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Chapter 44: Scorpion Swarm Dancing

Australia was in the southern hemisphere, and right now, it was summer in Australia, where the temperature during the day would often reach over 40 degrees celsius.

With such high temperatures, not just humans, but even several animals would have difficulty dealing with it.

Here in the rain shadow lived a species of large black scorpion, and the body of this species was over 20 centimeters long with a completely black exoskeleton, their sharp tail stingers raised high up in the air.

The venom of the black scorpion was extremely potent. Just 0.1 milliliter was all it took to kill a cow; a sting from them would most likely be fatal to any human. What was even more concerning was the fact that these black scorpions were social creatures. They would gather in hundreds and thousands together and attack as a swarm the moment they discovered a prey. Not only small creatures like sand mice or insects, but even large animals like kangaroos and ostriches would become delicious delicacies to them. Capable of mounting such a ferocious assault, even the indigenous natives in Australia respectfully kept their distance from them.

These black scorpions would lie just below the ground during the day, protecting themselves from the sun. They would then wait until the nightfall as they would swarm out, searching for prey in groups.

The fissure where Xia Fei and Xiao Yu were hiding happened to be their nest! When the sun set, these black scorpions all began to pop out from the loose sand and dirt, innumerable and shining all black.

These black scorpions charged toward Xia Fei and Xiao Yu with their tails aloft, looking like they were about to attack. The stingers on their tails constantly rattled as they emitted a sharp whisper, just like a rattlesnake.

Xia Fei had broken out in cold sweat from the shock. He did not have the time to think any further as he grabbed Xiao Yu with his right hand and exerted his two legs. He leaped out of the almost 1-meter deep fissure with a whoosh and dashed out a distance well over 100 meters.

The instant Xia Fei had leaped out from the fissure, countless scorpions suddenly began waving their stingers, pouncing where Xia Fei previously stood. This was a critical situation; if Xia Fei’s reaction had been even a second slower, he would have turned into dinner for these scorpions.

The scorpions did not manage to catch Xia Fei, so they followed and climbed out from the fissure, getting into position once more to jump at Xia Fei again. They were being aggressive, having adopted a stance where they seemed to refuse to give up until they had killed Xiao Yu and Xia Fei.

Xia Fei had no intention of entangling these scorpions in the first place, but he suddenly realized that this was a good opportunity to test his Beast Spirit Codex.

He had just cultivated to the first stage of the Beast Spirit Codex but he had yet to get a chance to test out its effect.

The first stage of Beast Spirit Codex allowed the user to establish initial communication with animals. So while he was unable to control or tame these animals, he could at least protect himself and his companions from being attacked by exotic beasts.

On that note, Xia Fei used his hand to push Xiao Yu, “Quick, run away and don’t look back!” Xiao Yu had lived together with a granny who loved rearing all sorts of poisonous creatures and had come in contact with plenty of scorpions, centipedes, and other such creatures. But this was the first time she had seen such a large swarm of scorpions, and it was hard for her to not be somewhat scared.

Xia Fei shouted to snap her out of her daze as she obediently turned around and ran rearward. Since she had been practicing all sorts of martial arts since she was young, Xiao Yu’s speed was much more outstanding than her peers, and she was able to clear several hundred meters very quickly. She continued to run as she looked back, quite concerned with what Xia Fei was doing.

Xia Fei activated his first stage Beast Spirit Codex as his eyes suddenly shone brightly. His eyesight sharpened as if he was transmitting some cryptic message.

The Beast Spirit Codex contained the two major techniques, ocular cognition and telepathy. Xia Fei was using the ocular cognition technique right now. Unleashing his ocular cognition to interfere with the exotic beasts would cause even greater confusion in these beasts. As Xia Fei had yet to successfully cultivate the even more powerful telepathy technique, he was unable to use it for this encounter.

