Doomsday Code

"Hey, are you all alright? Let me know."

Chen Cheng shouted into the woods.

Immediately following was their reply.

After everyone had gathered, Chen Cheng took out the map.

Comparing the map in his hand, Chen Cheng began:

"We should be about 500 li outside the northern border now. Our first stop is here, so we need to head a little east."

He put the map away and then said:

"This is where the Kui Deer lives. So if we encounter other people later, Noah, you and we can pretend to be an adventurer team. We've taken on a guild quest to hunt the Kui Deer King here."

As for their questions about the North, all we saw was the Wall that suddenly appeared; we knew nothing else.

Chen Cheng's reminder was just in case, since the situation in the Northern Territory was quite serious, and they might inevitably encounter spies from other kingdoms and forces along the way.

After tidying up his belongings, Chen Cheng led the team out of the forest.

However, after walking for a short while, Chen Cheng and his group actually encountered a Kui Lu team.

The stag king, which was over twenty meters tall, startled the entire forest from a great distance.

"They've come at the perfect time. We can clear out this batch of Kui deer, take them back to the city to exchange for some travel expenses, and at the same time, we can find out what's going on outside."

Chen Cheng and his group then dispersed according to their battle formation and began hunting the herd of Kui deer.

With a cry of "Yo!", the Deer King Kui, who was munching on the people who had strayed into the area, noticed Chen Cheng standing in front of him.

When he saw Chen Cheng, a living human being, his huge eyes revealed a greedy look, and his huge mouth couldn't help but drool.

The coniferous forest where they lived was extremely poor in resources, and it was not located on the main road to the north. So, apart from the lord of the forest sending some adventurers to gather information about the deer herds every year, there were very few humans around.

The mutilated body he was eating now was one he had been reluctant to keep a few days ago; humans were considered extremely delicious food by them.

"You beast, take this!"

When Chen Cheng saw that the guy had bits of meat and blood on his lips and was drooling over him, he immediately summoned his Dragon Horn Sword and charged at him.

The King of Kui Deer stomped its four hooves on the ground, let out a cry, and then activated its domain, attempting to trap Chen Cheng.

However, Chen Cheng remained swift and showed no signs of being affected by the domain. He instantly appeared in front of Kui Lu and then leaped up to slash at his neck with his sword.

Although it was unclear why Chen Cheng was unaffected, the Deer King quickly turned its head and used its antlers to strike at Chen Cheng's abdomen as he leaped up.

Seeing the faint light emanating from the beast's horns, one could tell that the beast had activated some kind of innate magic, intending to kill him.

Chen Cheng suddenly accelerated in mid-air, dodging his flick, then leaped into the air, activating the supernatural power hidden in the acupoints of his arm, and swung his sword at his neck.

The sword energy merged with the wind, like an invisible blade, instantly and neatly severing his enormous head.

With a soft "plop," blood gushed out like a river overflowing its banks from the wound on his neck.

Seeing this, Chen Cheng took out a spatial bag from his waist, opened the bag, and began to collect the spurting deer blood.

This is the blood of the King of Kui Lu; it would fetch an astronomical price if sold to those dissolute noblemen.

After collecting the blood, another round of dismemberment and skinning ensued. It could be said that there wasn't a single worthless part of this Kui Deer King.

His skin, bones, and tendons can all be used as materials for crafting magical artifacts. His flesh and blood also contain abundant energy, making him a valuable material for magicians to craft potions and a great tonic for warriors to replenish their cultivation.

In particular, his complete head and horns can be crafted by magicians into special talismans.

Just like those savages living in the jungle, he can use his head to make protective charms to protect his territory from being invaded by monsters weaker than him.

While Chen Cheng was dealing with the Deer King, Noah and his group had also taken care of the other Kui Deer.

He wasn't the only stag king in this herd of Kui deer; there was also a doe king. After seeing these gains, Chen Cheng vaguely sensed that something was amiss.

Although this place is not by an official road, it is not a truly remote mountain forest either. There is a small town about 20 miles away, and this is the territory of that town's lord.

The fact that a pair of beast king-level Kui deer could live here with their clan suggests that the lord must be blind; otherwise, wild Kui deer would never stay in their own territory.

Although he felt that this beast was raised by humans, seeing how it drooled whenever it saw people, it must have eaten quite a few people, so Chen Cheng didn't feel anything else when he killed it.

"Let's go. Let's go into town today to exchange for some travel expenses and gather some information. We'll continue our journey tomorrow."

Then Chen Cheng had Noah and the others carry a huge golden-age Kui deer head straight towards the nearest city.

Once outside the coniferous forest, the situation was indeed similar to Chen Cheng's guess. The northern border, which had been sealed off, now had many people heading north.

These people were likely intelligence agents on the outermost periphery of the kingdoms and forces. They originally wanted to go forward to investigate when they saw Chen Cheng and his group coming from the north, but after seeing Noah and his group carrying the fresh, still-dripping blood-stained head of the Kui deer, they all gave up the idea.

Based on the time it would take to hunt such a Kui deer, suspicion against Chen Cheng and his group had already been eliminated.

They arrived at the outskirts of Needle Forest City without any obstacles.

Chen Cheng instructed Noah and the others to put down the enormous head of the Kui Deer, and then gave the order:

"You all stay here and guard the goods. I'm going to town to find buyers."

"It's captain."

Chen Cheng took out his identity token, which had been issued after he registered with the Adventurers' Guild, and hung it on his waist before entering the city.

Chen Cheng didn't bother to gather any information. He first wandered around the guild and saw a quest to buy Kui Lu's complete head at a high price, so he immediately accepted it.

Then he called over the person in charge of quest settlement from the guild and asked him to come with him to inspect the quest outside the city.

In fact, there are many cases like Chen Cheng's, where they have the items first and then look for quests. After all, if you always accept quests but fail to complete them, it will affect your quest completion rate within the guild.

In that case, when faced with large-scale missions, the guild might not recommend itself to the employer.

So the person who was settling the task didn't think much of it and followed Chen Cheng out of the city.

"Here, this head is still fresh. Take it back while it's still hot and find a weapon refiner. You can still retain more than 90% of its beastly power."

However, when Chen Cheng led his men to the city gate and saw the Kui Deer Head, the guild member immediately pointed at it and whispered:

"Did you hunt the deer in the coniferous forest thirty miles outside the city?"

As expected, the deer already had an owner.

However, Chen Cheng would never admit that he knew the other guy was taken; he simply glared at the guild member and said:

"What do you mean? If I don't hunt deer in that forest, where do you expect me to hunt them? Let me tell you, it's not just this deer, my brothers and sisters and I hunted a whole herd of demon deer in there."

"Hurry up, stop dawdling here. Settle my mission reward for me. I still need to go to the state capital to sell those two deer kings."

Chen Cheng pushed him forcefully, pretending to be domineering.