Translator: mianbao Editor: Aelryinth
Edited by RED
The morning light shone. Zhang Che slowly opened his eyes after a night of deep sleep. He crawled up on his feet in the tent, still showing his happiness from yesterday’s gains.
He parted the sheets and walked out of the tent, his subdued beasts guarding the tent dutifully. A cool breeze blew, bringing with it the scent of the plants nearby. Zhang Che couldn’t help but close his eyes and take a deep breath.
Suddenly, the sharp cry of a falcon rang out from above, scaring Zhang Che into quickly raising his head to take a look. In the skies above the valley, he saw a bird with a shockingly huge wingspan flying back from the distance, landing on a nest at the summit of the mountain.
Zhang Che saw clearly that the horrifying bird was gripping tightly onto a strong, bull-like animal prey with its huge talons, yet it didn’t seem to affect its speed in the least.
Although they were too far apart and Zhang Che was unable to see the bird’s attributes, his instincts told him that this fellow’s level was definitely not low.
“What the heck, I was actually neighbors with a powerful bird for a night…”
Thinking of that, Zhang Che’s back was nearly drenched with a layer of cold sweat.
Fortunately, that horrifying bird didn’t notice him, or perhaps didn’t even bother to pay any attention to him. Otherwise, his life would have come to an end here.
However, Zhang Che felt relieved immediately afterwards.
Would a fierce tiger treat an ant as its prey?
In the eyes of that horrifying bird on the summit, he was probably no more than an insignificant ant.
Even though he knew that the bird wouldn’t threaten his life, Zhang Che became vigilant in his heart. Before his strength had grown to a sufficient level, it was best not to venture deep into the beast world casually.
What if, on a certain day, some powerful beast decided to set its eyes on him, wanting to taste something different for once?
Zhang Che couldn’t afford to shoulder the consequences for that.
After doing a simple wash-up by the stream, Zhang Che took out a compressed biscuit and started eating it resentfully.
The taste of it was still acceptable initially, but if it was eaten every day, only those who went through the experience would know how bland it would get.
“I really envy the original inhabitants in the beast world, being able to eat fresh meat all the time. It’d be great if the exotic beasts we humans killed would leave a corpse behind as well.”
In the beast world, unlike humans and their subdued beasts, a corpse would be left behind when exotic beasts killed one another. Otherwise, it couldn’t be that most of the exotic beasts, which were carnivorous, had to survive on grass, could it?
However, exotic beasts didn’t have the habit of wasting food. They wouldn’t kill just for the sake of killing. That was why not many people had the chance to clean up after them, tasting the delicacies of the beast world.
On the other hand, some powerful beastmasters could make use of their strength to snatch the prey of exotic beasts away from them, supplementing their lack of food.
This was also why some powerful beastmasters could venture deep into the beast world. With only the little bit of food they brought in with them, it was impossible to stay for long.
After finishing his simple breakfast, Zhang Che packed his tent away and set his eyes on the pond before him once more.
Since yesterday night, Zhang Che had been thinking of one question.
Why would there be the word ‘Mutated’ in the Mutated Puffersword’s name? And why was its level only at 4, yet its entire population was gold-quality?
Zhang Che felt that this was unusual.
Perhaps, all of this was caused by some external factor?
However, Zhang Che was unable to confirm whether the Mutated Pufferswords in the pond were all killed, and he didn’t dare to enter the water thoughtlessly to investigate.
“In that case, I can only continue to let my subdued beasts test the waters.”
Zhang Che was obviously not dumb enough to let his usual subdued beast enter the water. He erased his spiritual imprint from the Brown-Haired Boar card, taking out a one-star black iron card from his backpack that he had obtained on his journey and branded it instead. It turned into a single horned goat, and jumped into the water with a plop.
The one-horned goat followed Zhang Che’s command, swimming around the entire pond. It wasn’t met with any danger, causing Zhang Che to feel assured.
“Now, let’s see what exactly is unusual in this pond.”
He recalled the single-horned goat and ordered the Wind Shadow Wolf and Fiery Scorpion to stand guard by the shore. Zhang Che quickly took off his clothes, leaving only his boxer briefs on, and jumped into the pond.
The pond wasn’t deep; although it looked verdant from above, after entering the water, Zhang Che realized that he could clearly see that the body of water was only a bit over four meters deep, at best.
During the process, he came up to the surface to catch his breath on several occasions, spending less than half an hour to check the bed of the entire pond. Regrettably, he didn’t discover anything unusual, causing him to start suspecting whether he was thinking too much into this.
However, Zhang Che still felt there was something wrong about this.
Since there was no discovery around the pond, what about the area where the waterfall was?
Zhang Che set his gaze towards the thundering waterfall.
The height of the waterfall was about a hundred meters; the strength of the current was nothing to scoff at. Zhang Che would obviously not dare to head directly in that direction. Instead, he chose to approach from the side, avoiding where the current was the strongest, and started investigating the bottom of the pond.
Just as he drew closer to the bed of the pond, Zhang Che suddenly felt an inexplicable source of energy ahead of him, seeping into his mind. The Psychedelic Ghost-Patterned Butterfly card that was silently sitting in his spiritual sea let out a wave of happiness, astonishing him.
He didn’t know if it was his imagination at work. Under that inexplicable energy’s nourishment, the recovery speed of the Psychedelic Ghost-Patterned Butterfly in his spiritual sea actually seemed to have sped up by quite a margin.
“As I expected, there is something strange in this pond!”
Zhang Che felt a slight glee in his heart. He first swam up to the surface to catch his breath, then continued diving into the pond, resisting the current with his hands and feet, slowly approaching where the inexplicable energy was coming from.
Due to the nearby waterfall, there were huge amounts of bubbles in the water, and Zhang Che was unable to get a clear look of what was ahead of him. However, he was pretty much able to confirm that the energy source originated from a huge, black rock in front of him.
Without a doubt, that strange thing was inside this rock.
Zhang Che called forth his Mutated Puffersword, and slashed at the rock with all his might.
A dull sound rang out. Due to the water current, Zhang Che was unable to exert much force. The Mutated Puffersword was barely able to slice off a thin layer of the rock.
Even so, the toughness of this rock had left Zhang Che speechless.
If it was any ordinary rock, no matter how strong it was, with the Mutated Puffersword’s sharpness, he should be able to cleave off a huge chunk of it.
After slashing a few times, Zhang Che felt that he was running out of air, and had to return to the surface, gasping for air. Then, he continued diving and chipping pieces off that huge rock.
After nearly an hour of relentless effort, Zhang Che was finally about to split that huge rock in two. That inexplicable energy also grew stronger, causing him to forget about the soreness in his arms and put forth greater effort into it.
Finally, following another slash, the remaining body of the rock suddenly let out a dull rumble. It shattered into countless pieces, swept by the current towards Zhang Che’s head.
At the same time, an abundant wave of mysterious energy burst out. After seeping into Zhang Che’s spiritual sea, the Psychedelic Ghost-Patterned Butterfly card started recovering at flying speed. Judging by that speed, the process that would’ve taken a few days to heal probably wouldn’t take an hour before it became as good as new.
Zhang Che was overturned by the current along with the rock pieces, flipping around several times in the pond. Under the impact, he gulped down several mouthfuls of water and surfaced above after flailing his limbs about in a flustered manner, coughing violently.
Despite that, his face displayed an extremely joyful smile.
In the moment the huge rock was split open, Zhang Che had discovered a crystal-like object emitting seven colors of light being swept along with the current!