CHAPTER 165: RAW CHAPTER

Kneeling beside the snake’s half-sunken corpse, Lin Fang pushed his hand into the cold, murky water. His fingers brushed against the slick scales and muscular body beneath.

"Four ribs down, behind the heart." Alpha’s calm voice guided him within as Lin Fang summoned his twin daggers and began slicing carefully, ignoring the stench of burnt flesh.

After a moment, a faint glow pulsed from within the serpent’s chest. Lin Fang reached in, and when he pulled back his arm, a smooth, blue Over-shaped Spirit Core the size of a child’s fist rested in his palm.

"Well, I won’t need a rare grade’s spirit core for the skills. But I can sell these for a high price, later on..." He smiled faintly, wiping off the muck.

Placing it gently into the inventory instead of the dimensional pouch given by the authorities earlier, he stood up, scanning the surroundings once again.

The rain still fell hard, but through the sheets of water, he could faintly see something else moving in the distance — several silhouettes slithering beneath the swamp surface.

"Alpha," he whispered, tightening his grip on the dagger, "more of them?"

"Yes. Two... no, three. But they are not threatening. Just some elite tear monsters."

Lin Fang’s eyes narrowed as he adjusted his footing. The swamp rippled faintly around him as he poured mana into his daggers, ready for the battle.

However, in the next second, his eyes widened as his senses no longer picked up the presence of those three possible serpentine monsters.

Alpha’s chuckle then echoed in his head, followed by its comment, "Well, it looked like they sensed its leader’s death and ran away in fear."

Lin Fang exhaled slowly, a thin smirk forming on his lips as he mumbled. "Too bad then... I could have earned more coins, but it’s fine. This entire region is filled with thousands of monsters anyway. Plenty of opportunities to farm coins. For now, let’s just focus on finding some shelter."

Over the next hour, Lin Fang trudged forward with his every step splashing through halfway-to-the-knee-deep mud as the drone caught up to him and followed him from the skies.

Above him, the rainbirds chirped cheerfully on the dripping branches as the rainfall continued to pour down. Lin Fang looked up, exhaling sharply. "Yeah, yeah... happy weather for you, huh? But not for me. The monsters would rarely come out of their nests in such rainfall, and the ones that did come had to crawl away after one monster’s death."

He shook his head and continued onward for another twenty minutes, at last getting out of the swamp region, spotting the faint silhouette of the hills in the distance. After another hour of walking through the unending downpour, he finally spotted a faint metallic glint through the rain.

It was a rectangular structure, camouflaged into the terrain with reinforced steel plating and a slanted roof to divert water, with solar panels etched on the top to get energy from the sunlight and turn into electricity inside the house.

"A safehouse at last..." he murmured, relief evident in his voice.

He climbed the slope quickly, his shoes slipping once on the wet moss, until he reached the door.

But when he reached the door, his brow furrowed as he saw the lock was missing. It only means only on thing.

It had been opened.

He pressed on the door to check his confirmation. It wouldn’t budge. "Locked from inside," he muttered with a sigh... "Someone got here before me... Perfect."

With no other choice, he knocked loudly. "Hello? Anyone inside? Can you open the door?"

Silence. Only the rain answered him.

He tried again, louder this time. "Hey! Anyone in there? Please open up!"

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then, a faint creak echoed, and the door slowly opened, revealing the face of a man.

Lin Fang blinked in surprise. "Wang Jie...?"

The young man peeked his head out of the door and looked equally stunned. "It’s you..." Wang Jie muttered before opening the door fully.

Lin Fang scratched his wet hair awkwardly and forced a smile. "Uh... yeah. What a coincidence."

Wang Jie didn’t reply immediately. But then, as the lights switched on, Lin Fang saw two dire wolves curled near the wall, standing protective before Anne who was carrying a handheld Mana Cannon, ready to shoot.

As she continued to point the cannon at Lin Fang in wariness, the latter cleared his throat and spoke politely, "I’m sorry, I don’t mean to intrude. I have been walking in the rain for the past two hours, and the doesn’t seem like it is going to stop any time soon. Can I stay here just until it lets up? I won’t ask for bedding or anything in here. I’ll just stay here in the entrance, if you two don’t mind."

