Transcendent

Hearing that, Fang Zhixing replied with a cold laugh, "A dog can't stop eating shit."

Skinny Dog snickered coldly. "What the hell do you know? Bad men make women swoon. I'm a king of the sea, radiating confidence!"

About two hours later, the rain finally began to ease.

One man and one dog left their comfort zone, trudging through the drizzle in search of prey.

A moment later...

Fang Zhixing rounded a tree so wide it would take three people linking arms to encircle it, then abruptly stopped. His gaze pierced through the woods, and he saw two sika deer standing beneath a large tree, leisurely nibbling tender grass.

The two sika deer were one large and one small, likely a mother and her fawn.

"Damn, deer!"

Skinny Dog poked his head out, staring wide-eyed.

In his previous life, he had only seen sika deer in zoos. He had never tasted venison.

"They're a little too far away. We need to get closer." Fang Zhixing bent low and carefully crept toward them.

But the doe suddenly turned her head and spotted Fang Zhixing. She wheeled around with the fawn and fled.

In the blink of an eye, they vanished into the depths of the dense forest.

"Strange. How did I give myself away?"

Fang Zhixing looked utterly baffled.

"Maybe your footsteps were too loud," Skinny Dog said. "You're walking through mud. There's no way your steps can be quiet."

Fang Zhixing fell into thought.

Before long, the rain intensified again. It poured for a while, then weakened once more, repeating like that over and over.

The man and dog were drenched through, miserable and chilled to the bone.

After searching for more than an hour, they finally discovered a herd of wild boars. Not one wild boar, but twenty or thirty gathered together.

Fang Zhixing held his breath, lay flat on the ground, and crawled toward them inch by inch.

After crawling within thirty meters, he suddenly rose to his feet and swiftly drew his bow and fired.

Whoosh!

The cold arrow tore through the air and struck true!

"Oink, oink, argh~~"

A wild boar leaped straight up, thrashing its head wildly.

The cold arrow had sunk into its eye socket, blood pouring out in a stream.

Startled, the herd of wild boars stampeded away. Even the one that had been hit ran, racing at astonishing speed and quickly disappearing from sight.

"After them!"

Fang Zhixing and Skinny Dog hurriedly gave chase, following the hoofprints and bloodstains on the ground.

But the rain quickly washed away the blood, and the hoofprints became blurred.

Fang Zhixing and Skinny Dog were panting from exhaustion when, as they ran, a steep slope suddenly appeared ahead.

The hoofprints vanished below the slope.

"What a pity..."

Fang Zhixing wiped the rain from his face and shook his head speechlessly.

Skinny Dog said glumly, "Are wild boars always this fierce? An arrow pierced its head, and it still didn't die?"

Fang Zhixing sighed. "Maybe we were just plain unlucky. I once read a report about someone whose head was pierced through by a steel bar, yet they were actually saved in the end."

The man and dog came up empty-handed and had no choice but to find somewhere to rest.

In the blink of an eye, afternoon arrived.

Beneath a toppled, crooked tree, Fang Zhixing and Skinny Dog sheltered from the rain. The man and dog looked like drowned rats, utterly bedraggled.

The rain gradually ceased.

Croak~

Ribbit~

The moment the rain stopped, waves of frog calls suddenly echoed through the mountain forest.

"Frogs!"

Fang Zhixing's spirits soared. He stepped through the mud, searching everywhere.

Before long, he spotted a shallow bank in the distance. Four or five enormous frogs lay along its edge, each over twenty centimeters long, croaking loudly with voices as booming as cattle.

"Holy shit, these might be bullfrogs!"

Fang Zhixing was overjoyed. Pickled pepper bullfrog, dry-pot bullfrog, bullfrog hotpot—dishes flashed through his mind one after another.

Skinny Dog suddenly said, "Look more carefully. Have you ever seen a bullfrog with something glowing on its head?!"

Fang Zhixing took a closer look and finally noticed a fleshy lump bulging from the top of the bullfrogs' heads, between their large eyes. It resembled a pointed horn and was red enough to drip blood.

Fang Zhixing said in shock, "A red horn?"

Skinny Dog shot Fang Zhixing a sidelong glance, dumbfounded. "What red horn? It's clearly a ball of fire, like ghost fire!"

"What ghost fire?"

Fang Zhixing froze for a moment. Looking down at Skinny Dog, he asked seriously, "Where did you see fire?"

Skinny Dog answered just as seriously, "There's a ball of fire floating over those bullfrogs' heads. You can't see it?"

Fang Zhixing shook his head.

One man and one dog stared at each other, wide-eyed.

After a long while, they confirmed one thing: human eyes and dog eyes saw different images.

"Well, this finally has a bit of that otherworldly flavor."

Fang Zhixing clicked his tongue in wonder, his emotions stirring. He mused, "We may have encountered transcendent creatures."

Skinny Dog deeply agreed. "Unbelievable. This world is definitely not simple."

Even so, Fang Zhixing still drew an arrow from his quiver.

In his eyes, no matter how wondrous a transcendent creature was, it was still nothing more than an ingredient.

He quietly crept closer.

Using the trees as cover.

Fang Zhixing closed to around twenty meters, raised his bow, drew the string, and loosed the arrow in one fluid motion.

Whoosh!

The cold arrow shot out, slicing through the chilly air and flying toward the right side of the shallow bank.

"Croak~~"

The next instant, a pig-slaughtering scream rang out.

Fang Zhixing looked closely and saw bullfrogs scattering in every direction. They were incredibly fast, vanishing into the forest after only a few leaps.

Only the largest bullfrog had been struck in the thigh by the cold arrow and pinned to the mud, still struggling.

Fang Zhixing raised his brows, greatly surprised.

After all, he had aimed this arrow at the bullfrog's forehead, yet it had missed by at least ten centimeters.

"A hit rate that never misses, and it almost didn't hit?"

Fang Zhixing's heart tightened. He suddenly realized that the hit rate of [Apprentice Archer] was not absolute; it had a range of applicability.

For example, when shooting ordinary beasts, his arrows never missed. But against transcendent creatures, the outcome might depend on fate.

Skinny Dog quickly ran over, stretched out a little paw, and pinned down the bullfrog's other wildly kicking leg.

The bullfrog was instantly subdued, with only its head left swaying from side to side.

Fang Zhixing walked over, lowered his head to inspect the bullfrog, and frowned. "That's it? It doesn't seem all that transcendent!"

Skinny Dog was somewhat disappointed as well. "Maybe this thing isn't a transcendent creature at all. Remember that fish in the sea called an anglerfish? It has a fishing rod growing out of its head and can glow too."

After pondering briefly, Fang Zhixing suddenly drew his blade and thrust it straight down.

Pfft!

The blade point pierced through the bullfrog's back, making it stop struggling completely.

[2, Slay 2 lifeforms of the same level (1/2)]

The system panel suddenly flashed with light.

Fang Zhixing's eyes lit up, and his heartbeat quickened.

"Hmm??!"

Skinny Dog was stunned, his face full of question marks. Clicking his tongue, he said, "No way. You and a bullfrog are 'lifeforms of the same level'?"

Fang Zhixing found it unbelievable too, but the facts were right before him. The task was already halfway complete.

He tossed the bullfrog into the broken bamboo basket and said excitedly, "Come on. Kill one more bullfrog, and the Draw Blade Technique will be mastered."

Skinny Dog was looking forward to it as well. He ran off happily toward the sound of the bullfrogs croaking.

Before long, the two found another shallow bank, where more than ten bullfrogs had gathered and were croaking at the tops of their lungs.

Fang Zhixing could not help but be overjoyed...