Chapter Twenty: Formidable Enemy (Vote Requested)
The new book has reached fourth place—though it's only temporary, I am grateful for everyone's support. I earnestly ask you all to keep voting and continue to support Xiao Hei. Without you, Xiao Hei would surely lose confidence in this new venture. ^&^
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Everywhere, magical beasts possess a strong sense of territory, including the low-level ones on the outskirts of the Blackwater Mountains. They have extraordinarily keen senses, able to detect intruders early, and are fiercely aggressive, with intelligence rivaling ordinary humans.
For Xu Wen, the notion of intelligent magical beasts was a novelty.
In the game worlds he’d experienced before, ordinary magical beasts always seemed to be the weaker party—mere stepping stones for players to gain experience and ascend. Yet, in this world, everything was radically different.
Here, magical beasts know how to judge the strength of intruders in their own way. When faced with someone too powerful, they choose to hide. If there are too many invaders, they won’t blindly rush out to court death!
Unless the intruder is deemed manageable, they wouldn’t foolishly risk slaughter by coming out to challenge them.
Such is their way of survival.
This was Xu Wen’s second time entering the Blackwater Mountains.
A fourteen-year-old child, alone, inexperienced in jungle hunting—the very picture of naivety and immaturity.
Such a person was rarely seen by the magical beasts of the Blackwater Mountains. Those who usually entered were either already bearing the aura of seasoned hunters at that age, or traveled in groups. In those cases, low-level beasts would quietly keep their distance, hiding until the humans passed.
A lone newcomer like Xu Wen was like Little Red Riding Hood delivering herself to the wolf’s den, a temptation that stirred the appetites of the low-level magical beasts.
At that moment, a pair of narrowed eyes gleamed coldly from the shadows, silently awaiting his arrival.
A crisp snap echoed through the quiet forest.
Xu Wen looked down instinctively—his foot had broken a dry branch. That fleeting lapse in vigilance was inevitable.
Whoosh!
A black figure burst from the shadowy forest like a whirlwind!
Thud! Thud! Thud-thud!
Its limbs moved with explosive speed, dust swirling far behind. Its eyes, suddenly wide, glowed like taillights streaking scarlet through the darkness, and its heavy breathing tightened Xu Wen’s nerves:
So fast!
This creature was far stronger than the five low-level beasts encountered so far—the speed, the pressure, and the perfectly timed ambush… its strength was certainly above the “Stinky Swamp” beast!
Xu Wen dared not slacken. He instinctively slid back a half step, raised his round shield, and let the fire element surge through him. Scorching flames instantly extended from his right hand, condensing into the shape of a fire blade before his palm. This was the advantage of elemental cyclones—the speed of summoning magic was thirty percent faster than before.
He swiftly adopted a defensive stance. The beast’s appearance clarified before him: a perfect, streamlined form, reminiscent of a black panther, with strange spotted markings on its flanks. In the blink of an eye, it had leapt from dozens of meters away to right in front of him.
Black Jackal!
A one-star, ninth-tier magical beast.
The details flashed through Xu Wen’s mind as the Black Jackal sprang forward, its heavy breath nearly striking his face.
“Good timing!”
Xu Wen’s primary purpose for entering the Blackwater Mountains was to hunt for higher-tier magical beast cores. Having finally found a one-star high-tier beast, he would not back down.
Shield raised to guard, body angled, the fire blade swept through the air in a dazzling arc, slashing toward the Black Jackal!
All along the way, he had used this simple, direct method to cleanly dispatch three low-level beasts with close combat abilities.
At his current strength, the fire blade was as sharp as modern high-temperature cutting machines; beasts with weaker bodies could easily be cleaved in two.
But…
The Black Jackal’s body actually took the blow.
Sss!
A short, sizzling sound—its body was sent flying by the strike, yet in that instant, Xu Wen clearly felt the beast twist to avoid a full hit, escaping serious injury. Though it was thrown outward by the force, it dodged the worst of the attack.
Xu Wen felt a twinge of regret.
“Oooh~~!”
The Black Jackal, having tested Xu Wen’s combat strength with its ambush, let out a mournful cry, scrambled upright, tucked its tail, and fled. The prey before it was not something it could handle; the fire blade alone posed a mortal threat!
“Trying to run?”
Xu Wen smiled lightly—how could he let his quarry escape?
With a flick of his right arm, the fire blade extended over a foot long and sprang from his hand like a coiled spring, burning fiercely—a powerful ranged weapon!
Swish!
Chasing the fleeing Black Jackal, the fire blade traced a beautiful, soul-chasing arc through the air.
