Chapter 298: The Great Forest on the South Side — The Hunting Magic Beast and the Hunted Magic Beast

Zhao Ji whistled as he walked through the falling snow in the forest, wearing armor with a wolf-fur cloak wrapped around his body and a backpack on his back. Since he was mainly here to fight, defeat the Bandits, and seize their metal weapons, rather than setting out on a long journey to resolve a commission, he hadn't brought many extra things; he would rely on the defeated Bandits to provide the supplies needed to survive in the wild.

The wind and snow in the sky gradually intensified, and even though it was morning and should have been bright, the sun was blocked by thick cloud layers, leaving the entire world gloomy, let alone inside the forest.

That he could see the ground clearly now was only thanks to the cold winter, as the trees in the forest had already shed their leaves, allowing the pitifully little light from above to reach the ground.

This posed little obstacle to Zhao Ji; he carried a Torch and, while walking, used his Long Sword to leave small chopping marks on the large trees in the forest to ensure he wouldn't get lost in this deep forest.

This wasn't enough, because without the sun as an indicator to distinguish north from south, he still had to climb up a large tree every so often to stand at a high vantage point and see the surrounding situation and the high mountains located to the south.

But when Zhao Ji climbed to the upper layer of a large tree again using a Rope, he discovered that due to the falling snow, his line of sight was blocked by the dancing snowflakes; he had been able to see the position of the mountain peaks clearly before dark yesterday, but now it was no longer possible.

As far as the eye could see, heavy snow was falling from the sky everywhere, and basically, he couldn't even guarantee a line of sight of two or three hundred meters.

Sighing and shaking his head, Zhao Ji had actually quite liked this heavy snow, because the heavy snow could hide his tracks and also ensure that those Bandits stayed quietly in their respective hideouts, to be destroyed by him one by one.

But that wouldn't work now; unable to even distinguish east, west, south, or north, he had to rely on the withered moss on the large trees in the forest to barely confirm the sunny side of the forest.

This method wasn't very accurate; after all, throughout the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, the sun's irradiation direction was constantly changing, and he couldn't guarantee that the moss he used to confirm the direction was truly pointing south.

But at least those mosses wouldn't point to the north, the shaded side, would they?

Having a rough direction was good enough to get by; Zhao Ji shook his head. His requirement for orientation wasn't that high; as long as he walked south, he would encounter those high mountains, and after crossing the mountains, he should reach the place where the Bandits theoretically hid from the Militia's clean-up operations during the winter.

Just as Zhao Ji was preparing to slide down the large tree along the Rope, a different situation occurred in the forest not far away.

A stretch of large trees had been crushed by something unknown.

Even though the sound of the wind and snow around was quite loud, it couldn't mask the deafening sound of the large trees snapping and collapsing.

"What's the situation?" Zhao Ji watched curiously for a while, then decided to go over and take a look.

The place wasn't far; after confirming the direction, he slid down the large tree along the Rope, then put away the Rope and jogged toward that direction.

Although the things on his body were heavy, he felt it was fine; running while wearing armor wouldn't cause him much obstruction, and the weapons on his body didn't seem heavy when held in his hands.

After Zhao Ji approached the place where the large trees had collapsed, he discovered that these large trees hadn't collapsed from the roots as he had imagined. Instead, they had all snapped from the middle sections and collapsed, smashing onto the ground with a series of loud noises.

He carefully watched the surrounding large trees, guarding against other large trees collapsing from above and unluckily hitting him.

Slowly approaching the tree trunks that had smashed onto the ground, Zhao Ji discovered that the upper parts of these large trees had many huge scratch marks. After gesturing a few times, Zhao Ji discovered that the thing capable of leaving scratch marks on the tree trunks was extremely huge.

Speaking of huge, in this forest, what else could be extremely huge?

It was that Magic Beast!

Realizing this, Zhao Ji returned his Long Sword to its sheath and instead took the Two-handed Axe out from the Backpack on his back. After weighing the axe in his hand, his emotions finally steadied.

Strange, this Magic Beast didn't wander around the roads where people passed; why did it run to this uninhabited forest in the south?

