At the city defense border.
Xie Litang pulled out her demon beast hunter license to register.
"One-Star Demon Beast Hunter, Langmie?"
"Yeah, is there a problem?"
"No, you're good to go."
Xie Litang wore a black skin-tight suit with her high ponytail tied back, her figure mind-bogglingly stunning, though it was a pity her face was covered.
Furthermore, two glass jars hung at her waist, packed tight with swarming ants that made one's scalp tingle just looking at them.
"That woman is so weird."
"What's so weird about her?"
"Those ants hanging from her waist."
"Shut your filthy mouth. Who knows, maybe she awakened a talent in the Insect Master sequence? But to be completely honest, her body is the absolute best I've ever seen on a woman."
"Same here."
They weren't speaking very loudly.
Unfortunately, with Xie Litang's current Vitality and physical condition, it was hard for her not to hear.
However, she acted as if she hadn't heard a thing—after all, it wasn't like she'd never been a man before.
Men will be men; she understood where they were coming from.
Xie Litang casually crushed an ant.
Clang.
Vitality +15.
Xie Litang's current Vitality was as high as 5,260 points.
Without any debt pressure this time, she walked at a normal pace, stacking Heartsteel as she went along.
The mark on her wrist began to reveal itself.
Xie Litang knew that beast must have sensed it.
The sun sank into the west.
Xie Litang found a sheltered spot out of the wind and lit a campfire.
Gradually, a thin mist rose around her.
Suddenly—
"Hehehe..."
A weird, sinister laugh echoed from within the mist.
Xie Litang looked in the direction of the sound and saw that beast inside the mist, waving a hand at her.
"Heh."
Xie Litang let out a soft chuckle.
Then she stood up, stretched, and said, "The show begins."
In the next instant—
Xie Litang darted forward.
Seeing this, Old Tapir turned tail and ran at once. It knew it was no match for her, but the creature was obnoxious to its core; even if it couldn't win, it was determined to harass her.
If it couldn't defeat the current Xie Litang, could it really not handle her good-for-nothing descendants in the future?
"One hundred fifty meters."
Xie Litang estimated the distance between them and quickly accelerated once more.
Closing the gap to within a hundred meters, she ensured that she wouldn't lose track of it.
Old Tapir darted into the mountain forest.
It thought Xie Litang would give up.
Just like before, as long as it headed up the mountain, that woman would be completely helpless.
But this time, it was dead wrong.
Xie Litang leaped forward, giving chase into the forest.
Wearing a headlamp and holding a flashlight, Xie Litang pursued Old Tapir relentlessly.
"Stupid idiot, dumbfounded now, aren't you?"
Ever since she decided to kill that beast,
she had already run through calculations at home countless times.
Old Tapir stood nearly three meters tall and weighed at least three hundred kilograms, meaning that anywhere the beast could tread, she could definitely tread as well.
Just as Xie Litang had surmised, with its huge size and massive weight, the beast couldn't traverse many terrains—not because it lacked the physical ability, but because of the mountain rock structure and soil.
The ground simply couldn't withstand over three hundred kilograms of weight concentrated on a single foot.
This was the result of scientific calculation.
One human, one beast.
They gave chase from nightfall until dawn.
*Gulp~
Xie Litang downed a bottle of nutrient solution and a stamina recovery potion, continuing her pursuit from day into night.
The stamina recovery potion in particular made her body grow slightly warm, instantly washing away her fatigue.
On the other hand, that beast, Old Tapir,
no longer had its initial burst of energy.
Taking advantage of a brief pause, Xie Litang opened the mechanical watch gifted by Chen Linling to check the map.
In a day and a night, she had actually chased it for nearly three hundred kilometers.
Suddenly—
Xie Litang knitted her brows and muttered, "Twenty kilometers ahead is a county town from the Old Era. I can't let it get in there under any circumstances."
If Old Tapir climbed a tree in the forest, she could still chop the tree down with her sword.
But if it entered a steel forest of the Old Era and climbed up a high-rise building, things would become extremely painful.
Xie Litang adjusted her direction like herding swine, driving Old Tapir away from its original route.
"Roar~"
Old Tapir roared loudly up ahead.
If Xie Litang could understand it, she felt the beast was probably hurling some profanity.
Four hundred kilometers.
Five hundred kilometers.
Finally.
At around seven hundred kilometers from the city, Xie Litang was reaching her limit.
"It's not that the stamina recovery potion isn't working—it's that the human body has reached its physical limit of exhaustion."
Moreover—
"Any farther forward, and we'll be in the demon-occupied zone."
One thousand kilometers served as the buffer zone between humans and demon beasts; beyond that, demon beast encounters would increase in frequency. That beast Old Tapir was probably trying to flee into the demon-occupied zone.
However, that beast had also reached its limit, lacking the strength to climb through the mountain forest any longer.
As it staggered along the ruined road, it turned its head only to see Xie Litang's face right there.
Xie Litang mimicked its earlier gesture, waving her hand at it.
"Roar, roar, roar..."
The beast seemed to be cursing even more foully.
It was as if it were screaming: Is this really necessary?! You've chased me for over seven hundred kilometers, are you sick in the head?!
At last—
*Boom~
Old Tapir collapsed to its knees, gasping heavily for air, unable to run another step. The woman behind it was a complete lunatic.
Xie Litang panted heavily, took a deep breath, drew her longsword from her back, and stepped forward.
"Roar, roar."
Old Tapir suddenly fell to its knees and kowtowed.
It appeared as though it was begging for mercy.
Yet in the very next instant, Old Tapir lunged violently, its massive arms—over two meters long—slamming down toward Xie Litang.
"Seeking death."
The wind blew too fierce and chaotic.
Xie Litang brushed past Old Tapir's arm, then thrust her sword deep into its chest.
Clang.
"Awoo..."
Old Tapir shrieked in agony as it was sent flying backward.
Only with great difficulty did it stagger back to its feet. Looking up... a longsword swept across, sending its twisted, uncanny human-like head flying high into the air.
*Phew~
*Hoo, hoo~
Only then did Xie Litang begin to pant heavily.
Once her body relaxed, her exhaustion amplified infinitely in an instant, but now was not the time to rest.
A thin mist rose around her once more, originating from that dead beast.
Xie Litang stepped forward and cut open Old Tapir's chest, discovering a fist-sized organ growing right alongside its heart.
A look of pleasant surprise flashed through Xie Litang's eyes. "A mist gland this large? I struck it big this time." A normal adult tapir beast's mist gland was only about the size of a thumb, with a market price of around twenty thousand.
A mist gland as big as a fist was worth at least fifty thousand.
After safely storing Old Tapir's mist gland,
Xie Litang quickly departed from the area.
She turned onto an Old Era national highway and rested underneath a long-dried road culvert.
Once the Spirit-Soothing Aromatherapy lost its effect, sleepiness washed over her.
Xie Litang drank a bottle of nutrient solution and ate half a block of compressed military rations before finally closing her eyes.
However, being out in the wilderness, the quality of her rest was poor, leaving her in a half-asleep, half-awake state the entire time.
As a result, even after an entire night passed, Xie Litang's head remained groggy, and she was still dozing off while walking, so she simply stayed curled up inside the culvert.
Until dusk fell.
An intense beam of light sliced across the night sky.
Xie Litang's nerves instantly tightened, her brows furrowing as she muttered, "Is that... a city searchlight? But... how is that possible? That's an Old Era city."
In theory,
the demon-occupied zone should be nothing but ruins.
Rate on N.U.
