Chapter 523: Set Off. Mt Fallen Star [Two in One]

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Edited by Aelryinth

Zhang Che woke up early the next morning and rushed to Bei Du Airport with the elemental queen. The men Huang Juyun had arranged to go with Zhang Che were already there waiting for him.

Those guys were really early…

Of course, it was possible they had been waiting at the airport since yesterday night, to prevent wasting any time. After all, they were the Huang family’s beastmasters. Even though they had reached high-tier, they didn’t dare to put on airs when dealing with Zhang Che.

Putting aside their statuses, Zhang Che’s strength could make others stare in shock. The beastmasters knew about the arena deathmatch at the northwestern desert, naturally.

If they had been the ones who had to fight against the Zhen family’s Zhen Liu, they wouldn’t have been able to withstand his assault at all, even if the Zhen family didn’t use that mysterious mental attack beast card weapon!

Whether a high-tier beastmaster possessed an epic-quality subdued beast or not had great influence on their combat strength. It could be said that only beastmasters with epic-quality subdued beasts could be considered true experts. Otherwise, it was useless no matter how high a beastmaster’s tier was.

A total of four beastmasters were sent to go with Zhang Che to hunt the epic-quality exotic beast. They hurriedly greeted him when they saw him. “Hello, Zhang-shao!”

All four of them were in their thirties. Every one of them had firm and tough appearances. One look and you could tell they were men trained in the military. Although they were respectful when facing Zhang Che, they were definitely not humble.

“Hello, everyone. Let’s board the plane first. We can talk on the way there.” Zhang Che nodded at them, smiling faintly. He didn’t stand on ceremony, either, and directly took the lead to walk into the airport.

“As Zhang-shao wishes.” The leader of the four, a man with a buzz cut, nodded and led the others to follow Zhang Che.

As for the elemental queen, the four acted like they could not see her.

They had heard about this world-class beauty from Huang Juyun. Although they were surprised that humanoid pets actually existed in the world, they didn’t show any strange looks on their faces.

This woman possessed fighting ability on the level of epic-quality beasts, and her intelligence wasn’t any lower than humans. It wouldn’t be good if they offended her…

——

The group walked into the inner area of the airport, and the four high-tier beastmasters soon caught sight of Zhang Che’s transport, Dijiang-hao.

As high-tier beastmasters, they had certainly had seen their fair share of things. Even so, the four of them were still stunned at the sight of the science fiction-like private sky shuttle. They had heard that this sky shuttle model was made from an immeasurable amount of purple-gold crystals, in addition to many other rare minerals. Its defense was unparalleled; skills from non-epic-quality exotic beasts wouldn’t leave a scratch on it!

Also, they have heard the recent news of Zhang Che using Dijiang-hao’s laser to kill two powerful exotic beasts. When they finally saw the real object, naturally they were stunned.

After boarding Dijiang-hao, the four were no longer as ill at ease as before.

What made this aircraft so expensive was its material. The facilities inside weren’t too advanced, nothing unimaginable to them.

After Zhang Che piloted Dijiang-hao to take off and head flying in the direction of their destination, he made a simple self-introduction to the four.

The four were like Liu Gang’s squad. All of them were Tier Seven beastmasters, and they belonged to the same high-tier beastmaster battalion, which was the most elite force of the Huang family.

The leader with a buzz cut was called Zhao Wu, and the other three were called Qian Chunhe, Sun Ming, and Li Ruigang.

“So, you guys know Liu Gang’s group?” Zhang Che asked casually after hearing their introduction.

Zhao Wu nodded, and replied respectfully, “Yes, Zhang-shao. We belong to the same battalion, but are in a different company. Although we didn’t interact much, we do know one another.”

Speaking of Liu Gang’s group, Zhao Wu was actually a little envious of them.

He heard that those three lucky fellows each received legend-quality subdued beasts after they were assigned to protect Zhang-shao’s family. Not only that, they were given two epic-quality subdued beasts to share among themselves, receiving a huge boost in strength. They were no longer the same as before.

Meanwhile, the four of them weren’t even able to swap out their subdued beasts to legend-quality as the normal standard. Even though they were members of the most elite forces, they only had one legend-quality subdued beast each, which they had only received recently from the higher-ups.

On the way, Zhang Che chatted with Zhao Wu’s group intermittently, mainly discussing the environment at their destination.

The metal-attributed epic-quality exotic beast Huang Juyun had chosen was at a place known as Mt Fallen Star. Of course, it wasn’t that a meteorite had really fallen there. According to what Zhang Che knew, there weren’t any stars in the skies of the beast worlds.

