"Yea, I never want to see another rusty iron boot again." Zhang said as he tossed a rusty iron boot he was holding onto the top of the pile.
Roughly half an hour later, the two of them was well immersed in the woods since there were no long any more dirt paths to take. Trekking through the endless sea of trees, Zhang and Cai Cao continued to pick up whatever herbs they happened upon. If anything they would at least make a small harvest in regards to contribution points when they exchange these medical herbs.
"Let's go." Zhang said as he pointed up a tree.
Minutes passed by before two large beasts come into view, a large bear with snow white fur was speeding through the forest as a pitch black leopard was in pursuit. Simply from the size and aura that there two gave off, one could tell that they were not ordinary animals, but were instead demonic beasts.
However, the beat's dense fur seemed to be able to hold up against the leopard's sharp claws, since not even a hint of blood could be seen from where the claws were clinging to the bear.
"Shit, if they come here then we might get dragged into this." Zhang thought as he poked Cai Cao and pointed to a tree a bit away from where the leopard and bear were fighting. With Zhang leading the way, our two adventurers crawled from one tree limb to the other and made their way away from the raging battle that was happening between the bear and leopard.
The battle below the canopy continued to grow fiercer as the two demonic beasts began using their innate abilities. He bear's claws turned translucent and gave off an ice air as they lashed out at the leopard, however the leopard seemed to mend with the shadows as it evaded the bear's attack. Resulting in an icy gouge mark on the trunk of a large tree. That tree soon tumbled over due to having half of its trunk missing.
If the battle resulted in the death of both demonic beasts then Zhang and Cai Cao would be able to scavenge their corpses, which can be considered small treasure troves.
As Zhang and Cai Cao waited for the battle to conclude, the leopard continued to pounce at the bear, unlike before when it was now aiming for the bear's under bellow that was now covered in their fur. Faint traces of blood could be seen trickling down onto the ground as the bear slowly became cornered by the leopard.
The leopard's sleek black coat of fur was now trickling with ice particles from the few hits that it received from the Blizzard Bear, it's speed had dropped by a fraction and it no longer moved like a blur like it was doing so before. Had it not been for the leopard's ability to blend in with the shadows then it would probably have sustained much heavier injuries then by now. But thanks to its agility the Shadow Leopard still had the upper hand against the Blizzard Bear.
When the battle finally neared conclusion, the Blizzard Bear's snow white pelt was stained red in blood and the Shadow Leopard was left with a broken hind leg and a few missing fangs.
To begin their assault, a barrage of needles shot out from Cai Cao's sleeve and embedded themselves into the leopard and the bear. In the meantime, Zhang drew his sword and took lead in the charge. Of course they would not move in right away, rather they would stay at a distance while Cai Cao continues to barrage the leopard and bear with needles.
Although Cai Cao was interfering with their battle, the Blizzard Bear and Shadow Leopard kept an eye on each other and did not charge toward where Cai Cao and Zhang were. They were too worry of being attacked by one another and too tired from the prolonged battle to deal with Zhang and Cai Cao, to them our two adventurers would seem like pests rather than threats this was because Cai Cao's needles were not made to inflict pain, instead they were made to interrupt essence flew within the body and disperse poisons.
"I'll take out the bear and you take out the leopard?" Zhang asked as they closed in on their prey.
The bear and leopard eyed Zhang and Cai Cao as they laid powerless on the ground, wait for their end to come. Though Zhang felt a hint of pity for the bear, who was chased and attacked by the leopard, he knew that on a normal occasion if the bear was in tip top shape, he would be the one to his end.
"Collect the blood, claws, fangs, pelt and some meat. Also check if either of them have demonic cores." Cai Cao said to Zhang, reminding him what parts to harvest. Demonic beast blood was rich in essence and would greatly promote cultivation, while demonic beast claws, fangs and pelts would be made into weapons and armor. Demonic beast meat, was like demonic beast blood and was also very rich in essence and would also greatly promote cultivation. Lastly there were demonic cores, which are only occasionally found within demonic beasts.
"Alright." Zhang said as he bent down and began cutting away at the bear, first removing its blood stained fur, then claiming it's claws and fangs. Once those were removed, Zhang pulled out a glass bottle from one of the sacks he was carrying and began collect bottles of Blizzard Bear blood, the blood itself contained the essence of the Blizzard Bear and seemed to freeze as it was collect inside the glass bottle.
With his sword Zhang slit open the Blizzard Bear's chest looking to see if it had a demonic core, sadly there was nothing there for him to take. By now the sun was only peeking out of the horizon and was able to disappear until morning.
"Just a second let me get this thing out of the Shadow Leopard's chest." Cai Cao said.
"Odd how the Blizzard Bear which seemed to be stronger than the Shadow Leopard, didn't have a demonic core, but the leopard ended up having one." He thought.
"We can celebrate back at camp, the scent of blood these two have been giving off should have attracted a lot of attention by now, we should really be on our way." Zhang said with a grin.
With a big harvest in tow, our two adventurers headed back to camp. True to Zhang's words, on their way back to camp, they spotted dozens of early fragment realm demonic beasts, heading toward where the corpses of the Blizzard Bear and the Shadow Leopard laid.
"Wait… I think I heard something." Zhang said as he placed his hand atop of Cai Cao's shoulder.
Before Zhang could reply, a heart wrenching screech reverberated in the air. Whizzing straight Zhang and Cai Cao was a small group of demonic beasts.
"No, I think they're trying to escape from something." Cai Cao pointed out.
A short distance away from where Zhang and Cai Cao were, there was an enormous silhouette lurking about. This silhouette of course was the very same silhouette that had slaughtered six Misty Mountain Sect disciples the night prior.
"Bodies." The silhouette said in an ancient hoarse voice that seemed older than time itself.
Whatever it was that was in the woods, they had managed to slip away from it. With the harvest that they had collected earlier, it could be said that today was their lucky day.