Chapter 4: The Black Shadow
The first heavy snow of winter had fallen, blanketing many areas deep within the Warcraft Mountain Range. Various footprints could be clearly seen on the snow—some human, others belonging to warcraft of different sizes.
"What a heavy snow."
Linley wore his usual tattered linen trousers, his upper body bare. Even though the temperature was cold enough to freeze rushing streams into solid ice, Linley remained unafraid.
Barefoot, Linley strode forward with large steps.
"Boss, the Yulan Festival should be coming up soon, right?" Bebe guessed.
Having stayed in the Warcraft Mountain Range for so long, they had even lost track of time. Although Linley had a pocket watch, it only showed the time, not the date.
"Probably about right," Linley nodded.
It had been about two years since he entered the Warcraft Mountain Range. During these two years, Linley's strength as a warrior had grown relatively quickly, reaching the peak of the seventh rank. However, his skill with the heavy sword had improved immeasurably compared to when he first obtained the Blackdusk heavy sword. Especially after becoming an eighth-rank dual-element magus, combining magic with his warrior abilities had greatly increased his overall power.
"Hmm?" Linley and Bebe both turned their heads.
Not far away, two burly men in leather armor, carrying weapons, were running frantically as if fleeing in panic. Seeing they were humans, Linley continued walking. Throughout the year, many experts came into the Warcraft Mountain Range to train. Over these two years, Linley had encountered quite a few humans. His principle toward humans in the Warcraft Mountain Range was simple—don't provoke them.
After all, many of them were specifically after the magical beast cores in others' packs. Since Linley had a space ring, he didn't carry a pack. So very few people targeted him.
"Wait, wait!" An anxious shout came from behind.
Linley paid no attention and kept walking. The two men were running quite fast and caught up in no time. When they did, Linley immediately stopped and turned around.
"What do you want?" Linley stared coldly at the two burly men.
With his judgment, Linley could tell these two were not weak, but it was hard to gauge human strength from appearance alone. Linley remained on guard against them.
"Us?" The two burly men exchanged glances, then gave Linley awkward smiles. One of them, a one-eyed bald man, apologized, "We don't mean anything else. It's just that the central area of the Warcraft Mountain Range is really dangerous. We two brothers wanted to... travel together with you, brother. That way, we can help each other and be safer, right?"
The other bald man was stunned for a moment, then quickly nodded, "Right. The central area is too dangerous. If we go together, we can assist each other. That way, we can all leave the central area, and once we're out of the Warcraft Mountain Range, we can go our separate ways."
"I'm not interested."
Linley frowned, turned around, and continued on his own.
Linley was no longer the inexperienced youth he once was. He could tell these two men were clearly lying. Mutual help in the Warcraft Mountain Range? That was a joke. These two wanted to go with him—they definitely had ill intentions. Linley didn't want trouble, but he also didn't feel like killing them. Naturally, he didn't want to travel with them.
Seeing Linley leave so decisively, the two bald men exchanged glances, hesitated for only a moment, then immediately chased after him again.
"Wait, brother, please wait!" The two bald men caught up once more.
Linley frowned and turned back to glare coldly at the pursuers.
The two men looked at Linley awkwardly. The one-eyed man quickly apologized, "I'm really sorry, but we brothers truly want to travel with you. Don't worry, once we get out of here, we'll definitely repay you properly."
Linley swept his gaze over them.
"Follow if you want," Linley said indifferently.
Having spent so long in the Warcraft Mountain Range, Linley had gained plenty of experience. If these two insisted on following him, he'd let them. He was confident he could handle them. Besides, he had Bebe on his shoulder.
"Thank you, thank you," the two bald men said gratefully.
They then followed closely beside Linley, occasionally glancing around nervously, fear in their eyes.
"Brother, we're from the Southwest Province of the O'Brien Empire. And you, brother?" The one-eyed bald man tried to get friendly.
Linley raised an eyebrow.
The O'Brien Empire?
He knew that if he headed directly east now, he would soon enter the territory of the O'Brien Empire.
"Why ask so many questions?" Linley shot him a glance. "If you want to follow, follow. But keep quiet."
"Yes, yes," the one-eyed bald man nodded repeatedly.
In their eyes, Linley was indeed an unusual person. Walking around in just trousers during winter wasn't that strange, but what was odd was that he walked through the central area of the Warcraft Mountain Range so calmly, so slowly.
It was as if this most dangerous place was his own backyard.
"Big brother," the other bald man tugged at the one-eyed man's leather armor and lowered his voice, "Big brother, do you think we can survive?"
The one-eyed bald man looked around fearfully and whispered back, "Stop overthinking. For now, just follow this mysterious man. Following him might give us a chance."
"Yeah," the bald man nodded, but his heart remained uneasy.
Up ahead, Linley walked very calmly. He noticed the two muttering behind him, but he had a feeling these two weren't the type to attack him.
After walking for a while, Linley stopped to rest.
Linley only covered about ten li a day, spending the rest of his time training. When he stopped, the two behind him grew truly anxious.
"Why did you stop?" the one-eyed bald man asked urgently.
