Chapter 40: Just Want to Live

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That bite from the Black-backed Giant Bear felt as if it had bitten straight into Lei Qing’s heart, crushing it to pieces. That was an incredibly precious Spatial Ring. Not to mention its quality, even the worst Spatial Ring was a very valuable item.

Lei Qing felt an overwhelming urge to charge up, snatch the ring from the bear’s mouth. Zuo Qianqian, her face pale, hurriedly grabbed him and whispered, “Brother Lei, let’s withdraw. This giant bear… I have a bad feeling about it.”

“Of course it’s hard to handle,” Lei Qing muttered gloomily. “This bear is likely at Gold-rank strength. It has food right now, so it’s temporarily too lazy to bother us. Do you really think I’m stupid? Fight it to the death? I bet it could half-kill me with one slap.”

“Gold-rank?” Zuo Qianqian shivered violently, saying with some pain, “Why are we so unlucky? Situ Nan’s corpse actually fell into this bear’s hands. Boo hoo, the Spatial Ring is gone, the treasures are gone.”

“Qianqian, is there any way to use hunting tactics to deal with this Black-backed Giant Bear?” Lei Qing stared fixedly at the bear, looking very unwilling to give up.

“Brother Lei, wake up and use your brain.” Although Zuo Qianqian also felt heartache for the wealth, with her years of hunting experience, she judged that this bear was not to be trifled with, especially its eyes, which seemed to possess a high level of intelligence. She advised, “Bears are already hard to deal with, and a Gold-rank bear is even less to be messed with. Let’s just leave.”

Before Lei Qing could reply, that Gold-rank Black-backed Giant Bear seemed to sense their hostility or perhaps decided not to eat the corpse but to taste some fresh blood instead. It let out a roar to the sky, causing small rocks on the cliff walls to tumble down noisily.

Lei Qing heard a deafening roar in his ears, making his head buzz, and his mind went blank for a moment. It felt as if his consciousness had been seized, leaving him stunned for two or three breaths. Fortunately, he had already advanced to Bronze Peak, just one step away from Silver-rank. His Fighting Qi instinctively protected him, rotating frantically within his body and producing crisp, crackling sounds like thunder. The stimulation of the electric current woke him up instantly. Looking closely, he was terrified out of his wits.

He saw that the Black-backed Giant Bear, weighing thousands of jin, was already three or two zhang away. It opened its foul-smelling, bloody mouth and waved its palm-sized bear paw towards him from afar. A faint, earth-yellow aura was draped over its dark black fur.

Without a doubt, this was an Earth-attribute giant bear. Although Earth attribute was not the most destructive among the various attributes, it was as heavy and solid as a mountain, with stable and mighty strength. If that slap landed fully, Lei Qing’s body would have been crushed on the spot.

Years of life-and-death experience saved Lei Qing’s life. Although he was terrified to the extreme, his mind became clearer and calmer. Reacting instinctively, he picked up Zuo Qianqian beside him and activated his Heavenly Thunder Fighting Qi, which burned fiercely within his body, filling every corner of him. On his skin, faint electric currents could be seen flowing.

His figure flashed a faint afterimage as he retreated rapidly.

“Boom!” The Black-backed Giant Bear smashed the large rock acting as Lei Qing’s cover with one slap. Rubble flew and splattered, some hitting Lei Qing’s face from a distance, causing a stinging pain.

“What terrifying power ,” Lei Qing was startled again in his heart, but his feet didn’t stop for a moment. He turned around and fully unleashed his Thunder Flash, which had reached the small success stage. The surging Thunder Fighting Qi was visible on his feet, and his body truly looked like a bolt of thunder darting away.

Having advanced to Bronze Peak, his explosive speed in Thunder Flash had also made significant progress. In a flash, he was three or four zhang away. Holding Zuo Qianqian, he ran desperately. The petite woman in his arms had been severely shaken by the bear’s powerful and swift roar, causing her to faint directly. There were also traces of blood flowing from her ears.

That roar had a similar effect to Lei Qing’s move “Spring Thunder Suddenly Appears.” But because the Black-backed Giant Bear had evolved to Gold-rank, the power of its roar reached an extremely terrifying level.

