Chapter 64 – A Team Is Only as Good as Its Leader

Three Moons later.

Su Hao dragged two Grandmaster-level Grid-tailed Short Dragons into the cave. The short-tailed dragons resembled dinosaurs but had shorter tails. Two long fangs extended from their upper jaws, making them look not only ferocious but also extremely powerful in combat. When they ran, they could shake the ground, unbalancing prey standing on the earth and allowing for a successful hunt.

In this area, the short-tailed dragons were at the top of the food chain among Ferocious Beasts. A small pack, consisting of over a dozen short-tailed dragons, roamed here. All adult short-tailed dragons in this pack were Grandmaster-level in strength, with the strongest already reaching High-level Grandmaster.

However, this pack had reached its end.

The last two short-tailed dragons of the pack had already been dragged into the cave by Su Hao.

He placed the short-tailed dragons’ corpses on the stone platform, skillfully slit open their grid-covered bellies, ignored the bloody scene before him, and emptied their organs. He then cut open the membrane behind the abdominal cavity, used his hands to pull it apart, revealing the patterns within – the short-tailed dragons’ Beast Patterns.

After a period of adaptation, he had long since achieved a state of mental tranquility in such scenes.

After recording the Beast Patterns, Su Hao immediately entered the Pinball Space and retrieved all the short-tailed dragon patterns collected during this time for comparison. With Little Light’s help, he quickly filled in the missing parts.

Su Hao observed carefully for a moment. Overall, it coordinated well and looked like a complete Beast Pattern, but he couldn’t be sure if there were still any flaws.

“We’ll know once I try it.”

After establishing the drawing task, Su Hao exited the Pinball Space and began drawing on the short-tailed dragon’s corpse.

He finished drawing in no time. The moment it was completed, the Beast Pattern began to operate, but before any special effects could manifest, it started to collapse.

Su Hao skillfully controlled the collapsing Blood Qi, letting it dissipate slowly. He then turned his gaze to the last short-tailed dragon. “It’s still not quite enough, and this is the last one. If I can’t complete the Beast Pattern with this, all my efforts during this time will have been in vain. I’ll have to venture deeper to seek out other short-tailed dragon packs.”

Without hesitation, Su Hao prepared the last short-tailed dragon, skillfully cut open its belly, recorded the pattern, and immediately entered the Pinball Space for comparison.

During the comparison, he filled in two more subtle lines, connecting two other lines.

Looking again, the newly obtained Beast Pattern was perfectly integrated, possessing a sense of complete beauty. Su Hao had a feeling that this Beast Pattern was now complete.

He established the task, exited the Pinball Space, and began drawing.

The moment the drawing was completed, the Beast Pattern flashed with a faint light, and a high-frequency Oscillation suddenly Burst forth, causing the entire short-tailed dragon corpse to become soft and fluffy. The hard hide tore in multiple places, and the stone platform beneath it vibrated violently, causing small fragments of stone to fall.

“Oscillation?” Su Hao searched his memory, realizing he had never heard of the Oscillation Beast Pattern before, nor was it recorded in the Academy.

Su Hao wasn’t sure if he had obtained a new Beast Pattern.

Before this, Su Hao had collected a total of four Beast Patterns: “Collapse,” “Deflection,” “Light Absorption,” and “High Temperature.” Adding the newly acquired “Oscillation,” he now had a total of five Beast Patterns. Including the four previously obtained – “Barrier,” “Strong Light,” “Manipulation,” and “Extraction” – along with his own ‘Perception,’ he now possessed ten Beast Patterns in total.

He currently commanded ten Beast Patterns.

Over these three Moons, he had begun attempting to analyze the Beast Patterns, but progress was very slow. He had only managed to segment the common or similar structures between different Beast Patterns, but he still didn’t understand what function these similar structures represented or their underlying principles.

For Su Hao, just ten Beast Patterns were far from enough; he needed more. The more extensive the collected data, the easier it would be to find patterns and conduct analysis.

However, he couldn’t stay in the Wilderness any longer; he needed to return to Cloud Town.

His experimental tools were almost broken, and his daily necessities were nearly depleted.

He needed to go back to Cloud Town to restock and, at the same time, find a channel to sell the few “clean” Beast Patterns he had to exchange for Gold Yuan.

After Su Hao knocked off the large teeth of the two short-tailed dragons, he used ‘Extraction’ to crystallize the still-dispersing Blood Qi and casually put it into his bag.

These Blood Qi crystals were full of impurities and could not be used directly; he had no idea how others used them.

Then he threw the corpses far away. Within a day, these two bodies would be gnawed down to skeletons by various ferocious beasts.