Thinking of this, Zhao Ji suddenly remembered the team led by the female Knight he had encountered earlier; he estimated that this Magic Beast being here now had something to do with those people.

After Zhao Ji made a simple judgment of the surroundings, he felt that the Magic Beast must have suffered a not-so-light injury, otherwise, it would be impossible for it to directly snap these large trees.

After all, the Magic Beast usually relied on some unknown means to move on the large trees, and this movement method was its instinctive way of feeding; it shouldn't normally crush these large trees.

If the Magic Beast had to crush a large number of trees just to move normally, then the roadsides frequented by Yinyulin Village would probably not have a single intact piece of forest left.

It would all be bald in one patch and missing in another, like the forest had caught baldness and a skin disease.

Considering it, Zhao Ji felt that since the Magic Beast had moved from the north to the south, its direction might also be the south; he could actually follow the Magic Beast's route and walk for a stretch in this heavy, snowy weather.

Of course, he wouldn't be foolish enough to follow the Magic Beast's route directly.

After Zhao Ji walked a distance to the south along the increasingly obvious traces left by the Magic Beast, he discovered that the Magic Beast's situation should be dire, which was of course good news for him; that thing had almost cost him his life last time, and now that it had been beaten like this by someone else, maybe he could be lucky enough to pick up a bargain?

Shaking his head, Zhao Ji threw this unrealistic thought out of his head.

Just as he was wading forward through the snow that had already submerged his ankles, the sound of the wind and snow that had been blowing around suddenly quieted down.

Zhao Ji frowned and let out a cold snort; needless to say, what would follow was definitely the Mist that appeared regardless of the temperature.

Sure enough, just as Zhao Ji leaned his back against a large tree and assumed a defensive posture, the snowflakes that had been falling around disappeared, replaced by a white Mist that appeared out of season.

Feeling that this Magic Beast only had these three tricks, Zhao Ji curled his lips, tightened the straps of the Backpack on his back, moved the axe in his hand, and became vigilant of the surrounding situation.

Just as he expected, a faint sound came from above his head.

Zhao Ji dodged to the side, and a sharp leg with faint cracks pierced into the spot where Zhao Ji had just been.

Not giving the Magic Beast a chance to launch another attack, Zhao Ji seized the opportunity and swung his axe up.

With a "Crack!", the place the axe hit didn't manage to sever the Magic Beast's limb, but it did spray out quite a bit of translucent liquid.

A sharp "Squeak!!!" sound came from deep within the white Mist, followed immediately by the strange muttering sound he had heard once before. Jier dodged behind a large tree, avoiding the many leg attacks that followed one after another.

Immediately after, he flashed out from behind the large tree, holding the sharp Long Spear he had been carrying on his back in his right hand; after bending his body, he threw the Long Spear in his right hand toward the place where the muttering sound originated.

Courtesy demands reciprocity.

Whoosh! A hit!

But the sound that followed immediately left Zhao Ji horrified.

"Ah! Ah! So painful! So painful! Help, help me!"

"Ha, ha-hiss, he was pierced, he was pierced, ahahaha. Quickly give me one too, give me one, I want it too, I want it."

Strange words like "I, want it too! I, want it too!" clearly came from the white Mist this time.

Zhao Ji was startled; wasn't it a Magic Beast in the Mist? How did so many weirdos who could speak pop up? Where did these people come from?

"Come out! Who is there playing tricks! Get out here!" Zhao Ji pulled open his Faceplate and roared, while his eyes scanned the Mist left and right; the situation had become somewhat strange now, so he had to stabilize his mind by roaring loudly.

"Hee hee hee hee, I can't come out, hahahaha. We all can't come out."

"Eat him, let him join us, move quickly, move quickly, you idiot, move quickly, isn't it just a few broken legs? There are still a few left, you've been strengthened, go on."

"Squeak~" A rather annoyed Magic Beast screech came from the Mist, instantly suppressing the strange Human voices. Immediately after, a loud "Boom" sounded on the ground in the Mist in front of Zhao Ji, and at the same time, the ground transmitted a strong vibration.

Zhao Ji barely steadied himself against the large tree, hiding most of his body behind the trunk, only exposing half his head to carefully observe the situation in front.

