Chapter 37: The Unsolved Riddle

Seeing the exotic beast he was about to kill escaping, Lin Li was instantly gripped by panic.

After searching for over half an hour with nothing to show for it, he had finally encountered an exotic beast that had practically delivered itself to his doorstep. Having expended a significant amount of spiritual energy and physical strength to bring it to the brink of death, if it were to slip away now, he would likely be depressed for quite some time.

*I absolutely cannot let it escape...* Lin Li shouted in his heart, immediately giving chase to the fleeing black snake beast.

Because Lin Li had inflicted several gashes on the black snake beast, blood was constantly oozing from the wounds. As it fled, it left a trail of bright red stains wherever it crawled.

Such conspicuous marks allowed Lin Li, in his pursuit, to identify its direction of escape with great precision.

…………

The sun hanging in the sky was obscured by drifting dark clouds from afar, providing the sun-scorched earth a momentary respite.

"Chirp, chirp..."

A well-fed little sparrow flapped its wings, rising from the grass and flying back toward its nest.

"Screeech!"

A piercing, shrill roar suddenly rang out across the quiet wilderness, startling the little sparrow, which had been flying home with a round belly. It was so frightened that it nearly tumbled headfirst from the sky.

"Chirp, chirp...?"

Startled, the little sparrow hurriedly flapped its wings to quickly increase its flight altitude. It circled in the sky a few times, searching for the source of that terrifying, shrill roar.

Soon, the little sparrow found the culprit.

In its eyes, it saw a human standing atop a massive black snake beast, holding a weapon that radiated a faint golden spiritual light.

At that moment, the weapon glowing with faint golden light was already deeply embedded in the black snake beast's head.

"Chirp, chirp... Run away quickly, humans are too terrifying."

The little sparrow remembered its parents' teachings: stay far away from humans, especially those in the middle of a hunt. Upon seeing them, fly as far away as possible and never let curiosity tempt you to approach and observe.

Hearing a crisp chirping sound from behind, Lin Li subconsciously turned his head toward the sound. He saw a plump little sparrow flying away from him.

He withdrew his gaze and refocused his attention on the black snake beast beneath his feet.

Despite its desperate attempt to flee, the continuous bleeding from its wounds caused its strength to gradually drain away along with its blood.

Ultimately, the ferocious black snake beast could not escape death; it was caught by Lin Li, who pierced its head with a single sword strike.

Although the black snake beast was dead, its body continued to twitch restlessly—likely a so-called reflex. It would take a while for its body to return to stillness.

After waiting for over a minute, the corpse of the black snake beast finally settled down.

*Squelch.*

Applying force with his right hand, Lin Li forcefully pulled the spiritual longsword that had pierced the black snake beast's head backward.

As the spiritual sword was withdrawn, red and white matter instantly oozed out from the entry point, leaving a disgusting mess all over the ground.

"After all that work, I've finally hunted one exotic beast," Lin Li muttered to himself. He then crouched down and pressed his hand against the black snake beast's body.

With a single thought, the corpse of the high-tier first-stage black snake beast instantly vanished.

…………

On the mysterious small island, a bloody exotic beast corpse appeared out of thin air in front of a small tree in the center of the island.

Unlike before, the stomach of the magical small tree seemed ravenous. The moment the black snake beast's corpse appeared before it, white mist began to drift from the carcass.

In just a few breaths, the massive corpse of the black snake beast had vanished without a trace, leaving nothing behind.

The white mist gathering in mid-air condensed into a white, spherical mist orb.

Compared to the mist orb formed by the previous rabbit beast corpse, the one formed by the black snake beast was twice as large.

Then, just as before, the white mist orb flew toward the magical small tree bearing green fruits and was instantly absorbed.

After absorbing the white mist orb, the small green fruit on the magical small tree, which was no larger than a grain of rice, seemed to grow slightly larger.

…………

Today's goal was to hunt five exotic beasts.

Having spent forty to fifty minutes hunting just one, Lin Li, in order to complete his daily objective, immediately began searching for the next beast after storing the black snake beast's corpse in the mysterious small island.

To find a beast as quickly as possible, Lin Li expanded his range of activity, his footsteps moving deeper into the wilderness.

As it turned out, the deeper one ventured into the wilderness, the higher the probability of encountering an exotic beast.

Indeed, after walking for about ten minutes toward the depths of the wilderness—covering roughly five hundred meters—Lin Li encountered his second prey of the day.

It was a Marbled Rooster exotic beast, standing one meter and twenty centimeters tall, with a large, bright red comb.

While it was unclear about other cities, such Marbled Rooster exotic beasts were quite common in the wilderness on the outskirts of Rong City.

It was said that sixty or seventy years ago, a mishap occurred at a Marbled Rooster farm owned by a breeder in the outskirts, causing a large number of chickens to escape and wander into the wilderness.

As time passed, these escaped chickens gradually became feral. Later, their offspring awakened spirituality in large numbers, becoming exotic beasts.

Strangely enough, despite being raised in farms for many years and breeding through several generations, no Marbled Rooster had ever awakened spirituality to become an exotic beast there.

Yet, those that escaped and went feral produced offspring that could awaken spirituality so easily to become exotic beasts.

The question of why Marbled Roosters transformed into exotic beasts so easily had become an unsolved mystery.

…………

"Cluck, cluck, cluck..."

Upon seeing Lin Li, the 1.2-meter-tall Marbled Rooster exotic beast let out a crisp crowing sound.

Although the Marbled Rooster was not a carnivorous exotic beast, it was highly aggressive.

It was said that some cockfighting enthusiasts from abroad would fly to Rong City every year.

They would pay to hire local exotic beast hunters to capture Marbled Rooster exotic beasts alive in the wilderness, then bring them back to their home countries to participate in cockfighting competitions.

As for the results of the competitions, they were reportedly quite impressive; Rong City's Marbled Rooster exotic beasts had won several cockfighting championships.

…………

(End of Chapter)