CHAPTER 622: CHAPTER 621: SLAYING THE DEMONIZED EMPEROR CROCODILE

After the Death Roll skill was activated, Zhang Yanhang immediately found that the Demonized Emperor Crocodile’s teeth, which used to only inflict one point of damage per second, had suddenly increased several fold, so much so that every second he was losing dozens of points of Shield Value.

One must understand that his defensive power had recently increased considerably since the time he cleared the Goblin Plain, but he was still taking such significant damage from the physical attacks of the Demonized Emperor Crocodile alone. It could only be said that the body size and weight advantage of the Demonized Emperor Crocodile were indeed very useful.

At the same time, Zhang Yanhang felt as if he had been suddenly stuffed into a tumbling washing machine, beginning to spin at a high speed with dozens of rotations per second.

However, it might be because the biting angle was not quite right, or perhaps that the Energy Shield couldn’t be deformed by external factors before it was completely shattered.

Although the Demonized Emperor Crocodile outside was rolling around like a wheel and stirring up a large area of white spray and water columns several meters high, Zhang Yanhang actually didn’t sustain much damage. The decline in Shield Value did not continue to increase but remained steady, dropping by dozens of points per second.

For the reason why this was happening, Zhang Yanhang thought the main cause must certainly be the incorrect biting angle, considering that when a crocodile initiates a Death Roll, it usually only catches its prey’s limbs or head.

After biting into these parts, just a few turns would be enough to tear off a head or an arm. As for a Death Roll rotating several dozen times per second, like the one of the Demonized Emperor Crocodile, a normal person’s brain would probably be shaken to mush, certainly not leaving them sensationless like Zhang Yanhang.

Moreover, once the head is caught, it means it would rotate along with the body of the Demonized Emperor Crocodile. Which normal person’s head could spin dozens of times per second on their neck without harm? Even rubber men would likely be twisted off, after all, spinning alone might be survivable, but the continuous exertion of the Demonized Emperor Crocodile’s teeth meant certain death.

But Zhang Yanhang was bitten around the upper body, with only two legs sticking out; even without an Energy Shield for defense, this Death Roll was destined not to cause too much damage, since his legs would not remain static but would rotate along with the Demonized Emperor Crocodile.

Perhaps because Zhang Yanhang was smaller in size, he did not have an advantage in the related judgement, so the Death Roll of the Demonized Emperor Crocodile continued until the five-second skill limit before gradually stopping.

Although he successfully experienced the legendary Death Roll, Zhang Yanhang was slightly disappointed because it was somewhat different from what he had imagined.

But despite some disappointment, he did not plan to let the Demonized Emperor Crocodile roll again after the cooldown was over. He planned to kill the Demonized Emperor Crocodile right now, after all, he was quite busy and there was no time to delay with the Demonized Emperor Crocodile any longer as he still had to continue clearing the remaining three square kilometers of the Eastern Forest in the Demonized Swamp.

Zhang Yanhang switched the Energy Shield back to normal state and the two arms that had been bitten by the teeth of the Demonized Emperor Crocodile forcefully shattered the teeth and stretched out, one in front and one behind, tightly clasping the mouth of the Demonized Emperor Crocodile in a Void Handstand.

Accompanied by the crisp sound of a snap, the bones in the mouth of the Demonized Emperor Crocodile instantly tore apart, and the dark red muscle tissues were greatly exposed, forming a right angle that turned upwards ninety degrees. The dark red blood rich with dark energy flowed from the various capillaries and arterial vessels, immediately staining the surrounding waters red.

But because he deliberately held back, the front half of the Demon King Emperor Crocodile’s mouth, although it had formed a standard ninety-degree angle with the back half, and some dark brown oral cavity was exposed through the torn, gaping fissures—causing river water to continuously backflow into the body of the demonized creature.

However, it was not completely torn apart; a considerable portion of muscle tissue still connected the back half of its mouth.

Therefore, Zhang Yanhang, who had previously been upside-down, bent his body with high intensity once again for a seated forward bend, flinging the demonized Emperor Crocodile into the air and then smashing it back down onto the water surface with force. Still, perhaps because of the buffering capacity of the water, it seemed the demonized creature had not yet fallen into a state of tranquility.

