It lay over there on the ground, like a breathing, ink-green mountain.
The most awe-inspiring thing was its size.
Its length was several times that of an ordinary crocodile, with rough, layered scales resembling age-old, weathered rocks.
As the crocodile slowly approached, Zhou Mo and the others instinctively held their breath, their bodies tensed up a little. This crocodile had a presence far more intimidating than the Mourning Specter boss—it was a primal, physiological fear evoked by its sheer size.
No one could be unafraid as a mountain crawled toward you.
Let alone kids, even adults would be frightened to tears at the sight.
...
"As expected of the Mountain God."
Chen Fan took a deep breath and returned the crocodile's gaze, then removed a level 2 Eerie Stone from his bosom and tossed it over again. It seemed the creature was somewhat disdainful of the low-grade Eerie Stone he had offered.
In that case, he couldn't feed it long-term.
Level 2 Eerie Stones were already more than he could afford.
The next moment—
The translucent, deep green Eerie Stone traced a parabolic arc through the air and accurately hit the crocodile's flat head.
The crocodile first froze, as if finding this hard to believe, then reacted, as its eyes actually showed a mix of anger and sorrow. With a whimper, it turned and scurried away into the darkness.
He had only heard the crocodile cry twice.
The first time was when the crocodile roared fiercely at the bottom of the cliff, its deafening voice drowning out the rain.
Just now was the second time.
The sound was weak.
One could hardly hear it without paying close attention; The crocodile sounded exactly like a bullied kid.
"Wait!"
Chen Fan instinctively called out to stop it. The crocodile seemed to understand, actually coming to a halt and looking over its shoulder. A glimmer of expectation appeared in its huge pupils as it stared fixedly at Chen Fan.
"..."
He somehow guessed what the crocodile was expecting. Looking down at the steaming food on the table, he hesitated for a moment, then picked up a chicken leg from a dish and tentatively threw it outside the city wall.
The next moment!
"Boom, boom, boom..."
The earth trembled.
He saw the crocodile charge toward the city wall like a tank, braking abruptly just before impact. It first raised its head, studying Chen Fan for a moment, then carefully and gently clamped the chicken leg in its front paw and put it in its mouth.
Its eyelids slowly closed.
It lay in place, its pupils revealing a trace of wonder and enjoyment.
Then.
It opened its eyes again.
It gaped its huge maw, baring rows of worn, stub-like teeth. A translucent strand of drool hung from the corner of its mouth, and its eyes once again showed expectation as it looked up at Chen Fan standing on the city wall.
Its tail wagged clumsily and ingratiatingly in small arcs, slapping the ground with soft thuds.
"..."
Chen Fan stood there silently, expressionless. He hadn't expected this creature to feed on meat instead of Eerie Stones, and it seemed to prefer hot, flavorful meat over the cold corpses of Eerie Creatures.
No wonder it stopped when called—it must have caught the scent.
Then he took a deep breath.
"Qi Chong."
"Here!"
"Set up a stove and start a fire. Roast all the Eerie Creature corpses collected over the past few days for it. Let it eat its fill tonight."
"Received!"
...
A Eerie Creature corpse, exuding a charred aroma, was thrown from the city wall.
The crocodile, its mouth wide open all the while, moved with an agility at odds with its size. It extended its head, accurately caught the piece of meat, tilted its head back, and downed it. Then it uttered what sounded like muffled thunder in satisfaction, opened its mouth again, and stared longingly at the city wall, waiting for the next piece.
"That's all."
"You've eaten all. We've exhausted our stock."
Chen Fan spread his hands helplessly, sighed as he looked at the crocodile lying outside. All through the first half of the night, they had been roasting meat nonstop. All the Eerie Creature corpses gathered over these days had been fed to this creature.
Yet its stomach was like a bottomless pit—it simply couldn't get full.
The crocodile's snout, which had been wide open the whole time, finally slowly closed. A sliver of confusion flashed in its eyes as it looked at Chen Fan standing on the city wall. Then, as if realizing something, it turned and quickly left the camp without any hesitation, disappearing into the darkness.
"It must not be an Eerie Creature."
Wang Kui remarked with emotion from the city wall, watching as the crocodile vanished. "Eerie Creatures wouldn't behave so obediently toward humans, except for Pseudo-Human Ghosts. But ordinary beasts don't get this big, nor with such a huge appetite. It's strange. I wonder what it is."
Chen Fan shook his head, offering no opinion.
"However, I see why the crocodile was so angry when you threw an Eerie Stone at it..." Zhou Mo rubbed his nose and said thoughtfully, "If it can't digest Eerie Stones, then to it, an Eerie Stone is excrement."
"That's like..."
"Throwing shit at someone. That would indeed make anyone angry."
"But it wasn't angry. It ran away crying." Pockmark Wang coughed lightly.
"It's too timid and didn't even dare to vent its anger. Seems like still a child."
"Wait!"
Crippled Monkey suddenly realized something and looked at Chen Fan. "Young Master, if it can't digest Eerie Stones, doesn't that mean... There are many unclaimed Eerie Stones on the mountain?"
"That's possible, but most likely Eerie Creatures would have picked them up and eaten them. It doesn't eat Eerie Stones, but Eerie Creatures probably do."
Chen Fan nodded slightly, pondering this.
Not long after he had arrived in this world, a Monkey-Head Ghost leader died just outside the camp. When dawn came, the body was still there, and the Eerie Stone hadn't been dug out by other Eerie Creatures. Perhaps... it was because other Eerie Creatures subconsciously picked their way around areas reeking of the aura of a powerful Eerie Creature. Perhaps Eerie Creatures have some sense of territory among themselves.
He didn't dwell on it further and looked outside. "Everyone, go to sleep. We still have work to do tomorrow. No need to stand guard for the second half of the night."
"The city wall has been upgraded to level 3. There shouldn't be any major problems for now. Everyone, sleep well tonight."
Just then—
"Thud."
The sound of an Eerie Creature falling off the cliff echoed from the pit again.
Shortly after.
Intermittent crackling sounds like firecrackers—Eerie Creatures falling off the cliff one after another----carried over. Ten, fifty, a hundred, several hundred...
Eerie Creature corpses plummeted into the pit like dumplings dropping into boiling water, crackling incessantly.
More densely than the previous nights.
More frenzied.
It lasted for a stick of incense's time(30 minutes). The bottom of the cliff was piled with Eerie Creature corpses; at a glance, there were at least five or six hundred. From the parapet, Chen Fan even spotted a white light flickering among the corpses—the glow of an Extraordinary Treasure!
Everyone stood frozen on the city wall, faces blank with confusion as they watched this scene, until from the canyon came great disturbances as the earth quaked.
A huge crocodile charged out of the darkness, ran where it had been earlier below the city wall, lay down on the ground, parted its jaws again, and looked up at Chen Fan on the battlements full of anticipation.
Drool dripped from its teeth onto the ground.
Its tail wagged excitedly and ingratiatingly, lightly slapping the ground from side to side.
Splashing up misty sprays of rainwater.