Beasts at War

The Boy stopped at once and could not help taking a deep breath.

After the shock, joy began to spread through his heart.

In the dead of night, his eyes seemed to shine.

"Kill it! Then drink its blood."

"I'm really about to die of thirst."

Zhen Jin cried out inwardly.

But immediately afterward, the joy in his heart ebbed somewhat, and hesitation spread in great swathes.

"From this distance, that beast looks enormous. It seems to be lying on the sand, yet even so, it's already over two meters tall."

"It's too far away—I can't sense its aura. Has it concealed it?"

"A body that large would not find it easy to survive in the desert. Which means it must be powerful."

"If it's a Silver-level—no, even a Black Iron-level magical beast, then I'll be in grave danger!"

On this incomparably perilous Isolated Island, even Gold-level magical beasts were not rare.

Zhen Jin hesitated for several breaths before making his decision.

He still chose to attack!

Without food and water, his condition would only worsen. The desert was barren and vast, unlike terrain such as rainforests and forests. If Zhen Jin gave up this opportunity, then afterward, if he wanted to encounter prey suitable for him to hunt...

The chances would be exceedingly slim.

So, while he still had strength, striking at this moment was the wiser choice.

"If I run into danger, I can only place my hopes on that suddenly mutated ability."

Zhen Jin clenched his teeth in secret, bent low, slowed his steps, and quietly approached the gigantic beast.

In the darkness, the enormous body seemed curled into a ball, utterly motionless.

Once he came close enough, Zhen Jin's expression abruptly changed. The tension and vigilance on his face vanished by more than half.

"So it's only a huge rock."

Zhen Jin let out a breath of stale air and strolled toward what he had originally taken for a "gigantic beast."

Though his physical qualities were outstanding, he was still human by nature, and his vision was greatly impaired at night. A Dark Elf would have seen clearly long ago and would not have made such a misunderstanding.

Zhen Jin examined the enormous rock before him.

The rock was oval-shaped, standing silently in the darkness. Its surface faintly glimmered with a metallic sheen, but it was pitted and uneven, utterly unrelated to the word "smooth," covered in countless tiny, densely packed holes.

What was rather strange was that a warm breath continuously wafted out from those sesame-seed-sized little pits.

Zhen Jin froze for a moment, Cang Xu's earlier words surfacing in his mind.

"Could this be Gold Hemp Stone?"

Gold Hemp Stone was a mixture of iron, gold, earth, and many other minerals. Depending on its place of origin, the components within Gold Hemp Stone and the proportions between them varied.

The Exploration Team had once encountered a vast Gold Hemp Stone Group, and Cang Xu had preliminarily concluded that those Gold Hemp Stones contained abundant gold.

Unfortunately, extracting gold from massive, heavy Gold Hemp Stone required particular methods.

The Exploration Team did not possess such extraction capabilities. Their most important task, naturally, was still to save themselves, then find water and food to bring back to camp.

"Gold Hemp Stone usually occurs in groups, but there's only one here."

Zhen Jin ran his hand over the rock's surface, feeling both disappointed and fortunate.

He was disappointed that he had found neither food nor water, but he also felt lucky to have discovered a piece of Gold Hemp Stone.

During the day, such enormous rocks baked beneath the sun, absorbing heat and storing it within their stone cores. Even in the desert's bitterly cold midnight hours, Gold Hemp Stone remained very warm.

This solved a major problem for Zhen Jin.

The clothes on his body were far too thin for the night.

Just moments ago, he had been troubled by the lack of materials for making a fire. Now, he did not need one at all. Simply leaning against this enormous rock would preserve his warmth well enough and ward off the harsh cold.

The night passed just like that. When Zhen Jin opened his eyes again, he found sunlight beginning to appear on the horizon.

It was dawn.

Zhen Jin moved his limbs a little and was delighted to find that much of his strength had returned. He had rested very well the previous night.

His body had been given ample respite, and his mind had calmed as well with sufficient rest.

