Chapter 260 - I am the King of Good Fortune

In a certain beast world in Hei Fei Zhou region… (TLN: Mercury’s equivalent of Africa.)

A thick fog was roiling in the valley between two rows of tall mountain ranges, nearly concealing the entire valley from sight.

Deep in this dark valley, a cluster of verdant vines entwined with one another was spread out, surrounding various ghastly skeletal remains.

In the center of the vines, a two-meter wide flower bud was barely visible. There were many strange yet beautiful patterns on the outer layer of the flower, seemingly able to suck in a human’s soul.

Suddenly, a huge force erupted from the flower bud. The outer layer of the flower burst open, a strong black man stood standing there.

That man was slightly over two meters tall, fully naked, filled with explosive strength. His eyes, however, were void of any spirit, just standing in the middle of those vines like an antique statue, not moving at all.

In the next moment, a ripple appeared in the space nearby, followed by the appearance of a jet black door in thin air.

The dark man’s statue-like body suddenly moved, legs stiff as he stepped through the jet black door.

In the blink of an eye, the black door vanished without a trace. The verdant vines on the ground quickly withered away at a speed visible to the naked eye, turning into a pile of ash in the end.

After an indeterminate amount of time, a sharp bird’s cry suddenly rang out in the sky. A black silhouette came descending from high above, arriving down in the valley shortly afterwards.

This imposing figure was a giant close to ten meters tall, the muscles on his entire body bulging, with only an unknown beast’s skin tied around his waist, his hands armed with a spear and a shield.

However, the giant’s head was a savage crocodile head. When paired with that near-perfect figure, it gave off an extremely weird vibe.

The crocodile-headed giant’s bright, reserved eyes stared at the pile of ash for quite some time. Suddenly, he looked to the skies and let out a furious roar, swiping out the jet black spear in his hand, nearly drawing a gap in the space itself.

However, the gap was unstable. It lasted less than a second before the powers of space repaired it to the state it was in before.

The crocodile-headed giant let out another reluctant, furious roar. Afterwards, he turned into a black streak of light and took to the skies, flying towards the extreme depths of the beast world.

——

“Alright, let’s go in and take a look at exactly what’s causing this strange phenomenon.”

The moment the Scarlet Flame Drake was Summoned, its fire resistance Halo immediately came into effect. Zhang Che and the others finally felt much better, and they carefully walked into the deepest part of the cave.

After making another turn, the red light shone right down on them, accompanied by the assault of a heat wave, blowing their hair into a mess.

Zhang Che was sure that if the Scarlet Flame Drake wasn’t here, their clothing and hair would immediately catch fire!

“What is that!?” Liu Gang and the others cried out in shock.

They saw a gold and scarlet lotus-like flower growing in the middle of a pool of lava. The flower wasn’t very big, about the size of a bowl. However, it had a brilliant appearance, as if it was made of gold.

Lava was boiling nonstop in the pool. Waves upon waves of hot air rolled out, the golden-scarlet lotus swaying along to the flow, looking absolutely beautiful and sacred.

-It’s a heavenly treasure!- Zhang Che and the others lamented inwardly at the same time.

Without a doubt, the Iaspi Leopardi was guarding this golden lotus, waiting for the moment when it fully matured to consume it, raising its level and quality.

“Zhang-shao, this is definitely a top grade heavenly treasure. If we can bring it back, it is sure to be worth a fortune! Its medical efficacy is simply immeasurable!”

Liu Gang and the others looked at the golden lotus, their breathing quickening.

Although they had often fought in the beast world through the years and had seen many spiritual herbs before, this was the first time they ever laid eyes on such a top grade heavenly treasure. They didn’t expect to discover one by chance on their training trip out with Zhang Che.

-This Zhang-shao must be a king of good fortune! Otherwise, where did all his powerful subdued beasts come from?-

The Huang family’s fortune could naturally gather this many top-grade subdued beasts. However, it was impossible for them to dump all their resources onto him alone, not to mention that he was not the official son-in-law of the Huang family yet.

