At dusk on the fifth day, Loa stood on a raised ridge and finally saw the dark blue-green outline stretching across the twilight-the Magical Beast Mountain Range.
The rolling mountains gleamed iron-gray beneath the setting sun, like the spine of a sleeping behemoth. Beyond this point lay truly perilous territory. The mountain entrance he had chosen was not a route commonly used by ordinary adventurers, but a relatively concealed shortcut leading straight into the southeastern region of the range's middle reaches. According to the map, traveling a hundred or so li inward from here would let him bypass most of the trouble in the outer reaches and reach the Sulfur Hot Spring Zone directly.
Without hesitation, Loa tightened the pack on his back and disappeared into the tree line.
The next seven days were a dull, vigilant march. He deliberately avoided known concentrations of magical beast lairs, moving swiftly through the dense forest with his keen perception of airflow and wilderness survival skills. Third- and fourth-level magical beasts predominated in the mountains' outer reaches and no longer posed much of a threat to Loa, but he still followed the principle that "unnecessary fighting is wasteful," avoiding it whenever possible.
Only three times did he strike, after judging that the magical beast materials were valuable enough and the fight would not cause too much commotion. Twice, he encountered roaming Ironback Boars-fourth-level earth-element magical beasts whose back spines were low-grade alchemical materials. The other was a Windblade Mantis lurking near his camp at night; its two great scythes were excellent natural materials. The fights were clean and swift. Each time, he used his superior speed to close in, then killed with a single blow powered by the explosive force of his "Ten Thousand Jun" battle-qi. He acquired three fourth-level Magical Cores.
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