"Hmm?" Linley shot him a dissatisfied glare.
His companion quickly forced a smile and said, "Sir, we're still in the central area. Shouldn't we get out of this dangerous place before resting?"
Linley frowned and said, "You two, stop bothering me. If you want to follow, follow. But I walk when I want and stop when I want. If you keep making noise, don't blame me for killing you both."
The two bald men exchanged glances, then smiled awkwardly.
"Sorry, sorry."
They immediately backed off, not daring to disturb Linley again.
"These two are acting a bit strange," Linley thought, glancing at them. They said they wanted to leave the Warcraft Mountain Range, yet they insisted on following him. When he stopped, they stopped too.
Why were they so determined to follow him?
They didn't even know him.
Linley sat down cross-legged and pulled out the Blackdusk heavy sword, placing it across his thighs. But just then, he felt a sudden chill in his heart—
"Whoosh!"
Linley spun his head sharply. A black shadow flashed past in front of him and vanished in an instant.
"Ah, ah..." Distant, terrified screams rang out, then fell silent after just two or three cries. Linley then noticed that only one of the two bald men remained—the one-eyed one. His brother was gone. A pool of blood stained the snow nearby.
"Ah, ah, no, no." The one-eyed bald man seemed to have suffered unprecedented shock, screaming hysterically.
Linley stood up solemnly. Bebe also went on alert.
"Boss, that monster is incredibly fast," Bebe transmitted gravely. "In all my time in the Warcraft Mountain Range, this is the fastest I've seen. I didn't even get a clear look—I don't know if it was human or warcraft."
Linley hadn't seen it clearly either.
The monster was too fast, even a bit faster than Bebe's darting speed.
"What is it? Bebe has already stepped into the threshold of a ninth-rank magical beast. I've encountered many warcraft in the mountain range, but none have surpassed Bebe in speed," Linley thought with growing unease.
Speed was Bebe's advantage.
Even among ninth-rank magical beasts, it was hard to find one faster than Bebe.
"Could that monster be a Saint-level warcraft?" Linley's heart sank. A Saint-level warcraft would naturally be fast—faster than Bebe was normal.
Linley immediately turned to look at the one-eyed bald man.
The man's eyes were filled with terror, his lips muttering incessantly. He kept glancing around in panic, as if afraid of being attacked again.
"Ah!" The one-eyed bald man felt himself grabbed suddenly and screamed in fright.
But when he came to his senses, he saw Linley holding him by the collar.
"Talk. What's going on?" Linley stared at him. "Otherwise, I'll leave you here alone and go on my way."
"No, no, don't abandon me!" The one-eyed bald man dropped to his knees. "I'll talk, I'll talk."
Linley frowned at the sight.
He had heard that the O'Brien Empire was the most militarily powerful empire, where the War God was deeply revered. Many imperial citizens trained as warriors, and strong warriors were usually proud. This bald man could enter the central area of the Warcraft Mountain Range, so he wasn't weak. Even if he wasn't a seventh-rank warrior, he was at least sixth-rank.
Yet here he was, kneeling without a shred of dignity.
"Sir, you don't understand. These past days have been... a nightmare." The one-eyed bald man's eyes seemed to glisten with tears.
Linley listened intently.
"This time, my brother, my wife, and some other friends and brothers formed a team to train in the Warcraft Mountain Range and collect some magical beast cores. For people like us, who've entered the mountain range five or six times, it seemed routine. But then..."
The one-eyed bald man's whole body trembled. "On the third day, just as we entered the intermediate warcraft area, we stepped into a nightmare."
"Our team had six seventh-rank warriors and two sixth-rank magi. Hunting in the intermediate area wasn't very dangerous. But who would have thought... we encountered a terrifying monster."
"A monster?" Linley frowned.
"The first time we met it, it ambushed us, just like before, killing one of my good brothers." The one-eyed bald man's body shook. "We were furious. The monster was so fast we couldn't even see its figure—we only heard our friend's screams and knew he was attacked. Seeing the blood on the ground, we realized our friend was probably dead."
"At the time, we thought this warcraft only knew how to ambush and didn't dare face us openly, so it couldn't be that strong. Angry, we even wanted revenge. But we couldn't find the monster."
The one-eyed bald man took a deep breath to calm himself and continued, "But that evening, while we were eating dinner, the monster came again." His eyes widened, clearly terrified.
"This time, it snatched one of our magi in one go. But this time, it carried the magi a few dozen meters away and started eating him right there, in front of all of us. Right before our eyes, the monster devoured our team's magus."
"A monster? What did it look like?" Linley pressed.
"It looked like a pitch-black leopard," the one-eyed bald man said.
"Pitch-black? An eighth-rank Blackstriped Leopard?" Linley found that hard to believe, because an eighth-rank warcraft couldn't reach such incredible speed, even if leopards were the fastest among crawling warcraft.
"It wasn't a Blackstriped Leopard. Our team had some experience—we all knew what a Blackstriped Leopard's black stripes looked like. But this monster had curved black patterns all over its body, and they were very dense."