"Phew..."
"Rustle, rustle..."
From time to time, gusts of wind swept across the wilderness, making the wild grass around them—which had grown at least as tall as a person from being nourished by the free-floating Spiritual Energy in the air—sway from side to side and rustle.
If people heard grass and trees rustling in a bustling, peaceful urban district, they would not think anything of it.
But on this wilderness teeming with danger, the sounds stirred up by a sudden gust of wind would make anyone tense up involuntarily.
Alone in the wilderness, Lin Li avoided areas where the vegetation grew especially thick. Instead, he chose relatively open, flat terrain and slowly felt his way forward.
And there was one more thing... a radius of one kilometer. That was the range of activity Lin Li had set for himself on his first venture into the wilderness. For now, distances beyond that were not within his consideration.
Don't think a one-kilometer radius was too small an area.
One had to understand that even within this mere one-kilometer radius, quite a few exotic beasts were already roaming about.
After entering the wilderness, Lin Li had only trudged forward a little over a hundred meters when he encountered the first exotic beast of his life.
This exotic beast stood one meter tall. It had long ears, scarlet eyes, sharp buckteeth, and keen claws... What a ferocious, terrifying Rabbit Exotic Beast.
Rabbits had always been synonymous with gentleness, but the Rabbit Exotic Beast Lin Li faced had nothing to do with gentleness.
Standing a full meter tall, it glared viciously at him with scarlet eyes, radiating undisguised malice. It completely overturned Lin Li's ingrained impression of rabbits.
"Damn... this Rabbit Exotic Beast is vicious! I wonder how strong it is. But according to the beginner's guide I read earlier on the Beast Hunter app,
the strongest exotic beast within this one-kilometer radius is only at the First-Order Mid Stage. I should be able to kill this Rabbit Exotic Beast with ease."
Lin Li was so nervous that his heart was practically about to leap out of his chest. His right hand, gripping the Spirit Artifact Longsword, trembled faintly.
He finally understood why, yesterday, he had seen so many Beast Hunters at the First-Order Peak on the Beast Hunter app's discussion board looking for Beast Hunters with Second-Order cultivation or above to form teams with.
Once a Cultivator broke through to the Second Order, their spiritual power would undergo a qualitative transformation, granting them the ability to sense things. Through the Spiritual Energy fluctuations radiated by their opponent, this ability could determine their opponent's strength.
Just like now, the eyes of the Rabbit Exotic Beast before Lin Li glowed with pale golden Spiritual Light. It had already begun mobilizing the Spiritual Energy within its body.
If Lin Li possessed Second-Order Early Stage cultivation, he could use his perception ability at this moment.
Through the Spiritual Energy fluctuations radiated when his opponent used Spiritual Energy, he could determine what level of strength his opponent was at, instead of being completely clueless and uncertain like now.
This Rabbit Exotic Beast, which possessed First-Order Mid Stage strength, could sense that the human before it was somewhat afraid of it.
That made it feel that this human was inferior to itself. Thus, it launched an attack on Lin Li first.
"Hm? This Rabbit Exotic Beast isn't very fast!"
Facing the Rabbit Exotic Beast charging at him with pale golden Spiritual Light blazing in its eyes, Lin Li immediately pushed off with both feet, his body flashing to the right and easily dodging its attack.
Seeing its attack miss, the Rabbit Exotic Beast promptly changed direction and charged at Lin Li again.
"I'll dodge... and dodge again..."
Lin Li easily dodged the Rabbit Exotic Beast's pounces again and again, while the Rabbit Exotic Beast stubbornly clung to him without letting up.
After consecutively dodging the Rabbit Exotic Beast's attacks, Lin Li's confidence soared. At this point, even a fool could see that the Rabbit Exotic Beast before him was far weaker than he was.
"Die."
After sidestepping once more to avoid the Rabbit Exotic Beast's pounce, Lin Li passed by it shoulder to shoulder.
At that instant, he mobilized the Spiritual Energy within his body and poured it into the Spirit Artifact Longsword in his hand.
Pale golden Spiritual Light burst forth. His right hand gripping the Spirit Artifact Longsword swung fiercely, and the sharp sword shot toward the Rabbit Exotic Beast's neck.
"Pfft."
Although the Spirit Artifact Longsword Lin Li had bought was a discounted item, it was still a spirit artifact forged from Spiritual Energy materials, and the sharpness of its blade far exceeded that of ordinary weapons.
Now that it had been infused with Spiritual Energy, its sharpness had risen another level.
The tip of the sword, shining with pale golden Spiritual Light, pierced into the Rabbit Exotic Beast's body as easily as cutting through tofu when it struck its neck.
"Thud."
With its neck suffering a grievous wound, the Rabbit Exotic Beast crashed heavily onto the grass and struggled to get back up.
But the neck pierced by the Spirit Artifact Longsword now bore a huge wound, and blood gushed out in torrents. Its strength rapidly drained away along with the flowing blood. It had barely gotten to its feet before collapsing again.
As time passed, only a minute went by before the Rabbit Exotic Beast Lin Li had stabbed in the neck died.
"Phew..."
After completing the first kill of his life, Lin Li exhaled a long breath. The tension vanished completely, replaced in his heart by excitement and exhilaration.
"So exotic beasts aren't anything special after all!" Lin Li muttered smugly, his face beaming with delight, then hurried over to the Rabbit Exotic Beast.
"I finally got exotic beast flesh fresh for less than an hour."
Lin Li crouched down and reached out with his right hand to seize one of the exotic rabbit's ears.
Then, with a thought, Spiritual Light flashed over his body. He vanished from the spot, and so did the Rabbit Exotic Beast he was holding.
On the Mysterious Small Island, Lin Li tossed the Rabbit Exotic Beast in his hand beneath the Miracle Small Tree at the center of the island.
Then he stared intently at the Miracle Small Tree before him, watching to see how it would deal with the Rabbit Exotic Beast.
Five seconds, ten seconds, fifteen seconds...
The Miracle Small Tree before him did not move at all. Just as Lin Li could not resist opening his mouth to complain, the corpse of the Rabbit Exotic Beast beneath the Miracle Small Tree began to change.
White mist drifted from the Rabbit Exotic Beast's corpse. As time passed, more and more white mist poured out, while the corpse also began to decay.
In less than ten seconds, the sturdy one-meter-long Rabbit Exotic Beast had decayed completely, without even a scrap of bone remaining.
The white mist drifting from the Rabbit Exotic Beast's corpse gathered in midair, forming a round white cloud of mist.
The round white cloud of mist was only as large as a pigeon's egg. Just as Lin Fei was about to reach out and poke it, it suddenly shot toward the Miracle Small Tree and merged into its trunk.
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