At this point, Zhang Yanhang had once again plummeted into the river with the demonized Emperor Crocodile, sinking to the riverbed and forcibly stabilizing himself on the solid material at the bottom for a back throw, smashing the demonized creature’s body onto the hard, stony river channel.

The demonized Emperor Crocodile’s body, struck by massive acceleration, was forcibly slammed onto the riverbed. Its once thick scale armor became useless, shattering under the force; muscle tissue tore, and bones fractured.

A great volume of river water flowed quickly into the creature’s torn back, carrying out copious amounts of dark red blood along with the fragments of internal organs that were shaken and damaged by the impact.

After suffering such severe injuries, the already dying demonized Emperor Crocodile immediately fell silent.

Following that, the corpse of the demonized Emperor Crocodile began to slowly float to the surface. Zhang Yanhang, who had either been held in the creature’s mouth or forced to remain there, also floated up. Though he could have emerged already, what he cared about more at the moment was the kill notification for the demonized Emperor Crocodile.

[Successfully killed a Second Tier Two Stars Monster ’Demonized Emperor Crocodile (Common)’ ×1, Soul points +75.]

"The Demonized Emperor Crocodile is actually worth 75 soul points. As expected, it’s worth more than the normal Second Tier Two Star Monsters. If I recall, the Goblin Shaman from the Goblin Plain only gave 60 soul points after being killed. This demonized creature’s value exceeds the Goblin Shaman by fifteen points."

Because it was worth more than the usual Second Tier two stars monster, compared to the underperforming Maned Tooth Beast, Zhang Yanhang was quite satisfied with the soul points value of the demonized Emperor Crocodile.

And when questioning why such a large and heavy creature like the demonized Emperor Crocodile was still only a Second Tier Two Stars Monster, Zhang Yanhang guessed it was probably due to its body structure causing a low utilization rate of its own weight.

After all, normal creatures like the Demonized Maned Beast could use their weight advantage to deliver more powerful attacks with their charges, whereas the Demonized Dogtooth Giant Ape has a humanoid structure, allowing it to add weight to its attacks with its fists.

But the demonized Emperor Crocodile was not so capable; its slow speed prevented effective charging, and its short, thick limbs, which hardly allowed it to touch the ground, prevented it from utilizing its claws in attacks. Moreover, although it could use its tail to execute skills, given its huge size and stubby limbs, turning around was indeed not very convenient.

So, it was indeed difficult to make effective use of its size and tonnage, excelling only at bullying smaller creatures. Whenever a target of similar size and weight appeared, it was sure to be trounced.

One could only say that it was not unjust for the Demonized Emperor Crocodile to be ranked as a Second Tier Two Star; after all, based on Zhang Yanhang’s memories, during the Cretaceous, this Emperor Crocodile did not really engage in battles with other large creatures but mainly fished for a living, yes, primarily fished.

Hence, it made sense that its combat abilities were slightly lacking, and it was quite normal for them not to match its size and weight. Of course, this was mainly due to incomplete evolution. The Horror Crocodiles that emerged in the middle of the Cretaceous were much better and preyed upon dinosaurs, boasting quite reliable fighting capabilities.

After flying out of the mouth of the Demonized Emperor Crocodile, Zhang Yanhang quickly scanned the surroundings and, finding no new Demonized Emperor Crocodiles in the nearby rivers, did not continue to fly elsewhere. Instead, he stopped and quietly awaited the respawn of the treasure box.

After a few seconds, due to this being a First Kill, a blue quality Drop treasure box successfully spawned on the corpse of the Demonized Emperor Crocodile. Barring any surprises, it should contain a piece of purple quality Equipment. Zhang Yanhang immediately went forward to pick it up and put it into his Waist Bag.

Having collected the Drop treasure box and needing to continue clearing the remaining three square kilometers of the Eastern Forest, Zhang Yanhang flew back right away. He had been delayed here for a while; thus, the time required to fully clear the whole Eastern Forest was bound to be postponed.

...

