Chapter Seventeen: Three Thousand Bloodthirsty Mosquitoes

The ground trembled—the Earthrock Giant’s rapid strides shook the very earth. For an instant, Lu Sheng even saw pebbles leaping into the air from the force of its approach. He could hardly imagine what would happen if that enormous creature set one foot upon him.

Thankfully, he sensed the giant was veering toward the lone goblin that had tried to flee. Glancing back, he saw the colossus had already closed the distance. To the goblin, the giant’s massive form was like a darkening sky. Then, with a meteor-like fist, the Earthrock Giant struck down upon the goblin with crushing force.

The ground convulsed with a stronger tremor—there was no need to look; the goblin was surely nothing but a smear of flesh now.

Even after dispatching the goblin, the giant’s fury had not abated. It threw its head back and unleashed a thunderous roar, glancing first in the direction Wang Xian had fled, then at Lu Sheng’s current location.

Finally, it charged toward Lu Sheng.

But… the time for return was almost up—mere seconds remained. There was no visible timer, but anyone caught within this space could sense the time left if they wished. Three seconds later, Lu Sheng vanished from that world, leaving behind the raging Earthrock Giant.

Back in his room, Lu Sheng sucked in great gulps of air, grateful to be alive. That was close—he had almost met his end. His feelings were complicated. Though Wang Xian had clearly set him up, she had also kept the giant busy until the very last moment. There was nothing more he could say about it. If she wanted to leave, not even a berserk Earthrock Giant could stop her—the Firebird could always take to the sky.

Shaking his head, he decided not to dwell on it. He’d already stowed the goblin away before leaving, so it wasn’t with him now. He wondered how Mu Kui was faring.

Lu Sheng’s mind turned to worry for Mu Kui. The two of them had been watching the show together, and both had been pulled in at the same time.

A knock rattled his door.

“Lu Sheng, are you alright?”

One moment he was worrying about Mu Kui; the next, the man was knocking at his door.

A smile broke over Lu Sheng’s face—he was glad they’d survived. Mu Kui, hearing no response, was about to knock again when the door suddenly opened to reveal a familiar face.

“Whew, gave me a fright. If you’re fine, say something, will you?”

“Well, I’m out now, aren’t I? Go to bed—it’s late. We’ve got work in the morning,” Lu Sheng replied, stifling a yawn.

“Alright,” Mu Kui agreed.

Lu Sheng truly was exhausted. Midnight was meant for sleep—what else could one do at this hour?

…

The next two days passed without incident. Lu Sheng stuck with the group and didn’t reveal his increased strength, continuing to operate at just tenfold power. Over those two days, he slew six goblins, but not a single source pearl dropped.

Each night, he’d summoned piglets into his sub-dimensional space—twenty in total, all running wild. The piglets called forth by the Fanged Boar didn’t vanish like other summoned creatures did when their master left, nor did they have any time limit. This struck Lu Sheng as odd.

With all the information he’d gathered, he was more certain than ever that this Fanged Boar was different from the norm. Unfortunately, there was no sign of it on the card itself, and he couldn’t pinpoint the distinction.

After the first day, the Bloodthirsty Mosquito showed no further interest in the piglets, despite draining ten of them dry at the outset. It was worth noting that Lu Sheng discovered a loophole: any piglet killed by the Bloodthirsty Mosquito could be resummoned at full health. This meant he could potentially breed more Bloodthirsty Mosquitoes.

A single pair of Bloodthirsty Mosquitoes needed ten piglets to reproduce, based on the previous blood intake. With thirty piglets at his disposal, Lu Sheng could sustain three pairs simultaneously.

Night had fallen outside, and his focus remained on the sub-dimensional space. Tonight would see the maturation of the Bloodthirsty Mosquitoes.

Lu Sheng didn’t know how ordinary mosquitoes hatched, but these ones laid a cluster of blood-red eggs atop the water’s surface. Three thousand mosquito eggs occupied only a small portion of the pond—there was room for at least three thousand more. If not, he could always expand the space.

He summoned fourteen goblins, arming them with mosquito-swatting tools he’d prepared. Once the mosquitoes hatched, they’d get to work. If only he had more control over the space—entry, exit, and observation were all he could do. Otherwise, he’d just crush the mosquitoes himself.

After half an hour, the eggs began to hatch. Each one released a fully developed Bloodthirsty Mosquito—there were no larvae, only adults.

The fourteen goblins, torches in hand, began their assault. The “weapons” were nothing more than torches, manufactured at the settlement and acquired with help from Shi Jiu and his crew. These torches burned for an hour—plenty of time to deal with the mosquitoes.

Lu Sheng had taught the goblins to use flint to light the torches, though only the Stone-Thrower types had learned, likely owing to their familiarity with rocks.

Flames flared to life in the sub-dimensional space. The freshly hatched mosquitoes had expected a feast of blood, not a blazing onslaught. The fourteen goblins formed a ring around the pool, brandishing their torches—fire roaring, sometimes surging unexpectedly.

Within half an hour, Lu Sheng received three thousand new Bloodthirsty Mosquito cards. His card space was now packed with them—so many that it occurred to him they’d be perfect for tormenting someone. Release one at a time—kill one, release another…

The thought was delightfully wicked.

After selecting three pairs to keep, nearly three thousand still remained. Gaining so many cards at once left him at a loss for what to do next.

Should he upgrade the goblins, the Fanged Boar, the Chrono-Ants, or the Bloodthirsty Mosquitoes? He needed to consider this carefully.

Creatures bred by himself didn’t drop items; only wild kills did. So, slaughtering these three thousand mosquitoes yielded nothing extra.

Upgrading goblins would increase combat ability. Upgrading Chrono-Ants, the same. Upgrading the Fanged Boar or Bloodthirsty Mosquitoes would boost his breeding capacity.

The choice was clear: focus on breeding or combat.

The first time he’d upgraded the Fanged Boar card, it had cost fifteen cards. Now, to push it from early to late first rank, he’d need a hundred and fifty. If the cost scaled by tens, even upgrading the goblin cards wouldn’t get him far—at best, a complete first rank, which wouldn’t help much.

His current twentyfold strength was already enough to take on a perfected first rank, even one with a life-bond card. So upgrading goblins offered little benefit.

He’d tried upgrading the Chrono-Ant—three thousand mosquito cards only filled thirty percent of the requirement. That meant it would take ten thousand first-rank cards to enhance his life-bond card again.

That left him with only two real options: upgrade the Bloodthirsty Mosquitoes or the Fanged Boar.

Raising the rank of the mosquitoes would yield higher-tier offspring, and higher-tier cards would make upgrading his combat or life-bond cards cheaper.

He couldn’t use up all three thousand mosquito cards at once, so he’d start by upgrading one pair and observe the results. The Fanged Boar could wait; the mosquitoes were the priority for now.