Edited by Aelryinth
While walking in the beast world south of Bei Du, Huang Tielan suddenly called out, “Zhang Xiaoche!”
“Hmm?” Zhang Che turned back to look at Huang Tielan, not knowing what she had to say. He noticed a look of confidence on her. She said leisurely, “Zhang Xiaoche, this time can you let me go hunt some exotic beasts by myself? I don’t want to become a beastmaster with high achievements, but no skills to her name.”
Zhang Che finally realized she had her own goals.
She was right. Even if he was a good nanny and babysat her to Tier Six, perhaps even Tier Seven, when all was said and done, she wouldn’t achieve it with her own strength. Surely there’d be a gap in strength compared to other beastmasters.
Perhaps his thinking had been wrong, and he wasn’t able to truly understand Huang Tielan. In this difficult age, who was willing to fall behind others?
After thinking for a while, Zhang Che nodded and said, “Alright. You’ll be the main offense this time, while I support you from the side and try to give you have as many opportunities to experience actual fights with exotic beasts as possible. You have the Dark Unicorn now anyway, and it is much stronger than before. There won’t be too great of a danger even if you were to fight by yourself.”
Although Huang Tielan would advance much more slowly if they did things that way, it wasn’t a big deal. In any case, they had a lot of time now. At the most they’d stay in the beast world for a longer period.
If they waited for three years, when the fifth beast swarm struck, they’d really not have any time to let Huang Tielan raise her strength by herself slowly.
“Come on, let’s quickly set off and try to reach our destination sooner!”
Huang Tielan smiled heartily after Zhang Che agreed to her request. She flew off on the Dark Unicorn, rushing forthand directly surpassing Mach 1.
“Alright, we’ll stay in here for a longer period and let you have more chances for actual fighting!”
Zhang Che laughed as well, quickly following on the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon.
——
Their flying subdued beasts were extremely fast. After flying for a little more than half an hour, they were already more than a thousand kilometers into the beast world.
Large amounts of mid-tier exotic beasts were gradually appearing in this area. High-tier low-quality exotic beasts weren’t uncommon, either.
The two didn’t venture too deep in. They stopped there, and afterwards Zhang Che led his army of pets and subdued beasts to guard Huang Tielan from the sides. Huang Tielan rode on the Dark Unicorn, wielding a sword, and rushed at a bunch of five-star exotic beasts.
Although Huang Tielan was a little weak, she could fight on par with those exotic beasts with the Dark Unicorn’s blessings in effect, especially since the Dark Unicorn’s skill could weaken them, reducing the pressure on her a lot.
Moreover, Huang Tielan wasn’t any ordinary beastmaster. She had been learning all kinds of battle tactics from Huang Juyun since she was a child, especially her sword play, which was much better than Zhang Che that half-bucket of water.
Charging into the group of exotic beasts, the sword in Huang Tielan’s hand turned into a blur of light, weaving left and right on the Dark Unicorn, harvesting the lives of those five-star exotic beasts nonstop, showing no signs of being weaker than them.
The battle lasted less than ten minutes before the dozen or so five-star exotic beasts were wiped out by Huang Tielan.
Her sword was the reason why she needed such a long time to kill them all. It was too weak for mid-tier exotic beasts. Otherwise, she could have saved more than half the time she needed.
Zhang Che nodded to himself while watching at the side, thinking, -Looks like I need to find her a good beast card weapon as soon as possible. The two-star Mutated Puffersword is a little too weak.-
Just like that, the two hunted exotic beasts as they slowly headed deeper into the beast world.
—
The frisky monkey wasn’t idling around, either. He was strong now. With no overly powerful exotic beasts around to threaten his safety, he could totally go around harvesting spiritual herbs on his own, garnering a dozen or so ordinary spiritual herbs for Zhang Che.
This was a necessary procedure. Otherwise, the two would definitely need to stay in the beast world for a very long time. When they returned to Mercury, Zhang Che couldn’t possibly bring out a mountain of spiritual herbs out of thin air and transplant them to the new herbal research institute, could he?
It wouldn’t make sense, nor could he explain it away if that was the case.
Although Zhang Che wouldn’t obtain too many spiritual herbs by allowing the frisky monkey to go around on his own, it wouldn’t be suspicious if Zhang Che added in some herbs on his own stealthily.
