Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Bam!
Another shot was heard, followed by the roars of a wild beast.
A raging wind began billowing between the mountains and forests.
The unknown wild beast howled in agony until a gunshot was heard, and it was silent as the dead.
The wind continued raging without slowing down for one second. It crashed through the ancient forest like a wave.
Lin Ming did not make the next move. He listened to the sounds within the valley carefully.
The rustling of the tree leaves and the howling of other animals. There was also a vague yet soft sound that rang about, but he had no idea where did it come from.
The Adorable Little Snake hidden between the branches stuck out its little head in curiosity, its little ruby-like eyes were looking around as well as if it knew what was happening. It seemed quite curious.
There were no more gunshots.
Although, Lin Ming had already determined from which direction did the gunshots sounded.
He was gotten a very clear idea from the few shots that rang out just now.
He lifted his head to look at the little lake in the middle of the valley. That was where the gunshots had come from.
Lin Ming was now faced with a choice.
Should he move toward where the gunshots were, or should he stay away from them?
Lin Ming came to a decision very quickly.
He decided to move closer toward the direction of the gunshots.
Lin Ming had decided to do so due to an earlier thought.
Or rather, the thought was more of a common sense one.
There were too few insects and wild beasts in this part of the bamboo forest. At most, it was filled with little flying insects, rats, bamboo rats, or anything similar and nothing more than that.
This was especially so for the top of the hill. There were even fewer resources up here.
Lin Ming had decided to come here because he had thought that there would be less obstruction to his line of sight. What more, the bamboo forest was thinner here, which made things easier for him.
The downside to this place, however, was that it was far from a water source. As such, there were fewer insects and small animals compared to where he was before.
The closer he was to a water source, there would be more insects and animals that he could earn Evolution Points from.
Of course, there was no point to think about what he could see unless he was able to grow higher and taller than the other bamboos that were fifty or sixty meters tall.
Who knew how many more giant trees taller than bamboos were there in this valley?
Lin Ming lifted his roots and after determining his direction, he began to journey to the source of the gunshots.
Getting to a water source seemed to be secondary for Lin Ming, as he was very curious about these human beings.
He wanted to know if this was still his original world.
Were human beings still the same?
After all, it was now sort of the era of “The Reawakening of the Spiritual Aura”.
Would human beings go through changes or mutations?
That said, observing human beings was secondary. His key motive would still be that little lake.
As Lin Ming moved, the Adorable Little Snake curled up obediently between the branches and laid motionless.
Lin Ming realized that the direction he was heading toward would see him passing his original location. This would save him some effort from using the Razor Leaf to hew the bamboo around.
However, Lin Ming had also realized that the bamboo forest he had cleared had begun to grow more branches during this short period. It looked like they were reviving.
Was this the power of Nature?
Was Nature’s power capable of growing a bamboo’s diameter to half a meter?
As he mumbled about this, Lin Ming soon found himself arriving at his original location. Next, he quickly used the Razor Leaf to once again open up a new road.
This bamboo forest was just too dense.
…
“Big Brother Meng, did you hear that?!”
Wang Hao was picking up a rabbit that was as big as a medium-sized dog when he suddenly heard a strange sound. It sounded as if it was coming from quite far away from where they were.
“Tell me something I don’t know. I’m not deaf, how can I not hear it? The trees must have grown too tall and fell.” Zhao Meng yawned as he carried a rifle on his back.
“Big Brother Meng is right. Come on, let me cook you guys a dish of spicy rabbit meat. Hao’zi, stop getting excited over such a little thing. It’s the Reawakening of the Spiritual Aura, what’s not mutated now? Wasn’t that wolf just now like that? It was so huge it almost scared us to death!”
Li Gang, who was crouched on the ground and clearing a space, quickly took out cooking utensils from his backpack. They had not eaten for half a day. The rabbit they had just caught would do nicely.
“Hey, I’ve been dying to have a bite of that, Big Brother Gang. I’ve even brought quite a lot of spicy noodles, hehe! Add this onto the load! That tail belongs to me!” Zhang Yu, who was slightly on the plump side, threw the bamboo rat in his hands to Li Gang as he said this.
“All you know is to eat. We’re here to search for that thing, not touring for leisure. Why did you even bring grilling nets and spicy noodles… Leave me a piece of rabbit’s foot later. I want the one on the right,” Wang Hao said. He threw the rabbit down next to Li Gang and went a little further off with Zhao Meng to stand guard.
They would wait for the spicy rabbit meat to be done grilling at the same time.
The team had just encountered a strange-looking wolf. They had killed it with just a few shots but had almost died in the process.
“Our luck isn’t that bad,” Zhao Meng suddenly said.
Boom…
That loud movement they heard earlier was continuing.
Wang Hao was a little worried.
“Big Brother Meng, by the sound of that, could it be something huge?”
Zhao Meng shuddered. “What are you talking about? How would that be possible?! If something huge had made that noise, the four of us would be as delivery.”
Wang Hao did not understand. “What do you mean by delivery?”
“We would be delivering ourselves as food,” Zhao Meng said. He held tight onto his hunting rifle and bit the straw broken in his mouth.
Wang Hao choked slightly as he lit a cigarette. “Big Brother Meng, should we have declined to accept this job?”
“Why would we decline it? Do we say no and keep our pockets empty?”
“I keep having the feeling that it’s quite dangerous this time.”
Wang Hao listened to the approaching sound, his hand pressed onto the hunting rifle.
“How would we earn five million if it wasn’t dangerous? Hao’zi, didn’t you always enjoyed the days of having blood on your knife? Weren’t you the one who ended the local villager guiding us when he accidentally saw our rifles? You weren’t acting like a coward then. If we can find that thing, we’d be able to earn loads of money. We’ll talk about our future later once we’re done with this big job.”
“Alright, Big Brother Meng, I’ll listen to you… Wait, Big Brother Meng, something’s not right with that sound!”
Just as they were chatting casually, they suddenly heard a resonant howling coming from not far off. It was next followed by a roar!
“Target!” Zhao Meng and Wang Hao looked at each other. They quickly ran back to where Li Gang and Zhang Yu were grilling the meat!
It was not long when they reached the place where they had started the fire. Li Gang and Zhang Yu had already packed up, their hands pressing on their rifles, looking extremely nervous.
“We’ll eat the rabbit next time. Let’s go!”
…
Lin Ming was now quite good at using the Razor Leaf.
All he needed was to use dozens of bamboo leaves simultaneously to shoot at the same spot of any plants blocking him. With a slight adjustment of angle, he was able to achieve the best results in one move.
“I won’t slow down if I can attack at the same time.” Lin Ming stepped over many bamboos on the ground as he moved forward without difficulties.
If several dozen bamboo leaves were utilized in a single attack and attacked thrice in a short period of time, with a delayed spike, the noise generated would be similar to that of a single attack.
However, Lin Ming still felt that it was too noisy. It would attract the attention of the human beings that had come to the valley.
“Well, there’s not much choice since these bamboos are growing too densely.”
Lin Ming said as he gave three continuous shots again, creating a pathway of close to twenty meters.
It was not long before Lin Ming descended from the hill slope. Arriving at the foot of the hill, he was surprised to find that there were not many bamboos there. Instead, there was a large amount of some unknown plant.
What was similar was that those plants were just like the giant bamboos. They grew extremely tall and dense, covering sunlight.
However, for some reason, there was a wide distance between them. Lin Ming could easily walk through them without using the Razor Leaf.
“Looks like this doesn’t require much effort now. But what is that noise?”
Lin Ming suddenly heard some sort of wild beast that was not far from him howling sorrowfully in a low voice.