Chapter 299: The Snowy Valley — The Magic Beast Has Had a Run of Bad Luck

Zhao Ji climbed over the cliff, but the Magic Beast with multiple legs on its body also successfully crawled up along the slope.

This forced Zhao Ji to keep moving forward in order to maintain his distance from the Magic Beast.

Without the obstruction of the large trees in the Forest, the open terrain actually increased the Magic Beast's movement speed, which was something he had not expected.

Having no other choice, he had to use both hands and feet to continue climbing toward the mountains.

Although he could not see the Magic Beast's form, the dense White Mist gathered into a ball would sometimes stop in place. At first, Zhao Ji thought the Magic Beast had stopped chasing him, but after a while, the Magic Beast caught up again.

After this happened a few times, Zhao Ji finally saw the pattern: unlike the windless or low-wind environment in the Forest, once he entered the mountains where the terrain rose rapidly, there was a constant, significant wind blowing all around.

The winds in the mountains howled, blowing away the little bit of snow that had managed to settle on the ground.

Whenever a strong wind blew around them, the Magic Beast would stay in place and not pursue him. Zhao Ji would then brace himself against the chaotic mountain winds to widen the distance between them.

Whenever he looked back at the Magic Beast, Zhao Ji always felt that the Mist driven by the spider-like Magic Beast was truly magical. Even though there was wind and snow everywhere, that magical Mist would not disperse in the slightest, nor would it freeze.

It just covered the Magic Beast's body firmly, like a white porcelain bowl turned upside down on the ground, not revealing a single bit to the outside world.

Until now, Zhao Ji had not been able to see the full appearance of this Magic Beast clearly.

Zhao Ji did not intend to climb to the top of the two highest peaks nearby; his goal was not to climb mountains for adventure, but to pass through the peaks to reach the area further south where the Bandits were hiding. Therefore, he tried his best to find gentle slopes that were easy to walk on and allowed him to bypass the towering terrain.

The Magic Beast was not only chasing Zhao Ji the whole time; sometimes it would suddenly turn in another direction. Zhao Ji felt it was strange and focused his attention on it, only to discover that the Magic Beast had also included some of the rare small animals in the mountains in its diet.

There were not that many animals in these mountains, especially during this time of wind and snow.

On the way the Magic Beast tracked Zhao Ji, it only ate two small animals: one was a pheasant with snow-white feathers that could change color according to the surrounding environment, and the other was a dazed, big-horned mountain goat.

That mountain goat was not small; from a distance, it looked at least as big as a horse, especially the pair of flamboyant horns on its head, which were quite majestic and sturdy.

Unlike other animals that panicked upon sensing the Magic Beast, this big-horned mountain goat did not run away after being discovered and approached by the Magic Beast; it just stood there in a daze, and then, after the Magic Beast got close, it kicked up its four hooves, lowered its head, and charged into the Mist.

This left Zhao Ji stunned; he had actually thought at the time that the big-horned mountain goat had the strength to fight the Magic Beast, but a moment later, two goat horns, which were presumably hard to digest, were spat out of the Mist by the Magic Beast, while the rest of the goat's body made no sound at all.

The Magic Beast stayed in place for quite a while, and Zhao Ji took this opportunity to run a long distance before the Magic Beast continued its pursuit.

After crossing the first peak and other lower peaks connected to it, Zhao Ji arrived at the Valley area between the two peaks.

The terrain here was not very flat, but in the middle of the Valley between the peaks, there was a small, long, narrow lake.

It was probably a lake; regardless of what it was, after the recent cold weather, the water in this place had long since frozen into solid ice.

The wind here was not as strong as on the mountains, so the shattered rock ground between the mountains had already accumulated a thick layer of ice and snow.

Seeing that it was a downhill slope, Zhao Ji's eyes rolled, and he took out the new Shield hanging on his Backpack. He placed the smooth front of the Shield on the snow on the ground and sat his own bottom between the handles on the back of the Shield.

He tucked his legs in, letting his feet barely rest on the front edge of the Shield, and then he pushed off the snow on both sides of his body with his hands.

