[Mortal World’s Noble Grass]

When the server-wide announcement sparked heated discussions on the forum, the person involved, Zhou Sui, didn’t pay it any attention. For him, the materials dropped from this record-breaking refresh were two more than he had expected. He immediately fed them to the “Serpent Venom Water” skill, which, for now, was a bottomless pit that devoured resources. But soon after, his attention was drawn by a barrage of frantic messages from “Slack Bro.”

Zhou Sui: “?”

Slack Bro: “Bro, save me!”

Slack Bro was cornered.

And the ones cornering him were familiar faces—talk about enemies meeting on a narrow road.

It was the Frost Moon Squad they had encountered earlier while farming the Golden Serpent King. They had run into each other again in the wild. Amid his panic, Slack Bro didn’t forget to show off in a voice message: “How was I supposed to know they’d come to farm the Wild Lion King too? The mobs stopped spawning, and now they’re all chasing me!”

Slack Bro was obsessed with grinding wild monsters on the map. Every day, he was either hunting for materials or on his way to farm more mobs. An opportunist at heart, he often snatched monsters or materials from others. He had come to this rural server specifically to scavenge in the wild more easily, frequently coaxing or teaming up with lone players on the world channel to steal kills.

“Wild monsters don’t belong to anyone’s private estate, right?”

Slack Bro: “I call this uniting the masses to fight against evil forces.”

Zhou Sui asked, “Where are your masses?”

Slack Bro hadn’t had time to rally anyone on the world channel yet: “I didn’t get the chance today. The masses haven’t woken up yet.”

“But I’ve run into a revolutionary brother!”

In the messaging system, Slack Bro sent two sets of coordinates: one for the Wild Lion King’s spawn point and another for their team’s current location. Zhou Sui expertly navigated the map toward Slack Bro’s coordinates. From a distance, he could see Slack Bro running for his life, accompanied by another person running alongside him.

Only upon arriving did he understand what was happening.

The Wild Lion King’s spawn point was in a remote area. Players who came here to farm typically formed teams in advance. Slack Bro hadn’t opened a party to recruit today—he had planned to team up with Zhou Sui, snag some public rewards, and leave. But on his way to the Wild Lion King’s spawn point, he spotted a Beastmaster in the wild capturing a spirit beast.

The Tian He Mountain · Beastmaster profession was relatively unique compared to others. They followed the beast-taming path and were the only class in the Divine Tree system capable of fighting alongside beasts. The skill slots on their skill tree could mutate into spirit beast slots.

While other players farmed materials for skills, Beastmasters scoured the world for their contracted spirit pets, climbing mountains and rummaging through obscure corners.

This unfortunate Beastmaster brother had been capturing a pet in the wild when he stumbled upon a rare spirit beast. That’s when he clashed with the Frost Moon Squad, who wanted to steal it from him.

A rare spirit beast—everyone wanted it.

“No choice. When I see injustice, I can’t help but step in,” Slack Bro thought to himself, figuring he’d already made enemies anyway.

The rescued Beastmaster, touched, said, “Good brother!”

Zhou Sui: “…”

The two of them, one leading and the other following, spoke with the camaraderie of long-lost brothers. If you ignored the team chasing them from behind, it almost felt like a tale of sworn brotherhood forged in the wild. Hiding behind a tree, Zhou Sui looked over and saw the Beastmaster clutching something indistinct in his hands—mixed with bits of grass, it looked at first glance like a bird’s nest the size of a ball.

By all accounts, the two should’ve been caught already. However, there was a massive ancient tree in the area. Slack Bro was leading his companion in circles around it, using the tree to block incoming skills.

The tree trunk was enormous—ten or twenty people holding hands might not even encircle it. Slack Bro and the Beastmaster were weaving around it… but if the pursuers caught up, it’d be like catching turtles in a jar.

Zhou Sui looked up and saw bird nests dotting the ancient tree. Suddenly, he understood where the Beastmaster’s spirit pet egg had come from.

Even now, similar nest-like objects were visible on the tree. A rare spirit pet in the wild likely tied to a special event, much like the Golden Serpent King Zhou Sui had triggered earlier. For Beastmasters, these pets were their target.

If things went well, as long as the Beastmaster didn’t die, it’d be tough for others to snatch the spirit pet from their hands.

If things went poorly—like now—with at least seven or eight players in pursuit, escape would be nearly impossible.

This area was deep in the mountain forest, with no advantageous terrain to exploit. The woods on either side were dense, and venturing in would only slow them down with overgrown weeds, making it easier to get caught.