Those people from the legends, “born with great fortune”, were probably referring to someone like this man before them.

Zhang Che paid no heed to them, because he was feeling very complicated right now. Really complicated.

The Scarlet Flame Drake was already twitching in anticipation. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was a subdued beast, perhaps it would have directly jumped into the lava pool.

However, Zhang Che couldn’t bear to let it consume the golden lotus…

This fellow was only at four-star dark gold-quality. Even if it ate the golden lotus and increased in its level and quality, it would only be at five-star legend-quality; its strength wouldn’t increase by that much.

If it was the Iaspi Leopardi, however, that overpowered beast’s strength would increase further, truly becoming a great killing tool.

However, that fellow’s level was too high, at seven-star. Zhang Che had no way to Summon it now.

It wasn’t that he never thought of passing the Iaspi Leopardi card to Liu Gang to have him help in getting the beast to consume the spiritual herb to raise its strength, before returning it to him. However, Zhang Che didn’t dare to put them to the test.

The human heart was the one thing that couldn’t resist temptations the most. If Liu Gang waited for the Iaspi Leopardi to finish advancing from the spiritual herb and commanded it to murder him, it would be too late for regrets.

As such, he could only grind his teeth helplessly, -Forget it. I’ll let the Scarlet Flame Drake have it. This fellow’s strength isn’t weak anyway. After its level and quality increase, its capabilities will be on par with my other top beasts.-

-As for the Iaspi Leopardi, I won’t be able to use it in the short term anyway. I can just let it slowly absorb the rainbow crystal’s energy and slowly raise its quality.-

Done thinking, Zhang Che turned to Liu Gang and the others and said, “Brother Liu, I’m thinking of letting this subdued beast of mine consume that spiritual herb. Let’s leave first, or we might get hurt from the high temperatures here.”

Liu Gang and the others were dumbstruck for a moment. Letting a dark gold-quality mid-tier beast consume that spiritual herb was truly too much of a waste. The yield would be much greater than that if he brought the spiritual herb back to Mercury and refined it into medicine.

Although they had disagreements with Zhang Che’s choice, they didn’t voice them out. They only nodded and started walking out of the cave, leaving behind the Scarlet Flame Drake, who was looking at the pool of lava greedily.

When the four of them arrived at a safer area of the cave, Zhang Che gave the command and the Scarlet Flame Drake immediately jumped into the lava.

A moment later, a wave of heat rolled out from the depths of the cave, forcing Zhang Che and the others to move further outside.

-Hopefully the Scarlet Flame Drake can successfully advance to five-star legend-quality!- Zhang Che prayed in anticipation as they waited silently at the middle area of the passage.

———-

Time slowly trickled away. Before they realized it, an hour had passed.

Zhang Che couldn’t help but start feeling irritable. -Why is there still no reaction from the Scarlet Flame Drake after so long?-

Fortunately, he could sense that the Scarlet Flame Drake wasn’t in any danger. Otherwise, he had no choice but to let the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon suffer a little and bring him back into the deepest part of the cave to recall the Scarlet Flame Drake back into his spiritual sea.

As the long wait persisted, another hour passed.

Just as Zhang Che was starting to feel anxious, a resounding dog’s bark suddenly rang out from the depths of the cave.

Cold sweat immediately flowed from Liu Gang and the others’ foreheads. -Why does that majestic, powerful subdued beast’s cry sound just like a dog’s?-

While they were flabbergasted, a red figure suddenly shot out from the deeper area like lightning, bringing a wave of heat along with it.

To their surprise, Zhang Che and the others saw the Scarlet Flame Drake running out happily, its body now a whole size bigger, enveloped in a layer of gold and scarlet flames, its mouth holding onto the golden lotus they discovered in the lava pool earlier.

-What was going on? Why didn’t the Scarlet Flame Drake consume the golden lotus?-

-Then, how did that stronger aura it’s emitting come about?-

Zhang Che was totally baffled.