The compass showed that the two monsters had stopped.
Perhaps they had fled far enough, perhaps this rugged range was treacherous enough, or perhaps the injured Wu beast could go no farther.
There were no trees here, offering little cover. Pulling out Lord Boshan's cloak of invisibility, He Lingchuan draped it over himself and crept forward from downwind.
Drawing closer, he saw the two Wu beasts resting in a hollow, panting heavily. The injured one lay sprawled on the ground with its legs curled up, visibly in agony.
Yet it still clutched the beast egg tightly.
Its companion licked its wounds, all while quietly reaching out a claw to nudge the egg closer.
The injured Wu beast immediately hissed a warning at it.
Snatching an egg yet guarding it without eating—were they waiting for other companions, or their leader?
Having assessed the scene, He Lingchuan made no move to attack and quietly backed away.
There were two targets, aggressive and agile; his best bet was to lay a trap.
Back when he was patrolling the Panlong Wasteland, he had often set snares to catch game to treat himself. Laying traps was second nature to him—he was Willow's star pupil, after all.
The Fu Realm had no trees, depriving him of the handiest materials. Fortunately, Lingxu City had no shortage of unscrupulous profiteers who had been peddling hunting gear long before the Grass Sea hunt began. The most classic designs were heavy iron beast traps and spiked boards.
The beast traps worked on all Donao beasts, while the spikes were mainly meant for massive brutes—dig a large pit, bury the spiked board, and any Donao beast passing overhead would plunge in, its guts impaled and pierced to death.
Thirty breaths later.
The two Wu beasts had just caught their breath. The wounded one closed its eyes to recover strength, while the other clambered up to stand watch from higher ground.
Right then, a figure suddenly stepped out from behind a boulder and let out a loud roar at them.
The lookout beast startled and instinctively charged forward.
He Lingchuan wheeled around and fled.
Yet after sprinting just over a hundred feet, the lookout stopped in its tracks and even crept backward, clearly unwilling to stray too far from its companion.
Even a creature like this understands luring the tiger from the mountain?
He Lingchuan had his tricks. Whenever it retreated, he pelted it with pebbles and unleashed arrogant laughter; whenever it gave chase, he ran.
After several rounds of this, the Wu beast's temper flared.
With intelligence came temper—it was inevitable.
On the final pass, He Lingchuan even raised his arm and fired two sleeve arrows.
The Wu beast nimbly dodged the first arrow, but He Lingchuan had already anticipated its move. As it darted sideways, it ran straight into the path of the second arrow.
Pfft! By pure coincidence, the arrow punched right into its nostril.
Infuriated, the Wu beast cast all thought of its companion aside and charged forward with a shrill, resolute screech.
He Lingchuan spun around and bolted into a mountain ravine.
Rounding the bend, the Wu beast spotted him scurrying up along a crevice, only fifty feet apart.
To a creature of its speed, that was barely two bounds. Without a second thought, it gave furious chase.
Ahead, two massive boulders leaned against each other, forming a natural stone archway beneath.
He Lingchuan slipped right through the stone opening.
The gap was five feet wide—wide enough for him, and wide enough for the slender Wu beast.
Yet he abruptly slowed down. The Wu beast closed in at full stride, its snout nearly brushing his robes.
Bursting into the opening, it lunged forward impatiently, gaping its jaws—
Snap! A resounding crack.
The sound was far crisper and heavier than the snapping of a beast's jaws.
It was the heavy beast trap snapping shut, locking firmly around its neck!
The sheer force of the impact sent the Wu beast pitching headfirst into the dirt.
It tried to shriek, but its windpipe was seized tight by iron teeth, stifling any sound. It could only scrabble madly with its foreclaws.
Yet the trap was engineered to give entrapped prey no chance of escape. Seventy shark-like spike teeth on top and bottom tore straight through its hide, biting into its throat. The more it thrashed, the deeper and wider the wounds tore into its flesh.
Purple blood sprayed outward, staining the hard stone red.
Its hind legs kicked violently against the earth, sending stone chips and dirt flying in every direction.
The Wu beast could not fathom where this monstrosity had come from. When it lunged through the stone archway after its prey, the path ahead had been completely clear.
Little did it know that He Lingchuan had wedged the heavy iron trap into the cleft in advance, draping Lord Boshan's cloak over it. Viewed head-on from the archway, nothing was visible.
He Lingchuan knew to steer clear, while the naive Wu beast had thrust its own head straight into the trap.
It had just received a harsh lesson in the treachery of man.
This trap was medium-large, built to ensnare Thunder-Wielding beasts; handling a leaner, weaker Wu beast was child's play.
Seeing it thrashing and gurgling, He Lingchuan wasted no words, raising his saber to sever its head.
Last time, someone had beaten him to the prize; this time, he was owed a harvest.
With two swift strokes of the blade, he severed the unlucky creature's head from its body, granting it a swift release.
Fearing any unforeseen complications, he promptly swept the severed head and the trap into his storage ring.
Whether his objective on this excursion could be fulfilled depended on what this blind box of a head would yield.
Only after finishing this step did he breathe a quiet sigh of relief; at the very least, this risky venture had yielded a baseline guarantee.
Stowing Lord Boshan's cloak, he hurried back toward the hollow.
He wasn't certain whether a Wu beast would produce a frost pellet, but two heads offered better odds than one.
As expected, the wounded Wu beast was no longer in the hollow. The rocky wilderness was utterly silent.
Its companion had fought to the death for it, yet it had slipped away first?
