

A special force of spatial distortion and tearing radiated from Big Vinesla's hands.

[Palm palm palm!] xN

One after another, Demon Cacti were torn off and fell from the giant arm.

Its power began to weaken.

"This summon of yours…"

Standing on No. 2's head and watching the fight shift, Chai Pan didn't even know what to say.

This Caocao was just ridiculously strong!

Don't be fooled by Demon Cacti being only E-rank beasts—once they fuse and share a brain, they're treated as a single unit.

Their aura's rise and condensation were, in his view, no worse than a 7th-turn beast.

And this Caocao was actually handling them solo?

Judging from the current momentum, it didn't even seem afraid of the enemy at all!

But…

"But this still isn't a solution."

Chai Pan's brows remained locked.

Beating the Demon Cacti would only work for now.

He could see that even though Caocao was constantly chewing through them, the cacti's momentum wasn't fading.

In other words, even with the ability to easily kill Demon Cacti, it still couldn't take down that giant arm.

Because their rate of replenishing new strength was faster than the rate of attrition.

Even if Caocao still hadn't gone all out, the problem was: could it really handle the virtually endless Demon Cacti spread across this whole Gobi?

And taking it a step further—even if they could somehow kill them all.

How long would that take? The fifth round of the tournament would be over by then!

But all that was just Chai Pan's own internal thoughts; as a referee, he couldn't say too much.

Even if Li Pu chose to stay here and drag this out for 30 days straight, he'd just have to keep him company.

"Continuing like this doesn't seem to work."

Soon Li Pu noticed it too.

The pace at which the giant arm grew larger and stronger wasn't fast, but it was obvious enough.

He'd had Caocao try breathing blue fire earlier, but the enemy had repaired and regenerated almost instantly.

If this kept going, Big Vinesla would probably lose.

So he recalled Caocao, and everyone rode No. 2 straight up into the high sky.

No matter how big the giant arm got, it would never reach this altitude.

Sitting cross-legged on No. 2's head, feeling the wind of high altitude, Li Pu fell into deep thought.

If everything Chai Pan said was true, then the next rounds would be a real pain for him.

Getting knocked out after coming this far would be way too much of a loss.

He had to figure out a way to reliably grab a top 10 spot.

"..."

Chai Pan, beside him, watched this contestant and was actually pretty curious.

This time even the king of chaos probably wouldn't be able to solve the problem, right?

Because no matter how much chaos he stirred up, right now his chances of advancing looked bleak.

"Got it, let's try this."

After a long while, Li Pu snapped his fingers.

"Teacher Chai, I remember the rules briefing said something."

"Hunting is also one of the main ways to earn points, right?"

He looked over at Chai Pan.

"Correct."

Chai Pan nodded.

Though in his head he was thinking: in your situation, forget hunting.

He'd probably trigger a swarm of Demon Cacti less than five minutes after landing.

And Demon Cacti have basically no hunting value; even at 6th-turn they don't have a single part worth money.

Otherwise, even if they were weak for a 6th-turn beast, no matter how hard to kill, tons of people would still come hunt them.

The fact that nobody hunts them is one of the major reasons they can reproduce in such huge numbers.

He'd already explained that point to Li Pu earlier.

"In that case, we're good."

Li Pu smiled slightly and had No. 2 start cruising through the high sky.

[Dream on, Summoner!]

No. 2 answered with enthusiasm, cranking its thrusters up to max power.

"..."

The suddenly strengthened wind pressure made Chai Pan frown; he quickly raised a hand and cast a [Barrier].

(So he's going to…)

Pretty soon he could tell that No. 2's flight path wasn't fixed.

On the contrary, it was completely free-form.

Like they were searching for something.

After almost an hour of random flying, they finally came to a stop.

"Hm?"

He looked down at the ground.

He saw a team marching along down there.

From their altitude, they looked as tiny as ants.

Hunting?

As in, hunting contestants?

Now Chai Pan was a bit dumbfounded.

...

...