Supreme Emperor of Mist

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**Shh...**

It was a spiritual beast twice the size of a tiger. The pair of pincers comes with a row of sharp teeth, and its strength was powerful enough to take a tree down effortlessly. As for the beast's sting, it's deadlier than anyone could have imagined.

Although getting stung by the sting doesn't spell death directly, it was no different from getting a single journey ticket down to the river of memories. The sting of a Fire Spitting Scorpion has three kinds of poisons thanks to its partitioning poison sack.

It could either paralyzed, burn, or infecting the target with the variable poisonous sting.

While those paralyzed from the sting could still survive somehow, those who get stung by the other two poisons might not be as lucky as the first.

There was a reason for this spiritual beast to be named as Fire Spitting Scorpion. And that's because together with the Scorpion's Flame Poison, the one that got stung would have their Spiritual Qi going out of control.

When that happens, all it needs is a spark from the Flame Spitting Scorpion's pincer to ignite the poisoned into a burning mannequin until the poison runs out. And that wasn't limited only to its sting.

The poison can also be spitted out from the spiritual beast's jaw. When paired with the spark-making ability from its pincer, the spiritual beast could literally spit the poison out like a flamethrower. This was how its name, "Flame Spitting Scorpion," came from.

The third poison was mainly found on a female Flame Spitting Scorpion, especially in an egg-laying season. Because a spiritual beast like these scorpions hardly had the mentality to slowly kill their prey unless needed, the third poison was often used to warn other predators.

Most of their targets would eventually recover after feeling weakened for a while. Still, the story changed if a human caught it.

One of the reason human would have it worst than a spiritual beast is their lack of poison immunity. The weaker physique also restricts their body from producing enough immunity to resist the poison, allowing it to get fierce each time the poison flared up.

When it happened, the poisoned individual would immediately suffer from bleeding over his seven orifices. The symptom would gradually worsen until the body went numb, organ failure, and rotting blood.

The moment the poison's symptom reached the stage of rotting blood, even a legendary saint physician would have difficulties bringing that person back.

This poison is known as Flare Blood Disease. But weirdly, the Flame Spitting Scorpion wasn't the only poisonous spiritual beast capable of inflicting this poison. Around half of the local residents of this Hundred Poison Swamp can inflict the same poison, only differ in potency.

In fact, the poison Mang Jiu got from the Plague Worm was the same as this Flare Blood Disease, but almost insignificant compared to the Flame Spitting Scorpion.

"Who's there?" Qian Lang pulled his sword out and pointed in a direction he felt there was a movement. His sudden action alerted everyone, but since nothing popped out after his warning, it's likely a hoax.

Although nothing eventually turned up, they didn't loosen their focus on that direction until fifteen minutes later. The group of five then took a turn to rest and filled their stomach before they continued.

"Shall we continue?" Qian Shou asked. Evidently, he was the most anxious one in the group when it came to looking for those possibly kidnapped by the scorpion. Even when everyone was filling their stomach with some baked cakes they brought, Qian Shou was busy looking for the track they left previously.

Meanwhile...

This was the inside of the Flame Spitting Scorpion's nest. There are a few survivors at one corner and a pile of dead corpses on another. As for the female Flame Spitting Scorpion, it was resting in the middle of this dome-shaped nest.

From its look, this nest seems to be hidden under a pile of leaves before hardened using the scorpion's saliva. 

"I can't die here..." a female with the same disciple robe like Qian Shou and the others struggled as she placed a Fasting Pill into her mouth. Although she still felt numb on all her limbs after the Flame Spitting Scorpion's sting, she could at least move a little more than the others.

Except for here, there is another female disciple and two male disciples here, and they were just like her. But it was evident that they were incapable of moving at all. The numbness they're facing is much stronger than what this disciple, or Qian Rou, had.

She had no idea how could she resist the scorpion's poison, but she can be said to be lucky. In fact, everyone here was fortunate because they were kept here with Qian Rou.

Although Qian Rou's cultivation is low, she had something that could keep everyone alive. She had no idea that the Fasting Pill she's been preparing for her diet later would end up as the lifeline for everyone here.

But no matter how lucky they are, the pills in her item pouch are getting less by day.

If rescue still not coming for them, they'll eventually turn into the corpses piled aside. It seems that a single insect egg was on the back of the corpse with a wriggling insect maturing inside. Based on how tall is this pile of corpses, there are at least thirty corpses here carrying an egg from the Flame Spitting Scorpion.

Of course, laying that much egg is a must for the spiritual beast to increases the chances of their babies hatches safely. Unlike humans, spiritual beasts like the Flame Spitting Scorpion had a meager hatching rate. Even if the egg were fertilized, the possibility it hatched was just one in five.

This is why a spiritual beast like this hardly comes in a pack.

While Qian Rou struggled to feed the other three with a Fasting Pill, the male Flame Spitting Scorpion lurking around Qian Shou's group finally returned.

The first thing the spiritual beast does is going to where the living human is and give each of them a stung with the paralyzing poison.

Once again, Qian Rou felt that they were better off dead than getting tortured here daily until its time for the female scorpion to latch the egg on the disciple's back. But unfortunately, not one of them managed to make a noise at all.

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[If you're not reading this at W-E-B-N-O-V-E-L, that means the one you're reading is likely pirated. Please support the author's work if you enjoy what you're reading in W-e-b-n-o-v-e-l. Thank you]

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