Divine Beast Adventures

Edited by RED

“Zhizhi!”

After being praised by Zhang Che, the Gluttony Monkey showed off his archery skills for a little more before looking at Zhang Che pitifully, making gestures of eating with his hands and chewing a few times with his mouth.

Okay, this fellow was asking for a prize now.

Zhang Che slapped his forehead speechlessly. -Forget it. I take back my thoughts from before. This fellow’s talent tree was definitely right; he is a glutton through and through.-

“But aren’t you absorbing the rainbow fog energy all the time already? Is there any meaning in you still craving food?” Zhang Che tapped his finger on the Gluttony Monkey’s head before sending him back into his spiritual sea. He left the archery practice arena, heading to the nearby supermarket.

He still had no idea what this fellow’s preferences were like. When he ate his meals previously, the Gluttony Monkey didn’t show any desire for food. Obviously, he wasn’t into rice.

“Hmm, I suppose this fellow prefers fruit and the like.”

It wasn’t hard to deduce this. Wasn’t it specified in the frisky monkey’s attributes? Since he excelled in finding all kinds of fruits, he was sure to like eating those.

Unsurprisingly, when Zhang Che entered the supermarket and came to the fruits section, the bronze light in his spiritual sea that represented the Gluttony Monkey immediately stirred restlessly, his appetite obviously aroused by the various kinds of fruit here.

When Zhang Che exited the supermarket, he was carrying several bags in his hands, filled with all kind of seasonal fruits. These bags sank in his hands, weighing nearly fifteen kilograms.

——

As he was unsure whether he had successfully escaped from the Tian Yin Squad’s pursuit, Zhang Che had no intentions of returning home. Instead, he found a hotel and stayed there. He planned to set off for the neighboring Ci Zhou tomorrow to buy a super strong bow, equipping the Gluttony Monkey as a long range sniper cum support fire!

Water sounds splashed in the washroom. Zhang Che was currently enjoying a relaxing shower. In the room outside, the Gluttony Monkey jumped into the middle of the pile of fruits excitedly, using both his hands and started eating happily.

By the time Zhang Che came out from his shower, the pile of fruits was reduced to a mess of skins and seeds all over the floor.

“Damn it, I forgot to tell this guy to throw the waste into the trash can.”

Zhang Che slapped his forehead helplessly. He could only fetch the broom and mop with a bitter smile and start cleaning up.

——

Zhang Che woke up early the next morning and rushed over to the Qian Wei City Airport, taking a passenger plane headed to Ci Zhou City.

As there were still large numbers of flying beasts in the wild, the current generation of passenger planes were equipped with weapon systems, and the number of passengers it could take was not high.

Other than the flight and combat staff, this passenger plane Zhang Che was taking could only transport about fifty people. The ticket price was so frighteningly high that commoners would flinch at the thought of it, costing fifteen million Alliance dollars.

Other than beastmasters, only the rich were able to enjoy such transportation tools.

After boarding the plane, Zhang Che didn’t chance upon any beauties. His seat was by the window, with a cold-looking middle-aged man seated next to him. His poker face looked like others owed him five million dollars or something, with a vibe that felt detached from the world.

After taxiing a certain distance, the plane successfully took off into skies, and soon pierced into the clouds, quickly heading in Ci Zhou City’s direction.

In both of Zhang Che’s lives combined, this was the first time he had ever taken a plane. Thus, he looked out of the window in a novel manner, taking in the scenery outside.

Looking out through the airplane’s glass window, he could see flying beasts of various sizes flying in the distance from time to time. The larger ones had wingspans over twenty meters wide.

“These freaking birds won’t be attacking the passenger plane, will they? I heard that in this generation, the planes will be attacked at least once by flying beasts on average.”

It truly was a case of speak of the devil. When the passenger plane flew above an extended forest, a group of black flying beasts suddenly rose to the skies extremely quickly, chasing after the passenger plane.

“Shit, there really are flying beasts chasing us now. The weapon system on this plane should be able to handle them, right?” Zhang Che looked at the cloud of darkness wide-eyed as it rapidly approached, his heart growing apprehensive.

Only the heavens knew how strong these flying beasts were, and whether they had some sort of unique offensive methods. Wasn’t it really dangerous if the weapon system was unable to effectively fend them off?

-Mmm, from the looks of it, it’s better to take land transportation whenever possible in the future. I would have a chance of escaping even if I encountered any powerful exotic beasts, wouldn’t I?-

It wasn’t only Zhang Che; many other passengers also discovered the pursuing flying beasts outside the windows. The crowd instantly caused a commotion.

