‘Alright,’ Li Yu said while turning to Tekton. ‘Phase one is complete. The head of the snake is cut off. Now for the body.’

  Tekton quickly came back to Li Yu but there was a chill down his entire spine. He had felt Li Yu’s power before when he was preparing to attack him but seeing it used was another thing altogether. Tekton also realized that Li Yu didn’t use that same kind of power he had prepared to use on himself.

  ‘This boy is definitely mysterious, his techniques are simply too strange. He also claims to be 5th stage of Soul Formation but his soul, no that’s not right, his souls, are insanely powerful. And he has two of them!? I’ve never seen such a thing before. He’s a freak of nature, perhaps he’s some kind of divine monster from somewhere.’ Tekton thought to himself.

  ‘Now, back to reality. The rest still remain and are waiting for us to purge.’ Li Yu said to it.

  Li Yu performed the hand seals for the technique. ‘I’m sending you back first. Remember the plan. You are angry. You are feeling betrayed and are going to rampage. Wipe them out. But keep the bodies harvestable so I can at least get the cores. There is no reason to try to keep everything preserved here.’

  ‘I am ready,’ Tekton said. He did not do much in the void and was ready to show off some of his might in front of Li Yu. That way he could earn some merit or respect from his new owner.

  Li Yu opened the hole in space and sent him back.

  The crater in the Whispering Weald was empty when Tekton returned but the forest edge was teeming with the millions of lesser beasts that made up the tide. They too had gathered here after the roar from Tekton just moments before.

  Since the leaders were gathering, they too fell in line and were all making their way here. They were confused right now though. As they reached the place where their leaders should have been, it was empty. They had vanished into thin air and their King had disappeared with them.

  Suddenly their King returned, alone and out of nowhere. Tekton crashed down and he unleashed his Divine Transformation pressure without restraint.

  ROAAAAAAAAR!

  The sound was accompanied by a gravity wave that flattened the trees and land surrounding the area.

  Tekton lunged towards what used to be his own followers. Not that he knew them personally, they had followed him on his quest and he simply accepted them. While there were no feelings between them, there was also no hostility either. He was acting because Li Yu had told him to do it.

  He didn’t use complex techniques or any innate abilities to attack. He himself was already a force of nature. Tekton plowed through the beast tide like a train through a snowbank. The beasts here stood no chance against him and Tekton wanted to show off his power to Li Yu as well.

  His massive legs skewered beasts by the dozens each. With so many legs, the carnage was devastating from this alone. His tail whipped out, shattering spines and ribcages with precise, kinetic impacts.

  ‘He is incredibly nimble for such a massive creature. It was actually quite impressive. He would be a great dancer with all of those feet he has…’ Li Yu thought while watching and then his mind drifted a bit.

  Tekton wasn’t finished yet. He opened his vents and released jets of steam that cooked the air and everything else as well. A strange scene then started to appear. Amidst the carnage and smell of blood, there was the smell of delicious food. The aroma was toxicating, overpowering the smell of blood completely.

  Li Yu stepped out of the void rift a moment later and the aroma took over his senses immediately. It simply smelled too good, he involuntarily took in another deep breath.

  ‘This is incredible, perhaps his true calling isn’t in hiding and eating ores. It is in the culinary world… Maybe he will become Tekton, the cooking god!’ Li Yu couldn’t help but think to himself as he was hovering high above the carnage.

  He was literally watching Tekton cook. The beast was surprisingly adept at mass cooking, no, mass slaughtering without causing total disintegration. Tekton used gravity to crush hearts and brains while leaving the valuable materials relatively untouched.

  ‘He really is a true scavenger though. He knows how to keep the best bits,’ Li Yu thought with approval. ‘He knows exactly how to kill something to make it easy to eat later as well.’

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  Li Yu finally snapped out of just watching and descended. It was time to do his part. He had the task to follow after Tekton and was to store away all the dead beast bodies. It would take a long time to go through them all by himself and extract everything. He had thought of a plan for this, he would put his new allies to work.

  He would ‘submit’ these beasts for accounting and merit points. Showing his new allies how many he had killed to get points for the kill and they can in turn process it all for him. He would then give them what he didn’t need for further points and take what he did need. Saving himself countless hours of work. Perhaps there would be a processing fee that would take away a bit of points but he wouldn’t mind it.

  Li Yu flew behind the wake of destruction. His spiritual sense swept out like a net. He used his Qi to grab the cores of the beasts that were too destroyed to extract parts from and valuable carcasses that were mostly intact.

