Having cleared the early grounds of the Golem Valley, Bian and the Evolved Mantis flew straight in without a welcome party. Soon they reached the terrain of the three-tailed scorpion golems.
The ground rumbled and hundreds of Scorpion Golems formed from the rocks and dust. Their three stingers aimed at the intruders in the air and sharp stone rods, each a meter long and as slender as an arm, filled the air.
The Evolved Mantis wanted to fly upwards to evade the attack, but that move soon proved fatal as an aerial restriction pushed it back down.
Shua!
Bian, who knew about the aerial restriction, waited for the backlash on the Evolved Mantis before he slashed it in two.
Everything from the abdomen down was cut off, but its wings flapped harder than ever.
It turned and flew even deeper into the valley.
"Hey, are you a mantis or a cockroach!"
Bian was exasperated.
After Executioner White, this Evolved Mantis was the most tenacious creature he had ever fought.
It was injured and dying, nevertheless, the Evolved Mantis flew in a straight line down the valley. Its carapace kept ringing out as the stingers stormed it, but they couldn't even leave a mark on it.
Bian thought he could easily catch up to the creature, but he was soon proven wrong when the first few stingers struck him.
"Damn!"
Due to the featherlight attribute he had, those stone rods halted his momentum and even pushed him back to some extent.
The word faded away as Bian dispelled it, but the Evolved Mantis had rushed far ahead.
Still, with the speed boosters, 'swift', 'nimble', 'sleek', 'agile', 'speedy', and 'rapid', Bian was gaining on the Evolved Mantis, and not at a slow pace.
Both of them could ignore the attacks of Scorpion Golems, but regardless, each of the golems gave chase, turning the ground below into a moving trail of dust that constantly kept shooting at Bian and the Evolved Mantis.
As the chase continued, Bian arrived at a new part of the valley that was even wider than the Scorpion's section. It was so wide, Bian could barely spot the mountain chain on both sides of the valley.
What he spotted clearly though, were hundred-meter-tall stone knights. These knights were fitted in heavy armor and each held a stony longsword.
There was one Knight each on opposite sides of the valley, making a pair, and from there to the far distance that made five pairs in total, as far as Bian could tell.
The knights stood straight with their swords embedded in the ground; they seemed to be dormant.
Or at least had been dormant.
The two Giant Stone Knights at the entrance slowly moved, they uplifted their stone swords and began scratching their feet against the ground.
"No, it's not only them, all the Stone Knights are moving."
Just as Bian had said, all ten stone knights carried their weapons and formed dust clouds below them as they shuffled towards him and the Evolved Mantis.
The creature paid them no mind and just kept flying forward, but Bian was shocked to find that they were gaining on them fast. It looked like if they were fast enough, the two would avoid the knights coming in front, but Bian, who perceived using the Emperical Aura, could tell that the Stone Knights were actually faster than them.
Without hesitation, he turned around and flew away. He hadn't even noticed that the Scorpion Golems had stopped chasing them when they ventured into this new valley widening.
The Evolved Mantis had great eyesight, but the large bodies of the Stone Knights had fooled it into thinking they were moving at a slow pace.
Bian lost all aggro from the Stone Knights as soon as he returned to the Scorpion Golems' part of the valley.
That meant he was now the only one being battered with perpetual attacks of the three-tailed scorpions, but those couldn't harm him in the least.
Meanwhile, the Evolved Mantis had noticed its perilous situation. It was already quite amazing that the creature was still alive and it didn't look ready to give up.
With a flap of its wings, it turned into a streak of light and for a moment, Bian thought it would escape the encirclement.
Then he saw the armor of the Stone Knights flake away. The flakes filled the air in an instant and the Evolved Mantis had no choice but to pass through it.
"It's aiming to go in between their legs."
Even with the smokescreen, Bian could perceive perfectly well with the Emperical Aura.
He was shocked to find out that the flakes of dust were sticking to the Mantis. At first, that seemed normal and didn't affect the creature, but more and more flakes gathered on it.
Its speed fell from a streak of light to that of an injured bird in a moment. More and more flakes gathered on it, and Bian discovered that the more the Mantis struggled, the more it attracted those flakes.
BOOM!
A stone sword landed on the clumped Mantis that could no longer move.
[Ordinary Creature Purple Mantis Killed. Beast Soul Acquired. Flesh is inedible.]
Since it died in the Emperical Aura, the rewards naturally came back to him.
Bian was shocked to find that the beast soul was a completely normal one with no specialty.
There was no mention of a geno core, which made sense, and lastly its flesh was inedible.
In conclusion, fusing a creature with their geno core boosted their power tremendously but gave no benefits to him.
This trip would have been a complete waste if not for what Bian had just seen. Those weird flakes the Stone Knights released looked problematic.
They should have been blown away by the beating wings of the mantis, but that commotion only attracted them all the more.
Ordinary breeze couldn't send them away but would only speed up the accumulation of flakes.
When the Evolved Mantis died, those flakes went back into the armor of the Stone Knights.
"There are ten of these guys and they don't fight one on one. If I pick a fight with the closest two, the others would arrive in a short while.
In order to clear this Golem Valley and find what lies at the end, I need to destroy these Stone Knights."
Bian dispelled all alterations on his body and flew to the early section of the valley where the scorpions would no longer chase him.
He waited patiently for the Altering Brush to refill before re-entering the valley.
"SCREEH!"
A three-tailed scorpion lunged at him, striking with all three tails at once.
Bian dodged the attack and landed on the back of the scorpion. Bringing up his Altering Brush, he wrote 'attack golems' on the Scorpion Golem's back, then immediately jumped off.
The changed Scorpion Golem froze for a bit then turned and attacked another Scorpion Golem that was approaching.
The attacked Golem didn't just stay still to die, it fought back against its assailant. The two golems were pinching at each other and stinging the base of each other's tails, where their cores were located.
"This looks like it's gonna take a while."
After Bian said so, two more Scorpion Golems crawled out of the ground and attacked the altered Scorpion Golem.
Of course, all damage taken recovered gradually, but the Altered Scorpion Golem was looking miserable and would soon lose.
Bian couldn't let that happen just yet, he wrote the words 'attack golems' on one of the three normal Scorpion Golems.
The situation changed, but not in the way he expected. The two normal golems attacked the altered golem and even the altered golems attacked themselves.
"I am to blame for this one. Alright, I think I understand it now."
Bian dispelled the words on one of the Altered Scorpion Golems and left only one with the mark, 'attack golems.'
Then he added some strengthening words. 'Stalwart', 'agile', 'mighty'.
Lastly he added a name, '1'. Adding the name drained a lot of ink at once, but it remained there permanently without further consumption.
As he stepped back and fighting resumed, the battle dynamic changed. The attacks of the three Scorpion Golems could only leave scratches on number one.
Meanwhile, a single swipe from number one broke its opponent's face off.
So he wouldn't waste too much time, Bian destroyed two scorpions and allowed number one to fight the last scorpion.
He withdrew the Emperical Aura and observed the battle with narrow eyes.
Number one dodged the stingers of its opponent and retaliated.
Two pincers damaged the legs of its foe. While the opponent was weakened, number one raised it overhead and exerted force.
Tension rose in the rock as cracks appeared everywhere.
With a loud bang, the Scorpion Golem was ripped in two. Not giving it a chance to recover, number one dug out its core and swallowed it.
With great trembling, changes occured to Number one as it absorbed the fallen debris and its body began to grow. Rocks rearranged behind it, forming a fourth stinger.