Heavenly Dao Engine
Chapter 271 - 271 0226 The Bug that Hit Hu Niu_2

Chapter 271: Chapter 0226: The Bug that Hit Hu Niu_2 Chapter 271: Chapter 0226: The Bug that Hit Hu Niu_2 Just like every night, they had once again missed finding accommodations and could only choose to camp in the wilderness.

As per usual, Jiang Pan is sent out first to conduct surveillance of the surroundings, then Qi Tian and the others start a fire to prepare dinner. This time, Qi Tian had bought a considerable amount of Spirit Rice and Spirit Meat, stored it in the Storage Bag where it could be kept for a long time without spoilage. In the past few days, they have not been short of eating these things.

Preparing the meals was naturally assigned by Qi Tian to Pan Yulin without any politeness. After all, who else to exploit for labor if not the one who signed the Servant Pact?

Although Pan Yulin was full of complaints, he had no choice but to obey due to the limitation of the Servant Pact.

Zhang Xianfeng volunteered to patrol around the camp. There weren’t any villages in sight, the place was desolate, and the chance of encountering hostile cultivators and ferocious Spirit Beasts was very slim. Nevertheless, Zhang Guangyao couldn’t afford to be careless on this matter. It was a matter of life and death; he couldn’t afford to be negligent.

Zhang Lei was not idle either. She needed to take care of everyone’s mounts, giving them water and feed, and promptly identify and design treatments if they became unwell. In recent days, the mounts were subjected to a long-distance run covering more than a thousand miles a day without rest, and were completely exhausted. If it weren’t for Zhang Lei’s timely intervention, they would have been finished. Although they were Spirit Beasts, they couldn’t withstand the burden of running like that every day.

Among the five, Qi Tian was the most relaxed. It seemed that he didn’t have anything particular to handle, but how could Qi Tian truly rest, not caring or doing anything? Every day when they stopped to camp, he cultivated, read books, and improved himself. On this journey to the border, where life and death were uncertain, how could he afford to be negligent?

Moreover, deep down, Qi Tian always had a big concern. He was appointed by Wang Xin, the Vice-Minister of Taichang Temple, to serve at the Tongguan Left Guard Station. At first glance, Wang Xin, as a high-ranking court official, ought to be generous in his thinking. But Qi Tian’s assignment to the Tongguan Left Guard Station suggested otherwise. For people like Wang Xin, Qi Tian always adopted a severe perspective; he dared not treat Wang Xin as a harmless bunny, but as a fierce wolf that might consume others at any moment.

On their journey, Qi Tian and the others had not encountered any trouble, which made Zhang Lei and the others a little restless. Having their nerves on edge every day was indeed exhausting.

Qi Tian didn’t want to see cracks appearing within their group before they even encountered an enemy. Therefore, he took upon himself the task of secretly being on guard. Right now, Qi Tian appeared to be practicing boxing, but in reality, he was also observing the surroundings. Technically, Qi Tian had deployed Jiang Pan and Zhang Guangyao as the two lines of defense, but they were divided into two groups, and each group only had one person. It was almost impossible for such a weak force to keep all dangers out.

However, until late into the night, neither Jiang Pan nor Zhang Guangyao came across any disturbances after returning, and Qi Tian and his party haven’t been bothered by anyone. They could only follow the pre-discussed night watch schedule and assign duties to each person.

That night it was Qi Tian’s turn to keep watch at midnight. He first sat in meditation to recover his energy. Zhang Lei came to switch shifts when it was almost midnight.

“Older sister Zhang, how is it going?” Qi Tian asked.

Zhang Lei replied, “I didn’t discover anything. Qi Tian, let’s talk if there is anything tomorrow. I need to get a good rest now.”

Qi Tian let Zhang Lei go to rest, and he sat up, looked up at the somewhat dim moonlight in the sky, shook his head, the weather tonight was not very good, he hoped that he was needlessly worrying and that they could make it safely through the night.

Hu Niu was quietly lying at Qi Tian’s feet, and when Zhang Lei woke Qi Tian, Hu Niu also woke up.

Hu Niu’s company relieved Qi Tian’s loneliness. An hour had passed in the blink of an eye and in less than half an hour, it was time to switch shifts with the next person. Initially presuming to be sleeping, Hu Niu suddenly opened her eyes, lifted her head and anxiously looked in one direction.

Qi Tian immediately noticed Hu Niu’s movements. He quickly stood up and looked in the direction Hu Niu was staring at, trying to see what was happening.

After waiting for a while, nothing happened. Qi Tian patted Hu Niu’s big head and asked her to stay calm. Hu Niu, however, did not heed him, keeping vigil in that direction. She even started baring her teeth and growling in warning.

Qi Tian instantly felt that something was unusual. He quickly woke Pan Yulin, who was supposed to be on the next shift, and told him to wait at the campsite, as he intended to find the reason for Hu Niu’s restlessness.

Pan Yulin was genuinely asleep at the time, and was on the point of losing his temper when Qi Tian woke him. But upon seeing who it was, he immediately put on a cheerful expression.

Qi Tian told Pan Yulin to stay vigilantly at the camp. He was going to take Hu Niu to find out what was causing her to act unusually.

After arranging everything, Qi Tian led Hu Niu onward.

After moving forward for a while without anything happening, they approached a patch of wild grass. The growth of the weed there was extraordinarily thick, shockingly reaching above a person’s height.

Qi Tian furrowed his brow. He decided to take Hu Niu back to the camp. No matter what it was, this place overgrown with weeds could wait until daylight.

Just as Qi Tian was turning around, Hu Niu suddenly stood on her hind legs and pounced toward what was in front of Qi Tian.

At the same time, a red-eyed insect flew out of the grass. It looked like a ladybug but was much larger.

This insect moved extremely quickly. Before Qi Tian could even identify what sort of bug it was, it rushed toward him.

Hu Niu howled and lunged, her paw swiping at the insect. But what happened next startled Qi Tian. When Hu Niu’s paw made contact with the insect, one would expect the creature to be swatted away or even crushed to powder. But instead, he saw Hu Niu sent flying backward in an instant.

Hu Niu was about the size of an average tiger, her body huge, weighing thousands of pounds. If Qi Tian hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he would never have imagined that Hu Niu could be sent flying by an insect the size of a walnut.

How was this possible?

Before Qi Tian could make sense of what was happening, the small insect that had sent Hu Niu flying rushed toward him. Its blinking red eyes became brighter, and its speed incredibly fast. Qi Tian was left wondering whether Hu Niu’s earlier swipe had somehow unlocked this insect’s potential.

The insect was not far from Qi Tian and in a blink of an eye, it lunged at Qi Tian’s neck, its ant-like mandibles clearly visible to him.

Just when it looked like there was no time to spare, Qi Tian made a lightning move to grab the insect, his hand completely unprotected.

The insect’s eyes flickered as if it was scoffing at Qi Tian.

Just when Qi Tian was about to grab the insect, two strands of Transporting Whirlwind abruptly flew out from his palm, tightly wrapping around the insect. The whirlwinds gave the bug no chance to wriggle free and pulled it toward Qi Tian’s palm.

Everything mentioned might seem to have taken a long while, but it all happened in the twinkling of an eye, almost immediately.