Continuing on the journey, Zhang Che didn’t encounter any other powerful exotic beasts.
His capable babies cleared the way forward. By nighttime, Zhang Che had advanced about three hundred kilometers from where he started.
At night, although the environment might not necessarily be as dangerous as in the beast world, Zhang Che didn’t dare to continue travelling regardless. It would be disastrous if he was careless and ran into a powerful exotic beast’s territory.
In order to prevent ambushes from exotic beasts during the night, Zhang Che directly had the Purple Crystal Tortoise dig out a tunnel at the base of a mountain that reached the rock strata.
Afterwards, he had the Purple Crystal Tortoise seal the entrance and expand the area inside. He was then fully assured and started preparing his dinner.
He didn’t bring out the meat jerky stored in his spatial-type bracelet. Instead, Zhang Che brought out the game he had hunted today and cut out large pieces of meat from them. Next, he had the Purple Crystal Tortoise spit out a few bone spikes and skewered them through the meat, applied spices to them and stabbed the bone spikes into the rock wall.
Afterwards, the Scarlet Flame Drake opened its mouth and breathed out a few streams of flames at a controlled temperature, roasting the kebabs he prepared. Not long after, the kebabs were fully cooked.
Not only that, since the Scarlet Flame Drake’s flames were produced from the fire elements in its body, Zhang Che didn’t have to worry about exhausting the oxygen in the cave, nor would it emit smoke. It was simply an all-natural, non-polluting source of flame.
A thick fragrance of cooking meat spread out in the cave, leaving Zhang Che swallowing hard.
As expected, the fragrance of exotic beast meat was the best!
When the kebabs were fully cooked, the Scarlet Flame Drake withdrew its flames. Zhang Che immediately started feasting on one.
However, he was still considered conscientious. He thought of the frisky monkey, who had achieved great merits by helping to tame the Mutated Giant Ape, and Summoned him with a wave of his hand.
“Zhizhi, zhizhi!”
The frisky monkey jumped about excitedly the moment he appeared, especially after he smelled the fragrant meat. He nearly wept from happiness!
-It wasn’t easy! After being locked up by this unconscientious master in that little dark house for so long, I finally got my break!-
As such, he immediately rushed up with no hesitation and grabbed hold of the end of a bone spike, pulling it out of the wall, and tore large mouthfuls of meat from the dripping kebab.
While he ate, the frisky monkey let out unintelligible sounds, his ugly face showing a drunken smile.
Zhang Che sighed. -Looks like I really locked him up for too long. When the time is right, it’s not like I can’t have him appear at my side as my pet in the future. He doesn’t have to return to my spiritual sea unless there is no other choice.-
Moreover, with the healing-type “godly beast” Unicorn, he could have the Unicorn heal the frisky monkey even if he was injured. There was no need to heal him by using the rainbow crystal’s energy.
“Eat slowly, or you’ll choke to death.”
Soon, the frisky monkey finished the large kebab, drawing Zhang Che’s amused scolding. He also grabbed another one of the skewers and tore large mouthfuls of meat off of it.
Among his pets, although the Steel-Armored Tyrannosaurus and Mutated Giant Ape were sure to love eating meat, Zhang Che wouldn’t dare to Summon them here.
The Mutated Giant Ape was slightly better. The Steel-Armored Tyrannosaurus’ appetite was truly too big. Even though the advanced Scarlet Flame Drake had become a powerful meat roaster, it wouldn’t be able to satisfy that fellow’s stomach without an hour or two of work.
Close to fifty kilograms of meat were finished by Zhang Che and the frisky monkey in slightly less than an hour. In order to alleviate the greasy feeling, Zhang Che purposefully took out a small pile of compressed biscuits, and the “father and son” duo continued eating.
After eating their fill, the frisky monkey laid sprawled out on the ground, his stomach looking comically round, as if a ball was stuffed into his stomach.
“Time to sleep!” Zhang Che sighed in satisfaction. He took out a sleeping bag, spread it open, fit himself into it, and closed his eyes.
—————-
The next morning, Zhang Che was woken up by the alarm on his personal terminal.
When he walked out of the cave to take a look, the first rays of light were indeed starting to show.
Although the sky wasn’t fully up yet, it was already bright out here on the snowy plains.
Zhang Che quickly ate some dry rations and continued on his way towards the gateway to the secret plane.
Of course, he made sure to have the Purple Crystal Tortoise collapse the cave when he left. Otherwise, wouldn’t he be letting those who came after him have it too easy? Zhang Che was unwilling to do such good deeds.
Since he was already over three hundred kilometers deep from the outskirts of the area, Zhang Che grew even more cautious. He didn’t Summon more of his babies; he only had the Purple Crystal Tortoise ride along with him on the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon’s back, flying at about forty to fifty kilometers per hour close to the ground.
Zhang Che wouldn’t try to save a day or two of time. It was most important to reach the gateway safely. A day or two wouldn’t make any difference when he finally entered the secret plane.
—-
Along the way, Zhang Che wasn’t even willing to deal with the exotic beasts he encountered.
Zhang Che was happy to let off those exotic beasts who were scared of the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon. If they didn’t know what was good for them and charged at Zhang Che, naturally he wouldn’t be polite, either. The Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon would breathe a stream of darkfiend frozen air at them, and those weak exotic beasts would be severely injured, if not killed.
Just like that, they went on their way unobstructed, and advanced over a hundred kilometers without encountering any really strong exotic beasts.
-Strange… why does it seem safer compared to yesterday?- Zhang Che thought. Afterwards, he suddenly thought of something and his heart thumped, ready to have the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon fly in another direction.
However, at this moment, a furious roar suddenly rang out from a few kilometers away, the shockwave causing the accumulated snow on the nearby tree branches to fall off.
The Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon seemed to sense something, and immediately stopped.
Zhang Che’s complexion changed slightly. Given such a loud commotion, it seemed like someone ahead of him had run into a powerful beast.
-No wonder, I was thinking why I didn’t encounter any slightly stronger exotic beasts on the way. I had already entered a powerful beast’s territory!-
Zhang Che scanned his surroundings, then pointed at the tallest hill to his left and ordered the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon, “Go; let’s fly up there to take a look.”
Zhang Che really wanted to see who was so unlucky as to actually run into a powerful beast here.
At the same time, he was also extremely curious of exactly how strong the exotic beast that had just roared out was.
The hill’s summit was only about three hundred meters up. The Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon arrived at the peak after a few breaths’ time. Zhang Che focused his eyes and looked in the direction where the loud roar came from, and his pupils immediately constricted.
“Oh shit, those guys’ luck is a little too bad! They haven’t even reached the deepest area and they already ran into an epic-quality exotic beast!”