On the other side was a deep, swift river. Jumping in would leave them vulnerable to ambushes from the shore. Climbing trees or swimming wouldn’t work. By comparison, the only quick escape route was a narrow mountain path in Zhou Sui’s direction.

Guarding that path were a Beastmaster and a Healer.

The Frost Moon Squad’s Beastmaster had three pets by his side. With two people and three pets standing there, the path was completely blocked.

“Come toward me,” Zhou Sui tossed out a single sentence.

The two looked toward Zhou Sui’s position and saw him deftly weaving his way in.

In a few steps, he climbed the nearest tree, leapt onto the thick, sprawling branches of the ancient tree using its limbs, and activated his weapon crate. With a flick of his wrist, he unleashed a paralyzing needle attack!

Zhou Sui didn’t waste a second. He immediately locked onto the two blocking the path. They hadn’t expected someone to come up from behind at this moment and were caught off guard, perfectly controlled by Zhou Sui’s skill.

“Someone’s here!” The shout instantly drew attention, and the Frost Moon Squad’s members turned their eyes toward Zhou Sui.

“Damn it, they’ve called for backup!”

“Block them! Don’t let them escape through the path—they’re only three people!”

Zhou Sui’s timing was impeccable. After locking down his targets, he quickly applied three stacks of Serpent Venom Water to the nearest Beastmaster. As the stacks built up, the damage surged. The Beastmaster hadn’t anticipated such a swift attack and lost a third of his health without even recalling his pets.

“Heal me!” the Beastmaster shouted.

The Healer standing with him prepared to act, but Zhou Sui fired off another paralyzing shot, chaining control onto the Healer!

The Healer flinched—he hadn’t even managed to get a single heal off. It was as if the attacker knew exactly when he’d try to cast. With the healing interrupted, the Beastmaster turned to command his summoned beasts to deal with Zhou Sui. Zhou Sui backflipped to dodge the pets’ attacks and countered with another sealing skill, locking down the Beastmaster’s abilities.

As a Healer from Qi Ling Village, Zhou Sui could tell what the opponent intended just by their movements, even for healing skills.

With the Beastmaster’s skills sealed and the Healer’s healing disrupted, Zhou Sui had already drained half of the Beastmaster’s health before the others could rush over to assist the Healer.

“Come here!” Zhou Sui called out.

The two had just reached the area. The Beastmaster holding the pet egg saw this scene, his eyes gleaming: “You’re amazing!”

A Beastmaster who couldn’t control their summons was useless, and the mountain path was no longer blocked.

As someone who also played a summoner class, he knew Zhou Sui’s maneuver had effectively choked the life out of the Frost Moon Beastmaster.

One versus two! And at a lower level than them!  

What kind of stats does this guy have? How precise are his skill shots to achieve such tight control!?

Zhou Sui: “Go around.”

With the mountain path unblocked, the other two immediately bolted outward.

The Frost Moon Beastmaster scrambled to command his pets to give chase, but with too many targets, he ordered them to lock onto the Beastmaster running with Slack Bro and attack.

“He’s targeting me!” the fleeing Beastmaster yelled. “I’m holding his pets off!”

Seeing the opportunity, Slack Bro threw a few skills at the enemy Beastmaster. While Zhou Sui kept the Healer locked down, Slack Bro chipped away 30% of the Beastmaster’s health!

The three of them, with premeditated coordination, executed their escape: Zhou Sui chained control, the Beastmaster ran forward with the enemy pets in tow, and Slack Bro turned to pummel the Frost Moon Beastmaster.

In less than five seconds, they flawlessly pulled off a combo.

At this moment, Zhou Sui’s Serpent Venom Water struck again. Alternating between seals and venom, the near-dead Frost Moon Beastmaster didn’t even get a single heal before collapsing in the wild.

Frost Moon Beastmaster: “??”

What just happened? How did he get taken out so fast!?

The other Frost Moon members rushing over to encircle them: “!”

Damn it!

Frost Moon Captain: “Take a detour! Stop them!”

Zhou Sui glanced at the pursuers changing their route. With too many chasing from behind, he scanned the area and spotted another Wild Lion King spawn point nearby: “Lead them to the refresh point.”

Slack Bro instantly got it. With a sharp turn, he dashed toward the spawn point, the brother behind him following close on his heels.

As the two entered the refresh point, right on the hour, the wild map boss, the Wild Lion King, emerged from the forest at the spawn location. Without hesitation, Zhou Sui dashed toward the freshly spawned Wild Lion King to steal the aggro. Some scattered teams nearby had already planned to take on the boss, and seeing Zhou Sui engage it, they jumped in without a second thought.

