Chapter 83: Beyond the City: River-Dwelling Dragon Beast

(PS: Two more updates to come.)

Stepping out of the city—Fang Shi in his previous life only managed it on his fourth attempt.

By that time, humanity had already become the dominant power of the surrounding region.

Once legendary-tier experts emerged, the various dangerous creatures were basically cleared out almost entirely.

After all, although the creatures of the otherworld are endless,

the otherworld itself is equally boundless.

Legendary creatures are exceedingly rare even in the otherworld; the probability of encountering one passing through a spatial tunnel is very small.

Moreover, by that time, with the use of highly mobile spells such as teleportation arts,

if a legendary creature occasionally slipped through a spatial tunnel,

it would basically end up being surrounded and slain by human experts.

Its soul would turn into experience points, and its flesh, blood, and bones would become top-grade refining materials.

Every inch of its body, down to the last cell, would be squeezed dry—a true death without an intact corpse.

Only in the distant, deep uninhabited zones do living legendary creatures still exist.

Those are regions beyond the reach of human forces, teeming with countless terrifying creatures.

Rumor has it that some forbidden lands even harbor ancient evils comparable to deities.

Fang Shi's main purpose in going out this time was to head for the treasure ground where he had obtained Multi-Strength in his previous life.

That was also the place where he raised his Perception to 18 points.

After Fang Shi's stat points reached 18, aside from fortuitous encounters, the efficiency of self-training was terribly poor.

Although self-improvement was possible, it would take several years.

Such a pace was intolerable to Fang Shi.

In the apocalypse, crises exist at every moment, and in the end it becomes an era of individual might.

Anyone who hadn't reached legendary tier was basically cannon fodder.

Therefore, Fang Shi had to raise his strength as quickly as possible.

He also didn't know whether this treasure ground would open during this time period.

But no matter what, he had to give it a try.

After all, that treasure ground had originally existed on Blue Star.

It was just that no one had previously discovered the fortune hidden within.

Fang Shi estimated that even though his Perception stat had already reached 21 points,

after entering the treasure ground, raising it by another one or two points would be no problem.

Even a single point would otherwise take two or three years of hard work.

Today's Blue Star had long since undergone a complete ecological transformation.

In the wilderness, grass and trees reached the heavens, like a primeval forest.

Just like land that humanity had never developed.

There were no paths of any kind—only beast trails left by wild animals.

Moreover, vines, weeds, and branches tangled across them; for humans to advance, they had to use tools to hack a way through.

Fang Shi was experienced, with wilderness survival know-how.

He was too lazy to travel on the ground, so he climbed straight up the tree trunks.

He kept weaving through the forest, pausing only occasionally to slay a first-tier beast before continuing on.

During the journey, no encirclement or ambush occurred.

Those powerful beasts, sensing Fang Shi's aura, basically took the initiative to avoid him.

Beasts have their own territories; every wild beast has its own domain, and basically as long as you don't invade it,

even if you merely pass through, the territory's owner will never go looking for trouble.

Many people assume that in the desolate wilderness, the rule is simply the strong devouring the weak.

Big fish eat small fish, small fish eat shrimp.

If you're even a little weaker, you'll die without a burial place.

But in truth, that's completely wrong. "The strong devour the weak" is only the first half; after it comes the four words "the fittest survive."

When carnivorous beasts encounter other creatures, they don't slaughter recklessly and fearlessly.

They first consider whether their stomachs are hungry.

If they're not hungry, there's a high probability they won't take action.

This is the survival way of carnivorous beasts.

The number of creatures a region can sustain is limited.

Wanton killing only causes severe food waste, ultimately leaving themselves starving.

Or rather, those bloodthirsty beasts were weeded out long ago on the path of evolution.

Either they starved to death, or they were wiped out by other, more formidable beasts during migration.

In short, the carnivorous beasts that have survived until now are basically the type that don't move once they've eaten their fill.

As long as you don't stupidly provoke them, even if you pass right in front of them, they basically won't bother with you.

Secondly, carnivorous beasts also consider the strength of both sides.

If the other party can pose a threat to them,

there's also a high probability they won't attack.

A beast's life is never secure; there has never been any stable environment.

Once injured, they face brutal challenges.

One careless slip and they die an unnatural death.

They much prefer to prey on creatures that pose no threat to them — ones that are common and familiar.

Anything unknown represents a lethal danger.

This too is an instinct etched into the bloodline of every carnivorous beast.

Beasts that did not abide by these two points were long ago culled by the cruel laws of nature.

Vanished into the vast, long river of history.

Hence, when Fang Shi travels in the wild, he is actually safer than within the city.

After all, no brain-dead beast would form an army and throw its life away charging at a single person.

Moreover, as long as one acts carefully on the outskirts and does not venture too deep into the no-man's-land,

one will basically not run into any second-tier or third-tier fierce beasts.

