Chapter 15: Entering the Misty Valley Again
White mist swirled below. Standing at the top of the canyon cliff, one couldn't see anything down there at all.
Linley held his flat blade as he stood by the Misty Valley, peering downward. This flat blade had been crafted for three thousand gold coins, and its sharpness and toughness far surpassed that of his previous black short blade. After all, for Linley, the flat blade was more convenient than the black short blade.
Linley had been in the Warcraft Mountain Range for a month and a half now, and he felt he had adjusted his condition to its peak.
Dense earth-type elements gathered around Linley as he chanted his magic incantation, finally forming a seemingly ancient suit of armor. Upon closer inspection, one could see that the armor's material resembled jade, but it emanated an aura of earth-type elements.
Earth-type rank 7 magic – Earthguard Saint Armor (Jade Grade)
A rank 7 magus was far more formidable than a rank 6 magus. Just the defensive power alone had increased nearly tenfold.
"Now, if I encounter winged wyverns again, with this Jade Saint Armor alone, I can easily withstand their attacks." Linley was very confident in his heart. Then, he began chanting the magic incantation for the Flight spell. Air currents swirled around Linley's body, and finally, he floated gracefully into the Misty Valley.
Linley was quite confident about exploring the Misty Valley.
"Now, with the Jade Armor for defense, the Flight spell, and my own abilities as a rank 4 warrior, combined with rank 7 'Supersonic', I can protect myself without issue." Linley's exploration of the Misty Valley wasn't impulsive.
It was because…
Blueheart Grass!
Blueheart Grass was too important to Linley. Besides Blueheart Grass, Linley was also very curious about what exactly caused so many magical beasts to gather here. Especially the fact that different species of magical beasts were all congregating in the same valley.
"Boss, be careful. Don't forget how badly we were chased last time." Bebe transmitted mentally.
"Don't worry."
The further down he flew, the wider the distance between the cliff walls became. The bottom of the valley was obviously astonishingly vast. Amidst the white mist, Linley flew very cautiously, carefully observing every direction. Bebe also watched with extreme care. At the same time, they were also looking for where Blueheart Grass grew.
Linley's first destination was naturally the location of the Blueheart Grass that hadn't been picked last time.
Sticking close to the cliff wall, Linley advanced carefully.
"Boss, I see the Blueheart Grass. It's right ahead." Bebe's eyes were sharp. Linley looked closely and his eyes lit up.
The grass leaves were emerald green, with a faint blue glow flowing within them.
"I hope there's no Green Pattern Python." Linley didn't dare to be careless. Although he wasn't afraid of a Green Pattern Python, once he started fighting one, it would easily attract other magical beasts. He wasn't confident he could handle an entire army of magical beasts.
Green Pattern Pythons were green, and on the cliff walls covered in green vines, they could easily be overlooked if one wasn't careful. So Linley demanded extreme caution from himself.
After carefully observing for a while and confirming there was no Green Pattern Python in that patch of green vines, Linley cautiously flew over.
He picked this stalk of Blueheart Grass. It was cool to the touch, and a smile appeared on Linley's face. This coolness was indeed a characteristic of Blueheart Grass. Linley carefully placed the Blueheart Grass into his pack. Then, he continued to slowly search further.
"Roar~~~"
"Caw~~~"
Various roars of magical beasts came from below. The chaotic sounds made Linley's heart tremble. Those roars came from all directions below. Just by listening to the roars, one could tell that there were a huge number of magical beasts down there!
Through the white mist, Linley could already vaguely see that lush grassland.
"Boss, be careful. I don't want to be chased all over the place again." Bebe warned.
"I know." Linley raised his alertness to the maximum. His eyes carefully scanned the surroundings, especially the vines clinging to the cliff walls. He was terrified of a Green Pattern Python hiding among those vines. Being discovered by one magical beast meant being discovered by a whole group.
"It's a winged wyvern." Linley spotted a large, blurry flying magical beast moving casually in the distance. He quickly flew away to the side.
Fortunately, the valley was filled with white mist. At a distance, one could only see blurry figures. The winged wyverns were huge and easy to spot, while Linley's body was much smaller than the magical beasts, giving him a slight advantage.
"Caw, caw~~~" Suddenly, a strange cry rang out, and it was heading directly towards Linley's location.
"Not good." Linley's face changed drastically.
Having had close encounters with winged wyverns, Linley knew very well that this cry was theirs. He looked towards the source of the sound and saw roughly twenty or thirty blurry, massive winged wyvern figures flying this way.
Winged wyverns were enormous. Twenty or thirty of them flying together was like a sky-covering swarm.
With so many winged wyverns, Linley had almost nowhere to hide.
Now, Linley had three choices. One was to fight these winged wyverns directly. Two was to fly upwards and escape. The third was… to fly downwards rapidly and dash straight into the valley.
"Whoosh!"
Without hesitation, Linley flew directly downwards. The white mist rushed towards his face. In just a few breaths, like an arrow, he plunged straight into a patch of lush weeds and then lay motionless inside the thicket.
Linley advanced carefully until he reached the edge of the weeds. Through the gaps in the vegetation, he cautiously observed the valley.
It was a very wide valley. Inside, there was a river and lush weeds, looking like a paradise. However, in this 'paradise', there was a group of massive reptilian creatures.
Two stories high, thirty meters long, with scales like rock, each scale the size of half a person.
Relevant information naturally surfaced in Linley's mind: "Ground Dragon, rank 6 magical beast, fire-type."
