Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Don’t worry too much about your size, little one. I once had a familiar who was only this big,” said Gao Peng, holding his hands at least seven inches away from each other. “Guess how big it is now?”
The White Steel Bladed Beast threw a filthy look at Gao Peng.
“It’s now as big as a mountain!” said Gao Peng, stretching his arms out dramatically.
“Hehe.” The White Steel Bladed Beast chuckled derisively. Do you take me for a fool, human?
They turned in for the night. The next day, Gao Peng and company continued their journey out of the mountains with the White Steel Bladed Beast as their captive.
In order to prevent it from escaping, Gao Peng had, as a gesture of kindness on his part, let Goldie break its hind legs. Thanks to its accelerated regenerative power, its legs would probably be healed by the time they reached the Desolate Labyrinth.
At the break of dawn, Gao Peng began navigating the Black Phoenix Mountain Range alongside his familiars. After rounding two mountains, they heard a muffled rumbling from the depths of the mountains. Then a flash of lightning filled the sky, followed by an ear-splitting crack.
Birds flew up in fear around them, their squawks lingering in the air for a long time. In the next second, Gao Peng could see a dark red light in the distance.
A sea of fire had consumed a part of the mountains, razing everything in the area to the ground. Fire and lightning danced about unrestrained in the air at that moment.
“Nothing to see here. It’s just the ruler of the Black Phoenix Mountain Range,” said the Desolate Frost Lion with a yawn.
“What… what made that sound just now?”
“Probably another monster looking to usurp the mountain range’s current ruler. There can only be one ruler reigning over the entire mountain range. If anyone’s unsatisfied with the way things are right now, they’re well within their rights to challenge the current ruler’s authority. If they succeed, they would automatically become the new ruler of the Black Phoenix Mountain Range.
“Then again… It’s been a while since the mountain range saw a new ruler. That old crow has been on the top of the hierarchy for as long as I can remember,” mumbled the Desolate Frost Lion.
Gao Peng eyed the dark red glow in the distance. The reverberations set off during the clash between the mountain range’s ruler and its challenger were powerful enough to drastically change the weather in the mountains. Blinding light flashed out at intervals as dark red flames and violet electricity clashed with each other.
The Black Phoenix Mountain Range was unusually quiet today. The monsters in the mountains all seemed to have decided that today was a good day to take the day off as the two godlike entities fought with each other.
Gao Peng and the others safely left the Black Phoenix Mountain Range under the cover of the ongoing chaos. With the mountain range behind them, they now entered a wetland called the Land of 1,000 Streams, which stretched out as far as the eye could see.
In truth, there were more than 1,000 streams crisscrossing the wetland. An intricate network of waterways was spread out across the landscape. Countless tiny “islands” dotted the wetland. Some of them were only a few square feet wide, while the bigger ones were a few acres wide.
The waterways were also of varying depths. The deepest ones that Gao Peng was forced to wade through were at least 100 feet deep, while the shallower ones barely covered his ankles.
This was indeed a strange place. Various amphibious creatures called this hodgepodge of water and land home.
“The scenery’s not bad. With the desolate grassland and trickle of the streams as its backdrop, it could make for an excellent fishing spot,” said Gao Peng as he took in the scenery around him.
“Gao Peng, I think I can pierce the heavens in my current form,” said Goldie seriously.
Goldie was now standing more than 100 feet tall beside Gao Peng. Everything looked so small and insignificant from its point of view. The appearance of a duck-shaped behemoth had spooked all the monsters in the vicinity. None of them dared to approach it.
The White Steel Bladed Beast was still imprisoned in the giant Goldie’s right fist. It swung and stabbed its blade-like appendages out at the duck’s fingers. However, its attacks simply bounced off Goldie’s pillar-shaped fingers ineffectively.
The sight of the White Steel Bladed Beast struggling to cut through Goldie’s defenses was not unlike watching someone trying to cut through leather with a wooden sword.
“I suggest we get a move on if we want to avoid any confrontation with the monsters here,” said the Desolate Frost Lion as it crawled up to Gao Peng’s shoulder and leisurely licked its dainty claws.
“I would appreciate it if you could just tell me what kind of danger lives here,” said Gao Peng, rapping his fingers against the lion cub’s head.
“Hmph, I’ll start keeping track of the number of times you hit me in the head from now on,” said the Desolate Frost Lion, chuckling coldly.
“In a big enough place, there’s always a king that rules. Even if there isn’t one sitting on the throne at first, that void is inevitably filled by monsters who failed to claim kingship in other corners of this world, presumably driven out by those much more powerful than themselves. I believe you humans have a saying for this: nature abhors a vacuum. This place is big. Any monster capable of claiming kingship over this place is at least King-tier.”
“But we didn’t encounter any trouble when we were passing through this place,” said Gao Peng, frowning.
“Back then, your familiar wasn’t this big,” said the Desolate Frost Lion, rolling its eyes at Gao Peng.
“So do you know what kind of monster the king of the Land of 1,000 Streams is? You’ve lived here for so long; surely you must know what it is.”
“Grovelling won’t work,” it said curtly. Then it continued, “There was a time when the place was ruled by a Blue Water Sky Toad. I wonder if the king’s changed since then… A king doesn’t last long in a backwater place like this, by the way.”
After walking some distance across the wetland, Gao Peng and the others heard the sound of splashing to their right, as if something was making its way across the water at high speed.
“Gao Peng! A huge fish is coming this way,” muttered Goldie.
“This is no time for jokes, Goldie. What’s coming this way?” Gao Peng didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Goldie had developed a habit of referring to other monsters as fish, which probably stemmed from its desire to convert all the fish in the world into money through Gao Peng.
“It really is a fish!” said Goldie angrily. How can you not believe me? It bent over to pick Gao Peng up.
It was then that Gao Peng saw with his own two eyes a huge fish “running” across the water towards them in the distance.
The fish’s thick, muscular tail waved about behind it as it flapped its silver-colored fins beneath it like a pair of duck feet. There were even a couple of white bone-like protrusions on its topside. A pair of long whiskers swayed loosely in the air on both sides of its thick lips.
[Monster Name]: Ancient Dragonfish
[Monster Level]: Level 56 (King-tier)
[Monster Grade]: Excellent
[Monster Attribute]: Water
[Monster Weakness]: Earth
[Monster Ability]: Dragonscale Armor Level 6, Water Current Mastery Level 5
[Description]: A fish-type monster that holds a faint trace of dragon blood in its veins. It has a timid and highly excitable temperament. It’s also extremely territorial.
The splashing sound drew closer. When the Ancient Dragonfish came close enough, Gao Peng noticed that there was a slight bulge of water connecting its fins to the surface of the water. The water was propelling the Ancient Dragonfish forward.
The Ancient Dragonfish’s eyes were as round as saucers. Its whiskers jumped about across its face. It looked livid.
A King-tier Ancient Dragonfish… Gao Peng frowned. Even though Goldie’s passive ability had been triggered God knew how many times, they were carrying the White Steel Bladed Beast and the Guise Fruit-bearing trees with them. If the trees were damaged in their confrontation with the Ancient Dragonfish, they would be forced to go back empty-handed. Gao Peng didn’t want this.