Just as some of the passengers were getting restless, the sweet voice of a stewardess suddenly rang out from the public address system, assuring everyone. “Please rest assured, our dear passengers. Our plane is equipped with a powerful weapon defense system. It is definitely able to defend against most flying beasts’ attacks…”

-That’s right; there was hardly any news on airplanes crashing due to attacks from flying beasts. The flight to Ci Zhou City wasn’t considered a long one, either. There shouldn’t be any dangers, right?-

The dark mass of flying beasts closed in rapidly. When the distance between them and the plane was only a few hundred meters, many windows on the plane body suddenly opened, revealing the black mouths of a row of automatic cannons.

In the next moment, low and concentrated cannon-fire rang out. Countless tongues of flames danced around like whips, reaching for the dense mass of the black cloud.

The shells struck the black flying beasts’ bodies with huge kinetic force behind them, instantly turning the skies in this area into a rain of meat and blood. Black feathers floated down like flower petals, scattering in the chaotic air currents high in the sky.

The passengers who saw this through the cabin windows cheered out one after another. None of them felt as uneasy as before.

“If their bodies were torn apart so easily by the automatic cannons, the level and quality of these black flying beasts really isn’t anything to talk about. Their speed was probably the only thing to note.”

Looking at the black flying beasts being slaughtered outside, Zhang Che thought that if every passenger plane only met with this level of aerial beasts, there wouldn’t be much danger to speak of.

——

Perhaps Zhang Che’s luck was pretty good today, or perhaps it was due to the short flight, they didn’t meet any other attacks on this trip.

Unlike Qian Wei City’s mountainous terrain, Ci Zhou City was situated on flatlands. Many rivers and lakes could be found nearby. It was originally a famous land of fish and rice known far and wide.

However, after the dawn of the new age, the humans’ living area was greatly suppressed by the invading exotic beasts. Now, that endless fertile land had become rich forests and grasslands. Only the area surrounding Ci Zhou City was left with a small fraction of farm lands.

As Ci Zhou City’s terrain was too flat, in order to effectively defend against the beast hordes, countless defensive constructions were built around the perimeter of Ci Zhou City. Looking down at it from the sky, it was like an eight trigram formation was placed around it, dazzling anyone who saw it.

Edited by RED

Although the Shooting Sun Research Institute was called a research institute, it was in fact a private research facility. It specialized in developing exotic beast materials for use with bows and arrows.

Over nearly thirty years, the Shooting Sun Research Institute had developed a few series of neo-material bows and arrows. The best of them were already capable of killing three-star silver-quality exotic beasts.

Although they were ineffective against mid-tier exotic beasts and above, they were still favored and popular among many beastmasters.

After all, to a low-tier beastmaster, the effectiveness of a reliable and strong bow was higher than most subdued beasts when it came to hunting exotic beasts.

That was especially true for a Tier One or Tier Two beastmaster without a good subdued beast. If they wanted to have any gains in the beast world, a good bow definitely had a better price-to-value ratio than beast cards that could easily reach tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Of course, not everyone would choose to use bows and arrows, because there was a problem associated with it… whether the person in question had the talent for archery!

If you couldn’t hit a target even after shooting a few arrows, your target would have pounced on you and shredded you. What use was there then, even if you had the best bow in hand?

Moreover, even if your bow and arrows were made with the latest materials, it still required a certain strength to draw the bowstring fully. Perhaps there would be no problem in doing so once or twice for an ordinary person, but if they wished to maintain stability and accuracy, they had to go through a long period of training to achieve that.

Therefore, although there were many advantages with using a bow, there were obviously as many disadvantages. Whether it was better or worse than a subdued beast would depend on the person themselves and their preferences.

Zhang Che, for example, understood that he had no talent for archery. If he wanted to hunt exotic beasts, it was much simpler and more convenient to use subdued beasts.

He was making this trip here to Ci Zhou City to buy a strong bow only because he discovered the Gluttony Monkey’s unusual talent for archery!

——

The Shooting Sun Research Institute ran their own weapon shop. It was very famous within Ci Zhou City. Zhang Che only needed to make a casual inquiry about it, and he found the place shortly thereafter.

It was a huge building, over ten stories tall. The top of the building was adorned with a gigantic bow statue. Anyone who saw it would know what place it was.

The three lowest stories of the building sold all kinds of weapons, while the three stories above that specialized in the sale of bow and arrows. The stories above that weren’t open to public; they were the place where the Shooting Sun Research Institute manufactured their bows and arrows. The security was heavy, and nobody could sneak in there.

