The sun was sinking in the west, and the blazing sunset dyed the azure sky in brilliant hues.
"Phew..."
Lin Li gasped for breath as he wiped the sweat from his forehead and pulled the Spirit Artifact Longsword from the body of the Rooster Feather Exotic Beast.
Ever since he killed the first Rooster Feather Exotic Beast, it had been as if he had stabbed a chicken coop—Rooster Feather Exotic Beasts kept rushing out one after another.
Thus, he had spent the entire afternoon fighting Rooster Feather Exotic Beasts.
So far, he had hunted nine Rooster Feather Exotic Beasts. Including the Black Snake Exotic Beast he had hunted at the start of the day, Lin Li had killed a total of ten exotic beasts today.
That far exceeded his original goal of killing five exotic beasts that afternoon.
"Haha... My luck today is way too good! I hunted ten exotic beasts in just one afternoon. If I start tomorrow morning and stay busy all day, could I hunt twenty exotic beasts?
"If that really happens, won't I be able to see that Azure Fruit ripen very soon?"
As Lin Li squatted down and collected the dead Rooster Feather Exotic Beast into the Mysterious Small Island, he happily imagined that the next few days would go as smoothly as today.
"Glug, glug, glug..."
After a busy and somewhat exhausting afternoon, Lin Li took out a bottle of mineral water he had placed on the Mysterious Small Island beforehand, unscrewed the cap, and gulped down half the bottle in one go.
"Phew..."
After drinking half the bottle, he let out a long breath and immediately felt relaxed all over.
"The sun is about to set. I need to hurry home."
Lin Li pulled his phone from his pocket and opened the map app. The location showed that he was actually four or five kilometers from the safe zone.
"Tsk... I got so caught up in killing them that I ran this far out. I'll have to be more careful in the future. I can't accidentally wander even farther, or it'll be bad news if I run into a second-order exotic beast."
After using the map to confirm the general direction back to the safe zone, Lin Li prepared to return.
But just then, a tremendous boom came from the distance.
"Boom!"
Along with the rumble, a pillar of fire shot into the sky.
The pillar of fire was enormous. Even from far away, it could be seen with perfect clarity.
"What... What's going on?" Lin Li stared blankly at the spot where the pillar of fire had vanished, his mouth hanging open in shock.
There was no way to estimate the pillar's exact diameter by eye, but it had soared at least fifteen or sixteen meters into the sky.
He looked around. All he could see were flowers, grass, and trees growing wild and unchecked. There was not a single modern human facility in sight.
Lin Li had only seen pillars of fire like that on the news not long ago.
He remembered the report saying that, somewhere, careless construction workers had damaged a natural gas pipeline during construction.
The leaking natural gas pipeline had then caught fire, creating a pillar of flame that shot into the sky.
But Lin Li was in the wilderness now, where no natural gas pipelines had obviously been laid. Besides, the pillar had vanished almost immediately after appearing, making it even less likely to have anything to do with a leaking gas pipeline.
After all, a pillar of fire caused by a natural gas leak was not so easy to put out.
Therefore, the sudden pillar of fire that had appeared and disappeared just now had most likely been created by a Cultivator using an ability. It was also possible that an exotic beast had created it with an ability.
If it was the former, there was nothing to worry about. But if it was the latter, staying here would be far too dangerous. He had to leave immediately.
Lin Li quickly analyzed the situation in his mind, then decided to flee toward the safe zone at once.
Unfortunately, just as he was about to move, intense sounds of battle suddenly came from behind him, accompanied by fierce roars.
"Bang, bang, bang..."
"Roar..."
Hearing the fierce fighting rapidly approaching his position, Lin Li immediately abandoned the idea of running away. He spun around and plunged into the dense grass beside him.
It was the right decision, because the very next second after Lin Li entered the dense grass, two figures appeared several dozen meters from where he was hiding.
Given those two figures' frightening speed, catching up to Lin Li if he ran would have been effortless.
Without knowing whether they were friend or foe, hiding was the best choice.
"Bang!"
The two figures punched each other, and the resulting shockwave sent the vegetation around them rustling violently.
Both sides retreated six or seven meters. After steadying themselves, they panted faintly, but their eyes never left each other for even an instant.
From within the grass, Lin Li widened his eyes as he watched the two figures facing off dozens of meters away.
One was a middle-aged man in his early forties. He was 1.75 meters tall, with a square face and a crew cut, and wore camouflage fatigues.
Both his hands were covered by metal gloves. From the pale golden Spiritual Light that occasionally flashed across them, it was clear that the gloves were probably spirit artifacts.
The other figure facing the middle-aged man was an exotic ape nearly two meters tall.
The ape's entire body was covered in white fur. Its limbs were powerful, its fangs protruded beyond its lips, and its pitch-black eyes were filled with murderous intent as it stared at the middle-aged man.
"What a terrifying exotic beast."
Hidden in the grass, Lin Li observed the White Ape Exotic Beast. Although he could not sense the strength of the Spiritual Energy fluctuations radiating from his opponent the way a second-order Cultivator could and use them to determine its strength,
he could clearly feel the terrifying killing intent radiating from the White Ape Exotic Beast.
"Stay calm and regulate my breathing. That White Ape Exotic Beast and the middle-aged man in the distance must both be second-order Cultivators.
"At their level, Cultivators could use their mental power to sense their surroundings and were especially sensitive to creatures radiating Spiritual Energy fluctuations. I absolutely couldn't circulate the Spiritual Energy within my body anymore.
"If they sensed the Spiritual Energy fluctuations radiating from me, I would have no choice but to immediately hide in the Mysterious Small Island for shelter."
Hidden in the grass, Lin Li worked hard to relax his entire body and mind, refusing to let his nervousness take control.
"Roar..."
After confronting each other for a while, the White Ape Exotic Beast let out a roar at the middle-aged man.
"Heh... You're all bark and no bite. Don't think you can scare me away like this... I stabbed you in the heart. As long as I keep tangling with you, you're not far from death."
The middle-aged man was completely unafraid in the face of the White Ape Exotic Beast's roar. Instead, he addressed it with a chuckle.
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