Sudden Attack

Another ordinary day. The Sprites in the valley got to live one more day. What a wonderful thing that was.

At dusk, Wang Wu began to move. But this time, instead of charging out as he usually did and following his route straight toward that crack in the rocks, he used the grass for cover. After advancing a short distance, he immediately entered Level 5 Stealth while closely observing his surroundings. Only after making sure there was no danger did he choose a safer route and continue onward.

He had no choice but to do this.

On the other side of the cliff, the Flame Scorpion Clan had replaced the Black Snake Clan as the new overlords. After an entire day, who knew what new changes might have occurred over there?

Besides, the Gray Rats, his sworn enemies, had basically figured out his patterns and routes.

Over the past few days, they had constantly tried to ambush and intercept him. They had failed every time, but if they kept learning from experience, there would eventually come a time when they succeeded. Wang Wu could not stubbornly charge into danger.

In any case, he had learned from experience too. If he wanted to survive in this valley, he had to keep a low profile. He would not seek supremacy, would not fight for dominance, would not be greedy, and would not make enemies. His goal was to be a quiet, beautiful bear king!

This time, Wang Wu took a huge detour, circling nearly two hundred meters away. This was not Gray Rat territory, because he had gone around to the western side of the cliff.

It was worth mentioning that the valley's terrain formed overlapping zigzags—one zigzag connected to another.

It generally ran northeast to southwest, originating from a medium-sized mountain peak two kilometers away.

The southeast and northwest were both foothills stretching out from that mountain, forming this valley as well as one valley after another.

The terrain was quite complicated.

At Wang Wu's current location, the cliff served as a landmark. It sat right at the most protruding point of the zigzag. Ahead lay a vast stretch of shrubs, the most common vegetation in the valley. Several streams flowed together and wound their way southwest.

During this period, Wang Wu had always operated on this side of the cliff. He had never set foot on the other side—the southwest side.

A major reason was that there were six rather tall trees here. A flock of red birds lived in those trees. Every morning and evening, those flame-like red birds danced joyfully in the orange sunlight. They looked harmless to man and beast, but even the Gray Rats had to pay tribute to them.

Wang Wu had no choice but to detour through here today, so he was extremely cautious. He stopped every three steps, and with the dense grass as cover, he actually passed through the area without incident.

By now, the sun had set, and the light in the valley suddenly dimmed. The red birds returned to their trees to rest, and a rare moment of peace fell over the valley, because those red birds were the noisiest creatures around.

Wang Wu could not help quickening his pace. He was less than fifty meters from the crack in the rocks now. Once he rounded the foot of the cliff, he would arrive.

But just as he approached the cliff, he suddenly felt an intense sense of unease. His reactions were sharp. After all, his battles of wits and courage with the Sprites these past days had tempered him.

He rolled and leaped away from where he stood. But in the next second, a layer of spiderweb, like a bride's white wedding gown, drifted down from above. Although he had jumped away from his original position, it still covered nearly half his body.

Then he saw that on this side of the cliff, some four or five meters above the ground, a huge boulder jutted out a great distance, like the tongue of an evil ghost sticking out.

At that moment, beneath the boulder, seven blood-red spiders as large as washbasins floated there like celestial maidens soaring through the air.

Even more terrifying and bizarre, they could join together to spin silk into a hexagonal web, then hurl it out to blanket their prey from above.

"You have entered Blood Spider territory. You are under attack by the Blood Spider Empress. Your movement speed has decreased by 30%..."

A notification arrived belatedly.

But Wang Wu had no time to inspect it closely, much less tear away the web around his lower body. He simply rolled across the ground. Almost the next second, another hexagonal web dropped from above, but this time it missed.

Wang Wu seized the chance to rub himself wildly against the ground, successfully breaking free of the web before fleeing without daring to look back.

Who would have thought that this valley was filled with killing intent at every step?

Very quickly, he returned to the crack in the rocks.

Good. It was safe here. No traps were waiting for him, and no Gray Rat Knights were standing guard at the entrance. It was practically his only patch of pure land in this world.

After checking every nook and cranny and finding no hidden Sprites, Wang Wu finally curled up in the deepest part of the crack and swiftly fell asleep.

Sleep every day was also extremely important.

He was still waiting to grow into the next stage.

But after an unknown amount of time, while he was sleeping soundly, he suddenly woke with a start. His Level 5 Stealth vanished at once.

"Damn it!"

He inwardly cried that things were bad.

The next moment, before he could see clearly what had happened, a fireball the size of a child's fist smashed down from above the crack in the rocks.

"Boom!"

With a thunderous explosion, Wang Wu was struck squarely, as if a giant hammer had slammed into his body. Then another burst of force erupted, flipping him belly-up. That alone would have been bad enough, but the fireball actually set his fur ablaze. In an instant, he became a flaming bear!

The excruciating pain nearly broke him. It felt as though the bear hide all over his body had been peeled off alive.

He rolled madly across the ground. He had barely managed to put out the flames when a second small fireball fell again.

This time, Wang Wu rolled desperately and finally dodged it. Yet the fireball still exploded barely a meter away, blasting him into another tumble and leaving him utterly bedraggled.

Daring not hesitate any longer, he fled the crack in the rocks for his life like a homeless dog.

Only then did lines of notifications silently scroll past.

"Your hiding place has been discovered by Scorpion Sentinels. The enemy has carried out a tactical encirclement against you!"

"Scorpion Priests have launched an attack on your hiding place. Your Level 5 Stealth state has been destroyed. You have been locked onto."

"You have taken 20 points of fireball bombardment damage. You have taken continuous flame burn damage!"

"You have taken 15 points of flame burn damage!"

"You have taken 15 points of fireball bombardment splash damage."

"You have taken a total of 15 points of flame burn damage."

"Fuck!"

He plunged headlong into a patch of grass. Enduring the intense pain wracking his entire body, Wang Wu forcibly activated his Level 5 Stealth talent. Otherwise, on a night like this, he truly would die without even ashes left behind.

In fact, the commotion had already drawn the Gray Rat Knights from the shrubs.

Fortunately, in the face of death, his willpower was still strong enough. He forcibly endured the agonizing pain, remained silent for three seconds, and activated Level 5 Stealth. Luckily, even though all his fur had been burned off, it did not affect the effectiveness of his Level 5 Stealth talent.

This time, he had been careless.

He had trusted his Level 5 Stealth talent too much, yet overlooked the fact that after all his hopping about and stirring up trouble these past days, his hiding place had been discovered.

Level 5 Stealth could ensure that enemies would not discover him, but his hiding place could not run away.

All they had to do was test it with a fireball that had area-of-effect damage, and they could blast him out.

This was a lesson written in blood.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak!"

Six Gray Rat Knights were frantically searching through the grass. Clearly, they had smelled something—such as the stench of burnt fur.

Wang Wu secretly cried that things were bad. Although Level 5 Stealth was incredibly powerful and could keep the Gray Rats from discovering him even if they came within a meter of him, his scent had exposed him.

So these Gray Rat Knights refused to give up no matter what. They kept calling for companions, intending to conduct a carpet search of this patch of grass!

He could not keep waiting.

Wang Wu gritted his teeth. The instant a Gray Rat Knight searched past within half a meter of him, he sprang up fiercely and knocked it to the ground with one paw, shattering its spine at the same time.

The next second, he did not even have time to take the loot. He charged straight toward the shrubs. He had to jump into the stream and wash away the burnt smell clinging to him. Otherwise, this long night would be the night of his death.

Thanks to reader Zhi Bai and the other readers for their tips and support. It was not suitable to add extra chapters during the new-book period; he would repay the debt after it was listed...