The agile Qiling Village player secured the boss’s aggro with steady precision, immediately kiting it outward.

The Wild Lion King’s damage was immense. Zhou Sui took a hit, and his health plummeted. He applied a heal to himself, dodged out of the boss’s damage range, and unleashed all his high-damage skills. Spotting Slack Bro running toward him, he used a qinggong dash to rush to Slack Bro’s side.

Unlike the Golden Serpent King, which had an unstealable grudge against Zhou Sui after he wiped out its family, the wild map boss’s aggro shifted as soon as Zhou Sui stopped dealing damage. It was quickly snatched by another group of random players. At this moment, the group chasing Slack Bro was forced into the Wild Lion King’s attack range, blending into the chaos with the other players.

With more people and the boss’s skills in play, the Frost Moon Squad couldn’t single out any one target. They could only watch helplessly as the three figures grew farther away.

Zhou Sui, with a sliver of health left, retreated from the crowd.

The trio didn’t even bother with the public drops from the wild monster. They plunged into the forest, not stopping until they were sure no pursuers remained. Finally, they found a safe spot to rest.

The Beastmaster wore expensive cloth armor, its ornate and intricate fabric catching the eye. Zhou Sui had seen this material in a shop in Tong Shi Town—gear like that started at 300 gold per piece. In a newbie village where equipment updates were rapid, almost no one was foolish enough to buy it.

Yet here was one such fool looking at Zhou Sui. He reached out and handed over several large potions—max-level recovery potions, priced at 15 gold each, with a continuous healing effect.

The Beastmaster, worried Zhou Sui might refuse, spoke up. Without Zhou Sui and the others, he wouldn’t have made it out. He hurriedly stuffed several more potions into Zhou Sui’s arms, saying, “No need to be polite, brother.”

“I didn’t expect that group to try stealing my spirit pet. I messed up when picking a server and got randomly dumped in this godforsaken place. Good thing I ran into Slack Bro, or my spirit pet would’ve been snatched.” The Beastmaster’s tone was warm and familiar. “But doesn’t this hold you guys up? Weren’t you farming the Wild Lion King?”

Zhou Sui didn’t mind. Slack Bro had helped him out plenty of times, and he’d just happened to pick up an extra person while bailing him out.

The two assured him it was fine, but the Beastmaster still shoved a few more potions their way and sent friend requests one after another.

“Brother, you’re not rejecting me, are you?” The Beastmaster looked at Zhou Sui with earnest sincerity. After handing over the potions, he tossed in some extra materials too. “In games, more brothers mean more opportunities. Add me, add me!”

With the conversation reaching this point, Zhou Sui, having just accepted the potions, reluctantly added him as a friend. But when he saw the ID, he paused for half a second.

—‘Mortal World’s Noble Grass’

Slack Bro: “Meeting is fate. What should we call you, brother?”

Beastmaster: “I’m probably older than you guys. My buddies all call me Rich Bro.”

“Rich Bro, nice name.”

Slack Bro shook his hand. “I’m Slack Bro, and this is Brother Zhou ^[1] Cycle of Eternity (zhōu ér fù shǐ) .”

In a few words, amidst the chaotic relationships, everyone was a “bro (brother).”

Zhou Sui: “…”

With a sidelong glance, Zhou Sui noticed the bird nest Rich Bro had tossed aside. He reached for it and suddenly saw a slot on his skill tree light up.

The skill tree only reacted to skill materials. This spirit pet nest—is it actually a material?

“You want this nest?” Zhou Sui asked.

“The bird nest that comes with a special spirit pet should have a decent chunk of experience.”

Rich Bro wasn’t interested in it. “I just want the spirit pet egg. You guys can have the rest.”

Slack Bro waved it off, knowing Zhou Sui needed skill materials to feed his tree. “My mutation skills are maxed out, so I don’t need tree food for now. You helped us out big time, Brother Zhou—take it all.”

Zhou Sui didn’t argue with them. Saving two people had netted him several materials—more than he’d get from tagging along for a wild boss reward.

He picked up the bird nest and fed it to his skill tree.

The moment the nest left his hands, a strange light flashed by. Zhou Sui’s hand paused briefly as the nest turned into experience points.

But then, a peculiar notification popped up in front of him—

[You have obtained the item [Miniature Figure]]

A creepy, palm-sized figure had been mixed in with the nest. When Zhou Sui fed the nest to his skill tree, it dropped into his inventory.