One thing that reassured him was that he had not fallen into a dead sleep. He had remained vigilant the entire time, his nerves drawn taut.

He had awakened two or three times during the night, each time because the howling cold desert wind had grown too fierce, crossing the warning line in his mind.

After waking, he had quickly fallen asleep again.

He was quite satisfied with this.

"Looks like I must have undergone this kind of training before, or had such experiences, to be able to remain asleep and alert at the same time."

In truth, accomplishing this was not easy.

Zhen Jin gained a new understanding of himself.

This time, Zhen Jin woke because he heard another strange sound.

The commotion was coming from the northeast.

"The sound is strange. Could there be snakes?"

The Gold Hemp Stone where Zhen Jin had been resting lay halfway up the side of the Sand Dune. With a thought, Zhen Jin slowed his steps and carefully approached the dune's crest.

At the top, he slowly poked his head out and observed closely.

It was dawn, and the light was still dim.

The first thing that entered his sight was block after block of Gold Hemp Stone. There were several hundred of them, spaced unevenly and roughly alike in size, like chess pieces laid out across a chessboard made by the Sand Dune.

This undoubtedly confirmed Cang Xu's words—Gold Hemp Stone always appeared in clusters. The piece Zhen Jin had been resting on was merely one at the very edge.

Then Zhen Jin's pupils contracted slightly.

He saw two beast packs confronting each other amid the Gold Hemp Stone Group.

One pack consisted of green-skinned lizards, while the other was made up of golden scorpions.

The lizards were as large as warhorses, while the scorpions were somewhat smaller.

The lizards gave snake-like hisses, while the scorpions made rustling, skittering noises. Both sides were trying to intimidate the other.

It was the blend of these two sounds that had awakened Zhen Jin.

Zhen Jin's heart tightened.

He sensed the life auras of both groups. The lizards and scorpions were each at least Black Iron-level, while the leaders of both packs were Silver-level.

"Even without counting mutations, a single Silver-level Magic Beast could pose a fatal threat to me."

"If there are enough Black Iron-level Magic Beasts, they could still cost me my life."

Zhen Jin had yet to investigate the principles behind mutation.

He could not use battle qi now, his prayers received no response, and he wore no armor. The only thing that offered him a little comfort was the weapon in his hand.

But this Silver-level weapon was also steadily wearing down over time.

The limbs of a Blade Spider were indeed superb material for making weapons. But such material had to be treated in order to stabilize the magic within and preserve its inherent sharpness.

Zhen Jin, however, had merely put it to crude use without treating it at all. As time passed, this spider-leg sword would grow weaker and weaker.

Therefore, Zhen Jin did not act rashly. He crouched where he was and watched in silence.

He still did not know why these two beast packs had come into conflict. Whichever side it was, he had no wish to provoke them.

As the boy peered on furtively, he prayed inwardly, "If these two beast packs start fighting, perhaps it will create an opportunity for me to obtain some food."

As if they had heard Zhen Jin's prayer, the two restless beast packs finally lost patience and began to clash.

But it was not a large-scale battle. Instead, the leaders of the beast packs charged alone into the center of the battlefield and began a one-on-one contest.

"Screech!"

The green-skinned lizard let out an unbearably harsh cry, then opened its mouth and spat out a stream of dense green acid.

The acid struck the Golden Scorpion directly.

The Golden Scorpion immediately raised its enormous pincers before itself like shields, successfully protecting its eyes.

Sizzle, sizzle...

White smoke immediately rose from the surfaces of the Golden Scorpion's two massive pincers.

Zhen Jin narrowed his eyes. He sharply noticed that some of the splashed acid had landed on the Gold Hemp Stone, corroding fist-sized pits into it within just a few breaths!

"If that sprayed onto my body, without battle qi protecting me, I'd probably be reduced to nothing but bones in two or three breaths."

What eased Zhen Jin's heart slightly was that after spitting out that great stream of acid, the lizard leader immediately became listless and retreated of its own accord.

Clearly, this acid was not one of its usual combat methods.

