“Pick up the pace! If we travel through the night, we can reach the outskirts of the Monster Mountain Range by tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Brother Liu, for bringing us along to get rich! Your little brother can’t promise much else, but if you ever need anything, I’ll be there for you!”
“Exactly, exactly! Most of the scattered monsters in the wild are Tier 3. Only in the outskirts of this Monster Mountain Range, where monsters gather, are there large numbers of Tier 2. This is all thanks to Brother Liu’s care!”
“Your little brother isn’t good with words, Brother Liu. From now on, whatever you say, I’ll do!”
“We’ve discussed it, and we don’t need any share of the magic cores. You can have them all, Brother Liu.”
“…”
In the dense forest, three simply dressed youths sat on stones, flattering and respectfully facing the same direction.
A tall man in exquisite leather armor sat there.
Beside him, in addition to a bald, burly man carrying a large machete, there were dozens of well-equipped personal guards nearby.
“You’re too kind,” Liu Hao chuckled. “From now on, we’re all brothers. Do a good job, and after the Trial Land ends, come find me in City B.”
“I, Liu, have some say among the younger generation of my family. Finding you a logistics job won’t be a problem.”
Upon hearing this, the three immediately beamed with joy.
Their purpose in accompanying him to hunt in the Monster Mountain Range was to get a promise from him.
What are magic cores?
To put it bluntly, in the Trial Land, when it comes to magic core distribution, even blood brothers would flip tables.
Is it something these poor lords can handle?
Being able to befriend Liu Hao and join the Liu family’s forces back on Blue Star means that what they lose now will only be compensated many times over in the future.
“Brother Liu, come eat some meat!”
One of the youths handed a roasted skewer from the campfire to Liu Hao.
“Thanks, brother. You all eat too.”
With Liu Hao’s permission, the three rubbed their hands together, grabbed the roasted meat, and shifted the topic elsewhere.
“That lord who blocked the way has really good luck. The beast horde in that basin outside the forest wasn’t affected, and the resources are still abundant.”
“Isn’t that right? It’s much better than our godforsaken broken forest.”
“Speaking of which, a few more people completed hidden quests these past two days. That reputation is truly enviable.”
“Sigh, if only the Institute’s technologies only required materials and not reputation, how great would that be? We, with our low-level traits, can only rely on the Institute to buff our territories.”
“Hahaha, you wish! You want to advance technology but don’t want to give reputation.”
“I was just saying…”
“Oh, by the way, many lords have been dying inexplicably recently. I don’t know what they encountered; they didn’t even send a message before they died.”
A somewhat thin youth seemed to be fiddling with his information interface, sighing, “I have a classmate, Cheng Le, who went offline in my friends list this morning.”
Once someone in the friends list goes offline, it basically means they’re dead.
“They’re all Blue Star lords. If fewer die in the Trial Land, there will be more companions when we fight against the foreign races in the future.
Unfortunately, everyone has their own fate.”
The others listened, some sighing.
Only Liu Hao was stunned when he heard that name.
“Brother Liu, you know him too?” The thin youth was sharp-eyed and noticed Liu Hao’s abnormality.
“Never heard of him.” Liu Hao waved his hand. “Hurry up and eat. We still have to travel later.”
Damn.
What a joke, even if he knew him, he wouldn’t dare to say it.
As soon as he thought that he was the one who introduced this person, a chill suddenly rose in Liu Hao’s heart.
“Brother Liu.” Another short-haired lord wiped his mouth, stood up, and said, “I’m going to the restroom.”
He seemed to be holding it in a bit tightly.
After saying hello, the short-haired youth quickly ran out of the forest, clutching his backside.
He scanned the surroundings and randomly found a rock large enough to conceal himself.
He pulled down his pants.
Patter!
Pitter-patter!
The short-haired youth’s brows relaxed.
After his initial relief, he hummed a little tune, leisurely observing the basin scenery.
Suddenly!
The ground began to tremble slightly.
Scattered footsteps came from afar.
“Damn it, did these beasts here grow up on stimulants?”
“I don’t think that stuff is hormones.”
The short-haired youth frowned as he saw the surrounding beast horde agitatedly scattering.
Don’t tell me one of them is coming this way?
“Roar!”
A deep, soul-stirring roar echoed across the plain!
Hearing this sound, goosebumps rapidly spread across the short-haired youth’s entire body.
“What the hell is that…?”
He looked up.
The short-haired youth’s pupils suddenly contracted. His legs were already numb from squatting, and he was so scared that he sat down on the ground with a thud.
He saw a white shadow gliding at low altitude in his vision.
It was chasing the fleeing beast horde.
The white creature would occasionally spew out a pure white beam of light.
Without exception, all the fierce beasts hit by the beam turned into crystal sculptures.
The short-haired youth swallowed, subconsciously opening his camera.
In the camera’s view, the white shadow grew larger and larger, larger and larger!
“Oh no!”
The hairs on the back of the short-haired youth’s neck stood up. He couldn’t care about anything else and jumped up from the ground with a whoosh, pulling up his pants and running back.
But, the white creature was faster. In an instant, the distance between them was only a hundred meters.
At this distance, the short-haired youth finally saw the creature’s appearance.
Curved long horns, thick wings, and that strong tail, the white flame spewing from its mouth…
“Mother, a… a dragon?!”
Looking at a species that only appeared in textbooks, the short-haired youth’s heart beat faster than ever before, pumping blood throughout his body.
A voice in his mind frantically told him to run!
“Don’t eat me… Big brother, don’t eat me!”
Feeling the shadow behind him getting closer and closer, the short-haired youth peed his pants.
Literally peed.
Just as he felt he was going to die here today, he looked back.
The white dragon had stopped at some point, gently flapping its wings, hovering at a low altitude, and narrowed its eyes in a human-like manner.
Then, its nose twitched, and after giving the short-haired youth a look of disdain, it turned and left, redirecting its target to the scattered beast horde until it disappeared from view.
“What happened?”
Liu Hao led the team out of the woods. He had just started speaking when his expression suddenly changed drastically. He abruptly covered his nose, rarely swearing, “Damn it, did you fall into a cesspit?!”
“You guys listen to me!”
The short-haired youth saw everyone backing away from him as if avoiding a plague, and he couldn’t help but get anxious. “I saw a dragon!!”
“Not a picture from a book, but a real dragon!”
After speaking, he immediately sent the recorded video to everyone.
“Stop his…”
Liu Hao, who was about to curse, opened the video, and the rest of his words seemed to be caught in his throat; he couldn’t utter a single syllable.
Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead.
A dragon!
There really was such a creature as a dragon!