When the Black-backed Giant Bear missed its attack, it became extremely angry. Placing its front limbs on the ground, it sprinted towards Lei Qing. Its weight of thousands of jin caused the earth to tremble slightly and rumble as it ran wildly.

Bears are known for their strength, but one should not underestimate their speed. Especially this Black-backed Giant Bear, which had reached Gold-rank. Once it went into full speed, it was like a tank charging headlong, crushing all bushes and shrubs in its path.

Although Lei Qing was very good at speed, there was still a chasm-like gap in rank between him and the giant bear. While holding Zuo Qianqian and fully activating Thunder Flash, his overall speed was only slightly faster than the giant bear’s. After running for the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, he finally created a distance of more than ten zhang.

That giant bear, whose hegemonic authority had been provoked, had fallen into a frenzy. It only wanted to catch its prey and beat it to death with one slap. Thus, it chased relentlessly.

Lei Qing felt very bitter in his heart. Was he destined to be hunted? Don’t look at his fast speed now, faster than the giant bear. That was because the explosive power of his movement technique, Thunder Flash, was extremely high. High explosive power inevitably meant poor endurance. After frantically burning Heavenly Thunder Fighting Qi to sprint at maximum speed, Lei Qing’s Fighting Qi had already been mostly consumed in this short time of burning incense.

But that Earth-attribute giant bear had great stamina. Looking at its energetic state, yelling and roaring, it could probably maintain this headlong charge for another quarter of an hour.

This meant that if another stick of incense passed by, when Lei Qing’s Fighting Qi was exhausted, the giant bear would catch up and easily kill him. He felt so full of regret and annoyance. He had seen beforehand that this giant bear was not to be trifled with, but he had lingered there because of the huge wealth. It was truly “people die for wealth, birds die for food.” He was too careless and negligent. And he had deluded himself into thinking he could hunt this giant bear? Er, that was simply childish. Lei Qing had also been slightly proud and carried away after just killing the Saint of Thieves of Holy Rank. Facing Gold-rank, which was one rank lower than Holy Rank, his sense of awe greatly decreased. The huge sense of success in killing the Saint of Thieves caused his self-confidence to swell excessively, making him forget the circumstances under which he had killed the Saint of Thieves.

As Lei Qing ran desperately, he cursed himself in his heart.

Of course, he still had a chance to live. If he threw Zuo Qianqian behind him, it could greatly constrain the giant bear and reduce the burden to run faster. However, Lei Qing was not such a cold-blooded monster. Regardless of the fact that Zuo Qianqian had saved his life before, just considering the heavy bond of life-and-death reliance they had formed through many adventures, it did not allow Lei Qing to do so.

“Qianqian, if we die, it’s fate. If we live, it’s luck. If we have to die, we die together.” Lei Qing, holding Zuo Qianqian, roared like a beast, his face turning red. It seemed as if he was calling out all his power, flashing like a wild thunder, and his speed suddenly increased by half as he headed towards a location he remembered.

It was a quiet and beautiful lake, but Lei Qing had once seen a huge creature resembling a dragon or python under the Cold Pool. Although a fleeting glance couldn’t determine the power of that Cold Pool python, Lei Qing guessed it wouldn’t be much different from the Black-backed Giant Bear, probably a Demonic Beast of Gold-rank.

Lei Qing wasn’t playing some trick of driving a tiger to swallow a wolf, nor was he so brain-dead as to fantasize about clams fighting and a fisherman benefiting. As Death had already begun to wave at him and Zuo Qianqian, his only thought and wish was to take Zuo Qianqian and live together.

It was purely a matter of luck. As long as that Cold Pool python did something slightly due to the invasion of a Demonic Beast of the same rank into its territory, it might constrain or intimidate the Black-backed Giant Bear. Then, Lei Qing would have hope to live. However, it was only a slim hope for life, and merely a sliver of hope. Because he was not a god and could not control the behavior of the Cold Pool python or the Black-backed Giant Bear at all. But even with just a sliver of hope, Lei Qing was willing to gamble. It was simple: because if he didn’t take a chance, there wouldn’t even be half a sliver of hope.

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