The reason why that place was called Mt Fallen Star was because the terrain there was very unusual. There was almost no vegetation growing within several hundred kilometers of it. Even soil was almost non-existent. It was like the area was a mountain of metal covered in rust. There were many craters on those mountains, large and small, like they were created from the crashing of meteorites.

Not only that, there wasn’t just the epic-quality exotic beast on Mt Fallen Star. There were many other weaker exotic beasts around.

Those exotic beasts were growing in the unique environment of Mt Fallen Star. They were all metal-attributed, and were extremely strong!

Zhang Che couldn’t help but furrow his brow when he heard Zhao Wu mention this. The information Huang Juyun gave him last night wasn’t so detailed. As such, he asked, “Are you sure there’s only one epic-quality exotic beast on Mt Fallen Star, and no stronger exotic beasts around?”

This had to be clarified. It would be a huge trouble if there was a divine-quality exotic beast hiding here. Zhang Che would definitely turn to leave without hesitation. He wouldn’t treat his life as a joke!

A divine-quality exotic beast, even if it was only at seven stars, wasn’t something Zhang Che could win against currently, even though he had several epic-quality combatants.

Divine-quality was, to a certain extent, the peak exotic beasts could reach. Compared to epic-quality, there was a qualitative increase in both attack power or defense, not to mention that divine-quality exotic beasts had a chance of gaining a True Domain. They would become even stronger if they did. Zhang Che really couldn’t afford to provoke such a beast with his current power.

Zhao Wu shook his head firmly, saying, “There aren’t any divine-quality exotic beasts around. High-tier beastmasters have scouted out Mt Fallen Star before. Although it was only a quick scan, the scouts would never have made it back alive if there was a divine-quality exotic beast around.”

Zhang Che relaxed a little when he heard Zhao Wu saying that. As for multiple epic-quality exotic beasts living on Mt Fallen Star, Zhang Che really didn’t care about that.

As long as there weren’t any divine-quality exotic beasts, so what if a handful of epic-quality exotic beasts came? Even if Zhang Che couldn’t win, he could totally escape!

At the end of their conversation, Zhang Che said, “This time, your role is mainly to help me keep those weaker exotic beasts away. Just leave the stronger ones to me.”

After he understood more about the situation on Mt Fallen Star, he realized why Huang Juyun sent Zhao Wu and the others to assist him. There were many mid-tier and above high-quality exotic beasts on Mt Fallen Star. He was worried Zhang Che might not be able to handle all of them by himself.

Although Zhao Wu and the others weren’t very strong, they had a fighting chance as long as they weren’t going up against epic-quality exotic beasts. Also, when facing a large number of mediocre exotic beasts, they could be extremely useful.

With the large numbers of babies Zhang Che had, whether Zhao Wu and the others were here or not didn’t make much of a difference. However, naturally it would be better if there were a few more helpers around.

—–

Mt Fallen Star was located several thousand kilometers inside the target beast world. During their flight, Zhang Che had Dijiang-hao fly at full speed, and reached his destination in less than three hours.

As usual, he parked Dijiang-hao at an empty space in the military camp around the spatial gateway. Afterwards, under the guidance of Zhao Wu’s group, they crossed over the spatial gateway.

After walking out of the safety zone, a rainbow ray of light shot out from Zhang Che’s brow. The Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon made his first appearance in front of Zhao Wu’s group, bringing about a slight change in their expressions.

If their memory served them right, this subdued beast was only at legend-quality when Zhang Che fought the arena deathmatch. It had actually grown to epic-quality now!

Indeed, this guy Zhang Che wasn’t simple at all!

Seeing the astonished looks on Zhao Wu and the others when they saw the magnificent Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon, Zhang Che couldn’t help but chuckle, “Come on, everyone get on my subdued beast’s back. It’ll be faster this way.”

Originally, Zhang Che didn’t really want to let others ride on his pet. However, he invited Zhao Wu’s group to get on the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon’s back in order to get to Mt Fallen Star today.

Unexpectedly, however, they shook their heads in rejection and said, “Thank you, Zhang-shao, but Commander Huang has already prepared aerial mounts specialized in flying for us. Their flight speed isn’t lower than the latest jets.”

A five-colored ray shot out from Zhao Wu’s brow, transforming into a savage-looking black falcon. This falcon’s wingspan was over ten meters wide, and its back wide enough to accomodate Zhao Wu’s group of four.

