First encounter with an enemy

The wind blew harder and harder, and the snow fell faster and faster.

In the cedar forest, Su Changsheng returned after leaving and carefully inspected his surroundings.

Only after a long while did he let out a small breath of relief. "Looks like no demon really was following me. I was overthinking it."

He saw no footprints, found no signs of pursuit, and failed to bluff any demon into revealing itself.

He fell silent for another moment.

With his lips pressed lightly together, Su Changsheng hoisted his enormous pack and slithered back into the woods.

The next instant-

Boom!

His massive tail slammed viciously into the snow. The Stone-Shattering Art traveled through his thick tail, along the accumulated snow, and instantly into the ground.

Squeak!

A pained cry rang out, then fell silent. The snow burst apart, the earth was pierced through, and streams of scarlet blood slowly seeped out through the cracks.

There was no time for further thought.

Su Changsheng abruptly opened his tightly pressed lips, shooting out the ice breath he had already gathered in his mouth. In an instant, it engulfed the cracks in the ground along with the blood seeping out.

Before the bloody scent could spread, it was ruthlessly sealed in ice.

All these movements were completed almost instantaneously, fast enough to dazzle a demon's eyes.

"Whew!"

Only then did Su Changsheng draw a deep breath, though his heart still pounded violently from the strain of his nerves.

A dozen or so seconds later, he calmed down somewhat.

This was the first time in his life he had fought an enemy. Like entering an examination hall for the first time, even with a plan already in mind, he could hardly avoid a little panic when the moment arrived.

"So cautious. All those verbal bluffs and tempting movements, and I still couldn't trick this fellow into coming out from underground. Must be a seasoned offender."

"Good thing I had plenty of tricks up my sleeve."

Su Changsheng inwardly counted himself lucky.

His keen spiritual senses had kept telling him that something was following him. But neither his verbal bluffs nor his feigned movements had lured it out.

After inspecting the area, Su Changsheng concluded that the creature was probably underground, perhaps a demon capable of burrowing.

Sure enough, a brief sweep of his spiritual senses revealed something unusual beneath the ground, prompting that sudden attack.

At that moment-

Su Changsheng still could not be certain whether the demon underground was completely dead, and for safety's sake, he did not go to check.

He simply waited about two and a half minutes, then unleashed another Stone-Shattering Art on the same spot underground. He repeated this three times in succession, with no further abnormalities. Only a little blood seeped out, and it was quickly sealed by the icy breath.

The demon underground was absolutely dead now. After all, it certainly could not have been above level three. If it still survived after taking so many of his Stone-Shattering Arts head-on, there would be no justice under heaven.

He still did not investigate, afraid of leaving traces behind. Su Changsheng merely wrapped the snow in demon power and covered the battlefield again.

Heavy snow was still falling. Before long, even those last faint signs of disturbed snow would disappear completely.

"One of the Fox Woman's underlings?"

"Or another demon that had set its sights on me?"

Su Changsheng considered the possibilities.

After leaving the Yao Market, quite a few demons had watched him along the way. The enormous bundle on his back had certainly drawn their attention.

Some demons saw that he was a second-level half-demon and gave up after weighing their chances. Others were shaken off by his winding route.

The creature underground was the only demon that had followed him from beginning to end, clinging like sticky candy no matter how he tried to shake it off.

Otherwise, he would not have wanted to attack outright. Once a battle began, not only would life and death become uncertain, but it would also be easy to attract other demons' attention.

Caution mattered above all.

In these cruel Wilds, every lapse in vigilance was a seed of mortal danger.

Rather than hurry away, Su Changsheng set down the hide sack on his back again, emptied out all the blood food, and inspected it carefully once more. Only then did he seal everything in ice, mixing ice and snow with demon power and icy breath.

He did the same with the rune-making instructions and all the materials.

This was to guard against any distinctive scents, hidden tricks, or other measures the Fox Woman might have left on them. Using the cold generated by his innate ability as a seal could essentially block every tracking method available to ordinary demons.

A little extra caution was a very good thing.

Whether or not the demon following him had been sent by the Fox Woman, Su Changsheng needed to do this.

He habitually assumed the worst intentions of other demons. It was not a persecution complex; he simply wanted to live a safe, peaceful life.

Afterward-

Su Changsheng found a mountain hollow where the snow lay relatively deep. He first hid the frozen blocks of flesh, then scrubbed himself all over with snow.

He also used demon power to clean his scales and every crevice. Only after ensuring that none of the Fox Woman's faint fragrance lingered on him did he quietly change his form and return home with a small portion of the supplies.

In this way, he took on the appearance of a different snake yao on each of four trips, carrying all the supplies home bit by bit like ants moving their nest.

On the first trip, he entered through his front door. On the remaining three, he used the tunnel in the mountain to avoid the many prying eyes of other demons. The process was somewhat troublesome, but it was reassuringly safe.

Late that night, he was still in the tunnel.

After further expansion, the deepest part of the tunnel was now roughly one-third the size of his stone house.

It provided more than enough room for living, breathing cultivation, talisman-making, and the like.

However, it was still somewhat cluttered. Su Changsheng planned to excavate several more chambers beside it for storing flesh, supplies, and other things.

He also intended to dig a few more backup passages to make coming and going easier in the future. Of course, he would have to choose their exits beforehand. They had to be sufficiently concealed and difficult to notice.

"I can start on the tunnel beneath the stone house's floor, too. A cunning hare keeps three burrows. I can't put all my eggs in this one tunnel."

Su Changsheng pondered this inwardly. For the sake of survival, he truly had racked his brains.

But digging new tunnels would have to wait. His most important task now was preparing to shed his skin at the end of the month. His second shedding could bring either life or death; it was both an opportunity and a crisis, and he had to prepare thoroughly.

"As for flesh, one more trade with the Fox Woman should be enough. There's no rush on that."

"But I need to prepare more runes of every kind. Especially those two intermediate runes, the Little Venom Dragon Shedding Talisman and the Healing Talisman. I need to master them as soon as possible."

A second shedding was extremely difficult. Without appropriate aids, even a pureblood snake demon would struggle to succeed, let alone Su Changsheng with his pitiful aptitude.

As a half-demon, he was destined to put in more effort. Studying and making runes would therefore become the main focus of his daily cultivation for the time being.

There was also a Wraith Beast Blood Eye to deal with. One Purification Talisman would presumably not be enough; he needed to make more.

Even with his considerable talent for runes, he had little confidence that he could master and produce so many in a mere month.

All he could do was his best.

If his preparations were still insufficient when the time came, he would have to endure the painful decision to delay his shedding. Even if doing so affected its results, he would have no choice.

Staying alive was the only truth that mattered.

He was not the sort of demon who would disregard life and death for a breakthrough.

"And then there was today's fight!"

"It was my first battle. There were bound to be plenty of shortcomings."

Su Changsheng sighed and began reflecting on the day's gains and losses. Looking back, although he had won the battle swiftly and cleanly, there had still been quite a few shortcomings.

Chief among them was insufficient caution!