Assassin Encounter

Wharton broke out in a cold sweat as well. The man in black had attacked fiercely, striking straight at vital points. If he had not used Dragonblood Transformation at the critical moment to block most of the attacks, he would have been severely injured even if he survived. His stealth skills had also been truly formidable. He was clearly cultivating dark-element battle qi, but Wharton did not know which faction he belonged to.

Walking over to the man in black, Wharton grabbed his backpack and opened it. It was filled with magic crystal cores, all from fifth- and sixth-rank magical beasts. He wondered how many magical beasts this man had killed, or whether he had obtained them by killing others.

"Ah, forget it. They're mine now anyway." Once he returned to the academy, selling these magic crystal cores would be enough to cover his future tuition fees and lessen his father's burden.

Thinking of his father, Wharton had only seen him in the memories of his former self, yet he could still feel Hogg's deep paternal love and admired him greatly. Hogg had raised Linley and Wharton alone, then resolutely investigated the cause of his wife Linda's death, only to be killed by Paderson.

One day, Wharton was bathing beneath a waterfall. Beside him lay the corpse of a Bloodthirsty Iron Bull. Just as Wharton was enjoying his bath, a dragon roar rang out. Looking up, Wharton saw a Raptor seize the Bloodthirsty Iron Bull's corpse in its jaws and swallow it after only a few bites. The Raptor also spotted Wharton nearby, roared loudly at him, and charged toward him.

Wharton immediately transformed into a Dragonblood Warrior, picked up his saber, and slashed at the Raptor. The Raptor's body was like a small hill. Every strike Wharton landed injured it, but because of Wharton's speed, he was able to nimbly evade all of the Raptor's attacks.

The Raptor could not accept this and charged at Wharton once more. Suddenly, an enormous black shadow smashed down toward him. Only then did Wharton realize it was the Raptor's tail, which sent him flying into the water. Wharton felt that his internal organs had all suffered considerable injury. If his body had not become stronger after transforming, he might already have died.

"This Raptor is incredibly strong. I'm still no match for it." Taking advantage of the Raptor's attack, Wharton fled into the distance.

"Roaaar!"

Seeing Wharton vanish from sight in the blink of an eye, the Raptor pursued him for a while before letting out an enraged roar.

After running a great distance, Wharton finally shook off the Raptor. Hearing an angry roar from far behind him, he quickly disappeared, intending to find a safe place to calm the turmoil in his body.

The Raptor looked toward the place where Wharton had disappeared, swung its heavy dragon head, and smashed several centuries-old trees apart before finally trudging away in the opposite direction.

Wharton found a huge tree hollow and rested there for half an hour. Only then did the tightness in his chest completely ease. Just then—

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Waves of rumbling rose from beneath the tree, coming from deep within the Magical Beast Mountain Range. The tremors grew increasingly violent.

"Not good—it's a beast tide!"

Wharton was horrified. Before he could react, groups of sixth- and seventh-rank magical beasts fled madly toward the outer regions, as though some terrifying existence were chasing them from behind.

"Black-Patterned Leopards, Bloodthirsty Iron Bulls, Ironwall Apes, Black-Patterned Pythons... followed closely by high-rank magical beasts like Azure-Eyed Lion Ao..."

Wharton leaped onto a giant tree three or four hundred meters tall and watched the magical beasts fleeing frantically below. He too realized the severity of the situation. It was not only the beasts on the ground; flocks of flying magical beasts were constantly passing overhead as well.

Magical beasts were everywhere now, and Wharton did not dare venture out rashly. Faced with so many magical beasts, if he encountered humans, he would likely become a target for all and be torn apart by the beasts until not even scraps remained.

The magical beasts rioted in three waves, but the strongest among them were only eighth-rank magical beasts. Even now, Wharton had not seen any ninth-rank magical beasts. After all, unless there were Saint Domain magical beasts, there was simply no way to drive ninth-rank magical beasts away.