Wang Jie looked at him silently for a moment before stepping aside with a smile. "Come in."

As Lin Fang entered, he could hear Anne’s voice from the corner, still in wariness. "Darling..."

She gestured subtly with her hand, beckoning Wang Jie over. When he leaned in, she whispered sharply, "Why did you let him in? Did you forget that he almost hypnotized our babies and even insulted me, earlier..."

Wang Jie’s eyes flicked toward Lin Fang, who stood quietly by the door, his hair and his clothes completely wet, giving the impression that he might not know how to shield his body with a mana layer from the rainfall.

He replied softly, "It’s better to have a friend in the wilderness than another enemy. Let’s talk to him first, then decide. If he doesn’t seem trustworthy, we’ll send him away."

Anne glanced once more at Lin Fang, her gaze thoughtful before she finally nodded.

Wang Jie turned back and fetched a dry towel, a bottle of water, and a few ration packs from a metal shelf.

As he approached, Lin Fang stayed near the entrance, unwilling to overstep.

Wang Jie handed him the items and said evenly,

"We’re willing to put aside what happened earlier. Consider this... a favor."

Lin Fang accepted the towel quietly, nodding once.

"Thank you. I’ll remember that."

As he dried his hair and unwrapped a food packet, the sound of the storm outside seemed to fade into the background. Inside the safehouse, the air was tense but strangely calm — three hunters and two direwolves sharing a fragile peace in the middle of a storm that showed no signs of stopping.

And in that silence, none of them noticed the faint tremor beneath the ground — a sign that something massive was moving beneath the flooded swamp, slowly crawling toward the steel structure from below.

Chapter 161 — Hunters in the Dark

Inside the safehouse, the rain softened from a roar to a whisper, the rhythmic drip drip echoing faintly from the roof’s edges. The Direwolves had dozed off by the corner, their ears twitching occasionally, while the lantern light flickered gently, painting long shadows on the reinforced walls.

Lin Fang sat near the metal table, towel draped around his shoulders, listening quietly as Wang Jie and Anne talked about their lives.

"So, you’re both from the Peking City branch of Hunter Academy?"

Anne nodded, her tone calm but cautious.

"Yes. We’re in our senior year. As long as we get our hunter licenses from this trial, we don’t have to take the final exams."

Wang Jie added, "This wilderness exam is the final checkpoint for our academy. If we make it through, we graduate as full-fledged Hunters."

Lin Fang smiled faintly. "Not a bad deal. Your academy’s system sounds convenient."

As he listened, Alpha’s voice echoed in his mind, smooth and composed.

"This man... Wang Jie... seems good-hearted. But weak. His mana reserves are only about one-third of yours. The woman is sharper and more cautious, but also weaker in direct combat."

Lin Fang’s lips curved slightly. He nodded subtly, replying inwardly,

"Got it."

Then, aloud, he said with a polite smile, "Thanks for the food, by the way."

Wang Jie waved it off. "Don’t mention it. It’s just some ration packs. Nothing fancy."

As the tension slowly eased, Lin Fang told them a little about himself — not the whole truth, but enough to sound plausible.

"I used to run a store. Sold monster eggs, spirit herbs, things like that. But recently, the cost of hiring hunters to gather materials got ridiculous. So I figured... why not do it myself?"

Anne blinked. "You gave up being a store owner to become a hunter?"

Lin Fang shrugged lightly. "Let’s just say... business gave me enough reason to pick up a blade."

Wang Jie chuckled. "Well, that’s one way to get motivated."

Time passed quietly, the air filled with the occasional crack of thunder far in the distance.

Eventually, Lin Fang rose to his feet, stretching his arms.

"Well, the rain’s stopped."

Anne glanced toward the door, then back at him. "You’re leaving?"

He nodded. "Yeah. There are over a hundred competitors in this camp alone. The stronger ones won’t wait for morning to start hunting. Every hour counts."