Iron-Beaked Vulture

Dong Lin headed west, while Tao Yan went east.

Dong Lin moved carefully and nimbly between the branches, using his spiritual sense to perceive the distribution of exotic beasts around him.

He ignored the weaker herbivorous exotic beasts at the early First Rank.

His main goal was to find and mark late First Rank beasts, as well as some powerful mid-First Rank ones.

With Dong Lin and Tao Yan's strength, hunting Peak First Rank exotic beasts might not pose much of a problem, but it was not entirely safe.

The two decided to hunt late First Rank exotic beasts first.

By the time Dong Lin had explored nearly twenty li,

he spotted a large bird in the distance. He cautiously approached and focused his divine sense on that area.

"An Iron-Beaked Vulture?"

The vulture's right wing was drenched in blood, with less than half remaining. It seemed to have just gone through a fierce battle.

The vulture was feasting greedily, devouring a corpse in front of it that had already rotted nearly halfway through.

According to Dong Lin's divine sense, it should have been a late First Rank spirit beast.

"Probably a deer."

Dong Lin studied the spirit beast corpse the vulture was consuming, uncertain.

After all, the spirit beast's head was already gone, possibly swallowed by the vulture before him.

Furthermore, after spirit beasts mutated, their shapes changed somewhat from their original forms, so Dong Lin could not yet confirm it.

This was merely an insignificant matter.

Clearly, this vulture was extremely powerful.

Dong Lin judged that it possessed at least peak late First Rank strength, only a step away from Peak First Rank.

However, its wing had suffered severe damage. Its combat power had likely been greatly reduced, making it an excellent prey.

The moment Dong Lin saw the vulture, he had already notified Senior Sister Tao Yan through the communication jade talisman.

About a quarter of an hour later, Tao Yan used a speed-type secret art and rushed over to Dong Lin.

By then, the vulture had finished feeding and leaped onto a large tree,

hiding amid the dense leaves to rest and recover.

All of this fell within Dong Lin's sight.

Had this Iron-Beaked Vulture been at its peak, it would certainly have discovered Dong Lin watching it secretly from nearby.

But after its wing was severely damaged, the vulture's awareness had greatly declined, allowing Dong Lin to exploit the opening.

The moment Tao Yan arrived, Dong Lin could no longer wait to attack the vulture hidden in the tree trunk.

For a stationary target like this, Mystic Spirit Heavenly-Thunder was actually perfectly suited for inflicting damage.

But Mystic Spirit Heavenly-Thunder caused too much commotion, so Dong Lin decided to open with Heavenly Stellar Earth-Thunder instead.

Heavenly Stellar Earth-Thunder was cast incredibly quickly. With Dong Lin prepared, two terrifying bolts of lightning instantly struck the vulture hidden within the tree trunk.

Gray feathers scattered everywhere, drifting down alongside the leaves.

The entire trunk was charred black by Dong Lin's Lightning Arts, flames springing up across it.

The vulture let out a strange cry, then leaped away from the tree at astonishing speed and fled into the distance.

Naturally, Tao Yan, who had been waiting nearby, could not let this prey that had reached their lips escape.

Large sheets of Profound Ice crashed down around the vulture, and a bone-piercing cold instantly enveloped it.

The vulture's escape speed visibly slowed.

Three frigid ice arrows followed, punching three bloody holes through the vulture's charred feathers as blood sprayed in all directions.

Dong Lin used Windchase, turning two steps into one,

and arrived in time, delivering a fierce Tiger Claw Strike that slashed brutally across the vulture's body.

The vulture cried out sharply in pain.

Seeing that the situation was unfavorable, the vulture realized that blindly fleeing would never get it out of these two humans' grasp. It had no choice but to strike back.

The most terrifying weapon on this Iron-Beaked Vulture's body was the oddly textured sharp beak on its mouth, hard as iron and stone.

The vulture twisted its neck around at an Aberrant angle and viciously pecked at Dong Lin.

Seeing the power behind the blow, Dong Lin hurriedly dodged to the side.

But the vulture's reactions were truly swift. As Dong Lin dodged, it adjusted its position mid-peck and savagely stabbed toward Dong Lin's back.

In that flash of lightning and spark of flint.

"Mysterious Water Condensing Ice, defend!"

Tao Yan promptly added an ice-element defensive spell. A smooth ice shield separated Dong Lin from the vulture.

By the time Dong Lin rolled twice across the ground and got back to his feet, the hard ice shield behind him had already been drilled through by the vulture and exploded into several fragments.

The vulture's entire body was now a bloody mess of torn flesh. Clearly, it could not hold on much longer. It hurriedly turned around, spread its only remaining wing, and flapped as it scrambled backward.

Tao Yan could only hastily condense two ice arrows and send them stabbing toward the vulture's back.

Dong Lin also hurriedly drew the Thunderclap Sword from his back.

Although he had not yet practiced sword techniques, the Thunder Mark on the Thunderclap Sword had always been storing Dong Lin's Heavenly Stellar Earth-Thunder Lightning Arts.

This vulture had already reached the end of the road; there was no need to activate everything at once as he had when dealing with the Earth-Element Armored Beast last time.

With only two Lightning Arts activated, Dong Lin thrust the Thunderclap Sword straight at the vulture.

An explosive Windchasing Step beneath his feet instantly raised Dong Lin's speed by another level.

The vulture still wanted to turn and defend itself, but it was already too late.

As the two ice arrows exploded on the vulture's body, Dong Lin's sword arrived in an instant, viciously piercing straight through the vulture.

Two explosive Heavenly Stellar Earth-Thunders raged within the vulture's body. In an instant, the scent of scorched flesh spread through the air, and the late First Rank Iron-Beaked Vulture fell silent.

"Finally dealt with it. I never expected this heavily injured beast to still possess such strength."

Dong Lin looked at that incomparably sharp beak and spoke with lingering fear.

If Tao Yan had not acted in time just now, there might already have been a large bloody hole in Dong Lin's body, crippling more than half his combat strength.

This vulture was covered in treasures.

Although its flesh could not be eaten due to the poison throughout its body, it could be brought back and handed to cultivators specializing in extraction.

They could refine extremely potent toxins from the vultures' poisonous meat.

And the most valuable thing was that iron beak.

This iron beak was an exceptional material for crafting certain offensive artifacts. Its sharpness could rival some Second Rank artifacts.

"I'll keep all the resources from our hunts for now. We'll divide them after the hunting is over."

Dong Lin said.

"Mm, alright."

This battle had not lasted long, nor had it consumed much of their energy, so the two decided to continue onward.

Suddenly, a loud boom came from the distance.

The entire forest trembled twice.

Dong Lin and Tao Yan both looked east.

"It seems to have come from over there. Let's take a look."

"Let's go see what happened."

At that moment, an area roughly twenty li away had already descended into chaos.

More than a dozen disciples had formed three factions and were confronting one another. Between them lay a Stone Statue Giant Monster that was barely clinging to life.

This was an exotic beast that had just entered the Second Rank. The earlier commotion had been caused when this beast hammered part of the disciples who had been battling with spells, shaking the ground. Its power was immense. The person struck head-on had already lost all signs of life, collapsed into a heap.

Another four or five disciples caught in the aftermath had also suffered severe injuries, causing the three groups that had been fighting one another to stop warily.