I Start with a Mysterious Island

The sun sank in the west, and weary birds returned to the forest.

The brilliant red sunset illuminated the treacherous wilderness, making this land, so fraught with danger, breathtakingly beautiful in this one moment.

WHOOSH...

PFFT.

A Luhua Chicken Beast, a First Rank Middle Stage Mutant Beast, was struck by a streak of faint golden light that suddenly shot out from the tall grass.

CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK...

A sharp pain caused the Luhua Chicken Beast to let out a pained shriek. Just as it was about to make a break for it, a figure burst from the grass.

PFFT.

The Spiritual Longsword, glowing with a faint golden Spiritual Light, thrust out with lightning speed.

The Luhua Chicken Beast had no way to dodge the attack, and its small head was instantly pierced by the Spiritual Longsword.

"That makes twenty-five."

Lin Li muttered to himself after killing the Luhua Chicken Beast. He then crouched down and stored its body in the Mysterious Small Island.

Compared to the sixteen Mutant Beasts he had killed yesterday, Lin Li had managed to raise his kill count to twenty-five today by relying on sneak attacks with his Spiritual Crossbow. This was a significant improvement.

However, this sneak-attack method was only effective against Tier One Mutant Beasts. The success rate would plummet if he tried to ambush a Tier Two Mutant Beast, as they could sense Spiritual Energy Waves.

A little over an hour ago, Lin Li had used his Spiritual Crossbow to ambush a Leopard Beast at the Second Rank Initial Stage.

But the moment he pulled the trigger, the creature sensed the danger and swiftly dodged his ambush.

’If one shot misses, just fire another.’ With this thought in mind, Lin Li fired several more arrows at the Leopard Beast.

Unfortunately, the now-wary Leopard Beast dodged every one of the Spiritual Artifact Arrows he fired.

Realizing it was now impossible to hit his target with the Spiritual Crossbow, Lin Li gave up.

But just as he prepared to draw his sword and charge in for close combat, the Leopard Beast refused to engage. It turned tail and fled.

It was so fast that Lin Li had no hope of catching it.

And so, from his encounter with the Leopard Beast, Lin Li not only came away empty-handed but also lost over ten thousand’s worth of Spiritual Artifact Arrows.

’Using the Spiritual Crossbow for ambushes is effective, I’ll give it that. As long as a Tier One Mutant Beast doesn’t notice me and I get close enough, I can almost always land a shot.’

’But the cost of these Spiritual Artifact Arrows is a bit steep!’

’I haven’t touched the black arrows that cost three thousand each, but I’ve already used up all the Spiritual Artifact Arrows that cost one and two thousand apiece. That’s sixty thousand gone, just like that!’

’If I keep hunting Tier One Mutant Beasts with the Spiritual Crossbow, I’ll be bankrupt in a few days.’

After storing the Luhua Chicken Beast in the Mysterious Small Island, Lin Li considered his options. He decided he would sell some Spirit Stones for cash to buy more Spiritual Artifact Arrows.

His top priority right now was to increase his power. Since the Spiritual Crossbow boosted his efficiency at hunting Tier One Mutant Beasts, he shouldn’t worry about the cost. It was money that needed to be spent.

Having made his decision, a slightly hungry Lin Li glanced at the time.

He then stored the Spiritual Crossbow and Spiritual Longsword in the Mysterious Small Island and prepared to retrieve his motorcycle for the journey home.

Suddenly, just as he was about to retrieve his motorcycle, Lin Li heard a piercing, agonized roar in the distance.

ROAR—

"Hm?"

Having hunted his fair share of Mutant Beasts in the wilderness, Lin Li now had a good amount of experience.

When he heard that agonized roar, he immediately deduced that the Mutant Beast was likely severely injured.

’I should go take a look. I might be able to pick up an easy kill...’ The thought surfaced in his mind, and Lin Li immediately abandoned his plan to head back to the city. Instead, he retrieved the Spiritual Longsword he had just put away.

He then broke into a run, heading toward the source of the agonized roar.

...

Lin Li ran through the wilderness, Spiritual Longsword in hand, for several minutes, heading toward the agonized roars.

Soon, his Perception picked up several Spiritual Energy Waves ahead of him.

Upon sensing this, Lin Li immediately slowed his pace. He ducked into a patch of dense grass at the side of the path and began to creep forward.

A moment later, Lin Li stopped his slow advance through the grass.

He pushed aside a small clump of foxtail grass and peered at the scene in the distance.

In the distance, two squads of Exotic Beast Hunters were facing off.

One squad had three men and two women; the other had two men and three women.

Between the two tense squads of Exotic Beast Hunters lay the corpse of a tiger-like Mutant Beast.

The beast, three meters long with colorful stripes, had died a gruesome death.

One of its eyes was gouged out, a massive gash was torn across its belly, and part of its tail had been severed.

The fatal wound was located on its forehead.

A short, black javelin was embedded in its massive head. Half the weapon had sunk into the tiger beast’s skull, and blood was slowly oozing from the wound.

"We’re the ones who killed this tiger beast, so it belongs to us," the Exotic Beast Hunter with a scar on his forehead said with a frown.

"We found it first. Besides, if we hadn’t worn down its stamina and Spiritual Energy, gouged out one of its eyes, and torn open that gash on its stomach—

—how could you lot have possibly killed it so easily? This tiger beast is ours," the purple-haired Exotic Beast Hunter said, suppressing his rage.

Behind the scar-faced Exotic Beast Hunter, a particularly hot-tempered teammate couldn’t contain his anger after hearing this. He immediately started cursing at the purple-haired Hunter.

"The hell are you talking about? You say you wore down the tiger’s Spiritual Energy and stamina, blinded it, and put that gash on its stomach? Where’s your proof?

You can’t just make baseless claims! Who’s going to believe that? The world doesn’t work that way."

"That’s right! Putting aside the fact that you have no proof you wore down its Spiritual Energy and stamina or even injured it—

—so what if you did? We were the ones who landed the final blow. By the rules, it’s our kill." The scar-faced Hunter’s companions all chimed in to support their teammate.

"Fuck you! If you’re going to play it that way, then I say you didn’t kill it either! That makes it fair game," the purple-haired Hunter’s teammates shouted back, infuriated.

...