The youngster immediately stopped walking and couldn’t help but gasp.
After his astonishment passed, joy began to spread in his heart.
In the midst of the night, his eyes seemed to be shining.
“I will kill it! Then I will drink its blood.”
“I am really dying of thirst.”
Zhen Jin’s heart shouted.
But soon after, the joy in his heart waned and gave rise to great hesitation.
“Looking from afar, this beast’s build is quite large. It seems to be lying down in the sand, still, its height is already over two meters.”
“I cannot sense its aura from this distance. As if it was restrained?”
“This kind of large physique does not make it easy to survive in the desert. This signifies that it is also powerful.”
“If it is at the silver level, no, even at the iron level, it will still be very dangerous for me!”
On this incomparably dangerous island, gold level magic beasts were not rare.
Zhen Jin hesitated for a few breaths before deciding.
He still chose to attack!
Because he didn’t have food and water, his condition would continue to get worse. This vast and infertile desert was nothing like the forests. If Zhen Jin gave up this opportunity, then what suitable prey was there for him to hunt?
This kind of opportunity did not come often.
Therefore, taking advantage of this opportunity to attack while he still had the strength was the wisest move.
“If I encounter peril, I can only hope that my transformation ability will suddenly activate.”
Zhen Jin clenched his teeth, bent his waist, slowed his footsteps, and stealthily approached the giant beast.
In the darkness, the giant beast’s body seemed like a single unmoving mass.
After he got close enough, Zhen Jin’s expression suddenly changed, most of his nervousness and vigilance abruptly dissipated.
“It turned out to be just a boulder.”
Zhen Jin exhaled a foul breath as he wandered around what he thought to be a “giant beast”.
Although his body’s physical quality was outstanding, he was still human and his sight was greatly impaired in the night. If it were a dark elf, they would have seen clearly and not have made this kind of mistake.
1
Zhen Jin sized up the boulder before him.
The boulder appeared to be oval and silently stood in the darkness. The boulder’s surface faintly flickered with the vague luster of metal, however, it was bumpy and could not be called “smooth” with its small and innumerable holes.
What was strange was that from these sesame seed-like holes came a continuous aura of warmth.
Zhen Jin stared at it blankly, the words Cang Xu said before were recalled in his mind.
“Is this golden granite?”
2
Granite was a mixture of iron, metal, clay, and various other minerals. The composition and scale of granite was different depending on its origin.
The exploration team had also encountered a large slab of golden granite, based on Cang Xu’s initial deductions, it seemed these golden granite rocks contained abundant gold.
It's a pity that extracting gold from these huge and heavy golden granite rocks required a special method.
The exploration team didn’t have this extraction ability, of course, the most important thing for them was saving themselves along with finding food and water for their camp.
“Golden granite is usually found in clusters, but there is just one piece here.”
Zhen Jin used his hand to brush the surface of the boulder, feeling both dejected and glad.
He was dejected that he didn’t gain any food and water, but he also felt glad that he found this golden granite rock.
During the day, this boulder was exposed to the scorching sun and absorbed and stored heat in its core, even if the desert was frigid late into the night, the granite rock was still very warm.
This solved a big problem for Zhen Jin
His clothing seemed thin late into the night.
He was worried that he didn’t have the materials for a fire, but now he didn’t need one as he could directly rely on the boulder’s heat to resist the bitter cold.
And so one night passed like this, but when Zhen Jin opened his eyes again, he found the sun had already appeared over the horizon.
It was dawn.
Zhen Jin moved his limbs a bit, he was happy to find he had recovered a lot of stamina from last night’s good rest.
His body had fully recovered and his mind also calmed down because of ample time passing.
He felt a bit gratified that he hadn’t slept deeply, rather he was able to maintain his vigilance and alertness.
He had woken up two to three times during the night, all of them because of the whistles of the cold desert winds exceeding the warning level in his heart.
After waking up, he fell quickly asleep again.
This point made him feel very satisfied.
“It seems that I have received such training or have had previous experiences of maintaining the ability to sleep and be alert simultaneously.”
Accomplishing this really wasn't easy.
Zhen Jin had a new understanding of himself.
But this time when Zhen Jin woke up again, it was because he heard a strange noise.
Sounds of activity came from the northeast.
“These sounds are very weird, as if there are snakes?”
The golden granite boulder that Zhen Jin perched on was at the waist of a sand dune. An idea stirred in Zhen Jin as he slowly and carefully stepped towards the top of the sand dune.
At the peak, he slowly extended his head and quietly observed.
It was only daybreak and there was not enough light.
First, a piece of golden granite appeared before his eyes. There were several hundreds of stones at varying distances and sizes, they seemed like chess pieces arranged on a chessboard of sand dunes.
This undoubtedly confirmed Cang Xu’s words——when golden granite rocks appeared, they covered an area in clusters. The golden granite boulder Zhen Jin was previously perched on was located at the fringe, nothing more.
After that, Zhen Jin’s pupils then slightly constricted.
He saw two beast groups confronting each other among the golden granite boulder cluster.
One group was green-skinned lizards, the other was golden scorpions.
The lizards were as big as a warhorse while the scorpions were a bit smaller.
The lizards let out something similar to a snake hiss and the scorpions produced a rustling sound as both sides threatened their counterpart.
These cacophony of noises were the ones that woke Zhen Jin up.
Zhen Jin’s heart was tense.
He perceived the aura of these two beast groups, both the lizards and scorpions groups were iron level with a silver level leading them.
“Not factoring the transformation, just one silver level magic beast is a fatal threat to me.”
“A certain number of iron level magic beasts can also kill me.”
Zhen Jin still did not understand clearly the principles of his transformations.
