An arrow pierced through the head of an elite Stone Scythe Demon.
It was the leader of the group, and with its death and no assailant in sight, the other Stone Scythe Demons scattered in panic.
Ji Xinghuo emerged from his hiding spot and skillfully harvested the Alien Species from several Stone Scythe Demons.
"Rock Skin, toughness..."
He shook his head, the abilities that Stone Scythe Demons could awaken were few, and he had seen almost all of them; there were rarely any surprises.
In his backpack, the collection of Rock Skin Alien Species exceeded a hundred. This ability already had little market demand, and selling so many at once would probably not bring in much money.
However, Alien Species were just a bonus, the most important thing was Spiritual Origin Ability.
Ji Xinghuo opened the Wanxiang Star Pupil interface.
Since his Ether Sensitivity had advanced to Ether Affinity, he had continued hunting in Peak Valley for five days, and his upgrade progress steadily moved forward, now at (Third Level 128/1439). The group of Stone Scythe Demons he had just killed had brought him 8 points of Spiritual Origin Ability, which he immediately invested.
Looking at 136/1439, Ji Xinghuo couldn’t help but sigh, "It’s so tough!"
These days, he had struggled and wandered, covering six to seven hundred kilometers and killed dozens of creatures, yet his upgrade progress was not even one-tenth of the way.
And that was only for Ether Affinity.
Rotating Magnetic Field required even more Spiritual Origin Ability, and Thousand Spirit Skillful Hand was not far off either.
Ji Xinghuo rested momentarily, then continued his search for more groups of Stone Scythe Demons.
He was now very familiar with Peak Valley. Whenever he arrived at a new place, a few glances were enough to know if there were Stone Scythe Demons and where the creatures might be hiding, or which direction would most likely yield Spiritual Origin Ability—it was as familiar as his own home.
The Star Realm had entered "Star Night," making the nights increasingly longer.
After a day’s hunt, Ji Xinghuo found a camping spot as darkness fell.
In the middle of the night, he suddenly sensed something and opened his eyes. Little Green Snake returned to its Iron Arrow Cyan form, curling up in a corner of the tent, and also lifted its head, looking outside.
Ji Xinghuo was puzzled, but the magnetic field sensing detected no creatures.
He quickly crawled out of the tent, and upon looking up, he was startled.
The originally pitch-black night sky was now illuminated by a light not at all dazzling, coming from the distant horizon and moving at high speed.
It was a bright meteor with dazzling multicolored lights trailing a long tail, crossing the sky far above.
Where it passed, it lit up tens of kilometers of land and sky.
Ji Xinghuo’s gaze followed the meteor as it moved directly overhead, very high up, perhaps thirty thousand meters, and only after it disappeared into the horizon did he hear the thunderous sound waves coming from the sky.
"This is a Star Realm phenomenon..."
"Indeed, it’s spectacular!"
Soon after humans entered the Star Realm, they discovered that various phenomena occurred frequently without any discernible patterns or understandable causes.
However, the results of some phenomena were readily identifiable.
For example, the phenomenon he was witnessing, known as "Star Tears," were oddities from other dimensions that fell into the Star Realm. Upon impact, only the core remained, the light converged, making it difficult to locate.
Finding a Star Tear could net a fortune.
Because Star Tears are dimension-expanding oddities, a Super Mutant or someone of Fourth Rank and above absorbing a Star Tear can merge with an additional Alien Species.
Its effect was similar to that of a Life Spirit Seed, but its value was more than ten times that of the Life Spirit Seed!
A Mutant could use a Life Spirit Seed only once in their lifetime but could use three Star Tears.
Super, Legendary, Heavenly King.
Each of these Ranks could use a Star Tear upon each evolution. If one could obtain a Star Tear at each Rank, they could merge with three additional Alien Species.
The enhancement from three additional abilities was considerable.
Moreover, Star Tears contained vast amounts of Ether Energy, which could be directly absorbed and converted into Star Power, significantly boosting strength in a short time.