The white Mist seemed to have become even thicker, and everything around could not be seen clearly.

But Zhao Ji knew just from the vibration transmitted through the ground that after the Magic Beast landed, it was still groping on the ground in front, crawling toward him.

Slap! Clatter.

An attack struck the tree trunk of the large tree in front of Zhao Ji, snapping at least half of the large tree's trunk.

Zhao Ji hurriedly retreated, moving diagonally to dodge behind another large tree.

Crack, crack-crack-crack-crack, boom!!

The large tree, which had been chopped halfway through, tilted and collapsed, but judging by the sound, it did not seem to have hit anything.

That made sense; if that Magic Beast had been hit by a tree it had knocked down itself, it would have seemed a bit too pathetic.

The vibrations of the ground came rapidly from ahead, and Zhao Ji knew that once the Magic Beast landed, it would definitely want to kill him and eat him, so he turned and ran, unable to spare a glance to see if his Long Spear had fallen on the ground nearby.

He didn't care about north or south anymore; the Magic Beast was chasing, so he would just run first. In any case, he felt that the massive Magic Beast was not easy to maneuver on the forest floor. After all, unlike moving through the treetops, the forest floor was full of all sorts of things, such as thick tree roots, suddenly appearing hard boulders, and erosion gullies inexplicably washed out by summer rains; these things were major obstacles to the crawling of that giant Magic Beast.

Not to mention that the base of a thick, sturdy tree trunk was very different from the elasticity of the treetops. The Magic Beast might be able to move quickly in mid-air by pushing off branches and trunks, but on the ground, if it wanted to walk in a straight line, it would only be possible if it pushed over every single large tree in its path.

Sure enough, after running for a while, Zhao Ji actually widened the distance between himself and the pursuing Magic Beast amidst the loud crashes of the beast slamming into tree trunks behind him.

The further he was from the Magic Beast, the thinner the surrounding Mist became.

Snowflakes appeared in the sky again. Zhao Ji looked back, and with the effective illumination provided by his Torch, he saw a wall-like mass of thick White Mist gradually approaching him.

That Magic Beast still hadn't given up.

Zhao Ji steadied his nerves, then ate and drank a little while walking, and when the Mist was about to envelop him, he turned and continued to jog forward.

One person and one Magic Beast thus continued their chase, fleeing deep into the Forest in the gloomy, snowy weather.

Half a day later, a team caught up to the place where the Magic Beast had slammed into a large area of tree trunks.

Leading them was the female Knight Lanisha, who was riding a warhorse. Behind her was the team of Hunters she led, still ten people strong, having lost no personnel in the previous series of ambushes and pursuits of the Magic Beast.

"That thing is out of stamina. Look, my lord, ever since it crossed the road and reached the southern Forest, the height at which it crawled on the trees has been constantly decreasing. By here, it finally couldn't hold on and fell down." Several old Hunters reported to Knight Lanisha after clearly observing the surrounding tracks and discussing them for a while.

"Very good. As long as we maintain this pressure and don't give it a chance to rest or feed, its giant body, which is unaccustomed to cold weather, will soon collapse. It previously wanted to flee back to its nest, which should be further north; do not give it the chance, force it to the south. Continue forward, but everyone must be alert for the possible appearance of White Mist. Once you discover this sign, remember to shout with the loudest voice to warn the others." Knight Lanisha pulled the reins, letting her beloved horse walk forward slowly.

The surrounding Hunters formed a migratory bird flight formation, with the Knight as the center, scouting along the road. They were each separated by more than twenty meters, which was a suitable distance in this snowy weather.

It would neither affect their communication due to the sound of the wind and snow, nor would they miss possible tracks by being too close.

Every Hunter wore a windproof and heat-insulating Hunting Cloak. This well-made cloak looked inconspicuous, but the thin cloak was actually made of several layers of fabric mixed together.

Moreover, before this operation, the Sun God Divine Symbol amulets brought by Knight Lanisha were also activated by them after the snowfall began. The Amulet hanging in the center of their chests would emit a bright but not blinding light every so often, allowing the sharp-eyed Knight Lanisha to see their respective positions while riding on her horse through the wind and snow. Furthermore, these amulets also faintly radiated a temperature like the sun shining on the body, making the Hunters not fear the cold of the snowfall and making their whole bodies feel much better.