Currently, he could not use battle qi, his prayers were also unanswered, and he didn’t have any armour. The only thing that comforted him was the weapon in his hand.
It was a silver level weapon, however, it was also constantly being worn out by time and use.
The blade-legged spider’s limbs really were a good material to make weapons from. However, this material needed to be processed to stabilize its magic power and retain its sharpness.
Therefore, Zhen Jin did not act blindly
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without thinking as he squatted in place and continued to quietly observe.
Currently, he still did not understand why these two beast groups were confronting each other, and he was unwilling to provoke either party.
The youngsters stealthily looked from side to side as he prayed to himself: “If these two beast groups fight each other, maybe they can give me the chance to gain some food.”
As if hearing Zhen Jin’s prayer, the two beast groups grew restless, they started to cross swords as they ran out of patience.
But it was not a large scale battle, rather the beast group leaders went out alone into the battlefield to battle a one on one duel.
“Sa!”
The green lizard coarsely produced an odd cry, it then gaped and spat out a dense green liquid.
The green liquid directly hit the golden scorpion's body.
The golden scorpion immediately used its immense pincers to shield itself and succeeded in protecting its eyes.
Sizzle sizzle…
4
White smoke immediately fizzled from the surface of the golden scorpion’s two large pincers.
Zhen Jin narrowed his eyes as he keenly discovered: some of the liquid
5
had splashed onto a golden granite boulder and corroded a fist-sized hole into the boulder within a few breaths.
“If that sprays onto my body, without battle qi to protect me, I fear that in two to three breaths, only my bones will remain.”
But Zhen Jin’s heart slightly relaxed when the lizard leader immediately became sluggish after it spat out this large amount of acid and took the initiative to retreat.
It was very clear that the acid was not its routine fighting method.
However, as the lizard retreated, the golden scorpion quickly advanced.
The distance between both sides quickly closed.
The green lizard immediately gaped and once more produced an odd sound as if it wanted to shoot the green acid again.
But the golden scorpion was more cunning as it had its pincers raised in front of it already.
At the same time, it extended it’s at least two meter long scorpion tail and ruthlessly thrusted!
The scorpion’s tail was as sharp as a knight’s spear.
The scorpion’s tail immediately pierced the green lizard’s head and created a large and deep hole in its skull.
This was a fatal wound!
After the successful strike, the golden scorpion immediately retreated.
Its retreat was very fast.
The hole in the green lizard’s skull seemed like a fountain that spewed out white brains mixed with green blood.
The green lizard leader let out a desperate whine, and finally in that moment, exploded into a mad and violent attack.
Its mouth squirted out the corrosive acid once more, it was not accurate as it resembled a green light beam sweeping around randomly.
The huge golden granite boulders immediately started to give off white smoke, and after a fizzling noise, they melted like snow in the sun.
The green lizard also brought disaster to the lizard group. They fell into panic as the unlucky beasts shrieked, some of whom had their limbs corroded to the bone. Those that got it in their eyes frantically dug into the sand in an attempt to save themselves.
There were also a few golden scorpions that were hit by the green acid, their entire carapaces quickly softened, and after a few breaths, only the tips of their scorpion tails remained.
The silver level golden scorpion could resist the green acid, however the majority of the iron level scorpions could not.
Luckily, the green lizard’s explosive attack only lasted a few breaths.
Very quickly, its mouth no longer sprayed the green acid.
After losing their leader, the green lizards retreated one after the other. The golden scorpions obtained their victory, however, they did not pursue their retreating enemies like Zhen Jin calculated.
After the golden scorpions drove off the green lizards, they ignored all of the carcasses and instead surrounded some golden granite boulders in twos and threes.
What Zhen Jin saw amazed him; these golden scorpions first used their tails to poke and pierce the golden granite boulders and then cooperated with each other to shatter the boulders open.
After that, they used their large pincers to smash the golden granite pieces into smaller fragments.
Finally, they put all of the fragments into their mouths and continuously chewed them.
“As it turns out, these golden granite boulders are the golden scorpion’s food?" Zhen Jin looked thoughtfully at the scene before him.
Zhen Jin could not help but roll his Adam’s Apple.
As he saw the scorpions gobbling their meals, he felt his own unsatiated hunger and thirst cravings being stimulated even more.
He waited patiently.
The golden scorpions ate for half an hour until they finally swaggered off with a rustling noise and left behind their remains.
After verifying his safety, Zhen Jin’s heart grew excited as he rushed to the former battlefield.
The magic beasts hit by the acid could not be eaten.
However, the lizard leader that had sprayed out the acid bled its blood and brains out, and its flesh was in good condition.
Zhen Jin used his weapon to cut apart the lizard and obtained its meat.
Zhen Jin had only been sleeping and watching the battle, yet food became sufficient all of a sudden!
“However, I still lack water.”
“Can I still come across this kind of luck again?”
The youngster’s happiness and excitement gradually calmed down.
There was still some acid remaining so Zhen Jin carefully tested a bit of it with his weapon.
Zhen Jin waited patiently for a moment and found that the silver level spider sword retained its hardness and sharpness, seeing that, he felt relieved.
By this point, the sun began to appear over the horizon, with it, Zhen Jin’s field of view became better.
The air temperature also began to rise again.
Zhen Jin knew that this was a rare opportunity to hasten his journey, he was just about set off when his pupils suddenly contracted.
“This is?!”
A pink smear appeared in his field of view, something that shocked him endlessly.
“Let them fight”
-Ken Watanabe
Notes
All true CN authors use breaths to calculate time instead of seconds. This is the way. Looks like our poor MC is back to tracking down the side characters he lost in the beginning of the arc. Hopefully those beast groups don’t fancy human flesh in the meantime.
Translation Notes