Wild Game

"Just as I thought..."

Jiang Qinghe understood.

Heaven had endowed them with physiques and terrifying strength far surpassing creatures of the same realm, yet it had also placed limitations upon them in certain respects.

For instance, refined combat techniques and the wisdom to adapt.

Yet even so, personally experiencing the Savage Bear's ferocious attacks, surging forth wave after wave like an endless tide—

—and its body remaining vigorous and full of life even after taking seven or eight-tenths of his strength head-on—still left Jiang Qinghe somewhat shaken.

At the same realm, an ordinary human Martial Master facing such a monster, utterly crushed in strength, defense, and endurance, would have virtually no chance of victory in a frontal clash.

"Junior Brother, Blind Bear's weak point is its ears. They lead directly to the skull and are relatively fragile."

Zhao Guangyi, who had forced the large Savage Bear into a corner of the stone cave, reminded him at just the right moment.

"Take this!"

Hearing This, Jiang Qinghe brought his five fingers together, turning his palm into a beak, and thrust straight at the Savage Bear's eye, feinting toward it.

Though the young Savage Bear's vision was blurry, the threatening gust of palm force against its face made it instinctively tilt its head aside while raising a huge paw to block.

A sharp gleam flashed in Jiang Qinghe's eyes. Midway through, the hand aimed at its eye withdrew and turned, while his footwork interlocked in rapid succession.

His charging body abruptly changed direction, and he sprang into the air.

His right palm lashed out, smashing into the Savage Bear's right ear.

Bang!

The palm force passed through its ear and struck deep into the eardrum with a muffled thud.

"Aoo—"

Struck so suddenly, the Savage Bear's right ear instantly spurted blood. The immense pain robbed it of its balance, and its body began to sway.

Jiang Qinghe drew back his arm, sank his shoulder, and twisted his waist. Using the rebound force from his right palm, his body slipped around behind it like a nimble loach.

Once more gathering the strength of his entire body, he added a trace of the embryonic form of momentum to the edge of his palm and viciously hammered the Savage Bear's left ear.

Boom!

Like muffled thunder.

The Savage Bear crashed heavily to the ground, twitched twice, and died completely.

A thick mixture of blood and brain matter slowly seeped from its nostrils and its intact left ear.

Clearly, its brain had been shaken into mush by that force which struck the bull across the mountain.

Jiang Qinghe maintained his punching stance, breathing lightly as he looked at the enormous corpse beneath his feet, habitually reviewing the details of the battle just now.

By then, Zhao Guangyi had long since finished his own fight. He walked over with calm composure and narrowed eyes as he smiled.

"Junior Brother, how did it feel?"

Jiang Qinghe turned to look. The massive adult Savage Bear lay not far away, its head twisted at a bizarre angle. Its neck had clearly been snapped in an instant by an even greater force.

"This beast is strong and thick-skinned, with lasting endurance. If not for its weak point, it would have taken quite a few more twists and turns."

"Hahaha, Junior Brother, this was your first time facing a Demon Beast like this, yet you took it down so cleanly. That is already quite impressive!"

A look of appreciation flashed through Zhao Guangyi's eyes. He then drew a dagger from the leather sheath at his waist and walked over to the two Savage Bear corpses.

He precisely stabbed it into the Savage Bear's chest and deftly gouged around a few times, clearly extremely practiced at it.

Soon, he pulled out two dark-red hearts that seemed to still be faintly beating—one as large as a fist, the other as large as a goose egg. They were precisely the meat closest to the heart.

Zhao Guangyi wrapped them in the oil paper he had brought, sealing away the bloody smell, then raised his hand and handed them to Jiang Qinghe.

"Junior Brother, take them! At this size, refining six Bear Tendon Pills at the Medicine Hall should be no problem."

Jiang Qinghe put away the oil-paper package and asked curiously.

"Senior Brother, at your current realm, do these Bear Tendon Pills have very little effect anymore?"