——
Time passed very quickly while fighting. The rest of the afternoon came to an end before they realized it, and the sky in the beast world quickly darkened.
After half a day of massacring, Huang Tielan had slain more than three digits worth of exotic beasts on her own. Although some of the stronger exotic beasts were killed thanks to the help of Zhang Che’s pets and subdued beasts in the end, she was quickly accumulating experience in actual fights.
At the very least, Huang Tielans’ teamwork with her powerful subdued beast, the Dark Unicorn, had risen to a certain level. With a few days’ more of fighting, they’d be able to work together seamlessly.
The two arrived at the foot of a tall mountain. Zhang Che observed the environment around him, then pointed at the mountain and said, “Let’s set up camp here tonight.” Afterwards, he commanded the Purple Crystal Tortoise to rush over and dig out a hole in the mountain.
Huang Tielan had witnessed this a few times by now. She wasn’t surprised by this, and waited quietly at the side.
As for the hardworking chess scholar, the elemental queen, she was currently making good use of her time. She opened up a chess manual and studied it.
With that crazy effort of hers towards learning, the elemental queen would surely make all human top students die from shame.
——
The next morning, the two began another day of exotic beast hunting after eating their breakfast. In a valley, Zhang Che looked at a pangolin-like exotic beast ahead and reminded Huang Tielan, “Be careful. That exotic beast is very strong. It’s at five-star gold-quality!”
At the same time, he instructed the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon in the dark to immediately take action if things seemed dangerous on Huang Tielan’s side and use his skill to eliminate that exotic beast, to prevent any threat to her safety.
Huang Tielan’s will to fight was very high as she looked at the pangolin-like exotic beast, whose body was over three meters long. She said without turning her head back to face Zhang Che, “Zhang Xiaoche, let me do this by myself this time. I want to see how strong a five-star gold-quality exotic beast is!”
Although it was almost impossible for Huang Tielan to injure an exotic beast of that level with her sword, she wanted to give it a try regardless, and see if there was a chance of defeating an exotic beast like that with the Dark Unicorn’s help.
Moreover, although the exotic beast was strong, it wasn’t like it had no weaknesses. Its eyes and ears were parts where its scales couldn’t protect. As long as her attacks were fast enough, and accurate, there was a chance to hit the exotic beast where it hurt.
Seeing Huang Tielan so firm in her decision, Zhang Che let out a grunt and agreed to it.
“Alright, then you be careful. Don’t force it if the situation seems off. The Dark Unicorn will protect you immediately.”
“Rest assured. Just watch me!” Huang Tielan replied, and she immediately prompted the Dark Unicorn below her to charge at the five-star gold-quality exotic beast ahead.
That exotic beast was an extremely clever creature. It knew it was surrounded by multiple beasts it couldn’t beat, and it was already impossible for it to force its way out.
Since this relatively weak fellow wanted a one-on-one fight with it, naturally it would be glad to rise to the occasion. It let out a sharp cry and pounced at Huang Tielan.
Not only that, the exotic beast used its skill right away. A large spread of sharp metal spikes suddenly appeared on its sides, turning into a rain of arrows that shrouded Huang Tielan.
She had expected that attack long ago, however. Riding on the Dark Unicorn’s back, she quickly flipped over and stuck her slim figure close to the subdued beast’s side, shielding herself, and let her subdued beast block for her.
The Dark Unicorn was a legend-quality subdued beast, after all. Although its level was one rank lower than the exotic beast, its strength was much higher. Despite defense not being its forte, it was able to completely ignore the metal spikes.
A layer of thick black light suddenly gushed out from its body, covering its hide evenly. In the next moment, all the metal spikes arrived with whistling sounds and struck the Dark Unicorn’s body, producing a wave of crisp clanking noises.
Although some of those metal spikes had penetrated the layer of blackness, they didn’t injure the Dark Unicorn.
“Hah!” a clear shout came. Huang Tielan suddenly showed herself from the Dark Unicorn’s side. The sword in her hand was like lightning, thrusting straight towards the left eye of the pangolin-like exotic beast, which was right in front of her.