When distributing them, Knight Lanisha had specifically introduced that one could also rotate the Sun God Divine Symbol on this amulet, and then the amulet would emit light for a long time. The light it shone was still very useful in the dim, poorly lit forest floor in this gloomy weather.

Shh!

A short whistle came; this was a reminder that something had been discovered.

Everyone in the team quickly moved toward that location.

A Hunter brushed away the fallen snow on a large tree and pointed to a mark left by a Long Sword on the tree trunk to show everyone.

"It's a mark left just now, very fresh, my lord," the Hunter said.

Knight Lanisha jumped off her horse and walked over to take a look: "Left by a Long Sword, and the hand had quite a bit of strength. Does it have anything to do with the Magic Beast?"

An old Hunter stepped out and said: "There are some nearby too. It looks consistent with the Magic Beast's direction of travel. We cannot rule out the possibility that this person accidentally ran into the Magic Beast."

"Hmph, what an inexplicable feeding of the Magic Beast. Never mind. Even if it just ate a person, it won't recover much stamina immediately, let alone heal the wounds on its body. Continue the pursuit, and try to force that Magic Beast to the foot of the mountains in the south. There are no trees there; I want to see if its crawling speed on the ground is faster than my horse." Knight Lanisha waved her hand, and the entire team continued to pursue along the discovered tracks of the Magic Beast.

They soon discovered the traces of the Magic Beast falling to the ground, so they pursued with even more confidence.

Various signs indicated that the Magic Beast was nearing its end.

Zhao Ji did not know that there was another team behind the Magic Beast pursuing it; if he had known, he would have turned back to run and join up with those people.

This Magic Beast seemed to have set its sights on him, constantly crawling and chasing behind Zhao Ji without stopping. Fortunately, its movement speed on the ground was not fast, which allowed Zhao Ji to run for a while and rest for a while.

Just like that, Zhao Ji fled all the way south, and after more than half a day, he walked out of the Forest just as night fell.

A cliff separated the Forest from the hilly terrain ahead.

Zhao Ji sighed mournfully; there was no help for it, he had no time now to use a Rope or chop down trees to build a simple wooden ladder to climb up the cliff. He had no choice but to walk along this cliff first, looking for a place where the cliff was not so steep, so he could jog all the way up.

Soon, that Magic Beast also rushed out of the Forest. Zhao Ji could not see it, and could only rely on the gloomy weather to see a mass of thick White Mist in an oval shape, pressing down on the ground and approaching him.

Zhao Ji hurriedly quickened his pace, moving rapidly along the cliff, while using the sharp rocks that appeared abruptly on the ground to hinder the Magic Beast from approaching him.

Every time that Magic Beast, which did not seem very smart, stupidly slammed into a rock, Zhao Ji was overjoyed.

That Magic Beast seemed to have poor eyesight; it couldn't even see such large rocks on the ground.

Thinking of this, Zhao Ji suddenly realized that the Magic Beast looked like a spider; could it be that, like a spider, its primary perception relied on the vibrations of the ground? Other sensory means were only auxiliary.

If that were the case, it would explain why it was blocked by such conspicuous rocks at the bottom of the cliff and had to wait until it slammed into them to know to dodge.

In that case, this Magic Beast was relying on the ground vibrations produced every time he, Zhao Ji, moved to judge his position?

Although this might be the reason, Zhao Ji was being chased very urgently by the Magic Beast, so he could not find a way to test it.

After running for a short while, he finally saw a place ahead with a large area of collapsed cliff. He did not know if it was because the cliff rocks could not support themselves and collapsed, but this was the only place that looked decent, and he should be able to climb up to the cliff from here.

As long as he crossed the cliff, he would officially enter the hilly terrain, and after crossing one or two mountains as others had mentioned, he would be able to reach the place where those Bandits were hiding.

Hehe, just right, they will definitely like the gift I brought them.

Zhao Ji thought to himself while climbing the collapsed cliff slope using both hands and feet.

It would be best to let those Bandits and the Magic Beast fight to the death, so he could be the fisherman who gains the profit in the end.