"Indeed, but something is still better than nothing."

Zhao Guangyi first shook his head, then walked over to the bear corpse again.

"Junior Brother, come, come, come. Try the taste of this Demon Beast meat."

As he spoke, the dagger flashed up and down, skillfully slicing off a large hunk of tendon meat from the bear's hind leg.

He then evenly cut the meat into several dozen small chunks. Picking a few thick, hard branches from the cave floor, he roughly shaved away the splinters and threaded the bear meat pieces onto them one by one, making skewers.

Next, he used a fire striker to ignite the dry grass where the Savage Bear had been lying, set the skewered bear meat over the flames, and turned it as it roasted.

Before long, a strange smell filled the air, rushing straight into their nostrils.

Zhao Guangyi sprinkled some salt over the roasted skewers and handed one to Jiang Qinghe, mischief in his eyes.

"Quick, try it while it's hot. This is a delicacy of the Wasteland Forest!"

Jiang Qinghe took it and bit down.

Sour, with a faint trace of bitterness, the flavor instantly spread through his mouth.

"Ugh... pfft—"

Jiang Qinghe spat it out, frowning with an awkward expression.

"Senior Brother, this... tastes awful!"

"Hahahaha!"

Zhao Guangyi burst into laughter at the sight.

"Junior Brother, back when your Senior Brother roamed the Wasteland Forest, whenever food was scarce, I relied on this stuff to pull through!"

"Mm..."

Jiang Qinghe now understood why no one in Lin'an County's markets sold or cooked Demon Beast meat.

The taste was simply a disaster.

Moreover, aside from the meat closest to the heart, the other parts were almost entirely useless for a Martial Practitioner's cultivation.

Hard to savor when eaten, no pity in discarding it.

Jiang Qinghe grumbled inwardly but said aloud, "Senior Brother, is all Demon Beast meat this hard to swallow?"

"Not so, Junior Brother. This flavor is merely because the turbid qi in the flesh and blood of low-grade Demon Beasts has yet to disperse, while its essence has yet to condense."

A trace of nostalgia appeared on Zhao Guangyi's face.

"Before, I once followed Master to Cangfeng City. I tasted high-grade Demon Beast meat at one of the taverns there—it could truly be called a delicacy of the mortal world!"

Jiang Qinghe felt his imagination stirred, and his throat involuntarily bobbed.

He lowered his head to look at the Savage Bear meat skewer again, silently placed it behind his back, then reached into the inner pocket of his robe and took out a flatbread. With water from his own gourd, he began to eat.

Catching sight of this, Zhao Guangyi smiled and continued gnawing on the bear meat.

Once their stomachs were full and more than half the water in the gourd had been drunk,

the two rested for a moment, then left the cave and continued exploring deeper into the Wasteland Forest.

After walking for roughly half an hour, the scenery around them quietly began to change.

The originally relatively level terrain began to rise and fall, and the trees around them, some as thick as jar mouths, had already disappeared.

In their place stood ancient towering trees that required several people to wrap their arms around them.

As their gaze extended into the depths of the forest sea, they could faintly make out a vast, continuous mountain range. Its peaks rose so high they blotted out the sky and covered the sun.

Zhao Guangyi stopped atop a small earthen slope that stood noticeably higher than the surrounding woodland. After looking around, he cautioned Jiang Qinghe.

"Junior Brother, take a look at this place."

He pointed to the somewhat conspicuous dirt slope beneath their feet, then to the dense forest ahead, whose aura had suddenly turned chilling and sinister.

"This is a natural dividing line. Should you enter the forest in the future, keep your activities within this area. There is no shortage of Demon Beasts here, but if you respond carefully, you can still retreat. If you go deeper, however, you may never return."

Jiang Qinghe looked toward the depths of the woods, which constantly exuded a cold, gloomy aura. It felt as though he might be swallowed whole.

"Senior Brother, does this Wasteland Forest have an end?"