Xia Fei’s sharp gaze enveloped this swarm of scorpions, and that was when something miraculous happened. These scorpions somewhat hesitated as they came to a stop, stunned, uncertain what they should do. There were even some adolescent scorpions that looked like they were intoxicated, swaying and rocking as they spun in circles.

Xia Fei felt a burst of glee. He never would have thought the effect of the Beast Spirit Codex would be so strong, inwardly making the decision to increase his cultivation in the Beast Spirit Codex the next chance he got. If he could successfully cultivate to the 3rd stage and grasp telepathy, not only would he be able to take on these low tier creepy crawlies, even the wild exotic beasts across the universe could be calmly dealt with.

Ocular cognition consumed plenty of energy, so it was not suitable for extended use. Now that Xia Fei had achieved his goal of using the Beast Spirit Codex, he withdrew his gaze before turning tail as he swiftly dashed away.

Meanwhile, the scorpions took quite a while before they regained their senses. By then, Xia Fei had already picked up Xiao Yu and disappeared into the dark night, so there was no way they could track them down.

With this experience, Xia Fei had an added layer of understanding toward the rain shadow region. He took a right and circled around the scorpion swarm. ending up somewhere with plenty of tall grass patches and shrubs around.

Each patch of grass was roughly 100 meters apart, and there were clumps of yellowing weeds that filled this area of about a dozen square kilometers.

These resilient weeds had a tenacious vitality, and the arid rain shadow couldn’t stop them from growing, and not only did they survive, but they had also even grown to be as tall as the height of humans.

Xia Fei had learned from his lesson just now and carefully observed his surroundings several times. After he chased away the snakes and sand mice nearby, Xia Fei found a spot in the denser vegetation and set Xiao Yu down for the rest of the night.

Next, Xia Fei set up traps and contraptions all around this patch of vegetation again.

Since there was a swarm of venomous scorpions near that fissure, he had no choice but to temporarily give those up, thus relegating it to be a backup plan instead.

Xia Fei spent a whole night setting up a large number of his mechanical devices again. After having their breakfast, Xia Fei and Xiao Yu hid within the vegetation and silently waited for their prey to arrive.

At this time, a whole day had already passed in this first round of the Crisis grade assessment. The sky was overcast, though the downpour that Xia Fei had been looking forward to had yet to happen.

...

Hek Star, Endaro Star Region, Heaven Execution Training Camp’s Headquarters.

The Crisis grade assessment held in the distant Earth was being heavily watched by the entire star region, and the people in Heaven Execution Training Camp was no exception.

Ye Jingshan was currently seated in his spacious office, watching the video signal from Earth. Aside from being able to keep track of moves of every candidate through the watch they wore, everything they did during the course of this assessment was also all recorded and stored in a secret file.

Ye Jingshan turned 59 this year, but he was as healthy, robust and extraordinarily heroic as ever. Just like his daughter Ye Xiaohan, Ye Jingshan’s expression was cold and emotionless. If Ye Xiaohan’s coldness was compared to a snow-covered lake that would ultimately have a day when it would thaw, Ye Jingshan would be a 10,000 years old iceberg, where even the hottest day would not be able to melt his iciness.

Ye Jingshan was a legendary character in Endaro Star Region. He had once served in the capacity as a deputy department chief of the Adjudicator Union headquarter’s task department, holding an important position that wielded great authority, ranking within the top 100 chiefs within the Union.

But Ye Jingshan had actually left the headquarters indignantly over some unknown matter while he was at the peak of his career. After abandoning his future, he took up the mantle as a battalion commander of the small Heaven Execution Training Camp in the far off Endaro Star Region for reasons that no one could explain.

While he no longer had his post, his prestige remained. Logically speaking, his current position was an entire grade lower to President Robert. Yet, Robert was extremely courteous every time they met, even going so far as to be somewhat deferential to Ye Jingshan. The other colleagues in the Union treated him with greater admiration as well, and no one dared to snub him in the slightest.

