148: Chapter 148 Mountains, Invisible Wall

Xiao Niao carefully sensed the direction and strength of the wind across the wasteland, re-nocked the arrow, and drew the bowstring slowly and steadily.

He had maintained a semi-crouched position on the ground, and his left hand holding the longbow had remained steady and outstretched. Thus, once the arrow was nocked and the bowstring pulled taut again, his aim remained on the original target—the center of the Ostrich's body. However, considering the wind's strength and direction he had just sensed, Xiao Niao slightly adjusted the direction of the arrow tip.

After confirming he was fully prepared, Xiao Niao took a deep breath, maintained his body's balance, and released the bowstring cleanly and decisively with his right hand.

This wooden longbow was obtained from Head Manager Xie Dongdong. According to her, it was the wooden bow her hunter father used to use. The bow handle, made of cedar, had aged and hardened, but the bowstring, made of raw cowhide, remained very taut and elastic. As soon as he released it, it made a crisp snap sound, shooting the wooden shaft steel arrow out.

Under the nervous and expectant gaze of the three, the wooden shaft steel arrow quickly flew out, becoming a tiny speck in their field of vision. They had no idea if it would actually hit the Ostrich.

Just then, the Ostrich, which had been strolling leisurely in place, sensed the approaching danger. It lowered its head, spread its wings, and tucked its long neck—looking as if it had snapped—under its body. Its large, spread-out wings displayed a yellow color similar to the wasteland soil, making it difficult for others to spot it while also protecting its body.

Suddenly, its rear end twitched, and a damage value of -5 appeared. The health bar above its head showed it had lost very little health. However, the sudden pain startled it, causing its whole body to shudder. It then sprinted away on its thick, powerful legs with its head down, not even looking back at the long arrow stuck in its rear.

On Xiao Niao's side, Hu Gualing and Tang Yao didn't know if Xiao Niao's arrow had hit. Xiao Niao himself, however, relying on his superior eyesight that surpassed ordinary people, immediately saw the red -5 damage value pop up above the Ostrich's head.

Xiao Niao said excitedly, "It hit, it hit! This is a sure thing now!"

Hearing his excited voice, Hu Gualing and Tang Yao were about to celebrate, but they discovered that the Ostrich in their field of vision had scurried away into the distance, leaving them with nothing but its rapidly shrinking back and a cloud of rising yellow sand behind it.

"This..." Hu Gualing and Tang Yao were both dumbfounded. They had indeed seen the damage number appear on the Ostrich, but looking at that running speed, it didn't look like it had been hit and injured at all.

Xiao Niao felt a bit embarrassed. After pondering for half a second, he said, "It was hit by an arrow; it definitely won't get far!" With that, he took the lead and headed in the direction the Ostrich had fled.

Hu Gualing and Tang Yao both felt that what Xiao Niao said made perfect sense, so they followed him in pursuit of the Ostrich.

Because they had only seen the Ostrich from afar, they didn't realize how massive its true size was. They had only slightly expanded their mental impression of a typical bird's size, thinking it was at most just a larger free-range chicken. They assumed that being hit by an arrow would definitely severely affect its mobility, not knowing that the wooden shaft steel arrow Xiao Niao had shot and stuck in the Ostrich's rear was like sticking a single feather on it... It was just that its courage was too small—comparable to Xiao Niao's—which was why it had scurried away into the distance.

The trio, led by Xiao Niao, arrived one after another at the spot where the Ostrich had just been. Hu Gualing crouched down and pinched a bit of yellow soil stained with bright red blood, confirming that the Ostrich had indeed been hit by an arrow and fled while injured from this very spot. "What do you think?" Hu Gualing asked, looking at the trail of claw prints leading into the distance, raising his head to ask for Xiao Niao and Tang Yao's opinions.

Tang Yao was unwilling to let the Ostrich leg that was about to be in her grasp just fly away like that. Moreover, after leaving the village, they hadn't had a set destination anyway, and going anywhere was about the same, so she immediately suggested following the trail of claw prints in pursuit.

Xiao Niao was also very unwilling to give up and insisted on catching this Ostrich. Not to mention that this Ostrich gave him absolutely no Face—running off into thin air right after he said it was a sure thing—just the fact that the Ostrich had a green-quality wooden shaft steel arrow stuck in it, which was a rare, one-of-a-kind item, made Xiao Niao reluctant to let it go!

Thus, the three reached an agreement and pursued into the distance along the claw prints...

But what made them increasingly alarmed as they walked was that this trail of claw prints seemed endless. Furthermore, they had already walked an unknown distance along the trail, yet the claw marks on the yellow soil ahead were still just as clearly visible. This made all three of them feel uneasy: just what level of leg strength and endurance did this Ostrich have? To think that even after running so far, it was still so fierce and powerful, leaving a pit in the ground with every claw strike?

Under the observation of Chen Mo and Xiao Wan, the three of them had unknowingly walked to a place near the mountains.

These mountains were actually equivalent to the air walls in other games.

Due to the limited main god points in his hands, Chen Mo had limitations when he designed the wilderness map at the time. He couldn't expand the land infinitely, so he could only make a piece of wasteland. Near the edge of the map boundary, he had only created some illusory and real mountains.

The mountains were continuous, high, and steep. Not to mention 90-degree slopes, even 120-degree "hillsides" were everywhere. Even if a modern professional mountaineering team came, without a helicopter, they would only be able to turn back. With the current strength of the players, wanting to climb over them was almost impossible.

Unless they had legendary Qinggong like the Wudang Cloud-Ascending Ladder or Gecko Wall-Walking Skill. Moreover, not only would one have to practice such peak Qinggong to perfection, but one would also need a very deep Qi foundation to support the user in using Qinggong to climb over these shamelessly high mountains that lacked any footholds for one to stop and recover Qi.

And as for Hu Gualing, Tang Yao, and Xiao Niao, the only martial art the three of them knew combined that could count as a Qinggong movement technique was Hu Gualing's self-created Lazy Donkey Roll. If they wanted to rely on the Lazy Donkey Roll to cross the mountains and discover the boundary of the game map, Chen Mo could only say: Please, go ahead.

Chen Mo watched without the slightest worry as the three players followed the Ostrich's tracks to a place where they could see the mountains.

Tang Yao pointed at the mountains with great surprise and said, "Wow! There really are so many, many mountains!"

Xiao Niao looked up and found that they were indeed mountains. He panted and said, "Could it be... that Ostrich... could it be... that it ran into the mountains...?" Given his physical fitness, running this far was already an extraordinary performance. What had sustained him was the obsession in his heart to find that Ostrich. However, by now, the rate of physical stamina recovery could no longer keep up with the rate of consumption.

Hu Gualing was afraid that Xiao Niao wouldn't be able to catch his breath and would perform a "die of exhaustion on the spot," wasting a revival coin for nothing, so he advised, "I think we won't be able to catch that Ostrich. Let's sit down and take a rest."