This is a small cave located 120 meters underground.

There is an opening at each end of the cavern that leads to a different part of the underworld.

The stone walls on both sides reflected a faint cold light under the reflection of fluorescent moss, and water droplets continued to drip from the top of the cave, making a monotonous crackling sound on the cold ground.

Despite the constant noise, the silence and dead silence reign in this dark and deep underworld!

If you want to survive in this dark world, staying quiet and avoiding body temperature leakage is the only way to survive. But that's clearly broken today!

A horned sheep, which had never been seen only on the surface, was chained to the rock in the middle of the cave, and the darkness and coldness made it shiver in horror, and the huge wound on its hind leg was still slowly bleeding blood.

A thick, pungent smell of blood had filled the passage.

Baa......

The trembling cry of the horned sheep was heard far and wide in this dead world.

The horned sheep screamed irritably, and kept hitting the stone pillar that had bolted itself to death with the horns of the skull, until it noticed the movement behind it, and then looked back in horror.

In the darkness, a terrifying figure crawling on the ground was slowly approaching it!

It's a petrified lizard.

The gigantic 5-meter-long head and tail make the petrified lizard the undisputed size of the region, and the guillotine's fanged maws make it difficult for the creatures they bite to survive. Coupled with the petrified rays with a range of only 3 meters, the petrified lizard has become a well-deserved 'underground scavenger' in the underground world!

Looking at a pair of flickering earthy yellow eyes in the darkness and couldn't help but approach, the horned sheep was horrified and couldn't help himself, and jumped and kicked desperately. But this will not help at all, but will make the bloody qi on its body radiate more quickly and widely.

As soon as the petrified lizard approached the rock where the horned sheep were, it was immediately blocked by a strange rune array that emerged from the ground. After biting a few bites and hitting hard several times, the petrified lizard was in the middle of Mo's help, and suddenly it half-straightened its body and raised its nose to sniff the slowly flowing air in the cave.

With the acuity of an underground creature, it sniffed a familiar and terrible scent from the thick of blood.

Without hesitation, the petrified lizard turned around and crawled into the darkness in the distance, quickly disappearing.

Not long after the petrified lizard disappeared, a howling wind suddenly blew through the cave, and then a vigorous black figure swooped out of the passage and coiled between the hanging stalactites at the top of the cave.

Eventually, the shadow landed on a protruding platform on the rock wall, and stood tall and silently looked down at everything in the cavern below.

Shocked by the strange atmosphere, the horned sheep was already paralyzed to the ground in fright, and an unpleasant smell of urine came from under him.

Although the cave was dark and lightless, the huge black shadow was able to take every corner of this space into view with the help of shimmer vision.

Cold floors, dim stone walls, babbling underground channels...... It's all under control.

The black shadow was quietly in the darkness, and the dark green with a hint of earthy yellow pupils was full of deep doubts and uneasiness.

However, as a minor manticore, it is obviously not mature enough.

All the breath emanating from the horned sheep was completely absorbed into its nose, and the smell of the fresh flesh and blood unique to the creatures on the bottom stimulated its blood veins, and the saliva in its mouth could not help dripping, etching small holes on the rock platform beneath it.

How does the scene in front of you look like an ugly trap, but what about the enemy who laid the trap?

The little manticore resisted the urge to swoop down and feast on it, wide-eyed as it patrolled around against possible enemies. But even as it scanned every corner of the cavern, it found no smell or trace of outsiders.

Finally, the little manticore could no longer suppress the natural thirst for biological flesh and blood, and swooped down with a soft roar, and pounced viciously on the horned sheep.

A moment later, the cave resounded with the strange sound of a small manticore lion frantically biting and devouring the flesh of a horned sheep.

As a ferocious underground creature, the little manticore never cares about table manners, and the scene of crazy eating is unbearable to look at, and the whole rock is drenched in blood, like a small slaughterhouse.

And just when the little manticore fell into a frenzy of eating, the water rippled in a shallow pool in the corner of the cave, and three humanoid black shadows slowly emerged.

"Pour ...... Pour...... ......"

Gargamel couldn't help but murmur under his breath through the thick darkness.

With his whisper, the little manticore lion who was feasting suddenly shook, and before the wide bat wings could fly, Nuoda's body fell down strangely.

"Hurry up......," Grim commanded in a low voice, "There's a little manticore around here, we don't have that much time!"

"Understood!" Gargamel smirked, "It won't take much time to extract a little bit of its scorpion's tail toxin, and I promise it won't notice anything afterwards!"

