"What did Xixi say, meow?" Dilu asked curiously.
"Xixi said that even though it's not her own cub, she really wants to take care of it," Li Fan translated.
"Don't Electric Dragons not even raise their own cubs?" Yudoluo asked in surprise.
"This might be related to Xixi's childhood experiences and the influence of the team," Li Fan speculated.
"It feels a bit against the monster's nature."
"Mutated individuals, plus long-term coexistence with humans, monsters are bound to change, just like Xiong Da, who has completely adapted to living in human farmlands."
"So, is this good or bad?" Yudoluo asked tentatively.
"It's unclear yet, but the impact is certain. For example, if Xiong Da's offspring grow up, perhaps a tribe of pastoral Great Jagras will emerge that inhabits ranches."
"Hmm... if there really was a tribe of Great Jagras, it would be nice to build a logging camp in the forest after retirement." Yudoluo's lips curled up at the thought of a group of Great Jagras carrying logs and working for him in the forest.
"Good idea. When Kala Village expands, you'll be the designated timber supplier. I'll work with Zhan Zhan to integrate the surrounding mining operations, Shan Shan will be responsible for repairing and widening the roads, and other monsters will handle security. In a few years, that forest area can develop into the first ranch. Then, I'll build a super arena that I've been planning for a long time, even larger than the one in Dondruma. I've even thought of titles for the monster appearances: Monday, Absolute Strongest Appears; Tuesday, The Rage-Winged Wyvern with a Grudge; Wednesday..."
"Li Fan! Stop daydreaming, meow, we haven't found Yan yet." Dilu, seeing Li Fan getting more and more excited, quickly ran in front of him and waved her paws, pulling him back to reality.
"That's right, Li Fan, we haven't found Yan yet... What's the title for Wednesday?" Yudoluo asked, having been about to persuade him, but suddenly became curious.
"A fleeting black lightning, the Zinogre!"
"Wow! So cool." Yudoluo exclaimed.
"Uh... if we're developing the ranch, can you renovate the Cat Academy too, meow?" Dilu asked tentatively.
"No problem, Dilu. But for now, we need to focus on finding Yan. Otherwise, if the Nergigante larvae run rampant, many people will be in danger," Li Fan informed her.
"I know, meow, I can't get distracted... Ah! Didn't I just keep reminding you of this!" Dilu said somewhat exasperatedly.
"Oooow~" At this moment, Xixi couldn't help but let out a reminder.
"So, you didn't just summon us for the Electric Dragon cub, you also discovered human traces," Li Fan said in surprise.
"Oooow~" Xixi confirmed, then lowered her head and pointed in the direction with her head crest.
The two humans and one cat mounted Qingtian and set off immediately.
"Oooow~ Oooow?" With hooves pounding, the team quickly moved away. Xixi anxiously asked.
"No problem! You stay in the dense forest and take care of this cub for now. Electric Dragon cubs are very adaptable. Let it get more contact with nature, don't worry too much." Li Fan's voice grew fainter and fainter, soon disappearing into the jungle.
"Oooow~ Oooow?" Xixi bent her neck and turned her head, asking the Electric Dragon cub if it wanted to eat a Mizutsune.
"Squeak~ Squeak?" The cub, with drool dripping, tilted its head up and indicated it didn't know what a Mizutsune was.
Xixi wanted to fly to the coast and catch a few, but thinking of the cub being unattended, she hesitated.
"Pat~ pat~ pat..." Seeing this, the cub raised its paws and ran back and forth on the ground to show it was capable of action. Xixi immediately ran ahead at a slower pace to guide them. Two Electric Dragons, one large and one small, headed towards the beach by land.
"Strange, why isn't there any..." After chasing for a while, Li Fan, on the back of the pig, muttered curiously. Dragonborn, compared to humans, could integrate more easily into nature but did not possess superior speed.
"Could it have changed direction midway?" Yudoluo asked.
"Are you looking for someone?" A man's voice sounded.
"Yes, why are you hiding in the bushes... Found you!" Li Fan looked in the direction of the voice and saw a Dragonborn man with round-framed glasses in the bushes, looking particularly surprised.
The man squinted and smiled faintly, saying politely, "My name is Yan. I'm a wandering physician. I haven't encountered any danger, so please don't trouble yourselves." Yan reported to the local guild branch every time he visited an area, firstly to understand the local plant distribution for medicinal herb collection, and secondly for safety. Since his explorations were always long, misunderstandings sometimes arose.
