The Crossbow at the End of Its Strength

At that moment, Wang Wu had 67 Health Points left.

But that sense of lethal danger had vanished into thin air.

So that was all?

Even though he lay in the mud, sealed in ice, with torrential rain pouring down and a vast blur all around him, he could not even see where the White-Haired Rat was.

Even though a sharp ice spike shot toward him every second, piercing his body, his blood freezing before it could even flow out.

Even though he had no way to fight back. All he could do was curl up in the mud, protect his head, chest, and abdomen, and endure the merciless bombardment of ice spikes.

Before and after that, aside from taking one immensely powerful Ice Spike Talisman, he had suffered the continuous barrage of exactly nine ice spikes.

It was practically a machine gun.

He had no way to regain the rhythm, much less fight back. He could only rely on his 170 Health Points, 10 Defense, and ice resistance to hold on passively.

Yet even so, he still had 41 Health Points left!

Because the farther it went, the less damage the ice spikes dealt.

It was as if they were proving an idiom—the crossbow at the end of its strength!

"Crash!"

The downpour continued without end, but the machine-gun-like ice spikes had fallen silent.

Wang Wu could not move at all right now. Although the ice spikes could not severely injure him, they had turned into ice blocks that temporarily sealed him in place.

Did that White-Haired Rat think I was dead?

Wang Wu remained motionless, yet he had already entered Level 5 Stealth.

The rain still poured, the wind still howled, and thunder and lightning continued without pause. His Level 4 Self-Healing Talent activated, and his Health Points rapidly rose.

The ice was melting quickly too. In just a little while, he would be free again. He had already guessed what had happened.

The White-Haired Rat had run out of mana.

Sure enough,

When the ice had mostly melted, he saw the White-Haired Rat again. It no longer looked like an Enlightened High Rat. Its tiny Daoist robe had long been soaked through by the rain, now hanging from its body like a pair of little shorts, inexplicably comical.

Its white fur had also been stained a different color by the mud.

It looked even more bedraggled than Wang Wu.

The only thing unchanged was its tiny eyes, crazed with excitement. What the hell were you so excited about? You didn't seriously think you had killed me, did you?

Wang Wu was both dumbfounded and overjoyed.

He immediately realized that his Level 5 Stealth Talent might actually have prevented the White-Haired Rat from telling whether he was alive or dead, making it unable to sense his life aura.

Watching the old bastard approach with an excited expression, opening its mouth to bite him, Wang Wu nearly cursed aloud.

Wang Wu brought a claw down like lightning. Perhaps it was not that fast, but the White-Haired Rat had gotten far too close.

One slap flattened it. It did not even make a sound, much less leave any last words.

That was it?

Wang Wu was rather surprised and still suspected a trick. But who cared? He would eat first and ask questions later.

The White-Browed Rat King—this was a leader-class creature.

Not even a crumb of meat could be wasted. He could eat it together with the ice spikes that had yet to melt, swallowing each bite without a word...

This torrential rain had come quickly and left just as quickly. A few dozen minutes later, the rain had passed and the sky had cleared.

The small creek in the center of the valley erupted into flash flooding again, wild and unrestrained.

Wang Wu hid in a patch of grass by the bank, his face full of excitement. That was right—this time, it was his turn to be excited.

That White-Haired Rat had already been eaten clean by him. Even his Health Points had recovered by more than half. This haul was simply unprecedented.

"You consumed essence food with an ice attribute. You gained 500 Satiety, 50 Spiritual Qi, and 1% Growth Rate."

"Due to your current Level 4 Self-Healing Talent, you gained 1 point of ice resistance."

"Due to your current Level 4 Self-Healing Talent, your body's resistance to ice has greatly increased. You gained 1 point of ice resistance."

"Current ice resistance (7/10)"

"Current Growth Rate: 26.3%, Extra Growth Rate: 20%."

--

"What a pity. White-Haired Rats are probably extinct in this valley now. If I want to keep gaining ice resistance, I'll most likely have to wait until winter, when heavy snow seals off the mountains."

Wang Wu felt quite regretful. How nice it would have been if those four White-Haired Rats had not died.

Then again, if those four White-Haired Rats had still been alive, he would have been the one dead.

That White-Haired Rat just now had definitely emptied its mana in one go, leaving itself no backup whatsoever.

But that had been dangerously close.

If he had not had 10 Defense, enough to greatly reduce the damage from those nine consecutive ice spikes, that one wave would absolutely have taken him away.

So that White-Haired Rat had truly died a terribly unjust death!

It had also given Wang Wu a valuable lesson from the cart before the horse: increasing Health Points and Defense really was useful.

Without hesitation, Wang Wu spent another 40 points of Spiritual Qi to raise his Health Points to 190. He mindlessly stacked health, increasing his margin for error.

After all, at this stage, he did not need any especially brilliant combat methods. Lying low—that was all he needed to do.

Until nightfall, Wang Wu lay in the grass, and that feeling of being discovered never appeared again.

Without question, either the tracker had been affected by the torrential rain and lost his trail.

Or the one tracking him had been that White-Haired Rat.

Had the Black Widows delivered the message?

Come to think of it, that fellow really held grudges and was truly patient. It had insisted on waiting until the moment the rain came pouring down before making its move.

He just did not know whether the Flame Scorpion King would make any move now that the White-Haired Rat was dead.

That night, Wang Wu went nowhere. He simply lay in the grass without moving. As expected, by early the next morning, his Satiety had been emptied, and he successfully gained 0.7% Growth Rate.

He really could eat and grow, just like a pig.

When the sun began to rise and the Sprites in the valley headed toward the foot of the mountain to welcome the blessing, Wang Wu hesitated for a moment. In the end, he decided not to go. He merely took the opportunity to drink from the creek, leaving some food for the fish and shrimp downstream...

Afterward, he sneakily searched for some berries and some plants that looked edible. After barely filling his stomach, he once more hid in a dense patch of grass.

The moment he entered Level 5 Stealth—just as Silver Three Minutes had begun—the Black Giant Eagle suddenly flew over. Then came the Brown Giant Eagle. They circled the entire valley for more than ten minutes before finally leaving.

Wang Wu trembled throughout the whole time, because he had truly felt immense pressure, and he could genuinely sense that the two Giant Eagles were searching very seriously.

They had come so close.

Strange. Why aren't the two of them fighting anymore? Weren't they supposed to start a war? I can't make sense of this. Did they make such a huge commotion because the White-Haired Rat died?

Wang Wu was on high alert. The White-Haired Rat had previously obtained an official identity designation, so its death had actually alarmed two Giant Eagles?

It had looked so ordinary. Why did it seem so highly valued?

Wang Wu could not figure it out.

It seemed he would have to be even more careful in the future. He had to lie low whenever possible—lie low, lie low, and keep lying low!

He could not keep taking risks.

He did not even plan to bask in the sun and absorb Spiritual Qi anymore.

Sure enough, on the next morning, before Golden Three Minutes had even ended, those two Giant Eagles flew over again. They circled the valley, focusing their reconnaissance on the sunny slope along one side of it.

Naturally, they found nothing, because Wang Wu had not moved at all that morning.

He had even changed his feeding time to the night.

Nor did he ambush any Sprites. The entire time, he only did three things: drank water, gave warmth to the fish and shrimp downstream, and dug through the soil to eat wild vegetables.

Though his stomach growled with hunger and after all that hard work he only earned a few dozen points of Satiety, it was all worth it for the sake of his life.

On the third day, the two Giant Eagles did not appear again. But Wang Wu did not dare relax. He would simply act as if he did not exist and let things go however they would.