With that, he took advantage of the darkness to quietly touch the sleeping little manticore.

…………

Two hours before dawn, the adult manticore lions scattered in the nearby mountains and forests also returned to the entrance of the cave one after another.

It can be seen that their bellies are bulging, and they have completely eaten a full meal.

Their thick hind limbs still clung to their blood-drenched prey, and after a short rest on the stone pillars, they roared back into the cave. And it wasn't until they completely disappeared into the underground passages that the nocturnal bats dared to flapping their wings and return to their nests.

The three of Grim watched the whole process from the sidelines, and when the light came back to light, they returned to camp contentedly.

The first time they explored the underground lair, they didn't kill any creatures at all, nor did they kidnap the little manticore, but only secretly extracted some of the flesh and toxins from its body. As soon as the effect of the anesthetic expired, the little manticore woke up from its slumber in a groggy state, and all the anomalies around it had been completely erased by Grim and the others.

After all, the little manticore's intelligence was not so perfect, and under the urging of the medicine, he also forgot about the previous things, and could only return to the lair suspiciously.

With Gargamel, a pharmacist, and the toxins extracted from the body of the little manticore, it is still possible to concoct some anti-paralysis potions in a targeted manner. Although it is impossible to completely resist the paralyzing attack of an adult manticore, it is much better than resisting it with a physical force.

For days, Grim and Gargamel went out day and night, spending almost every night in the winding underground passages.

Observe the morphology and living habits of these manticore lions up close, and even sneak into the manticore's lair to find out the terrain there, which lays a solid foundation for the later cleanup tasks.

After careful planning and careful consideration, Grim finally determined a perfect extermination plan, and set the time for the implementation of the plan to be 7 days after they arrived at the Sick Wood Forest.

According to Grim's observations, this day should also be the day when the adult and young manticore lions of the Manticore family poured out of their nests for large-scale hunting, which was the right time for the extermination plan to be launched and carried out.

And the executor of the plan is all the members of the adventure team!

Under the temptation of Grim's 300 magic crystals, Lowe and the others finally gave in.

…………

It's another beautiful night with a bright moon and sparse stars.

As soon as it was dark, a large number of bats living in the cave came out of the sky again, gathered into clouds in the night sky around the sick wood forest, circled and flew a few times, and then dispersed into the nearby mountain forest.

And the nine manticores also appeared again, just a little division of labor and went their separate ways!

When they were all far away, Grim's group of eight revealed their bodies nearby, and then headed straight for the depths of the cave.

With Sabrina and the rest of the group on the way, Grim and Gargamel rushed into the underground passage and headed straight for the manticore's lair.

Time is precious, and it is important to set a trap before the manticores notice something is wrong with their nest, otherwise they will easily be blocked by the manticores returning to their nests.

And if they want to lure the manticore lion into their doom, they must first control the two baby manticore lions that remain in the lair. That's why Grim and Gargamel took the lead, speeding up with the help of witchcraft, and quickly advancing towards the manticore's lair.

Unlike the last sneaky time, this time they rushed into the underground passage with a bang.

As he continued to make his way down the passage, Grim threw witchcraft fireballs that exploded small underground creatures hidden in the shadows into shards.

The huge fireball roared and spread rapidly in the underground passage, and they didn't need to look for it, and the two little manticores who were hiding in the shadows rushed out after the sound of the explosion.

The little manticores only have quasi-witch-level strength, and although their combat power is not worth mentioning in the eyes of Grim, it still takes a certain amount of thought to capture them completely.

When Grim rushed into a small cavern, there were four or five underground passages leading to different regions, which was also a small hub of this underground labyrinth.

As soon as Grim rushed in, the wind above his head was not good, and two huge black shadows like small mountains rushed down from the top of the cave, and the white fangs of the forest opened their huge mouths, and bit Grim's head and shoulders viciously.

As for the ambush of the two little manticores, Grim has already understood it clearly through the latest 'multi-dimensional scene construction'. Therefore, Grim's body was only slightly slight, and he had already successfully used the flame to jump to another area. And where he was, a huge lava fireball that had been left there exploded just right!

If Grim wants to kill two manticores, all he needs is a solid lava fireball to make them undead and peel off their skin. But now, in order to catch it alive, I can only detonate the fireball in advance.

So, in an earth-shattering burst of flames and shockwaves, the two little manticores were dizzy and scarred, and could only rush out of the fire with a miserable scream.

They were greeted by the casserole-sized iron fist of the Growler......

There were two muffled bangs, and the two little manticores were gorgeously knocked out!