Only the howling wind whimpered through the hollow.
He Lingchuan popped a fresh cleansing bead into his mouth, reopened the Tracking Bee compass, and studied it closely. He then set up a few preparations around the hollow before circling above.
Looking up, there was only a sliver of sky between towering, sheer cliffs that vanished into the heights, leaving a narrow path through the crevice no more than seven feet wide.
With that done, he suddenly tossed several firecrackers beneath a massive boulder.
There had appeared to be nothing beneath the boulder, but after several bangs, something was struck and stirred.
It was the wounded Wu beast.
It had been crouching beneath the rock all along, its camouflage blending seamlessly into the surroundings.
Once it moved, however, its camouflage faded within a few breaths.
As it rose, He Lingchuan realized why it had stayed pinned to the ground: it could change colors, but the Thunder-Wielding beast egg could not. It had used its own body to conceal the egg.
Yet it had long been marked by the Tracking Bee; no matter how well it blended into the scenery, the compass pinpointed its location without error.
There was nothing left to say; man and beast clashed.
The beast even unleashed its frost breath, but having witnessed it before, He Lingchuan was prepared.
Heavily wounded and far less agile than before, it was brought down and decapitated after seven or eight exchanges.
During the struggle, however, the egg it clutched went flying into the distance, tumbling into the crevice.
After lopping off its head, He Lingchuan had to venture into the narrow path to retrieve the egg.
Who would pass up spoils ripe for the taking?
He Lingchuan bent down, picked up the beast egg, and stowed it straight into his storage ring. Anyone else would have bolted immediately to seek more cleansing beads, but he drew clean water to wash the blood from his saber and hands, then applied deodorizing powder.
Fusheng possessed a spirit and might be annoyed by this, but he kept in mind that this was very likely a rendezvous point for the Wu beasts, and their leader would soon arrive. These creatures seemed to possess keen senses of smell; having slaughtered beasts and plundered an egg here, drawing the attention of their pack leader would invite immense trouble.
This deodorizing powder was of his own concoction, brewed from a formula obtained from the Panlong City scouts.
While hunting the two Wu beasts, he had kept his true power engaged to seal his pores, preventing his scent from leaking. That way, once he departed, the Wu beasts shouldn't be able to track him.
Ever since arriving in Lingxu City, He Lingchuan's level of caution had stepped up another notch.
Suddenly, a faint breeze brushed the back of his head.
The Fu Realm was perpetually buffeted by harsh winds, so a breeze was unremarkable, yet he detected a sliver of piercing killing intent.
An ambush!
A third party had been lurking in wait, biding their time to strike the moment he rose off guard!
He twisted his body with all his might, just as a throwing spike struck his left shoulder. A shadow swooped from above, tumbling toward him with blade in hand!
The figure unfolded in midair, long saber sweeping wide in a vicious, peerless arc slash.
A flawless arc, surging with gangqi.
For an instant, the blade light flashed like lightning, briefly illuminating the gloomy crags.
Confronted by this strike, honed through patient ambush and unleashed at full vigor, He Lingchuan did not bother to parry in his rushed state. Instead, he flicked his short blade, launching it at the assailant's lower abdomen from an exceedingly tricky angle.
He couldn't parry it anyway; the attacker had nurtured this move for so long, radiating such overwhelming killing intent that the strike landed with earth-shattering fury. Taken by surprise, He Lingchuan could not hope to oppose its brunt head-on.
Though his reaction was swift, it could hardly be called striking where the enemy must defend.
The attacker chose to absorb the dagger thrust head-on, letting the momentum of the slash sweep through He Lingchuan's neck.
Fast, steady, precise, and ruthless, leaving not a sliver of room for survival.
In terms of sheer, refined killing skill, even Fan Sheng, the Vice Commander of the Tongxin Guard, paled in comparison.
In a single clash, He Lingchuan was decapitated.
The blade qi practically shredded his armor and garments. Then, with a soft pop, a burst of yellow mist exploded where he had stood.
An indescribable stench assaulted the senses.
Anyone catching a whiff of this odor would instantly double over, retching uncontrollably.
It was the "scent bun" displaying its might. It had undergone several revisions to use less material while packing a denser foulness that resisted dispersal by the wind, lingering persistently for... over ten breaths.
The ambusher was also a seasoned veteran; the moment the yellow mist flared, he held his breath and sealed his pores, yet a tiny trace still reached him.
The stench struck the brain with such violence that even he could not help leaping back.
His willpower was remarkable, managing to endure the revulsion without vomiting on the spot.
A trap! He had actually fallen into a trap!
At that exact moment, the ambusher felt his entire body tighten, bound fast by something.
Focusing his gaze, he saw several impossibly fine strands of spider silk.
The light in the Fu Realm was dim to begin with, and with yellow mist now swirling, it would have been a miracle had he spotted the threads.
These strands had originally been laid along the cleft's rim in a nested concentric loop. The instant a living creature dashed in, a gentle tug on the trip line by the hunter would snap both loops shut, pinioning the prey tight.
This measure had originally been intended for the Wu beast, rigged inside the crevice to prevent it from fleeing along this route. His patrolling experience on the Chipa Plateau had taught He Lingchuan that when setting snares, it was always best to add an extra layer as insurance.
As it turned out, the Wu beast hadn't triggered it, leaving the ambusher to enjoy the prize instead.
Only now did a figure leap past the yellow mist, emerging from behind a dark rock several yards away.
This was the real He Lingchuan.
Chapter 653