Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
When they were close enough, Gao Peng could see a river flowing before him like a golden streamer meandering down from higher ground.
Countless tadpoles were frenetically swimming about in the water. There were a lot of them, and they were moving extremely quickly. Just looking at them was enough to make Gao Peng’s eyes hurt.
Gao Peng shut his eyes, which suddenly began to hurt. These tadpoles seemed to be shining with intense golden light. The torrent of tadpoles surged past Gao Peng for ten minutes straight.
[Monster Name]: Sunlight Tadpole
[Monster Level]: Level 10-20
[Monster Grade]: Normal (Excellent) (Perfect) (Epic)
[Monster Attribute]: Fire
[Monster Traits]: Sunlight Torrent (Sunlight Tadpoles are capable of generating more heat than the sun itself by gathering in swarms.
Active Effect 1: When threatened or needing to assert dominance, these tadpoles will instinctively summon a huge ball of Solar Flames out of thin air. An average swarm usually contains around ten thousand tadpoles. Every time their number increases tenfold, their Solar Flames attack will increase by one level. Its highest attainable level is Level 10.
Active Effect 2: When their number reaches ten quadrillion, they can trigger the Solar Flames ability.)
[Monster Description]: A physically weak yet incredibly violent creature. When threatened, they muster all their bodily energy to unleash their Solar Flames attack, burning everything around them to ashes.
Gao Peng ruminated on this for a moment. Ten quadrillion Sunlight Tadpoles could generate a Level 10 Solar Flames attack.
Ten quadrillion is equal to a trillion multiplied by ten thousand. Are there actually ten quadrillion Sunlight Tadpoles in the river?
Gao Peng didn’t think counting them one by one would be a good use of his time. However, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to handle even a trillion of them at his current level. He couldn’t imagine how powerful a Level 10 Solar Flames attack would be.
When the swarm of Sunlight Tadpoles finally swam away, calm fell over the river; not a single monster peeked out from its surface.
Such stillness was almost hard to come by in the Black Fog World. Gao Peng had assumed from his own experience traveling down south that incredibly powerful creatures existed in every type of terrain here.
The Black Fog World’s northern area seemed to consist mainly of flatlands. Low and high terrains generally stood out more, drawing various kinds of monsters to them. Without a sufficiently high power level, no monster would be able to maintain their presence for long in these places.
The river had become unnaturally quiet. As Gao Peng waded through the water alongside his familiars, he half-expected the residents of the river to ambush them out of nowhere. However, nothing happened. Gao Peng suspected that the swarm of Sunlight Tadpoles might have had something to do with this.
His senses were taut in anticipation of some terrifying monstrosity popping out in the middle of the river. This river was depicted on the Dragon Ant’s map as a strangely rotund fish with three knives sticking out of its back. An ‘X’ mark was made on the body of this fish.
Gao Peng thought that something bad might occur to them. He didn’t expect things to go as swimmingly as they were. Then again, it was always best to avoid any confrontation with the native creatures.
In the past month, Gao Peng had developed a good relationship with the seven little Dragon Ants. After negotiating with them in an amicable fashion, all seven of them had finally agreed to become his familiars.
Under ordinary circumstances, signing Blood Contracts with seven familiars in one go would have been a bit too much for him to handle. Thankfully, the little Dragon Ants were only around Level 10. The Soul Power necessary to take them in as his familiars was almost trivial.
Once they were past the river, they were only seven days away from reaching Dragon Death Valley.
Seven days passed in the blink of an eye, and the road ended at an unbelievably steep cliff. Thick, white mist roiled restlessly before them. The cliff seemed to stretch down into a seemingly bottomless abyss.
Standing on the edge of the cliff, Gao Peng gazed at the scenery below. The bottom of the pit was more than 3,000 feet away from him. There, he could see strange rock formations growing out of the ground. They were, in turn, covered with stubby-looking plants.
The pit seemed to taper to a narrow bottom, giving Gao Peng the impression of a huge funnel sinking deep into the ground. The strange rock formations grew sparser the farther down they were in the pit. Stranger shadows squirmed behind them, keeping a wary eye on Gao Peng and the others.
With one quick sweep of his gaze, Gao Peng was able to make out the shapes of a couple of Dragon-horned Lizards and Rock Dragon Beetles lurking in the shadows. There seemed to be a thriving ecosystem at the bottom of the cliff.
He checked his map again to make sure that Dragon Death Valley lay just ahead of them. He knew that the valley would be deep, but… he hadn’t expected it to be this deep.
He couldn’t see where the valley ended, as his vision was obstructed by a sea of fog stretching over the entire valley.
Upon reaching the place, the seven little Dragon Ants leaped down from Stripey’s back before laying prone at the edge of the cliff, excitedly observing the great unknown below.
Their feelers waved about excitedly on their heads like a pair of reeds in the weed, showing how excited they were at the prospect of finally returning home.
“Yummy.”
“Something smells good.”
“I want to go down there.”
The seven little Dragon Ants chittered excitedly among themselves.
Suddenly, a resounding dragon roar sounded from the depths of the valley. The sound carried far into the heavens, dispersing the clouds overhead. The dragon roar echoed across the valley for a full minute before fading away.
“Food! A dragon’s about to die!” gushed Elder Baby.
Even though it was its first time coming here, regardless of how alien everything seemed, it could immediately tell from the dragon’s roar that it was on the verge of death. This was an ability embedded deep in their genetic memory since the beginning of time.
Elder Baby suddenly stood up.
“Master, a dragon is about to die. What you just heard was the sound made by an old dragon on the brink of death.”
“How did you get all that from its roar? Do you know the way down, then?” asked Gao Peng curiously.
“No idea. I must have been awakened some memory buried deep in my consciousness. That’s probably how I knew it was dying,” explained Elder Baby. “I also picked up the scent of a dragon corpse. Still, I don’t really know how to get down there.”
“Flamy, Xiao Cao, Dumby, Flowing Light, and White Paper, you five will lead the way. The rest of you will stay here on the cliff in case we need you,” ordered Gao Peng. Their mission this time was quite straightforward.
There was a dragon living somewhere in the valley. Even though Gao Peng had no idea what its level was, judging from the oppression he had felt from its roar, it was most definitely a high-level creature.
The valley was also the home turf of the Emperor-tier Dragon Ant from before. Who knew what other monstrosities lurked in the area?
As Stripey was basically a huge walking target, Gao Peng decided that it would be best for it to stay at the top of the cliff alongside Goldie. That way, both of them would be able to protect the rest of his familiars—Silly, Xiao Hua, Nan Ju, and Bei Zhi.
Flamy could provide aerial support if needed. Dumby had the highest combat power among them. Flowing Light was also able to provide reconnaissance thanks to its inconspicuous size and ability to fly. White Paper’s ability to weaken Dragon-type monsters made it a valuable asset to have in a place called Dragon Death Valley.
“I’ll be assigning you your tasks. Our mission is to let these Dragon Ants feed on a dragon’s corpse. Everyone, watch each other’s back out there,” said Gao Peng.