Meanwhile, the renown of Endaro Star Region’s Heaven Execution Training Camp had increased under his command in this past decade. In fact, it was now even comparable to some of the training camps belonging to mid-tier developed star regions from the Alliance.

Scenes were being flicked through quickly on that projected display, the scenes filled with candidates fighting and slaughtering, bloody and gory.

Ye Jingshan was shaking his head non-stop as if he was very dissatisfied with the assessment candidates this time.

He tapped his finger lightly, and the display changed to show the 2D map of the venue. All of a sudden, his eyes sparkled slightly, his face revealing a puzzled expression.

The display showed several red dots glowing, each of the dots representing a candidate, and when the dots vanished, it meant a candidate had died.

Essentially all the candidates were surrounding the area where the tokens were dropped, killing and vying for possession, yet two dots were far away from this area, all alone in the remote north.

The candidates that these two glowing red dots represented were exactly Xia Fei and Xiao Yu.

Ye Jingshan got curious, “Could these two have no intention of clearing the first round? Why do they need to be hiding so far away?” Ye Jingshan tapped the display again as he began to watch Xia Fei’s assessment recording from the beginning of the assessment. As the scenes continued, Ye Jingshan’s face actually revealed a rare smile.

The moment he saw Xia Fei setting up his trap in the dusty rain shadow, Ye Jingshan’s expression once more changed into uncertainty.

Ye Jingshan had never seen those tiny devices that Xia Fei was deploying; could it be some advanced new weapon? He entered the images of the devices into the computer to search, and the answer he got left him uncertain as he wondered if he should laugh or cry, “This kid’s very interesting. To think he would use something like this and set up a trap with them. I have to give him credit for even coming up with this.”

After rubbing his chin to contemplate for a while, Ye Jingshan suddenly cried out loud in realization, “What a good plan! Truly a great plan indeed!” That was when a series of knocks rang out from his door, a slow but very composed thumping.

Ye Jingshan’s expression immediately reverted back to his usual icy cold countenance and barked out solemnly, “Come in!”

An elderly man in his sixties opened the door and walked in with a smile. This person was chubby like a ball, with a distinct mustache above his lips. His skin was pristine and white like a lady’s, and that beaming smile he showed was evidently friendly.

This person was the supervisor of the tactical command training division, Qiu Xiangji.

The command training division nurtured plenty of commanders and tactical officers for the Union. Many of the core leadership in the Union had once been taught by the command training division. That was why the command training division had a very important standing within the training camp, second only to the internal division that trained elite fighters.

Qiu Xiangji closed the door behind him and stood before Ye Jingshan with a look of excitement. Ye Jingshan pointed to the chair opposite him, gesturing to him to take a seat.

Qiu Xiangji sat down and excitedly said, “Battalion commander Ye, I discovered a very interesting candidate in this Crisis grade assessment, as I’m planning to specially recruit this person for the command training division.”

“Oh?” Ye Jingshan remained as impassive as ever as he asked, “Who could this candidate be? It can’t be those descendants from the influential families and clans, right?”

Qiu Xiangji repeatedly shook his head, “Those guys only know how to rely on their background of simply being rich, having powerful equipment and lackeys, intending to overpower other candidates through all these advantages so they can get a spot in the training camp. I despise such people.”

“No, this candidate I’ve got is very interesting. He actually ran all the way out to the north where there is barely anyone and set up traps, intending to wait for the candidates with tokens to come forth and rob them of it.”

“The north is the best location for an ambush, and his ability to analyze and make this decision could be considered outstanding out of all the candidates in this batch. Furthermore, he is only 17 years old. I believe he has the qualifications to join the command training division and study battle stratagems.”

“Battalion commander Ye, do you know what devices that candidate used for his trap? I nearly died laughing when I found out.”

Qiu Xiangji seemed to completely disregard that he was seated in front of the cold and famous Ye Jingshan, already chortling with laughter in his seat.

Ye Jingshan was not the least bit frustrated with how disrespectful Qiu Xiangji acted. This was essentially his personality, always cheerful and laughing wherever he went. Ye Jingshan would not be able to get angry with this man even if he wanted to.