……

"Where on earth is it?" Fang Shi muttered to himself.

At this moment, he had already been searching the wilderness for three days and three nights.

Unfortunately, nothing at all.

The treasured ground he sought was a cemetery. Before leaving Ancheng, he had even specifically sought someone out to draw him a map.

But because of Blue Star's expansion, everything had long since changed beyond recognition.

Most importantly, the cemetery's location was no longer the same as after the Fourth Impact.

Fang Shi could not rely on memory to search for it at all.

He could only depend on judgment and analysis to determine where the target lay.

But the primeval forest was far too complex; the towering trees basically blocked out everything.

Even when Fang Shi climbed high and gazed into the distance, it was still basically hard to find the place.

The only consolation was the beasts that had died at his hands these past two days.

They had pushed the experience bar's progress forward by more than half.

"If I still can't find it in this direction, I'll have to keep going deeper."

Blue Star's expansion could truly be said to follow no pattern whatsoever.

This caused the area Fang Shi needed to search to be enormous.

Coupled with the obstruction of the trees, without being careful one could pass within ten meters and miss it entirely.

Fang Shi pressed on, pushed through a thicket, and suddenly the view opened up.

Ahead appeared a vast lake, its waters clear and shimmering, jade-green ripples swaying gently.

In the far distance, one could faintly make out a dam built by human hands.

This was a reservoir — a tap-water supply point for Ancheng before the apocalypse.

Unfortunately, it had now become a paradise for monsters.

Dense swarms of all manner of aquatic monsters lived within it, having long since occupied the original ecosystem.

Fang Shi's spirits lifted — find the reservoir, and the cemetery was not far off.

The siting of a cemetery is particular; in feng shui, the most basic condition is to rest against hills and face water.

The hill is a backing mountain, signifying that the clan will flourish with a mountain to rely on; the water is wealth, signifying wealth flowing in ceaselessly and without end.

This reservoir happens to cut off the upstream water source, and some people even see it as intercepting wealth — wealth intercepted and channeled into one's own home.

Fang Shi was a little excited — soon, soon, the Yigao Cemetery was nearby.

No — wait, that's not right!

Fang Shi looked more carefully; on the far shore of the reservoir, in the distance, there was a very small black dot.

With his eyesight, he could make out that it was an archaic-style palace.

It was also one of the entrances to the cemetery.

As long as he crossed the reservoir, he could enter the Yigao Cemetery.

The terrain changes of the previous two times seemed to have had limited effect on the cemetery.

Basically, they had not caused the cemetery to drift too far from the reservoir.

However, Fang Shi quickly furrowed his brow.

This stretch of reservoir, it seemed, would not be easy to cross.

On the near shore of the reservoir ahead, a group of River-Dwelling Dragon Beasts had gathered.

They clustered in groups of three or five, playing and frolicking along the bank.

As already mentioned earlier, generally speaking, beasts that have eaten and drunk their fill will not be bored enough to attack for no reason.

But this does not include intelligent creatures — intelligent creatures have a form of entertainment, and that is hunting.

They do not care whether the food is wasted; instead, they derive spiritual satisfaction from the sheer quantity of prey.

River-Dwelling Dragon Beasts are a pack of beasts, but their ancestors were not.

These creatures, degenerated from Black Dragons, had sleek bodies, flowing wings, and broad fins.

They possessed both the ability to glide through the sky and to navigate the rivers.

Save for the lack of forelegs, they were nearly identical to dragon-kind.

The River-Dwelling Dragon Beasts inherited the Black Dragon's cunning and cruelty — even when sated.

They still delighted in toying with, stalking, attacking, and harassing any creature that passed by.

And because they favored scavenging, even given their bloodlust, the food they wasted was limited.

Therefore, the River-Dwelling Dragon Beasts were considered scourges of the vast freshwater basins.

Basically, once such creatures reached the limits of what nature could bear, they would self-annihilate.

But the trouble was that their ancestors, the Black Dragons, had never known restraint.

Even after going extinct, they would spawn another litter.

Fang Shi had a bit of a headache — the biological grade of the River-Dwelling Dragon Beasts wasn't high.

Most of them hadn't even managed to enter a rank.

The problem was that they were amphibious creatures, cunning and cautious.

When they couldn't win on land, they would retreat into the water.

Using the advantage of the water, they would counterattack.

Fang Shi's goal was to cross the reservoir, which made conflict with the River-Dwelling Dragon Beasts unavoidable.

One careless move, and it would be easy to capsize in a ditch.

Therefore, Fang Shi decided to walk along the riverbank now, to see if there was any place he could go around.

……

Two hours later, Fang Shi returned to where he had started.

Upstream and downstream of the reservoir, there were indeed no River-Dwelling Dragon Beasts.

