I Start with a Mysterious Island-Chapter 53: A Formed Habit

After an afternoon of hunting, Lin Li was left with only one-third of his stamina and half of his Spiritual Energy.

In his current state, defending himself was no problem. But defeating the beast? He could forget about it. The only way he could possibly win was if this Leopard Beast foolishly stood still and let him attack it with his Superpower.

But was that likely to happen? This Leopard Beast before him was clearly no fool.

"ROAR..." The Leopard Beast let out a tentative roar at Lin Li.

"SWOOSH." In response to the Leopard Beast’s test, Lin Li showed no weakness. He raised his right hand and, with a wave, sent two crescent-shaped Cyan Wind Blades flying toward the beast’s position.

The Leopard Beast, already wary of Lin Li’s Superpower, saw him make a move. Its gaze sharpened, and it quickly leaped aside, dodging the incoming Cyan Wind Blades.

"SLASH..."

"THUD, THUD."

The Cyan Wind Blades, dodged by the Leopard Beast, shot directly into the tall grass in the distance, instantly mowing down a large patch of overgrown weeds.

Ultimately, the two Cyan Wind Blades struck a large tree with a sixty-centimeter diameter, leaving two deep gashes in the trunk.

The tree struck by the Cyan Wind Blades shook violently a few times, and a shower of leaves rained down from its branches.

"ROAR..." The Leopard Beast let out a frustrated roar at the human who had spoiled its hunt, then turned and left.

With the addition of Lin Li, a human whose strength was comparable to its own, and the three Exotic Beast Hunters who still had some fight left in them, the scales of victory had tipped toward the human side. Retreat was now the wisest choice.

’The Leopard Beast left?’ The three Exotic Beast Hunters had been expecting a life-or-death battle to break out. Seeing the beast choose to retreat, they were all momentarily stunned.

Lin Li saw the Leopard Beast leave and let out a sigh of relief.

’If that Leopard Beast had decided to fight me to the death, would I have risked everything for these three strangers? I’m not so sure,’ he thought.

"Young man, if you hadn’t stepped in to help, we would have surely died at the hands of that Leopard Beast. Thank you for saving our lives," said the crew-cut man, who was being supported by the short-haired woman as he approached Lin Li.

Lin Li nodded, accepting his thanks. "You should hurry up and treat that wound on your back," he said. "If you let it keep bleeding like that, you might not have died to the Leopard Beast, but you’ll end up bleeding to death on your own."

The short-haired woman supporting the crew-cut man immediately took off her backpack, pulled out some medical gauze and ointment, and began treating the wound on his back.

"Friend, thank you." The bald man came up to Lin Li, a somewhat awkward expression on his face, but his eyes were filled with sincere gratitude.

"Mutant Beasts are a common enemy to all of humanity. If I were the one in danger, I’m sure you all wouldn’t have stood by and done nothing, either," Lin Li said with a smile.

"I was very rude to you this afternoon. I want to apologize for that." After hearing Lin Li’s words, the awkward expression on the bald man’s face vanished completely. He then gave Lin Li a deep bow.

"Did you say something this afternoon? I don’t remember. Let’s just let bygones be bygones. Don’t worry about it anymore." Lin Li waved his hand dismissively, putting the afternoon’s incident behind them.

"The wound is bandaged. We should get out of here quickly, in case something else happens..." the short-haired woman said after finishing with the crew-cut man’s injury.

After that, Lin Li joined the three Exotic Beast Hunters on the journey back to the safe zone.

...

On the way back to the safe zone, the four of them introduced themselves and got to know one another. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"Lin Li, we’ll part ways here. If you ever need our help in the future, just message us on WeChat. As long as it’s something we can help with, we absolutely won’t refuse," the three Exotic Beast Hunters said, bidding him farewell after they entered the safe zone.

"Okay." Lin Li nodded, then turned and walked toward where he had parked his car.

"Captain, Lin Li is so young, but he’s already a Second Rank Initial Stage Cultivator. His future potential is limitless!" said the short-haired woman.

"And he’s awakened a Superpower, too," the bald man added.

"Yeah! As long as he doesn’t meet an untimely end, he’s bound to become a renowned and powerful Cultivator in the future."

The crew-cut man watched Lin Li’s retreating figure and said with a smile. Then, he seemed to move too much and aggravate the wound on his back, causing him to hiss in pain.

"Let’s hurry back to the city! We need to get the Captain to a hospital for treatment right away," the short-haired woman said urgently when she saw how much pain he was in.

Then, the three Exotic Beast Hunters walked off in the opposite direction from Lin Li. Their car was parked over five hundred meters away.

...

"CLICK."

"SLAM."

Back in his van, the first thing Lin Li did was turn on the air conditioning and change out of his camouflage fatigues.

With a single thought, a bottle of mineral water appeared in Lin Li’s hand.

"GLUG, GLUG, GLUG..."

Twisting off the cap, Lin Li downed the entire bottle of water in one go.

"Ahhh..." He let out a long breath, feeling much more refreshed.

He had sweated a lot while hurrying back with the three Exotic Beast Hunters, and his mouth was completely parched.

If he had been alone, Lin Li would have taken a bottle of water from the Mysterious Small Island to quench his thirst long ago. But with strangers around, he had to endure the thirst the entire way back to avoid exposing his secret.

’What’s the point of teaming up with people? It’s so much more convenient to be alone... If I actually did team up with others to hunt Mutant Beasts,

’forget about the fact that I couldn’t put the slain Mutant Beasts into the Mysterious Small Island in front of my teammates.

’Just the habit I’ve developed of traveling light—storing all my food, drinks, and supplies on the Mysterious Small Island and taking them out as needed—makes me fundamentally opposed to teaming up with other Exotic Beast Hunters.’

Lin Li grumbled to himself, placed the empty water bottle on the passenger seat, then inserted the key and prepared to step on the gas to drive back to the city.

"RING RING RING..."

His phone suddenly rang in his pocket, making Lin Li pull back the foot that was about to press the accelerator.

He took his phone out of his pocket and glanced at the caller ID. It was Su Yue.

He swiped the screen to answer the call.

"Hello? What’s up?"

"Lin Li, I’m about to get off work. Let’s have dinner together tonight!"

"Are we eating at home or going out?"

...