The Star Realm Defense Council had established three rankings last century: "Global Ladder," "Legendary List," and "Heavenly King List." The strongest among these listings was the "Heavenly King List," which currently included forty-nine Heavenly King Mutants globally.
The top twenty Heavenly Kings had almost all absorbed three Star Tears.
While Star Tears were not essential for becoming a Heavenly King, their importance was, in some respects, self-evident.
Their value was measured in billions!
Ji Xinghuo looked toward the direction of the meteor, and as it flew by, it descended slightly.
"The landing site should not exceed a hundred kilometers."
"There are definitely others in Peak Valley who saw the meteor too. If I want to go, I need to hurry, to get there before anyone else."
Once the Star Tears hit the ground, their light would converge, and they were very small, about the size of a fist, but their landing area could span hundreds of square kilometers.
Finding one was not easy; it depended purely on luck.
"Finding things is my advantage, and I’m so close. I can’t miss this opportunity."
Ji Xinghuo did not hesitate for long.
He quickly packed up his tent and belongings and traveled overnight toward the direction of the meteor’s fall.
After traveling six to seven hours through the night, by dawn, Ji Xinghuo had covered over ninety kilometers and entered the range of the meteor’s fall.
However, others had arrived earlier.
In his magnetic field sensing, Ji Xinghuo detected two teams of Mutants who were closer to the fallen Star Tear, frantically running forward.
He did not want to encounter others, so he avoided them completely.
Ji Xinghuo climbed atop a Rock Peak and, looking at the endless mountains, suddenly felt the scene before him seemed familiar.
"Have I been here before?"
As he continued a bit further, and gazed at a distant small Floating Mountain that resembled a potato in shape, he suddenly realized.
He and Sister Ren had been here before, exactly where they discovered the Ether Sensitive Alien Species.
"This means that the Flood Level Stone Scythe Giant Demon might just be in this area," Ji Xinghuo’s heart skipped a beat. He had intentionally avoided this place on his current trip to Peak Valley to avoid encountering that Flood Level creature. Unexpectedly, he had ended up here after all.
"If I don’t provoke it, there shouldn’t be any trouble."
"The Stone Scythe Demon herd is mobile, and their number is over a thousand. They make a lot of noise, and as long as I get close, I should be able to detect them and run away in advance."
Ji Xinghuo felt he needn’t worry too much and began searching for the Star Tears.
The distance of magnetic field sensing is 800 meters.
A quick calculation showed that the area he could sense was just over 2 square kilometers.
In this range, he could clearly sense any magnetic fields, but there was a problem—the Star Tears were stationary and very small.
Normally, when using magnetic field sensing, Ji Xinghuo would ignore those stationary and smaller magnetic fields.
Otherwise, the countless overlapping magnetic fields would create a snowstorm-like effect on a TV screen, causing dizziness after just a few glances.
"I can only proceed slowly."
Ji Xinghuo adjusted his perceptive method; in each new location, he observed all the magnetic fields, large or small, within his sensing range.
Although this method reduced his efficiency significantly, he was still hundreds to thousands of times faster than others.
For an entire morning, Ji Xinghuo searched approximately 10 square kilometers.
However, it was all in vain.
More and more Mutants arrived—Hunting Teams, Solo Hunters, and some Star Realm exploration groups and mercenary companies.
Everyone was searching for the Star Tears, conducting a thorough sweep.
Initially, Ji Xinghuo could avoid others by using his magnetic field sensing, but by afternoon, he encountered others nearly every two or three kilometers; it was simply unavoidable.
Fortunately, everyone’s aim was to find the rare item, and there were no ulterior motives, so all remained peaceful for the time being.
Ji Xinghuo continued his search for over forty hours, covering close to 50 square kilometers, all scanned by magnetic field sensing, but he did not find the Star Tears. After such an intense search, he was utterly exhausted and mentally drained, forcing him to temporarily withdraw from the area to rest for a few hours.
The next day, before dawn fully broke, he got up and resumed his search.
He searched until noon and then sat down under a tree to rest; his magnetic field sensing detected two groups, one on the mountain and the other in the valley.
