Chapter 21: The Griffin

“The tenth Ironthread Snake.”

In a rocky cave two meters deep beneath a mountain cliff, Zhou Ming was teasing the newly tamed Ironthread Snake before him.

The chopstick-thick serpent was gently touching Zhou Ming’s fingertip with its bean-sized head.

Coming to the wilderness to seek new Ironthread Snakes as his beasts was part of Zhou Ming’s plan.

It was impossible to rely solely on money to buy Ironthread Snakes.

If he did that, he would need at least twenty million Alliance Coins to implant all of his Spiritual Seeds.

Zhou Ming was no rich man.

Since he was already in the wilderness, he might as well catch the snakes himself.

With an Ironthread Snake already serving as his guide, finding more of its kind was not difficult.

The four he had encountered along the way had all been taken under his command.

After playing with his new beast for a while, Zhou Ming took out his map, recalling his journey over the past few days.

“If nothing goes wrong, I should reach Serpent Valley tomorrow.”

Glancing at the remaining distance, Zhou Ming roughly calculated the time and decided to rest for the night before setting out again.

Although the Ironthread Snakes had done most of the fighting along the way and Zhou Ming had mainly spent his energy on traveling, with his physical endurance, it was already remarkable that he could hold out this long.

Whether for safety or to achieve his goal, Zhou Ming needed a proper night’s rest before moving forward.

The Serpent Valley he mentioned lay more than a hundred kilometers north of the Qinshan Base—a narrow valley teeming with serpents of all kinds.

There, he could not only find more Ironthread Snakes but also suitable prey for his beasts to hunt.

Seeing that it was getting late, Zhou Ming set the Ironthread Snakes to stand guard and took out a piece of jerky the size of a thumb.

That was all he ate for the day.

The jerky was made from processed Ferocious Beast meat mixed with medicinal herbs.

Though tiny in size, a single piece could provide all the energy Zhou Ming needed for a day.

He placed the jerky in his mouth, letting his saliva soften it before chewing the now-expanded meat.

After finishing the jerky and taking a sip of water, he curled up in the cave and fell asleep.

Fortunately, his assault jacket had a constant temperature function—otherwise, he would have caught a cold by morning.

……

The next day, on a mountain cliff, the autumn wind howled with a biting chill.

Standing tall and gazing into the distance, Zhou Ming looked toward a nearby valley—a great crack in the earth stretching as far as the eye could see.

That was Serpent Valley, a well-known area near the Qinshan Base.

It marked a boundary line: within the hundred kilometers south toward Qinshan Base, apart from the safe zones, most creatures were low-rank Ferocious Beasts and mutant animals.

But further north beyond Serpent Valley dwelled high-rank Ferocious Beasts and even rarer Lord-level creatures.

This mere hundred-kilometer stretch had been carved out over three centuries, serving as a buffer zone created through the efforts of countless hunters.

With his current strength, Zhou Ming was far from qualified to venture beyond Serpent Valley.

His goal for now was to find more Ironthread Snakes and enhance the power of his beasts.

After scouting his route, Zhou Ming released several Ironthread Snakes to serve as sentinels, then began moving toward the valley.

“Hiss… hiss…”

As Zhou Ming approached, the hissing of serpents grew louder.

The ground was alive with the faint sound of countless unseen venomous snakes slithering by.

Luckily, Zhou Ming was used to these noises.

Otherwise, his first experience here would have been unbearable.

Upon reaching Serpent Valley, Zhou Ming didn’t rush in.

Instead, he set up a temporary camp beneath a giant boulder at the valley’s entrance.

The spot was cleverly chosen—it allowed him to monitor the entrance for any newcomers while avoiding the swarming serpents deeper within.

Finding this spot had taken him quite some time.

According to his plan, he would stay for at least a month.

Otherwise, the Ironthread Snakes wouldn’t have enough time to grow stronger.

To prevent snake attacks while setting up camp, Zhou Ming had his ten Ironthread Snakes leave ample scent markings around the area, declaring it as claimed territory.

As for using snake-repelling powder, Zhou Ming abandoned the idea after glancing at the vastness of the Serpent Valley stretching for several kilometers.

Even if the powder worked, he feared it might anger mutant serpents—or worse, those of Ferocious Beast rank.

Relying on his self-taught wilderness survival skills and the Ironthread Snakes’ guidance, Zhou Ming had avoided all traces of Ferocious Beasts along his journey.

He didn’t want to make his camp too conspicuous and attract unwanted visitors out of curiosity.

That night, Zhou Ming didn’t light a fire.

Only true experts of the wilderness had the privilege to do that.

Under the dim starlight, surrounded by endless hissing and crawling sounds, Zhou Ming barely managed to fall asleep while his ten Ironthread Snakes took turns keeping watch.

If not for the fact that he needed their strength tomorrow, he would have ordered all ten to guard him through the night.

“Skreeee!”

A piercing shriek split the air, sharp enough to pierce gold and shatter stone.

Zhou Ming was instantly jolted awake.

He jumped up and looked toward the sky.

After one glance, he immediately ducked back into the crevice.

“How careless…”

The sight of the creature responsible for the sound made Zhou Ming realize that while Serpent Valley was a haven for him, it was also a feeding ground for certain Ferocious Beasts.

The source of the cry was an adult Griffin—a high-rank Ferocious Beast.

It had the head and wings of an eagle, the body of a lion, and forelimbs ending in razor-sharp talons.

Excluding its tail, it was over five meters long, with a wingspan exceeding ten meters.

Zhou Ming estimated its weight to be several tons.

How such a massive creature could soar freely in the air was beyond him—but now was not the time for study.

He knew one thing for certain: it was not an opponent he could provoke.

Ten Ironthread Snakes, or even a thousand, would be useless against it.

From the Compendium of Ferocious Beasts he had borrowed from the Qinshan Library, Zhou Ming had learned that the Griffin possessed no extraordinary powers beyond its piercing screech—a spiritual shock that could shatter willpower.

But its lightning speed, steel-like physique, and claws and beak sharp enough to tear through alloy armor made it a flawless killing machine.

Even if the Ironthread Snakes injected venom into it, the Griffin wouldn’t slow down in the slightest.

“Lucky I was resting in the rock crevice… Lucky it doesn’t fancy a hundred-jin piece of meat like me, or I’d have been delivered as a meal.”

That one eagle’s cry had struck Zhou Ming’s spirit like a hammer blow.

Huddled in the crevice, he kept reassuring himself.

Moments later, hearing another cry, Zhou Ming peeked out to see the Griffin clutching a giant python as it soared away.

Only then did he slowly breathe out in relief.

The dangers of the wilderness—Zhou Ming was finally beginning to grasp them.

At the same time, the fantastical side of Blue Star was gradually revealing itself before his eyes—no longer just the distant imaginings described in books.