Upstream of the Creek

In fact, before three minutes had even passed, Wang Wu felt that he could break free.

But this was precious, pure, delicious mystic ice infused with cold energy. He truly could not bear to waste it, so he obediently kept pretending to be restrained, savoring the delicious, icy refreshment of chewing on an ice pop.

This time, even the Gray Rat Knights could tell that something was wrong.

The white-haired rat was so furious that it gnashed its teeth, blew its whiskers, and glared. The key was that it could do nothing about it. It had roughly guessed where the problem lay. If it had just one more white-haired companion at this moment, it would surely have been able to kill this shameless little bear. Alas, of its five comrades, four had been slain by that Scorpion King!

Not only had they lost their own nest, and suffered grievous casualties among their rats and descendants, but could they not even deal with a mere little bear?

"Squeak!"

It cried out again, shot Wang Wu a hateful glance, then fled with twenty or thirty Gray Rat Knights. As long as the green hills remained, there would be no shortage of firewood. There was no need to contend with this little bear of unknown origins over a momentary fit of temper. Time to go!

Even Wang Wu was dumbfounded by this scene, but he soon understood. The Sprites living in this valley each had their own way of survival.

What did honor, disgrace, victory, or defeat matter? Being able to rise again was what truly made one formidable.

Two more minutes passed before the ice armor on Wang Wu's body shattered with a clatter, turning into chunks of ice. After all, it was the height of summer. Even at night, the temperature remained above twenty degrees Celsius. Not even mystic ice could withstand that.

Wang Wu hugged those fragments of mystic ice and crunched through them in great mouthfuls. These were all good things!

He ate until he could no longer find even the tiniest scrap of mystic ice.

Only then did he let out a contented burp.

That was right. So much mystic ice had provided him with a great deal of Satiety. It not only more than covered the consumption of his Level 4 Self-Healing Talent, but he still had 109 points of Satiety left.

Besides that, he had also obtained a full 28 points of Spiritual Qi from the mystic ice.

And most importantly, his Ice Resistance had continued to rise to (5/10).

After hesitating for a moment, Wang Wu spent 20 points of Spiritual Qi to raise his Level 3 Danger Sense to Level 4.

Since he had decided to wander, this talent was extremely important.

The white-haired rat's attack earlier was an obvious example.

Without lingering where he was, Wang Wu followed the creek upstream. That was also the direction in which the white-haired rat had led its descendants when retreating.

As natives of the valley, they clearly understood better than he did where was suitable for wandering.

After following the creek upstream for roughly fifty or sixty meters, he reached what had once been the Berry Plains.

But the place had long since been buried beneath vast amounts of silt. Many plants stood alone, sticking out from the mud. They might not die, but if one wanted berries, there would be a long wait ahead.

Wang Wu felt that this was probably one reason why those rats could not survive here.

After passing through the Berry Plains and walking another two hundred meters upstream, the terrain rose noticeably. There was clearly far less silt here, while the vegetation along both banks of the creek was even more luxuriant.

There were obviously more insects and small animals in this area as well.

More than once, Wang Wu saw a Mantis Swordsman atop a shrub under the starlight, dueling a group of Mosquito Swordsmen. Come to think of it, there really were so many Mantis Swordsmen. Their unyielding figures could be seen everywhere.

Wang Wu had never visited this area before. It seemed to correspond to a low hill beside the one occupied by the five white-haired rats. A massive Black Centipede lived there.

That thing was also one of the valley's overlords. In theory, there should be quite a few followers and descendants in this region as well.

Wang Wu remained very cautious. He had not discovered where the white-haired rat had gone, nor did he want to rashly press onward before understanding the situation.

So he stopped in a patch of grass by the creek bank. After remaining still for three seconds, he swiftly entered Level 5 Stealth.

This talent was also his trump card for wandering. As long as he did not encounter large-scale AOE damage, he basically had nothing to worry about.

Soon, the night passed. Daylight rose, and it was once again time to bask in the sun, absorb Golden Particles, and enjoy the benefits of Spiritual Qi.

The Sprites in the bushes moved toward the foot of the hill with their entire families in tow.

