Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Edited by Aelryinth
-No skill, bad!-
-Afraid of strong light, bad!-
-Can only be used as an assassin, still bad!-
Looking through the attributes of this Demonic Shadow Mantis, Zhang Che couldn’t help pursing his lips. After being raised as a picky person by all the top grade beast cards he had, there truly wasn’t much joy to be found in him.
After making a detailed comparison, this fellow’s overall strength was probably even weaker than the current Fiery Scorpion. At the very least, the Fiery Scorpion had an attacking skill, even though it was only for armor penetration, a skill considered to be bottom-tier.
However, it was still better than having no skill at all, right?
-Tsk, tsk, it looks like this fellow will only come in slightly useful when I lend it to the others five days from now.- Zhang Che shook his head. He put the beast card away, and headed further into the valley.
Since he finally had the chance to be alone, how could he possibly leave so easily?
Even so, this was only the edge of the hunting zone. There wouldn’t be any overly powerful exotic beasts around; those were long slain or driven away by the experts from the organization or army. Zhang Che explored a few hundred meters further into the valley, but there weren’t any gains to be found.
Zhang Che advanced another few hundred meters and made a few turns, killing a few shrimps. He didn’t get anything out of them, and realized that he had nearly fought his way through the valley.
“This works too, at least I don’t have to find another way. We can directly pass through here,” Zhang Che consoled himself. He recalled the Vampiric Demon Carpet with a wave of his hand and jumped on the Gale Wolf King’s back, quickly returning to the other end of the valley.
—
“You’re finally back, Brother Che. Did you get rid of that exotic beast?” Zheng Hongru and the others waited for a long while, feeling worried for Zhang Che’s safety. His strongest subdued beast was here guarding them; what would he do if he encountered any powerful exotic beasts in there?
Without Zhang Che, they couldn’t continue on, either. They could only backtrack and return to where they came from, with no hopes of enrolling into a decent university for further studies.
Now that Zhang Che had returned safely, they could finally let out long sighs of relief inwardly.
“I obtained a gold-quality beast card. Although its attributes aren’t that good, it could bolster your strength five days from now.”
Zhang Che directly took out the Demonic Shadow Mantis beast card and handed it to Zheng Hongru, the leader of the four of them, letting him safekeep it.
-A two-star gold-quality beast card, and its attributes aren’t that good ?- Zheng Hongru and the others felt hurt. -Big Bro, you’ve always been well-fed and never knew the feeling of hunger. Of course you wouldn’t think a two-star gold-quality beast card is all that when you have an army of high-grade subdued beasts! But for us, that is already a high-grade beast card!-
With the threat eliminated, and the information from Zhang Che that they could continue forward through this valley, the rest of them cheered. Each of them summoned a subdued beast as a transportation tool, running through the valley ahead.
They were delayed here for over an hour. Only the heavens knew how much further ahead those examinees who moved quickly were.
As for having everyone squeeze onto the back of the Dark-Scaled Lizard Commander and quickly going on their way, Zhang Che would never agree to it again even if he was beaten to death. That pose was truly too embarrassing and stung the eyes.
He’d rather fall a little behind. It was no big deal. With an army of powerful subdued beasts, would he be unable to catch up to their progress in terms of obtaining beast cards?
Zhang Che was very confident in his luck!
——
After passing through the valley, the terrain ahead suddenly widened. Although what they saw ahead was still hills, at least there weren’t any overly tall ones within a radius of several kilometers. Zhang Che and the others could clearly see that that another team of examinees were quickly climbing up a hill with scarce vegetation several kilometers away, the limit of what their vision could reach.
“Brother Che, which direction are we heading in?” Xiao Yi looked at Zhang Che. At present, Zhang Che alone was responsible for all of the team’s attacks and defenses. No matter what decision they made, Zhang Che would have the final say.
Zhang Che focused his gaze and looked to the distance for a short while, then pointed to their front left. “That way!”
Anyway, none of them knew which direction the strong exotic beasts could be found in this vast hunting zone. They could only rely on their luck and search randomly.
“Let’s go. It’s getting late; we have to strive to obtain another decent beast card or two, and find a place to replenish our water supply and have something to eat.”
Truthfully speaking, although barely half the day had passed, Zhang Che felt his stomach protesting again. It was like he hadn’t had much to eat in the morning and was exploring on an empty stomach all this while.
It seemed like he could only sneak out later in the night alone to fill his stomach.
Everyone rode in the direction Zhang Che casually pointed to. On their way, they actually overtook another team of examinees. Fire burned in the others’ eyes anxiously, but they weren’t able to beat them in the end. The other team could only change their direction dejectedly and continue on their hunting trip.
As they were rushing, Zhang Che treated the handful of weak exotic beasts they came across as invisible. In any case, he didn’t need the money from selling those bronze-quality cards. Instead of wasting his time and energy, it was better to hurry the deeper parts of the hunting zone.
As the five of them each rode on their respective subdued beasts’ backs, Xiao Yi suddenly pointed to the horizon and said, “Hmm? Brother Che, Brother Che, look. Is that a flying beast in the sky?”
Everyone turned to look. Indeed, they saw a black dot circling in the sky at an extremely high altitude. It was probably a flying beast out looking for food.
Before they set off, everyone already knew how much importance Zhang Che placed on having a flying beast. Now that Xiao Yi had spotted one while looking up in the sky, he immediately made his discovery known.
Zheng Hongru narrowed his eyes. After looking for a short while, he said helplessly, “It’s too high up, we can’t get it down.”
Although he knew that the bow on Zhang Che’s back was sure to be very powerful, his arrows couldn’t possibly reach a thousand meters up in the sky, no matter how strong you were, right?
Naturally, Zhang Che wouldn’t say that he could, in fact, shoot that high, although he couldn’t guarantee the might contained in the arrow was sufficient.
However, the heavens knew if they were lucky, or they were too eye-catching, but they were noticed by the flying beast in the sky. That flying beast suddenly dove at them.
The five of them exchanged glances, revealing smiles on their faces.
Zhang Che put down the bow case on his back and retrieved the Fallen Star bow. After that, he took out a V-type armor-piercing arrow from the quiver and nocked the arrow on the bowstring, waiting silently.
The flying beast was diving down faster and faster. In only ten seconds or so, it turned from a tiny black dot into a grey-feathered strange bird, its wingspan several meters wide.
When the grey-feathered strange bird was only about three hundred meters away from them, Zhang Che suddenly made his move. The Fallen Star bow’s bowstring was suddenly drawn, reshaping the bow into a full moon, storing huge potential energy.
In the next moment, Zhang Che let the arrow loose. A loud peng! rang out; Zheng Hongru and the others could feel the air violently shaking, and immediately after, they saw a black blur shoot to the sky. The diving beast let out a sorrowful cry. The arrow had directly penetrated its skull.
“Argh, what a pity! It didn’t drop a beast card!”
Zheng Hongru and the others were disappointed as they watched the grey-feathered strange bird turn into a streak of light and dissipate in the sky. Their dreams of obtaining a flying subdued beast was abruptly shattered, just like that.
However, Zhang Che’s lips stretched ever so slightly into a subtle smile. He had an idea in mind, but he could only put it into action when the right opportunity came…