Ye Jingshan pushed a button on his computer and projected the screen onto the room, “You must be referring to this candidate.”

Qiu Xiangji glanced at the display and chuckled, “Indeed, that earthling kid, Xia Fei.”

Ye Jingshan nodded, “This candidate’s ability to analyze and make decisions is indeed decent. I have been paying attention to him as well, and sending him to your command training division to study tactics would not be a bad arrangement. If you’ve decided, type out a special enrollment report to me. I won’t have any objections to it.”

The rules were not inflexible. Though it had been stated that only the top 3 candidates would be able to obtain the credentials to join Heaven Execution Training Camp. However, the fact remained that there would always be a small portion of candidates with great talents every Crisis grade assessment that would catch the eye of the various division supervisors, and they would end up being specially recruited to directly join Heaven Execution Training Camp.

Every supervisor had a special enrollment quota of a single individual every year, allowing them to exempt a candidate they had specially chosen from the assessment and grant them immediate enrollment to the training camp.

To limit the number of such special enrollment cases, the training camp had stipulated that if the special enrollment candidate failed to be up to standard after the 5 year study period, the supervisor who made the special enrollment report would be punished. They would also lose the privilege to do a special enrollment for three years.

For this chubby supervisor Qiu Xiangji to be willing to use his special enrollment right on Xia Fei, it could be seen just how much he admired Xia Fei’s performance. After all, something as important as this special enrollment did not just affect his post but also related to his reputation.

No supervisor would wish to be known as someone who lacked vision and judgment.

“Don’t you worry, battalion commander Ye. I, chubby Qiu, have yet to judge anyone wrongly. I’ll head off and type the report to get this Xia Fei kid. It wouldn’t be good if anyone were to harm him, though. People hailing from the command training division relied on our brains and wouldn’t pay attention to fighting and killing,” Qiu Xiangji replied, quite pleased with what he just said.

He got up from the seat with his chubby body with great difficulty, just as an urgent knock on the door sounded.

Ye Jingshan furrowed his brow. He knew from the sound of that knock that the one behind the door must be the exotic beast division’s supervisor, Ma Jian.

Ma Jian was a very outstanding beast tamer, and he was also a brutishly straightforward man who was unsophisticated with his words. He would always do everything in a rush and was completely opposite of Qiu Xiangji. One was slow and unbelievably crafty, while the other was carefree and did not sweat the small details. These were the two supervisors who gave Ye Jingshan the most headaches.

“Come on in!” Ye Jingshan shouted toward the door.

Just as those words left his throat, Ma Jian came blasting in all his haste, bellowing out boorishly, “Battalion commander Ye, there’s a decent candidate in this assessment who possesses a unique talent. I wish to enact my special enrollment for him, so he can follow me and learn how to tame beasts.”

Ma Jian was tall and stout, and his voice was even louder. His words were normally loud like cannon fire, and though he had intentionally suppressed his voice when in front of Ye Jingshan, he still sounded like he was yelling to Ye Jingshan when he came barreling in.

Qiu Xiangji’s ever-smiling face patted Ma Jian’s shoulder as he came forward, copying what Ye Jingshan had said before as he asked, “Old Ma, who caught your eye this time? It couldn’t be those descendants from the influential families and clans, could it?”

Ma Jian wrinkled his forehead, “What the exotic beast division needs are candidates who could endure hardships and show perseverance, people who were sincerely willing to take care of exotic beasts. Those offsprings are lazy and arrogant, completely unworthy of taming beasts. The candidate that I’ve discovered comes from a very low-level civilization planet, so he would most definitely cherish the opportunity if we were to give him the chance to join the Heaven Execution Training Camp.”

Ma Jian looked up and realized that Xia Fei was already being shown on the display screen. He blurted out in surprise, “So it turns out that Battalion commander Ye also has been paying attention to Xia Fei. That’s great. I won’t have to waste any more words. If you agree, I’ll immediately be off to type out the special enrollment report and request for his enrollment.”