Sensing the grave danger, the exotic beast didn’t react slowly. Its huge body immediately bunched together like a metal plate, relying on the thick scales on its body to cover all its weak points.
Although Huang Tielan’s strike was extremely fast, in addition to it being a surprise attack, it was a little lacking. It didn’t hit the exotic beast’s weak point, only landing on its scales and producing a crisp noise of metal clashing, along with some sparks.
“Knock it open!”
Huang Tielan wasn’t discouraged at all. She knew it was impossible for her to kill a five-star gold-quality exotic beast in one hit. She shouted an order at her mount, who then galloped forward, directly stomping the huge metallic body.
A dull thud rang out. The metallic exotic beast immediately flew out at the force, crashing into a rock wall behind it. It bounced off and fell onto the ground, rolling forward a few times.
The violent collision directly knocked the exotic beast dizzy. It could no longer maintain its defensive stance and revealed its weak points.
Huang Tielan didn’t go easy after getting her way. She quickly moved forward on the Dark Unicorn. Her sword turned into a blur, stabbing at several weak points of the exotic beast.
The exotic beast sensed the impending grave danger. It forcibly flipped its body at the crucial moment, exposing its belly to her attack.
If it was facing some strong foe instead, that exotic beast’s move would be considered suicidal. However, Huang Tielan’s attack power was too weak, after all. Even though the defense of the scales on its belly was much weaker, Huang Tielan’s thrusts only caused some sparks to fly and produced clanking noises. It didn’t suffer any serious damage.
Zhang Che sighed helplessly as he watched the battle unfold. Indeed, the Mutated Pufferfish was too weak. If Huang Tielan had a weapon that was around mid-tier legend-quality, it would be very easy to kill an exotic beast like the pangolin.
-Hmm, looks like I need to find a weapon-type exotic beast as soon as possible and help raise her attack power. After all, despite the Dark Unicorn’s high quality, it is only a support-type subdued beast at the end of the day. Of course, it can still steamroll ordinary exotic beasts. But if she encountered something stronger, it’d be lacking in attack power and would be unable to help her effectively.-
——
The battle lasted nearly half an hour. In the end, that pangolin-like exotic beast was tired out by Huang Tielan. Left unable to escape, Huang Tielan grabbed the opportunity to stab into its brain through its eye socket, ending its life.
“Zhang Xiaoche, my current weapon is a little too weak. Take that exotic beast, for example. If it wasn’t for your subdued beasts and pets sealing off its escape route, it would have run away long ago, even if it couldn’t win.”
Although she had slain a five-star gold-quality exotic beast personally, not a trace of excitement could be seen on her face.
She understood the opportunity was created by Zhang Che. In any other scenario, she would have had no way of killing such a defensive exotic beast. If it couldn’t win, would it not know how to run? Zhang Che’s beasts were standing guard in all directions, leaving the exotic beast with no way to escape. That gave her the chance to slowly grind it to death.
Zhang Che nodded in agreement. “So you can tell. In terms of battle strength, actually your skill is much higher than most mid-tier beastmasters, but you are restrained by your weapon and are unable to display all of it.
“So, we have to alter our plans for the next few days slightly. We should change our priority to finding you a powerful weapon-type exotic beast first, no matter what. That would increase your strength from your foundation.”
Huang Tielan nodded profusely at Zhang Che’s suggestion.
He was right. After all, she had gone through tough training since she was young. Although she couldn’t claim that her sword skills topped all mid-tier beastmasters, she was absolutely incomparable to ordinary people!
However, facing those exotic beasts, it was useless if she couldn’t penetrate her opponents’ defense, no matter how skilled she was!
As such, the most important thing when fighting against exotic beasts was the standard of her equipment.
——
Going forward, the two no longer cared about those ordinary exotic beasts. They went deeper into the beast world, trying their best to find a suitable weapon-type exotic beast. That way, they’d be able to greatly increase the efficiency Huang Tielan trained at.
However, weapon-type beast cards were extremely rare to begin with. What Huang TIelan wanted was specifically long sword beast cards. That only served to increase the difficulty of finding one. It wasn’t something they could find immediately just because they wanted one.
The day went by very quickly. The two travelled hundreds of kilometers in the beast world, passing through mountains and rivers, but they gained nothing in the end…