"If there were only one Ground Dragon, it wouldn't be too scary, but…" Linley's eyes swept over briefly. "There are definitely over a hundred of these Ground Dragons. If over a hundred Ground Dragons charged at me, there would be no way to withstand them."
"But their speed isn't enough; they don't pose much of a threat to me." Linley looked at the other magical beasts.
In the valley, the Ground Dragon group was just a small force, because there were also a large number of 'Velociraptors'. Velociraptors were not social; most were scattered around the valley. Meanwhile, winged wyverns occasionally flew across the sky. If one looked closely, large pythons could be seen slithering through the distant grass.
This was just what Linley could see.
"From this brief observation, I can at least tell that the valley runs east-west. To the north and south, I can vaguely see the cliff walls." Linley looked back. He could also see cliff walls in the distance to the west. Only the east was completely unclear.
There was a particular river flowing east-west, with water constantly coming from the east.
"Bebe, you keep a careful watch too." Linley cast the wind-type auxiliary magic 'Supersonic' on himself, then carefully crept through the weeds. The weeds in this valley were very lush, probably because these magical beasts were all carnivores.
While cautiously moving, Linley suddenly noticed something.
"So dense with natural elements. The density of natural elements here is at least six or seven times that of the outside world." After entering the valley, Linley had been so tense that he hadn't even noticed this at first.
"Such dense natural elements… what causes this?"
Linley carefully moved eastward. In this valley, whether it was Ground Dragons, Velociraptors, Green Pattern Pythons, or Winged Wyverns, all were massive magical beasts. Linley, this little speck, was inconspicuous while moving through the over-one-meter-tall weeds.
"This valley is long enough!"
Linley advanced about twenty li eastward and still hadn't found the end of the valley. At the same time, he discovered a new group of magical beasts.
Rank 6 magical beast – Twin-Winged Pegasus. Rank 7 magical beast – Thunder-Winged Pegasus.
Various winged horses were either flying in the sky or strolling in the valley, lowering their heads to eat the weeds.
"Boss, there aren't many weed patches here. How do we get across?" Bebe asked worriedly.
Linley frowned. Ahead, there was a large area with very few weed patches. Even if there were any, they were probably only knee-high.
"Such a long distance, there's no way to cross on the ground. I'll have to go through the air." Linley carefully retreated. After retreating about a few hundred meters, putting a good distance between himself and the pegasus group, he immediately cast the Flight spell.
"Whoosh!"
He flew straight upwards at extreme speed. Linley shot into the thick white mist above. Within the white mist, he occasionally sensed a pegasus approaching. Since Twin-Winged Pegasi were relatively small and didn't take up much space, Linley could still dodge them.
While carefully flying eastward, Linley also approached the southern cliff wall, carefully checking for Blueheart Grass. But as he advanced, his brow furrowed.
"Besides that first stalk of Blueheart Grass, I haven't found a single one since." Linley was starting to feel anxious.
Nevertheless, Linley continued eastward. After flying about ten more li, he noticed he wasn't encountering any Twin-Winged Pegasi in the air, so he descended.
"Linley, the types of magical beasts here are very mixed. This area mostly has unsocial beasts, like Velociraptors, like Black Bears, like those agile Cat Bears." Doehring Cowart also floated beside Linley, advancing with him.
Linley moved cautiously, while Doehring Cowart strolled along easily.
"Ah!"
Linley felt as if struck by lightning, staring dumbfounded ahead. About fifty meters in front of him was a patch of grassland about seven or eight meters square. On this patch of grass grew stalk after stalk of emerald green grass.
The green grass wasn't unusual. What was unusual was… a blue glow flowed within each of these stalks.
"Blueheart Grass. They're all Blueheart Grass!"
At this moment, Linley's heartbeat seemed to stop. Heavens, one stalk of Blueheart Grass was worth tens of thousands of gold coins, and it was hard to find even at that price. But right there, fifty meters ahead, on that seven or eight-meter-square patch of grass, there were at least several hundred stalks of Blueheart Grass.
"So many. A handful would be seven or eight stalks." Linley took a deep breath.
Doehring Cowart's eyes also lit up. "Linley, to drink the blood of a living dragon, four or five stalks of Blueheart Grass would probably be enough. So much Blueheart Grass… it's unimaginable. But… this patch of Blueheart Grass is surrounded by bare ground. How are you going to get over there?"
It seemed Blueheart Grass was somewhat incompatible with ordinary weeds.
Within a radius of nearly thirty meters around the Blueheart Grass, the ground was completely bare, without a single weed.
"There aren't that many magical beasts here, and they're all unsocial, scattered randomly." Linley carefully observed his surroundings. "There are only seven magical beasts near this Blueheart Grass patch. If I'm fast enough, I should be able to escape."
Linley tried to calm his mind, bringing his state to its peak.
"Boss, are you stupid? Have you forgotten about me, Bebe?" Bebe suddenly transmitted mentally.
Linley was startled and looked at Bebe. Bebe winked at Linley triumphantly. "Boss, I'm much faster than you, and I'm much smaller. Picking them is no problem for me. You just open your pack and get ready to receive them."
"Swish!"
A black blur shot out. In the blink of an eye, Bebe had dashed to the center of the Blueheart Grass patch. Then, his little claws nimbly and ruthlessly began 'plundering' the Blueheart Grass. His two small paws waved, and the central area of the grass patch was instantly stripped bare. Beside him, a small pile of Blueheart Grass, about as tall as Bebe himself, was accumulating.