Chapter 705 - 430: Super-Fertile, Gutless Rats

Chapter 705: Chapter 430: Super-Fertile, Gutless Rats

"WHOOSH..."

A sudden gust of wind swept into the pavilion, making the clothes of the two men inside flutter and snap.

After the sudden gust of wind died down, Wu Xinggao spoke. "That masked assailant has some unknown means of escape. This is a bit troublesome."

"..." Wu Xiong nodded. The masked assailant was powerful, and combined with his unknown means of escape, dealing with him had become extremely tricky.

"Regarding the masked assailant, what should we do next? Tell me your thoughts," Wu Xinggao asked.

"Patriarch, with my limited intellect, I can’t think of a way to deal with the masked assailant right now," Wu Xiong said in shame.

Wu Xinggao knew that asking Wu Xiong this question was putting him on the spot. He thought for a moment before speaking.

"Since three Tier Two Peak Cultivators couldn’t handle him, we’ll just send more men... Later, go find the Sect Leader of the Blood Killing Sect. Tell him that as long as that masked assailant is alive, the favor he owes me is not repaid."

"Yes," Wu Xiong replied.

Afterward, the master and servant chatted in the pavilion for a while longer about how to deal with the masked assailant.

When Wu Xiong got up and left to carry out Wu Xinggao’s orders, leaving Wu Xinggao alone in the pavilion, a grim voice echoed from within.

’He’s humiliated me twice now. How can I quell the anger in my heart without skinning him alive?’

And just as Wu Xinggao, the Patriarch of the Wu Family, was deploying new methods to deal with the masked assailant, that very same assailant, in another world, was striving to improve his own cultivation.

...

Golden sunlight spilled across the land. Beneath a vast blue sky, a figure in camouflage fatigues sprinted across a green wilderness.

Lin Li was pressing forward, about to reach his destination, when he suddenly sensed a Spiritual Energy Wave from a dense patch of grass to his front right.

"Hmm?"

He slowed his pace, his eyes fixed warily on the dense patch of grass where the Spiritual Energy Wave had appeared.

"RUSTLE."

The creature hiding in the thick, leafy grass decided the distance was close enough. It kicked off with all four limbs, shot out of the grass, and lunged ferociously at its prey.

’Courting death.’

Lin Li watched the attacking Wolf-like Beast, then kicked off with his right foot, shifting his body to the left and easily dodging its pounce.

"ROAR..."

Seeing that it had missed its prey, the Wolf-like Beast kicked off the ground as it landed, rapidly changed direction, and lunged at Lin Li once more.

"Tsk... its reaction speed is pretty fast, but unfortunately, that little bit of strength isn’t enough to matter," Lin Li muttered.

This time, he didn’t bother with a large evasion. Instead, he sidestepped and took a step back. As the Wolf-like Beast shot past him, he instantly raised his right leg and kicked it square in the abdomen.

"AWOOO...!!!"

Struck in its soft abdomen, the Wolf-like Beast was sent flying backward, letting out a shrill, miserable cry.

"SLAM."

It slammed heavily onto the ground and rolled several times before stopping. The intense pain in its abdomen hadn’t crushed the Wolf-like Beast’s will to fight.

It struggled to its feet, wanting to attack its prey again, but at that moment, a piercing sound rang out.

"WHOOSH."

A dangerously sharp Cyan Wind Blade rapidly formed in Lin Li’s hand. With a wave, the Cyan Wind Blade shot out, tearing through the air with a piercing whistle.

"SHINK."

The Wolf-like Beast, a Tier One Peak, had no time to dodge. It could only watch as the dangerously sharp Cyan Wind Blade struck it in the head.

"THUD."

Its head split in two, and a mess of red and white spilled out. The Mutant Beast, killed in a single strike, collapsed to the ground.

Now, when Lin Li fought this kind of Tier One Peak Mutant Beast, as long as he could land a blow on a vital point, he could basically kill it in one move.

He recalled how just a few months ago, when he first entered the wilderness to hunt Mutant Beasts alone, even dealing with a Tier One High Stage Mutant Beast had felt extremely tricky.

And now, he could instantly kill a Mutant Beast that was even stronger. He couldn’t help but marvel at how much he had grown.

Lin Li looked at the Wolf-like Beast he had killed in a single blow, mused for a moment, then stepped forward and collected the prey into his Mysterious Small Island.

