Liu Jialin smiled faintly at that, the corners of her lips curling up. She shook her head and said, "That beast wasn't as weak as you thought."
"You mean... it was hiding its strength?" Zhang Xiao was startled, her eyes going round. "But it looked pretty ordinary just now!"
"When it pounced just now, the Spiritual Energy fluctuation in its left foreclaw was thirty percent stronger than in the other parts." Liu Jialin explained as she walked.
"That was its true point of exertion. It simply didn't dare use it just now. Judging from that aura, its true strength should be close to the Second-Order High Stage.
"Although it's still far weaker than me, if we really fought without holding back, killing it would still take some time and effort."
She paused, her gaze turning toward the faintly visible direction of the distant mineral vein, and her tone grew serious.
"If that happened, the commotion from the battle would be too great and would very likely attract nearby groups of beasts. It would also delay us by at least half an hour.
"Our purpose in coming here is to reach the mineral vein as quickly as possible. Since it had already decided to retreat and didn't want to keep entangling itself with us, choosing to flee, there was no need to pursue and kill it."
Zhang Xiao clicked her tongue at this. "I see. That beast looked fierce, as if it didn't have much sense, but I never expected it to hide its strength. How cunning."
Liu Jialin stopped and looked up at the rolling hills in the distance... By now, the sun had climbed higher and higher. Golden sunlight streamed through the gaps between the leaves, casting mottled shadows across the ground, while the fresh scents of earth and