Ji Xinghuo shook his head in resignation.
Given this situation, within three days, all the Hunting Teams in Peak Valley would have arrived.
Though Peak Valley was normally sparsely populated, spread across nearly 50,000 square kilometers of mountains, when everyone gathered, there would still be a thousand or two thousand people.
And the news would quickly spread back to Olympia.
By the day after tomorrow, the first batch of Hunting Teams equipped with flying mounts would arrive and thereafter more people would arrive each day, making the chances of him obtaining the Star Tears increasingly slim.
Just as he was thinking this, Ji Xinghuo suddenly turned his head towards the east, the direction of Olympia.
Several silhouettes appeared on the horizon.
Ji Xinghuo’s face showed surprise as his Wanxiang Star Pupil clearly made out the shadows in the sky.
They were three Giant-Mouthed Winged Dragons, the largest of which had wings spanning over fifteen meters. It had a disproportionately huge sharp beak and talons at the ends of its wings. Its flying speed was very fast, and each Winged Dragon carried three to four people on its back.
Besides the Giant-Mouthed Winged Dragons, there were other flying creatures.
Five were hawks and falcons, divided into two types: one was the Wind-controlling Eagle with a wingspan of about three meters, and the smaller one was the Red-eyed Mountain Falcon.
There were also two stunning Silver Winged Pegasus, wearing specially crafted armor, each carrying a fully armed Mutant on their back.
A large flock of blood ravens circled around one of the Silver Winged Pegasus, flying alongside their master.
This group of flying mounts swept over the forest and valley, heading this way.
As the Winged Dragons and Silver Winged Pegasus drew closer, a flurry of noise came from underneath them, trees swayed, and dust billowed.
Ji Xinghuo’s magnetic field perception was invaded by a horde of monsters.
Iron-Backed Giant Bears, Stone Scythe Demons, Shadow Wolves, Poison Fog Spiders, Thousand-Peak Retrievers, and more—each type of monster had at least five or six members, some even had as many as a dozen. They all wore human-made armor and weapons, armed to the teeth, forming a legion of monsters.
Ji Xinghuo’s face subtly changed color.
This was a Hunting Group from the "Myriad Beast Garden Corporation," very famous.
The company built these Hunting Groups around Masters, with a fixed team size of twelve, led by a Super Master, and the assistant leader, also a Super Mutant.
The other ten members consisted of three Masters, two Hunters, and two Rangers.
There was also one Star Torch Hand, one Plant Witch, and one White Knight, responsible for healing and supporting the other members and the War Pet legion in battle.
The greatest advantage of such Hunting Groups was their numbers. Four Masters and two Hunters together controlled dozens of War Pets or more, sweeping through enemies like a legion. When they went out hunting, the spectacle was grand and intimidating, and almost no one dared to oppose them.
Ji Xinghuo had heard of them before.
Seeing the Myriad Beast Garden’s Hunting Group approaching, he quickly moved out of the way. Soon, the legion of beasts thundered by, hundreds of meters away, like a flood passing through.
Ji Xinghuo looked up at the sky, observing the two Super Mutants riding on the backs of the Silver Winged Pegasus.
They were a man and a woman.
The woman, who appeared to be in her thirties and was the Master Commander of this Hunting Group, had a beautiful appearance, wore light armor, and had a pure white parrot perched on her shoulder. Her stern gaze swept the area below.
When she noticed Ji Xinghuo, she paused briefly before looking away.
The man had a distinctive style, with his hair dyed in flamboyant pink and purple tones styled into a flame-like shape, wearing a stylish cape, and a longsword hanging at his waist.
Ji Xinghuo noticed the ether energy around him, constantly changing and morphing into various colors, like a dye vat, forming an invisible rainbow around him.
"He is a Superconductor Mage!" Ji Xinghuo thought to himself.
This phenomenon of ether energy converging into a rainbow was characteristic of the profession of Superconductor Mage, stemming from the core Ability "Star Power Superconductor."