Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After hiding from the rain for three days, the sky finally cleared. After packing their gear, the team continued their journey.
One and a half months later, it was the 20th of September, year 2115, 8am.
On top of a small hill, Xiao Fei pointed at a valley ahead and said, “According to information, the Silver-backed Bear is in that valley right ahead of us.”
Yang Tian’s eyes followed the direction he pointed at and saw two mountains and a very deep valley between them.
Yang Tian estimated the distance and figured the entrance to the valley was about 50 kilometers away.
Given the speed of 20 odd kilometers a day, they would at least have to walk for another two days.
“Let’s go!” Xiao Fei smiled and turned around to get down the hill.
In the past month and a half, Yang Tian and his teammates encountered quite a number of low-grade Monsters, and they found two Grade Two and three Grade One Beast Cores. Adding to the ones they found before that, they had a total of one Grade Three, two Grade Two, and five Grade One Beast Cores.
Grade Three Beast Cores were worth 10 million Wu each, Grade Two’s were around 3 million, while Grade One’s were roughly a million each. In total, Yang Tian and the team earned 20 million Wu so far. If distributed equally, they would each get 2.5 million Wu.
Earning more than 2 million in a mere month and a half already made the trip worthwhile. Even if they went back right away, it was well worth it.
During that period, Yang Tian learned a lot of survival skills in the woods and knew what to prepare for each situation.
Throughout the process, he also discovered that he was more suitable to be out alone.
With Drago as his companion, Yang Tian received precaution from him and would not get surrounded by Monsters. Drago could also sense which among the Monsters had Beast Cores—it helped him hit the jackpot every single time.
Moreover, Drago was small in size and moved swiftly. Most high-graded Monsters could not compare to him, and he could help Yang Tian finish them up very quickly.
For Yang Tian, the forest was a treasure trove. As long as he wanted to, he could spend minimal time deep in the wild and obtain lots of Beast Cores.
Of course, he could not just sell all the Beast Cores he obtained because he already had a Dragon Pearl in him. To continue nurturing and evolving the Dragon Pearl, he had to keep ingesting Beast Cores—lots and lots of Beast Cores! Just like his lengthy dream had indicated, only through eating other Monsters could he become stronger and stronger.
When he was out with the team, Yang Tian would have to keep his secret and not let out Drago, which meant he could not unleash his full ability.
However, this trip was still worthwhile because he learned a lot.
After getting off the hill, Xiao Fei was leading in front. Behind him, the rest of the team was making haste through the woods.
Suddenly, Xiao Fei paused and looked ahead with a frown.
It turned out that there was remains of a bonfire less than a hundred meters in front.
The Warriors quickly ran up to the ashes.
Xiao Fei lowered himself and picked up a half-burnt twig. After checking it, he said, “Looks like some people were here before us.”
The information of the Grade Five Silver-backed Bear was sold publicly online so there was bound to be many who knew. Even though nobody was surprised, they were feeling anxious.
The main reason they came into the wild was to hunt for the Silver-backed Bear and obtain its Grade Five Beast Core. It would be a shame if somebody else got there first, even though they did obtain some Beast Cores before.
“We must hurry! The bonfire remains seem to be from last night, which means those guys were a day ahead of us. If we speed up our pace, we might be able to catch up to them,” said Xiao Fei after he stood up, gritting his teeth.
The team knew what he meant: They had to keep moving at night, which was dangerous business.
The forest was dangerous to begin with, and there were even more Monsters out and about at night. They could run into another pack of wolves, just like the other night.
“Any concerns?” Xiao Fei turned around and asked, looking at his team.
They shook their heads.
“Alright then! We’ll move through the night and try to get ahead of them,” said Xiao Fei, looking toward the valley.
Thud!
When they got off the hill, the team picked up their pace. All of a sudden, a Black-backed Lizard shot out from the side and charged right at Yang Tian and got cut into half by him.
The team did not hesitate for a moment to move forward. A few minutes later, a Black-striped Python slithered out of nowhere, and Xiao Fei cut off its head with his double-saber.
…
Situations like those kept occurring in the past month and a half. As long as they moved forward, it would happen every ten or fifteen minutes.
In some cases, it was the Monsters that attacked the team. In other cases, they were blocking the way, and the team had to dispatch them.
There were many Monsters, but there were very few graded Monsters and most were regular mutated beasts.
By noon, Yang Tian and the team rested for half an hour. After taking some wild fruits and dried food, they continued with their journey.
Very soon, night fell, and the temperature in the forest dropped quite a bit since it was the later part of September. Fog started to rise.
When visuals were low, moving became even more difficult.
Blam blam blam…
Suddenly, gunshots were fired less than 20 kilometers ahead, then there was a wolf howl.
The Warriors knew what was happening to the people ahead; they ran into a wolf pack just like their encounter at night a month ago.
The difference was Yang Tian and the team were only attacked in the second half of the night, while those people were attacked when it was only slightly after nightfall.
Everybody stopped when they heard the shots. Xiao Fei looked at the Warriormate around his wrist and smiled. “They ran into wolves. That’s great. We can get ahead of them. We were behind them so they probably didn’t know of our presence, but we’ll need to take a detour.”
Xiao Fei did not intend to help the other team at all because they could not trust anyone other than those from their academy. You could never guarantee if the one you rescued a moment ago would not be the one who hacked off your head later.
As Xiao Fei finished talking, he led the team on their way.
As they moved forward, the gunshots sounded louder and louder. Upfront, there were startled animals running aimlessly in the woods, trying to escape.
About 20 minutes later, the shooting stopped and only wolf howls remained.
Listening to the howls, Yang Tian felt that the fight had become extremely intense.
An hour or so later, they were very close to the team ahead. They could even hear people shouting and screaming and the Black-backed Wolves crying in pain.
Crackle, crunch, crunch…
Suddenly, they heard rapid footsteps right ahead.
It did not sound like human footsteps but the noise of a pack of wolves escaping.
Very soon, the wolf pack ran into Yang Tian’s team.
However, the defeated wolves did not launch an assault upon seeing the team of Warriors. On the contrary, they avoided the team and walked around them instead.
Xiao Fei saw the situation and whispered, “Looks like they have some able people in the team. So much so that they were actually able to defeat the pack. But I guess after such an intense battle, they would probably wait until dawn before they start moving again. Let’s not worry about them. Let’s move!”
Xiao Fei kept walking after that.
A breeze blew by and Yang Tian could smell blood mixed with burnt flesh in the air.
Zhou Feng said, “These guys have balls. They actually dared to use Electric Grenades in the forest. Aren’t they worried about hurting themselves?”
A month ago, after the battle with the wolves, Yang Tian asked a similar question because he realized Xiao Fei did not prepare Electric Grenades or large radius weapons of that sort. Xiao Fei explained that Electric Grenades could easily bounce back on trees in a dense forest, and it could hurt the team members themselves. Moreover, Electric Grenades could easily start a fire, especially during autumn. If a fire was started in the forest, even a Warrior could not do anything but run.
After close to a hundred years, trees had been growing freely so there were dead branches and dry twigs all over the ground. Even one spark might cause a huge wildfire.
That was also a lesson learned by the Warriors through countless battles in the forest.