Chapter 60: The Strange Black Dog

He walked to the front of the cave. The Anti-hunger Fresh Mushroom Soup he had just made was surrounded by a circle of people. However, they were all accusing each other of stealing the food. Some people had already pulled out their longswords, and a conflict was about to break out.

“Quiet! All of you, quiet down!” Lin Qi shouted at the people who were about to fight. He already had an inkling about what had occurred.

His words worked. The others stared at each other, but they also put down their weapons. Lin Qi had already established his authority in their minds. After all, he still had the food that those people needed.

Lin Qi walked forward, picked up the excessively clean small pot, and frowned.

“This situation is exactly the same as what I encountered under the giant boulder not long ago. Did you guys encounter anything strange around here?”

Lin Qi turned to look at the others. He had too little information those two times, and he hoped that he could get some useful clues from the others.

However, those people all shook their heads, indicating that they had not encountered anything unusual. That made Lin Qi fall into deep thought.

‘This thing shouldn’t be human. It’s eaten out of the pot of Anti-hunger Fresh Mushroom Soup twice now, even the orcs don’t have such a big appetite, and it can’t be a powerful demonic beast. Otherwise, it would have attacked me while I was on the boulder.

‘It’s very fast, and it ate very cleanly. It didn’t leave any traces. There’s no hair, marks, or anything of the like.’

Lin Qi thought for a while but did not have any leads. The most important thing now was to make a new pot of soup and let others eat their fill. That way, when they encountered demonic beasts, they would have the strength to resist.

At the same time, Lin Qi could not relax. He was going to use the mushroom soup to lure out that mysterious creature. After all, there was an unknown entity nearby that made them uneasy.

He gathered those people together and whispered the plan he had just thought of. If those people cooperated, they would be able to catch the demonic beast.

His plan was to use the beast-catching net that the orc tribe had used to deal with them last time to catch it. Of course, he would use the mushroom soup as bait. Lin Qi also had a blow dart, which could be used to launch a sneak attack.

Everyone agreed after hearing that. There was not much risk anyway. If they caught a live demonic beast and sold it to a mage, they would make a huge profit.

Lin Qi cooked another pot of Anti-hunger Fresh Mushroom Soup, and everyone got a small spoonful. They had heard that the young master of the Lin family sold magical food, so they all tried it carefully.

Sure enough, the Anti-hunger Fresh Mushroom Soup was a magic artifact. First of all, it was extremely delicious, and they wished they could swallow the whole pot full of it but they only drank a mouthful before they felt full.

At that point, everyone present had a change in their opinion of Lin Qi. A person who could make magic artifacts would always be sought after.

As for him turning food into magic artifacts, that meant that he was just an ordinary artifact craftsman. There were even weirder artifact craftsmen that made all sorts of strange things.

“Let’s start. However, the thing hiding in the dark may have some intelligence. We have to set up a trap quietly and not alert it.”

Seeing that the others had already eaten, Lin Qi also began to arrange the traps. They all followed his instructions and installed the traps step-by-step. In the end, Lin Qi was the one who finalized it.

After working for half a day, an untraceable trap had been prepared. There was still half a pot of Anti-hunger Fresh Mushroom Soup left in the place where the food was prepared. It looked as if they had not finished eating it and left it unattended. The others also returned to the depths of the cave to pretend to rest.

The bonfire in the cave was burning quietly. The others hid and waited for the demonic beast in the dark to take the bait. Half a night passed just like that. Lin Qi leaned against the stone wall and fell asleep.

Clang!

A loud noise immediately woke them up. Then, they looked at the closed beast-catching net in the distance. A black demonic beast was struggling inside.

The demonic beast struggled for a while and then stopped moving. The beast-catching net must have worked. Lin Qi had experienced its effect. Once it was caught in the net, it would gradually lose its power.

“So it’s a big black dog. I was worried for nothing.”

“Yeah, but I’ve only seen wolf-type demonic beasts. Dog-type demonic beasts are rare.”

“That’s because you don’t know much. There are dog-headed men among the orcs.”

The group of people chatted and laughed. They came to the front of the net and looked at the black dog inside. The black dog was also pretending to be dead. It seemed to be quite intelligent and knew how to disguise itself.

One of them boldly walked forward and poked the black dog a few times with the long stick. Seeing that it did not respond, he turned around and said, “Since he ate our food, why don’t we eat it?”

The others also followed suit and began to discuss how to eat it. They did not sense the black dog’s strength, but Lin Qi felt that things were not that simple.

The black dog had eaten more than two pots of the Anti-hunger Fresh Mushroom Soup in a single day. Even a three-star demonic beast would be stuffed to death with that amount.

“All of you, step back. This black dog might still be dangerous. Don’t go forward until you’re sure,” Lin Qi said to the group of people who were discussing how to eat the black dog.

They did not care about the so-called danger, but they still listened to Lin Qi’s words anyway. They did not know how long the acid rain would last, and with Lin Qi around, they did not need to starve.

Lin Qi stepped forward to take a look, but he grasped the blow dart in his hand in front of him to prevent the demonic beast from suddenly attacking him.

The half pot of mushroom soup in front of him was already gone, but there were no splatters or spillage on the ground either. It must have been completely eaten by the black dog.

Lin Qi suddenly had some admiration for a dog. It was about to die, but it still had to finish the food in the pot. It was really a foodie.

What he did not see was that when the black dog, which was pretending to be dead, saw Lin Qi come to observe, it gently sniffed him. Its eyes opened a little bit and discreetly looked at Lin Qi.

“Let me kill this black dog. Tonight, we will have an extra meal. We have worked hard for so long.” One of them came forward, pulled out his longsword, and was about to attack.

The black dog saw that the others were actually going to go through with killing it, and it immediately could not pretend anymore.

Hu!

A ball of flame spat out from his mouth and immediately burned a big hole in the beast-catching net. Then, it turned around and ran out.

Everyone present, including Lin Qi, was so scared that they fell to the ground.

A demonic beast that could spit fire!

An existence that surpassed devil beasts!

A creature that was above the six-star grade and was at least a seven-star demonic beast!

They were all stunned for a moment. Suddenly, someone shouted loudly.

“This creature surpasses the grade of a devil beast! This time, we’re going to be rich!”

The others also came back to their senses. When they heard that they were going to be rich, they immediately surrounded the participant who spoke. Lin Qi also followed them. He, too, wanted to hear about that demonic beast.

The black dog gave him a very special feeling.