“Almost forfeited your life? Didn’t you say their subdued beasts were unable to catch up to your steed? Why would you almost lose your life?” Zhang Che was confused after hearing Wang Dong’s objection.
Wang Dong let out a bitter chuckle, explaining fearfully, “You don’t know, Big Bro, those guys were actually equipped with long-range weapons. Just as I started riding away on my Elephorse, arrows upon arrows came flying in my direction. Although my Elephorse was hit with several of them, I was lucky enough and came out unscathed.”
Upon mentioning this, Wang Dong’s gratitude towards Zhang Che grew even stronger.
His Elephorse had nearly lost all mobility after being shot by the arrows. If Zhang Che hadn’t gifted him two Elephorse cards, allowing him to switch his mount and continue escaping, he would truly be dead without a doubt.
“Bow and arrows?” Zhang Che was taken aback. “How useful could those be? Even a two-star bronze-quality exotic beast wouldn’t be vulnerable to them, right?”
Wang Dong shook his head thoughtfully, “Their bow and arrows were probably not ordinary. I remember their arrows directly punctured several holes in my Elephorse.”
Wang Dong seemed to suddenly came to a realization, saying, “Right, I remember now. The Tian Yin Squad wasn’t from our Qian Wei City, but the neighboring Ci Zhou City. They belong to a large organization specializing in hunting exotic beasts. Perhaps Ci Zhou City’s application of exotic beast materials have come this far, able to produce bows and arrows capable of hunting exotic beasts?”
Zhang Che knew of Ci Zhou City. It was a medium-sized city located several hundred kilometers away from Qian Wei City. In both population and research, they were far ahead of Qian Wei City.
If that was the case, it was no surprise that the Tian Yin Squad originating from Ci Zhou City was able to bring out powerful bow and arrows.
-It seems like I can’t be careless around other beastmasters in the beast world in the future…-
From his prior experience, Zhang Che didn’t have to worry about long-range attacks from fellow humans due to firearms not working in beast worlds. However, it seemed that he had to be on guard all the time from now on.
Disregarding other factors, the bow and arrows in the Tian Yin Squad members’ hands were definitely not weak. They definitely wouldn’t have the confidence to hunt an aerial beast with a wingspan of over ten meters wide otherwise.
-It seems like this fellow is indeed a lucky star to me. He let me obtain a huge amount of Elephorse cards the last time, and now he let me know about the matter of the new bow and arrows. It can be considered as him being a great help to me…-
Zhang Che really wanted to see if there was a shining lucky star above Wang Dong’s head.
Of course, if there really was such a star, it would definitely be an unlucky star to Wang Dong. It caused him to nearly lose his life all the time, destined to bring luck to others!
—–
After bidding farewell to Wang Dong, Zhang Che pondered for a short while before summoning Hanxue and riding southwest with respect to the safety zone, where Wang Dong had been returning from.
He had a feeling that if he headed to where Wang Dong came from, he would have an unexpected gain.
This was Zhang Che’s intuition, as well as the instructions from that shiny lucky star above Wang Dong’s head.
Zhang Che didn’t idle as he travelled, either. He suddenly had an idea and took out a Maneater Leech card, as well as the only Purple-Gold Maneater Leech card in his possession, to see if Fusion worked.
“Supposedly, these two cards are both two-star; there’s a good chance that there’ll be a reaction, combining them into a three-star silver-quality card, right?”
Alas, it was proven that Zhang Che was thinking too much.
He was pressing the two cards so hard that sweat was produced from his palms, yet there was still no reaction from them. It seemed like such exploitative ideas were impossible to realize.
“It doesn’t work, so be it. Luckily I still have the rainbow crystal to raise the quality of my beast cards. Though, now it seems like Fusion would only be truly valuable when fusing three-star and six-star beast cards.”
There wouldn’t be too big of a power gap between exotic beasts that were of the same quality, but a star difference in level. It was only when they were separated by a tier realm, like low-tier and middle-tier, or middle-tier and high-tier, that their strengths would take a huge leap.
For example, with exotic beasts of the same species and quality, a three-star beast could barely fight evenly against two two-star beasts. However, once their levels were separated by a realm, a four-star beast could kill four three-star beasts effortlessly.
At present, Zhang Che’s Fusion skill happened to be able to fuse three-star cards into four-star. The value of this skill would truly show when that happened.
However, although it wasn’t hard to find two identical three-star beast cards, finding large amounts of them proved to be a challenge. This was also why Zhang Che had not purchased beast cards at the Qian Wei City trading hub to increase the experience of Fusion.
Once he did that, he would surely draw the attention of others. Even if he used the Myriad Transformation Lizard to alter his appearance, he couldn’t guarantee that it was absolutely safe.
Due to that, the dozens of three-star beast cards Zhang Che combined initially were still in his possession, hidden under his bed at his new home. He would slowly get rid of them when he had the time.
~~~~~~~
The Golden Elephorse King was extremely fast; he could maintain his speed at over sixty kph even on uneven mountainous terrain. Zhang Che found the stone forest described by Wang Dong in less than two hours.
Other than the route Wang Dong described clearly, an aerial beast with a wingspan of over ten meters wide was also letting out fierce cries in the skies not too far away, pointing Zhang Che in the right direction.
“Hmm? It has already been a few hours; the Tian Yin Squad still hasn’t finish off that flying exotic beast?” Zhang Che found it strange. He hurriedly jumped off Hanxue’s back, then recalled this fellow back into his spiritual sea against his will, and snuck carefully towards that stone forest.
The Tian Yin Squad had powerful bows and arrows, and yet they still hadn’t killed off this aerial beast after several hours. It went to show that this fellow’s level and quality was definitely not low.
In just a split moment, thoughts of ‘the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind¹’ sprouted in Zhang Che’s mind, seeing if a chance to pick up scraps off the Tian Yin Squad arose.
There were a total of three spatial gateways around Ci Zhou City. These guys didn’t stay put at their home ground obediently, and came here to Qian Wei City to fight for resources. Zhang Che didn’t feel a shred of burden in his heart snatching their prey.
Of course, the flying beast in the sky wasn’t to be underestimated, either. The Tian Yin Squad couldn’t be considered a mantis, either. They were at least sandpipers and clams fighting one another.
-Mmm. Then I’m not an oriole, too, but a fisherman silently waiting for an opportunity!- Zhang Che thought proudly, peering between the gap of two stones.
____________________
Translator’s Note:
1: A Chinese Idiom. It means that a party (the mantis/Tian Yin Squad) neglects the greater danger behind them (the oriole/Zhang Che) while pursuing a narrow gain (the cicada/exotic beast).