He tidied up in a hurry, found his direction, and headed back to Cloud Town.

Along the way, any ferocious beasts he encountered, whether Elite-Level or Grandmaster-class, could not escape Su Hao’s Long Blade, becoming a small pattern in his spatial storage.

As for Grand Tutor-class ferocious beasts, Su Hao had never encountered one, so he had no idea how powerful they were. However, even if he met one, he wouldn’t provoke it; he’d run as far away as possible.

As he neared Cloud Town, he saw some explorer groups composed of martial artists, but Su Hao had no intention of contacting them. After detecting them on his radar, he deliberately skirted around them and continued towards Cloud Town.

Five days later, Su Hao returned to Cloud Town.

The moment he got back to town, he went straight to the inn and scrubbed himself from head to toe. Su Hao, who hadn’t had a proper bath in a long time, felt completely refreshed and cleansed, as if his very soul had been purified, making him feel ecstatic.

Next, he started grooming his hair, cutting it into a neat crew cut, the kind that could test a truly handsome man.

With his appearance tidied up, Su Hao was, in a word, handsome.

It’s just that his face was a bit too young, lacking the ruggedness of a man with stubble.

His clothes couldn’t be salvaged either; they were sour and smelly, and with winter approaching, it was time to get a couple of new outfits.

After Su Hao bought his clothes, the remaining money was only enough for a few days’ worth of food. Earning money was now a pressing matter; even the great Harmony God should get moving at this point.

So, sell Beast Patterns!

How to sell them became a new problem.

At his age and height, if he took Beast Patterns to a buyer, regardless of whether the buyer could verify their authenticity, even if they were real, he would most likely be robbed and killed. While he wasn’t afraid, it would be too troublesome afterward. He just wanted to sell them quickly, buy what he needed, and venture into the Wilderness again.

“I need to find a reliable person to act as an intermediary,” Su Hao mused, playing with his last two Silver Yuan.

The first person he thought of was Old Liu, the bald man. Old Liu had treated him well and was reliable, but after a moment’s thought, Su Hao shook his head and dismissed this idea.

Firstly, since Old Liu had the authority to freely browse the Beast Patterns in the Academy’s collection, whether he would be interested in Su Hao’s Beast Patterns was questionable. Secondly, it would be too difficult to explain the origin of these Beast Patterns.

Su Hao thought for a long time but couldn’t find a suitable candidate.

Although his individual strength was great, his interpersonal skills were terrible, and he couldn’t find any suitable channels to sell his goods.

With no other options, Su Hao could only wander around first, observe the operational model of this Small City, and then find an opportunity to make his move.

Su Hao’s focus hadn’t been here before. Now, after carefully exploring, he immediately understood the model of Small City.

The overt structure of Lingyun Town was very simple. Officially, there was the administrative department and security department under the Mayor of Lingyun Town. The security department was the Guard. Next was the Lingyun Martial Arts Academy, with many Grandmaster martial artists. Then came the three major families: the Jin Family Estate, the Mo Family, and the Xiao Family. Currently, the Jin Family Estate had lost two Grandmasters and was inevitably beginning to decline. Below them were various exploration teams of different sizes, as well as a myriad of merchant guilds.

However, the hidden aspects were bound to be complex and not this simple. But Su Hao wasn’t studying sociology; he didn’t care about this, as long as he could achieve his objectives.

Soon, he had an idea. His selling objective was primarily the exploration team Harmony Merchant Guild. The reasons were twofold: first, the other party’s cash flow was bound to be sufficient, and second, their demand for Beast Patterns was high.

However, he also had to avoid being double-crossed.

So, choosing from so many exploration team Harmony Merchant Guilds was crucial.

“Whether a team is good or not can be seen directly from its leader!” Su Hao liked to look at the essence of things and wasn’t distracted by the messy information on the surface.

The leaders of the major exploration teams were public figures in Lingyun Town. It wasn’t difficult to gather information about these people. Su Hao only spent two days before narrowing down three potential options.

One was an exploration team that had risen rapidly two years ago – Hunt. The reason was that the leader, Meng Shan, was hot-tempered but decisive and made no compromises.

One was a large, century-old merchant guild under the Xiao Family – Red Rock Merchant Guild. The Xiao Family had always operated with integrity and treated customers fairly.

One was a civilian merchant guild formed by a large number of small exploration teams – Qi Lian Merchant Guild. They sold various materials and items externally, and at the same time, they regularly acquired various things, with Beast Patterns being one of them.

Su Hao pondered for a long time and finally settled on the Qi Lian Merchant Guild.

(End of Chapter)