But the threat level was hardly reduced.

After the expansion of heaven and earth, this river channel had grown considerably wider.

A river that hadn't been large to begin with had become more treacherous than the Yangtze or Yellow River.

The waters surged, waves churned, slamming against the broken cliffs.

Only on the reservoir side, perhaps because humans had once lived there,

the impact of the great change of heaven and earth was small — it was the most placid and stable location.

Fang Shi was very cautious; at the upstream and downstream spots,

although he hadn't seen any obvious monsters, he still wasn't willing to enter the water.

Generally speaking, in such a torrential river, aquatic animals should be few.

But that was the situation before the apocalypse; after the apocalypse, the survival ability of otherworldly creatures was simply too strong.

Even in lava there would be powerful creatures — what was a little rushing water to them?

If he were attacked by some dangerous creature while crossing the river, the trouble would be enormous.

After thinking it over, only beside the reservoir was safest.

One: the waters here were calm. Two: since the River-Dwelling Dragon Beasts lived here,

according to their domineering temperament, all other creatures had long since been killed or driven away without a trace.

This meant that as long as Fang Shi could deal with the River-Dwelling Dragon Beasts, he could cross the river safely.

Bang!

Fang Shi leaped down — act on the thought, do it; he had never been one to hesitate.

The Earth Dragon Sword left its sheath, slashing toward the River-Dwelling Dragon Beasts like a bolt of lightning.

These dragon beasts, seeing Fang Shi charge in, weren't afraid in the slightest.

That they could dominate this stretch of water and hold their ground here

was thanks to their numbers, thanks to their unity.

Some powerful first-rank creatures, seeing over a hundred dragon beasts swarm forth,

instinctively recoiled — even if they could kill several dozen, the cost would be their own lives.

It simply wasn't worth it.

Moreover, among the River-Dwelling Dragon Beasts there were also first-rank existences; they squinted their eyes,

watching lazily as their underlings charged, beginning yet another bullying campaign.

This human who didn't know the height of the heavens would ultimately die at their hands.

Back in the day, before they had come to this world,

they would often go bully the elves who lived nearby.

Those tender-skinned creatures tasted even more delicious than fish.

Unfortunately, one day a spatial rift appeared in their territory.

Driven by curiosity, one after another they entered it.

It was a place devoid of the Force — apart from novelty, there was no benefit whatsoever.

The disappointed dragon beasts were about to return, only to find the spatial rift had long since vanished.

With no way back, the dragon beasts could only survive here.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

A sky-blotting swarm of River-Dwelling Dragon Beasts flew through the air.

Their wings beat, and in no time they were ten meters out from Fang Shi.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

Clumps of green, scorched-black mucus spewed from their mouths, shooting toward Fang Shi.

This was the corrosive mucus of the River-Dwelling Dragon Beasts — not only did it possess fierce corrosive power, it was also extremely sticky.

Creatures stuck by it would suffer corrosive damage while their movements were hindered.

Bai He Sword Art!

Crane Dances the Vast Sky!

As the corrosive slime approached him, Fang Shi immediately cast a spell.

Transforming into a gale, he bypassed the slime's attack and flew toward the river-dwelling dragon beasts in the sky.

He could not avoid it; even transformed into a gale, he would still suffer elemental damage.

And the corrosive slime was a form of elemental damage.

The wind cut like knives; the blade formed from the long sword possessed terrifying killing power.

With every burst, several river-dwelling dragon beasts plummeted from the high sky.

This shocking turn of events caused the swarm of river-dwelling dragon beasts to panic instantly.

They scattered and fled rapidly; the first-tier river-dwelling dragon beasts by the reservoir widened their eyes.

In their sense of smell, Fang Shi's aura was right among the river-dwelling dragon beasts.

Wherever he moved, river-dwelling dragon beasts died in that direction.

This enraged the first-tier dragon beasts; they beat their wings and surged toward Fang Shi's aura.

Corrosive slime, without exception, but faster and swifter, with even greater power.

Ordinary first-tier creatures would struggle to block it.

But Fang Shi was not included in that; his reaction speed was simply too fast.

In an instant, he dodged the corrosive slime's attack and leaped upward.

As he approached a first-tier river-dwelling dragon beast, the Bai He Sword Art just finished, revealing his form.

The long sword swept through, beheading the first-tier river-dwelling dragon beast before him.

Blood slashed across the long sky; the morale of the river-dwelling dragon beast swarm collapsed instantly.

All surviving dragon beasts began retreating into the water, swimming toward the depths of the reservoir.

Even though Fang Shi had already returned to human form, they dared not attack again.

Like stray dogs.

But Fang Shi knew this was not over; once he began to enter the water,

he would face the fierce retaliation of the river-dwelling dragon beasts.

At that time, it would be another fierce great battle.