After waiting for more than two hours, Victor, whose throat had grown dry from recounting his past, finally sensed that something was wrong.
It was a Legendary Hunter's sixth sense for prey. As he stood and looked toward the hazy river, Zeng Mu and Yenaier rose with him and turned in the same direction.
"Yes, it's here," Zeng Mu said with grim certainty.
"Water Monster incoming! Everyone, get ready!" Vic suddenly shouted from behind them. A legendary figure in his own right, he roused the hunters' focus with his voice. The most dangerous, thrilling moment of the hunt was upon them.
The rain continued, neither heavy nor light, pattering against the brims of their bamboo hats like jade beads. Yet it did nothing to obstruct their gazes. As the ripples on the river swelled into increasingly violent waves, the young hunters closest to the water finally spotted the enormous shadow beneath it.
If not for the raindrops striking their heads and shoulders, they could scarcely have believed they were not dreaming.
Across the rain-shrouded river, something resembling an ox's head slowly approached. From this angle, only its head was visible, and it looked no different from an ox.
It had two horns, each over two meters long, patterned with alternating black and white markings. Its eyes resembled glowing tomatoes, but there were not two of them. There were three pairs-six eyes arranged in two rows, like a wooden boat approaching with fog lamps hung aboard.
From their elevated vantage point on the boulder, Zeng Mu and his two companions could see the Jiao Monster's full form more clearly than the hunters on the upstream banks.
Behind its ox's head stretched a snakelike body covered in palm-sized scales. They appeared dark blue-green through the rain and mist, making it look like