Astonishing Haul

"Now!"

Er Dongsheng pounced down hard from directly above the Abyss Snake, striking its head dead-on.

With a "pfft," his blade-like demonic claws, aided by gravity, easily tore open the Abyss Snake's head scales from above. With a backhand twist, he shattered its skull. At the same time, his tail stabbed viciously at the snake's vital seven-inch point. Er Dongsheng did not care whether snakes in this world actually had such a weak point. One more strike could never be wrong.

"Boom!" The massive snake carcass crashed to the ground. Under Er Dongsheng's swift attack, the Abyss Snake had not even managed to react before stepping onto the road to death!

Er Dongsheng quickly leaped off the Abyss Snake and moved his slightly numb body, a lingering fear rising in him.

"Looks like I'm still too inexperienced. This snake's surface venom is actually paralytic—even my scales couldn't block it. Good thing my attack was fast, or the consequences would have been unthinkable!"

After thinking for a moment, Er Dongsheng turned and walked to the male Velociraptor that had been knocked unconscious first. The sharp tip of his tail rapidly pierced through the Velociraptor's head several times. The unconscious Velociraptor twitched a few times, then died completely.

"As expected, this Velociraptor wasn't poisoned to death. It seems the Abyss Snake's venom isn't lethal—it leans more toward paralysis."

"Rumble, rumble."

The thunder in the sky grew louder and louder. The wind of the Abyss gradually began to rise, while increasingly thick gray mist spread through the forest. The Abyss's rainy season was clearly about to arrive.

Er Dongsheng turned and ran toward the fallen giant tree. Food was important, but something even more important was waiting for him to retrieve it. The flames on the tree had already weakened considerably. Before long, the blazing fire that had just been roaring would likely go out.

Reaching the center of the tree, which had not yet burned through, he fiercely struck it with his scaled claws, sending sparks scattering everywhere.

Ordinary Abyssal Species had very little resistance to fire, but for some reason, the demon body Er Dongsheng inhabited was unusually fond of high temperatures. Ordinary high-temperature flames had no effect on him at all.

With several "pfft, pfft" strikes of his claws, the tree's charred bark flew in all directions. For some reason, the bark of an Abyss Tree was so hard while it was alive that even first- or second-level Abyss Demon creatures had no way to begin, yet after death, even ordinary sharp tools could break it apart.

Before long, he had dug a large hole leading to the tree's core. From the opening, he could see a milky-white cylinder about a meter long and half a meter across. Countless fibrous tissues connected it to the tree around it, and it still emitted a faint white glow. Within it were countless enormous crown-like veins, making it look remarkably like a living heart.

"That's right, this is it!" Er Dongsheng stared at the object, which was even larger than he was tall, his face brimming with excitement.

But danger lurked on every side, and he had no time to inspect it closely. His claws swung with all their strength, and before long, Er Dongsheng had cut away the trunk encasing the white substance. Then, despite his seemingly small body, he lifted the section of trunk one-handed and began running toward the cave where he lived.

When he passed the Abyss Snake's corpse, he only glanced at it briefly before running onward without hesitation.

"I'll come back to deal with these later. If I'm lucky, they'll still be here!"

"Boom, boom, rumble!" The thunder grew louder and louder.

The wind also intensified, howling against his ears. Er Dongsheng used the greatest strength of his life and reached his cave in less than ten minutes...

"Whew... damn, that was exhausting!" Panting heavily, Er Dongsheng set down the section of trunk, rested for a while, then returned to the Abyss Snake.

Luckily, everything was still there. No other creatures had come by yet.

This time, Er Dongsheng carried a huge basket on his back. He had spent a great deal of time weaving it from the roots and stems of dead vines. It could be said that it was his proudest creation in the past three years.

He first went to the Velociraptor corpses. His claws and tail moved together, swiftly digging out the inedible parts such as the Velociraptors' organs. Not every part of an Abyss creature was edible. For instance, the organs and heads of Velociraptors could not be eaten. Of course, that was also due to Er Dongsheng's pickiness as an inheritor of internal martial arts. For ordinary Abyssal Species, having anything to eat at all was already good enough—who would be so finicky? Before the powerful digestive abilities of Abyss creatures, nothing was a problem.

Still, Er Dongsheng did not want to waste so much food like this. In the Abyss, wasting food was the most damned thing one could do. But before this hunt, he had never imagined such an abundant haul, so the supplies he had prepared were far from sufficient! For example, he was now seriously short on Nectar Powder for masking the smell of blood.

Nectar Powder was something Er Dongsheng used to cover up the scent of blood. It was blended from various Abyss flower pollens and possessed an intensely sweet, cloying smell that could conceal bloodiness very well.

At this moment, Er Dongsheng began piling the cut meat onto several enormous leaves. He took a small wooden box from his basket. Inside was Nectar Powder.

With great reluctance, he grabbed a large handful of Nectar Powder, then thought better of it and put some back. This stuff was not easy to gather; every bit saved was a bit gained. He lightly pinched out some Nectar Powder and quickly smeared it over the meat. Before long, the huge pile of meat on the leaves had all been coated, and the blood scent that shot toward the heavens was replaced by a powerful floral fragrance.

"Cough, cough."

"No matter how many times I smell this, it still makes me uncomfortable. This is way too harsh!" Snot and tears streamed down his face, impossible to stop.

He rolled up the leaves together with the pile of meat and placed them in the basket. The already huge basket groaned under the burden of something even larger, letting out cracking "creak, creak" sounds. It seemed that some of its vine branches had snapped!

Er Dongsheng looked at the pile of meat in the basket and frowned. He was not worried about the vine branches breaking. Back when he had tried to break those vine branches, he had no idea how much effort it had taken—his hands still hurt just thinking about it! Rather...

"There aren't enough frozen leaves either. Looks like I'll have to risk going out again sometime."

He slung the basket onto his back and walked over to the Abyss Snake. Looking at the creature, Er Dongsheng was somewhat speechless.

Though the Abyss Snake was enormous and packed with meat, the problem was that it was poisonous. Who would dare eat it? Its entire body contained toxins—eating it was not simply courting death! Every Abyssal Species knew that Abyss Snakes, as a whole category of creatures, were hateful things one could look at but not eat. Even ordinary Abyss creatures kept respectfully far away from their corpses.

Er Dongsheng knew that venomous snakes could actually be eaten, as long as high heat was used to kill the toxins. But he could not carry any more food right now, so he could only give up this second-rate food with a face full of regret.

"Some things can be discarded, but some things cannot." Following the Dragon-Forming Line along the Abyss Snake's belly, Er Dongsheng swiftly cut open its entire body and began searching through its abdomen.

The Dragon-Forming Line was said to be a symbol of serpents evolving in the Abyss. When a Dragon-Forming Line ran through one side of a snake's abdomen, it would gain the Abyss's recognition and evolve into an Abyss Demon. Er Dongsheng had only learned this from the initial memories of his inheritance, and he did not know whether it was true or false.

Looking at the object in his hand, black on the surface yet faintly gleaming with an inky green luster, Er Dongsheng was immensely satisfied. Every Abyssal Species had its own essence. This was the Abyss Snake's essence, hidden inside its gallbladder—a true tonic.

After considering it, Er Dongsheng carefully removed the poison sac from the Abyss Snake's head as well. Venom that could paralyze enemies was rare; perhaps it would be useful later.

"Time to go. The Abyss rainy season is here. I still need to go back and make proper preparations!"

Without looking back, Er Dongsheng left.

"Awoo!"

In the distant rear, hunters following the scent of blood had arrived.