A Penny of Gold Cannot Buy an Inch of Time

The door lock of this miniaturized shipping container was the facial-recognition type. Lin Li came to the container and brought his face close to the electronic screen above it.

The electronic screen began scanning his face. After confirming the identity of the customer who had placed the order, the electronic lock on the container opened by itself.

Then Lin Li began carrying the Rabbit Exotic Beast and Boar Beast into the container.

The nearly one-meter-tall Rabbit Exotic Beast weighed only a few dozen kilograms, so putting it into the container was effortless.

The roughly one-hundred-fifty-kilogram Boar Beast, however, was much harder to handle. Lin Li spent a tremendous amount of effort before finally dragging it into the container.

"Phew..." Looking at the Boar Beast's corpse, which had taken all his strength to load into the container, Lin Li lightly panted several times before wiping the sweat from his forehead.

Now he understood why the other Beast Hunters formed teams and acted together. Besides increasing their safety, teamwork also meant that when they hunted a large exotic beast, they had companions to help carry the prey.

The interior of this miniaturized shipping container was quite spacious. Even with a roughly one-hundred-fifty-kilogram Boar Beast and the Rabbit Exotic Beast inside, it did not feel cramped at all. Lin Li estimated that it could still fit another Boar Beast.

After loading the prey into the container, Lin Li closed its door.

As the door shut, the electronic lock on the container gave a crisp beep. Then, an option to confirm the return trip appeared on the electronic screen.

Lin Li reached out and tapped the option. The Unmanned Transport Aircraft hovering in midair immediately began climbing.

"Wuu..."

The propellers on the Unmanned Transport Aircraft's eight wings let out a tremendous buzzing roar. The miniaturized shipping container filled with more than one hundred fifty kilograms of exotic beast meat was easily lifted into the air.

When the Unmanned Transport Aircraft reached an altitude of three hundred meters, it began flying toward the urban district.

"It's done. Now I just have to wait for the money to arrive." Standing beside the muddy pond, Lin Li watched the Unmanned Transport Aircraft disappear into the distance, his heart filled with anticipation. There's nothing I can do—who told me to be so desperately poor right now?

"That battle with the Boar Beast just now consumed most of my Spiritual Energy, and my body is exhausted too. I'll stop here for today! I'll go home and rest, then fight again tomorrow."

"Rustle, rustle, rustle..."

Suddenly, a sound came from the grass not far behind Lin Li. A Rabbit Exotic Beast hopped out of the brush.

Lin Li had been planning to go home and rest, but when he met the gaze of the Rabbit Exotic Beast that had suddenly appeared, his eyes lit up. He immediately abandoned the thought of going home. "It won't be too late to kill this Rabbit Exotic Beast before going home to rest."

"Pfft."

"Huff... huff... huff..." Panting heavily, Lin Li swung the weapon in his hand. The Spirit Artifact Longsword, glowing with pale-golden Spiritual Light, viciously pierced the Rabbit Exotic Beast's neck.

From morning until now, he had only rested briefly at lunchtime. After being busy for so long, his stamina had been greatly depleted, and Lin Li's accuracy had dropped considerably.

He had originally intended to attack the Rabbit Exotic Beast's head, but the strike landed in its neck instead.

Moreover, although his Spirit Artifact Longsword had pierced the Rabbit Exotic Beast's neck, it had not gone all the way through.

The gravely wounded Rabbit Exotic Beast's ferocity erupted. It twisted its neck, broke free of the Spirit Artifact Longsword, and suddenly pounced at Lin Li.

Unfortunately, the gap between their strengths was considerable. In addition, this Rabbit Exotic Beast had only reached the First-Order Initial Stage and was seriously injured. Thus, when it leaped toward Lin Li, he simply kicked it away.

"Bang."

The Rabbit Exotic Beast flew backward and crashed to the ground, rolling several times. Just as it tried to climb up from the grass, Lin Li rushed to its side, gripped the hilt of the Spirit Artifact Longsword with both hands in reverse, pointed the blade downward, and drove it forcefully into the Rabbit Exotic Beast.

"Pfft."

The longsword plunged into its brain. This strike pierced straight through the Rabbit Exotic Beast's head, pinning it firmly to the grass.

"Phew..."

Lin Li panted heavily as he looked at the dead Rabbit Exotic Beast and muttered, "Now I really don't have the strength to fight any more exotic beasts. I need to hurry home and rest."

After pulling the Spirit Artifact Longsword from the Rabbit Exotic Beast's head, Lin Li crouched down and touched its corpse, storing it in the Mysterious Small Island. Then he immediately ran toward the urban district.

The Rabbit Exotic Beast had bled all over the ground, staining a small patch of grass red. The stench of blood drifted toward the depths of the wilderness on a gust of wind.

"Rustle, rustle, rustle..."

A lithe figure moved through the dense grass. Every so often, it sniffed the bloody scent in the air to determine its direction.

More than ten minutes after Lin Li had left, a Gray Wolf Exotic Beast arrived at the place where he had killed the Rabbit Exotic Beast. Its body was covered in gray fur; it was one and a half meters long and eighty centimeters tall.

The Gray Wolf Exotic Beast lowered its head and sniffed the mud soaked with the Rabbit Exotic Beast's blood. It surveyed the surroundings but did not find any corpse.

"Awooo..." Having come all this way only to find nothing, the Gray Wolf Exotic Beast let out a disappointed howl.

Then, its stomach growling with hunger, the Gray Wolf Exotic Beast slipped into the dense grass and headed for the place where it usually hunted in search of prey.

Fortunately, Lin Li had immediately returned to the urban district after killing the Rabbit Exotic Beast. Otherwise, he would have been attacked by the Gray Wolf Exotic Beast that had followed the scent of blood there.

The sun hung slantwise at the edge of the sky. A figure holding a Spirit Artifact Longsword hurried through the grass. When he saw the straight highway in the distance, a brilliant smile immediately spread across his face, and he quickened his pace toward it.

"I finally made it out."

Lin Li proceeded cautiously along the road back. The moment he stepped onto the flat highway, his body and mind completely relaxed.

Reaching this place meant that he had entered the safe zone, but he still had nearly half an hour to walk before returning to the urban district.

That was because the place where he currently stood was still a long way from Chenghua Avenue, which taxis were willing to travel to.

"I can't possibly walk this stretch every time I go to the wilderness. The round trip takes an hour! One trip is one hour, ten trips are ten hours, a hundred trips are a hundred hours. A penny of gold cannot buy an inch of time!"

After entering the safe zone, Lin Li placed the Spirit Artifact Longsword in the Mysterious Small Island. As he walked toward Chenghua Avenue, he pondered the matter.

At this stage, he did not have enough money to buy a car, so he could only settle for the next best thing and spend money renting a used car for transportation.

"I remember there was a used-car rental company that had opened not long ago on the way to the market when I went to buy Exotic Beast Meat. I'll go take a look at that used-car rental company tomorrow morning... If the rent is cheap, I'll rent one there directly."