There were even many Sprites that lived and multiplied on the opposite bank of the creek crossing over and heading this way.

Lying in the grass, Wang Wu saw many Sprites he had never encountered before. There was, for instance, a family of five toads, and a group of Dung Ball Masters. Well, he had seen those before, but never so many of them.

The sight of hundreds of dung beetles crawling past in a mighty procession was quite astonishing.

But something even more astonishing came afterward: a legion of at least ten thousand Black Ants, along with a Wandering Mantis Swordsman Legion of at least three hundred. They had all hurried over from the opposite side of the creek. Every command was obeyed without fail; they cooperated closely and possessed extraordinarily strong team coordination.

And these pilgrimage legions that had come from afar maintained an unspoken, perfectly coordinated relationship of non-aggression with the other Sprites.

Wang Wu saw with his own eyes a massive Cabbage Worm fall from a leaf. Yet the Black Ant Legion immediately split apart as though it had encountered a reef, not touching it in the slightest.

They did not eat any berries or anything else they encountered along the way either.

Though their bodies were small, they moved at an astonishing speed, like a black wind sweeping over the ground. In the blink of an eye, they had drifted past.

Even Wang Wu's hiding place lay on the route taken by that ant legion.

Yet not a single ant passed by him or crawled over his body. His Level 5 Stealth seemed to be completely ineffective against ants.

Beyond that, these several legions displayed unimaginable restraint toward one another.

After the Dung Ball Master Legion came the ant legion, and last came the Mantis Swordsman Legion.

The first two were one thing, but Wang Wu had personally experienced how combative Mantis Swordsmen were.

Yet even after discovering Wang Wu, this Mantis Swordsman Legion cautiously gave him a wide berth.

It was truly surprising.

It could not help reminding him of the mantis legion that had raided the Black Snake Clan before, as well as that Golden Holy Mantis.

Wang Wu carefully followed behind these three legions. He was genuinely curious, and he also found it strange.

However, he stopped at the edge of the bushes rather than brazenly heading straight for the foot of the low hill. After so many days, he had long understood the ecological rules of the valley.

The places where one could bask in the sun each day were limited. There were almost never any vacant spots.

Oh, there were vacant spots too, but one had to fight and seize them from higher-ranking Sprites.

He was now a wandering Bear Warrior who had been driven out of his own ecological niche. How could he dare rush in and snatch one by force as he had before?

At that moment, the first thing he observed was the Scorpion King on the cliff roughly three hundred meters away. That fellow's body seemed to have grown even larger. Had it gained greatly from killing four white-haired rats yesterday?

In any case, it looked increasingly terrifying. Even from three hundred meters away, Wang Wu felt a flutter of unease in his heart.

"Wait, what is that?"

Wang Wu blinked. For the first time, he noticed that something seemed to have appeared atop the large boulder where the Flame Scorpion King stood. Was that a flag?

He swore that it had not been there before yesterday.

He suddenly recalled how the Giant Eagle had circled above the cliff for quite some time yesterday morning. Could it be related to this?

Was that flag a Great Demon recruiting troops?

That was Wang Wu's first thought. Otherwise, there was no way to explain it—especially the Scorpion King's audacious act of challenging five white-haired rats alone after the Giant Eagle had departed yesterday. It was deeply puzzling.

Wang Wu watched silently and instinctively entered Level 5 Stealth. He no longer wanted to bask in the sun.

Was a Great Demon recruiting troops a good thing?

For Sprites who understood nothing, this was an opportunity for a fish to leap through the Dragon Gate and break free from the shackles of fate. But for Wang Wu, this might well be the prelude to a great war about to erupt between two Great Demon factions.

Just as he was pondering this, Wang Wu's heart stirred. From the bushes several dozen meters away, a group of Sprites suddenly emerged. At their head was the white-haired rat, leading dozens of Gray Rat Knights.

But they did not head toward the Black Centipede's low hill. Instead, they went straight toward the cliff where the Scorpion King was located.

Immediately afterward came that Mantis Swordsman Legion. It too abandoned its position on this low hill and headed for that cliff.