However, this aerial beast probably didn’t have an ability to ward off the oncoming wind like the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon, right? The force of the gale could only be imagined when flying at Mach 2. Even if Zhao Wu’s group were all high-tier beastmasters, flying under such circumstances would be a torture.

Zhang Che hesitated for a moment. Just as he was about to invite them to get on the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon once more, he saw them each taking out a set of fully enclosed suit resembling spacesuits from their respective spatial storages and put them on.

Zhang Che immediately shut his mouth. With that, the four didn’t have to worry about being blown by the howling wind. At the most, they’d feel restricted when trying to move while flying, but with their strength, they’d definitely not fall from the falcon’s back.

After they were done putting on the suit and jumped onto the black falcon’s back rather clumsily, Zhang Che nodded at them and jumped onto the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon’s back together with the elemental queen, signalling for them to lead the way.

The flight speed of the black falcon Huang Juyun had prepared for Zhao Wu’s group shouldn’t be underestimated at all. Although it was only at mid-tier legend-quality, it actually wasn’t much slower than the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon!

-Although it looks like the Huang family didn’t have an epic-quality subdued beast, they have quite a number of good legend-quality beasts!- Zhang Che sighed inside, but he wasn’t really shocked at the fact.

After all, the Huang family was an extremely important faction of the military, and the Huang family hadn’t been weak since Grandpa Huang’s generation. It was only natural that they had some good stuff!

On their way to Mt Fallen Star, they avoided the dangerous areas, and after about three hours of flight, a vast and barren land appeared in front of them.

Zhang Che knew this place was most likely Mt Fallen Star after just a glance. Although he had already learned about the rough situation here from Zhao Wu, Zhang Che was still shocked when he actually saw such a bizarre land in person.

Indeed, the beast worlds’ geography was really too amazing. There were all kinds of strange areas. If there weren’t so many powerful exotic beasts, and the lands were turned into tourist attractions, it would definitely be packed with tourists. Perhaps all the tourist attractions on Mercury would have to close down!

Looking ahead of him, there was an endless spread of peaks rising and falling. There was almost no vegetation in sight. The colors of the peaks were all a rusty dark red, like the lands were heads affected with favus, making anyone who saw it want to avert their gazes.

After arriving at the edge of Mt Fallen Star, Zhao Wu suggested, “Zhang-shao, it’s better for us to travel inland on foot. The exotic beasts here possess powerful long-range attacks. Flying would turn us into easy targets for the exotic beasts below.”

They were rather well-informed on the basic situation here. They knew Mt Fallen Star housed many exotic beasts, and their attacks were very strong. If any living creatures invaded the mountain range, they would be met with endless assaults.

If they were to fly in directly, they’d surely attract the attention of all the exotic beasts in Mt Fallen Star. It would be inconvenient for them to fight in the sky, and it wouldn’t be easy to land after that. It would be quite troublesome!

Zhang Che didn’t oppose Zhao Wu’s suggestion. He nodded readily, willing to accept his advice.

Although Zhang Che wasn’t afraid of any exotic beasts here, heavens knew whether there was really only one epic-quality exotic beast here, and whether there were many dark gold and legend-quality exotic beasts?

If there was a high population of high-quality exotic beasts, and all of them excelled in long range attacks, it would be very dangerous!

Zhang Che might not mind, but Zhao Wu’s group would definitely not be able to withstand it.

Before entering the mountain range, the group exchanged looks with one another, then summoned their respective subdued beasts.

As Tier-Seven beastmasters, Zhao Wu and the others had eight subdued beasts each, at the very least. However, after subtracting their beast card armor, weapons, and spatial storage, each of them only summoned around four combat-type subdued beasts. Every one of them had a legend-quality subdued beast, and their overall strengths weren’t low.

However, when they saw Zhang Che’s subdued beasts, even though they were mentally prepared for it, they were still shocked at the sight!

Freaking hell, there was one, two, three… four epic-quality subdued beasts! In addition to the elemental queen, who was another epic level combat force, that made five in total!

Comparing oneself with another really only brought endless frustration!

To be on the safer side of things, Zhang Che summoned all his epic level combat forces out. Every one of them emitted powerful auras, astonishing Zhao Wu and his men.

Zhang Che had already held back, not wanting to expose the real number of subdued beasts and pets he owned. He didn’t summon any of his weaker subdued beasts or pets. Otherwise, who knew what Zhao Wu’s group would look like after the shock?

“Let’s go; we’ll just kill our way in!” Zhang Che waved his hand, commanding them heroically.

Zhao Wu and the others had no objections. After seeing Zhang Che’s babies, they understood that Zhang Che totally had the confidence and strength to back up his words!