His whole body slid forward a short distance.

Zhao Ji continued to push with his hands to accelerate himself. Soon, following the arc of the gentle downward slope and the slipperiness of the snow, he retracted his arms from the sides of his body to maintain balance, grabbed the handles of the Shield under his bottom with a backhand grip, and fixed himself firmly in place.

His sliding speed became faster and faster. Zhao Ji, who had never skied before, was scared and wanted to stop, only to find that he could not stop no matter what at this point.

Giving up on trying to control it, he just slid rapidly all the way down.

"Hahahaha! Woo-hoo! You stinking Magic Beast, come and catch me! Hahahaha!" As he slid rapidly, the cold air brushed past him.

The large ball of White Mist still high up hesitated and moved left and right. Sensing that the Human had strangely slid further and further away, it finally made up its mind and cautiously entered this large, open, gentle-sloped Valley.

But the Magic Beast did not know if its legs had been frozen; it first crawled cautiously down the gentle slope for a while, but then it could no longer control its movement.

The spider-like Magic Beast had a relatively smooth bottom on its main torso. Although it had many coarse bristles used to sense the environment, these bristles were too sparse. Not to mention that because of the cold weather, it had controlled these bristles to press tightly against its body to maintain warmth.

Therefore, the Magic Beast, with its smooth body bottom, could not stop no matter what after it moved with its body pressed against the ground.

It slid faster and faster, and squeaking sounds of alarm came from the White Mist, resounding throughout the Valley.

Zhao Ji, who was also sliding, heard the Magic Beast's squeaking alarm and burst into laughter.

He had not expected that this seemingly ferocious and huge Magic Beast had also never skied, just like him; both of them, skiing for the first time, were scared into screaming and yelling.

It was the first time in the beast's life that it could not control its body. It panicked and frantically thrust its remaining six scarred legs into the ground, trying to slow down its sliding.

But it did not expect that thrusting six legs into the rocky ground at the same time would bring about such high deceleration that it would be flipped over directly.

It rolled into a ball.

Once the huge, bread-shaped Magic Beast started rolling, it could not stop.

It rumbled along, picking up snow from the ground, and as the snow was compacted, it picked up even more snow.

Its already irregular body became fatter and fatter with the "help" of the snow.

The Magic Power Mist that had been surrounding its body could no longer be maintained; the dizzy Magic Beast no longer had the energy to maintain its innate Magic.

In the distance, Zhao Ji watched, dumbfounded, as the Magic Beast's six legs flailed outside while its body rolled toward the middle of the Valley, covered in white snow.

Gradually, the entire Magic Beast was rolled into a huge, twenty-meter-tall massive snow mass, rolling downward with a deafening roar that echoed through the Valley.

Even though Zhao Ji was already very fast using the Shield to ski, compared to that huge snowball, he was still far behind. The huge snowball rolled just as quickly, and with every turn, it became a little bit bigger.

Its speed was far greater than Zhao Ji's.

It actually overtook him from not far away and plunged into the middle of the Valley first.

Fortunately, the previous snowfall had not lasted long; although there was a lot of snow, it did not seem to have caused the terrible consequence of an avalanche.

At the same time, at the cliff outside the mountain area.

The team of Hunters led by Knight Lanisha had already tracked to this point. They had followed the Magic Beast's conspicuous movement traces all the way, and had actually followed them here quite easily.

"These footprints?" A Hunter looked at a Human footprint on the ground ahead and spoke to himself, full of confusion.

An old Hunter nearby called everyone over, and after observing carefully, he stated a conclusion.

"Incredible, that person was chased by the Magic Beast all the way from the middle of the Forest, and actually escaped to here without being eaten."

Another Hunter nearby chuckled twice: "It's only because the Magic Beast suffered not-insignificant injuries on its body, which affected the Magic Beast's mobility."

Knight Lanisha caught a feather-sized snowflake with her Glove, turned around, jumped off her steed, and said to the Hunters: "Everyone, do not forget the weather at this time; this cold weather is also a factor."

Another old Hunter squatted on the ground and carefully measured the only Human footprint that had not been destroyed by the Magic Beast's movement, especially comparing the depth of this footprint with the footprints he had made himself.

