Corrupt Creations

Lan Xue narrowed her eyebrows again. A very complex thought process was happening inside her head at that moment. The way Seth talked about the energy scan, was giving her the impression that he didn't use the same skill that everyone else who had stepped in the cultivation road used. 

"Unconscious normal people? Is that what you consider as an interesting clue?" 

"Well... There are two things that makes that, turn into something worth investigating. The first thing, being the fact that a renowned merchant group is currently trying to secretly transport people outside the city, while announcing it as merchandise transportation. It means they are trying to hide something; hide the fact they are doing a shady business. And the second thing is the one that made me decide to follow this route." 

"What is it?" 

Seth seemed to have grasped how to actually raise Lan Xue's interest and drag her on for a longer conversation; however, he was still lacking on how to make her tell him more about herself, or what she thought about everything. 

As he looked at the doll-like figure wearing a loli dress in front of him, he realized there was still a great distance to walk, till they could really be considered good friends. 

"Sigh... It's the fact that when the Cerberus Clan kidnapped me and a bunch of other people from my village, we were all normal people that didn't have a single bit of Qi inside our bodies. This situation is very similar to that one. But it doesn't stop there... What if they stopped kidnapping people and started to rely on a third-party for that?" 

"Do you think this Scorching Trade Group may be helping them behind the curtains?" 

Seth nodded and said: "Not only helping them, but doing it brilliantly for many years without no one even noticing." 

"I see." Lax Xue finally understood his motive of joining this little event. Even if they left empty handed, it was at least worth it to try their chances on this. A thousand times better than aimlessly moving inside this barren land. 

Suddenly, on the outside a loud noise echoed. 

"UHUL!!!" 

"We won!" 

"That's it, my boy! You fought very well." 

All sixty-seven Black Scaled Scorpions were defeated and there was only a dozen or so of people that were injured throughout the whole fight. Impressively, not a single one of them were stinged to death or suffered a severe wound. 

The hired mercenaries did their job in a splendid way and were now harvesting the materials left behind by the dead beasts. From inside his carriage, Seth could even see how they were getting a little closer after surviving the ordeal. 

After they finished collecting everything, the day was already turning into night. 

Theodor suddenly decided to call for a halt. They had crossed at least forty percent of the way, but at night, things were a bit more complicated. That's why he told everyone to mount an encampment. 

"We will be resting here! Everyone, please set up your personal tents, since we will only start moving again, tomorrow morning." 

Like he had instructed, everyone started working on their own tents, sometimes helping someone that was having a bit more of difficulty. 

Theodor left his carriage and visited each of the thirty hired mercenaries. One by one, he paid them half of the sum of money they had preciously combined, making everyone even more delighted to be working for a rich and generous patron. 

After that, he decided to visit Lan Lan's carriage and talk with her. He was betting on the fact that she would notice how rich and generous he was and be a bit interested on him. 

Seth and Lan Xue were peacefully cultivating inside their personal carriage. All this while, Seth kept feeding more energy to his Specter of Darkness, deceiving everyone outside. 

Suddenly, he noticed Theodor approaching. 

"Mr. Seth, I would like to talk with Lady Lan for a bit." 

"I'm sorry Mr. Theodor, but she is currently sleeping." 

"Are you sure? Maybe she isn't..." 

"I'm absolutely right." 

Theodor tried to insist on that matter, but Seth didn't relent, always denying him from approaching more, so he had to go back while silently feeling mad. 

That night peacefully passed by. There were no major events and everyone was able to rest and recuperate to their full condition. 

When morning arrived, they had already recalled their equipment and were preparing to proceed once again. Less than ten minutes later, the caravan started to move forward, in order to reach the final destination. 

Even though the terrain in the Desolate Scorching Wasteland was barren and the climate conditions were scalding hot, the group of cultivators were easily able to overcome every single difficulty they came across. 

After ten more hours traveling, Theodor suddenly announced: "We're almost there! Do you see that huge cave entrance? It is where our client is waiting for us." 

He pointed towards a huge cave that had at least a ten meters tall entrance. 

Everyone felt happy their journey was about to end and they would be able to return home with enough money to last at least an entire month without working. Their energies were suddenly recharged as the caravan quickly entered that huge cave. 

Seth had used his Soul Sense to investigate everything inside and what he had found out, made his countenance drop. He got dispirited to find that there were no members of the Cerberus Clan waiting inside, but a single male human. However, instead of waiting in the open area, he was kind of drawing a formation circle on another part of the cave. 

Seth wasn't able to find what it was, be he had a feeling that the formation he was drawing was something he had seen before. However, he couldn't tell what it was just by watching a part of it. 

After entering the cave and stationing the five carriages near the wall at the other side, the mercenaries sat down to rest their bodies. 

Most of them had used all their energies after walking ten hours straight inside the Desolate Scorching Wastelands and were begging for a rest. 

Unfortunately, none of them noticed as Theodor slipped through a crack on the wall behind his carriage and started to channel his Qi in a previously drawn formation circle on the floor. 

Suddenly, everyone heard a loud noise from the entrance. 

Boom! 

The roof above the entrance, caved in and hundreds of rocks quickly piled up at that place, blocking the whole path. 

As if it were previously combined, at that exact moment, the human drawing the formation on the ground, finished. His Mana poured inside the formation circle and Seth was finally able to recognize it. 

It was actually a summoning circle that could summon a contracted beast to a certain place. 

Rumble! 

"Ah!" 

"What is happening?" 

"What is this?" 

Everyone suddenly stood up as the floor started to shake uncontrollably. None of them knew what was happening, but they knew trouble was about to come. 

Unfortunately, they were not at the same level as the trouble that had found them. 

The group split up as a huge crater formed in less than five seconds. At that exact place, ten mercenaries were trying to equilibrate, when they felt their feet totally lost a place to stand. They were instantly swallowed by that hole that had just opened up, falling dozens of meters down to their deaths. 

They didn't die because of falling, but because down there, a huge Rock-Eater Worm was waiting with his mouth opened. The thousands of razor-sharp teeth it had on its moth, were enough to kill the ten of them instantly. 

The huge worm moved up, reaching the surface in no time. It leaped in the air, curving up near the ceiling and falling with its mouth down, right on top of a group of three more people. 

"AHHHHHH!!!" 

"What is that thing?!" 

"Oh my god!" 

The worm ate everything on its way, be it rock or people, creating another huge hole on the ground. It disappeared inside the floor, together with those three unlucky individuals. Right now, they were already chunks of flesh being digested inside the worm's stomach. 

Things happened so abruptly and fast, that the mercenaries were not even able to understand anything that had happened on the last few seconds. 

Rumble! 

The ground started to tremble once more and the remaining seventeen people ran towards the sides of that cave. 

A group of five hunters that had formed a temporarily alliance, ran towards one of the cave walls, trying to get the farthest from the center of the cave, where those two huge holes were. 

They were shouting for each other to assume a determined role and take out their weapons and skills, since there was a huge probability that the worm would attack the hunters that were alone first. 

But just as they entered their battle formation, the wall behind them collapsed entirely as huge Rock-Eater Worm's body squashed them under its belly as if they were annoying bugs. 

The overwhelming difference in power between the mercenaries and the newly arrived beast, left no room for resistance. 

One by one, those people were eaten alive or died after being crushed to meat paste. Impressively, the worm didn't target the carriages, but it was not because he felt the unusual strong presence of Seth and Lan Xue, but because he was being controlled. The human that had summoned it, controlled it while sitting cross-legged in the middle of the formation he drew on the ground.