As an old man, he had not understood what anticipation meant. Even after his son explained it, his aging hands were still too slow, and he dragged his son down every match.
Hadn't that come in handy here? It seemed he needed to keep a willingness to learn at any age. His obsession with mobile games in his old age had not been for nothing.
But Lucas, finally safe, was also furious. Damn it, what a rotten start. I lost a dagger on the very first day. Luckily, my powerful soul meant I wasn't sleeping deeply. Otherwise, I wouldn't even have known how I died!
The idea from his previous life that hiding in a tree was safe clearly did not hold up in this world. The magical beasts here could use magic. The wolf king's magical Wind Blade had sliced straight through a tree too thick for one person to wrap their arms around.
This made Lucas envy magical beasts even more. Why couldn't humans be born with innate abilities too? But on reflection, Lucas felt that the rules of the world were fair. When Hongmeng created humans, he had given them the talent to grow stronger quickly.
Lucas guessed that humans had possessed methods for cultivating Battle Qi in the beginning. It was just that humans reproduced too quickly and had limited lifespans. Over the long years, most humans had scattered and lost their Battle Qi inheritances!
On top of that, magical beasts were naturally stronger than humans, and humans had gradually been scattered and hemmed into various valleys by them. Those weak human tribes could only eke out an existence surrounded by magical beasts!
Lucas guessed that the Battle Qi cultivation methods his tribe's ancestors had heard about were probably held by the stronger tribes. Once people understood how precious Battle Qi was, they would cling to what they had all the more and be even less willing to teach it to others. As a result, humanity's fighting strength had sunk lower and lower. There was no way they could dominate the continent!
Lucas was rather angry too, but unfortunately, he was still too weak. He had no power to turn the situation around; such matters were still far beyond him. He was no saint either. The only people he had ever cared about were those who mattered to him.
After the Wind Wolves' attack, Lucas was no longer sleepy at all. He leaned back against the broken trunk again, settling the surging energy stirred up by his flight and slowly bringing himself into a calm state.
Lucas saw that it was still early and simply began refining his Battle Qi. The night was peaceful, the surroundings free of the daytime clamor. It was well suited to meditation and cultivation, and before long, Lucas entered a state of cultivation.
He could also get a rough sense of whether there was danger from the fluctuations of the natural elements around him. Of course, this method was useless against magical beasts with some ability to conceal themselves, but it could still provide a little warning!
Fortunately, the rest of the night passed safely. Lucas watched the sky around him slowly brighten and thought how nice it would have been to have a magical beast last night. They could have taken turns keeping watch, instead of sometimes remaining unaware even as danger approached!
Unfortunately, Lucas knew perfectly well that he had neither a contract scroll nor contract magic. Even if he could beat some magical beasts into submission, he still had no contract scroll. He could not establish a Master-Servant Contract, and besides, he did not want to waste such a precious contract opportunity on a low-ranking magical beast.
That left him with only one possibility: make a magical beast genuinely unwilling to leave him, then have it form a contract with him. But to establish that sort of contract, he would need a magical beast cub. Unfortunately, Lucas could not possibly get near the cub of a powerful magical beast at present!
Thinking about it now, Linley had absolutely lucked out back then. Perhaps Hongmeng had seen that his fate was uncertain and planned to give him a helping hand early on, wanting to see whether he could transcend.
Lucas could only openly envy him, and beyond expressing his jealousy, there was nothing he could do! There really was no fairness in this world. Why couldn't he run into a young divine beast he could sweet-talk?
Lucas could only sigh,
and hurriedly adjust his mindset. Morning was when most magical beasts came out to forage, so he could not act rashly yet. Lucas decided to lie low in the tree for a while first.
After waiting for about six hours, he looked at the fully bright sky. Lucas decided to return to the site of last night's battle and take a look. During the day, as long as he was a little careful, he could still escape even if he fell into an encirclement.
When Lucas reached the battlefield from the night before, he discovered that the wolves he had wounded had already been eaten by some unknown magical beast. He had hoped to see whether he could find any Magic Beast Cores, but now it seemed there was no chance.
On the fallen tree, Lucas found his bundle still tied to the fork of a branch. After putting it back on his back, he also found the dagger that had left his hand after his first strike the previous night. Lucas looked around, then left straight away.
It now seemed that the Wind Wolves he had encountered last night belonged to the pack that usually attacked the tribe every few years. What he had run into last night was probably just one group among them, only a few Wind Wolves. If it had been on the scale of the attacks on the tribe, Lucas would have met his end here last night!
One of the greatest taboos in the Magical Beast Forest was lighting a fire to cook. The rising smoke would reveal one's location from far away. Magical beasts were unlike the animals of his previous life; they were not afraid of flames.
So Lucas ate some cooked food from his bundle, then set off east again.
Half a day later, Lucas encountered a herd of Mighty Magical Bulls, the kind of magical beast he had seen in the tribe. Although they were only Fourth-Rank Magical Beasts, their numbers were enormous. Lucas only watched from a distance, not daring to get too close.
He knew that a herd of Fourth-Rank Magical Beasts on this scale was bound to have top predators nearby. They would always be waiting for a chance to find a lone calf or an injured bull to obtain their food for the day.
Lucas himself was only a Fifth Rank Warrior, and he was alone. Clearly, at a time like this, he was easier to catch than the calves within the herd. With a clear understanding of where he stood, Lucas headed straight in the opposite direction from the herd.
Lucas still had some food he had brought from the tribe, so there was no need to risk obtaining more. Besides, this herd was clearly not something he could hunt at present.
By noon, Lucas was somewhat tired after walking for most of the day. Although being in a tree was not necessarily safe either, he still found a fairly large one. He lay down in the fork of its branches, ate something, and sheltered from the blazing sun!
In a primeval forest like this, it was not advisable to stay in the sun for long.
Before you continue