Hiding in the grass, Lin Lei watched the scene before him, holding his breath. "That pile — there have to be at least fifty or sixty stalks." A suppressed thrill surged through his heart, but what truly stunned Lin Lei was—
Bei Bei still didn't seem satisfied and kept rapidly pulling up Blueheart Herb after Blueheart Herb.
"Those two tiny paws of his — can he even carry that whole pile of Blueheart Herb?" Lin Lei was somewhat confused and immediately sent a soul transmission. "Bei Bei, that's enough. Come back."
Bei Bei looked up at Lin Lei, then wrinkled his adorable little nose. "Not yet — there aren't enough."
Just then, a Rapid Dragon drinking by the river glanced over, and its gaze settled on Bei Bei. The Rapid Dragon had clearly spotted Bei Bei, because it straightened its forelimbs — which had been bent as it drank — and fixed Bei Bei with its icy stare.
"Not good." Lin Lei's heart jumped into his throat.
If Bei Bei got into a fight with this Rapid Dragon, it could draw the attention of other magical beasts, and then things would get ugly. This valley was absolutely crawling with magical beasts.
Bei Bei noticed the Rapid Dragon too. He immediately looked its way, then seemed terrified and cowered beside his little pile of Blueheart Herb, shivering theatrically.
"Roar~~" The Rapid Dragon let out a triumphant cry, then lowered its forelimbs again and leisurely resumed drinking by the river.
"What a big dummy. Fooling it was way too easy," Bei Bei transmitted proudly to Lin Lei.
Lin Lei didn't know whether to laugh or cry — he hadn't expected Bei Bei to know how to "play weak." He remembered clearly that a year and a half ago, Bei Bei had already been able to fend off a Rapid Dragon and send it fleeing. Now, after another year and a half of growth, Bei Bei should be even stronger.
Bei Bei had absolutely nothing to fear from a Rapid Dragon.
But Bei Bei was clever enough to know that causing a big commotion here would easily expose Lin Lei.
Humans!
Magical beasts were deeply hostile toward humans.
In that Rapid Dragon's eyes, Bei Bei was nothing more than an extremely weak little magical beast. Seeing Bei Bei cower in fear, it naturally couldn't be bothered to kill him. After all, it knew that black magical beast mice were nothing but the lowest-grade Shadow Mice.
What this Rapid Dragon didn't know was that one of its "kindred" had once been thoroughly thrashed by Bei Bei.
"Nice," Lin Lei gave Bei Bei a thumbs up.
Bei Bei grinned proudly. "Of course. I, Bei Bei, am the smartest magical beast mouse there is." He then glanced at the pile of Blueheart Herb beside him — a stack taller than his own body — and suddenly swelled in size, going from twenty centimeters to nearly half a meter long.
Now enlarged, Bei Bei easily scooped the entire pile of Blueheart Herb into his forepaws, then kicked off with his hind legs—
Whoosh!
Bei Bei shot through the grass and landed right beside Lin Lei.
"Boss, a hundred and sixty stalks of Blueheart Herb total. When I, Bei Bei, go out, I never come back empty-handed." Bei Bei puffed out his little chest with pride.
Lin Lei affectionately rubbed Bei Bei's little head, then stuffed all the Blueheart Herb into his pack.
"Let's keep moving. I'm getting more and more curious about this valley." Lin Lei's eyes gleamed as he looked eastward. "This valley has so many magical beasts, and the density of World Elements is incredibly thick. I can feel that it's even denser here than where we first entered. The concentration of World Elements here is probably about ten times what it is outside."
Lin Lei had a feeling—
The cause of that abnormally dense concentration of World Elements had to lie somewhere to the east of this valley.
He made his way forward through the thickest patches of grass, aided by the auxiliary magic "Rapid." At seventh-level Wind System, the spell "Rapid" could triple a person's speed in an instant!
Triple the speed — and Lin Lei was already a fourth-level warrior to begin with.
"Whoosh, whoosh!"
Lin Lei moved stealthily forward, dodging one magical beast after another. Fortunately, aside from the area where the flying horse herds roamed, the grass everywhere else grew thick and lush. At Lin Lei's height, he could slip through it with ease.
"From the time I entered the valley until now, I've covered nearly a hundred li to the east."
Lin Lei was surprised.
After all, the entire Magic Beast Mountain Range was only about a thousand li wide. For a single valley to stretch this far was truly remarkable. By distance, the area Lin Lei had now entered was close to the central region of the mountain range.
"Huh, Boss, there are barely any magical beasts here." Bei Bei stood on Lin Lei's shoulder, rising on his hind legs to peer around carefully.
Lin Lei nodded slightly.
Within several li in every direction, there were only two magical beasts total. Such scarcity was extremely odd. Both were massive Rapid Dragons, and more importantly — both were lying on the ground resting, apparently asleep.
"Only two Rapid Dragons, and they're both sleeping." Lin Lei smiled wryly to himself. "This stretch is probably the easiest part of my journey through the valley. But these two Rapid Dragons don't seem quite like ordinary ones."
Lin Lei noticed that these two were even larger than typical Rapid Dragons. Since they were lying down, their exact height was hard to gauge, but just their height while prone matched an ordinary Rapid Dragon standing upright. Their body length was nearly double that of a normal one.
These two enormous Rapid Dragons lay on the ground like a pair of hills.
Being cautious, Lin Lei deliberately took a path through the grass more than twenty meters away from both of them. But he didn't notice that when he rustled through the undergrowth, both Rapid Dragons' ears twitched — yet they kept their eyes closed and remained lying down.
Moving through grass naturally made some noise.
But Lin Lei didn't pay it much mind. In his view, even wind passing through grass made a rustling sound — just a bit quieter than someone moving through it. Besides, he'd been slipping through grass like this for a long time now without incident.
"Whoosh!"
A blurred shape tore through the air and struck straight toward Lin Lei. Even with "Rapid" enhancing him, Lin Lei could only barely skid to a halt.
"Crack!"
A long tail like a steel whip slammed into the ground roughly half a meter in front of Lin Lei. The earth split apart, leaving a pit nearly a meter wide. Lin Lei immediately kicked off the ground and leaped into the air.
"I've been discovered." A chill ran through his heart.