Yet while the lizard retreated, the Golden Scorpion advanced even faster.

The two rapidly closed in.

The green-skinned lizard immediately opened its mouth and let out another strange cry, as though it intended to spray green liquid again.

But the Golden Scorpion was more cunning. It had already raised its pincers and shielded itself in front.

At the same time, it arched its scorpion tail, at least two meters long, and struck viciously!

The scorpion tail was sharp as the tip of a knight's Long Spear.

The green-skinned lizard's skull was pierced straight through by the scorpion tail, leaving a huge round hole that bored deep into its cranium.

It was a fatal wound!

Having succeeded with one blow, the Golden Scorpion immediately withdrew.

It retreated with tremendous speed.

From the round hole above the green-skinned lizard's head, white brain matter mixed with pale green blood spurted out like a fountain.

The Green-skinned Lizard leader let out an utterly tragic shriek. In its final moments, it unleashed a ferocious assault.

Corrosive green fluid gushed from its mouth once more, utterly aimless, sweeping about like a green beam of light.

When it struck a massive Gold Hemp Stone, thick white smoke immediately rose with a sizzling hiss, and the stone melted beneath the sunlight like snow.

Even Green-skinned Lizards of its own kind were caught in the blast. The lizard pack fell into chaos. The unlucky ones screamed—some had their limbs corroded away, exposing white bone. Others had their eyes hit and were madly burrowing into the sand, trying to save themselves.

A small number of Golden Scorpions were also struck by the green fluid. Their carapaces rapidly softened, and after a few breaths, nothing remained but the tips of their scorpion tails.

Silver-level Golden Scorpions could withstand the green fluid, but most Black Iron Gold Scorpions could not.

Fortunately, the Green-skinned Lizard's outburst lasted only a few breaths.

Very soon, no more green fluid sprayed from its mouth.

Having lost their leader, the Green-skinned Lizards retreated one after another. The Golden Scorpion swarm had won, yet they did not pursue the victory as Zhen Jin had calculated they would.

After driving away the Green-skinned Lizards, the Golden Scorpions did not even spare a glance at their corpses. Instead, they gathered around the Gold Hemp Stones in twos and threes.

Under Zhen Jin's astonished gaze, the Golden Scorpions first jabbed with their tails, piercing through the Gold Hemp Stones and working together to shatter the huge stones.

Then, using their enormous pincers, they crunched the Gold Hemp Stones scattered across the sand into even smaller pieces.

Finally, they stuffed the fragments of Gold Hemp Stone into their mouthparts and chewed continuously.

"So these Gold Hemp Stones are the food of these Gold Scorpions?" Watching the scene before him, Zhen Jin fell into thought.

Zhen Jin could not help swallowing.

As he watched the Gold Scorpions wolfing down their food, his own hunger and thirst grew even more intense.

He waited patiently.

The Gold Scorpions ate for over half an hour before they finally rustled away, leaving wreckage strewn across the ground.

Only after confirming it was safe did Zhen Jin hurry excitedly to the former battlefield.

The Magic Beasts killed by the acid spray could no longer be eaten.

But the lizard leader had exhausted its acid, bled dry, and spilled all its brains, while its flesh remained intact.

Zhen Jin used the weapon in his hand to cut open the lizard leader and take its meat.

Zhen Jin had merely slept and watched a battle, yet food had suddenly become plentiful!

"But I still lack water."

"Will I ever come across such luck again?"

The Boy's excitement and joy gradually settled.

There was still some residual acid fluid. Zhen Jin carefully dipped a little of it onto his weapon.

Zhen Jin waited patiently for a moment and found that the Silver-level Blade Spider Edge remained as hard and sharp as ever, which put him slightly at ease.

At this point, the sun began to rise over the horizon, and Zhen Jin's vision grew clearer and clearer.

The temperature also began to climb.

Zhen Jin knew this was a rare chance to travel. Just as he was about to set out, his pupils suddenly contracted sharply.

"What is that?!"

A flash of pink appeared in his field of vision, leaving him utterly shocked.