Controlling the fire blade at the one-star level was challenging, especially after releasing it, which required intense mental focus. But for Xu Wen, who had already reached two-star advanced strength, it was effortless.
A wailing cry echoed from where the fire blade vanished, followed by a heavy thud.
One strike, and Xu Wen’s face remained unchanged.
He approached, quietly chanting—the fire blade had only severed one of the Black Jackal’s hind legs. For magical beasts with tough bodies, this still left about seventy percent of their fighting capacity.
Even that remaining strength was enough to instantly kill a careless low-level mage.
Xu Wen cautiously stopped ten meters from the Black Jackal.
With a casual gesture, countless fiery streaks intertwined around him.
Buzz!!!
The air nearby trembled violently; a giant flame arrow began to emerge from the swirling light!
Boom!!!
A deafening explosion! The tail of the flame arrow erupted with a powerful blast, rocketing toward the prey on the ground!
The earth shook violently!
The Black Jackal was swiftly engulfed by a miniature blaze, flames shooting in all directions.
A small, charred pit appeared where the attack landed, the beast’s body mangled and thrown amidst the flames, the scent of roasted meat wafting through the air.
The attack of a two-star advanced spell was indeed formidable…
Xu Wen walked to the corpse, drew a sharp dagger, and expertly extracted a clay-yellow magical core, tossing it into his backpack without even looking.
His gaze lingered over the Black Jackal’s body several times, then moved away in regret.
The Black Jackal was a top-tier one-star beast, its physical strength far surpassing that of the “Stinky Swamp” creature. If made into an undead skeleton, its combat power would reach at least one-star, fourth-tier—stronger than an entry-level skeleton.
Unfortunately…
This was not the place for such magic. Since Ding Yushan’s team had encountered that incident here, Xu Wen had grown even more cautious, not daring to use necromancy indiscriminately.
Moreover,
With his current strength, traversing the outskirts of the Blackwater Mountains was more than sufficient—he had no need for a one-star undead to serve him.
Xu Wen rose and pressed forward without hesitation.
The Black Jackal he had just slain was likely the last line of defense for one-star beasts. Going deeper would mean facing magical beasts that could not be dealt with so easily.
Two-star beasts had much higher resistance to physical and magical attacks than one-star beasts, and their skills were more varied. For example, the Wind Fox’s chain wind blades could attack multiple targets at once or launch repeated assaults on the same victim—a challenge that would stop a lone fire mage in his tracks.
But since entering the Blackwater Mountains, Xu Wen had ceased to suppress his advancement.
After several rounds of combat, he easily broke through to two-star, seventh-tier. The elemental cyclone formed, his defense and attack greatly strengthened. Now, he truly wanted to venture deeper, seek out two-star beasts, test himself against them, and acquire a second two-star magical core.
He had barely walked a short distance when a group of three young men and two young women arrived at the charred remains of the Black Jackal, noticing lingering flames and the aroma of burnt meat.
“The temperature hasn’t faded—the person hasn’t gone far…” The slender youth in the team crouched beside the beast’s still-warm body, scanning the ground for tracks. “Over there. Should we follow?”
“Wait a moment.”
The speaker was a noble-looking, blue-eyed youth, now staring intently at the dark pit beside the Black Jackal, his face solemn.
The others gathered around.
“Captain?”
A sturdier youth, his face round and fleshy, stared at the pit for a while but saw nothing, looking perplexed.
The two girls noticed something. The one with the brown ponytail whispered to the quiet, delicate girl beside her, “Flame Arrow?”
The latter nodded with certainty. “Without a doubt. Among low-level spells, only Flame Arrow combines piercing attack with explosive damage. This person’s strength… at least two-star, sixth-tier…”
“Two-star, sixth-tier? Isn’t that as strong as Captain?” The round-faced youth looked at the silent blue-eyed boy—their captain, newly advanced to two-star, sixth-tier.
He nodded.
“Judging from the wounds on the magical beasts along the way, that person is acting alone, and may even be stronger than Captain,” said the slender youth as he examined the Black Jackal’s injuries. “The previous one-star beasts were all slain with the fire blade—deadly, clean. This one has only three wounds, two from the fire blade, the other from the two-star advanced Flame Arrow. If it were Captain, I doubt he could have done it this neatly.”
The blue-eyed captain’s expression darkened slightly, but he did not refute—accepting the assessment.
The slender youth glanced at him, sighed, and stood up.
“We thought that after Ding Yushan left for Seventh Medicine Peak, we could easily qualify for admission to Qingyun Academy with our strength… Seems we’ve met a formidable rival.”