Ye Jingshan’s forehead creased slightly. He did not expect Ma Jian to also have his eye on Xia Fei.

Ma Jian and Qiu Xiangji were supervisors for the exotic beast division and command training division, respectively. Because of their different personalities, their personal relationship with each other was usually not too good. Now that they were both looking to enroll the same candidate, the two men were bound to end up in conflict, and given their clashing personalities, Ye Jingshan had no idea what he should do to settle this amicably.

Sure enough, the moment Qiu Xiangji heard that Ma Jian was also looking to recruit Xia Fei via special enrollment, he immediately revealed an ugly expression, his chubby face scrunched up altogether.

“Old Ma, I was the first to have my eye on Xia Fei, do you know what ‘first-come, first-served’ means? Xia Fei ought to end up with the command training division and learn tactics, not monkey around with you, only someone like you would come up with such an idea!” Qiu Xiangji very impolitely scoffed.

Qiu Xiangji had always believed that using the brain to deploy tactics was the highest expression of warfare. Those hot-blooded warriors who were right up at the frontlines and the beast tamers of the exotic beast division were not even worth considering.

Actually, aside from the powerful internal division, Qiu Xiangji placed no stock in any of the other divisions. Naturally, the reason he had any regard for the internal division was not out of admiration, but because he truly could not afford to offend them.

That was why he was so angry when Ma Jian said he wanted to recruit Xia Fei to the exotic beast division, believing what Ma Jian was doing would just be wasting a tactical genius, so he was hardly even civil with his words.

Ma Jian abruptly went rigid, pulling a long face like a horse. The exotic beast division has always hated when people call what they do as monkeying around, so what Qiu Xiangji had said definitely struck a raw nerve in him.

Ma Jian had an explosive temper. It was apparent he was not going to take Qiu Xiangji’s insults lying down just like that. Just as he was about to attack, another series of knocks came from the door.

Knocking a door was like knowledge in itself. Just from listening to the knocking, you could tell their different personality and the level of urgency regarding the matter at hand.

The knock this time around was not too loud or soft, not too rushed or slow. The crisp sound could be heard by everyone in the room, and it did not cause the people inside to feel disturbed either. It was well measured.

Ye Jingshan had been annoyed by both the clowns, Ma Jian and chubby Qiu, and it just so happened that someone was coming even after that. With a fourth person present, chubby Qiu and Ma Jian might rein themselves in a little. After all, they were the division supervisors, and it was fine for them to have private squabbles, but the supervisors would need to demonstrate the dignity of their position as supervisors in public.

“Come in!” Ye Jingshan hurriedly called out.

All of them watched as a skinny middle-aged man carefully opened the door and quickly stood to the side to softly close the door behind him.

This was the supervisor of the reconnaissance division, Hou Baishan. Due to his background as a professional scout, Hou Baishan never dropped his guard no matter where he went, always maintaining his composure and a low profile in whatever he did.

From the sound of his knock to the series of actions he made after the door was opened, anyone could tell just how light-footed this most outstanding scout in Endaro Star Region was that he would not forget to demonstrate his skills as an exceptional scout even when in the battalion commander’s office.

Hou Baishan saw Ma Jian together with Qiu Xiangji and instantly knew that the two men were in the middle of an awkward dispute. As it was best to stay out of such a situation, he decided he would leave immediately at once after talking about his affairs, so he tried his best not to interfere with their fight.

After understanding as much, Hou Baishan promptly said, “Battalion commander Ye, our reconnaissance division plans to proceed with a special enrollment for a candidate this year.”

When Ye Jingshan heard the two words ‘special enrollment,’ he immediately furrowed his brows, as a sense of foreboding filled his heart.

That was when Ma Jian and Qiu Xiangji shouted at Hou Baishan in unison, “You’re not here for Xia Fei as well, are you?”