This slain Wolf-like Beast was a good start to Lin Li’s hunt in the wilderness today.

After his cultivation broke through to Tier Two Peak, the difficulty for the Magical Little Fruits on the Magical Little Tree on the Mysterious Small Island to fully mature had increased again, just as he had expected.

Previously, the Flesh and Blood Essence of a single Tier One Mutant Beast could provide 0.2 percent progress towards a Magical Little Fruit’s maturation. Now, it only provided 0.1 percent.

If Lin Li wanted to harvest a mature Magical Little Fruit now, he would need to hunt one thousand Tier One Mutant Beasts.

With Lin Li’s current cultivation, one thousand Mutant Beasts sounded like a lot, but if he were to specifically target Tier One Mutant Beasts, it would still be quite easy.

The catch was that it would take a very long time to hunt such a large number of Tier One Mutant Beasts.

As for the Flesh and Blood Essence of a Tier Two Mutant Beast, it used to provide 1.5 percent maturation progress, but now it only provided one percent.

Hunting one hundred Tier Two Mutant Beasts would allow him to harvest a mature Magical Little Fruit. And if he ventured deeper into the wilderness, finding Tier Two Mutant Beasts was relatively easy.

Although hunting Tier Two Mutant Beasts was much more difficult than hunting Tier One Mutant Beasts, overall, the time it would take to hunt one hundred Tier Two beasts was far less than the time needed to hunt one thousand Tier One beasts.

As for Lin Li’s current plan, it would begin after the extermination of the Flame Rats was complete.

He would push deeper into the wilderness and quickly harvest a new, mature Magical Little Fruit by hunting a large number of Tier Two Mutant Beasts.

’Including the 0.1 percent maturation progress from this Wolf-like Beast, I’m still 97.2 percent away from harvesting another mature Magical Little Fruit.’

After collecting the Wolf-like Beast into his Mysterious Small Island, Lin Li made a quick mental calculation, then immediately set off, running quickly toward his destination where the Flame Rats were known to appear.

...

In the wilderness was a small, shimmering lake, about a hundred-odd mu in size.

Lush grass and trees grew beside the small lake. If you pushed aside the dense vegetation, you would find holes in the ground hidden among them, each large enough to fit a whole soccer ball.

"SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK..."

If you listened closely, you could hear faint sounds coming from the holes from time to time.

The lush vegetation swayed gently, though not from the wind.

Observing carefully, if you looked through the gaps in the vegetation, you would see something crawling out of the hidden holes... It was a rat.

The rat that crawled out of the hole was huge, several times the size of a common house rat.

A faint Spiritual Energy Wave emanated from the Flame Rat, which was nearly half a meter long, crimson all over, and had large front teeth.

This Flame Rat was at the Tier One Middle Stage of cultivation. Its strength was not impressive. After crawling out of its hole, it cautiously looked around the entrance. Once it confirmed there was no danger, it turned its head and squeaked a few times toward the hole.

A few seconds later, faint sounds came from the dark hole. Soon, one by one, Flame Rat pups, each over twenty centimeters long, crawled out.

One, two, three, four, five... There were ten Flame Rat pups in total.

Although adult Flame Rats generally only had the strength of the Tier One Initial Stage to Tier One Middle Stage, their threat level was not high for Exotic Beast Hunters qualified to hunt Mutant Beasts in the wilderness.

However, these Flame Rats reproduced quickly. They could give birth six to eight times a year, with six to ten pups in each litter.

If their numbers weren’t cleared out and controlled, once the Flame Rats reproduced to a certain point, they would gather and form a terrifying rat plague.

Even though individual Flame Rats were weak, if tens of thousands of them swarmed at once, few Exotic Beast Hunter teams active in the wilderness would be able to escape the terrifying plague alive.

The adult Flame Rat led its ten pups out to explore. Coming out of the hole for the first time, the pups were full of curiosity about everything.

"Squeak squeak squeak..." The adult Flame Rat warned its pups not to stray too far, lest they couldn’t escape back into the hole in time if danger arose.

The Flame Rat pups clearly didn’t take their parent’s words to heart. They scurried around cheerfully, moving farther and farther from the hole.

"Heh... ten in one litter. They sure are prolific." A voice came from behind a large tree in the distance, followed by the glow of an orange-red light.

...