Zhang Che was naturally uninterested in the weapons being sold in the first three stories and directly took the lift to the fourth story.

After exiting the elevator, the first things Zhang Che saw were the different kinds of bows hanging on the walls. There were classical longbows, the threatening recurve bows, and various exquisite compound bows among them.

The lobby was filled with people, many of them beastmasters who came here looking to buy a bow.

Zhang Che didn’t go look at the compound bows and traditional longbows. The former had too low of a firing rate, and wasn’t practical, while the latter had too long of a body. It was impractical for the frisky monkey to use given his short stature.

Thus, the recurve bows naturally became the best choice.

“Hello sir, welcome to the Shooting Sun Research Institute! Are you looking for recurve bows? We have eight major categories of recurve bows here, with a total of over forty models to choose from…” An attendant came up wearing a faint smile and started filling in Zhang Che on the unique characteristics of the recurve bow models here.

However, before she could finish her introduction, Zhang Che raised his hand to stop her, asking her directly, “Of the recurve bows here, which model is the strongest here?”

The female attendant swept her gaze over Zhang Che’s skinny figure. Although she really wanted to tell him that it was impossible for him to draw the strongest recurve bow here, she maintained her smile and nodded, saying, “Please come with me to the sixth story, sir,” and led the way to the elevator.

-Indeed, the best stuff is kept at the higher levels. I should have gone directly to the sixth story if I had known earlier,- Zhang Che cursed inwardly. He could only follow the female attendant into the lift.

—

After arriving at the sixth story, Zhang Che discovered that the area here was much smaller than its lower counterparts, with fewer bow and arrow types on display on the wall and counters. However, they gave off an extraordinary feeling.

The female attendant brought Zhang Che directly to the left of the sixth story lobby. She pointed to a pure purple-black recurve bow hanging on the wall and said, “Please take a look at this, sir. This bow is named the Falling Star Model Three. The handle was made with an uncommon wood found in the beast world, known as the Seven-Star Iron Pear Wood. Its toughness is comparable to metal alloy, but lighter. The limbs, on the other hand, were crafted with the horn of a four-star bronze-quality exotic beast known as the Golden Halberd Beetle, which possesses high elasticity.

“As the bow was basically made with non-metallic materials, the Falling Star Model Three weighs only three point two kilograms. It is highly portable and easy to use. The strength required to fully draw its bowstring is two hundred and ten kilograms, and its effective range can reach five hundred meters when used with the M-type armor-piercing arrows. Within two hundred meters, it is able to penetrate the scales of a three-star bronze-quality defensive-type beast,” the female attendant rambled on in detail. However, Zhang Che couldn’t help but frowned slightly, asking, “Two hundred and ten kilograms draw weight? That’s too light; is there anything heavier?”

“Ah? Even heavier ones?” The female attendant was stunned by Zhang Che and blurted out in surprise. She continued, “Please pardon my directness, sir, but the Falling Star Model Three is already not something ordinary people can draw easily. You must know this too, that to effectively use a bow, it’s not only that you have to ensure you’re able to draw it fully. You still have to consider whether your arms can stay still, or you’ll lose your aim.”

He was definitely unable to draw the bow. Let alone a two hundred and ten kilogram draw weight bow, even if that number was divided by four, Zhang Che would struggle to draw it!

-But the freaking problem is that I’m not that one who is going to be using the bow.

-Compared to the herculean strength of that frisky monkey, two hundred and ten kilograms might not even break a sweat for him.-

“Don’t mind whether I can use it or not. Just tell me please, are there any heavier recurve bows here?”

-What a weirdo. Are you going to buy a strong bow to hang on your walls to ward off evil?,- the female attendant quipped inwardly. Understanding the principle that customers were always right, she nodded slightly and answered, “We do. Our lead designer once produced a Falling Star Model X recurve bow, crafted using thousand-year Seven-Star Iron Pear Wood and the horn of a five-star silver-quality Golden Halberd Beetle. Its draw weight was five hundred kilograms. However, as there was no one who was able to fully draw this bow, we no longer have it on display. Are you sure you want to have a look at it?”

-Five hundred kilograms draw weight!- Zhang Che’s eyes immediately lit up at the sound of it.

“Oh? Please bring it out for me to take a look at, then!”

“Alright, sir, please wait a moment in the lounge,” the attendant nodded, pointing Zhang Che in that direction, before walking over to the elevator for the inner area. The Falling Star Model X recurve bow was not held in the commercial area, but in storage at a higher story.

So what if there was an incredibly powerful bow, if there was no one who could wield it?

It still had to stay in the storage, passing its days silently…