"My name is Li Fan, this is our team's chronicler Dilu, and this is Yudoluo. We're here not only to confirm your safety but also for another matter," Li Fan stated his purpose.
"Li Fan, Yudoluo, Dilu... Are you the chief hunter team of the Dragon Calendar Institute?" Yan was quite surprised by the identities of the two humans and one cat. While search and rescue team members did require a certain level of strength, having the chief hunter team come to rescue him seemed a bit excessive. Sensing something was amiss, Yan asked, "Is it related to a disease?"
"Yes, we recently witnessed a Velkhana on the Citadel Highlands and also discovered a large number of Nergigante larvae. To prevent the threat of insect poison from the rampant Nergigante larvae, we would like to ask for your help in developing an antidote," Li Fan informed him.
"Nergigante larvae... If I'm not mistaken, this insect poison is the same toxin that ravaged this area fifty years ago."
"So, there were Nergigante larvae here fifty years ago?"
"Yes. Fifty years ago, plagues were rampant here. I was invited to diagnose and treat them at the time, and I had already discovered them."
"Historical records do mention plagues, but there doesn't seem to be any record of Nergigante larvae," Li Fan asked curiously.
"At that time, they were still in their larval stage. My purpose for visiting this time was to observe the state of the Nergigante larvae, but it seems I've come to the wrong place." Yan felt that his investigation had made no progress because he had chosen the wrong location.
"Larvae, plague... No wonder no one has fallen ill yet," Li Fan suddenly thought of a possibility.
"Li Fan, did something inspire you?" Yan asked.
"Exactly. When the Nergigante larvae appeared as a plague fifty years ago, did they pose a great threat to the local residents?"
"Yes."
"And the monsters?"
"Uh... some were also poisoned, but the symptoms were not very obvious," Yan recalled.
"That makes sense. The Nergigante larvae back then were in their early larval stage, and their evolutionary stage was not enough to affect large monsters, so they could only target humans. Now that they have become adult forms with extremely strong absorption capabilities, their target has naturally shifted to larger, more vital monsters," Li Fan stated his analysis.
"In that case, are humans safer?" Yudoluo speculated.
"More dangerous," Yan sighed and shook his head.
"Why, meow?" Dilu couldn't understand.
"Back then, when the plague was rampant, the larval poison was already lethal. If it's an adult form, it's unlikely anyone could survive," Yan explained.
"But for human targets... apart from a few with exceptionally strong physiques, Nergigante larvae aren't interested, right?" Yudoluo asked.
"That's when the surrounding ecological environment hasn't collapsed. The surge in Nergigante larvae will cause the number of surrounding monsters to decrease rapidly. When the Nergigante larvae have no sufficient targets to parasitize, they will turn to humans entirely," Li Fan explained.
"That's terrifying. No wonder the Kingdom Knight Hunting Group takes it so seriously," Yudoluo felt that the Kingdom must also possess some intelligence.
"The calamity is approaching. It seems we need to speed up," Yan, whose face had always worn a gentle smile, became serious.
"If you need assistance, we will fully support you," Li Fan informed him.
"Previously, when dealing with the larval toxin, I used a method of using poison to fight poison within the patient. However, with the toxicity of the poison, its strength would definitely be insufficient against the adult Nergigante toxin..." Yan began to ponder.
"What about the poison of the Rathalos?" Li Fan asked tentatively.
"The Rathalos poison is potent, but it cannot strongly repel other ingested toxins," Yan negated.
"So, this poison needs to be not only highly toxic but also able to inhibit and clear the insect poison..." Li Fan said, taking out his handheld device to check.
"The poison of the Diablos has this effect, meow!" Dilu exclaimed, a flash of inspiration striking her.
"That's right! It's the Diablos poison! Well done, Felyne!" Yan became excited, but then he showed concern, saying, "Diablos is a six-star monster, and hunting it in the short term will likely be very difficult." He didn't doubt the strength of the chief hunter team, but two people and a hunter cat were not the personnel configuration for hunting a six-star monster.
"Hmm... The warning marker on the island's dense forest map shows the general activity range of a Diablos," Li Fan said, looking at Yudoluo and Dilu.
