When he heard the cries for help, Chen Beiwu hesitated. He didn't go forward immediately, but carefully circled around, studying the details of the footprints nearby.
He crouched down, brushed aside the withered grass covering the prints, and picked up a remnant of reddish-brown mud from the edge with his right hand. He crushed it and held it beneath his nose to smell.
Dried demon beast blood, and the smell is different. Chen Beiwu's eyes flickered slightly as he looked toward the source of the sound.
The setting sun was blood-red. Beneath an Ancient Tree, a Maiden curled up, whimpering weakly for help.
Perhaps because she was desperately poor, the coarse hemp dress she wore only covered her vital parts, leaving her somewhat darkened limbs exposed.
Her right leg was caught in a rusty Beast Trap, its iron teeth sunk deep into her flesh and holding her fast.
Dark red blood kept dripping from the wound, staining the earth beneath the tree reddish brown.
The medicine basket on her back had also fallen to one side, and a dozen Shexian Grass plants lay scattered across the ground.
Just then, the Maiden seemed to sense something and slowly raised her head. Her hair was matted into locks with cold sweat, and her gaze met Chen Beiwu's.
"Help... help me!" The Maiden seemed to have no strength left to struggle, and her cries for help grew fainter and fainter.
Chen Beiwu's expression was cold as he quietly watched her whimper.
Seeing this, the Maiden's eyes gradually filled with despair.
After hesitating for a moment, she gritted her teeth and slowly twisted her body. Reaching beneath the medicine basket with her rough palm, she pulled out a spirit herb with opposite leaves, many wrinkles, and small serrations along both edges, with sparse red hairs growing on both sides of the serrations.
It was a Second-Tier Spirit Medicine a hundred years old: Bloodface Vine.
"Please, sir, save me. I'll offer you a treasure in return."
"Miss, don't be afraid. I'll help you."
Chen Beiwu put on a greedy expression and hurried toward the Bloodface Vine.
"Whoosh!"
Just as Chen Beiwu was about to touch the Bloodface Vine, a yellow-brown beast tail suddenly shot out from behind the Maiden, its stench-filled Demon Qi lashing toward his chest.
"Why not keep up the act?"
Chen Beiwu retreated three Zhang, dodging the tail as he flicked his fingertip. A crystalline needle, bolstered by the pure Magic Power within him, pierced through the Demon Qi at incredible speed, leaving a green pinprick on the Maiden's body.
"How did you figure it out?"
The Maiden gave a strange smile. Her deathly pale skin melted like snow, revealing the ugly head of a yellow weasel. The Beast Trap around her right leg also transformed into a poisonous vine trap covered in barbs.
"But it doesn't matter. With your Seventh Layer of Qi Refining cultivation, there's no way you can escape my grasp." The Illusion Weasel Wolf cackled, and a vast surge of mental power swept toward Chen Beiwu.
It had cultivated bitterly for three hundred years, devouring great quantities of flesh and blood to build up forty-nine years of Dao Practice.
If it could devour the clear-bodied human Qi Refining cultivator before it, perhaps it could break through its Bloodline Shackles and ascend to become a Second-Tier Spirit Beast. Its Dao Practice, accumulated over many years with no hope of advancing, would also finally break through.
[Species]: Illusion Weasel Wolf (common name: Illusion-Associated Wolf)
[Attribute]: Water, Poison
[Bloodline]: First-Tier Superior-Grade (Variant Beast)
[Dao Practice]: Less than fifty years
[Innate Talent]: Captive-Eye Illusion (Illusions created by the Illusion Weasel Wolf can deceive the five senses)
Seeing that its opponent had dropped the disguise, Chen Beiwu showed no surprise.
A beast was still a beast. Even after absorbing the essence of the Sun and Moon and breathing in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to gain intelligence, it still couldn't outwit humans skilled at plotting.
"Zzzzz!"
Just then, the Illusion Weasel Wolf's cackle abruptly stopped, and a look of terror appeared on its face.
"Keep laughing. Why'd you stop?" Chen Beiwu said coldly.
