Chapter 2235 Toad Swarm The group looked at the Toad Plant Hybrid and was not exactly a big fan of it either. ~SHA~ The same could be said for the toad too, as it directed its vines towards the group. The vines slithered like snakes in the air, while their sharp teeth were ready to pierced through their flesh. ~SHING~SHING~ Lin Mu slashed out in response, his sword intent infused attack splitting the vines before totally obliterating them from the sheer power. ~SPLAT~ Green blood that smelled rather foul was spread in the air in the air, making everyone wrinkle their noses. "Ugh, disgusting." Crown Princess Shang said before throwing out a small seed in the air. ~WHOOSH~ The seed bloomed into a small bush of Trumpet flowers that all pointed outwards. A second later the Trumpet flowers started to suck the air and along with it they pulled in the dark green foul blood too. In just a few seconds it was all clears out and the air became relatively 'clean'. This was of course not taken nicely by the toad and it swallowed up the Trumpet flower bush entirely. "Detonate!" But in the next second Crown Princess Shang shouted. ~BOOM~ The Trumpet flower bush was a trap, as it exploded within the mouth of the Toad, causing more blood to spray out. "Huh, it survived that." Crown Princess Shang was surprised. "They're more durable than others." Lin Mu narrowed his eyes. "Did you fight them before this?" he asked. "No, I avoided conflict since I didn't want the Dazzling Mud Lotus to get damaged." Crown Princess Shang replied. "What's the cultivation base of this toad?" Qiao De asked. "Fourth Tribulation Stage of the Immortal realm." Crown Prince Feng Shun detected. "So the big one is came out first to welcome us." He chuckled before pointing at the toad with his index and middle finger. A small green light formed at the tip of his fingers, which soon expanded and took the shape of a long spear. The spear had a slender blade and two fine points extended from its base. Looking at it, one could feel the power that was contained within it as well as the strange ability it had. The wind that was blowing around it started to slow down before finally stopping. "Storm King Immortal Arts: Wind Quelling Javelin!" Crown Prince Feng Shun chanted. ~SHALA~ The Javelin soared through the air, silencing all winds that blew in the air, including the ones that were mixed with Baleful energies. It shone like a jade that had been imbued under the moon light and reached the toad within moment. ~SLICK~ The javelin sank into the mouth of the Toad that was already open due to it having eaten an explosive bush earlier. Strangely enough though, after the javelin entered its body, nothing happened. "Huh?" Qiao De wondered why there was no impact. "Give it a second." Crown Prince Feng Shun smiled, knowing that the toad was already going to be dead. ~WOONG~ ~WELCH~ Suddenly, the body of the Toad Plant Hybrid Chimeric Beast started to squeeze. It collapsed inward, before blood started to spill out from all its orifices. Even the vines were all pulled back, as if it were a sinkhole. The body of the toad got more and more compressed, until it had been reduced from the size of a horse carriage to a mere hand cart! ~SPLAT~ And finally, it could no longer take it and exploded into a green mess. The blood was going to be splattered on the group too, but it was easily repelled by a curtain of wind that the Crown Prince created in advance. "A vacuum… Quelling winds by sucking them." Lin Mu understood the principle behind the attack. "Creates less impact than other attacks too, reducing the chances for it disturbing the area." He could tell why the Crown Prince had chosen this skill. 'The Storm King Immortal Arts certainly has a lot of useful Qi skills within it.' Lin Mu thought to himself, his interest in the Storm King Shirong's techniques and skills rising. "Indeed." Crown Prince Feng Shun replied. "If it likes eating that much, may as well let it eat 'itself'." He said with a chuckle. With that done, the green band on Crown Prince Feng Shun's wrist lit up as the one hundred thousand credits were deposited into it. "Nice start." Crown Prince Feng Shun said. "Damn, we can't lag behind." Daoist Chu said seeing the rising score. "Gotta hunt some ourselves too." He added. "Won't have to look far." Ziran said, sensing the energy fluctuations within the area. "Looks like Crown Prince Feng Shun's skill was still enough to disturb the toads." He spoke. The group glanced at the muddy lake that seemed to now be rippling in hundreds of places. "Get ready." Elder Hu said, clenching his fists. ~TRRRRR~ ~TRRRRR~ ~TRRRR~ The trilling of a hundred Toads was heard at once, making the group alert. ~SPLASH~SPLASH~SPLASH~ "So much for going in low key." Monk Hushu muttered while Lin Mu furrowed his brows. ~SHUA~ In the next moment, Lin Mu disappeared while his voice was left behind. "Handle these, I'll go get the Dazzling Mud Lotus before things get worse." "Alright." The group had no problem with that and quickly got to battling. The Toad Plant Hybrids that had appeared after the death of the Fourth Tribulation Stage Immortal realm Chimeric Beast were all weaker than it, so the group wasn't worried. Rather they wished that stronger Chimeric beasts would appear so that they could gather the credits faster. Still, even this swarm had tens of Third Tribulation Stage Immortal Realm Chimeric beasts, so they didn't mind it as much. Though of course, the majority were still the First and Second Tribulation Stage Chimeric Beasts. While the group handled these, Lin Mu was rushing to find the Dazzling Mud Lotus. He used Blink several times in the row, traversing through the area at a rapid pace. This also allowed him to leave very little of his presence in the area, thus preventing the Toad Plant Hybrid Chimeric Beasts from sensing him any time soon. 'Since using Immortal sense isn't an option here, Spatial Perception it is.' Lin Mu thought to himself, activating it. Even if the mud infused with the Murkwater Qi was enough to prevent the Immortal sense from working, it didn't mean anything to Lin Mu's Spatial Perception. He kept on using Blink, only staying in an area for less than a second. But even this was enough for him to get a look at the area and see what was hidden inside the muddy lake. 'There sure are a ton of toads here.' Lin Mu could see at least a hundred thousand presences within this easement of the area alone. 'They certainly do stand out in the Murkwater Qi though… its a strange condition where they aren't affected by the Qi but are not interacting with it either.' He noticed. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚 In a way it was acting like a camouflage for the toads, preventing them from being noticed by other beings. 'Though why would they need camouflage here? Do they get hunted by other Chimeric beasts?' Lin Mu wondered. So far they hadn't seen any chimeric beasts fighting against the others, thus it didn't make sense for them to need such an ability. It was usually something the creatures would have when there was a prey and predator system. But here there were only 'predators'. Lin Mu and the others hadn't seen any other beings here other than the Chimeric beasts either, which meant that the only reason these had this was for the 'trial takers' that might be coming here. 'Though I suppose it doesn't matter in the long term anyways since I can see them.' Lin Mu thought to himself, and continued his search. He particularly looked for areas with the dense 'foliage' since the Dazzling Mud Lotus was likely to be hidden under there. He also knew that the Dazzling Mud Lotus would be very… Dazzling, thus it wasn't like he would miss the flower itself. 'So they were right, the flower is likely hiding under the mud.' Lin Mu thought to himself. 'Then I'll need to look for signatures that are different from the Toads.' He now understood. This made his search a bit easier and he became efficient. Lin Mu began moving from one area to the other faster than before, as he only needed to look for anything that was different than the 'normal'. It took him about forty minutes before he saw something that was unusual. "Oh?" Lin Mu halted in the air for a moment as he saw a strange line in the mud. The line was rather narrow from the sky, but he could tell with his spatial perception that this was just the bare minimum. Under the lake he could sense a vast network that was spread out in an area of at least a kilometer or more. "Looks like this is it."