  The beasts were being pulled into his Koi Sanctuary since they were all already dead. He made sure to put them in a secluded area so the beasts inside couldn’t get to them. It was like a vacuum cleaner moving over a dirty rug.

  Everything was disappearing into Li Yu’s pockets.

  The rampage continued on for nearly thirty minutes. The sheer number of beasts was too great. Since Tekton had to be more careful than he normally would be, the speed was slower as well. There was no rush and it was better to take his time and do a good job.

  The forest floor was stained dark but the threat of the beast tide was effectively neutralized. What was once a massive threat was now barren and empty. The army was gone and was replaced by a field of blood and low quality scraps of beasts that were left over.

  Finally, Tekton reached the edge of the Weald. He stopped, panting, steam billowing from his vents. The remaining few beasts had fled in terror and were not worth chasing after. They scattered into the deep wilderness where they would pose little threat.

  ‘Done,’ Tekton projected, sounding exhausted from the mental effort it took to be so careful. ‘I am… full. I ate a few on the way. The smell was getting amazing and I got hungry. I couldn’t help it.’

  ‘I saw,’ Li Yu replied as he landed on a nearby tree branch. ‘You only ate the boars. Good choice. Their meat is tender.’

  Tekton looked away as though he had been caught red handed, it clearly wasn’t an accident if he was targeting a current species.

  Li Yu looked back at the destruction. It was a scar through the forest, but it was a profitable scar for him. He had gathered enough materials to amass a fortune. Just what he needed the most at this time, resources. The forest will eventually heal over time, the blood of all these advanced beasts would be an amazing fertilizer. It would most likely grow back stronger than ever.

  ‘Now,’ Li Yu said, ‘let’s get out of here.’

  He leaped from the tree branch and landed on Tekton’s broad armored head. He walked to the center, right between the golden eyes and sat down cross-legged.

  ‘We need to head back to the Alliance base,’ Li Yu instructed and pointed at the direction that Tekton should go. Before leaving the area Li Yu then shouted, projecting his voice with his qi for all the scouts to hear. They will report back for him to avoid trouble on his return journey.

  “Little Crab of the Crab Cult, the forces here to help from the Southern Continent, has destroyed the beast tide here. Captured their leader and is now my tamed beast. The threat is gone, rejoice in the Crab God’s power!”

  Tekton turned his massive body and leapt into the air and started flying as he heard what Li Yu shouted, making him freeze a bit.

  ‘Little Crab? Crab Cult? What….?’ Tekton thought but he quickly got back to moving.

  His massive form didn’t look like it could fly but it seemed easy for it. He began to move away from the Weald, heading towards the Alliance territory but moving at a steady pace. Not too fast or too slow.

  ‘Li Yu,’ Tekton asked as they flew. ‘The humans… will they not attack me?’

  ‘Not while I am riding you. I will also put up some Crab Cult banners along your body to show them that you are one of us now.’ Li Yu replied with a plan already in mind.

  ‘Crab Cult? You mentioned that earlier, what is that? Are you a part of some nasty cult that I have heard of?’ Tekton asked.

  ‘It is simply a cover that a good friend came up with. He is known as the “Crab Champion” and I am “Little Crab” which you also heard earlier. We use this cover to make some things more… convenient. Like this time, you shall be known as Tekton of the Crab Cult, one of our new guardian beasts that I tamed.’ Li Yu answered him.

  ‘Ummm…. Okay… I guess… Do I need to come up with a crab name too?’ Tekton responded but got no answer from Li Yu.

  Tekton rumbled. ‘I have rarely flown through the sky so freely.’

  Li Yu patted the cold metal beneath him. ‘See? Life on the surface isn’t so bad. As long as you’re on the winning side.’

  As they moved, Li Yu began to inspect the loot in his mind. The Scavenger King and his new terrifying master were leaving the battlefield, leaving nothing behind but silence.

  The scouts quickly went to investigate after hearing Li Yu’s shout and began their mind blowing report. Many couldn’t believe what they saw but when they saw the man and beast flying steadily back in the direction of the Alliance headquarters, they had to believe it.

  Meanwhile Tekton was thinking to himself.

  ‘What should my crab cult name be? There’s Little Crab already. Perhaps Tekton of the Iron Carapace? The Thousand-Legged Decapod? Sidewalker Tekton?.... I don’t know…. This is so hard…’