If they fought head-on, he would have a hard time killing a Variant Beast whose aura rivaled that of a Ninth Layer of Qi Refining cultivator. He might even need to use Talismans to retreat safely.
But his opponent had acted foolishly, overconfident in its Innate Talent. It had tried to trap and kill him without injury, only to give him the chance to turn the tables.
Damn it!
Feeling the poison eroding the Demon Qi within its body, the Illusion Weasel Wolf shuddered. Without a moment's thought, it stuck out its rear and sprayed a huge cloud of stench to cover its tracks.
Though its cultivation was high, its nature as a species made it poor at close-quarters fighting.
Without the illusion it usually relied on, and with the added disadvantage of being poisoned, it could very well fall at the hands of a Qi Refining cultivator.
Now was the time to run!
Picking up the Bloodface Vine from the ground, Chen Beiwu didn't chase after it directly. Instead, he kept the Illusion Weasel Wolf at a moderate distance.
He neither gave it the chance to fight to the death nor allowed it time to find herbs to purge the poison.
An hour later, the Illusion Weasel Wolf suddenly stopped running. Using the blind spot behind a thicket, it turned back to launch a sneak attack. But before it could spray its stench, Chen Beiwu retreated three Zhang again, widening the distance completely.
After repeating this back and forth, the Illusion Weasel Wolf's eyes gradually grew dull and lifeless as time passed.
Perhaps realizing there was nowhere left to run, the Illusion Weasel Wolf changed direction and sprinted away.
That's Blue Rock Lion territory!
Chen Beiwu's expression changed. He reluctantly took out a First-Tier Superior-Grade Water Blade Talisman.
His strategy for killing the Illusion Weasel Wolf without injury was safe, but if he kept dragging things out, this piece of meat might end up in the Blue Rock Lion's mouth.
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!"
As Chen Beiwu infused it with Magic Power, ripples spread across the surface of the Talisman. Then it shattered in midair, turning into hundreds of hair-thin streams of water.
The streams of water wove into a net and, in the blink of an eye, condensed into three blades of water as thin as cicada wings. They caught up with the Illusion Weasel Wolf as it ran.
In an instant, its head flew off.
Perhaps it had died too quickly; its eyes still held an expression of terror and disbelief.
Chen Beiwu hurried over to the Illusion Weasel Wolf's corpse, picked up the Bone Blade, first extracted its Essence Blood, then skinned it and collected its tail fur.
After being processed, the Illusion Weasel Wolf's pelt could make decent Talisman paper, while its tail fur could be used to make wolf-hair brushes. Both could fetch a high price.
With the Bloodface Vine the Illusion Weasel Wolf had used as bait added in, Chen Beiwu had made a truly handsome profit.
This is the meat of a Great Spirit Monster. It'd be a shame to throw it away. After hesitating for a moment, Chen Beiwu divided the Illusion Weasel Wolf's meat into portions and packed them away.
Human cultivators couldn't eat Illusion Weasel Wolf meat, but that didn't mean Iron Egg couldn't.
Variant Beasts could devour one another to accumulate Dao Practice, but few cultivators raised their Companion Beasts' Dao Practice by feeding them flesh and blood.
A little flesh and blood was fine, but too much would not only make a Companion Beast more ferocious, it would also make the wildness hidden deep in its Bloodline harder to remove. It might even turn on its master.
Iron Egg was an intelligent Fire-Element Exotic Beast. It could ignore the residual poison in the Illusion Weasel Wolf's meat, and eating a little flesh and blood to increase its Dao Practice should be harmless; it wouldn't lose its reason.
But to make sure Iron Egg didn't lose control, Chen Beiwu still decided to roast the Illusion Weasel Wolf's meat before feeding it to him.
However, doing so would destroy nine-tenths of the Demon Power in the meat, greatly reducing its effect on cultivation.
Back in the Cultivation Room.
Chen Beiwu weighed the heavy bundle in his hand, barely able to hide his excitement.
If I can carry inanimate objects through by touching them, what about living creatures? He looked expectantly at another jar.
Before you continue