"Sir Knight, everyone. I have a discovery here too," he said.

Knight Lanisha took out a Water bottle and drank a few gulps of the clear water inside, which was freezing cold even though it had been kept close to her body: "Please speak."

The old hunter gestured between the footprints Zhao Ji had left and his own: "Everyone, look. This footprint, whose owner we don't know, is pressed deeper into the ground than the one I just made. Furthermore, if you brush away the snowflakes that fell after the print was made, this footprint actually compacted the snow on the ground in a single step."

"As for me, even if I stomp hard to collapse the ground, I can't make a footprint like this." Saying this, the old hunter stepped twice on the spot to let everyone see the state of the footprints he had just made.

"Does that mean this person is very heavy?" a hunter guessed.

"If they were obese, how could this person run so far while being chased by a Magic Beast?" another hunter countered.

Knight Lanisha looked at the footprints made by the person of unknown identity; it was as if someone had rung a wind chime in her mind, and she looked at her own feet as if possessed.

She shifted her feet slightly, her eyes widening beneath her Steel Face Mask: "Everyone, I think I know the reason. Look at the footprints I make."

Hearing the Knight's words, everyone looked at her footprints.

They were ordinary footprints, but the difference from the footprints of others nearby was that this footprint had deeply compacted the snow on the ground in just a single step.

"Exactly the same."

"It's true. What does this mean?"

"That's right, it's impossible for Lady Lanisha to be running ahead."

Knight Lanisha tapped the Steel Armor on her arm, making a crisp clanging sound: "Actually, the reason is simple. That person is also fully armed. The reason he can carry such heavy weight and still not be caught by the Magic Beast is that he is wearing a full set of armor. However, I haven't heard of any Knight coming this way. Or could it be that this person is not a Knight from our Kendall County?"

An old hunter reminded her: "Could it be that they aren't a Knight? This place is remote; could it be a Bandit?" He took out a small, simple map of Kendall County and pointed to a location on the map for everyone to see: "Look, if you cross the mountain peak to the south here, as long as you are lucky enough not to run into the fierce beasts in the mountains, you can reach the Bingxun Pass area, where there are many Bandits."

"That is not impossible. Put that way, the direction this person took to escape the Magic Beast is indeed southward, and the possibility of them being a Bandit leader is not low. Heh, if this person doesn't die in the mouth of the Magic Beast, I would like to see how much skill these Bandits have." Knight Lanisha patted the Armor-piercing Rapier at her waist and said.

Just as they were speaking, a continuous, rumbling vibration sound erupted from the mountains south of the cliff.

It sounded like spring thunder and lightning, but it was duller than the sound of lightning.

The sound originated from within the mountains, but it was reflected downward from the snow clouds above their heads.

"What is this sound? It shouldn't thunder when it's snowing, right?"

"How is that possible? Or could it be that the previous Magic Beast ran into other Magic Beasts in the mountains and they started fighting?"

Amidst the rumbling, Knight Lanisha listened carefully. Even though the sound was muffled by the reflection off the cloud layer, she still recognized it: "It's an avalanche. You haven't been deep into the mountains, so you don't understand. In the mountains during winter, if there is thick snow, once the snow on the mountain body can no longer hold and starts to roll, it will shake down all the snow on the entire mountain. The power is no less than the legendary Magic praised in storybooks or by Bards."

The hunters who had never entered the deep mountains were finally no longer panicked after the Knight's explanation. They guessed that this avalanche might have been triggered by the Magic Beast that entered the mountains.

This couldn't be considered a wrong guess; although an avalanche didn't occur in the Valley, the unlucky Magic Beast accidentally rolled down from the mountain, and the momentum generated by the super-huge snowball it rolled up was no less than an avalanche.

At least that was what Zhao Ji thought.

After the huge snowball rolled up by the Magic Beast landed on the ice in the center of the Valley, it didn't fall apart due to contact with the solid ice surface. Instead, the entire snowball slid, rolling all the way to the opposite side of the ice, and then continued to roll up the mountain using its momentum.