"How about this, I'll return to the base and explain the situation to Admiral Garaias. He is the commander-in-chief of Elgard. Given the current situation, they will definitely mobilize the elite of the Kingdom Knight Hunting Group to assist..." Yan was making a suggestion when he saw Yudoluo start to stretch and warm up. Li Fan was rapidly tapping on a glowing bar-shaped object. Dilu was attaching a strange spherical object to her shoulder strap.
"Yan, your suggestion is correct. Such a serious situation must be reported to Elgard as soon as possible, but there's no need for the Kingdom Knight Hunting Group to assist," Li Fan informed him.
"But... time is very tight this time," Yan said with some difficulty. Li Fan didn't reply immediately but held up three fingers.
"If it's only three days, then the research should be able to catch up. After all, research on adult Nergigante toxin will also take a lot of time."
"I will deliver the Diablos poison to the base in three hours."
"That's impossible, right?"
"Hunting, we're professionals (meow)." The two humans and one cat, having completed their preparations, responded in unison.
Not long after, Yan, who was returning to the base on a passing ship, was still somewhat bewildered even on the deck. Obtaining materials from a six-star monster within three hours was, in his eyes, an impossible task. And Dilu had confidently written a contract for him to submit to the guild for filing. Compared to searching for humans, tracking monsters was much easier, especially with the marked warning areas on the map. The team, splitting into two groups to search, soon discovered numerous Diablos tracks. This was partly due to the team's improved tracking abilities, and partly because the Diablos, as the "Lord of the Forest," had no habit of hiding its tracks. An hour later, at the foot of a mountain covered in vines, the team found the Diablos. On a nest made of dry branches, a green dragon covered in red spikes was sleeping soundly on its side. Crystal-clear snot bubbles continuously emerged from its nostrils.
"Dada~ Chi~" Qingtian's four hooves pressed down, stopping abruptly. The wild boars foraging nearby cast curious glances.
"Hmph~ Hmph~" Qingtian let out a few majestic calls, and the wild boars immediately scattered.
"It's sleeping so soundly, it has absolutely no vigilance," Yudoluo had never participated in a Diablos hunt before, but she knew that due to its extremely strong carapace defense, it had become complacent about ecological threats.
Li Fan observed for a moment and speculated, "This kind of spiky carapace, if I were to hack at it rashly, I might actually get hurt."
"I'll take a couple of photos first, meow," Dilu said, picking up her 3DS and taking pictures of the sleeping Diablos.
"Facing such a monster with no fighting spirit, I feel like something is missing," Yudoluo said, drawing the Wyvernmatic from her back.
"Don't charge it yet, just wake the Diablos up. Maybe we can talk," Li Fan instructed. If they wanted its poison, capture would be the best option.
"Alright, with all these spikes, which part should I cut..." Yudoluo walked back and forth a couple of times, finally choosing the head.
"Heya!"
"Clang! Buzz~ Buzz~ Buzz..." The blade struck the top of its head, sparks flying. The Wyvernmatic buzzed, pulling Yudoluo back with it. She hadn't felt such a jarring pain from her palm for a long time. The Diablos, retracting its head, didn't open its eyes from the strike. Instead, it turned its head to the side of the rock wall and changed its sleeping position. A moment later, strings of snot bubbles began to emerge again.
"Ah~ Don't sleep! This monster is so infuriating," Yudoluo said, clenching her fist.
"Wait a minute, since the Diablos is sleeping so soundly, why don't we just extract the poison alive?" Li Fan thought of a method.
"We'll need to break through its outer shell, meow. What if it wakes up midway?" Dilu felt there was a significant risk. If the Diablos were truly that formidable, it would likely have become a popular target for material gathering long ago.
"We have Yeye, if it wakes up, she can hypnotize it," Li Fan offered a solution.
"That's a good idea," Yudoluo said, placing the Wyvernmatic on her back and drawing her hunter's knife.
On the beach, a convulsing Mizutsune fell from the sky.
"Squeak~ Squeak~..." Watching the masterful hunting performance, the Electric Dragon cub, tilting its head upwards, let out continuous cheers.
"Oooow~" Xixi, flying, let out a joyful cry, as if seeing herself for the first time catching a Mizutsune carcass at the bottom of the Tower of Heavens from the Electric Dragon cub.
"Oooow~" A dragon roar sounded. Xixi looked in the direction of the sound and saw a green figure flying from the coast towards the depths of the dense forest.