October 27th, Tuesday, the day after the Double Ninth Festival and also the third day for Zhang Yanhang in the Ashen World; 00:10 a.m., the Demonized Swamp, Eastern Forest, border area.

[Successfully killed First Tier Three Star Monster ’Demonized Maned Beast (Normal)’ ×1, Soul points +9.]

[Successfully killed First Tier Three Star Monster ’Demonized Maned Beast (Normal)’ ×1, Soul points +9.]

[Successfully killed First Tier Three Star Monster ’Demonized Maned Beast (Normal)’ ×1, Soul points +9.]

...

After taking down what was probably the last Demonized Maned Beast in the swamp using the Six Roots Pure Soul Passage Spear, Zhang Yanhang began to stand in place, calmly waiting for the respawn of the Drop treasure box.

At this point, Zhang Yanhang had finally cleared the last three square kilometers of the Eastern Forest and, at the same time, had completely cleared the entire territory of the Eastern Forest, spanning an area of one hundred and thirty square kilometers in the Demonized Swamp, leaving not a single Demonized Maned Beast behind.

"Finally, the entire Eastern Forest has been cleared. With this, the progress of the second tier stage of the Demonized Swamp clearing plan has finally reached 100 percent, and I can start performing the third stage of the Demonized Swamp clearing plan.

However, because I’m a bit tired right now, I’ll have to wait until after I’ve slept to carry out the third stage, which is cleaning the Western Forest. After all, I’ve been working since eleven o’clock this morning and have worked through till zero o’clock now, making it thirteen consecutive hours of work, and I really should rest for a while."

But even though Zhang Yanhang had worked so hard, he still failed to achieve the small goal of clearing the entire Eastern Forest yesterday, instead accomplishing it ten minutes late at 00:10 today. It was, admittedly, a slight disappointment.

"The Eastern Forest covers an area of one hundred and thirty square kilometers, the Southern Forest covers ninety square kilometers. Put together, I’ve now cleared a total of two hundred and twenty square kilometers, which, translated into the overall progress of the Demonized Swamp clearing plan, is 55% progress, again advancing by 0.7% from the previous 54.3%.

Having completed 55% yesterday, that leaves 45% progress to be completed over today and tomorrow, which really feels promising for freeing up time to clear the Goblin Plain and Raccoon City."

Because he would continue to upgrade his Talent Level later, Zhang Yanhang speculated that today he might be able to complete thirty percent of the progress in one go, only leaving fifteen percent for tomorrow. If that were possible, it would definitely spare the time needed to clear Raccoon City and the Goblin Plain.

Based on his previous experience, it would take less than an hour to clear Raccoon City, and though Zhang Yanhang had never performed a second clearing of the Goblin Plain, it should also not take more than a few hours to clear again.

Zhang Yanhang remembered that the first cleaning took less than ten hours, so it was certain to be even faster this time, since not only had the number of Monsters reduced, but his hunting efficiency had also increased.

So, he estimated that at most five hours would be needed to complete it, and even considering the hour needed for Raccoon City, a total of six hours would suffice. Just six hours, Zhang Yanhang felt he should be able to save that time.

Having stood and waited for a few seconds, Zhang Yanhang found that the Demonized Maned Beast he had just killed did not drop a new treasure box, but he wasn’t disappointed. After all, he had more than enough Demonized Maned Beast meat to upgrade his Grey Maned Arm Guard to Dark Purple Quality +6.

"Now that the Eastern Forest has been cleared, what should I do next? I’ve cleared the third-tier prize pool of the Lucky Slot Machine in the Demonized Swamp, and I’ve also cleared the third-tier prize pool of the Lucky Slot Machine on the Goblin Plain. It has to wait until this morning to refresh again.

So, let’s go clear the third-tier prize pool of the Lucky Slot Machine in Raccoon City first."

Immediately upon thinking this, Zhang Yanhang teleported directly below the Dulda Apartment in Raccoon City. But instead of starting the lottery right away, he scanned the sewers of Raccoon City first.

Zhang Yanhang was quite focused on repairing the Transmission Channel, as it related to whether he could obtain more talents similar to Slow Corrotion or improve his SS-level Talent, "Longevity Mountain and Fortune Sea," to a higher SSS level or even above.