Amidst Zhao Ji's shocked expression with his Faceplate lifted and his mouth wide open, the Magic Beast snowball rolled and climbed to the high ground on the opposite side of the Valley, finally stopping when it had no strength left.

But that pause was only brief. Immediately after, the entire huge snowball tipped backward, then gradually accelerated with a rumble, and rolled down again.

Zhao Ji was already fast sliding on his Shield, but by the time he slid from the gentle slope of the Valley to the thick ice in the middle of the Valley, the huge snowball with the Magic Beast as its core had already traveled back and forth across the Valley three times.

Of course, the rolling of the snowball also had friction. As all the snow on the track of the snowball's back-and-forth movement was captured by the snowball, the hard, coarse, scattered rocky ground replaced the track where the snowball rolled.

After going back and forth several times, the super-huge snowball finally stopped on the thick ice in the middle of the Valley.

At this time, the snowball was at least thirty meters high.

It was round and snow-white. Although there were many scattered rocks stuck to its surface, looking at it from afar, it looked like a cream ice cream sprinkled with some chocolate chips.

Zhao Ji's Shield slid on the ice and continued to slide for a distance with a sharp sound. Zhao Ji extended his feet, which were resting in front of the Shield, and used the soles of his armor Boots to slow himself down.

Soon, he stopped.

Looking around, Zhao Ji clenched his fists and punched the ice surface next to him a few times. The ice surface didn't vibrate at all, and there was almost no sound.

Very good, it was a solid ice surface.

Zhao Ji wasn't actually too worried about whether the ice surface was solid; after all, the ten-story-high super-huge snowball standing there clearly told him that this place was very solid.

It was just that Zhao Ji wouldn't be at ease unless he tested it himself.

Taking two pieces of Linen Cloth for wiping weapons from his Backpack, he wrapped them around the soles of his armor Boots, and then Zhao Ji stood up on the ice.

Retracting his Shield, Zhao Ji took out his axe and slowly approached the super-huge snowball.

This seemed to be an ice lake in the valley between two mountain peaks. He didn't know how deep the ice lake was; at least when Zhao Ji brushed away the thin snow under his feet and looked into the ice layer, he only saw a piece of deep darkness.

It was as if the ice surface underneath would never thaw all year round, and it also seemed as if the depths of the ice lake led to another eternally cold world.

When Zhao Ji walked not far from the super-huge snowball, he stopped. It wasn't that he couldn't go further, but as he looked at the round snowball as huge as a castle in front of him, his body unconsciously developed a feeling of fear.

He knew this was a megalophobia stemming from the instinct of life. The larger and more massive an object within reach was in front of a Human, the more intense this fear from deep within the species became.

He took a deep breath for a long while, repeatedly telling himself that this thing was just a snowball. Although the core inside was a mysterious and terrifying spider-like Magic Beast, after such a tossing, he didn't believe that the Magic Beast was still alive.

After all, the low temperature in the middle of the snowball could freeze the Magic Beast to death, right?

Come to think of it, the Magic Beast didn't seem to have shown its fear of cold. It was hard to say.

Hard to say.

After being silent for a long while, just as Zhao Ji was holding his axe, not knowing whether he should go up and find a way to break open the super-huge snowball.

Crack.

He didn't know where the sound came from.

Crack.

Zhao Ji looked up; he couldn't see clearly at the top of the super-huge snowball.

Crack.

He slowly retreated, and soon he saw that there seemed to be irregular large cracks on the top of the snowball.

It looked like this super-huge snowball could finally no longer maintain this shape; the outer layer wasn't obvious, but the inside had already begun to fracture.

Crack, crack.

Large pieces of ice and snow on the edges and the rock debris stuck to it began to fall onto the ice surface.

Finally, after reaching an invisible critical point, the entire super-huge snowball shattered into many fragments larger than houses amidst a rumbling sound and finally disintegrated.

Zhao Ji had run far enough, so the flying debris that burst out when the super-huge snowball disintegrated just now failed to hit him.

After the large amount of debris and ice mist settled, Zhao Ji dared to carefully approach with his axe.